Russian UEC to Deploy AI Module in Yak-130 Engine Production

Russia’s United Engine Corporation (UEC) and Zyfra, a Finnish-Russian firm have begun testing the Zyfra Industrial Internet of Things Platform (ZIIoT) that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manufacture Yak-130 engines.

Testing is taking place at Russia’s Salyut production unit. The system will monitor the manufacture of engines and will make it possible to simulate testing in a virtual environment. This will reduce the number of real tests, improve quality of the final product and speed up the production process, Rostec said in a release today.

The pilot project is being implemented in the production of the Yak-130’s Ai-222-25 turbojet engine. The platform consists of several elements, including an automated data entry workspace, central information storage, and an artificial intelligence (AI) module, Rostec said.

“The pilot project for implementing the industrial Internet of Things platform at the Salyut production unit will take one year, and based on its results, a method will be worked out for distributing this experience to other Rostec enterprises,” said Rostec’s executive director, Oleg Yevtushenko.

UEC is introducing elements of “Industry 4.0” into its production, as part of the current memorandum on cooperation with Zyfra group, signed in late 2018.

A database with key detail parameters and information on previous tests are used. The AI-based system determines how the characteristics of the details affect the quality of the engine, and builds a mathematical model of the tests. Information about the new components of the engine and conditions for assembling it is uploaded into this model, and a digital twin of the end product is created. AI analyzes the data and predicts how successful real tests would be on an engine made of these components in the given conditions.