The holodeck and J.A.R.V.I.S. are closer than ever.
Siemens has sponsored this post. Written by: Todd Tuthill, Siemens Digital Industries Software and Barclay Brown, Collins Aerospace.
Science-fiction portrays many exciting ways engineering can change in the far future. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark designs and modifies his signature suits by conversing with his digital assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. In Star Trek: Voyager, the crew uses the franchise-famous holodeck to create a virtual representation of a custom shuttle design that changes to match the crew’s spoken decisions in real-time. A keyboard and mouse are nowhere to be seen in these examples.
The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is still far away from using something as sophisticated as J.A.R.V.I.S. or the holodeck to design aircraft and spacecraft, but that is starting to change with the rise of artificial intelligence. AI is already transforming existing engineering processes and can be the key to unlocking new capabilities that were once limited to the realm of science-fiction. Investing in the technology now can not only enable the A&D industry to overcome more immediate problems, but it can also bring the future closer to the present.
AI in today’s tools
Already, AI is being integrated into software tools to accelerate engineering workflows. As copilots and digital assistants, AI can carry out commands given by engineers using natural language models (LLMs). Instead of excessively clicking, engineers speak to their tools and the copilot automatically completes mundane tasks, such as data management, giving engineers more time to focus on higher-level tasks.
Additionally, AI can be helpful in teaching the next generation of aerospace engineers. The copilot can quickly access specialized libraries and information, enabling new users to learn tools faster. More incredible is how AI can learn from expert users. It can assess their workflows to streamline tasks or create a set of best practices. This can help future engineers with everything from component placements to geometry optimization.
These capabilities can be particularly beneficial to the A&D industry, which is facing a growing workforce crisis. According to a PWC/AIA study, “Over 29% of the industry’s workforce is over the age of 55, creating waves of retirement impact that will last 10-20 years into the future.” This presents a problem, as experts will need to onboard new aerospace engineers. Having AI-integrated tools based on the knowledge of these veterans can reduce the loss of expertise when they retire by enabling newcomers to quickly master expert software, tools, information and habits.
AI on the horizon
If speaking to your computer to automatically generate designs sounds like interacting with J.A.R.V.I.S., you would be correct. While nowhere near as sophisticated as what is shown in movies or television, the capabilities AI is bringing today are the stepping-stones toward this potential future.
With continued investment, companies can find ways to use AI as the key to enhance their digital transformations. Though generative design tools have been around for a long time, the tasks they automate are largely confined to single engineering domains and product development steps. As AI technology and its data management capacities improve, however, perhaps it will organize data across tools and domains to create a universal model for physics-based generative design. Furthermore, these data models may also self-validate hundreds, or perhaps thousands of times, until a design is as optimal as it can be.
Also, when combined with augmented or virtual reality, a new level of immersive engineering can be achieved. Engineers can communicate in a virtual environment from anywhere in the world to coordinate on the design of their product. With AI in the picture, the participants could see a virtual representation of their designs that updates in real-time based on spoken commands. Does that not sound like the holodeck?
The A&D industry has so many exciting innovations being developed, from sustainable propulsion and next-generation defense aircraft to space programs bringing humanity, where no one has gone before. AI will not invent the technologies to achieve these things, but it will enable people to bring those technologies to fruition sooner rather than later.
Getting people onboard
Of course, adopting AI to the levels described above will not be without its obstacles. Within A&D, as well as many other industries, efforts must be made to secure both trust and fluency in the technology.
Like any new revolutionary technology, there are people who are skeptical about AI. The A&D industry has carried out engineering processes in particular ways for decades. While engineers are curious thinkers, some are still bound to trust traditional methodologies over AI’s capabilities, especially if they do not understand them.
Other concerns about trust arise from data security. The A&D industry in particular deals in proprietary data. If AI is going to be utilized to design a new component, for example, then companies will want to be sure their data is not exposed to third parties.
As technology continues to prove its own success, however, people will eventually see the good sides of AI and learn to trust it. The steps to achieving that are relatively simple. To start, the question of proprietary data is more about infrastructure than AI. Tools utilizing AI can easily be made to draw strictly from a company’s private data lake, keeping data and intellectual property safely within the company.
To accelerate people’s understanding, meanwhile, education efforts can be expanded to teach engineers how to use AI more effectively — such as how to enter the right prompts. Fortunately, there are also multiple educational courses for AI that are freely available on the Internet, so the opportunities already exist and are easy to access.
It is especially crucial that aerospace engineers become more conversant with AI, as well as software in general. Gone are the days of the accounting team calling the IT department to deal with computer problems. The engineering world is in a similar place. Software is already being integrated with contemporary, cross-domain engineering processes and products and that will only become more prevalent with the introduction of AI.
Clear skies ahead
The good news is interest in AI is alive and well. Companies appear ready to overcome these concerns. The Wall Street Journal reports that, “In the next 12 months, 43% of U.S. companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue expect to invest at least $100 million in generative AI, according to a survey of 220 companies published … by KPMG.” The potential for radical transformation accompanying AI is real and acknowledged by the world’s biggest companies. The A&D industry can reap the rewards, too.
Whether through chatbots, tool assistants, new forms of generative design or something not yet discovered, AI offers numerous opportunities to accelerate aerospace engineering processes and bring the industry to new heights.
J.A.R.V.I.S. and the holodeck may still be confined to the realm of science-fiction, but every new leap in AI technology brings them closer and closer to reality.
Learn more about AI in industry at Siemens and the Siemens podcast “A Forward Look on AI in A&D” Part 1 and Part 2.
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