Smart sensing and process control optimization for the food industry

1. CREATING VALUE FROM DATA
Smart Sensing and Process Control Optimization for the Food Industry

2. 2
Outline
 Who we are and what we do
 Some reference projects in sensing
 Some reference projects in process control
optimization

3. 3
MISSION
We improve company processes by
means of advanced data processing
software and services

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COMPETENCES
StatisticsData mining
Advanced
Control
Machine
learning
Signal
processing
Optimizing
Algorithms
Software
Development
Process
Automation

5. 5
WHY YAZZOOM?
Why Yazzoom?
• A Belgian company located in Ghent with proven experience in
improving company processes
• Top expertise in advanced data processing projects:
machine learning, analytics, custom software development and
change management
• Extensive experience in a variety of businesses with industry
leading references

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What we do
• We offer
– data analytics services
•we analyze your data to improve your activities
– software development services
•we create software solutions tailored to your needs

7. OUR SERVICES ARE USED TO…
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Optimize Processes
- reduce cost
- resolve quality problems
- introduce new capabilities
- increase understanding
- improve stability and safety
Create Smart Machines
- automate tasks
- create “intelligent” machines
- select sensors for measurement
- process sensor data
- automatic inspection and sorting
Do Data Analysis
- knowledge discovery
- target marketing better
- increase research efficiency
- risk evaluation & management
- automatic fraud detection

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Outline
 Who we are and what we do
 Some reference projects in sensing
 Some reference projects in process control
optimization

9. SMART MACHINES
• We select sensors and create
dedicated software for
automatic inspection, sorting
and measurement applications
• Benefit from our competences
– Signal processing
– Machine learning
– Programming
– Sensor & Vision selection
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10. SMART MACHINES
EXAMPLE 1: VISION FOR SORTING
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Our software sorts
onions on a
conveyer depending
on their orientation.
Difficult problem due
to large variation in
shape, size and color
of onions, and
fouling of the
equipment.
Solved thanks to our
image processing
and machine
learning expertise.

11. SMART MACHINES
EXAMPLE2: 3D VISION FOR INSPECTION
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Automatic inspection and
measurement of pipelines
Our software processes
data from 3D camera,
distance sensor, RGB
camera, GPS, Wifi and
steers inspection device
Equipment automatically
measures diameter, relative
position and orientation of
pipes, determines shape,
takes pictures, determines
geographic position of
pipeline entry.

12. SMART MACHINES
Advantages of automated measurement,
inspection and sorting applications:
– Increase the consistency of quality control checks
– Increase the frequency of quality control checks
– Increase production throughput
– Save costs
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13. SENSING IN FOOD
• Specifically for food there is an additional
difficulty:
– Many important product properties (like taste,
smell, granularity, microbiological
properties…) are difficult or impossible to
measure on-line
– Require laboratory tests or human panels
• Expensive and time-consuming (delay)
• Potential solution: virtual sensors
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14. VIRTUAL SENSORS: DEFINITION
Soft Sensor = Virtual Sensor = a computer model that computes
estimates of hard to measure attributes from easy to measure attributes
The computer model is created by experts based on scientific
knowledge, or by algorithms learning the relationship from data

15. VIRTUAL SENSORS: OUR OFFER
• Soft sensor development =
creation of the computer model
• Soft sensor integration in the
machine or production process
• Soft sensor monitoring and
maintenance
• Benefit from our own tool suite
for soft sensor development,
deployment and monitoring
“YASENSE”
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16. Controls several
upstream settings
VIRTUAL SENSORS
EXAMPLE: PAPER MOISTURE
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Quality control:
moisture
sensor

17. VIRTUAL SENSOR FOR PAPER
MOISTURE: PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Problem statement:
– Paper moisture is one of most important product
quality characteristics
– But the on-line physical sensor is sometimes not
reliable…
– …and the off-line lab measurement is too slow
and too expensive
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VIRTUAL SENSORS FOR PAPER
MOISTURE: GOAL
Project Goal
Replace the physical
moisture sensor in the first
5 to 10 minutes after
paper break in order to
reduce the time that off-
quality paper is produced

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VIRTUAL SENSORS FOR PAPER
MOISTURE: SOLUTION
• Soft sensor predicts output of physical sensor based on
upstream measurements
– Around 120 inputs: pressures, speeds, temperatures,…
• Model learning:
– Historical data from PI system and Product Quality database over 3
months
• Model:
– Pre-processes the inputs to be more robust to exceptional values
– Non-linear regression
– Post-processing to adapt to long term variations in the process
– Watch-dog signal to indicate reliability of predictions
• Implementation of run-time: Soft Sensor runs on a PC
– Reads and writes to SCADA/DCS using OPC
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VIRTUAL SENSOR FOR PAPER
MOISTURE: RESULT IN REGIME

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VIRTUAL SENSOR FOR PAPER
MOISTURE: RESULT AFTER BREAK
evidence that physical sensor gives wrong actual measurement

22. VIRTUAL SENSORS
Advantages of virtual sensors
• Save more money
– Predict expensive lab measurements instead of measuring them
– Produce less off-quality product
• Increase safety
– Eliminate long delays
– Reliable information is used
• React faster
– Faster availability of product/process quality information
– Receive automatic generated alerts from the YASENSE monitor
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23. SMART MACHINES IN FOOD
Why are sorting and inspection tasks not automated
more in the food industry?
– Products of nature have a lot of variation in size, color, shape and other
properties
– Many small and medium size companies with low budgets for automation
– Many important food properties (taste, smell,…) cannot be measured
easily, automatically and at affordable cost
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Solutions?
– Work with an automation company that has top skills in artificial
intelligence and virtual sensors
– Work with an automation company that is a near-by partner that can
make incremental improvements to existing machines

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Outline
 Who we are and what we do
 Some reference projects in sensing
 Some reference projects in process control
optimization

25. SERVICES
• Advanced Process Control
consulting services
– Detailed audit on your process
– Tuning of PID controllers
– Design of advanced process
control schemes
– Effective and affordable
extensions
• We have software to find out
which controllers do not work
optimally and how to improve
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26. How to benefit from PID/APC consulting
– Eliminate oscillations
– React less aggressive
– React less sluggish
– Reduce overshoot
– Reduce Time To Steady State TTSS
 Save energy and raw material costs
 Produce & sell more
 Better control on product quality
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27. Example: APC audit on steam
production
• Stabilization of steam pressure on 6 and 15 bar header
when machines restart + audit of the control concept
• Contributions:
– Deleted unnecessary APC functionalities
– Optimized boundary calculations
– Tuning of PID controls
– Introduced appropriate filtering
– Identified and removed quantization issue
• Result:
– Goals in terms of reduced variances in steam pressure have been
achieved
– Earn-back time < 1 month !
• Realized at customer VPK, Belgium
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28. Apromon results: error (IAE) on 15 bar
header pressure controller
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29. PROCESS CONTROL IN FOOD
Why is process control not automated more in the food
industry?
– Raw material (process input) are products of nature and have a lot of
variation in properties like moisture, hardness, chemical content,…that
influence the ideal process control settings
– Many food companies produce many products with the same installation
– The produced products have important product characteristics to keep
under control, but that are hard to measure online
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Solutions?
– Work with a process control consultancy company that has top skills in
recipe based control and adaptive control, and can train your personnel
– Work with a process control company that combines expertise on
process control with expertise on sensor technology

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WRAP UP
• Proper selection of sensors and applying machine learning
techniques on sensor data and historical data enables
more automation and optimization of production processes
than was possible so far
• We offer high end expertise in data analytics and
algorithmic software development to improve your activities
and products
• We offer process control audit and improvement services,
and training of your employees
• Highly educated and experienced people
• Flexible services
• We want to build long term relationships with our
customers

31. THANK YOU!!
Contact Yazzoom:
Dr. Ir. Ing. Jan Verhasselt
jan.verhasselt@yazzoom.com
GSM +32 (0)486/31.68.09
www.yazzoom.com 31