IIT Kharagpur researchers develop a low-cost AI-based Industry 4.0 solution for real-time metrological inspection
In an initiative undertaken by the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur, researchers are on a mission to make AI & ML applications affordable for India’s industrial sector including MSMEs. They have developed an innovative system consisting of a low-cost imaging device and an AI-enabled software for real-time metrological inspection. The developed system can be utilized in the production line to check the quality of the jobs and get instant results.
Explaining the benefit that MSMEs will draw from such an innovation, Prof. Surjya K Pal said, “The MSMEs mostly rely on manual inspection of the jobs produced in a batch where a few samples are randomly selected and checked manually. Accordingly, the entire batch is either rejected or accepted, which lacks effectiveness and increases the cost of production. The potential of the developed solution can be leveraged to inspection of each job in a batch, in real-time, and at a very minimum cost.”
This AI-enabled software will enhance the image quality captured by the low-cost camera at par with a high-quality camera output and process the image in real-time. Further, it automates the acceptance or rejection of production jobs and delivers the outcome for real-time managerial insights.
With an accuracy close to 98%, the solution can measure the dimensional features of the job, and also it can inspect the presence of scratches, dents, etc., in a job. It takes only approximately 12 seconds for the analyses to be complete. The accuracy check and timeliness of the solution have been guaranteed by testing it on different types of jobs. Researchers are working further to reduce the time.
The research group included Prof. Surjya K Pal, Prof. Debashish Chakravarty, research scholar Debasish Mishra, technical staff Pravanjan Nayak, and intern Ayan Banerjee from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, who has filed a patent for the system and made it available for MSMEs to license the technology.
“Automation is one of the key aspects of digitalization and is also the need of the hour. The vision of manufacturers revolves around three things that are how fast can manufacturing be performed, how better, and how cheaper? The first highlights a higher rate of production, the second implies the use of innovation in manufacturing and the third aims at reducing the cost,” remarked Prof. Pal, the lead of Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology.
While India has been making fast inroads in the domain of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, it is the capital intensive and service industries which are able to put the applications to their vantage. The MSME sector, which employs more than 100 million people in the country contributing close to 30% of India’s GDP and 50% of export revenue, is still outside the ambit of industry-scale adoption of AI & ML.
“This is the gap which IIT Kharagpur aims to bridge while making low-cost Industry 4.0 solutions across all industrial sectors and accelerate the pace towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat,” he added.
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Contact:
Project: Prof. Surjya K Pal, skpal@mech.iitkgp.ac.in;
Media: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in
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Before we delve into the issue of multiple regional languages, let us remind ourselves, that across the globe, classroom teaching is pursued in a variety of regional languages, be it France or Germany or Russia or a country like China, which has over 300 languages and dialects with 8 of them being the major ones. It has been observed that the human mind is more receptive to communication in the language in which it is accustomed to thinking from childhood. In my four decades at IIT Kharagpur, initially, as a student, research scholar and later as a faculty member, our ‘teaching and learning’ has been in English in its entirety. The practice, I would say, continues regardless of the first language of the students and difficulties at their end in adopting to English as the primary communication language, thus disrupting the process of learning. But when explained in regional languages, especially mother tongue, grabbing the concepts or expression of the ideas by the students becomes fairly easy. This can be observed frequently in practical classes and labs where the lab instructors often form a close relationship with the students and communicate with them in the languages known by the former. Even some teachers adopt this approach outside the classroom.
Recently, faculty members and former research scholars at the School have also been conferred the Emerald Literati Award 2020 for Highly Commended Paper. Dr. Abhinav Kumar Rajverma, Former PhD Scholar, VGSoM (2015-2018), currently Faculty (IRMA, Anand, Guj.), Dr. Arun Kumar Misra, Associate Professor, VGSoM, Dr. Sabyasachi Mohapatra, Former PhD Scholar, VGSoM (2011-2015), currently Faculty (IIM Bodh Gaya) and Dr. 
Earlier this year, Dr. Prof. Vimala Rani, Assistant Professor at the School was awarded “The Indian Economic Association Medal” for Best Ph.D. Thesis in the Department of Management Studies, IISC., by the Council of Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
This was followed by the appointment of Dr. Rudra Pradhan, Associate Professor, as a member of the Working Group for Infrastructure and Transport Chapter of Vision Document-2035, NITI Aayog, Government of India. Dr. Pradhan was also featured in the subfield of Economics Science, in a study by a Stanford Analytics group which listed the world’s top 2% scientists. Dr. Pradhan’s exemplary performance highlights IIT Kharagpur’s focus on research for the ultimate benefit of society.
But academics and research were not all. The students put their holistic grooming and creative leadership in full display as the CSR wing of the School organized a drawing competition in association with Foliage Society, to celebrate ‘Apno ki Diwali’ for the children at the Sanskar Kendra School, Noida. This effort to spread joy among the children at this school was virtually attended by students of VGSoM.
Further to improve social outreach and engagement among the students, the School has started a story-telling series for the students to narrate their #StudyFromHome experience.
Talking about the findings, she further added, “Our study shows that cellulose nanocrystals derived from cucumber peels possess modifiable properties due to the presence of abundant hydroxyl groups, which resulted in better biodegradability and biocompatibility. These nanocellulose materials emerged as strong, renewable and economic material of the near future, due to unique properties like a high surface area to volume ratio, light in weight, and excellent mechanical properties. Thereby, such nanocrystals, when reinforced as nano-fillers in bio-composites films, can produce effective food packaging materials with low oxygen permeabilities.”
Research scholar N. Sai Prasanna said, “The crystallinity percentage as high as 74.1 % along with thermal stability of more than 200 °C negative zeta potential values (< -30 mV), and acid hydrolysis yield of 65.55%, make the material a strong nano-filler reinforcement as bio-nano composite. This offers the much needed mechanical, barrier, optical, rheological properties, nontoxicity, etc. required for food packaging materials which has the strong market potential to replace plastic.”
Sumanta Laha, IIT, Kharagpur has designed a Cardiovascular Replicator (CVR), which is capable of simulating different heart disease conditions and testing a host of different implantable prosthetics. 
Monalisha Pattnaik, IIT, Kharagpur has developed a poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and antioxidant-rich vegetable oil powder for a healthy heart. The commercial production of this oil powder does not require any complicated machinery and it can be fruitfully exploited by masses.
Chemical Engineering:
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Union Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Science and Technology & Earth Sciences recalled his association with the SITARE-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation awards since their inception in 2015. He found tremendous energy in the ideas of the students and suggested setting up a committee, which should plan to scale up this activity and the platform of 
Paper cups are usually lined by a thin layer of hydrophobic film which is made of mostly plastic (polyethylene) and sometimes co-polymers to hold the liquid in the paper cup. Within 15 minutes this microplastic layer degrades as a reaction to hot water, says the first of its kind study conducted in India by Dr. Sudha Goel, Associate Professor at the Dept. of Civil Engineering and research scholars Ved Prakash Ranjan and Anuja Joseph studying Environmental Engineering and Management. 
The researchers followed two different procedures – in the first process, hot ultrapure (MilliQ) water (85–90 ◦C; pH~6.9) was poured into the disposable paper cups, and it was allowed to sit for 15 mins. The homogeneously mixed water was then analyzed for the presence of microplastics as well as additional ions that may have leached into the liquid from the paper cups. In the second process, paper cups were initially dipped in lukewarm (30–40 °C) MilliQ water (pH~6.9). Thereafter the hydrophobic film was carefully separated from the paper layer and exposed to hot MilliQ water (85–90 °C; pH~6.9) for 15 mins. and Changes in the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the plastic films were examined before and after exposure to hot water.
Explaining the exposure of 15 minutes, Prof. Goel linked its basis to a survey wherein the respondents confirmed consuming their beverage within 15 mins of obtaining it. 
The samples of paper cups were collected from popular stores across Kharagpur, West Bengal. “Our study indicates most plastic layers lining the paper cups were of HDPE (High-density polyethylene) grade, whereas only very few paper cups were lined with a copolymer of cellulose. However, the release of microplastics into the hot water was consistent in all samples irrespective of their grades,” remarked researcher Ved Prakash Ranjan. 
“Our hypothesis on the degradation of the plastic layer after exposure to hot water was confirmed through images obtained from the atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. Also, another study on the mechanical properties of the plastic film proved its deformation upon exposure to heat,” explained researcher Anuja Joseph.