Project description
Solving procedural knowledge challenges in industry with AI
In the dynamic realm of industry, procedural knowledge is the linchpin. It determines the success of tasks from safety protocols to system configurations. However, industry workers grapple with the complexity of accessing and documenting this vital know-how, hindering efficiency. With this in mind, the EU-funded PERKS project employs AI and data technologies to enhance existing methodologies and ensure readiness, flexibility and user acceptance. Tested across diverse industrial scenarios (white goods production, CNC systems, microgrid testbeds), the project prioritises industry workers. Embracing a human-in-the-loop paradigm and Industry 5.0 approaches, PERKS delivers a reference architecture for procedural knowledge management in the form of modular digital tools tailored to industrial needs. The project’s methodologies and best practices promise broader applications.
Objective
Procedural Knowledge (PK) is knowing-how to perform some tasks. For industry workers, PK is the knowledge required to carry out a specific job, like correctly executing the safety procedure during maintenance interventions, or configuring an industrial system by following the necessary steps in the right order, or adopting practices and behaviours to optimise energy consumption in a plant. The challenge in PK management is that this kind of knowledge may be hard to explain and describe, oftentimes it is poorly digitalised, and, even when documented, it may be still difficult to access and retrieve by industry operators. The PERKS project supports the holistic governance of industrial PK in its entire life cycle, from elicitation to management and from access to exploitation. PERKS bases its solutions on AI (both symbolic and subsymbolic) and data technologies, by advancing and integrating existing methodologies and tools in terms of readiness, flexibility and user acceptance. The results are applied and tested in three industrial scenarios (white goods production plant, computer numerical control machines, microgrid testbed) providing different use cases in terms of PK complexity and industrial requirements. Besides AI and data, the third pillar of PERKS is people: the goal is to satisfy the concrete needs of industry workers, providing them with digital support to better and easier perform their tasks following a human-in-the-loop paradigm, and putting them at the centre according to Industry 5.0 approaches. The outcomes of PERKS are: a reference architecture for PK management; a set of modular, interoperable and complementary digital tools to be composed and customised to industrial requirements; specific integrated solutions to solve the challenges of the project use cases; a set of methodologies and best practices for broader application in other industrial settings, paving the way for a wider transferability across contexts and sectors.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
20126 Milano
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.