From controlling single processes to the complex automation of process chains by artificially intelligent control systems: the Control In Steel project

IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 55, pp. 295–300

Abstract

The Control In Steel project, a cooperation of four research institutes, revisited research projects of the last 20 years focusing on automation and control solutions applied to the downstream steel production route. During this investigation we found hints to those solutions, which were beneficial for specific problems. For our analysis, 46 projects were systematically reviewed. Taxonomies for the problem space, the solution space, the barriers and issues and the impact were developed and each project categorized along these taxonometrical dimensions. As a result, the interdependencies between solutions and impact could be analysed in a quantifiable way, which led to a new way of evaluating project success. It also brought new insights about the most promising techniques already applied and those techniques, that have been apparently not yet been applied to steel production, although being highly successful in other domains. This leads to potential future research chances for the steel production and their complex process chains. The paper will also finally demonstrate how a similar taxonometrical approach can be used to conserve expert knowledge in automation to feed a truly artificially intelligent control solution – not only exploiting machine learning methods but essentially using machine reasoning on top of the digitized expert knowledge to achieve improved process automation.

Authors 7

1. Marcus J. Neuer Aachen

   VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen

   VDEH Betriebs for schungs institut

2. Moritz Loos

   VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut

   Affiliation as printed

   VDEH Betriebs for schungs institut

3. Francesca Marchiori

   RINA Consulting - Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A. (Italy)

   Affiliation as printed

   RINA Consulting Centro Sviluppo Materiali

4. Valentina Colla

   Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

   Affiliation as printed

   Scuola Superiori Sant'Anna

5. Stefano Dettori

   Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

   Affiliation as printed

   Scuola Superiori Sant'Anna

6. Joaquín B. Ordieres-Meré

   Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

   Affiliation as printed

   Universidad Polytecnica de Madrid

7. Andreas Wolff

   VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut

   Affiliation as printed

   VDEH Betriebs for schungs institut