He Bin, Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute: Create a collaborative simulation platform to make intelligent manufacturing more "craftsman spirit"

Intelligent manufacturing seems to be a grand topic, but when you look at the details, there is an ever-changing core: industrial software, and the key uses of industrial software It is simulation design.

Recently, we interviewed Dean He Bin of the Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute and listened to him talk about the key issues of intelligent manufacturing from an industry perspective.

The beginning of the research institute helps companies "polished" the spirit of craftsmanship

The three words "research institute" have always been, Synonymous with technology research and development, industry-university-research, etc. What is special is that the establishment of the Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute is neither government nor enterprise-led. It is more like a new type of industry-university-research combination.

Dean He Bin talked about the original intention of establishing the institute, and the one who mentioned it most was Academician Wu Cheng.

From the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" to the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" (1986-2005), the state has always supported the development of domestic independent industrial software. At that time, the main support channel was the Ministry of Machinery (Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical) "CADResearch Project" and "863/CIMS, Manufacturing Information Technology Project" of the National Science and Technology Commission (Ministry of Science and Technology).

Academician Wu Cheng was the main participant in the “863 Project” that year. Today, Academician Wu Cheng is not only a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Automation Department of Tsinghua University, but also the director of the National CIMS Engineering Technology Research Center. From the early 863 plan to the current smart manufacturing, Academician Wu has always been concerned about the combination of technology and industry.

"Academician Wu Cheng is very rigorous. He hopes that the establishment of the institute can use some of the things Tsinghua University is doing to truly serve enterprises."

To this end, He Bin and the others surveyed more than 60 companies in the early stage to understand their needs and ideas for technology, and finally determined an executable form to create a platform for government, industry, academia and research, emphasizing the operational participation of private enterprises. .

In short, Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute is a joint venture between Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone and Tsinghua University.The "Government, Industry, University and Research" scientific and technological innovation platform was jointly established by the Computer Integrated Manufacturing System Engineering Technology Research Center (National CIMS Engineering Technology Research Center) and Seth Information Technology Co., Ltd.

This is also part of the construction of the Smart New Port of Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone. In the past two years, they have continued to introduce advanced research institutes from various industries and fields to help technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data empower traditional industry.

Coincidentally, when the institute was first established, it coincided with the recognition of new R&D institutions in Nanjing, and the Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute also became one of the first batch of institutes to be awarded the license. .

At the same time, in the early enterprise research, He Bin also discovered the problems encountered by most enterprises in their transformation to intelligent manufacturing. "Domestic companies are gradually moving away from the role of processing plants with copying and simple assembly, and are emphasizing independent research and development. The key is simulation. However, many companies do not understand simulation and know very little about it."< br />

This involves the "craftsman spirit" that was once pushed to the forefront by Lao Luo. Without the in-depth intervention of simulation, the craftsman spirit of the enterprise will be impossible to talk about.

Under various opportunities, Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute has determined a major direction of their research: establishing a collaborative simulation platform.

“Tsinghua University has joined with intangible assets to provide technical support for collaborative simulation of multiple enterprises and multiple fields. These technologies have played a role in high-speed rail design, but Whether it can serve our small and medium-sized enterprises and society is a direction we are exploring. ”

This is also the prototype of the Cloud Manufacturing Innovation Center of the Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute.

Another expression of blockchain in intelligent manufacturing

In Industry 4.0, there is a very hot The concept of: digital twin. Digital twins can establish a quasi-real-time connection between the physical world and the digital world. Based on the interaction between the real situation and the virtual situation of the product or process, digital twins can create rich models to make unpredictable situations more realistic. and comprehensive testing.

The simulation platform can display these virtual models for enterprises, but the difficulty lies in integrating all the physical machines.Extracting data and modeling is an extremely huge project.

　"In this case, the institute is building cloud manufacturing + edge computing of the industrial Internet to complete the digital practice of enterprises as much as possible."< br />

Dean He Bin talked about the original concept of cloud manufacturing, which is to virtualize software, hardware and human resources to achieve nationwide enterprise resource sharing, and the key to realizing this idea is collaboration. Construction of simulation platform.

When talking about the research on simulation, "it was widely used in the aerospace field early on, because the rocket cannot be successfully launched in one go. It needs to be tested and verified multiple times. In the early days, Tsinghua University's projects are also mainly focused on this field and the military industry. "

However, currently, simulation is increasingly penetrating into private industries, such as some experiments that are risky and costly. A high-cost, time-consuming industry. On the other hand, the country has gradually increased its emphasis on industrial software.

However, the ideal is full of reality. The difficult problem facing the institute is that the collaborative platform and cloud manufacturing center require the cooperation of multiple companies. But how to solve the simulation problem? Credible manufacturing issues in design, how to break down barriers to resource collaboration?

The solution path chosen by the institute is blockchain.

According to Dean He Bin, the decentralization, non-tamperability, and consensus mechanism of blockchain are very suitable for the construction of a simulation collaboration platform. "Many companies share resources on the platform, and there is a problem of mutual trust. Smart contracts can effectively constrain and supervise. The digital intellectual property rights of simulation models can also be traded with the help of blockchain.”

In other words, the institute can develop a consortium chain to coordinate all digital assets and simulation-related resources based on their existing alliances and consensus. Ultimately, we will achieve a shared ecology of resources, knowledge, and talents, reduce the idle resources of enterprises and individuals, improve the utilization of social resources, and reduce operating costs.

However, Dean He also admitted that this is a difficult matter. The construction of the platform is not a day's work and is still being promoted step by step.

　InstituteIt is necessary to have both ideals and actual benefits

Whether it is cloud manufacturing or the construction of the current collaborative platform, the purpose of Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute is very clear: based on intelligent industry Software, hardware and shared technologies effectively collaborate resources, capabilities and service objects in various disciplines, and then provide logical and abstract digital management for manufacturing resources and capabilities through the design of intelligent search, AI data mining, and recommendation systems, forming a resource, Secure access and trusted collaboration of capabilities ultimately reduce costs and improve efficiency.

More importantly, simulationcan apply more advanced technology and experience to small businesses, ultimately leading to improvements in productivity.

　"Just like two water glasses with different capacities, through a water pipe, the overflowing water is connected to the empty water glass, and the overall level will eventually be improved. ”

Dean He Bin said, “Jiangsu is one of our bases, and Nanjing is the experimental field.” Building the simulation collaboration platform required for intelligent manufacturing requires finding like-minded people to complete it together. set goals.

In our inherent impression, many people think that the institute is just an institution that spends money but does not make money. But at this stage, both corporate research institutes and university research institutes are getting rid of this stereotype. Dean He Bin also talked about the input-output issue of Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute. He believed, "With input, there must be output. We must have both ideals and some actual benefits." strong>

The road ahead is long. What the institute’s steps can bring to the entire smart manufacturing in China also depends on the cooperation and sharing of the entire industry. We look forward to the domestic simulation platform Let the enterprise have a more craftsman spirit and pay more attention to independent research and development.

　(Original title: Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute He Bin: Create a collaborative simulation platform to make intelligent manufacturing more "craftsman spirit")