Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: New Age Tools for Augmenting Plastic Materials Designing, Processing, and Manufacturing

Abstract

Plastic and polymers are late entrants in the repository of engineering materials, compared to bronze and iron (early phases of human civilizations are named after them). However, the extent of usage of the former is growing at an exponential rate because of the near-infinite combinatorial possibilities. In fact, there are hardly few engineering disciplines that can potentially offer so large and endless unexploited possibilities. Plastic industries are widespread across the world due to their easy scalability, favorable economics and extremely diverse applications. Plastic manufacturing and recycling are especially important for the economy of a country and provide livelihood for a large population. It is imperative that the current processes in plastic be improved upon by the advantages offered by computational tools and digital technologies. At this stage, we desperately need new age tools that can properly guide the human enterprise of innovation in designing, perfection in processing while maintaining stringent quality requirements in manufacturing. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) perfectly fits this bill for the new age tools. We are at a very nascent stage of this AI/ML revolution. This article samples some of the pioneering works from the very discreet space of AI/ML applications in the field of plastic and polymer designing, processing and manufacturing and attempts to tie them up in a cohesive narrative. For the sake of completeness, applications of AI/ML for limiting the adverse environmental impact and future outlook have also been covered.

Shibu Meher

PhD Scholar in Materials Research

My research interests include Material Physics, Computational Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing.