Artificial intelligence can be simply understood as "artificial machines as smart as humans." The main function of applying this smart "artificial machine" to the manufacturing industry is to enable the machine to "reach or even exceed the level of human technicians" and to improve the production and operation efficiency of manufacturing enterprises.

The "intelligence" process of "artificial intelligence + manufacturing" is essentially different from the process of "automation" in the manufacturing industry in the past. "Automation" pursues automatic production by machines, essentially replacing humans with machines, emphasizing large-scale machine production; while "intelligence" pursues flexible production of machines, essentially "human-machine collaboration", emphasizing that machines can independently cooperate with humans. Work independently to adapt to environmental changes.

 "Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing" does not pursue simple and rude machine substitutions, but returns to the "people-oriented" organizational model that has been extremely refined since the industrial revolution, allowing machines and people to do what they are better at. In fact, machines take on more repetitive, boring and dangerous work, and humans take on more creative work.

The manufacturing industry is a highly complex industry. A product may be invested with dozens of raw materials, and at most it may be composed of millions of parts. To produce the same product, different companies have different production processes, production equipment and parts inputs. . Due to different production processes, different equipment interfaces, and different data formats, not only will the digital connection of the upstream and downstream of the supply chain be difficult, but also the digital transformation of each enterprise will have to start anew, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. The above-mentioned problems in the "artificial intelligence + manufacturing" process can be solved by establishing an industrial Internet platform that follows common standards, is more versatile, and is plug-and-play. The industrial Internet platform provides general computing power (industrial cloud computing and edge computing), calculations (industrial big data) and algorithm capabilities (industrial artificial intelligence) for the manufacturing industry, thereby promoting the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry.

At present, there are three typical directions of "artificial intelligence + manufacturing": one is intelligent production, which realizes the digital connection and high coordination of production equipment, value chain, and supply chain, so that the production system has agile perception, real-time analysis, independent decision-making, and precise execution. , Learning and upgrading, etc., to improve production efficiency in an all-round way. The second is smart products. Through cloud connection or encapsulation of trained artificial intelligence systems into hardware, etc., the products are given the ability to intelligently respond to external changes and user needs. The third is intelligent service, which monitors product status in real time and responds to user needs, and provides value-added services such as renting and sales, on-time billing, remote diagnosis, fault prediction, remote maintenance, and integrated solutions, so that manufacturing companies can move from providing products to providing " "Product + service" transformation.

In short, achieving high-level human-machine collaboration through "artificial intelligence + manufacturing" can promote quality, efficiency, and power changes in manufacturing, and create a better life for mankind. A new round of AI revolution is about to begin. RoboIMEX 2019 China (Guangzhou) International Robotics, Intelligent Equipment and Manufacturing Technology Exhibition is the helper of this intelligent era, and we look forward to your participation! (From Economic Daily)