Artificial Intelligence and Mechanical Engineering by Tej Himnish Ande

Artificial intelligence, a tool that is changing life as we know it, impacts many things, among which is mechanical engineering. A.I is changing the mechanical engineering landscape, providing data-driven insights to understand complex phenomena and more accurate results and analysis, in just a fraction of the time it takes compared to traditional methods by shortening the time it takes for manufacturing, mechanical design, data storing, and by evaluating materials. A.I also helps with projects that were previously almost impossible like inspecting infrastructure with autonomous, unmanned vehicles so that they can drive on their own. A.I also helps mechanical engineering with reverse engineering(the reproduction of another product following detailed examination of its construction or composition) by shortening time between remodeling and designing as well as picking apart the product. As a result of all these Mechanical engineering companies are primarily users of A.I.

While AI is used in mechanical engineering, AI also needs mechanical engineering to basically build itself. Because A.I engineers who basically build the A.I, are actually a branch of mechanical engineering and they need at least the basic knowledge about mechanical engineering if they want to to build the A.I. Furthermore mechanical engineers also build most machines such in which the A.I is placed on. For example a mechanical engineer builds cars in which the A.I is placed to help the driver of the car. And so mechanical engineering companies that use the A.I also play a central role in the application of AI in different areas and also embed AI to a variety of products and industries. Mechanical engineering builds on its experience in efficient technology integration and design devices and products that use the A.I such as sensor technology, robots, and cars to name a few.

Although AI does give a lot of benefits in mechanical engineering it still not without its downsides. Like lacking creativity as it is designed to think inside the box rather than outside. It does not improve with experience, for example if it makes a mistake it will keep doing the same thing until a human comes and fixes it. It takes out the human element involved within mechanical engineering putting people out of work thus causing the team morale to go down. Does not have ethics and so can harm a mechanical engineering company’s reputation. Finally there is a very high cost of installing and implementing A.I as an A.I requires constant updates, repairs and in the case of crashing and losing data it will cost a lot of time and money to recover it..

However even with all these downsides A.I holds considerable potential for using materials and energy more efficiently, taking better decisions and mastering challenges such as scarcity of resources and climate change, and overall get work done much faster than the traditional methods. And though it may replace some humans at work, not all of the human workers will be replaced by machines because A.I is essentially a tool which needs to be used by humans as A.I lacks creativity which human workers will provide. So A.I is an incredibly important tool which mechanical engineering needs if it wants to improve itself.

Sources

Pathak, Bhagwathi. “Artificial Intelligence and Its Alliance with Mechanical Engineering - Get Latest Blogs on AEC INDUSTRY: Tesla Outsourcing Service.” Get Latest Blogs on AEC Industry | Tesla OutSourcing Service, 20 July 2021, www.teslaoutsourcingservices.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-and-its-alliance-with-mechanical-engineering

University, Colombia. “Artificial Intelligence.” Mechanical Engineering, www.me.columbia.edu/tag/artificial-intelligence.

Mary Beth O’Leary | Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Revolutionizing Everyday Products with Artificial Intelligence.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, news.mit.edu/2018/revolutionizing-everyday-products-with-artificial-intelligence-mit-meche-0601.