Ongoing research by Cardiff University in the United Kingdom is exploring the organisational and employment implications, including emerging skills and training needs, of using artificial intelligence to optimise steelmaking processes.
Funded under the Horizon 2020 programme since September 2022, Professor Dean Stroud – working with Dr Martin Weinel and Dr Rachel Hale – from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences is part of an international team which is exploring the insertion of a particular AI technology incorporating a type of machine learning, ‘federated learning’, within the European steel industry for the more efficient operation of electric arc furnace (EAF) steel production.
The ALCHIMIA project is developing a digital platform consisting of AI and Big Data to help optimise production processes so that it optimises both costs (such as energy) and resource use (such as scrap metal) with the aim to help with societal decarbonisation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The project involves nine partners from seven countries – Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Germany, Greece and the UK – and focuses on the energy- and resource-intensive steel sector. it is claimed that recommendations from the ALCHIMIA digital platform will help workers to make decisions on steel recipes or on steel quality.
Professor Stroud commented: “The improvement of energy efficiency across European industry is crucial for competitiveness.”
Following the Industry 5.0 approach, workers’ expectations, concerns and understandings on machine learning and federated learning are being investigated, along with potential skills barriers to (and thus training needs for) the introduction of such new technologies.
As part of the research, the Cardiff team is carrying out extensive case studies, interviews and surveys with industrial partners in Spain, France, Poland and Italy, and is contributing to the wider project aims of human-centred technology development and insertion. One of these partners is Spanish steelmaker CELSA Group where pilot projects will be executed in three CELSA Group melt shops in Spain, France and Poland. "The pilots will consist of a set of iterative deployments starting from specific exercises and ending in a final complex demonstrator," according to Alchimia's official website.
The ex-ante fieldwork and human factor analysis was completed in 2023, and preparations for the ex-post phase (which will be conducted later this year) are currently being made. During 2024, the Cardiff team developed training recommendations based on good practices and existing courses to facilitate workers’ acceptance and optimal usage of the ALCHIMIA platform. As well as digital skills, the training programme will consider the required green skills, individual personal skills, social skills and methodological skills for the transition to Industry 5.0. The project ends in November 2025.