These projects received funding from the EuropeanUnion's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmeunder grant agreement No 723336 and 825075

2011 – SMECLUSTER EVENT 1Cloud Computing & Factory Automation:Taking Business into the Next Generation

2013 – SMECLUSTER EVENT 2Take advantage of the Connected Business Community

2015 – SMECLUSTER EVENT 3The Connected Business Community 4.0:Service Based Software Economy

2017 – SMECLUSTER EVENT 4Pragmatically Stepping into the Twinned Digital World of 4IR:The fourth Industrial Revolution

2019 – SMECLUSTER EVENT 5Artificial Intelligence on the Shop Floor:Collective Intelligence+

http://www.smecluster.com/

Research to Product Realisation

• Introduction and background to AI and Technology

Developments and hypes

• The concerns around the growth of AI in all roles in business

and society

• Industrial Automation

• Every Technology goes

through the hype cycle

• Every Technology goes

through the hype cycle

• Augmented Reality was beginning its cycle 10 years ago

• Artificial Intelligence will go through the same cycle

• Difficult to understand the context of the term “Artificial Intelligence” as it is widely

used from shop-floor to board room

• Psychology and Philosophy increasing deployed in the science and technology

fields and lines of ethics, bias and reality blurring

• In the context of “human interaction” in office application, clinics and call centres,

we are too far away from “genuine human emotional response” (you write

algorithms to answer questions – not create themselves without a purpose –

remember the Microsoft paper clip?)

• In the context of shop floor systems, hardware, firmware, middleware and

programming systems will need to be completely overhauled to allow the

machines to make decisions based on the information available untested safety

implications of processes under their own control

DatabaseServices

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• Future business systems are predominately going to

be outsourced to cloud based companies

• Internal systems for recording processes will be

externally outsourced to pay per use apps for cost

advantages

• Machine and process data will be automatically

analysed and updated making Audit trails difficult to

follow (XAI – Explainable AI being developed)

• AI deployed systems will most certainly displace

jobs and potentially de-skill the workforce but create

a much larger service economy

• Smart Manufacturing – Robotics gaining popularity

• New jobs for robots – analytical processing

• Collaborative robots – removing the cage for low inertia

applications – Avoiding repetitive strain injury and other

complaints found in the manufacturing domain

• Adoption of failsafe systems

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Factory of the future – spotting the future

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• School curriculums are woefully outdated for future business

opportunities

• Workplace operational changes are being driven by rapid deployment of

Industry 4.0 developments bringing new revolutions (too fast for some

organisations to evolve)

• New Skills development required to deal with factories of the future –

interaction with the virtual world as much as the real

• Moving from the office to the shopfloor

• Replacing costly control systems user interfaces

• Auditing challenges when much of the data will be in the virtual world

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• Sensor Connectivity easier to implement (see next slide)

• Artificial Intelligence is now being brought to shopfloor

providing new applications not previously considered

• Risk Assessment tools need to be developed but need to

understand employment law, personal rights (GDPR) and

technology advances

www.crema-project.eu24

• Tracking People and Assets around the workplace

• Sensor connectivity from multiple sources to provide

data on employees and safety critical operations

and restricted zone access

• GDPR issues to be addressed to implement

systems in the workplace

• Will costs significantly reduce to justify exoskeletal workers (Battery

Technology Developments major factor)

• Replace robots with exoskeletal workers as a cheaper option to full

automation

• What are the implications to employment contracts, health policies and

licensing for operating such equipment

• General Electric developed the first exoskeleton device in the

1960s. Called the Hardiman, it was a hydraulic and electrical

bodysuit, however, it was too heavy and bulky to be of military

use (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

• Robotic exoskeletons have emerged as rehabilitation tools

stemming from spinal cord injury (SCI) research

• Future directions highlight the need to use exoskeletons in

conjunction with other existing and emerging technologies

similar to functional electrical stimulation and brain-computer

interface to address major limitations

• Beyond physical exoskeletons, there is an opportunity to

provide a virtual exoskeleton for the knowledge worker

• Exoskeletons focus on taking our human abilities and

increasing them using huge amounts of data and sophisticated

algorithms

• Operation liability of equipment – Risk policies to cover

workers

• Logistics operations – forklift replacement

• Rather than replacing workers, this mix of human skill

and AI will propel workers into faster and better

productivity across a wider range of outputs

• Physical Health – Long term liability issues

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