Search

Production contributes significantly to global CO2 emissions. Increasing efficiency, conserving resources and avoiding overproduction are economic goals that are increasingly coming into focus in the context of sustainability. The use of digital technologies can address these goals and enable the exploitation of previously underutilized sustainability potentials. Digitization is an overarching solution module that enables data to be collected and evaluated, and based on which optimized production processes can be developed. Holistic data collection across the entire lifecycle of a product is achieved, for example, with the help of digital twins. Building on this, virtualization offers the potential to significantly extend the life cycle of production systems. Other promising technologies are virtual environments such as the Metaverse or artificial intelligence. The often high investment requirements or the lack of transparency about the return on investment and the lack of the necessary expertise regarding the implementation and maintenance of digital technologies inhibit many small and medium sized enterprises in their implementation. This circumstance can be countered with the encapsulated offering of digital solutions "as-a-Service" (aaS). This article therefore explains the opportunities for increasing sustainability through digital technologies and the prerequisites for their implementation. Practical examples will then be used to illustrate the possibilities for using these technologies within the framework of "as-a-service" models., Die Produktion trägt signifikant zu den weltweiten CO2-Emissionen bei. Effizienzsteigerungen, Ressourcenschonung und Vermeidung von Überproduktion sind wirtschaftliche Ziele, die nun auch im Kontext der Nachhaltigkeit verstärkt in den Fokus rücken. Der Einsatz digitaler Technologien kann diese Ziele adressieren und die Ausschöpfung von bisher wenig genutzten Nachhaltigkeitspotenzialen ermöglichen. Die Digitalisierung ist ein übergreifender Lösungsbaustein, der das Erheben und Auswerten von Daten ermöglicht und auf dessen Grundlage optimierte Produktionsabläufe entwickelt werden können. Eine ganzheitliche Datenerfassung über den vollständigen Lebenszyklus eines Produktes hinweg erfolgt beispielsweise mit Hilfe von digitalen Zwillingen. Darauf aufbauend bietet die Virtualisierung das Potenzial, den Lebenszyklus von Produktionssystemen signifikant zu verlängern. Weitere erfolgsversprechende Technologien sind virtuelle Umgebungen wie das Metaverse oder die künstliche Intelligenz. Der zum Teil hohe Investitionsbedarf bzw. die mangelnde Transparenz bezüglich des Return of Investment und das Fehlen der notwendigen Expertise hinsichtlich der Implementierung und Pflege der digitalen Technologien hemmt viele Mittelständler bei der Umsetzung. Diesem Umstand kann mit dem gekapselten Anbieten der digitalen Lösungen „as-a-Service“ (aaS) begegnet werden. Daher werden in diesem Beitrag die Chancen zur Steigerung der Nachhaltigkeit durch digitale Technologien sowie die Voraussetzungen für deren Umsetzung erläutert. Anschließend werden anhand praktischer Beispiele die Möglichkeiten der Nutzung dieser Technologien im Rahmen von "as-a-Service"-Modellen aufgezeigt.

Human-robot-collaboration combines the strengths of humans, such as flexibility and dexterity, as well as the precision and efficiency of the cobot. However, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often lack the expertise to plan and execute e.g. collaborative assembly processes, which still highly depend on manual work. This paper introduces a framework using behavior trees (BTs) and computer vision (CV) to simplify this process while complying with safety standards. In this way, SMBs are able to benefit from automation and become more resilient to global competition. BTs organize the behavior of a system in a tree structure [1], [2]. They are modular since nodes can be easily added or removed. Condition nodes check if a certain condition holds before an action node is executed, which leads to the reactivity of the trees. Finally, BTs are intuitive and human-understandable and can therefore be used by non-experts [3]. In preliminary works, BTs have been implemented for planning and execution of a collaborative assembly process [4]. Furthermore, an extension for an efficient task sharing and communication between human and cobots was developed in [5] using the Human Action Nodes (H-nodes). The H-node is crucial for BTs to handle collaborative tasks and reducing idle times. This node requires the use of CV for the cobot to recognize, whether the human has finished her sub-task and continue with the next one. In order to do so, the algorithm must be able to detect different assembly states and map them to the corresponding tree nodes. A further use of CV is the detection of assembly parts such as screws. This enables the cobot to autonomously recognize and handle specific components. Collaboration is the highest level of interaction between humans and cobots [4] due to a shared workspace and task. Therefore, it requires strict safety standards that are determined in the DIN EN ISO 10218 and DIN ISO/TS 15066 [6], [7], which e.g. regulate speed limits for cobots. The internal safety functions of cobots have been successfully extended with sensors, cameras, and CV algorithms [8]–[10] to avoid collisions with the human. The latter approach uses the object detection library OpenCV [11], for instance. OpenCV offers a hand detection algorithm, which is pretrained with more than 30.000 images of hands. In addition, it allows for a high frame rate, which is essential for real-time safety.In this paper, CV is used to enhance the CoboTrees (cobots and BTs) demonstrator within the Cluster of Excellence ’Internet of Production’ [12]. The demonstrator consists of a six degree-of-freedom Doosan M1013 cobot, which is controlled by the Robot Operating System (ROS) and two Intel RealSense D435 depth cameras. The BTs are modeled using the PyTrees library [13]. Using OpenCV, an object and assembly state detection algorithm is implemented e.g. for use in the H-nodes. Since the majority of accidents between robots and humans occur due to clamping or crushing of the human hand [14], a hand detector is implemented. It is evaluated regarding its compliance with existing safety standards. The resulting safety subtree integration in ROS is shown in Fig. 1.

Die Produktion trägt signifikant zu den weltweiten CO2-Emissionen bei. Effizienzsteigerungen, Ressourcenschonung und Vermeidung von Überproduktion sind wirtschaftliche Ziele, die nun auch im Kontext der Nachhaltigkeit verstärkt in den Fokus rücken. Der Einsatz digitaler Technologien kann diese Ziele adressieren und die Ausschöpfung von bisher wenig genutzten Nachhaltigkeitspotenzialen ermöglichen. Die Digitalisierung ist ein übergreifender Lösungsbaustein, der das Erheben und Auswerten von Daten ermöglicht und auf dessen Grundlage optimierte Produktionsabläufe entwickelt werden können. Eine ganzheitliche Datenerfassung über den vollständigen Lebenszyklus eines Produktes hinweg erfolgt beispielsweise mit Hilfe von digitalen Zwillingen. Darauf aufbauend bietet die Virtualisierung das Potenzial, den Lebenszyklus von Produktionssystemen signifikant zu verlängern. Weitere erfolgsversprechende Technologien sind virtuelle Umgebungen wie das Metaverse oder die künstliche Intelligenz. Der zum Teil hohe Investitionsbedarf bzw. die mangelnde Transparenz bezüglich des Return of Investment und das Fehlen der notwendigen Expertise hinsichtlich der Implementierung und Pflege der digitalen Technologien hemmt viele Mittelständler bei der Umsetzung. Diesem Umstand kann mit dem gekapselten Anbieten der digitalen Lösungen "as-a-Service" (aaS) begegnet werden. Daher werden in diesem Beitrag die Chancen zur Steigerung der Nachhaltigkeit durch digitale Technologien sowie die Voraussetzungen für deren Umsetzung erläutert. Anschließend werden anhand praktischer Beispiele die Möglichkeiten der Nutzung dieser Technologien im Rahmen von "as-a-Service"-Modellen aufgezeigt., Production contributes significantly to global CO2 emissions. Increasing efficiency, conserving resources and avoiding overproduction are economic goals that are increasingly coming into focus in the context of sustainability. The use of digital technologies can address these goals and enable the exploitation of previously underutilized sustainability potentials. Digitization is an overarching solution module that enables data to be collected and evaluated, and based on which optimized production processes can be developed. Holistic data collection across the entire lifecycle of a product is achieved, for example, with the help of digital twins. Building on this, virtualization offers the potential to significantly extend the life cycle of production systems. Other promising technologies are virtual environments such as the Metaverse or artificial intelligence. The often high investment requirements or the lack of transparency about the return on investment and the lack of the necessary expertise regarding the implementation and maintenance of digital technologies inhibit many small and medium sized enterprises in their implementation. This circumstance can be countered with the encapsulated offering of digital solutions "as-a-Service" (aaS). This article therefore explains the opportunities for increasing ustainability through digital technologies and the prerequisites for their implementation. Practical examples will then be used to illustrate the possibilities for using these technologies within the framework of "as-a-service" models.

Malnutrition is a huge burden on the Arab Republic of Egypt's economy. Undernutrition--manifested by poor linear growth (stunting), wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies in children, and by anemia among women of reproductive age--collectively saps an estimated two percent of Egypt’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) through forgone productivity and health care costs, representing an economic hemorrhaging of billions of U.S. dollars per year. Adding to this challenge is the co-occurence of overweight and obesity among children, leading to a malnutrition double burden. Scaling Up Nutrition in the Arab Republic of Egypt aims to inform the development of a nutrition policy and strategy and to guide nutrition investments over the coming years. It reviews Egypt’s nutrition situation, the interventions currently in place, and opportunities to scale up the response. In addition, it analyzes the fiscal implications of scaling up key interventions, including estimates of the costs and benefits and an assessment of the required fiscal space. It argues that any interventions to address the burden of malnutrition need to also take into account the coexistence of overweight and obesity.