Adlink provides robust and reliable hardware platforms, data connectivity and complete Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions that drive data-to-decision applications across industries.
Growing maturity of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is enabling leaping advances in automated optical inspection (AOI) for the manufacturing sector. ADLINK is working with leading information technology (IT) provider Fujitsu to introduce a False Call Reduction (FCR) system - a new smart manufacturing solution built with Fujitsu's robust AI computing power and ADLINK's extensive experiences in collecting manufacturing data and developing manufacturing applications. They expect to bring the solution into action on the surface mount technology (SMT) production lines by year end.
The trend towards AI at the edge and the rapid advance of machine learning algorithms have brought new application challenges to traditional video surveillance systems. As a result, the edge video analysis (EVA) market, which uses AI to analyze images and videos and derive actionable information, has recently come to the forefront.
The global demand for healthcare services is growing, due in part to increases in aging populations, chronic diseases, and patient volumes in emerging countries. These trends and others will boost global healthcare spending, which is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% through 2023.
The world's population is aging. According to American Association of Retired Persons, 22% of the world's population will be 60 and older by 2050. At the same time, developers are making use of new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data analytics to design all types of systems to raise the quality and efficiency of healthcare. With the increase in both supply and demand, smartization is becoming an important trend for the healthcare industry. According to Jason Miao, business development manager, iMedtac, medical devices play a critical role on patient health and safety so system developers must have professional knowledge in both healthcare and technology to be able to build optimized medical systems. For this reason, iMedtac not only employs a team of technology and medical professionals but also partners with ADLINK, which has accumulated extensive experience in medical devices, to introduce complete smart solutions to suit hospital needs.
The petrochemical industry produces products of tremendous value through labor-intensive and complex processes. Any unexpected production equipment failure may result in production shutdown and significant losses. With Industrial 4.0 becoming a key development trend for manufacturing industries in recent years, the petrochemical industry is beginning to incorporate smart manufacturing and attach importance to data. Prowave, with three decades of experience in equipment vibration research, engaged in collaboration with ADLINK to develop a new machine condition monitoring system for a large petrochemical company in Taiwan to help ensure more reliable and safer production equipment operation.
Problem-free equipment operation is critical to maintaining optimum production yield and quality for common metalworking processes such as stamping and welding. If something is wrong with the equipment, or if the equipment unexpectedly fails, a large amount of output may have to be scrapped, or production shut down. In either case, the manufacturer will have to bear a significant loss.
The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) brought about the smartization trend that not only has transformed traditional manufacturing, but also challenges the manufacturing industry's thinking about business operation. With the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics implementations in place, equipment suppliers are now able to provide value-added services in addition to simply selling products to expand into a service-oriented business model.
As the final step in the production process, inspection is of critical importance to the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers generally allot adequate staff resources to perform inspection for the purpose of safeguarding product quality. However, there is a limit to what people can do and human visual inspection may be error-prone.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies play a critical role driving the transition to Industry 4.0. In particular, their use in combination with machine vision has become the first step that most manufacturers are taking to incorporate smart systems into their production process. By leveraging deep learning algorithms, machine vision systems can learn by themselves to determine the quality of the device under test. However, there are certain barriers to overcome before manufacturers are able to make use of AI technologies, according to Kai-Hsiang Hsu, senior product manager, smart machinery business and product center, ADLINK. To help manufacturers make a smooth transition to smart manufacturing, ADLINK has introduced AI-enabled machine vision solutions developed by combining its accumulated strength in machine vision and AI. ADLINK's plug-and-play (PnP) solutions make it easy for manufacturers to make the first move toward smart manufacturing.
Intelligent robots and robotic arms are expected to play vital roles in the Factory of the Future. In addition to achieving precise and consistent performance, robotic arms can function in environmental conditions too harsh for human operators, irrespective of manpower irregularities.
