16. Major Technology 10: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Virtual Product Creation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a new concept or technology. It first appeared in the 1950s, when several scientists came together with the dream to build machines as intelligent as humans. AI, however, has gained serious attention during the last twenty years, with respect to support engineering reasoning and data driven intelligence support in industry. Hence, it meanwhile need to be treated as a major technology for Virtual Product Creation. Firstly, this chapter introduces and explains Artificial Intelligence (AI) with its different categories. Then it introduces knowledge based systems and their integration into industry. The main focus, however, of this book chapters lies on the AI discipline Machine Learning, which has gained serious traction meanwhile in the applications of Virtual Product Creation analysis and design guidance solutions. The four types of Machine Learning (Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning, Semi-Supervised Learning and Reinforcement Learning) are explained. In addition, the importance and appraoch of process and data intelligence are described in order to achieve robust and meaningful application results in industry. Industrial examples are described to understand the power of AI in Virtual Product Creation.