From Microsoft To Nvidia To Boston Dynamics…Here’s How AI Is Being Deployed On The Shop Floor

(This column originally appeared in Forbes)

If you own or manage a manufacturing, distribution or warehousing facility it’s time to get serious about artificial intelligence. That’s because the technology is starting to mature into something that is actually generating ROI. Software and hardware vendors are rolling out AI technologies both independently and as part of their existing products and leveraging these technologies is critical for increasing productivity, reducing overhead and increasing profits.

Here are four areas to consider.

Robotics

Manufacturing and distribution businesses of all sizes are investing heavily in AI-powered robotic technologies for the shop floor. Walmart is rolling out autonomous forklifts driven by AI software. Amazon is deploying hundreds of human-shaped warehouse robots to lift and move packages as well as independent drones to monitor traffic, safety and workflow. A German company called Robco is lending out robots that perform lathe turning laser engraving and palletizing (the robots can then be reconditioned and used for other customers as needed). Other robots are being used in food processing and baking operations to independently mix ingredients and then load finished products into cartons and cases.

Some think that humanoid robots are for the movies. But that’s not the case. They’re appearing more frequently on the shop floor – alongside and in lieu of workers.

For example, 1X creates an abundant supply of labor via safe, intelligent humanoids for the manufacturing floor. Agility Robotics is pumping out tens of thousands of humanoid warehousing robots. Boston Dynamics now makes an electric powered version of its humanoid robot Atlas. Apptronik’s Apollo is a general purpose humanoid robot designed to work in the plant and the office.

Unbox Robotics offers a bunch of AI "swarm robotics" to “accelerate the parcel sortation and order fulfillment to facilitate efficient express logistics operations delivering seamless end customer experience.” United Robots produces AI-powered robotic cleaners, disinfectors and carriers that do everything from removing microbiological contaminants to safeguarding workers to tugging heavy loads or carts. Other humanoid robots designed to perform all sorts of industrial tasks – and winning awards and - are now available (or coming soon) from companies like Figure AI and Sanctuary AI .

The robots on the manufacturing floor are controlled through the cloud using platforms provided by Nvidia (the chipmaker refers to the new platform as “a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots.”) and the aforementioned Agility Robotics, which the company says can “command a robot army, say, to start moving bins to a conveyor belt at a particular time.” Not sure I like the sound of that, but OK.

Internet of Things

Industry Week's VG Govindarajan and Venkat Venkatraman write that smart companies like Rolls Royce are using "fusion technology" being powered by AI is turning yesterday's equipment into thinking, intelligent machines.

"Tractors have become "farm-based computers" linked to precision agriculture cloud systems," they write. "Rolls-Royce offers "Power by the Hour" agreements for its aircraft engines. This approach ensures that Rolls-Royce is responsible for the maintenance and performance of its engines, with costs linked to the hours that the engines are in operation."

Firms with complex processing applications - particularly larger power generation, oil and gas, chemical and food and beverage manufacturing companies - are now implementing AI platforms like UptimeAI which uses sensors to monitor, analyze, evaluate and alert when there are disruptions, malfunctions or other problems that can create anomalies, loss of efficiency and safety issues.

Other software firm and hardware manufacturers are partnering to create Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that are using AI technology and models. The sensors are then installed on manufacturing equipment for the purposes of "making hardware smart" using audio, video, vision, temperature and pressure sensing.

3-D Manufacturing

A variety of companies - like Fathom Digital Manufacturing , Protolabs and Stratasys - are using AI to create 3D printing solutions to "dramatically accelerate the product development cycle" that allow manufacturers to design, create, test and evaluate prototypes in "a matter of days, rather than weeks or months."

Consolidating Data Into Large Language Models

For AI to work, large databases must be built from disparate information.

One company called EthonAI has launched a new software platform that they say "is designed to provide managers and engineers with a “sixth sense” to follow what’s happening within their factories more closely." The platform brings together data from multiple sources and then uses AI to make recommendations for management.

"With AI tools, it can be easier for companies to identify patterns that produce poor quality products and implement changes quickly," writes Rae Hartley Beck . "When a greater percentage of final products pass quality control, less waste is produced and more value is created for companies."

Another company bringing data under one roof - Sight Machine – recently announced a partnership with Siemens AG to create a manufacturing data platform for collecting, contextualizing, and analyzing all types of manufacturing data to improve production. Sight Machine’s software "analyzes the entire history of production runs to determine the best settings for the current conditions."

Microsoft announced a number of initiatives to bring data under one roof using "Copilot templates" so that their customers can "create their own copilots." The idea is for employees to use natural language queries to retrieve data - like asking the large language model why a machine is breaking and getting insights to help resolve the issues faster.

Manufacturers in the auto industry are reportedly investing in internal AI applications to help improve production scheduling, minimize line stoppage, testing chemical mixtures, aligning data from different sources to better communicate with suppliers and customers and sourcing materials based on real time availability around the world to reduce supply chain bottlenecks.

In the back office, cloud computing platform ServiceNow has released financial, customer service and operations software designed specifically for manufacturers that uses AI to do things like automatically recommend replacement parts for customer maintenance, automatically manage customer exceptions, communicate independently with suppliers and autonomously log a problem and deploy a field technician with the necessary knowledge, skills, and equipment to manage the task. Other manufacturing software makers like Epicor , SAP and Sage are rolling out similar AI based functions.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in November, 2022. It created a flurry of activity, jumpstarted a tidal wave of investments, launched countless startups and forced every software and hardware company to double down on their AI offerings. Less than two years later, manufacturers are now starting to see the results of these efforts. And we’re just getting started.