Industry news
The world’s first positioning standard for industry: omlox Uniform positioning standard for industrial products from different vendors is now available. PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) will be handling worldwide coordination and tehnology management.
A global language for industry
They have since handed the project over to the PI organization, which is to advance the omlox standard globally. PI has been supporting various industry standards for 30 years now. “The PI organization has all the processes and a great deal of experience to bring open and easy-to-use standards to the world. As an independent organization, we can continue to make sure that all partners will be able to contribute on an equal footing,” said PI Chairman Karsten Schneider.
SOURCE: TRUMPF
THE HIGH-TECH COMPANY TRUMPF AND 60 partners have introduced a standard for positioning technologies. Called omlox, this new industry standard provides the means to integrate all existing technologies such as UWB, BLE, RFID, 5G or GPS and deliver positioning data via a uniform interface. “Despite the current situation, companies should keep their sights fixed firmly on the future and expand their digital applications. A common standard for positioning solutions simplifies logistics enormously and ensures efficiency gains in digital manufacturing,” said Thomas Schneider, Managing Director of Development at TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen. Omlox may now be used worldwide. Omlox can locate components which enables manufacturers to track products all along the supply chain.
Connecting different vendors
Products may be tracked across the board by incorporating various positioning technologies. Omlox serves to pinpoint the location of forklifts, drones, driverless transport systems or tools from different manufacturers with one and the same infrastructure. It enables position data to be used far more widely across the factory. Users can even locate devices inside buildings with accuracy down to the millimeter range, much
like what GPS can serve to do outdoors. The initiators of omlox include the software and IT service providers GFT, T-Systems and AWS, the sensor manufacturers SICK and Pepperl+Fuchs, the research institute CEA Leti, the software vendor Heidelberg Mobil and the tracking solutions provider BeSpoon. Around 60 companies are already supporting the project. N e w s f r o m PROFIBUS & PROFINET International.
90% of industry to utilize edge computing by 2022 FROST & SULLIVAN’S RECENT ANALYSIS, "5G and Edge Computing—Cloud Workloads Shifting to the Edge, Forecast to 2024", finds that edge computing is a foundational technology for industrial enterprises as it offers shorter latencies, robust security, responsive data collection, and lower costs. In this hyper-connected industrial environment, edge computing, with its solution-agnostic attribute, can be used across various applications, such as autonomous assets, remote asset monitoring, data extraction from stranded assets, autonomous robotics, autonomous vehicles, and smart factories. Despite being in a nascent stage, the multi-access edge computing (MEC) market— an edge computing commercial offering from operators in wireless networks—is estimated to grow at an astounding compound annual growth rate of 157.4%, garnering a revenue
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of $7.23 billion by 2024 from $64.1 million in 2019. “The recent launch of the 5G technology coupled with MEC brings computing power close to customers and also allows the emergence of new applications and experiences for them,” said Renato Pasquini, Information & Communication Technologies Research Director at Frost & Sullivan. Frost & Sullivan predicts that approximately 90% of industrial enterprises will utilize edge computing by 2022, presenting immense growth prospects for MEC market participants, including: • Telecom operators should work on solutions to meet the requirements for connected and autonomous cars. • System integrators should provide end-to-end solutions, which would be a significant value addition for enterprises
because 5G requires specific skillsets. • The combination of 5G and the new specialized hardware-based mobile edge compute technologies can meet the market’s streaming media needs now and in the future. • Telecom operators must partner with cloud providers and companies with abilities related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to design solutions for autonomous cars, drone delivery, and others. • Companies in the MEC space must capitalize on the opportunity for innovation and new developments that utilize 5G and MEC, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which can also be applied to games. News report by Frost & Sullivan.
in d u s t r ial et h er ne t b o o k
9.2020
