WAVE converts production freeze dryer to AI control – machine improves its own code while running
The first FD440 running Interkey Brain instead of a Siemens PLC completes its first drying cycle. On request, the AI analysed the running process, changed its control code and deployed it without interruption. Safety functions run separately on dedicated microcontrollers.
Vienna, – Vienna-based WAVE Trockensysteme GmbH has, for the first time, converted its best-selling freeze dryer, the FD440, from a conventional Siemens PLC to the AI control system Interkey Brain. On 23 October the machine completed its first full drying cycle in Vienna without any faults.
The control hardware, firmware, operator interface and control logic were developed with generative AI – and the AI can continue to develop the control code while the machine is running. During the first cycle, the team asked the AI to check what could be improved while drying was under way. The AI analysed process data and program, changed the code and deployed the new version while the drying cycle continued.
AI runs the process – safety stays separate
In the FD440, Interkey Brain replaces the PLC. The system combines an NVIDIA Jetson computer, an industrial CompuLab i.MX8 system and several STM32 microcontrollers. The AI optimises temperatures, pressure profiles and process times, and changes its own program code only when permitted.
Safety functions are deliberately out of its reach: the maximum permissible temperature is monitored by dedicated firmware on an STM32 microcontroller in the ATD module. It switches off the heating independently of the AI computer – even if that computer fails or sends incorrect commands. The AI cannot modify this safety firmware. Watchdogs supervise the microcontrollers, and a CompuLab i.MX8 board performs additional control functions.
"Today our first FD440 ran on Interkey Brain, and it worked first time. Where there used to be a fixed, hard-programmed PLC, the machine is now controlled by a system we built with AI and that can improve its own software," says Michael Marcovici, Managing Director of WAVE. "In the middle of the cycle we asked the AI what it would do better. It adapted its code and deployed the new version without us having to interrupt the drying. The temperature limits are monitored by a separate microcontroller that the AI cannot override."
To WAVE's knowledge, this makes the FD440 the first industrial freeze dryer whose control system adapts its own code during live production. WAVE also plans to use Interkey Brain in its new 5-ton Big Wave system.
About WAVE
WAVE Trockensysteme GmbH, based in Vienna, develops and builds industrial freeze dryers for food, pet food, pharma and laboratory use and has delivered more than 300 machines.
About Interkey Brain
Interkey Brain is an AI-native industrial controller consisting of a screen, computer, NVIDIA Jetson and up to six I/O boards. Users program it with current AI models – for machine building, agriculture and prototyping. WAVE and Interkey work together in a cooperation: WAVE implements the technology in its machines. www.interkey.com
Press contact
WAVE Trockensysteme GmbH · Michael Marcovici, Managing Director · [email protected] · www.wave.cc