AIoT Lab team finds every leak
The AIoT-Lab is a research group of the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute and makes it possible to validate AIoT-enabled business ideas. AIoT stands for Artificial Intelligence of Things and will play a key role in the future, particularly in industry. The AIoT Lab conducts research into industrial use cases, among other things. STACKIT and the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute have joined forces in a cloud-based project to detect leaks in pneumatic systems. The primary aim is to localize leaks in hoses and pipes.
A leak is a leak in a system that is caused, for example, by a hole in a hose. As a result, fluids, gases and solids enter and escape undesirably and unnoticed and can hardly be detected by human hearing. Ultrasonic sensors are currently mainly used to detect leaks, but they are only moderately successful at detecting these leaks despite the great effort involved.
Leaks can be found in many areas of industry. In addition to coffee roasting plants, car washes and production facilities, bottling plants can also be affected. The fields of application have one thing in common: reducing pressure losses not only saves energy and costs, but also helps to reduce CO2 emissions.
Coffee roastery
Car wash
Production plant
Filling line
*according to research by the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute
The AIoT Lab at the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute took on the challenge of reliably detecting leaks in pneumatic systems. Using an ultrasonic microphone and an AI solution, the leakage data is recorded, analyzed, classified and then stored in the cloud. To illustrate the leakage problem simply, the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute uses the true-to-scale construction of a bottle filling system made of LEGO® bricks in a suitcase format. This case is used for training and demonstration purposes at interested industrial companies. In addition to STACKIT, the partners for the first pilot project are Mader, TÜV Süd and Bosch. The latter supplied the sensor technology for leakage detection.
Numerous notable advantages of the leakage solution have emerged from the collaboration to date. In particular, the cooperation between STACKIT and the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute has shaped the success of the project. The STACKIT Cloud as an EU-secure, sovereign and, above all, regional cloud solution is the reliable basis for this successful model. This enables GDPR-compliant data processing and storage globally. Users also benefit from many other advantages:
These benefits increase energy and cost efficiency and significantly reduce equipment downtime through condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.