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Best-kept secret agent revealed - No longer just the province of specialist sectors, agent-based computing is changing the way systems interact and how they are managed. By Boris Sedacca. ComputerWeekly.com (October 12, 2006). "Agent-based computing has already transformed processes such as automated financial markets trading, logistics, and industrial robotics. Now it is moving into the mainstream commercial sector as more complex systems with many different components are used by a wider range of businesses. Organisations that have successfully implemented agent technologies include DaimlerChrysler, IBM and the Ministry of Defence." Factories of the Future - Machines that "see" parts on assembly lines, 3-D printers that prototype products in hours -- let's take a look at adaptive manufacturing. Editorial by Fred Hapgood. CIO (January 1, 2007). "What kinds of technology will enable an adaptive manufacturing environment? Machine vision is an important example of the sort of technology that is converting manufacturing into an information-based process. Machine vision does not mean recording or registering a raw image, as a camera would, but recognizing the actual objects in an image and assigning properties to those objects -- understanding what they mean. Vision in this sense makes every aspect of manufacturing -- inventory, transport, tooling and assembly operations -- much more efficient. ... [M]achine vision is a real industry. The consultancy Vision Systems International pegs the total value of the North American market at around $1.5 billion. ... The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry uses Fanuc robots with machine vision to let museum-goers design their own toy (a top), which the robots then build while they watch. ... Both machine vision and 3DP sit inside the realm of ambitious new manufacturing technologies: high-resolution sensor and actuator networks." A Robot Buying Spree - New orders received by North American-based robot companies rose 39% in the first half of 2007. By John Teresko. Industry Week (October 2007). "Industry is buying. The evidence: New orders received by North American-based robot companies rose 39% in the first half of 2007, says the Robotic Industry Association (RIA). North American-based robot suppliers sold nearly 10,000 robots through June, valued at $563.2 million.
The Future of F&B: Using Superhuman Artificial Intelligence To Improve F&B Accuracy & Reduce Costs (Summary of the information session of Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals at HFTP.org on October 4, 2006). Hospitality Net (October 5, 2006). "Where is Artificial Intelligence Used? AI has many current applications. New elevator systems in high-rise buildings, including the one at the New York Times headquarters in New York City, implement artificial intelligence technologies to make passenger transportation more efficient. During peak times, the elevator systems 'learn' where to park elevator cars, how to group passengers together, and which floors to stop on to minimize transportation time. In medicine, artificial intelligence has been implemented to detect the presence of prostate cancer with results that exceed those of technique in place prior to its adoption. ... In many instances, artificial intelligence has been shown to exceed the reasoning ability of humans.... How Can Artificial Intelligence Help The Hospitality Sector? The Hyatt Regency Riverfront in Jacksonville, FL, one of the largest hotels on the U.S. East coast with 966 rooms, is an early adopter of artificial intelligence. Using an artificial intelligence system designed by Carnus Systems, the hotel is now able to forecast F&B [Food & Beverage] demand in addition to generating on-the-fly staffing schedules that both demonstrate superhuman accuracy. ... What is the Financial Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Industry? ... With labor accounting for around 50% of operational costs in the hospitality sector, the need for efficient labor controls are essential to control costs and maintain consistent service quality. ... Additionally, Covenant, a non-profit healthcare delivery system, reduced costs by $200,000 - $300,000 per year and reduced scheduling time by 15 hours per month after implementing artificial intelligence technologies." Martin Hägele - The European Robotics Market (podcast). Talking Robots (July 18, 2007). "In this episode we talk to Martin Hägele, who is the head of the Robot Systems Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany. He presents the current landscape and trends in the European robotics market." Smart Tools - Companies in health care, finance, and retailing are using artificial-intelligence systems to filter huge amounts of data and identify suspicious transactions. By Otis Port, with Michael Arndt and John Carey. Business Week's 2003 edition of The BusinessWeek50. "Some managers still think that artificial intelligence--the decades-long effort to create computer systems with human-like smarts--has been a big flop. But executives at most companies on the BW50 list know better. Artificial intelligence (AI) is often a crucial ingredient in their stellar performance. In fact, AI is now a part of a swath of industries as broad as the BW50 itself.  AI In Control - Artificial intelligence, expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural nets, and rules-based algorithms for factory control. Although the buzz is quieted, all of it is still around. You just don't notice it. Automotive Manufacturing & Production (July 2005). "'Real-time rule engines' and 'adaptive control' are two of today's monikers for artificial intelligence (AI), fuzzy logic, and similar information technologies that were so widely touted in the 1980s. ... Toyota Motor Corp. uses Gensym G2 to plan its final assembly line. ... Volkswagen (VW) Group (Madrid, Spain) uses the inference engine from ILOG Inc. for new-car sequencing and production planning at the group's SEAT Martorell and the VW Navarra plants. ... In reality, rules-based technology 'gets embedded in solutions so that the end user doesn't even know there's AI inside,' says [David] Siegel. 'I don't know of many total standalone AI/expert system-type applications. They're almost always a part of the larger picture.' ... The IMS [Intelligent Maintenance Systems] Center has developed a toolbox of algorithms. Of particular interest is the Watchdog Agent. This agent, explains Lee, 'can assess and predict the process or equipment performance based on the inputs from the sensors mounted on it. ... A second IMS project is the Device-to-Business (D2B) platform, basically an autonomous intelligent agent that links factory floor devices directly to a business system, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), thereby circumventing traditional factory supervisory control systems, such as programmable controllers." New Computer Language Taps into AI Technology. By Jennifer LeClaire. TechNewsWorld (June 20, 2005). "The developers said the ISO 18629 language is especially suited for the exchange of process planning, validation, production scheduling and control information for guiding manufacturing processes. Researchers have incorporated approximately 300 concepts, such as 'duration' and 'sequence,' into its software structure. ... Analysts said this Artificial Intelligence technology looks promising for both manufacturers and business management processes. ISO 18629 becomes part of what Business Communication Company (BCC) predicts will be at least a US$21 billion market by 2007." Homeland Security as Catalyst - Innovative software firms are answering the call from U.S. government agencies for advanced analytics to help combat terrorism and criminal activity. What's the potential of this software for strategic business applications? By Jesus Mena. Intelligent Enterprise Magazine (July 2004). "Ever heard of NORA? Or how about these guys: InferAgent, CopLink, NameHunter, Bladeworks, and Sentinel? These ominous-sounding fellows are products from tiny software firms that are developing some of the most advanced analytic technologies today for homeland security. Some provide solutions for the conversion of garbled text into knowledge discovery. Others tend to the unearthing of associations of individuals to actions, locations, and events from hundreds of thousands of internal and external records. Still others offer innovative methods for detecting fraud, categorizing foreign names, and virtual, remote analysis of data or text from any database in the world for agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC). ... In this article, I will describe some of these new technologies and how they may be applied to your company today and tomorrow." Softbots stride forward. By Siobhan McBride. Computerworld (January 24, 2005). "Can't make next week's videoconference with head office? No problem, your computer-generated avatar will stand in for you; having been created in your image it's a shrewd strategist in complete command of the points you wish to make - including your fallback position. While it sounds like it may be a long time coming, research into intelligent agents, software programs also known as 'softbots', is progressing so quickly scientists predict this scenario could be a reality within 10 years. ... Two researchers headed down this path are Professor Ryszard Kowalczyk, of Swinburne University's faculty of Information and Communication Technology, and Professor Jun Han, also of Swinburne University, who heads a contribution to an Australian-European Union consortium developing service-orientated computing systems of the future. ... The project plan is to develop agents to automate the interchange and composition of software and services via the Internet, including software components to coordinate business activities such as supply, distribution and sales." The Next Wave of Disruptive Technologies. Cover story by Jeff Moad. Managing Automation Magazine (May 2005). "Today, progressive manufacturers have an opportunity to change the course of their businesses by seizing emerging technologies, much like Henry Ford did when his company introduced the Model T in 1908. But which technologies have potentially game-changing power? This issue of Managing Automation answers that question by focusing on several emerging technologies and how manufacturers can use them to get ahead of the competition."
The Robot Evolution - MIT's Rodney A. Brooks is among researchers leading the charge to develop a smarter and more useful artificial creature. By Jill Jusko. Industry Week (December 1, 2002). "The manufacturing industry is no stranger to robots. Huge robot arms are commonplace in several industrial settings -- particularly automotive -- and primarily engage in long-run, repetitive tasks such as welding and assembly. ... Then there are the intelligent robots of science-fiction movies and books, such as C3PO and R2D2 from the Star Wars movies, which seem almost human in their ability to reason and feel and interact with human beings. In his latest book, 'Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us' (2002, Pantheon Books), Rodney A. Brooks, director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, suggests that the 'science fiction fantasy,' as he calls it, is not so far off. ... But what could increasingly intelligent robots mean to manufacturing?"  Predictions For BI's Future. By Mitch Betts. Computerworld (June 21, 2004). "We asked some industry leaders for their boldest predictions about the future of business intelligence tools, and here's our collection of the most interesting ideas. ... Image is everything ... Learning your mining habits ... BI meets AI. ... Automatic insurance decisions." This article is part of their special Business Intelligence report. Another article that you'll find in the report is: Text mining tools take on unstructured data - Companies are increasingly using text mining tools to harness the information in their unstructured data. Where Lech Does Tech. By Desa Philadelphia. TIME (July 1, 2002). "Leading Poland to democracy brought Lech Walesa a Nobel Peace Prize and international acclaim, but he admits to a few regrets. One is that he was so busy throughout the 1980s and '90s that he 'did not have the time to follow developments in technology closely.' But he is catching up.The first corporate board Walesa, 58, has agreed to join is that of NuTech Solutions, a closely held company founded three years ago in Charlotte, N.C., by a pair of Polish immigrants. NuTech creates software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to boost efficiency in its clients' manufacturing, distribution and customer service. NuTech software allows Ford to find profitable new ways to sell vehicles that are coming off leases. It helps Unilever target inefficiencies in its supply chain. And it is being used to detect check and credit-card fraud at Bank of America ... AMR Research, a technology research company based in Boston, estimates that 40% of all new manufacturing-related software already incorporates some form of AI. ... Walesa, who leads a foundation that promotes a free-market economy in Poland, says that although he is happy to be working with his countrymen, he joined NuTech primarily because he is passionate about the promise of its technologies, which he is studying avidly. 'The science and technology NuTech represents,' he says, 'are the future of all companies.'" Eureka! Knowledge Discovery. By Neena Buck. Software Magazine. December 2000/January 2001 cover story. "Knowledge discovery and data mining (KDD) is evolving from an esoteric art and a point solution, to a mainstream technology embedded in a variety of solutions, to help businesses turn information into insight." Readings OnlineAI and Manufacturing Research Planning Workshops (SIGMAN). "The aim of the AI and Manufacturing workshops is to bring together experts and practitioners in both artificial intelligence and manufacturing, and bridge the gaps between problem and solution perspectives. The specific focus of the workshops is to build greater mutual understanding of important research challenges and technological potential in this field, break down the cultural barriers that currently exist between these two disciplines, and foster future interaction and collaboration with these two communities toward the realization of intelligent manufacturing systems." The abstracts from the proceedings for the 1996 and 1998 workshops can be accessed online for free. Automating the Underwriting of Insurance Applications. By Kareem S. Aggour and William Cheetham. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference, 1451-1458. Menlo Park, Calif.: AAAI Press. "An end-to-end system was created at Genworth Financial to automate the underwriting of Long Term Care (LTC) and Life Insurance applications. Relying heavily on Artificial Intelligence techniques, the system has been in production since December 2002 and today completely automates the underwriting of 19.2 percent of the LTC applications. A fuzzy logic rules engine encodes the underwriter guidelines and an evolutionary algorithm optimizes the engine’s performance. Finally, a natural language parser is used to improve the coverage of the underwriting system."
Intelligent Software. By Helen Atkinson. DC Velocity Magazine (July 2003). "Sure you have plenty of brainpower. But when it comes to complex logistics or warehousing decisions, an intelligent software 'agent' may be able to make the call better, faster or more cost effectively than you can." Artificial Intelligence ...Within. Artificial Intelligence methods continue to provide upfront benefits in industrial and consumer arenas, although they're increasingly found working quietly in the background. By Frank J. Bartos. Control Engineering (September 1, 2003). "Perhaps we don't hear much about artificial intelligence (AI) methods used within today's technologies because it's slightly unnerving when computers emulate human thinking. Yet we, and computers themselves, continue to improve the way AI works quietly in the background to optimize, reduce process costs, and improve timing and product quality. For some tough, nonlinear applications, AI may be the only solution. ... Actually, AI consists of various technologies—expert systems, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, and genetic algorithms, among others." This article not only explains the technology, but also provides examples of many real world applications. Watch that eek-mail. By Chen Bin. The Straits Times (January 14, 2003). "I refer to the case of a manager being sued for defamation by a rival firm ('Manager sued over e-mail to his staff'; ST, Jan 8) based on the contents of an internal e-mail. This case has once again highlighted the potential risks associated with e-mail use in today's business environment. ... The good news is that there are affordable technology solutions in the market to automate the management of e-mail use. E-mail filtering technology developed with artificial intelligence can scan all the e-mail and look for potential risks before they are allowed to go through. Organisations can use e-mail filtering tools to define their own control rules which will then be enforced automatically." What Makes Manufacturing Intelligent? By David Blanchard. Intelligent Manufacturing, March 1995; #128; Vol. 1, No. 3. "[G]iven that the concept of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) has been with us for more than 20 years, the incorporation of computer technology alone does not necessarily result in intelligent manufacturing. It is the introduction of human-like decision-making capabilities into the manufacturing system that makes it, indeed, intelligent." The return of artificial intelligence. By Corey Booth and Shashi Buluswar. The McKinsey Quarterly, 2002 Number 2 Web exclusive (no-fee reg. req'd). "[T]he AI-development community has generated techniques that are beginning to show promise for solving real business problems involving complex data in dynamic environments -- problems such as detecting fraud and automating work flows within and across organizations. ... Is artificial intelligence right for your business? The technology isn't appropriate for all information problems -- but it does solve some of them very well indeed. This article suggests a three-step process for determining whether AI can help your company." 
AI gets down to business. By Matthew Broersma. ZDNet UK. (January 23, 2001). "We may not have a HAL-like computer system today, but AI is being used to enhance a wide variety of products and create new applications, and it is fuelling some of the latest hot Internet startups." Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Heavy Industry. CANMET Energy Technology Centre - Ottawa. "Heavy industry is enlisting artificial intelligence - an advanced computer science that seeks to approximate some of the capacities of the human brain - to automate complex processes and extend the skills of human operators. Well-considered application of the technology can boost productivity, quality and energy efficiency, according to a report by the Emerging Technologies Program. ... About 70 percent of all AI installations in heavy industry are expert systems; the remainder are neural networks and fuzzy logic systems. ... Some 40 percent of AI applications in heavy industry involve process control. ... Users report a wide range of benefits from the use of AI, including improved decision making, more responsive control, more efficient material flow, increased labour efficiency, greater consistency in product quality and reduced maintenance costs." Program Administrators Are a Valuable Resource in Placing Specialized Risks. By Glenn W. Clark. Insurance Journal (April 24, 2003). "Many program specialists capitalize on advances in computer hardware and software to make their internal workflow process more streamlined and efficient. Artificial intelligence built into rating engines can assist underwriters in evaluating risk. Scanning technologies allow for faster retrieval of policy forms. What is the advantage of all this computer sophistication? For retail agents, it translates into quicker turn-around time for quotes and policies." Believe the Hype, or Be Left Behind - Carnegie Mellon's Frank Demmler says that older executives have a bias against technology, and it's up to CIOs to recognize this and adjust their messages to the board accordingly. Higher Learning report by Frank Demmler. CIO (December 29, 2004). "As I was preparing to write this article, I searched the CIO.com website to see if my topic had a name. Lo and behold, not only did it have a name, but Tom Davenport wrote an article about it. [Decision Evolution; October 1, 2004.] 'It' is what he called, 'automated decision systems.' In his article, Mr. Davenport observed that we have moved beyond decision support systems to something that is more powerful and more useful than has been realized in the past. The promise of artificial intelligence, and all of its successors, is beginning to be realized in real world applications. I found myself agreeing with his main points while experiencing keen a sense of déjà vu. Over the years, I've read similar comments about earlier generations of the next big thing in IT that did not live up to the hype, including artificial intelligence (AI), as Davenport notes. In his concluding paragraph, he states: 'This brave new world has been along time coming, but it is clearly upon us now. Businesses need to incorporate automated decision making into their strategies and processes or they won't be successful very long…' Is he accurately predicting the future, or will this be another case of over-promise, under-deliver? As CIO, you will need to make that call. Make the right decision and you're a hero. Guess wrong and you're not. For what it's worth, after much soul searching, I agree with Davenport. This time it's for real. His call for action is prudent, and CIOs need to act now." The Rebirth of Artificial Intelligence. Lisa DiCarlo. Forbes (May 16, 2000). "Oracle is promoting its Intelligent WebHouse tools. These tools give companies a detailed survey of their Web-surfing customers, determining what sites they have visited before and what their relationship is to that site. This, Howard says, 'enables companies to do a better job cross-selling and up-selling customers. You can [discover] sales programs on other sites and do competitive analysis.'" Europe - Are robots after your job? After the hype, a new generation of artificial intelligence systems shows promise for solving real business problems, says Business Europe. Available from ebusinessforum.com. (December 11, 2002). "The hype surrounding AI in the 1980s prompted developers to make extravagant claims for the sophistication of their products, only for these to be discredited and business interest to wane. However, today's fully fledged web-enabled infrastructure, coupled with the explosion in personal computing of recent years, has revived business interest in AI solutions. A recent report by management consultancy McKinsey & Co has noted a discernible rise in uptake as AI development focuses on providing real business applications. The vast quantities of data available over the web have prompted a need for systems dynamic enough to discern patterns and extract relevant material, executing tasks by making intelligent choices without wasting company time. John Kingston, senior research fellow at the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute in Edinburgh, says this shift in focus is symptomatic of the AI industry's attempt to shake off the old hype for more practical solutions. ... This practical business focus is not the only reason AI is undergoing a renaissance. 'Today companies prefer to avoid the AI moniker,' said Shashi Buluswar, co-author of the McKinsey report. 'Now that the technology can demonstrate its applicability to real business issues where in the past its appeal was more conceptual, the term 'business intelligence' is preferred.'" Applying Case-Based Reasoning to Manufacturing. By David Hinkle and Christopher Toomey. AI Magazine 16(1): Spring 1995, 65-73. "CLAVIER is a case-based reasoning (CBR) system that assists in determining efficient loads of composite material parts to be cured in an autoclave. CLAVIER's central purpose is to find the most appropriate groupings and configurations of parts (or loads) to maximize autoclave throughput yet ensure that parts are properly cured. CLAVIER uses CBR to match a list of parts that need to be cured against a library of previously successful loads and suggest the most appropriate next load. clavier also uses a heuristic scheduler to generate a sequence of loads that best meets production goals and satisfies operational constraints. The system is being used daily on the shop floor and has virtually eliminated the production of low-quality parts that must be scrapped, saving thousands of dollars each month. As one of the first fielded CBR systems, CLAVIER demonstrates that CBR is a practical technology that can be used successfully in domains where more traditional approaches are difficult to apply." Knowledge-Based Systems Defined - In addition to other benefits, knowledge-based/expert and artificial intelligence systems capture and retain knowledge for reuse and are constructed to input, manipulate, edit, store and eventually execute or react to existing data. Insurance Networking News (October 1, 2006). "Insurance Networking News asked James Bisker, global insurance industry leader, IBM Institute for Business Value, to define knowledge-based, expert and artificial intelligence systems and provide insight into how they can benefit insurance industry operations. INN: There has been some confusion in the marketplace about knowledge-based/expert and artificial intelligence systems. Can you clarify? JB: It's important to recognize that some of the terms that are used interchangeably when discussing this topic really refer to different things. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is an academic discipline comprised of a set of sub-disciplines. The most common of these is knowledge-based systems (KBS) that work to make the existing components of knowledge in a particular area (called a 'domain' in AI lingo) available in a consistent and reusable form. A term I like to use when referring to the use of AI in business situations is 'intelligent systems.' The type of KBS that is often referred to as an 'expert system' is technically known as a rule-based system. ... In the insurance industry for example, for almost two decades the problem of consistently underwriting a large volume of straightforward cases has been increasingly managed by 'expert underwriting' systems. ... INN: What are some organizational implications of using KBSs? ... " Intelligent Control in the Manufacturing Supply Chain. Guest Editors' Introduction Duncan McFarlane, Vladimír Marík, Paul Valckenaers. IEEE Intelligent Systems (January/February 2005; Vol. 20, No. 1). Abstract: "In recent years, a major thrust in addressing the requirements of adaptivity and responsiveness for manufacturing control has been the application of tools from distributed artificial intelligence. These tools can be called intelligent control systems. Typically, these tools are adaptable to a changing environment; resilient to disturbance; distributed, in the sense that typically more than one decision-making element exists; and dynamic in decision making. They range from modeling tools such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary programming to new distributed forms of manufacturing control and management systems. Of particular importance are multiagent-based manufacturing control and management systems. Such approaches bring new features of flexibility and easy reconfigurability to industrial-control solutions. These features result from agent-based systems' basic properties such as a high degree of autonomy for decision-making units, the ability to communicate complex messages asynchronously, the capability to negotiate and cooperate, and, mainly, the ability to achieve complex global goals without a central decision element." Artificial Intelligence and the Internet: An Integral Part of the Factory. By Marla P. Rogers. Journal of Industrial Technology (Volume 18, Number 2; February 2002 to April 2002). "Using networked intelligent devices on the factory floor provides the advantages of minimum cost, optimum competency, equipment sharing, and real-time organization of production." Intelligent Systems for Manufacturing at Ford Motor Company. By Nestor Rychtyckyj, Ford Motor Company. IEEE Intelligent Systems (January/February 2007; 22(1): 16-19).Abstract: "It's a common misconception that the automobile industry is slow to adapt new technologies, such as AI, into the manufacturing sector. In reality, many early adaptations of AI were in the automotive sector, where such diverse technologies as expert systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic were among the first to be used. Ford Motor Company is applying AI and knowledge-based technologies within its manufacturing arena, including an AI-based approach for vehicle assembly process planning, an application of AI for ergonomics analysis, and a system that uses machine translation to translate assembly-build instructions for assembly plants that don't use English as their primary language. Furthermore, specific technologies such as natural language processing, controlled languages, and ontologies can effectively deal with different types of knowledge, both structured and unstructured, prevalent in the manufacturing environment." Doing it with robots. By Christopher Sell. The Engineer / e4engineering.com (April 29, 2004). "Advances in robotics technology - such as machine vision, control systems and greater flexibility - means that robots are becoming more effective at improving a diverse range of manufacturing processes. They are also getting cheaper. ... While the automotive industry has traditionally represented the largest chunk of the market, cheaper, more powerful, flexible and more controllable robots from companies such as ABB, Comau, SIG and Staubli have enabled manufacturers who are not normally associated with robotics and automation, to take advantage of what the technology offers. ... Significant improvements in vision systems, control technology and intelligence have also played a key role in the increasing flexibility and ease of use. 'Machine vision has come a long way over the last few years,' said [Dr Ken] Young. 'Machine vision camera technology and software is making robots more intelligent and enabling them to carry out a greater number of tasks." Bolt Down Those Costs - How artificial intelligence keeps a truck business on track. By Ron Stodghill. Fortune Small Business Magazine (May 2006; Volume 16, Number 4: page 85). Robots Revolution: The arrival of robots at General Motors Corp. in 1961 brought the promise of flexible automation. Today's advances in research offer robots the chance to reach their full industrial potential. By John Teresko. Industry Week (September 1, 2002). 'Intelligent' grinding may save $1 billion. United Press International / available from The Washington Times (May 6, 2004). "Researchers at Indiana's Purdue University are working to develop an 'intelligent' grinding system that could save U.S. companies $1 billion annually. The savings would come in manufacturing costs by improving precision-grinding processes for parts production. ... [Yung] Shin said his team of researchers hope to develop a system that enables 'relatively inexperienced employees to operate grinding machinery with the same precision as these rare, highly experienced workers.' The 'intelligent optimization and control grinding processes' use artificial-intelligence software, which mimics how people think, in order to learn and adapt to changing conditions."
From R2D2 to Spirit and Beyond - What’s in Store for Intelligent Robots? Knowledge@Wharton (January 28 - February 10, 2004). "Vijay Kumar , Penn Engineering mechanical engineering and applied mechanics professor and director of Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, recently discussed the future of robotics with students in the Executive Master’s in Technology Management (EMTM) program offered by Penn Engineering and co-sponsored by Wharton. ... The robotics industry posted strong numbers in 2003, with the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) reporting North American orders up 28% in units and 15% in dollars following a two-year fall-off from the peak years of 1999 and 2000. ... Manufacturing has dominated the use of robotics so far, with the automotive industry the major player." Rethinking Artificial Intelligence: "In September, 1997, the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program sponsored a briefing for senior technical management and corporate strategists on the future business impact of accumulating Artificial Intelligence technology. This document is a summary of the most salient points, as seen from the perspective of the briefing chair, Patrick H. Winston." Fast Forward -25 Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business. From e-mail to health care, and from artificial intelligence to the end of HR as we know it, here are forecasts of how different the world of workforce management will be 10 years from now. Workforce (June 2003: pages 43-56). "#6 - Artificial Intelligence: Making computers think more like people is an idea that persists. In the workplace, software already predicts customer behavior and machine failures on the factory floor. These capabilities will continue to evolve. As the Web and data warehouses grow, artificial intelligence will solve problems that are beyond the reach of the human brain. ... " Related Web SitesApplications of Machine Learning collection from the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Machine Learning. Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute. Edinburgh, Scotland. Links to an exciting array of projects and applications which includes summaries of actual client case histories. Be sure to see their section about What benefits can intelligent tools bring to the construction industry? Computer Mimics Human Brain at Volvo Plant.The expanded Web version with assorted videos and audio tracks, of this 1998 report from CNN: "What if it were your job to run the million-square-foot Volvo truck plant in Dublin, while juggling the schedules of 2,300 employees and managing dozens of other tasks? Because it is so tough to run a complicated assembly line, more companies are relying on computers with artificial intelligence to handle the details. This intelligence helps a computer find the best solution for every problem with the help of a so-called genetic algorithm program that mimics the human brain's decision-making process." IBM Research - Artificial Intelligence. "We are particularly interested in synthesizing technologies, whether combining AI methodologies or integrating AI techniques with other technologies. Our focus is on using AI to solve challenging technical and commercial problems, and to advance the state-of-the-art in many areas, such as electronic commerce, supply chain management, autonomic computing, and exploratory vision." Integrated Reasoning Projects from the National Research Council of Canada. Among the many projects you'll discover here is The Paper Maker's Advisor (PMA): "a monitoring and diagnostic system for use in paper mills." Intelligent Systems Division of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration). "[T]he next twenty years will see a dramatic increase in 'intelligence' of manufacturing process equipment on the shop floor. Machines will be able to understand manufacturing processes, to optimize production, to work directly from product designs, to sense and correct problems on the fly through embedded metrology and quality control sensors so that each and every part is made correctly without prove-out test parts, and to sense impending problems and call for maintenance before there is any lost production."  Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing</a>. Kluwer. "Over the past decade, artificial intelligence concepts and techniques have been productively applied to diverse aspects of manufacturing decision-making, ranging from product and process development, to production management, to process diagnosis and quality control. It is no longer a question of whether AI technologies will have an impact on manufacturing but one of better understanding and exploiting the broad potential of AI in this domain. New manufacturing concepts and philosophies such as lean manufacturing, agile manufacturing, virtual manufacturing and holonic manufacturing place increasing emphasis on the need for more intelligent manufacturing systems, and there is general consensus that AI technologies will play a key role in the manufacturing enterprise of the future." -from the Introduction. OSHA eTools: "eTools are 'stand-alone,' interactive, Web-based training tools on occupational safety and health topics. They are highly illustrated and utilize graphical menus. Some also use expert system modules, which enable the user to answer questions, and receive reliable advice on how OSHA regulations apply to their work site. Expert Advisors are based solely on expert systems."
Related AI Topics PagesMore ReadingsMaking Brain Waves. By E.B. Baatz. CIO Magazine. January 15, 1995. " Neural network technology has saved member companies of MasterCard more than $50 million." Artificial Intelligence Applications in Manufacturing. Fazel A. Famili, Dana S. Nau, and Steven H. Kim, editors. AAAI Press (1992). "Industrial managers, engineers, and technologists have many expectations from AI and its application to knowledge-based systems. This book presents a number of notable applications of AI in manufacturing that relate directly or indirectly to the enhancement of planning and decision making capabilities in today's automated production environments. The book is intended as a reference for senior undergraduate and graduate students interested in the applications of AI in production and should also be of interest to practitioners in industry, researchers in universities, or developers in research institutes. The book contains three sections. Section one focuses on the applications of AI in design and planning; section two is devoted to the AI applications in scheduling and control; and section three is about the use of AI in manufacturing integration." MITA: An Information-Extraction Approach to the Analysis of Free-Form Text in Life Insurance Applications. By Barry Glasgow, Alan Mandell, Dan Binney, Lila Ghemri, and David Fisher. AI Magazine 19(1): Spring 1998, 59-72. Excerpt from the abstract: "MetLife processes over 260,000 life insurance applications a year. Underwriting of these applications is labor intensive. Automation is difficult because the applications include many free-form text fields. MetLife's intelligent text analyzer (MITA) uses the information-extraction technique of natural language processing to structure the extensive textual fields on a life insurance application." AI in Manufacturing. IEEE Expert. Vol. 12, No. 1; January / February 1997. Articles include:
Warrenville, Ill.-Based Navistar Cut Indianapolis Plant Jobs by Automating. By James P. Miller. Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News / available from The Miami Herald.com (March 7, 2004). "'The automation of factory production is just as significant as globalization for explaining the loss of manufacturing jobs,' says Robert Reich, a professor at Brandeis University and former Labor secretary in the Clinton administration. Indeed, although it is a wrenching process, many experts argue that sacrificing some jobs to automation may be the best way to prevent millions more U.S. jobs from migrating offshore. ... American manufacturers have been automating plants--replacing workers with 'smart' equipment like industrial robots and computerized factory machines--since the early 1980s." BU grad finds pattern for success - Vestal man's embroidery technology impacts textile industry. By My-Ly Nguyen. Press & Sun-Bulletin (March 2, 2003). "Five computer work stations, a commercial embroidery machine and a lot of brain power are nearly all David Goldman needs to run his growing business, Soft Sight Inc. The software company he founded in August 1998, after earning his doctorate in computer science at Binghamton University, may revolutionize the textile industry with its flagship product: one of the first embroidery design automation systems to hit the global market. ... Goldman's product digitally automates the embroidery design process using sophisticated artificial intelligence software that can mimic the thought and decision process of a human counterpart. A scanned image is used to generate the stitch placement needed to optimally sew the image on a commercial embroidery machine. Human error is dramatically reduced and the costs of producing embroidered apparel can decrease significantly, Goldman said. 'We haven't seen a program of this sophistication before,' said Larry Lawley, president of Data-Stitch Inc., an embroidery equipment and software company based in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. 'The technology's impact on the industry has been phenomenal.' ... Goldman and his team are continually working to enhance the automation technology with help from the National Science Foundation and Binghamton University." Agent-Based Systems for Intelligent Manufacturing: A State-of-the-Art Survey. By Weiming Shen and Douglas H. Norrie. (1999). Knowledge and Information Systems 1(2); 129-156. "Abstract. Agent technology has been considered as an important approach for developing distributed intelligent manufacturing systems. A number of researchers have attempted to apply agent technology to manufacturing enterprise integration, supply chain management, manufacturing planning, scheduling and control, materials handling, and holonic manufacturing systems. This paper gives a brief survey of some related projects in this area, and discusses some key issues in developing agent-based manufacturing systems such as agent technology for enterprise integration and supply chain management, agent encapsulation, system architectures, dynamic system reconfiguration, learning, design and manufacturability assessments, distributed dynamic scheduling, integration of planning and scheduling, concurrent scheduling and execution, factory control structures, potential tools and standards for developing agent-based manufacturing systems. An extensive annotated bibliography is provided.' The weakest link. Business' biggest problem is predicting what customers want and when. A burgeoning software industry answers these key questions. By Chana R. Schoenberger. Forbes Global. (October 1, 2001). "Demand software has been around since the old mainframe days, but it is booming now, as more corporate data are accessible online and the tools grow more savvy. The software now uses weather readings, economic trends, geographic variances and artificial-intelligence techniques to learn from mistakes." Manager's Guide to Neural Networks. From Z Solutions. "From the standpoint of an individual manager's team, the challenge is increasingly one of understanding and organizing large amounts of information to improve knowledge of the organization's business and markets." |
