Indian Railways Looks To Adopt AI, Big Data In Collaboration With Department of Science & Technology And IIT Kanpur

The Railway ministry, Department of Science & Technology and IIT-Kanpur have forged an association on a project on 'Industry 4.0', which includes a host of digital technologies like artificial intelligence, Big Data, machine learning and cloud computing.

The project will be launched at Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli.

A statement by the ministry of railways said that 'Industry 4.0' will be commonly referred as the fourth industrial revolution amid current trend of automation, interconnectivity and data exchange in manufacturing technologies to increase productivity.

"Industry 4.0 is a complex Cyber-Physical System which synergises production with digital technologies, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing," said the statement.

MCF, is a state-of-the-art coach manufacturing unit with the capacity to manufacture 1,000 passenger coaches annually.

Railway Board (Member Rolling Stock) Rajesh Agarwal said, "About Rs 4,000 crore are expected to be spent in years to come in Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (ICPS) to foster and promote R&D in this emerging field of research."

The statement made a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who during his recent address in Houston, USA, highlighted the importance of 'Industry 4.0' in the global economy and to India's advantage.

"Full transition to the digital factory using 'Industry 4.0' across entire value chain from design to production will help enhance productivity hugely by providing insight into production process to take the decisions in real time basis," said the Railways official.

"Industry 4.0 would be based cyber/physical digital system and would involve various packages, systems, applications and Hardware within Design/Planning, Networking and Production to be added in a modular and incremental manner in MCF," added the statement issued by Railways.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)