IoT trend: umati support

EMO 2019 was a complete “German autumn umati festival”.

What is umati in the first place? The one who says.
Read as Umarti.

For a moment, I thought it was a rice brand or an Akita beauty, but it turned out to be one of the most important tech trends at EMO 2019, which can be said to be a means of embodying Industry 4.0.
​umati​ ​stands for Universal Machine Tool Interface, and is an information model for machine tools formulated by the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW) and promoted for global standardization. The information model will be introduced in detail by the engineer in the third installment.
By the way, umati was widely announced at the previous EMO 2017, and at this year's EMO 2019, 110 aircraft from 70 manufacturers in 10 countries were connected by umati, and there was an exhibition that collected and visualized actual operation information in real time.

umati special booth

At the exhibition booth, the operation data of machine tools in each country was displayed collectively.

© Deutsche Messe

There were machine tools compatible with umati throughout the venue.

© Deutsche Messe

umati is able to communicate various data in the machine, and expectations for its utilization are growing. limited to ), and the message appeal that went into the value provision of the actually connected destination was the impression of the future.
However, just over two years after the umati concept was announced at EMO in 2017, it has progressed to a dynamic demonstration exhibition involving many manufacturers, and the development speed is astonishing. It is hoped that EMO 2021, two years from now, will include more detailed content for on-site use.
EMO 2021 will be held in Italy.
Umarty in Mirano, what a stylish sound.

Let's take a look at the trends in each country.
In Japan, FANUC's FIELD System is the IoT platform that connects different machine tools.
MT Connect is a common communication protocol for American machine tools.
In fact, at last year's JIMTOF 2018, there was an exhibit that linked the data of each machine tool on the FIELD System.

umati is an OPC UA based communication protocol.
The FIELD System also supports OPC UA, and we are promoting collaboration between MT Connect and OPC UA. I'm here.

There are various communication protocols and IoT platforms, but I believe that these standards will continue to work together in the future, and the entire factory will be connected as one.

AI trend: Shift to essential utilization methods Keywords are automation and optimization

There were very few machine tools on display that claimed the use of AI, and they could only be seen at the booths of major Japanese manufacturers.
Is AI really unpopular in machine tools?

The answer is No, I don't think so.
On the contrary, I felt that I was making steady progress.

This is the end of the AI buzzword era.
I got the impression that the past trend of using AI itself as an aim to show innovation has calmed down and is returning to the means of creating intrinsic value.
What kind of usage direction did you see? We will introduce the actual exhibition examples.

■ Okuma Connect Plan “Investigation of the cause of process errors”

AI utilization for process management optimization.
Not only does it provide information that an error has occurred, but it also provides the specific cause of the error, compares past learning results with a rule base, and presents the most similar error cause. Content.
If an error occurs, it will be possible to take measures remotely without the need for workers to go to the site and check the details.
As the next step of operation monitoring, it seems that such themes will increase after collecting process data.

■ Yamazaki Mazak MAZATROL SmoothAi “Automation of optimal setting of processing parameters”

Input a 3D drawing and AI will automatically generate the optimal machining parameters.
We have a CNC-based algorithm, and even after operation, it is possible to relearn the algorithm according to user evaluations and improve the accuracy of the system according to the individual environment.
It is truly a tradition of craftsmanship.

■Makino Milling Process Planning Automation/Optimization

AI generates the optimum process plan for the input processing order.
It takes a lot of effort to make and modify process plans that match daily orders and inserts, but this work can be automated and optimized.
In addition, it is possible to promote further labor saving by linking with the automatic tool transfer system using AGV and robot that were exhibited separately.
It's amazing how much you can automate!

Automatic tool transfer system by combining AGV and robot

■DMG Mori Seiki “DMG MORI CONNECTIVITY IN STANDARD”

Although there was no specific exhibition on the theme of AI utilization, I felt a strong message from DMG MORI SEIKI.
MQTT, OPC UA, umati, MTConnect, FIELD SYSTEM, MindSphere, etc., they proudly declared that they would build an environment that would connect all of them, including other companies.
At JIMTOF 2018, they exhibited a number of AI-based themes such as the thermal displacement compensation function. I felt that they brought the simple and essential concept of essentials to EMO 2019.

以上、AI活用の展示事例でした。

After all, I once again realized that AI is an essential technology in the flow of automation, which is an overall industry trend.
You can see the pattern of [Advancement of automation ⇒ Labor saving on site ⇒ Need for intelligence that replaces human judgment = AI utilization], and I have the impression that companies that exhibited automation also had many AI-related exhibits.

In addition, until a few years ago, predictive maintenance of individual devices was typical of AI utilization themes, but I feel that the applications and targets have expanded considerably.
It can be seen that the usage theme has increased from failure and maintenance countermeasures to daily business processes, and the target is shifting from individual equipment to the entire process.
It seems that predictive maintenance will actually be introduced on a full-scale at the timing when process automation is more advanced.

This will require a platform that openly collects process data and a system that allows AI to be individually optimized for each user environment.
This is where Macnica would like to focus its efforts.

What we must not forget about automation is the cooperation between robots and machine tools. There are many exhibits at EMO, and there is a feeling that it has become a standard.

Yamazaki Mazak

DMG Mori Seiki

Cooperation with robots is becoming a standard, but I feel that there is still technological progress, and new functions from the user's point of view will come out.
For example, Yamazaki Mazak's lathe robots are used without gauges.
This seems to have incorporated a mechanism in which a sensor is installed and an alarm is raised when a person enters, and it stops completely or stops depending on the distance, but then automatically restarts.

Also, in the teaching of picking robots, there are still many cases where craftsmen make individual adjustments according to the process, but recently there is a movement to automate this teaching work by combining images and AI. increase.
I think that along with the evolution of machine tools, technological innovation will also advance toward the automation of robots that are used in cooperation with each other.

Well, that's it for the second time.

For the third installment, I would like to present “Technical Trends Deeply Reported from a Unique Perspective by Moriri, who is in charge of technology”.
Please look forward to it!

*Information and company names in the text are as of September 2019.

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