Can Australian manufacturing set itself up to thrive under fierce international competition through autonomous manufacturing? By Dayalan Gunasegaram and Christian Ruberg (CSIRO Manufacturing)
Emerging AI technologies coupled with a digitally savvy and a highly educated workforce are giving Australia the opportunity to reinvent its manufacturing industry as a high-value, niche enterprise capable of supporting high-end jobs.
The transformative change will manifest as autonomous manufacturing, in which machines independently make decisions, boosting productivity, ensuring quality, enhancing safety, minimising waste, optimising energy consumption, and so forth. The relevant technologies that support these capabilities are already accessible, as evidenced by autonomous vehicles. Australian mines have been early adopters of these technologies, with self-driving trucks operating in several local mines.
The algorithms that facilitate decision-making are trained through machine learning, enabling machines to emulate human cognition. This capability allows machines to perceive their environment, reason, and make rational and safe decisions—with the advantage that machines can perform these tasks consistently and faster than humans due to their superior data processing capacity. Engineers and data scientists collaborate to guide the algorithms.
As the nation’s premier research organisation focusing on translational applied research, CSIRO is committed to helping Australian businesses transition into an advanced future. In line with this commitment, it recently held a two-day Cutting Edge Science Symposium in Melbourne under the theme of ‘Real-time control decisions using machine learning – for the adaptive control of processes and devices.’
The event was a tremendous success, attracting nearly 150 researchers and engineers from industry, universities, defence, and CSIRO sites nationwide. The enthusiastic participation at the Symposium underscored the growing recognition in Australia that its high-wage economy must embrace advanced digital technologies to remain globally competitive by extracting maximum value from its extensive natural resources and the high education levels of its workforce.
On DAY 1, inspirational keynote addresses were delivered by several world experts:
- MACHINE LEARNING – Prof Amanda Barnard, AM (Australian National Uni.)
- ROBOTICS – Prof. Michael Milford (Queensland Uni. of Technology)
- FLOW CHEMISTRY – Prof. Richard Bourne (Uni. of Leeds)
- ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING – Dr. Stephen DeWitt (Oak Ridge National Lab.)
- ENERGY – Assoc. Prof. Ján Drgoňa (John Hopkins Uni.)
- SPACE/AEROSPACE – Dr. Seema Chopra (Boeing India) and Dr. Nicholas Mulé (Boeing US).
High-quality short talks addressed the practical, and applied end of the spectrum:
- QUANTUM MACHINE LEARNING – NEC Corporation (Australia) and D-Wave (Canada)
- AI IN INDUSTRIAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT – Abhijeet Verma (Siemens)
- CASE STUDIES – Ananth Prakash Jayakumar (Microsoft)
- SUPPORTING RESPONSIBLE AI THROUGH STANDARDS – William Giacometti (Standards Australia)
- OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ML – Steven Harding (Optrix)
On Day 2, attendees took part in a software coding session and visited several CSIRO laboratories.
If you wish to discuss the application of autonomous technologies in your business with CSIRO’s engineers, scientists, and data scientists, please get in touch with Dr Dayalan Gunasegaram via [email protected] .
SOURCE: https://amtil.com.au/making-australian-manufacturing-awesome/