Interoperable software platforms for introducing artificial intelligence components in manufacturing: A meta-framework for security and privacy.

The irruption of advanced technologies and the limited knowledge of software architectures are making it difficult for many small and medium-sized manufacturing companies to keep up with what is being called the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0, Industry of the Future). Container orchestration platforms provide layers of simplification for key requirements such as interoperability, security, and privacy, and provide mechanisms that allow companies and technology providers to focus on their specific functionalities and goals, instead of investing considerable time and effort in the underlying platform on which the solution will operate. This article focuses on these platforms and the issues when developing them, and proposes a risk- and goal-oriented hybrid meta-framework for security and privacy analysis. The meta-framework uses well-known security and privacy standards and frameworks as a reference and can be used to understand assets and requirements and, in particular, to select and configure countermeasures. For practical evaluation of the meta-framework, it was applied to a real case. This case shows how the needs of the KITT4SME project platform were analyzed to support, among others, four manufacturing pilot cases and to define the key security and privacy features that should be introduced when implementing a software platform for easy uptake by small and medium enterprises.

Predictive modelling framework on the basis of artificial neural network: A case of nano-powder mixed electric discharge machining.

In this modern era where Industry 4.0, plays a crucial role in enhancing productivity, quality, and resource utilization by digitalizing and providing smart operation to industrial systems. Therefore, there is a need to establish a framework that enhances productivity and quality of work to achieve the net-zero from industry. In this study, a comprehensive and generic analytical framework has been established to mitigate or lessen the research and technological gap in the manufacturing sector. In addition to that, the key stages involved in artificial intelligence (AI) based modelling and optimization analysis for manufacturing systems have also been incorporated. To assess the proposed AI framework, electric discharge machining (EDM) as a case study has been selected. The focus enlightens the emergence of optimizing the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR) for Inconel 617 (IN617) material. A full factorial design of the experiment was carried out for experimentation. After that, an artificial neural network (ANN) as a modelling framework is selected, and fine-tuning of hyperparameters during training has been carried out. To validate the predictive performance of the trained models, an external validation (Valext) test has been conducted. Through sensitivity analysis (SA) on the developed AI framework, the most influential factors affecting MRR and SR in EDM have been identified. Specifically, powder concentration (Cp) contributes the most to the percentage significance, accounting for 79.00 % towards MRR, followed by treatment (16.35 %) and 4.67 % surfactant concentration (Sc). However, the highest % significance in SR is given by Sc (36.86 %), followed by Cp (33.23 %), and then treatment (29.90 %), respectively. Furthermore, a parametric optimization has been performed using the framework and found that MRR and SR are 93.75 % and 58.90 % better than experimental data. This successful performance optimization proposed by the framework has the potential for application to other manufacturing systems.

A Novel Flushing Mechanism to Minimize Roughness and Dimensional Errors during Wire Electric Discharge Machining of Complex Profiles on Inconel 718.

One of the sustainability goals in the aeronautical industry includes developing cost-effective, high-performance engine components possessing complex curved geometries with excellent dimensional precision and surface quality. In this regard, several developments in wire electric discharge machining have been reported, but the influence of flushing attributes is not thoroughly investigated and is thus studied herein. The influence of four process variables, namely servo voltage, flushing pressure, nozzle diameter, and nozzle-workpiece distance, were analyzed on Inconel 718 in relation to geometrical errors (angular and radial deviations), spark gap formation, and arithmetic roughness. In this regard, thorough statistical and microscopical analyses are employed with mono- and multi-objective process optimization. The grey relational analysis affirms the reduction in the process's limitations, validated through confirmatory experimentation results as 0.109 mm spark gap, 0.956% angular deviation, 3.49% radial deviation, and 2.2 µm surface roughness. The novel flushing mechanism improved the spark gap by 1.92%, reducing angular and radial deviations by 8.24% and 29.11%, respectively.

Needs, Requirements and a Concept of a Tool Condition Monitoring System for the Aerospace Industry.

In this paper, we describe the needs and specific requirements of the aerospace industry in the field of metal machining; specifically, the concept of an edge-computing-based production supervision system for the aerospace industry using a tool and cutting process condition monitoring system. The new concept was developed based on experience gained during the implementation of research projects in Poland's Aviation Valley at aerospace plants such as Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin. Commercial tool condition monitoring (TCM) and production monitoring systems do not effectively meet the requirements and specificity of the aerospace industry. The main objective of the system is real-time diagnostics and sharing of data, knowledge, and system configurations among technologists, line bosses, machine tool operators, and quality control. The concept presented in this paper is a special tool condition monitoring system comprising a three-stage (natural wear, accelerated wear, and catastrophic tool failure) set of diagnostic algorithms designed for short-run machining and aimed at protecting the workpiece from damage by a damaged or worn tool.

Computer Vision System for Welding Inspection of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Pressure Vessels Based on Combined Digital Image Processing and Deep Learning Techniques.

One of the most important operations during the manufacturing process of a pressure vessel is welding. The result of this operation has a great impact on the vessel integrity; thus, welding inspection procedures must detect defects that could lead to an accident. This paper introduces a computer vision system based on structured light for welding inspection of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pressure vessels by using combined digital image processing and deep learning techniques. The inspection procedure applied prior to the welding operation was based on a convolutional neural network (CNN), and it correctly detected the misalignment of the parts to be welded in 97.7% of the cases during the method testing. The post-welding inspection procedure was based on a laser triangulation method, and it estimated the weld bead height and width, with average relative errors of 2.7% and 3.4%, respectively, during the method testing. This post-welding inspection procedure allows us to detect geometrical nonconformities that compromise the weld bead integrity. By using this system, the quality index of the process was improved from 95.0% to 99.5% during practical validation in an industrial environment, demonstrating its robustness.

Smart Sensing of Pavement Temperature Based on Low-Cost Sensors and V2I Communications.

Nowadays, the preservation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and improvement of road networks are key issues. Pavement condition is highly affected by environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, hence the importance of building databases enriched with real-time information from monitoring systems that enable the analysis and modeling of the road properties. Information and communication technologies, and specifically wireless sensor networks and computational intelligence methods, are enabling the design of new monitoring systems. The main goal of this work is the design of a pavement monitoring system for measuring temperature at internal layers. The proposed solution is based on low-cost and robust temperature sensors, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, allowing one to transmit information directly from probes to a moving auscultation vehicle, and a neural network-based model for prediction pavement temperature. User requirements drive probes’ design to a modular device, with easy installation, low cost, and reduced energy consumption. Results of the test and validation experiments show both the benefits and viability of the proposed system, which reflect in an accuracy improvement and reduction in routine test duration. Finally, data collected over a year is applied to assess the performance of BELLS3 models and the suggested neural network for predicting pavement temperature. The dynamic behavior of the predicted temperature and the mean absolute error of the neural network-based model are better than the BELL3 model, demonstrating the suitability of the proposed pavement monitoring system.

Self-Tuning Method for Increased Obstacle Detection Reliability Based on Internet of Things LiDAR Sensor Models.

On-chip LiDAR sensors for vehicle collision avoidance are a rapidly expanding area of research and development. The assessment of reliable obstacle detection using data collected by LiDAR sensors has become a key issue that the scientific community is actively exploring. The design of a self-tuning methodology and its implementation are presented in this paper, to maximize the reliability of LiDAR sensors network for obstacle detection in the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) mobility scenarios. The Webots Automobile 3D simulation tool for emulating sensor interaction in complex driving environments is selected in order to achieve that objective. Furthermore, a model-based framework is defined that employs a point-cloud clustering technique, and an error-based prediction model library that is composed of a multilayer perceptron neural network, and k-nearest neighbors and linear regression models. Finally, a reinforcement learning technique, specifically a Q-learning method, is implemented to determine the number of LiDAR sensors that are required to increase sensor reliability for obstacle localization tasks. In addition, a IoT driving assistance user scenario, connecting a five LiDAR sensor network is designed and implemented to validate the accuracy of the computational intelligence-based framework. The results demonstrated that the self-tuning method is an appropriate strategy to increase the reliability of the sensor network while minimizing detection thresholds.

Obstacle Recognition Based on Machine Learning for On-Chip LiDAR Sensors in a Cyber-Physical System.

Collision avoidance is an important feature in advanced driver-assistance systems, aimed at providing correct, timely and reliable warnings before an imminent collision (with objects, vehicles, pedestrians, etc.). The obstacle recognition library is designed and implemented to address the design and evaluation of obstacle detection in a transportation cyber-physical system. The library is integrated into a co-simulation framework that is supported on the interaction between SCANeR software and Matlab/Simulink. From the best of the authors' knowledge, two main contributions are reported in this paper. Firstly, the modelling and simulation of virtual on-chip light detection and ranging sensors in a cyber-physical system, for traffic scenarios, is presented. The cyber-physical system is designed and implemented in SCANeR. Secondly, three specific artificial intelligence-based methods for obstacle recognition libraries are also designed and applied using a sensory information database provided by SCANeR. The computational library has three methods for obstacle detection: a multi-layer perceptron neural network, a self-organization map and a support vector machine. Finally, a comparison among these methods under different weather conditions is presented, with very promising results in terms of accuracy. The best results are achieved using the multi-layer perceptron in sunny and foggy conditions, the support vector machine in rainy conditions and the self-organized map in snowy conditions.

Consensus-Based Cooperative Control Based on Pollution Sensing and Traffic Information for Urban Traffic Networks.

Nowadays many studies are being conducted to develop solutions for improving the performance of urban traffic networks. One of the main challenges is the necessary cooperation among different entities such as vehicles or infrastructure systems and how to exploit the information available through networks of sensors deployed as infrastructures for smart cities. In this work an algorithm for cooperative control of urban subsystems is proposed to provide a solution for mobility problems in cities. The interconnected traffic lights controller (TLC) network adapts traffic lights cycles, based on traffic and air pollution sensory information, in order to improve the performance of urban traffic networks. The presence of air pollution in cities is not only caused by road traffic but there are other pollution sources that contribute to increase or decrease the pollution level. Due to the distributed and heterogeneous nature of the different components involved, a system of systems engineering approach is applied to design a consensus-based control algorithm. The designed control strategy contains a consensus-based component that uses the information shared in the network for reaching a consensus in the state of TLC network components. Discrete event systems specification is applied for modelling and simulation. The proposed solution is assessed by simulation studies with very promising results to deal with simultaneous responses to both pollution levels and traffic flows in urban traffic networks.

A transductive neuro-fuzzy controller: application to a drilling process.

Recently, new neuro-fuzzy inference algorithms have been developed to deal with the time-varying behavior and uncertainty of many complex systems. This paper presents the design and application of a novel transductive neuro-fuzzy inference method to control force in a high-performance drilling process. The main goal is to study, analyze, and verify the behavior of a transductive neuro-fuzzy inference system for controlling this complex process, specifically addressing the dynamic modeling, computational efficiency, and viability of the real-time application of this algorithm as well as assessing the topology of the neuro-fuzzy system (e.g., number of clusters, number of rules). A transductive reasoning method is used to create local neuro-fuzzy models for each input/output data set in a case study. The direct and inverse dynamics of a complex process are modeled using this strategy. The synergies among fuzzy, neural, and transductive strategies are then exploited to deal with process complexity and uncertainty through the application of the neuro-fuzzy models within an internal model control (IMC) scheme. A comparative study is made of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and the suggested method inspired in a transductive neuro-fuzzy inference strategy. The two neuro-fuzzy strategies are evaluated in a real drilling force control problem. The experimental results demonstrated that the transductive neuro-fuzzy control system provides a good transient response (without overshoot) and better error-based performance indices than the ANFIS-based control system. In particular, the IMC system based on a transductive neuro-fuzzy inference approach reduces the influence of the increase in cutting force that occurs as the drill depth increases, reducing the risk of rapid tool wear and catastrophic tool breakage.

Detecting nano-scale vibrations in rotating devices by using advanced computational methods.

This paper presents a computational method for detecting vibrations related to eccentricity in ultra precision rotation devices used for nano-scale manufacturing. The vibration is indirectly measured via a frequency domain analysis of the signal from a piezoelectric sensor attached to the stationary component of the rotating device. The algorithm searches for particular harmonic sequences associated with the eccentricity of the device rotation axis. The detected sequence is quantified and serves as input to a regression model that estimates the eccentricity. A case study presents the application of the computational algorithm during precision manufacturing processes.