RESEARCH NEWS
Audio technology for intelligent production
Why are smart microphones being used in factories ? Are companies planning to eavesdrop on their workforce , asks Nikolaus Fecht , specialist journalist , Gelsenkirchen .
A clear “ no ” is the answer to the latter question from the “ Audio Technology for Intelligent Production ” ( AiP ) industry working group , founded in 2020 at the Oldenburg site of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT , in cooperation with the Emden / Leer University of Applied Sciences . The network explores how machines interact with acoustic systems and artificial intelligence ( AI ). Audio technology is being featured as a future topic at EMO Hannover 2023 in Germany .
More than 50 companies are working closely together in the Audio Technology for Intelligent Production AiP industry working group .
Companies ranging from small SMEs to major corporations and from a wide variety of sectors – producing aircraft , cars , machinery and electronics , for example – are collaborating in the network . The common denominator is that they are all developing solutions in the following four areas : condition monitoring , hearing and speech technology support , acoustic services and Workplace 4.0 . The focus is on solving problems based on concrete use cases .
“ We have joined forces to exploit the wide-ranging potential of audio technology in digitalised production and assembly . Together with our industrial partners , we are developing application scenarios , discussing their design and putting them into practice in joint projects ,” explained Dr . Jens Appell , Head of the Department of Hearing , Speech and Audio Technology at the Oldenburg Branch of the Fraunhofer IDMT .
What innovative potential does audio technology hold ?
“ Acoustic process monitoring has been around for some time . However , we are breaking new ground in wide-ranging multimodal applications for diagnosing process characteristics and production processes in parallel and in real-time with a sensor , or in characterising machines in terms of their machining status and process capability , or even in operating them directly using voice commands . And none of this
Above left : Dr . Jens Appell , Head of the Department of Hearing , Speech and Audio Technology at the Oldenburg Branch of the Fraunhofer IDMT . Above right : Marvin Norda , working group coordinator at Fraunhofer IDMT .
Fraunhofer IDMT ’ s click recognition technology can be integrated into the reporting system and displayed on an interface ( photo : Fraunhofer IDMT ).
involves any significant effort or costs for integration in new and existing machines ,” explained Prof . Dr . -Ing . Sven Carsten Lange , Professor of Production Technology at the Emden / Leer University of Applied Sciences and Scientific Advisor at Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg ( in Hearing , Speech and Neurotechnology for Production ).
According to Lorenz Arnold , Managing Director , MGA Ingenieurdienstleistungen GmbH , Process Automation and Control Technology , acoustic technology is already being used in production for condition monitoring , but is not yet fully established . A prime example of new territory here is speech-based human-machine interaction , which has so far only been used in experimental and niche applications in industrial production .
“ The requirements on the factory floor are quite different from those in the living room . What is needed here is an acoustic system that requires no external servers , that runs only on company computers and functions reliably even under difficult production conditions , including noise interference . We develop application-specific voice control solutions for use in production which are robust and intuitive . Voice control is easy to integrate and works even without an Internet connection . It is good at recognizing voice commands even under the challenging acoustic conditions found in industrial production ,” outlined Marvin Norda , working group coordinator at Fraunhofer IDMT , Oldenburg .
“ We can show how it works on a voicecontrolled production cell . We have a five-axis