High-level control in cement production

Attaining Industry 4.0 has been an essential task of the industry for years. Recently such terms as “big data” and “AI” (Artificial Intelligence) have been used heavily in many fields. AI combined with big data is hoped for to provide solutions to long-standing problems, not only in automation. It might therefore be surprising to learn that fully autonomous mill operation (including the use of AI) has already been taking place since 2009. This article will briefly summarise how the methods of High Level Control (HLC) were used in the cement industry already in the early 2000s and how they manage to control ever more complex closed-loop-controlled processes where standard controllers fail.

Author: D. Schmidt, E. Geibel

Section: Automation of production

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, AI, process automation, mill automation, Industry 4.0