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A smart voice assistant for the factory and industry 4.0

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Reference Number: TOUK20180522001
Publication Date: 22 May 2018

Summary

A small company in the East of England has launched a voice assistant for manufacturing teams. Using natural language processing (NLP) technology, it allows the machines to understand human commands and fill any gaps in data collection. This hands-free system saves time, reduces waste, and improves quality of data. Machine building and other manufacturers are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance.

Description

Voice assistants are best known in the commercial sector with products such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. They allow hands-free connectivity to friends, family and the internet. As they rely on cutting edge NLP technologies, their accuracy rates are approximating human levels.



A small UK company has been working on rolling out IoT (Internet of Things) and Industry 4.0 solutions for a number of years. Based on customer feedback, they have developed a voice assistant for manufacturing. Staff will save time and reduce waste by allowing users to talk to their factory, using conversations to create work orders, log asset information, or retrieve data. The assistant interfaces to existing asset management systems, eliminates double handling of information, and allows teams to spend more time on the factory floor.



It is worth noting that the language engine is not just speech-to-text. It creates true dialogues so that the assistant understands different intents and contexts, and will ask follow up questions such as “What is the due date for this work order?” or “Which asset would you like to set an alert for?”.



The assistant securely connects to the existing in-house asset management or condition monitoring platforms, or in case of interest, the UK company can help roll out a new platform.

Manufacturing businesses across Europe are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance. The solution is not limited to a specific sector but it has been validated on food production and automotive type use cases.



As of now, the language engine is based on English but may be adapted to other languages on request.

Advantages and Innovations

The innovation lies in combining several pieces of technology to create a new type of product. To the best of our knowledge it is currently totally unique.



The advantages include time savings, but also visibility of information and adaptability to changing circumstances.

Stage Of Development

Field tested/evaluated

Requested partner

Type of partner sought: industry

Specific activity of partner: manufacturing businesses in engineering

Role of partner sought: To work with the UK company to build use cases and customise the solution for their specific needs. In case of interest the UK company can help roll out an in-house connectivity platform.