1 2021 I ASSOCIATION FOR IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY I AIST.ORG Authors [email protected] USA Wis., Saukville, – Saukville, Steel Charter Director, Development, Process Vrzal Jon [email protected] Wis., USA Saukville, – Saukville, Steel Engineer, Charter Project Manufacturing Smart Smolinski Audrey [email protected] Wis., USA Saukville, – Saukville, Steel Engineer, Charter ManufacturingSmart Automation LiddickMatt Digitalization Applications101 terminologies, technologiesandits industry personnelindigitalization. industry which providesacomprehensive applications inthesteelindustry. introductory coursetoeducate introductory Digitalization Applications101 the DigitalizationApplications The coursewasdevelopedby Technology Committeeasan Technology Training Course, understanding onthebasic concepts ofdigitalization

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A robot is a machine capable of car capable amachine A robot is freedom freedom as Autonomy defined is vention. These robots use sensors sensors use robots vention. These

without the explicit direction of a direction explicit the without to gain information about their about their information gain to typically resulting in higher task higher task in resulting typically human operator. Definition Definition prolonged task execution in an an execution in prolonged task parameters. task provide include: require human programming to programming human require Robots accuracy. and repeatability out acomplex of actions series rying environment and perform actions actions perform and environment inter human without operation minds. Lifting, pulling, grabbing, pushing and deciding are done innumerable times daily to daily times innumerable done are deciding and pushing pulling, grabbing, Lifting, minds. and muscles human of use the require that tasks many comprises steel and iron Making from traditional robotics. Examples Examples robotics. traditional from them differentiate that functions control or influence. external from tasks are being executed by robots. The future will see autonomous robots performing more more performing robots autonomous see will future The robots. by executed being are tasks produce and deliver iron and steel products. As technology evolves, more and more of these these of more and more evolves, technology As products. steel and iron deliver and produce and more of these tasks. these of more and • • • Autonomous robotics allows for allows Autonomous robotics Autonomous robots incorporate incorporate robots Autonomous Environmental sensing: sensing: Environmental Examples of additional sen of additional Examples vision systems, lidar (laser (laser lidar systems, vision Self-maintenance: A robot robot A Self-maintenance: Decision-making: Instead of Instead Decision-making: to charge its own battery. battery. own its charge to ultrasound. its actions based on sensed on sensed based actions its ple, amobile to robot decides radar), temperature sensors, sensors, radar), temperature return to a charging station station acharging to return can trigger action to remedy to action trigger can following a fixed cycle, an an cycle, afixed following autonomous robot can adapt adapt autonomous robot can and infrared sensing, audio any abnormalities. For exam abnormalities. any senses its internal status and and status internal its senses sors may include camera include may camera sors 2 Autonomous Robotics - - 1 - -

The first digitally operated and and operated digitally first The with the release of the Roomba of the release the with was installed in 1961 to lift hot 1961 in lift to installed was that direct control have would intro direct that by iRobot. It cleans floors without without floors It cleans by iRobot. ple of an autonomous ple of an robot came the robot, programmable History History die-casting a die-casting from pieces of metal needing to be programmed with the the with programmed be to needing era for navigation and mapping. and forera navigation sen inertial from of measurements operation because of the long of delays the because operation autonomous being time of that and stack them. them. stack and machine duced. The rover relied on a fusion roverduced. The on relied afusion ated on Mars for 87 days, with much with for 87 days, on Mars ated The first industrial robot Unimate, 1961. Unimate, robot industrial first The shape or size of the room. of the or size shape wheel cam encoders, and lidar, sors, Figure 1 In 2002, a more exam ubiquitous 2002, In In 1997,In rover oper Sojourner the inputs. Forinputs. aself- example, lanes to drive around an an around drive to lanes obstruction in the road. the in obstruction driving car is able to change able change to is car driving Unimate, Unimate, - - - - - 2

Figure 2 In 2016, Boston Dynamics introduced Spot, a robot- ic dog that navigates complex and changing terrain using self-determined routes.

Technologies

What differentiates autonomous robots from that which came before comes down to three key technolo- gies that have advanced greatly in recent years: sensors, software and processing power. The sensitivity and resolution of sensors continue to improve. Advanced Audi’s lidar showing pedestrians.4 systems such as lidar allow robots to precisely perceive depth to better define the 3D space they occupy. While conventional software is still being used in autonomous robots, advanced software that uses Autonomous mobile robots are now commonplace artificial intelligence or machine learning, which is in many warehouses, helping workers to fulfill orders better able to make sense of the flood of granular quickly and efficiently. and nuanced data, is becoming more commonplace. In the steel industry, autonomous robots have Software complexity has risen with the need to fuse helped increase safety, operation efficiency and pro- data from cameras, radar, infrared, light detection cess reliability at the caster through the automation and ranging (lidar), global positioning systems and of manual tundish operations. Ternium installed a others in real time. robotic system that uses two robots to automate tem- Lastly, the impact of increased central processing perature measurement, sampling, powder application unit (CPU) processing power and the emergence and ladle shroud manipulation. This system was a sub- of dedicated application-specific integrated circuit stantial technological step forward and helped change (ASIC) processors has allowed emerging software to the daily work experience of Ternium’s employees.6 make use of improving sensors. ASIC processors are integrated circuit chips customized for a particular use, rather than CPUs, which are intended for general Summary purpose use. The use of this technology increases speed and efficiency of data ingestion. When dou- When thinking about the difference between robots bling the resolution of a sensor, the amount of data it and autonomous robots, an easy distinction is the produces quadruples, illustrating the increased need following: robots rely on a repeatable environment for raw computational power. and task in order to successfully operate; autonomous robots perceive the world around them dynamically, adjusting to changing conditions while still achieving Example Applications their objectives. In the iron and steel industries, these advancements allow for the operator to maintain a Today, robots are widely used in manufacturing, assem- lower level of exposure to hazards in the area. bly, packaging, mining, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, laboratory research, safety, and

the mass production of consumer and industrial goods References 2021

from autonomous helicopters to robot vacuum clean- I

ers.3 These self-reliant robots can move themselves 1. Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/ ASSOCIATION FOR IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY throughout the operation without human assistance dictionary. and are able to avoid situations that are harmful to 2. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_robot. themselves, people or property. Autonomous robots 3. “What Are Autonomous Robots?” RobotWorx, https://www.robots. com/articles/what-are-autonomous-robots. are also likely to adapt to changing surroundings. 4. A. Davies, “VW’s Robo-Cars Get a Boost From Luminar’s Lidar,” Wired, The most visible and emerging application of auton- https://www.wired.com/story/vw-audi-aid-luminar-lidar-self-driving. omous robotics is the in the field of self-driving cars. 5. J. Kaplan, “Here’s Every Company Developing Self-Driving Car Tech at This has the potential to dramatically reduce road CES 2018,” Digital Trends, 2018, https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/ fatalities as robots don’t suffer from distracted driving. every-company-developing-self-driving-car-tech-ces-2018/. With radar, driving is less dependent on weather sce- 6. F. Ramstorfer, L. Martins Demuner, F. Luiz Lourenço, V. Cunha Aranda,

V. Sinhorely Oliveira, W. Junior Correa, E. Hernandez Duarte and I narios — they can see through rain and fog far better L. Mascarenhas Fernandes, “Increasing Safety, Operation Efficiency AIST.ORG than humans. At this point, every major automotive and Process Reliability: Implementation of Robotized Tundish manufacturer is developing in this space.5 Operations at Ternium Brazil,” AISTech 2019 Conference Proceedings, 2019. F