MDH develops digital twin to strengthen Swedish industry

Researchers at Mälardalen University (MDH) are to develop a digital twin for industrial cognitive systems. Through Industri 4.0 and AI, the researchers, together with Seco Tools and GKN ePowertrain, want to produce digital tools that will improve productivity and energy efficiency in Swedish industry.

− Industrial cognitive systems are systems that remind us of a human brain since they can take in information, learn from their surroundings and solve problems, as well as interact with people or their environment. The purpose of our project is to develop a digital twin that combines sensor information, AI, machine learning (ML) and big data analysis for developing the new wave in cognitive systems, says Mobyen Ahmed Uddin, Project Manager at MDH.

Digicogs (DIGital Twins for Industrial COGnitive Systems through Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence) is a collaboration project between MDH, Seco Tools and GKN ePowertrain, and is financed by Vinnova and the innovation programme Process Industrial IT and Automation (PiiA). The project will continue for three years and the goal is to produce a digital twin that can be used to collect, combine and analyse different types of information in real time.

− As opposed to existing digital twins, our twin will contain a decision support system that is human-centred and adaptable to the context, says Mobyen Ahmed Uddin.

Usefulness for Swedish industry

The idea is that the new digital twin will work as a support for personnel in industry for making decisions that improve productivity and energy efficiency.

− Our hope is that by using existing data we will be able to predict deviations and in this way avoid expensive rejection costs. Digicogs is also a project for how we can learn to use ML as a tool in our endeavour to continually develop our products and processes, says Ekrem Güclü, Lean and Industry 4.0 Manager, GKN ePowertrain Köping.

− The project will allow us to collect data in real time, which in turn will create a new way for us to handle our process monitoring and control. In the future this will not only improve the knowledge of our processes but also give our clients new solutions for monitoring and optimising their processes, says Amir Karim, Manager Digital Machining, Seco Tools, R&D Fagersta.

The expected results of the project and the digital tools will be able to be used by several companies within the Swedish process industry.

− The digital tools that we develop within the project will strengthen Swedish industrial skills and competitiveness in many ways. For example, they can support personnel within the process industry by controlling manufacturing and production processes, predict deviations and accidents, as well as optimising the stages in a process, says Shahina Begum, Professor, Deputy Group Leader of the research group Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems at MDH.