Maintworld 1/2020

TECHNOLOGY
Industrial AI in Maintenance:
False Hopes or Real
ACHIEVEMENTS?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for a set of technologies in which
computer systems are programmed to exhibit complex behaviour in challenging
environments. AI is regarded as the major force driving innovation today.
Authors: UDAY KUMAR, DIEGO GALAR and RAMIN KARIM, Luleå University of Technology
FROM AN INDUSTRIAL point of view, AI technologies should be
understood as methods and procedures that enable technical
systems to perceive their environments through context and
situation awareness. They are able to process what they have
monitored and modelled, solve certain problems, find novel
solutions never found by humans, make decisions, and learn
from experience to be better able to manage the processes and
tasks put under AI supervision, Figure 1.
Machine learning (ML) is one area of artificial intelligence
used by industry. Machines need data to learn, either large
quantities of data for one-time analytical purposes, or streams
of data from which learning is continuously taking place. Based
on acquired data either on line or off line, machine learning
can reduce complexity and detect events or patterns, make
predictions, or enable actions to be taken without explicit programming
in the form of the usual ‘if-then’ routines or without
classic automation and control engineering, Figure 2.
Figure 2:
Roadmap
from
traditional
automated
process to
Industrial AI
Figure 1: Solution and knowledge extraction form asset data
48 maintworld 1/2020