From Soft Sensors to Autonomous Fermentation Control: Scaling Intelligent Strategies with fermHUB
- Aug 23
- 2 min read
How a Bachelor’s student uses fermSYS to turn online sensor data into actionable insights for smarter bioprocess control
“With fermSYS, I create transparency in the bioreactor – through powerful soft sensors e.g. for cell viability and intelligent control strategies that allow me to steer agitators, pumps and mass flow controllers with precision – anytime, anywhere.”
Fermentation processes are becoming increasingly data-driven. Yet having more data does not automatically mean having better process control. The real challenge is to transform available sensor signals into meaningful process information—and ultimately into control strategies that can respond to changing process conditions.
As part of her Bachelor’s thesis in Molecular Biology (B.SC.) at Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Nancy Truong is exploring exactly this challenge with fermSYS. By combining a fermSYS VOC sensor with an external turbidity sensor, she is developing a soft sensor for cell viability.
The result is a virtual measurement: a cell-viability soft sensor that can provide information between—and potentially beyond—the individual reference measurements.
The comparison with microscopy already shows a promising picture. The graph below compares the estimated viability from the soft sensor with viability determined by microscopy over the course of a fermentation process. The two curves follow a similar overall trend, demonstrating how online sensor signals can be translated into information about an important biological process variable.
The long-term goal: to use this information not only to understand what is happening inside the bioreactor, but eventually to control the fermentation process intelligently.
Her work illustrates an important pathway towards autonomous fermentation control.
01 — Create transparency with sensor data:
Online sensor data and soft sensors make important biological process variables visible in real time.
02 — Scale up with fermHUB - SCADA:
The next step is to turn this process information into intelligent control strategies. With fermHUB - SCADA, all sensor outputs can become inputs for strategies that precisely control agitators, pumps and mass flow controllers.
03 — Move towards autonomous control with fermHUB - COPILOT:
Once the process can measure, interpret and react, the foundation for autonomous fermentation control is established.
With fermSYS sensors and the fermHUB software solutions, this journey from online monitoring to intelligent and eventually autonomous fermentation control becomes a practical reality.
And ultimately, the vision is clear:
A bioprocess that does not just tell us what is happening—but can use that information to decide what should happen next.
That is the path from digital fermentation monitoring to autonomous fermentation control.
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