7th Super Smart Society Promotion Forum focuses on Industry 5.0

During his talk, Kenta Kanto explained his employer's efforts in the three areas of process integration, automation, and DX. As a result of process consolidation, processes that once required multiple specialized machines have been consolidated into a single multitasking machine, and hence, dimensional and shape accuracy have improved. As for automation, Kanto introduced the development of a self-propelled robot that can coexist with humans. Lastly, he spoke about various cases of DX applications, such as data aggregation at manufacturing sites and simulation of physical property models.

Shinichi Nakano spoke about automation and digitalization efforts at Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Topics included the optimization of production planning for assembly lines, prevention of work errors, automation of appearance flaw inspection, digitalization of design and production information, and development of remotely piloted robots. Through automation and digitalization, the company aims to replace skilled and veteran workers, diversify worker recruitment, and improve job satisfaction.

Keiichiro Kobuchi spoke about the development of AI for control at Yokogawa Digital Corporation. Specifically, he introduced the operation experiments on a simulator of a vinyl acetate production plant that utilizes reinforcement learning, and demonstration experiments on control training experimental equipment of an actual plant. He also reported that in 2022, a chemical plant could be successfully controlled continuously for 35 days by autonomous control using AI, achieving a significant improvement in efficiency compared to the previous system, which required an operator 24 hours a day.

Tohru Onozaki introduced two examples of JTEKT's application of AI in its latest technologies. The first was from the plastic injection molding process, where a machine learning-based quality prediction method and an AI-based automatic molding condition adjustment system are used. The second was a technology for judging product acceptability during the appearance inspection process, in which hybrid judging that combines rule-based and AI judging is used.

Shinji Murai spoke about the evolution of robotics solutions, introducing examples of AI applications, new autonomous robots, and human-collaborative robots. He referred to innovation in manufacturing through the use of data, and highlighted that the added value of automation can be increased by digitizing manufacturing and other processes. Murai introduced an application example in motor improvement, explaining that by utilizing the accumulated data chain, flexibility can be created in the planning and execution of the next production.

Tokyo Tech's Tomohisa Tanaka spoke about the process and benefits of additive manufacturing (AM). He explained examples of AM in relation to industrial modeling machines and metal materials, comparison of processing equipment, and research to increase the value of AM. As examples of actual AM applications, he introduced insole printing, 4D printing, and 3D food printing. In addition, machining efficiency, surface roughness, and maintaining machine-to-machine accuracy in the machining of high-precision parts were highlighted as current challenges in the AM field.

To wrap things up, School of Engineering Professor Kei Sakaguchi, who serves as the coordinator of the Super Smart Society Promotion Consortium and the dean of the Tokyo Tech Academy for Super Smart Society, offered his closing remarks.