Artificial intelligence brought a huge productivity boost to the engineering house
There are many opinions and claims about what AI is. But what it can achieve will change the way we work today.
ALL3D Oy is a Pori-based 3D modelling engineering house specialising in digital twins (Digital Twin). And when making a digital replica of an original factory or production plant, there’s a huge amount of data to collect. There are manuals, blueprints, drawings and many other documents. There are photographs, machine and line information, process diagrams, technical data, time-lapse data, inventory management, final production, etc. All as CAD files and printed and scanned forms of material.
– “Handling this kind of material can engineer burn tens of hours in a month”, the CEO of All3D Markus Helmle said.
– “We are also in the software business ourselves, and I’ve been wondering whether this work could be automated in some way,” he continues.
Then it started to happen. Prizztech’s Robocoast expert contacted Markus. Robocoast’s mission is to help companies in the region to improve their operating conditions through digitalisation. A meeting was arranged and during the visit, topics such as artificial intelligence and Satakunta’s extensive expertise in this field were discussed.
– “then I had an idea that AI could do these slow steps for an engineer”, Markus enthuses.
Work was started with funding from Business Finland.
Coincidentally, the Coronavirus changed all our lives, and Business Finland started to offer companies new funding for product development projects.
– We immediately applied for funding, and it was granted for us,” says Markus.
– Robocoast suggested we make use of local expertise and they provided us with a list of companies we could ask for this job. I called them right away,” Markus continues. “That’s how we found Koivu Solutions ltd in the city of Ulvila”.
– “Koivu Solutions stood out from the crowd because they immediately understood our specific needs. For example, we have a customer who doesn’t want any of their data to be put in the cloud, i.e. the big computer stores on the Internet. This solution should work locally,” says Markus.
– “Koivu Solutions was immediately able to tell us which aspects of the project to focus on to meet the budget”.
AILA.AI product was born like this
– “Teaching AI requires a lot of data,” says Sami Lahti from Koivu Solutions Oy.
– The client had thousands of images, some of them blurry, taken with a cell phone camera. They should have been labelled as handicrafts for teaching artificial intelligence – a job that would have required The entire project budget. So we developed a method to teach AI without this work,” he continues.
At Koivu Solution, the system was programmed to automatically find all the information it needed from the pictures. In addition, the AI had to be taught engineering language in English. Natural Language Processing (NLP) can read PDF files and understand their contents, for example, that they mention the device, what it does and what the target is. Finally, a database is created from the image and text files that have been processed, which, as a search engine, can be used to find all the information on the importing institution.”
Finally, the software was completed and named AILA.AI. The software saves up to 90% of the work that an engineer would have to do to find the information. Now the user can take a picture of a piece of equipment and AILA.AI will find all the information the engineer needs to do his job. But for Markus Helmle’s work processes, the change was even more dramatic.
– “My time spent collecting data was reduced by 99%. That’s dozens of hours in a month, he enthuses. Now all he has to do is accept the data the system suggests he finds and that’s it. The creation of a complete digital twin is enormously streamlined, and the customer gets a service at a significantly lower cost.
What about future plans for AILA. AI? The product will be made available to everyone who needs it. Support for augmented reality glasses is also in the pipeline. These would allow users to get information directly by just looking at the digitized device.
But what will Markus Helmle think when AI does much of the work for him?
– “I’m not afraid of AI taking my job. There is always something new to do. I believe in doing things intelligently and clearly. Efficiency is an enabler”, Markus says with great conviction.
More information:
Juha-Pekka Alanen
044 710 5366 juha-pekka.alanen@prizz.fi
Facts
DIGITAL TWIN
– An identical or functional copy of a building or device on a computer.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING
– Programming code and algorithms that enable a computer to understand input, make inferences and find connections. By adding sensors, such as a camera, a computer can observe its environment. Teaching artificial intelligence usually requires large amounts of information from which the machine can independently find connections between things.
SATAKUNTA IS AN AI COUNTY
– Robocoast DIH, an European innovation hub for automation, AI and robotics
– 17 companies providing AI services
– The RoboAI innovation platform of SAMK and the University of Tampere, Pori, combines AI research, product development and education
– Finland’s first Artificial Intelligence degree programme in English from SAMK
– Several local and joint European AI projects
AILA.AI
– Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based data linker
KOIVU SOLUTIONS OY
– Koivu Solutions Oy is a specialist in enterprise software with long roots in large international companies. Koivu.Cloud is a software platform for fast and affordable development and deployment of low-code enterprise software. It handles artificial intelligence, analytics and normal enterprise data management. For more information: sami.lahti@koivusolutions.com, koivu.cloud or koivusolutions.com.
ALL3D OY
– ALL3D Ltd specialises in the creation and management of Digital Twins. ALL3D Oy also develops customized CAD tools and integrates design environments. For more information: markus.helmle@all3d.fi or www.all3d.fi.
