Finding smart ways to build smart things at GE Global Research Europe

After Science Editor John Timmer’s visit to China late last year to see what GE is doing in the East, we next swung our attention to the Western Hemisphere. GE is a huge company—one of the largest in the world, in fact—and its size means it has the ability to invest time and money into research. While John got to see what GE does with clean water and energy in China, I got the chance to poke my nose into the ways GE is trying to make machines smarter.

This isn’t a Skynet scenario—we’re not talking about actually building sentient robots to take over the world. Instead, there were three main areas where we got a chance to focus out lens: automated manufacturing, sensor-enabled machining, and big data and analytics. Under the guidance of GE’s Dr. Matthew Beaumont, who manages the research center’s composite manufacturing lab, we talked to the individual scientists and researchers who are driving these technologies forward.

Outside the entrance to GE Global Research Europe in Munich. This was just one building of the large campus.

For automated manufacturing, I spoke with research engineer Mathias Messmer, who showed me GE’s automated fiber placement robot. Consisting of a large fixed-position robotic arm and a sophisticated customized tool head, this machine took carbon fiber filaments and laid them out onto a form to produce finished shapes. Carbon fiber manufacturing is a complex subject—one we’ll be looking at in detail in a feature report—but many types of carbon fiber composites have to be built by hand, and this robot automates what would otherwise be a very manual process.