STAYING AGILE
Jos Martin looks at some of the key trends
expected to impact Industry 4.0 in 2020
With Industry 4.0 well under
way, 2020 is expected
to be a pivotal year, with
engineers, designers and other
professionals benefitting from the
latest developments in technology,
from artificial intelligence to robotics.
But as the tech improves, and as
more possibilities for what employees
can achieve with it arise, they will also
be expected to do more.
The pace of change needed to
succeed in the 2020s will not slow
down any time soon, so it’s vital
to stay agile and constantly be on
the lookout for ways to both drive
efficiency and improve quality. Here
are the top trends for the next 12
months that electronics designers
need to be aware of in order to stay
ahead of the curve.
Model-based design will be crucial
AI-driven systems are on the rise
driven by new AIs being trained to
work with a broader variety of types of
sensor including Radar, Lidar, inertial
measurement units for a wider variety
of systems including aircraft engines,
industrial plants, autonomous vehicles
and wind turbines. The behaviour of
an AI model has a substantial impact
on the overall system performance,
so electronics designers need to
be aware that developing one is no
mean feat and is only set to get more
difficult and designs become more
complex.
Technology can make the
process of creating AI models much
easier though. Model-based design
represents an end-to-end workflow that
reduces the complexity of designing
AI-driven systems. Designers will
look to model-based design tools
so that they can simulate, integrate
and continuously test these AIdriven
systems, ensuring they are
accurate and successful. Being
able to simulate is important for
understanding how the AI interacts in
a system, and integration is critical to
allowing designers to speedily identify
weaknesses in the AI training datasets
or design flaws in other components.
Simulation makes it easier to adopt
AI
According to recent findings from
Gartner, 14% of global CIOs have
already deployed AI, but almost
half (48%) are planning to deploy
it by 2020. There are, however, a
number of challenges electronics
designers face before implementing
it successfully into their work. One of
the biggest challenges, according to
Gartner, is lack of quality data, as if
there is not enough data to work with,
the AI is likely to fail.
Fortunately, software can be used
to simulate data and supplement
existing data from normal system
operation so that AI models can be
trained accurately, increasing the
likelihood of a successful project
outcome. In particular, data from
anomalies or critical failure conditions
is key, something especially true for
predictive maintenance applications,
such as accurately predicting
remaining useful life for a pump on an
industrial site. Being able to simulate
failure data is extremely useful as
creating data from physical equipment
would be expensive, inefficient and
destructive. Software can generate
data from simulations representing
system failure behaviour.
Standardised industry protocols will
emerge
Industry-wide standards like OPC UA
TSN will come to fruition, helping
electronics designers, engineers and
manufacturers ensure interconnectivity
so that equipment from different
vendors interoperates seamlessly.
28 14 January 2020 www.newelectronics.co.uk
/www.newelectronics.co.uk