As Taiwan continues to wow and amaze the world with its high-efficiency in the panel and semiconductor manufacturing process, it has become an imperative issue for the manufacturers to develop a more energy-efficient method to keep the high-speed operating factory running. Taipei Tech President, Wang Sea-Fue, leads a group of professors, researchers, and students from the College of Engineering and College of Electrical Engineering to assist Taipei Tech’s partner industry AU Optronics (AUO) to develop an energy-saving solution to its air-conditioning system by utilizing AI and 5G technology. The result of this collaboration is showcased at the "Taiwan GET! International Forum" held on 12^th March 2021.  

AUO is the benchmark company known for its green and sustainable approach to production and manufacture. The company has adopted a comprehensive carbon reduction strategy in a very early stage and is committed to lowering carbon emission, improving energy efficiency, and promoting renewable energy. In the implementation of the “Smart Energy-Saving Cooperation Project”, AUO has proposed its need to formulate a more efficient solution toward its air-conditioning usage. To tackle this issue, AUO provided related data accumulated over the years as a database, and the research and development team of the project had conducted several productive meetings with AUO and finally generated a possible solution to the problem.     

“Industry-academic cooperation projects like this are beneficial to the academic because they help to prompt the innovative and creative energy of the R&D team, and encourage them to develop technologies that can be easily commercialized,” said President Wang, “Students can also practice what they have learned in class in an industrial setting”. As adjusting the parameters of the air-conditioning system will directly affect the temperature and humidity of the plant, and further affect the production process, the biggest challenge of the project lies in how to run testing without impacting the yield and quality.

Factories often need to maintain a low temperature to prevent the overheating of the machines and it can easily result in high energy consumption. Taipei Tech R&D team uses the wireless temperature and humidity sensor and thermographic camera modules to comprehensively monitor the temperature of various spots in the factory. In addition, by applying the latest AI and 5G technology to run algorithm prediction as well as upgrading hardware equipment, the team is able to reduce 2.4% of annual electric energy consumption for the AUO Longtan Plant.

The deep learning algorithm has become a useful tool in recent years to help predict the parameters and further monitor and adjust the air conditioning system. In theory, if the parameters can be adjusted in a timely manner according to the external temperature change, the air conditioning system will then maintain its best performance. Taipei Tech R&D team has developed a smart energy-saving control system by utilizing the big data provided by AUO to adjust the model, and the system, once passes the trial period, is expected to predict the most accurate parameter for the air conditioning system in accordance with the temperature or the weather condition to achieve high efficiency.