Budweiser, the World's Largest Beer Maker, is Using Low-Cost Sensors and Machine Learning To Keep Beverages Flowing (wsj.com)

The world's largest beer maker is using low-cost sensors and machine learning to predict when motors at a Fort Collins, Colo. brewery might malfunction. From a report: The Anheuser-Busch InBev SA plant was the first among the company's 350 beverage-making facilities to test whether wireless sensors that can detect ultrasonic sounds -- beyond the grasp of the human ear -- can be analyzed to predict when machines need maintenance. "You can start hearing days in advance that something will go wrong, and you'll know within hours when it'll fail. It's really, for us, very practical," said Tassilo Festetics, vice president of global solutions for the company.

The project began about six months ago when Mr. Festetics's team installed 20 wireless sensors across three packaging lines motors to measure vibrations. The sounds picked up are transmitted in real time and then compared to a normal, functioning engine's sounds, which serve as a baseline and allow the program to identify anomalies. A key advantage is that the sensors are non-invasive and don't need to be placed inside a machine. Sensors have been used for predictive maintenance in the past, but they were unable to transmit information in real time. Advances in processing data at the edge of the network, referred to as edge computing, enables companies to collect and analyze real-time sensor data from machines.

Comments

Re:To bad they don't make good beer.

[MBGMorden]

In general, you don't like beer. You like some beers, particularly ones that have been engineered not to taste very much like beer. Nothing wrong with that, but to say you like beer is stretch. In general, you don't. With exceptions.

Beer predates the use of hops by centuries. Beer was beer long before that ingredient was ever even used. Granted, I don't make any claim that IPA's or other hoppy beers aren't beer, but declaring that a later adaption is the only legitimate form is just stupid. Not to mention that though IPA's and other super hoppy beers IN GENERAL have existed for a long time, they've only become the trendy little niche they are in the last 20 years or so.

Besides - as the article so plainly states, Anheuser-Busch is the largest beer producer in the world. If anything is determined to "not taste very much like beer" the exception would be the victim, not the rule.

And please people stop with the "it tastes like piss" jokes. I'm guessing that almost no one claiming that even has any idea what piss tastes like. I certainly don't, but I'd imagine it's bitter as fuck and at least that portion of it (and little else) probably resembles an IPA a lot more than your standard plebeian lager.