IntellIoT ventures into the manufacturing matrix with an article exploring Industry 4.0. The Pan-European project focusses on the development of integrated, distributed, human-centered and trustworthy IoT frameworks applicable to agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing.
In an article on Smart Factories and the fourth industrial revolution, the author explores the increasing proliferation of smaller and more agile plants where products are created and assembled to meet exactly what the customer wants.
In these scenarios, cutting-edge technologies are harnessed that will enable a slew of machines to collaborate with one another to manufacture each product tailored to specific demands – doing away with the mass production-enabling factory lines in which machines churn out product after product in a system that does not allow for much uniqueness or originality.
Humans and machines working together
IntellIoT’s bold ambitions in combining various cutting-edge technologies –and operating at the frontiers of all of them– are matched by its unique approach in exploring how to manage human-machine interaction across use cases. That is, working to create a seamless system in which machines appeal for assistance as and when needed.
The so-called ‘Human-in-the-loop’ component to the project operates on the principle that the AI in question is not fool proof and will regularly – most likely on a daily basis– face challenges that will need to be addressed by a human operator.
Examples of such events occurring include tasks like learning to have to pick up an item that seems unfamiliar, for example a vase with a strange shape– something that might confuse a machine in a Smart Factory, where assignments will require flexibility and adaptability in how its machines coordinate tasks in order to realise unique goals.
The end result is a system so sophisticated that the human-in-the-loop can teach robots new tricks with simple demonstrations, serving as lessons that are distributed across increasingly autonomous agents operating through the plant.
Read the full article by Sarah Karacs, originally published on Medium in ‘Next Generation IoT Magazine’ https://medium.com/next-generation-iot-magazine
Download the IntelIoT flyer: https://bit.ly/3ehwaoy
