Digital transformation does not stop at production sites. Thus, the requirements for efficient production and manufacturing processes in the industry have been steadily increasing in recent years and increasing in global competition. The targeted use of intelligent technology systems ensures the long-term success of a company in the transformation from purely digitally networked infrastructures to self-organizing products and processes. It is important to consider countless parameters and details, which for many companies represent a first important step on the way to a “production of the future”. An important step here is the acquisition and digitization of the individual steps and production processes in order to make all relevant data available for documentation, analysis, optimization and further steps.

Sensor data can not only be captured by cognitive sensors, but can also be analyzed and processed directly on a sensor module in order to be able to provide feedback on the process directly on site and to transfer only process-relevant data. This increases the efficiency of data transmission and reduces latency, data rate and data volume requirements. In the lead project »cognitive hand tools«, the aim is to use cognitive sensors to make processes transparent for many types of hand tools, to easily visualize the status of the work and to ensure quality. The particular challenge of data acquisition and digitization here is that manual operations can be performed by humans in a very diverse manner and therefore have a high complexity. Therefore we develop solutions that use methods of data analysis and machine learning in order to reduce complexity while achieving the necessary accuracy, robustness and reliability.

We provide answers to the questions: What is happening with a tool? Is the work process or job performed correctly? For example, have all screws been properly tightened? We aim for transparent processes by means of cognitive sensors for many types of hand tools, to easily visualize the state of work and to ensure the quality. The solution here is compact, energy-efficient, connected and cost-effective. On the one hand, it can digitize work steps with existing tools as a retrofit solution, or it can be integrated into new hand tools.