FOCUS ON – HEALTHCARE
HOW THIS HEALTHCARE TECH CAN AID IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION Industry Europe speaks with Rocsole about how tomography can help industry optimise to reduce emissions and prevent shutdowns.
by Ash Jones
A
ll roads lead to Industry 4.0 and the increases in digitalisation and optimisation may have greater roles than just making supply chains more efficient. But what if we told you they could play a role in aiding companies' transitions to net-zero? There is currently a huge gap in the market for real-time data processing and it could open new avenues to deal with sustainability issues that would typically go under the radar. This gap could be filled by tomography. Typically used in the healthcare sector for imaging of the deep, internal structures of the body (such as in CT scans), some pioneers have looked to introduce this kind of mapping technology onto the factory floor, which could help in optimising systems or faults that would normally be difficult to detect. This was the hypothesis of Finnish tech firm Rocsole, who told Industry Europe the process could be used to monitor and potentially fix "harsh and dirty" conditions within manufacturing processes. They took this idea and integrated it into their AI and deep learning platforms. "Tomography [in healthcare] is a life-saving technology because it provides key data from 12 Industry Europe
our bodies and gives insight into when you need to take action in emergency situations, and can aid in detecting diseases and sickness, but typically operates in a clean or sterile environment, such as a hospital," Rocsole CEO Mika Tienhaara said. "Our idea was to take this technology and apply it to the harshest conditions you can imagine." One example is "electrical tomography" which will give insight into how much electrical admittance - essentially, how easily a current will flow - a medium has. In essence, this allows manufacturers to sort potential hitches in technology such as automation and amend errors that could lead to less energy waste or better-optimised operations. These require constant monitoring, which is where AI-powered platforms like this come in handy. While they likely still require some supervision, it significantly reduces manpower. He states the largest problem with industry today is that these companies "lack data" about what is going wrong, how they can fix it, and prevent it from happening in the future. Rocsole claims its tech can increase yields, reduce deferred production and
extend cleaning cycles in sectors such as oil & gas. However, tomography as a concept has far wider uses than monitoring currents. Tienhaara described the technology as "novel" and explained that the company, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, is currently scaling it up to work in various industries. Their ultimate goal is to provide data and insights into how operations can run smoother, which can prevent issues further down the line, which will ultimately aid in both the energy and digital transitions. "While companies will still have to take measures to lower emissions and other forms of environmental damage, there may be blind spots. Manufacturers tend to run a lot of operations simultaneously, many of which are at risk of failure due to a lack of data or faulty sensors that give wrong signals which could lead to unwanted shutdowns," he added. "The goal is to operate reliably and safely but also to understand how processes perform under very complex or stressful conditions. "Every industry has issues and needs to clean up to reach net-zero, be it through optimisations leading to reduced fuel usage,
