Page 49 - The Tyreman N53 2022-04
P. 49
Yokohama Rubber Develops Rubber Compound Design System with AI Technology
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it has be- gun applying a proprietary rub- ber compound design system that uti- lises AI-based compound generation technology.
The new system was developed with the cooperation of Hamagomu Aicom Inc., a Yokohama Rubber subsidiary specializ- ing in information system development. The new system’s use of AI to propose a compound that achieves targeted rub- ber physical property values enables the acquisition of new knowledge about compounds that humans could not have conceived independently. Yoko- hama Rubber expects this new system will enable it further speed up product development and develop higher-per- formance products.
The new system is the latest develop- ment promoting the use of Yokohama Rubber’s HAICoLab (Humans and AI ColLaborate) AI utilisation concept. The
previous system used to predict the phys- ical properties of rubber compounds used AI to predict compound property values based on compound design parameters input by humans. This new compound design system takes the process one step further, with AI generating candidate compound property values and then pro- poses compounds that satisfy the target physical property values.
HAICoLab’s AI has learned tens of thou- sands of rubber compounds and can generate candidate compounds that combine more than 100 types of com- pounding agents. The new system com- pares the predicted physical property values of the generated candidate com- pounds with the targeted physical prop- erty values and proposes the compounds that meet the targeted values. In addition to specifying the basic compound and compounding agents to be used, the new system makes it possible to search for
compound, thus facilitating collaborations between humans and AI that will lead to the acquisition of new knowledge.
Yokohama Rubber established HAICo- Lab in 2020 as a new concept aimed at fostering digital innovations by facilitating inspiration and creativity with the enor- mous data processing capability of AI. The company aims to acquire new knowl- edge by creating and collecting data based on hypothetical conditions set by humans and then applying AI to predict, analyse and then search for the most op- timal result.
Since establishing the HAICoLab con- cept, Yokohama Rubber has been ad- vancing technological developments by using AI in its material and tire design and development processes. For example, in 2020 it developed a system that utilises AI to predict the physical properties of rub- ber compounds used in its tyres, and in 2021 it began using a system developed
49 the tyreman 2022/4
