Krasnoyarsk, April 4, 2024 – RUSAL, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, announces the creation of the Industrial Artificial Intelligence Department. The goal of the new division of the company is to develop technologies using artificial intelligence for RUSAL’s production processes. Currently, the department is working on 18 projects of varying complexity, several projects have been implemented in industrial production, and one of them has reached the stage of large-scale replication.
The Industrial Artificial Intelligence Department was created as part of the Production Automation Directorate of the RUSAL Engineering and Technology Center (RUSAL ITC).
“RUSAL opened its first R&D project using artificial intelligence back in 2018, and in 2019, the technology created within its framework for monitoring electrolysis production using machine vision was launched into trial operation at the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Smelter (KrAZ). Digital twins of alumina plants were also created. The possibilities for the practical application of artificial intelligence are rapidly expanding, so we have created a corresponding department to consolidate RUSAL’s work in this area, accelerate the development of new technologies based on neural networks and their implementation in production processes. Currently, the industrial artificial intelligence department is working on 18 projects of varying degrees of complexity and their number is constantly growing,” said RUSAL Technical Director Viktor Mann.
The company recognized the pilot project for monitoring electrolysis production as successful, it was also awarded the National Prize in Artificial Intelligence. Now the machine vision monitoring technology is being implemented in all KrAZ electrolysis shops. The use of artificial intelligence allows minimizing the human factor and increasing the efficiency of the production process.
“Among the promising projects of the Industrial Artificial Intelligence Department are the creation of a “Digital Technologist”, “Digital Foundryman”, artificial intelligence control of a new breakthrough inert anode technology, full robotization of super-powerful electrolyzers, development of innovative materials and new specialized equipment with the direct participation of artificial intelligence, creation of soft sensors (when a technological parameter is calculated not on the basis of direct measurement, but is calculated using big data analysis methods of other parameters), control of shipment of finished products using machine vision and many others. The new department sets the vectors of projects based on artificial intelligence, their implementation involves teams from other divisions of the Automation Directorate, for example, data science specialists, application developers, hardware designers,” said Mikhail Grinishin, Director of Production Automation at RUSAL ITC.
RUSAL ITC was established in 2002 in Krasnoyarsk and is the main scientific and technical base of RUSAL. The center conducts R&D of new technologies for the production and disposal of waste, and develops innovative equipment for various stages of aluminum production.