Artificial intelligence in production

The term "artificial intelligence" is not clearly defined. According to the European Parliament, it describes "the ability of a machine to imitate human abilities such as reasoning, learning, planning and creativity." AI thus enables technical systems to "perceive their environment, deal with what they perceive, and solve problems to achieve a specific goal." By "analyzing the consequences of previous actions,"AI systems are "able to adapt their actions" and "operate autonomously."  

A subfield of AI relevant to KUKA is what is known as machine learning. 

Machine learning is a generic term for the artificial generation of information: an artificial system learns from examples and can generalize them. It does not simply learn examples by heart, but recognizes patterns and regularities.

Robotics is moving from the very orderly environment of industrial production to the more "chaotic" private environment. Artificial intelligence helps to adapt robotic systems to imponderables and changes. Until now, robots have been repetitive, working with the same precision and repeatability. The requirements of the future are different - especially in the field of (professional) service robotics and service robotics. If robots want to move into other areas, they will have to become more flexible. Machine learning can help with this.

In many areas of daily life, AI has already achieved spectacular success for problems that were difficult or impossible to solve using conventional approaches. These include image and speech recognition, for example. 
In robotics, too, it is foreseeable that AI can be used to automate new tasks without the need for explicit step-by-step programming. With less programming required, new fields of application will emerge. The combination of AI and automation has great potential.

Generally speaking, KUKA offers intelligent machines that relieve humans of burdensome tasks, not artificial intelligence. It relies on open standards to collect and interpret data. So KUKA works with machine learning and integrates it - in its own or existing solutions. 

One example: the intelligent control system KUKA AIVI. The software solution helps replace static production facilities with flexibly designed systems. "AIVI, the intelligent heart of a system, uses artificial intelligence to control the driverless transport vehicles - or AGVs for short - and ensures, on the one hand, the optimal flow of materials to the production line and, on the other hand, the perfect utilization of the AGVs. Customers thus invest more selectively and benefit from lower investment costs," explains Markus Steppberger, Head of System Development at KUKA. The fact that this concept also works in practice can be seen, for example, in the body shop at BMW.

The Artificial Intelligenge Challenge of the KUKA Innovation Award 2021 also focused on the question of how artificial intelligence can be used in industry. The Belgian research team Chorrobot won with its concept of using two-handed robot manipulation to increase the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and automotive manufacturers.