Astonishing Companies in Robotics 2019

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ASTONISHING COMPANIES IN

VOL 4

ROBOTICS

April-2019

2019

ISSUE-6

Dr. Simon Haddadin CEO & Co-founder

ROBOTICS FOR EVERYONE

EDITOR’S DESK

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oday, we can observe that robotics is taking human lives to the next level. Everywhere in our daily life, we find robots applications; it includes automated doors, drones, automated parking lots, different systems in the automobiles, kitchen equipment, many cleaning and washing equipment, different safety and control systems and many more.

All these things are making our life so simple, luxurious, and safe.

Robots are popularly used in the manufacturing industries to safeguard humans from hazardous environments such as near-furnace high-temperature works, chemical processes, nuclear radiations, and many more. Robots can also be utilized in complex repetitive tasks where humans experience fatigue; it includes transporting, welding, painting, assembling, inspecting, and many more. This use of robots in the manufacturing will lead to improved quality and productivity in addition to a healthy workforce.

Robotics: Simplifying and Safeguarding the Human Life

When it comes to security surveillance and wars, robots are playing a vital role. Different unmanned vehicles such as drones, tiny ground vehicles, and more are used in safeguarding national borders as well as dealing with the war. These are providing every tiny detail to military forces that helps them to take correct required action against enemy whenever needed.

The space industry is also mostly using robots to perform different tasks in the deep space. That may be in the movements of satellite/shuttle elements or working of different observatory devices and vehicles.

Till now many robotic vehicles have sent on Moon as well as Mars for research and evaluation purposes.

Robotic companies are growing very vastly with the increased use of robots for different applications. They are introducing highly sophisticated robotic products with heavy research and innovation. With the utilization of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and IoT, robots are becoming smarter, faster, and safer. This makes robotics industry more valuable for their extraordinary innovative benefits.

In this issue of “Astonishing Companies in Robotics 2019”, we have enlisted the companies whose efforts and innovations are remarkably transforming the robotics industry. On the cover of this issue, we have, FRANKA EMIKA: Robotics for Everyone. At Franka Emika, the team’s ultimate goal was to develop the first system of a completely new robot generation – affordable, safe, intelligent, and an actively supporting tool for humans. It was initially designed as a factory assistant, evolving into a service robot for supporting elderly and sick persons, and, finally, a helper in the user’s daily life.

Franka Emika’s vision is to create ‘robotics technology for everyone’, with a goal to overcome one of the biggest challenges of modern society, relieving an entire generation of tedious, potentially dangerous, vastly time-consuming, and monotonous labor. Franka Emika’s approach places the human and its needs in the center of development. The approach to excel in all disciplines that may be tangent to robotics from mechatronic component development to high-level interaction is quite unique.

Dr. Simon Haddadin is the CEO and Co-founder of Franka Emika. Simon is a 33 years old innovative entrepreneur who earned his doctorate in safe physical human-robot interaction. Simon received the Deutsche Zukunftspreis by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in November 2017 and the Manager of the Year 2018 award from Markt&Technik. Also, his efforts let Franka Emika become the only German Company to be highlighted on the cover of the iconic TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions 2018” edition. Besides that, he has more than 30 national and international publications in journals and conference talks and a multitude of national and international patents.

In the listing we have, Blue Frog Robotics: Developing Amazing Emotional Robots with Passion, Consequential Robotics: Providing Global Platform to Develop Next Generation Consumer and Commercial Robots, and FoldiMate: Making One of the Most Hated Household Chores Easy.

In an interview with Insights Success Thomas Lichtenberger, the CEO of Festo Didactic Inc. introduces us to his organization, which is one of the first automation companies to collaborate with U.S. high schools, colleges and universities in order to better prepare students for emerging careers in technology and design engineering.

While going through our magazine don’t miss out the masterly written articles from our editors as well as valuable views of some of the successful business leaders.

So let’s start the Reading!

Suhel Mashayak

ARTICLE Future-Bots 42

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Catching-up with the Robotics for Better Future

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak Executive Editor Stella Andrew Contributing Editor Upama, Ryan, Abhishaj Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Savita Pandav Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Asha Bange Business Development Manager Mary D’souza Marketing Manager Sophie Smith Business Development Executive Jennifer Winget Sales Executives Joseph, Dan, Vrushali Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Consultants Amar, David, Robert Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Gemson, Uma Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

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Dr. Simon Haddadin CEO & Co-founder

IMAGE CREDIT Ansgar Pudenz Deutscher Zukunftspreis

ASTONISHING COMPANIES IN

ROBOTICS

COVER STORY

2019

Robotics for Everyone

Designed, Developed and made in Germany

S

tate-of-the-art robotics technology has essentially been stagnating over the past decades.

It offers solutions that are remote to humans, extremely expensive and nonflexible; suitable only for precise positioning (e.g. setting spot welds), programmed to predefined paths (e.g., painting) and behind safety fences.

Technically speaking, advanced industrial robots are positioning machines far away from the idea of what a robot can and cannot do. To unleash the original purpose of robots, along with safely supporting humans, serving their needs and desires, and relieving them from laborious and possibly dangerous work, the traditional concepts had to be overthrown.

At Franka Emika, the team’s ultimate goal was to develop the first system of a completely new robot generation affordable, safe, intelligent, and an actively supporting tool for humans. It was initially designed as a factory assistant, evolving into a service robot for supporting elderly and sick persons, and, finally, a helper in the user's daily life.

The company’s first industrial robotic arm “Panda” has been designed to be accessible for everybody; it is a capable power tool, affordable also for small businesses, operable within minutes and made for human interaction. The robot incorporates various novel possibilities as a humanlike sense of touch, complete Industry 4.0 capability, multimodal interaction, and unprecedented flexibility and performance, just to name a few. From the series production plant in Bavaria, Germany; Panda is already being shipped worldwide to all types of users and is currently the fastest selling robot system in the world.

Although, Franka Emika targets for a broad field of application, the European SME market and the global 3C market (computers, communication devices, and consumer electronics) as some of the biggest yet hardly automated markets in the world, currently shape the focus. This again is unusual, as most robot suppliers try to incrementally improve automation, whereas Franka Emika goes for completely new fields.

About the Leader

Next Generation Robots for Sophisticated Human Life Franka Emika’s vision is to create ‘robotics technology for everyone’, with a goal to overcome one of the biggest challenges of modern society, relieving an entire generation of tedious, potentially dangerous, vastly time-consuming, and monotonous labor. Franka Emika’s approach places the human and its needs in the center of development. The approach to excel in all disciplines that may be tangent to robotics from mechatronic component development to high-level interaction is quite unique.

Dr. Simon Haddadin is the CEO and Co-founder of Franka Emika. Simon is a 33 years old innovative entrepreneur who earned his doctorate in safe physical human-robot interaction. Simon received the Deutsche Zukunftspreis by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in November 2017 and the Manager of the Year 2018 award from Markt&Technik. Also, his efforts let Franka Emika become the only German Company to be highlighted on the cover of the iconic TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions 2018” edition. Besides that, he has more than

We develop Robots that Safeguard, Support and Serve Humans.

30 national and international publications in journals and conference talks and a multitude of national and international patents.

Simon has an outstanding educational and work experience background including Military service with Air Transport Squadron 62 in session 2005-06. In 2006, he did Mathematics and physics studies at Leibniz University Hanover, followed by

IMAGE CREDIT Ansgar Pudenz Deutscher Zukunftspreis

medical studies at the University of Debrecen and completed a dissertation to become a medical doctor with excellence at the Institute of Pathology and Neuropathology. From 2010 to 2013, he worked as a research scientist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, and later, from 2012 to 2016, he was a Ph.D. student at the Technical University Munich (TUM), Graduate School of Bioengineering.

The Inception Story and Challenges As a research group ‘human-centered

robotics’ under the leadership of Prof.

Sami Haddadin one of the world’s most renown scientists in robotics and AI at DLR (German Aerospace Center), Simon and the founding team were able to engage in the most advanced robotics research. One of the topics was the development of the first compliant space robot LBR III (lightweight robot III), a project that began by the end of 80's of the XX century.

After solving many of the fundamental problems as a research team, in 2012 they decided to try it on their own. One of the main drivers was that there was no robotic system commercially

available that fulfilled even closely the ambitions of the founding team.

Although, being a rather young group of people, they were among the most experienced ones in this new field of technology.

“In my opinion, it is rather easy to work on something you love and that has a clear purpose. I don’t think there is a list of toughest difficulties, but rather challenges that can be solved with patience and hard work,” asserts Simon on how to tackle the difficulties and challenges.

“I have learned that challenges are opportunities and that is how we should approach them. With increasingly “smart machines” we are able to overcome some of the biggest challenges of our society as demographic change, distribution of wealth or planetary pollution.

However, we should always keep the human in control, especially in realworld AI which is robotics, and that is what we stand for,” added Simon.

Extraordinary Robotics Solutions for Supporting Human Beings The main motto of Franka Emika is to create ‘robotics for everyone.’ This demands the system that should be accessible – easy-to-use and affordable, flexible – ready for various applications as well as quickly adaptable to new tasks, and scalable – easy to be manufactured, allowing for solution deployment on multiple robots – whereas at the same time that system should avoid humans from any exposure to danger in addition to its support and service. These concepts could not be implemented with existing robotic components, therefore the Franka Emika team designed and developed full stack robotics technology including mechatronics, control, low-level and high-level software, manufacturing and many more, setting a new benchmark. “We firmly believe our team is composed of the best robotics specialists in the world. Their knowledge and experience ensured a goal-oriented development of the project with phenomenal results”, says Simon about his team.

Major Benefits for customers The current user base of Franka Emika

is highly diverse including worldwide researchers, service and health care providers, as well as almost all branches of industrial manufacturing.

Consequently, Panda had become the fastest selling industrial robotic system with around 2,000 robots shipped within the first year. The possible user group of robotic systems had become multitudes bigger, as before users were dependent on having in-house robotic know-how. This is a similar trend, as the company saw it in the IT market, where it became a commodity once the group of possible beneficiaries was extensive enough. The results represent unprecedented opportunities for added value, as robot solutions can be developed by start-ups, students or hobbyists with almost no investment, creating new commercial and noncommercial applications. Above all, small and medium-sized enterprises can also benefit greatly from access to such systems and even increase their national and international competitiveness.

Future Roadmap In future, the company would like to witness how its dream ‘robotics for everyone’ becomes a reality where robotic systems become an inseparable part of human lives in all social dimensions – from hospitals and schools to factory plants and even the less-charted Space.

Simon’s advice to the new entrants in the Robotics sphere – “Real robotics is hard. Don’t underestimate it and be patient.”

Panda has been designed uniquely as a sensitive, interconnected, adaptive and cost-efficient robot.

Cutting-edge German engineering accessible to everyone IMAGE CREDIT Ansgar Pudenz Deutscher Zukunftspreis

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Interview with Insights Success

I

n an interview with Insights Success Thomas Lichtenberger, the CEO of Festo Didactic Inc. introduces us to his organization, which is one of the first automation companies to collaborate with U.S. high schools, colleges and universities in order to better prepare students for emerging careers in technology and design engineering.

Festo provides industrial and education partners with the support they need through post-secondary apprenticeship programs, blended STEM curriculum, state-of-the-art engineering systems and lab equipment that resemble real Smart Factories, and through sponsored vocational competitions and summer camps.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Thomas and Insights Success: What is your definition of Festo? And what was the inspiration that led to the inception of the company?

Festo Didactic is a leading provider of technical education equipment and training. Our educational solutions evolved from a world-class automation and engineering division and integrates the latest trends in each learning system it offers.

The innovative product range allows educators and trainers to equip their classroom with the technology they need, from individual workstations to complete Learning Factories, as well as training and consulting, eLearning, courseware solutions, and LMS integration.

We have built over 100 years of trust providing high quality German engineering. Festo is a family-run company that has grown to become a worldwide supplier in 176 countries, serving 300,000 customers across 35 industries, including brand name partners and government institutions.

We leverage our expertise in the industrial sector to create holistic learning environments and workforce development training for middle school, high school and college students.

Would you kindly elaborate on your company’s innovative services, solutions and their benefits to your customers?

For over 40 years, Festo Didactic has prepared students in North America for in-demand jobs in a complex industrial environment. We provide colleges and universities with topof-the-line simulated Smart Factories to develop the advanced manufacturing workforce of tomorrow. Ours was one of the first automation companies to foster collaboration with North American institutions for Industry 4.0 career readiness.

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The Festo Didactic product and service portfolio offers solutions for rapid learning and retention in the entire spectrum of automation technologies: pneumatics, electropneumatics, hydraulics, electrohydraulics, electronics, electrical engineering, sensors, robotics, CNC technology, PLC and fieldbus technology, manufacturing technology, and process engineering as well as mechatronics.

Festo Didactic products combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience in automation and technology.

Intuitive and fast learning is achieved through practical learning systems and learning factories, which makes the technologies and processes used in industrial production, immediately tangible and illustrate them in an understandable way. People in training are able to use these systems to gather the real, practical experience that they need to work independently in industry, and quickly contribute to a company’s productivity.

What is your take on the current landscape of the Robotics and Automation industry, and what does their potential hold, in the future?

Introducing advanced manufacturing and robotics programs into schools at an earlier age is a crucial piece to solving the STEM skills shortage. Teaching students to work alongside robots and how to operate them won’t be limited to industrial environments. It’s hard to imagine jobs in the future that won't have an element of automation or IoT/IIoT integration. Our current reality, and future reality, is a highly digital world where the pace of change and frequent market disruptions will require workers to be nimble and learn how to adapt quickly to these changes.

W e at Festo, leverage our expertise in the industrial sector to create holistic learning environments and workforce development training for middle school, high school and college students

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What does Festo’s future roadmap include, in terms of expansion, innovation and development?

The Festo Industry Certification Program (FICP), our new comprehensive industry skills certification, is based on industry and education partnerships to ensure students have the right set of skills to be industry ready. FICP evolved from our global industrial automation division and technical education experience over the past six decades.

The Mechatronics Apprenticeship Program was established by Festo Didactic to address the workforce skills gap in Advanced Manufacturing. MAP is designed to help individuals learn advanced manufacturing skills from employer partners while they earn an associate’s degree in mechatronics in partnership with Sinclair Community College in Mason, Ohio. The program's mission is to help employers develop skills that are missing in today's workforce by combining theoretical education with hands-on and on-the-job training.

Bionics4Education is an innovative learning environment offering a range of projects inspired by nature. This technology connects familiar, nature-based activities with complex robotics and engineering in project-based learning experiences that increase accessibility and comprehension for student learners. This innovative learning model allows students to gain important 21st century skills including creativity, innovation, and problem solving. Teaching students to see the world differently, Bionics4Education helps students draw upon and synthesizes knowledge from different disciplines to develop a solution.

About the CEO For over two decades, Thomas Lichtenberger has dedicated his career to advancing the global automation industry. As the CEO of Festo Didactic Inc., Thomas is responsible for all market and sales activities in North America. A passionate advocate for career and technical education, Thomas is committed to closing the STEM skills gap, improving workforce development, and Industry 4.0 career readiness.

Prior to joining Festo, Thomas served as President and CEO for Festo Canada, where he oversaw all business activities of the automation market. He led the transformation into a profitable and successfully focused company that became the market leader in Canada. Before he moved to Canada in 2008, Thomas had several senior management positions in Festo's headquarters in Germany.

Thomas holds an executive MBA from the Graduate School of Business Administration in Zurich and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Karlsruhe, Germany.

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|April 2019|

BLUE FROG ROBOTICS

R

obotics is said to be the next technological revolution. The advances in robotics and AI are happening rapidly and the demand for consumer robotic solutions is growing. We are moving towards a world full of robots shifting from a phase largely dominated by domestic robots (e.g., vacuums, mops and lawnmowers) into robots engaging directly with humans in the form of personal assistants or family companions. Tomorrow, companion robots will be part of our lives as the smartphone is one of them today although we would never have imagined it at first. We can say that for successful customer adoption, “Emotional Artificial Intelligence” is the key. By understanding this technological shift Blue Frog Robotics has introduced BUDDY Robot and redefined the way we interact with technologies by creating a user-friendly, proactive and engaging interface with an unbeatable charm.

Fundamentally, BUDDY is about a new way of interacting with technology, is a new entertainment platform, security system and assistant for all the family, able to grow and learn with each member to enable richer interactions, while enhancing the quality of life at all age.

Blue Frog Robotics is a cutting-edge French start-up and developer of BUDDY, the first Emotional Robot for

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Developing Amazing Emotional Robots with Passion

the all family, with dedicated services for B2B2C supported by emotional interactions and autonomous behaviors.

BUDDY generates empathy and an emotional connection almost instantaneously that makes people feel affection for him

BUDDY: The Emotional Robot BUDDY is the emotional companion that connects, protects, and interacts with each member of the family.

BUDDY can secure, assist, connect and entertain elders at home or in senior housing. He is also the perfect emotional robot to teach and play with children especially those with special needs. This ready to go market, emotional platform, and robot solution

address also robot manufacturers, distributors or licensees that need robots with “smart” and emotional capacities (behavior, adaptability, proactivity, etc.).

The architect behind the Blue Frog Robotics Rodolphe Hasselvander is the CEO and Founder of Blue Frog Robotics.

He is a pioneer engineer and entrepreneur in industrial & personal robotics. He has been working in robotics for over 20 years, including Artificial Intelligence, educational and assistance robots, autonomous cars and platforms, humanoid robots and other kinds of robots for logistic, defense, surgery & construction. He has been leading the CRIIF, a well-known French robotics lab and decided in 2014 to create to transfer these high robotics technologies in accessible robots like BUDDY for consumers.

Rodolphe had always the dream to develop an emotional companion robot to change the life of millions of people.

Challenge achieved as after 4 years of R&D, we are ready for global B2B2C deployment in 2019.

The Inception of Buddy Robot Blue Frog Robotics team had the desire to make robots that will help people to

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ASTONISHING COMPANIES IN

ROBOTICS 2019

live a better life. After developing robots for nuclear, healthcare and defense applications, the company believes that the time for consumer robotics has come. At first, the original idea of BUDDY was born out of the need to help the elderly to live alone longer with the aim at answering a challenging issue: overcoming loneliness and isolation of people by erasing the complexity of technology. Therefore, the company created an endearing and cute robot that people want to bond with. When Blue Frog Robotics started to introduce BUDDY to the public, he has been received so warmly by many users. Therefore, the company decided that their product had to match the current needs for daily life at all age and developed it with three sacrosanct principles: create empathy, make it accessible to the greatest number and scalable/upgradeable.

Exclusive Offerings from Blue Frog Robotics Blue Frog Robotics develops a disruptive product, especially endearing, to have a significant impact on business and society. It creates a simple, reliable, massmarket product that can evolve easily and erase the technology’s complexity in favor of useful services. As the technology advances with giant strides, BUDDY is not intended to be embedded in a sclerotic model. The robot must, therefore, be able to integrate many applications.

Since BUDDY is built on a modular and flexible platform, the global community of BUDDY hardware and software developers can easily enrich the portfolio of applications specifically targeted to professionals, including Eldercare, Education and IoT industries.

Improving Continuously to Serve Distinctly Blue Frog Robotics has already signed with some key corporate partners to start full-scale tests with BUDDY. Among them, the European leader in Ageing-Well, KORIAN, who will start experimentation with elderly, based on the unique capabilities of BUDDY to provide permanent assistance for both health caregiver and senior (safety/security, 24Hr monitoring service, alert generation, social link, entertainment etc.).

The company also have other projects under development within the Education field (Robot Avatar to help sick children stay connected with schoolmates) and with a Healthcare major player to develop a therapy robot for special kids.

On hospitality services, Blue Frog worked with SNCF (French railway company) to create and unique and original travel experience on board where BUDDY animates the iDTGV wagon bar and with SOMFY (world leader in door and window automation for the home and building

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Rodolphe Hasselvander CEO & Founder industry) to drive clients’ visit inside the brand-new experience center at their headquarter.

Benefits for Customers In order to deliver the most acceptable, usable and emphatic robot, Blue Frog Robotics creates and develops a modular endorsed EAIF (Emotional AI Framework) for their clients to build innovative and differentiating solutions, services and applications for enhanced customer experience creation. By allowing robots to have meaningful interactions with end-users, clients can create a more personalized user experience and increase business value.

Future Roadmap of Blue Frog and Robots At Blue Frog, whole team is passionate about bringing personal robotics to the next level. Their goal is that everyone to adopt his emotional companion robot. BUDDY will be the first real emotion robot and other robots will follow, maybe bigger and able to do more “concrete” as true humanoid robots.“In ten or fifteen years, we will all have a robot in our house. After all, in the early 1980s, the personal computer was only a distant mirage,” asserts Rodolphe.

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Catching-up with the

ROBOTICS for

Better

FUTURE R

obots have always been pictured as a man-made advanced technological creativity, which do and will favor the human species for future. As robotics is vibrantly globalized, soon it will be mainstreamed in various fields and sectors. Currently, there are numerous enterprises worldwide which are implementing robotics into industrial, healthcare and commercial use.

Whereas, robotics have experienced a lot of up’s and down’s during this tenure, but with the time, it held a stronghold in the digital world.

Whenever the discussion arises about the applications of robotics, the industrial sector has bespoken benefits’. Robots have become more affordable, smart and productive over the years. The sectors like agriculture, construction, warehousing and logistics, and customer services. By investing more in robots, an enterprise

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Future-Bots

will be solving certain problems more accurately and efficiently. Meanwhile, utilizing robots will help enterprises to push their limits in order to fill up the productivity voids.

With each slippage of time, the technology is upgrading so does the robotics. The advancements in robotics field will be a boon to the enterprises in order to increase growth and productivity rate. There are certain parameters that should be considered while implementing robotics in the enterprise, such as Following up Parameters before Reaching the Depth of Robotics Modifying; as per the user’s need Generally, robots used to require advanced training in order to operate comfortably. It’s not an issue for the big enterprises as they acquire the skilled people to deal with, where the small enterprises are not so gifted with

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loads of assets initially. But, with the new advances in robotics technologies, it has become easier for small ventures to invest in robots for increasing the productivity generating more revenue.

Just by giving wireless commands from an IOT, demonstrating tasks to the robots gets easier. Nowadays, there are numerous varieties of robots to carry out multitasks, thus as per the user’s need, one can invest in robots for the industrial purpose.

Easily Compatible Unlike the big manufacturing robots in huge industries, there are various collaborative robots which are specially designed to work alongside and to assist human workers in a variety of tasks. Earlier it was sort of stressful for an enterprise to allot specific man-power for certain task, but by implementing co-bots such issues are resolved. As the size and shape of co-bots are getting more

compact, it may benefit the enterprises in various terms.

Easy to Develop Earlier robots were not able to program easily due to the incompatibility between the user interface and hardware. But, now Robotic Operating System (ROS) is dominating the industry by providing solutions for varied robots in order to perform the task without lagging. It’s an opensource framework which helps developers to redirect the programming in different ways. This open-source framework is dominating the growth towards the constructive direction.

Amplifying the Range of Applied Robotics The 21st century—is the era of implementing new ideology and technologies in various sectors. While technological disruption has collectively affected every possible

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sector, robotics is still unaffected. From past few years, the technology, as well as its implementation, has increased substantially. Have a look on such few areas for possible applications.

Obliging Enterprises through Robotics Cobot’s: Assisting Humans Unlike big manufacturing robots, collaborative robots are designed to work with employees in enterprises and corporates. The design is smart enough to assist humans and also, compact enough to handle. Generally, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are slightly boon by implementing co-bots in day to day life, as they are easily adaptable, easy to process and most importantly it’s affordable. According to some experts, there’s a possibility of enormous growth in the business, if Co-bots are implemented widely. The main motive of industrial robots is to the prioritized safety of employees and workers, yet the chances of accidents are always at high risk. Whereas, co-bots works as a service robot; they come in various shape and sizes easing the workability and reducing the liability of employees. In order to get sanctioned as service robots, any co-bot has to pass certain testing parameters by robot manufacturing companies, factors such as easily compatible with other devices and programs, safe in use, easy to command, and processing at a faster rate. Currently, co-bots are used for processes like machine tending, packaging, and material handling. In spite of industries, co-bots are used in various sectors such as in farming, hospitals, healthcare and facilities, and labs. It does come under robot-as-aservice format.

with personal robotics cloud which will help robots to take and give information directly. Depending on the robot, it can process various functions such as lifting, leveraging, handle vision, object recognition and other, thus certain robots acquire such skills and will provide information to the cloud. Then, this information helps other robots to get enlightened. In simple words to say, robots will teach other robots for the better good of the enterprises. On the other hand, as robots are getting more and more evolved, filtering of essential information from rest will get much easier. This will comfort both big and small enterprises to manage big data more precisely.

With the emergence of advancement in robotics, they are on the verge to touch skies already. If considering the above possible factors, this evergreen era of robotics is less likely to get saturated due to technological disruption. As the technologies are growing faster, the enterprises must to catch-up with them accordingly. It’s high time to implement new technologies especially of the robotics as its utilization is not only subjected to warehouses but also, towards the inhouse enterprise work. Hopefully, there’s a possibility of robot-oriented industries in the future.

Cloud Robotics Imagine an enterprise with robots that are totally independent to the user commands, in other words, no external programming may require in order to process robots for the various tasks. In accordance to that, a User Interface to be exact might not be needed in the future, as machine learning is already on its verge to get explored. Currently, in order to carry out certain tasks robots are been told to what to do using the interface whereas, cloud robotics directly twitch compatible code from the clouds which are required for the tasks. To work alongside with humans, robots must be deep learning the subjects simultaneously able to point out problems and provide solutions right away. Meanwhile, it will be a boon for the enterprises if the employees will get to interact with robots as a personified object rather than a machine. Soon, there

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|April 2019|

Impact of Blockchain technology in Logistics industry Raghu Bala CEO NetObjex Inc

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raghu Bala CEO, NetObjex Inc is based in Southern California. Raghu formerly worked with Yahoo, Infospace, PwC, and with 3 successful startup exits.

He is a Wharton MBA in Finance, MS in Computer Science from RPI, ExColumbia University Adjunct Lecturer, published author and major conferences including IoT Congress, Google IO, and more. His Current focus areas are Decentralized computing, Distributed ledgers, IoT, and Cryptocurrencies respectively.

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Expert’s Insights

T

he Logistics Industry is a key segment in several world economies, including that of the United States.

Using a study from AT Kearney, it accounted for about 7.5% of GDP in 2016. The Logistics industry is made up of several subsegments including: • • • • • • • • •

Motor Carriers e.g. JB Hunt, Old Dominion Parcel Delivery e.g. Fed Ex, UPS Rail e.g. CSX, Norfolk Southern Container Shipping e.g. Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd Air Freight e.g. DHL, Martinair Pipeline companies e.g. Enbridge, Kinder Morgan Freight Forwarders e.g. Kuehne+Nagel, Sinotrans Third Party Logistics e.g. CH Robinson, XPO Logistics Warehousing Companies e.g. Ryder, Geodis

Many of the players in the above list bleed over into the other segments and offer a broad product mix.

Technology has continued to be the catalyst for change in the Logistics industry. New business models are being constantly developed and driving the industry towards a flexible, connected, optimized supply chain. Customer

|April 2019|

expectations also continue to evolve with a greater need for immediacy, convenience and personalization at the core.

AI, IoT, and Blockchain technologies have a major role to play in this evolution.

Logistics, in general, involves a Chain of Custody where goods change hands between multiple parties. For instance, a Seller in China wishes to ship goods to a Buyer in the US. It is very likely that in this scenario the goods e.g. a Container will go through several intermediaries e.g. trucking companies, shipping companies before reaching the buyer.

At present, most of this journey is fairly opaque in that once the goods leave the custody of the Sender, there is very little insight as to its status until it arrives at the Buyer. When single companies handle the entire shipment e.g. FedEx, DHL etc then there is slightly more visibility through mobile notifications and web based tracking via tracking numbers. But when multiple carriers are involved, tracing and tracking becomes exponentially more difficult and is not being handled most effectively at present.

Enter Blockchain to the rescue. Blockchain is a form of

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Source: NetObjex Inc

Distributed Ledger technology may be just what the doctor ordered when it comes to improving the transparency in the Logistics industry. Blockchain technology provides a transparent, tamper proof, and immutable ledger – three properties which could help mitigate several of the inefficiencies in Logistics.

Before we examine Blockchain in detail, let us quickly list some of the common issues faced in Logistics: • • • • •

Inefficiency e.g. goods not arriving on time Loss e.g. goods perishing enroute due to improper handling Theft e.g. goods being stolen due to lack of security measures Counterfeiting e.g. goods being replaced with counterfeit goods Fraud e.g. document fraud where documents such as bill of lading are modified

With this context in mind, let us study how Blockchain can help in Logistics. First, blockchain technology is extremely useful in ecosystems involving multiple players who work with one another but there may be trust issues. The Logistics ecosystem easily qualifies in this regard. Second, most of what ails the ecosystem is a lack of accountability which is brought about by the lack of transparency. For instance, in the chain of custody, if all the ecosystem participants have their own information silos (either automated or otherwise), then there is a lack of a common set of truths or a common system of record. This leads to inefficiency, errors, and even fraud. Third, compound this already maligned ecosystem by saddling it customer requirements such as cold chain shipments where temperature has to be maintained within specific thresholds e.g. pharmaceuticals or wine.

In all three cases, Blockchain is a perfect fit. First, it helps all ecosystem participants’ work off of the same data by sharing data across trust boundaries breaking down the silos on information. Second, when coupled with IoT technology for real time data acquisition, blockchain can be used for governance and accountability in Chain of Custody situations.

For instance, in a cold chain shipment, one can easily ascertain which party was responsible for a shipping container while in transit when the temperature gauge reading went outside of the preset thresholds.

Blockchain promises to be a game changing technology and something that is a very good fit for the Logistics business and all of its complexity.

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|April 2019|

CONSEQUENTIAL ROBOTICS Providing Global Platform to Develop Next Generation Consumer and Commercial Robots

C

onsequential Robotics [CqR] delivers the best of international design and engineering to the development of next generation consumer and commercial robots. It aims to create new robot platforms that are inclusively designed, attractive, effective and helpful, with the long-term aim to enhance the quality of human life.

The emphasis is on emotional engagement with technology and understanding how people will use robots in their lives at home, at work, at schools, and in shared spaces.

Robots will be the eyes, ears and brains of the intelligent house or the smart office, designed to work safely and unobtrusively; complementing and assisting people not replacing them.

Working closely with international academic and industrial collaborators, CqR employs the latest artificial intelligence, navigation, mechatronic, human-machine interface and flexible manufacturing technologies to create robots that are likeable, reliable, and easy to use.

Founder of Consequential Robotics An engineer at heart, Sebastian Conran has design in the blood, focused on designing technologies to make them more emotionally engaging. He is passionate about creating thoughtful & elegant products that are satisfying to use. He believes ‘form follows fabrication’ and that one must thoroughly understand how things are to be made & experienced

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before you put pencil to paper.

From working in his father’s industrial design studio in the early 1970's to founding the Consequential Robotics in 2015, Sebastian’s life has been focused on understanding how things are made, sold, used and experienced.

We aim to create new robot platforms that are inclusively designed, attractive, effective and helpful, with the long-term aim to enhance the quality of human life

As well as creating ingenious, thoughtfully designed and satisfying products. At present he is also visiting Professor of Design & Innovation at Bristol Robotics Lab and Designer in Residence at the University of Sheffield’s engineering faculty.

As the CEO of Consequential Robotics and Sebastian Conran Associates design studio, Sebastian takes a hands-on, down-to-earth

approach to all his design & development projects, sharing his wealth experience on user needs and manufacturing expertise with the design team. His design team has received much international acclaim and many awards for design & innovation as well as being granted over fifty patents and design patents in various fields.

“Robotics have fascinated me since childhood, however the dream/nightmare portrayed in many movies has until now been fairly illusory. But now with the advent more highly developed AI technology and sensors we are beginning to be able to realize and develop useful consumer facing robotics with true autonomy rather than single purpose devices used in manufacturing or washing dishes,” asserts Sebastian.

MiRo-E: Next Generation Personal Robot In the future robots will share our personal space; interact with us and with each other to provide emotional engagement, security and entertainment; so it is essential that the students of today learn coding for such devices.

Miro-E is developed specifically for such education to demonstrate & develop human/robot and robot/robot interaction, MiRo-E has a wideranging suite of sensors. There are 11 degrees of freedom, which provides for rich expressive communication and

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behavioral coding opportunities.

Now shipping in its 3rd generation the MiRo-E is a highly specified, low-cost, flexible and fully programmable autonomous AI robotic platform for students, researchers, educators, developers and healthcare professionals. With six biomimetic senses, over 30 sensors, an innovative braininspired control system and a simulation software package. (www.miro-e.com) MiRo is based on the simple premise that animals have qualities that are desirable in today’s social robots. They are robust, adaptable and good at communicating their feelings.

Consequential Robotics approach is to build robots that think and operate very much like animals; from their senses and decision-making processes, all the way through to their body forms and behaviors. MiRo particularly suited to robot-human interaction and robot-robot team interaction.

MiRo-E was created by Consequential Robotics in association with leading international universities and educationalists. It was designed & developed in collaboration with the acclaimed Sebastian Conran Associates studio and leading universities, as a loveable companion robot platform with big potential. MiRo-E is the next generation of personal robots that will go beyond mere toy-like gadgets, creating rewarding engagement for users.

Being friendly, familiar and animal-like rather than an underperforming disappointing humanoid, people respond to MiRo with a different set of expectations that are more easily matched and exceeded by today’s nascent AI technology. Interacting with MiRo is undoubtedly a fun emotionally satisfying experience for all ages.

Benefits for Clients of Consequential Robotics Understanding & learning AI coding is becoming an important educational skill. MiRo-E provides unparalleled interaction with students and their environment, providing an opportunity to engage non-STEM minded students in the Digital Curriculum and has been proven to change the way learners view themselves in the context of STEM.

Sebastian Conran CEO and in various subjects to provide a well-balanced multilevel learning experience. Example teaching modules help guide educators to develop learning materials.

Future Strategies of Consequential Robotics CqR is mainly focused on meeting the needs of the aging population, by using AI robotics to help people in later life look after themselves and remain able, independent and happy as long as they possible, without being too much of a burden on others.

MiRo-E’s engaging pet-like personality stands out from other educational robots, stimulating the imaginations of all students, not just of those already excited by technology.

They understand and learn how to code AI robotic behaviors, implementing their creative ideas through the highly specified flexible platform.

MiRo-E is an excellent classroom tool for all, including SEN and student emotional care. It can be used from P-12

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HOW

STARTUPS CAN CAPITALIZE

ON IOT'S NEW

CO-ECONOMY

I

nternet of Things (IoT) is one of the key technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution which promises to transform and disrupt our current business. It’s like a “do or die” thing. Even though Kevin Ashton have coined the term “IoT” in 1999, it’s only four to 5 years ago that we see a sudden increase of renewed interest in IoT due to multiple factors such as the price of hardware becoming cheaper, communications becoming more pervasive, software development becoming more easier, Moore’s Law doubling the computing power and the impact of Metcalf’s network effects.

We are also seeing a transformation in the business model. Initially, it’s all about technology-based, product-based or service-based business model. However, with IoT, we can offer a new business model based on outcome. For example, I will pay your solution if it can guarantee to reduce my electricity bill by 30% or pay me this amount if I can guarantee you that your healthcare costs reduce by 50% this year.

The new business posed great challenge since it requires enough data or information to make a particular decision.

These data can come from various sources including the sensor data. Building an IoT solution requires many parties to be involve since every part of the IoT value-chain requires specialization such as chipsets, devices, connectivity, middleware, applications, data analytics and system integration.

Below are the main key factors how Startup can capitalize on IoT’s new co-economy: 1. Leverage their agility – Startup work faster than many bigger companies. They are more innovative and have faster decision process. Successful Startup will be normally acquired by bigger companies to be part of their whole ecosystem.

2. Specialist in their own areas – Startup is excellent in one or two things. They have the knowledge depth in specific area. They can be a very good partner and to fill the gap required by a bigger project.

3. Capturing the immature market – IoT is still at an infancy stage but have great potential. With the use of cloud, IoT services can be reach worldwide. A smart building or smart parking solution can have their IoT middleware resides across the world.

4. Think big but start small – IoT have four maturity phases. In many IoT implementation journey, we can start with as simple as monitoring and later towards control. As we include more sensors and actuators, we can reach the phase of optimise and finally the ultimate phase of making the solution autonomous.

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|April 2019|

CXO Standpoint

About the Author Dr. Mazlan Abbas is the CEO and Co-founder of FAVORIOT, a Malaysian IoT Start-up that focuses on providing a peace of mind solu on called RAQIB for the pilgrims and their family members during performing their Hajj. Favoriot also offers RAQIB to monitor the elderly's health, safety, and loca on. Both solu ons above comprised of Smart Wearables connected to FAVORIOT IoT middleware.

The middleware is now being used by more than 20 organiza ons to build their own IoT solu ons.

Dr. Mazlan Abbas CEO & Co-founder

5. IoT DNA – Startup should capitalize the journey of an individual organization’s digital transformation journey from the beginning. Understanding their pain points and providing the IoT solution is similar to a doctor prescribing medicines for their patient until they recover from their illness. Only the regular or the “house” doctor know the patient well enough – thus, be their IoT DNA. IoT has taken a long journey and now it has become an integral part of Fourth Industrial Revolution and beyond.

It will be very pervasive and will change the landscape of current business whether you like it or not. It is no longer a monopoly economy due to multiple technologies and specific talents required. Startups have to take quickly leverage and capitalize the opportunity now.

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FoldiMate

Making One of the Most Hated Household Chores Easy

I

t’s safe to say that we’re already living in the robotic era - you can see Robotics in every aspect of our daily lives and businesses. Not only in manufacturing, where it has become critical to the success of the business, but we are also starting to see Robots being used as bartenders, chefs, bellboys, security guards, hospital aids, military aids, teachers and so much more.

household appliance, such as a small fridge or a washer. FoldiMate folds your laundry quickly; you can fold a laundry load in less than 5 minutes. It can fold shirts, blouses, pants and even towels. It can fold clothing for age 6 years up to XXL.

At home, robotic products are still less common than in business, though we can’t ignore the robotic vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers that so many of us already own. But this will definitely change as we look into the future and especially thanks to innovative, visionary robotics company, FoldiMate.

Take the work OUT of laundry folding

FoldiMate will be the only viable automated (robotic) solution to fold clothes manually for millions of homes and businesses around the world. Industry players have been trying for years to achieve what this company has succeeded in doing within only 2 years of R&D: With FoldiMate it takes less than 5 minutes to easily fold an entire laundry load into neatly folded piles.

FoldiMate is the first company to develop a robotic laundry folder that is around the size of an existing

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Innovator of FoldiMate Gal Rozov is the Founder and CEO of FoldiMate. First and foremost, Gal is a family man and is happily married with 3 kids. He is also a technology geek who believes in solving problems with technology.

He is constantly searching for gadgets and solutions to improve his life or save time.

Gal worked in the hi-tech industry for the past twenty years. He started out as a software developer and moved on to finish his bachelor's degree in business management and then assumed various leadership positions which required both a business and technology focus. It was always important for him to see the big picture and not just the technical aspect. He is now enjoying the fact that he is creating something that will not only improve his own quality of life but the lives of his friends, colleagues and everyone else in the world.

The Inspiration Behind the Inception of FoldiMate Nowadays it’s very challenging to find quality time with your family, no matter what type of work you do.

Everyone who works in the twentyfirst century is challenged by time or lack thereof. Gal has always felt that he should share the burden of the household chores, but he is the first to admit that he isn’t that good at chores and doesn’t particularly enjoy them.

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One of his responsibilities is filling and emptying the dishwasher. It was this particular chore that caused him to think of an appliance that could fold the laundry. His wife didn’t approve of his laundry folding standards, but perhaps if there was a machine that could do the difficult part of the folding he could help with this tiresome and hefty chore too. If he could only feed the items into a folder and it would do the difficult part - the folding, just as the dishwasher does the cleaning.

Gal’s aim to help with additional household chores was the original inspiration to develop a laundry folder, and only a robotics device could possibly cope with folding laundry. Until recently it would have been too expensive to attempt to develop such a product, but with recent robotic advancements, such as processing costs, supply chains, assembly, communications and software updates, it is now possible to build such a robot at a sufficiently low cost that would make it affordable for consumers and businesses.

Benefits for FoldiMate Users There are a few huge benefits to using the FoldiMate.

Firstly, it saves time. Recently, during early pilots in the USA, the FoldiMate team ran competitions between FoldiMate and manual folding and they saw, time and time again, that FoldiMate can fold at least twice as fast as folding manually. Secondly, now everyone can fold the laundry. Your kids will even fight over using it as it is really simple to use and they discovered, during the pilots, that the kids find it pretty cool too and actually enjoyed folding. FoldiMate will make sure that your closets are organized with neatly folded piles.

Gal Rozov Founder & CEO

The Future-Ready Consumer-Oriented Approach “It is a very challenging task for a robot to fold our laundry. Developing a technology that can handle the wide variety of items in our closet takes time to mature and finalize. The FoldiMate can’t be compared to a standard household appliance and even a robotic vacuum cleaner for that matter. We have finally achieved this major milestone and are now making sure our fans love it as much as we do. All of these steps take time and we still have the long and costly manufacturing process ahead of us,” describes Gal about their future-ready products and achievements.

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|April 2019|

Expert’s Opinion

Transforming

Data based

Solutions Ondrej Tomas is the CEO of CleverAnalytics.com CleverAnalytics is Location Intelligence and Analysis platform driven by the business cases of CEOs, COOs, Network, Sales and Marketing executives. It excels in processing really large data sets and combining internal and external data into one data model.

|April 2019|

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For quite a few years now Data is a new business mantra.

Data is strategic asset, data is a key to unlock real business potential. Everything seems to dance around the data fire.

So why would there be any need for more data, more data analytics, more tools?

Obviously the challenging part is turning the data into information and turning the information into valuable insights. I personally went through many iterations of this value chain. I was on the vendor side providing data warehouse technology and business intelligence tools as well as being on the customer side, trying to find the right tools, getting the IT environment together with the business one, fighting for the data to give answers. It is not easy!

Especially when you have a very precise idea what you want and what the outcome should look like. All that leads to some frustration and complexity issues.

However, the world of technology changes fast and a lot of frustrating tasks from the past are nowadays so easy to resolve. Why is that?

I am observing a few key trends and elements for this development. First and foremost, it is cloud computing adoption, secondly, it is machine learning and artificial intelligence principles and thirdly it is new large data sources that bring the “material” that can be and should be analyzed.

Cloud computing is the biggest democratization principle found in last decades. Cloud computing scaled down and brought up super advanced analytics to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Just a few years back only the biggest and wealthiest companies could afford to run large data centers with huge racks and server farms running all that expensive software tools from prime vendors. Today you can rent that technology for just a few moments to run your job at a fraction of a price and with the possibility to pay with your credit card. Not only can you rent infrastructure you can also rent software and you can choose from tens and hundreds of tools. When you don’t like the tool, you just stop the subscription and move to some more convenient tool. This is a true revolution. You own all the possibilities of this modern world with a single credit card in your pocket! What a massive impact this has. For example, any company in the world can decide NOT to have any IT! I mean servers, hardware, IT people... You can just run on cloud services. Without any back-office and in fact, you do not even need a physical office or company cars!

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Machine learning is closely connected with cloud computing. Without cloud there would not be machine learning in the form we know it today. Machine learning works only when you have enough data for the machine to feed. And that exactly is the role of cloud. That applies also to ML software capabilities. Few years ago there was just nothing except for some super expensive and proprietary tools. Nowadays you do a few clicks on AWS (amazon web services) and you run your first ML query! Needless to say what amazing possibilities this brings to data turning into information.

For our own technology (location intelligence platform) this meant an interesting breakthrough. All of a sudden we could provide our normal users with a simple analysis after initial data load that showed basic behavioral patterns. Just on one click. Amazing! Using computing power and know how of people that we would not be able to buy in a lifetime…

But machine learning brings more. It learns every minute, every day some more, it learns more with more data.

Thanks to this we all got used to using Siri on our phones or Alexa in our “smart” homes. All that being more capable every day due to machine learning. What a life changing technology!

My third topic was new large data sets as a raw material to be analyzed. And there are so many! We have a rising star internet of things (IoT) together with Blockchain, internet browsers related data, smartphones generated data, etc..

And sometimes you do not even need a new source of data.

Sometimes you just find a new use for the data already existing. Such as for us utilizing the location based data.

There is a location element in more than 80% of all business related data today. Almost everything can be localized. Your phone calls, your card payments, your car parking, your web browsing… All this represents large data sets that wait for exploring. The fun part is that this is only a start of a new trend. There will simply be more and more data - i.e. more possibilities for turning them into a valuable insights. Yet only 0,5% of all data is now being analyzed.

95,5% of all data are not being touched! It is like our knowledge of oceans. Yes, we know a lot and we are learning fast, yet we only know so little :-) So, exciting times are ahead thanks to all this amazing technology. And where politicians fail in their attempts to pursue democracy, it is technology that brings democracy into our lives as the most natural thing.

|April 2019|

Smarter Energy Grids

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|April 2019|

Digi Connection

H

uman beings have always looked up to nature and made efforts to learn from its basic principles.

Sonars were inspired by dolphins, light bulbs by fireflies, suction cups by octopus and robots itself to replicate human beings. One such instance that has been enthused by microorganisms is distributed ledger technology (DLT), widely known as blockchain.

“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

-Don & Alex Tapscott.

It records transactions between two clients without any third party authentication which is an efficient process when it comes to stable data. Blockchain provides data management without the threat of unauthorized access or manipulations. It is proving to be a solution for frequent problems in various fields. Blockchain technology has the capability to disrupt approximately every industry ranging from finance, to education to power.

Smart Meters Smart meters are used to record electrical usage. These meters enable us to monitor our electrical consumption more precisely which will help consumers make better energy choices. Through blockchain, clients can directly get the amount spent which eradicates middleman thus saving money. This creates a more resilient network for gadgets to run on. Smart meters can also provide accurate data to the provider without needing a direct link to the meter of particular users.

With the help of blockchain, producers of smart grids do not have to invest a humongous amount. Here the producers get paid instantly, which leads to less capital expenditure.

Besides this, blockchain can play a serious role in adjusting power flows through the amalgamation and optimization of local grids measured by the public or consortium modes. It can aid in the maintenance of permanent records by servicers, giving a flawless view of a particular object or part of infrastructure at any given time. This information can be retrieved easily as the structure is built on a shared platform, while retaining the authenticity of the record.

Blockchain Technology in Smarter Grids One of the areas in the energy industry where blockchain technology can disrupt the market is smart grids. Lately, blockchain has been well-thought-out as one of the developing technologies that can be used for developing decentralized grid topologies and revising the distributed management of energy businesses. Blockchain database is shared by all the nodes in the system. A node is an active device which can be connected to internet and has an IP address. Examples of devices include computers, tablets, phones and even printers. The job of a node is to upkeep the network by maintaining a copy of the blockchain and process transactions.

Benefits of Blockchain in Smarter Grids Blockchain can aid numerous utility industry requirements.

It can act as a foundation stone with the possibility of disrupting the prevailing ecosystem. With the promotion for e-vehicles and individuals shifting to electric cars, supply and demand of energy needs to keep pace. Here blockchain comes in the scenario with its peer-to-peer interconnectivity and sharing. This balances the demand from several foundations and makes the grid smarter by directing sharing.

As there are small and compact smart grids, consumers with the help of blockchain can simply trade energy with one another thus saving time and earning a few dollars. In the power industry, blockchain technology can ensure a 5D Impact: decentralization, digitization, democratization, distribution and deregulation. |April 2019|

While the possible benefits of the Smart Grid are usually discussed in terms of renewable energy goals, economics and national security, it has the potential to help save money by managing your electricity usage and choosing the best times to purchase electricity. Consumers can save even more by generating their power with the help of blockchain.

Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

It is assessed that the blockchain technology will add another $3.1 trillion by 2030. Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

Lastly, blockchain technology may eventually fast-track the evolution to what the power industry calls a “distributed world.” It is the sum of both small and large powergeneration structures for communities, businesses and home. To prosper in capitalizing the potential of distributed generation and supervising less foreseeable and more capricious renewable power sources, the trade's infrastructure must first become more agile and less centralized.

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