Energy cost is a major overhead for manufacturing units. There is a lot of wastage due to idle machinery that’s powered on, or faulty machines consuming energy in an erratic manner. Studies show that SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) contribute more than 40 – 45% of manufacturing output in most countries. Keeping these two facts in mind, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Private Limited created a solution aimed specifically at SMEs called Phantom.
Phantom, with its unique algorithm, will help multiple industries with AI-powered actionable insights to jumpstart their digital transformation journey. Phantom helps a manufacturing plant to report on their loads usage. Bosch believes that the artificial intelligence built by Robert Bosch Engineering and Business solutions Pvt. Ltd that underpins the solution has the potential to deliver meaningful, valuable insights across almost every sector of business.
But what about older machines? Can it be retrofitted on these?Some older machines do not have PLCs, and so you can’t monitor their operating parameters generally. Phantom can even be retrofitted to these older machines, as long as they run on electricity. That’s because Phantom is connected only to the electrical feed lines to the machines (supply side).
The real magic of the Phantom is its ability to look at the energy being used by a home. Phantom’s algorithm analyzes the energy consumption over time and creates a profile. It is then able to parse out specific power signatures, resulting in what is the equivalent of an x-ray of the home electricity consumption. The technology was developed with residential and small businesses in mind, but the potential to scale it up is perhaps even more exciting.
Phantom is a solution in a box and a cloud platform. The box is connected to a machine by clamping two wires to the cables supplying power to the machines. It sits quietly next to the device and monitors its performance and energy consumption patterns, non-invasively.
Phantom is a non-intrusive solution, which means you don’t have to open a machine, cut wires and attach something to every component in the machine. The Phantom box is at the source side of the electrical signals, and it intelligently figures out what is happening in the machine. It samples the electrical signature thousands of times a second. That’s the heartbeat of the machine. There are algorithms in the box that can draw correlations between the electrical signature and the various operating parameters of the machine. A lot can be inferred from the data that is generated via the cloud. Phantom connects wirelessly to the cloud. The user can then view this data via dashboards. Since it has AI algorithms in the box, it is capable of doing processing and, is therefore, an intelligent edge device.
Before Phantom was invented, getting data out of a machine meant fitting IoT sensors and PLCs to various components in the machine. Although the price of sensors is dropping, there is a cost of ownership issue to be addressed — it is still quite expensive to use IoT sensors. For instance, a modern aircraft engine has hundreds of sensors mounted on different components within the engine, to detect various operating parameters. It is also quite cumbersome to fit these sensors on the machine, as one must open up the machine, cut wires, and solder components. The sensors must also be calibrated, and the machine data needs to be analysed, usually on the cloud. This takes some time, and therefore the data is not real-time. Phantom is an edge device with built-in AI algorithms, so the analysis of data occurs instantaneously. The results are sent to the cloud, and the factory supervisor can view this data via dashboards. Phantom also has predictive analytics capabilities, meaning it can predict when a component is going to fail.
Something like this has never been done before. It’s a non-intrusive solution that’s easy to install. So that’s what makes it an innovative solution.
The foremost issue to be addressed for SMEs is the cost of ownership. Secondly, SMEs want simplification – in the deployment and operation of new technology. So there are two issues to be addressed – cost and skills. Phantom addresses both issues very well.
It takes a few minutes to attach a Phantom device and set it up. It is sold as a service, making it affordable for SMEs.
According to a Bosch press release: Phantom provides a platform for SMEs to begin their Industry 4.0 journey using advanced analytics, machine learning techniques, and a high degree of automation. Phantom supports SMEs to prepare digital transformation roadmaps for their manufacturing plants, machine intelligence and energy analytics.
Other industries such as healthcare and agriculture have also been using IoT, and therefore, Phantom also has potential applications in those industries.
Bosch is using its deep engineering experience that spans 130 years to solve problems across industries by redesigning their business models on a new paradigm followed by technology. That’s deep engineering coupled with AI.
As per Bosch, “We approach digital differently. We are not joining the dots from the previous version of IT. This is engineered on a new platform. It is a new paradigm altogether”.