July/August 2019

n TECHNOLOGY July/August 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com 18 ABB IS PILOTING what it describes as the world’s first industrial application using artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G wireless technology to assist in the assembly of variable-speed drives. The application, at a plant in Helsinki, Finland, will support the plant’s workers by using a camera to monitor them as they assemble drives, and ensuring that they perform the work in accordance with customers’ orders and appropriate work instructions. The fast 5G connections will allow real-time feedback, and this should make assembly “significantly” easier than having to follow work instructions from a paper document, thus helping to improve quality. ABB is implementing the application in partnership with the Finnish software engineering firm, Atostek Oy, which specialises in industrial applications, and the mobile phone operator, Telia. Atostek is responsible for the computer vision and the AI application. Telia is providing the high-speed 5G mobile connections as well as the necessary computing capacity at its data centre. The project is being implemented in stages. The application is being implemented on the power module assembly line at ABB’s Pitäjänmäki plant in Helsinki. This process is critical to production quality and demanding for employees because dozens of different versions of the same product are assembled on the same line. “The potential of AI is strongest when combined with human expertise, and the goal of supporting employees in a new way is at the heart of this project,” says Chris Poynter, group vice-president for ABB System Drives. “At its best, this real-time quality assurance system not only improves production line quality and productivity, but also reduces the stress associated with human errors, which helps improve well-being at work.” By introducing the 5G and AI application, ABB and its partners are exploring how industrial applications that require high data capacities and powerful computing processing can be implemented in scalable form, regardless of location. In future, for example, the AI application could be integrated with ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. 5G allows wireless technologies to be applied much more widely than has been possible previously, and this is expected to boost global production significantly over the next few years.  The Pitäjänmäki plant leads the company’s development of low-voltage drives. The site has around 1,300 employees. Finnish plant pilots the ‘first’ use of 5G and AI to build drives “The potential of AI is strongest when combined with human expertise, and the goal of supporting employees in a new way is at the heart of this project” NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has developed an app for diagnosing, analysing, monitoring and parameterising its drives. The Nordcomm app works with a Bluetooth stick to speed up commissioning, simplify maintenance and remedy faults faster.  The Nordac Access BT Bluetooth stick plugs into a drive and acts as a bridge between the VSD and the app. The stick can also be used without the app – to save parameter data, for example. If a frequency inverter is damaged or needs to be replaced, the original parameters can be uploaded from the stick. Parameters can also be transferred between a drive and a PC. The app provides dashboard-based visualisation of drive parameters and faults. It also provides a backup and recovery function for drive parameters, as well as a configurable oscilloscope function for analysing the drive. The app and Bluetooth stick will work with all of Nord’s drives and can be used with decentralised frequency inverters as well as control cabinet drives and option modules. It is available for iOS and Android operating systems in the App Store or Google Play. www.nord.com The pilot installation of 5G and AI technologies will helpworkers at ABB's Helsinki plant to assemble drives reliably. Nord’s Nordcommapp communicates wirelessly with its drives via Bluetooth App talks to drives via Bluetooth