When your business relies on uninterrupted operation of specialised rigs, machines or vehicles, your top considerations are operational and performance reliability, safety, and productivity which can be increased with machine learning.
Operational reliability guarantees your machine is ready for use every day without downtime or unplanned costs while performance reliability guarantees your machine is operating as expected and can be trusted. Performance reliability enables the safety of assets and operators because you can expect your machines to function as designed.
Human element in heavy duty industry
The human element in work sites remain a concern as the heavy duty industry continues to struggle with the shortage of skilled operators. Relying only on work instructions provides a considerable amount of risk as these do not account for all working conditions experienced daily. Operators are required to improvise based on operator experience and skill level. The industry is adopting machine intelligence to tackle risk associated with human element at work sites.
Machine intelligence is the complete process that includes machines converting sensor data into structured information, processed by predefined machine programs that leads to machine learning, problem solving, decision making and action. Machine intelligence includes sensors for sensory data, on board computers or machine control units for processing these data and actuators for effecting the actions.
Predefined machine intelligence programs increase safety at the work site
The predefined machine programs include set parameters that define safe and unsafe conditions of the machine. Therefore, allowing the machine to determine an unsafe state. The machine control unit on board the machine can make decisions and take actions independent of the operator when an unsafe condition is detected. This mitigates the risk of having unskilled labour operating complex machines in challenging environments.
The minimum requirement for machine intelligence is sensor data. Sensors determine the current state of the machine and monitor its environment. Sensors provide input to the machine control unit.
The concept of machine intelligence is common in multiple application spaces including construction, agricultural, forestry, platform lifts and warehousing. A forest and a warehouse may not have anything in common in terms of operating environments, but they have controls and safety parameters in relation to the function that the machine is trying to perform.
Machine intelligence does not mean we lose the human element to these functions but complement it. By monitoring and controlling how the vehicles function, we offer a safer, more reliable and more efficient relationship with our vehicle.
