Metrology Standards Institute Creates Competence Center AI and Metrology
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing our lives. This also applies to the world of measurement, which in Germany is represented by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). As the national metrology institute and the highest authority for measurement, the PTB has been dedicated to this key technology for several years in various fields and in a wide variety of national and international cooperation projects, together with other research institutions and industry. The PTB is now bundling its activities in a new competence center ‘AI and Metrology’ (KI-Met).
Artificial intelligence is a key technology that fundamentally changes the product and service relationship in almost all areas of life and acts as a driving catalyst for digital innovations. It opens up entirely new business areas and changes practically all areas of life and the economy.
In Europe, the AI Regulation (EU AI Act) sets out a harmonized framework for the trustworthy use of AI and assigns metrology authorities an important role in implementing the regulation. PTB has been dealing with research questions on AI for years. In its 2021 AI strategy, it has set important course for building up competence and strategically relevant developments for AI in metrology. Strongly supported by the projects of the European Partnership for Metrology and activities under the umbrella of EURAMET eV and in several joint projects, it has already identified needs in a wide variety of areas and networked with industry. Important fields of application are medicine, autonomous driving and robotics. “In all of these areas, PTB has not only carried out basic work, but has also been a pioneer in developing practical tools to make AI measurable and assessable,” explains PTB President Prof. Dr. Cornelia Denz.
PTB’s AI activities are anchored in its innovation clusters of digitalization, health and systemic metrology. With the new competence center ‘AI and Metrology’, PTB is now creating an upstream hub for these innovation clusters. It has the potential to present PTB’s AI activities clearly, to act as a permanent contact point and thus to improve the external and internal impact of AI activities.
The main focus of the new competence center is to support AI systems related to services. The goal: to create synergies and exchange knowledge. In addition, there are important tasks related to external representation: for example, by organizing workshops and other networking events to link PTB’s AI activities with stakeholders from politics, industry and standardization. “In this way, we will further strengthen the perception of PTB as a competent partner in the field of AI,” explains PTB President Cornelia Denz.
At the kick-off meeting of the competence center, the more than 100 participants agreed with the PTB Presidium that PTB has already developed many building blocks for the successful application of metrological principles in AI applications. Examples include the ‘METRIC Framework’ for assessing the quality of data for AI in medicine, AI models with integrated prior physical knowledge to improve imaging processes or the expansion of the TRACIM portal for testing AI applications. “If we now put these building blocks together, PTB could be the first metrology institute in the world to offer the certification of AI algorithms,” explains PTB Vice President Frank Härtig. “In this way, metrology is proactively fulfilling its role of quickly putting new technologies into use: safely and reliably.”
For more information: www.ptb.de
