© damen shipyards
Author profile picture

Jheronimus Academy of Data Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Tilburg University, together with Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, are creating a “Toolkit Artificial Intelligence” that should be applicable for the industry. To this end, the public-private partnership ‘CERTIF-AI’ has been set up, consisting of companies from the high-tech manufacturing industry in addition to the knowledge partners. NWO makes this possible with a four-year subsidy. The toolkit consists of algorithms and methods for industrial applications.

The CERTIF-AI project (Certification of production process quality through Artificial Intelligence) will start on 1 September 2020. The aim is to use the large amounts of data generated by machines and in production processes to certify processes, improve product quality, and identify problems. “For the industrial end-users, this means fewer errors in production and therefore lower costs or greater process reliability and therefore a better product or service”, the consortium says in an explanatory note. “The project is not only academically innovative by applying AI techniques to real-time sensor data, but also JADS and consortium partners contribute to the deployment of AI for concrete industrial applications”.

The AI Toolkit is developed and implemented by a research team from JADS, Eindhoven University of Technology, Tilburg University, and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. Industrial partners Damen Shipyards, Omron, Additive Industries, and VTEC have defined four concrete applications. Sioux Mathware, BrightCape, and UNIT040 are assisting in the implementation of the toolkit together with Hogeschool Utrecht and practical researchers from JADS.

Tim Foreman (Omron) expects the toolkit to deliver efficiency benefits: “The Omron IPC is a Build-to-Order product and has thousands of variants. With CERTIF-AI we are automating and integrating the validation process of new variants into the normal production process in order to reduce the delivery time of new variants”. Damen Shipyards expects to acquire new knowledge with CERTIF-AI: “A more data-driven approach in operational processes is a strategic spearhead for Damen and makes it possible for us to create insights that were not previously possible,” says Jasper Schuringa. “These insights offer optimization opportunities but also generate additional value for both Damen, the customer, and the customer’s customer”.

According to the initiators, the CERTIF-AI project is “a good example of the connecting role that JADS has in the collaboration between the parent universities TU Eindhoven and Tilburg University and the affiliated research institutes such as the Eindhoven AI Systems Institute (EAISI) that focuses, among other things, on the use of AI for high-tech systems”.