Yokohama Rubber taps AI knowledge for assisted tire design
22 Jul 2024
Technology uses 'explainable AI' providing supplementary knowledge to designers to speed up development process
Tokyo – Yokohama Rubber Co. (YRC) has developed a tire-design support system that employs 'explainable' AI' (XAI) – a technology said to enable humans to better understand and trust AI output.
The system, said YRC, allows engineers to obtain supplementary information that makes the tire design process easier even for inexperienced engineers.
In a 16 July statement, YRC said it had also developed a related technology, called SHAP (Shapley Additive ExPlanations), based on its human-AI collaboration concept HAICoLab.
This concept helps engineers identify key features, such as material, shape and structure, to improve the performance of a tire.
SHAP, in particular, assists engineers in setting target characteristics and quantifying the specific attributes that need improvement.
Engineers then use the information provided by XAI to adjust the specifications and verify the target achievement using a YRC performance prediction tool also based on AI.
The iterative process finalises the specifications and confirms the basis for the final design through XAI, identifying key features and their contributions to the performance of a new tire.
YRC stated that it intends to apply the system across various tire development projects and expand the practical applications of HAICoLab.
