Predictive Maintenance AI

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When Augmented Reality meets Predictive Maintenance

Neuron Soundware and Deutsche Telekom innovation labs introduced the future of predictive maintenance. Artificial intelligence and IoT solutions work together with KUKA robot – a robotic arm used in any bigger factory nowadays. When you put on the VR goggles, you can see how easy and comfortable the machine diagnostics and predictive maintenance can be.

Neuron Soundware was invited by the Deutsche Telekom innovation lab, Center Connected Industry, to support a new 5G project use case. IoT solution by Neuron Soundware was selected to demonstrate the combination of AI + 5G and AR. It delivers the results in one of the hot topics: Predictive Maintenance.

When you enter the T-Systems technology campus in Aachen, Germany, you can feel like you are in the near future of machine maintenance. You can truly experience efficient and sustainable machine operation. Artificial intelligence and IoT solutions work together with KUKA robot.

nBox, the IoT device by Neuron Soundware, is connected to the robot by 2 piezo-electric audio sensors monitoring the movement and the state of the robot. The data from the sensors are preprocessed directly on the edge. This means the microprocessor in the nBox runs AI to compute all calculations without the need for any data leaving the premises.

Machine learning algorithms analyze acoustic patterns in real-time and thus detect mechanical wear or malfunctions of the robot at an early stage. This can significantly minimize the unplanned downtimes in the production process.

Here, the AI analyzes the movement of the robot and detects anomalous behavior which can be then very critical at the production. For instance, the incorrect movement of robotic arms at one of our customers’ productions in the automotive industry causes the breakages of particles that are costly and the prevention of such malfunction makes the production more smooth and less expensive.

In the robot KUKA’s case, we use VR goggles to display deviations from the normal state of the machine on a personalized AR dashboard. The communication between the edge and the monitoring systems operates using the 5G Campus Edge infrastructure provided by T-Systems. A machine is automatically recognized by the AR glasses and its relevant data are presented.

“From our experience, the relevant data mutually shared across whole factory staff is the most common issue in production nowadays. Imagine a technician, who is walking across the factory floor, and the key production information is displayed next to each machine. The health state of each asset is provided in real-time. The digitized dashboards, which provide all information for the floor worker directly, are truly Industry 4.0 transformation features”, says Pavel Konečný, founder of Neuron Soundware.

However, you don’t need to use VR goggles to step into the future. The dashboards providing real-time monitoring, data, and notifications about the production state are part of our customer’s equipment nowadays on any device. If you want to take a leapfrog ahead as well, don’t hesitate to contact us today!