神经网络是一种模仿人大脑的技术，因为它能够识别复杂的模式。考虑到这一点，西门子说，通过神经网络向传统的控制程序添加AI - 旨在执行一个设置任务 - 系统的功能可以扩展到基于产品或过程的参数来改变。底线：机器自然灵活。
考虑到这一点，去年在德国纽伦堡的SPS / IPC / Drives展上展示，西门子宣布模块将为公司的SIMATIC S7-1500控制器和公司的ET 200MP I / O系统集成。今年，在PACK EXPO Las Vegas，西门子介绍了美国的产品，为未来投资组合的基础进行了基础，这将在各级西门子段实现AI完全集成的自动化（TIA）架构，这是一组硬件和软件的组合，可以无缝链接一切。与TIA的目标是在Siemens'Pindsphere，基于云的互联网（物联网）操作平台的应用程序中应用AI，向工业边缘甚至控制器和现场设备。
随着S7-1500 TM NPU（神经处理单元）模块的SIMATIC S7-1500控制器和ET 200MP I / O系统的释放，Siemens将AI直接带到了控制器。该公司表示，S7-1500 TM NPU模块适用于机器上的现场级别 - 无论何处可靠，快速，确定的决定都是必需的 - 因为它通过培训使人类专业知识转移到机器。
“通过人工智能，我们能够培训，认可和调整，以允许更灵活的机械，”西门子的工厂自动化数字化专家ClM Gavin说，在Pack Expo的新闻发布会上。“因为，我们是否希望10台机器包装10种不同类型的产品，或适用于不同包装和不同尺寸的工具，并自动调整到新格式？”
The S7-1500 TM NPU module operates using a trained neural system on an SD card. Users can connect Gigabit Ethernet- and USB 3.1-compatible sensors like cameras and microphones to the module’s integrated interfaces. CPU data transmitted by the backplane bus can also be used as input data. The processing results then are evaluated in the CPU program.
In packaging, for example, bottles are coming down a conveyor belt quickly and if the system is trained for pass/fail, the moment something goes out of tolerance, it will fail. But if using AI, where the camera is trained with neural networks to recognize a billion pictures of every possible combination, the system will be able to figure out the rules on its own.
According to Gavin, the benefits of the S7-1500 TM NPU module are:
- Flexibility – it makes handling unknown objects easy without resource-intensive programming.
- 由于神经网络的更高级别培训，质量 - 快速可靠的质量检查的知识直接转移到模块。
- Greater efficiency -Machines can respond flexibly and automatically to situations that used to require manual intervention, which reduces downtime and increases availability.
- Cost-effectiveness-The module makes it possible to detect problems in production early on and avoid the cost of having to rework or even discard the product.
Applications in the areas of robotics, quality assurance, and condition monitoring are especially suitable for the TM NPU module, but applications are limited only by the user’s imagination. At PACK EXPO, Siemens was demonstrating a robot with “flexible grasping” using AI, which looks at a shape and calculates the optimal point the gripper can pick it up (看到视频这里）。Once it understands the best grasping point the AI tells it where to go.“You don’t need to program the robot as AI makes it possible to grasp arbitrarily shaped and positioned objects,” Gavin said, adding that the ability to mimic the human hand in manufacturing has the potential to be a very big business.
