The monthly magazine for the robotics and automation industry Issue 12 April 2018 Hannover Messe Focus on digital integration
Aviation 3D printers to build supersonic aircraft
Medicine Robotics and automation in the medical sector
Interview Stefan Hartung of Bosch on developments at the global player
Arts & Culture ‘Humans’ prepares to return for a third series
Sensor Readings
Digitalisation and the greatest industrial show on Earth Abdul Montaqim Editor
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annover Messe is probably the largest and most important industrial technology show on Earth. The venue for the event spans an area the size of a small town and it takes several days to visit all of the most important areas you might be interested in. Covering an event of that magnitude from a journalistic point of view can be difficult if you’re interested in too many things. We may be about robotics and automation but when we think of all the related fields it can be somewhat overwhelming. The key thing that seems to have emerged about industrial technology over the past couple of years is that everything is becoming softwareoriented, with a process the industry calls “digitalisation”. The process of connecting the machines or hardware to computer networks, using sensors and chips, is still ongoing, but enough has been done to provide huge platforms for software development. Siemens’ MindSphere and GE Digital’s Predix are good examples of industrial internet platforms which provide developers with great new opportunities to create applications that can make a big difference to an industrial company in many ways. These include efficiencies in operations as well as new ways to research and develop products. We usually like to provide extensive coverage which goes from the research and development phase through manufacturing and logistics to the end user experience. In this regard, our interview with the Bosch IIoT boss, Stefan Hartung, was typical of the style we want to maintain – simple yet thorough explanations of complex subjects. One of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, Bosch’s activities range from competing in the consumer market to innovating in the industrial market. But they have more than 380,000 staff, so it’s okay for them. We don’t even have 1,000th of that number, which is why we ask you to subscribe and support us because we need extra staff if we are to make sense of the increasingly complex landscape for our readers. Having said that, even with our limited number of staff, the impact Robotics and Automation News has had on the coverage of the sector in the wider media is incalculable but massive. l
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Editorial
Contents
Aviation: 3D printers to build supersonic aircraft Arts & Culture ‘Humans’ prepares to return for third series
Interview: Stefan Hartung of Bosch Developments at the major global player
Hannover Messe: Focus on digital integration
Siemens to set up global robotics centre in China Graphene: A primer on the miracle material
Medicine: Robotics and automation in the medical sector Marketplace
Sensor Readings magazine Editorial & Production
Managing Editor Anna Schmidt Editor Abdul Montaqim
Art Editor Mark Allinson
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Email abdulmontaqim@roboticsandautomationnews.com Email markallinson@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Marketing & Advertising
Advertising Manager Maria Santiago Email mariasantiago@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Advertising Executive Sam Francis
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Marketing Director David Edwards Email davidedwards@roboticsandautomationnews.com Monsoon Media, London, United Kingdom Subscriptions: £10 per year (digital only) Single issue: £1 (digital version)
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Hannover Messe: Focus on digital integration of industry
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he digital integration of industry, energy and logistics is gathering pace, with traditional boundaries between industries breaking down, productivity rising and new business models popping up like mushrooms. In April 2018, Hannover Messe and CeMAT will lend their combined weight to this trend and take Industry 4.0 to the next level. In every smart factory scenario of the future, the starring roles will be played by two main factors: people and machinery. In order for them to achieve top performance, however, the power of digital integration will need to be leveraged to the fullest. “The integration of automation technology, IT platforms and machine learning will take Industry 4.0 to the next level,” commented Dr Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board at Deutsche Messe. “With ‘Integrated Industry – Connect & Collaborate’ as its lead theme, Hannover Messe 2018 will enable visitors from all around the world to experience the completely new forms of business, work and collaboration that are being made possible by our increasingly connected, digitally networked industrial landscape,” he added. “They will witness first-hand the benefits of integrated industry: enhanced productivity, future-proof jobs and exciting new business models.” The industrial landscape is changing fast. Factory technology is becoming ever more editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
efficient, industrial IT platforms are readily available on the market, and more and more industrial subcontractors are digitally integrated into their customer’s value chains. And now, with machine learning, machines and robots are increasingly able to make autonomous decisions. “Hannover Messe is the place to go to experience the rapid rise of Industry 4.0 and its benefits first-hand,” remarked Köckler. “The world’s leading manufacturers of automation technology, big-name robotics providers and global IT and software corporations will all be there, making the show an absolute global hotspot for Industry 4.0.” In manufacturing, production and logistics processes are becoming ever more closely integrated through intelligent technologies as part of the ongoing quest to boost efficiency and flexibility and hence lower costs. At CeMAT, visitors will be able to experience the convergence of production and logistics for themselves. “Given the lightning pace of integration between
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Hannover Messe is the place to go to experience the rapid rise of Industry 4.0 and its benefits first-hand Jochen Köckler
logistics and production processes, we will be offering visitors from all around the world an unprecedentedly comprehensive overview of current and emerging solutions for the future of logistics,” said Köckler. Energy for production and power grids for electric mobility Digitization is also transforming the energy industry. Innovative technologies are making our power systems more flexible, intelligently interconnecting different sectors and ushering in new market participants. These key developments will be profiled in depth at Hannover Messe’s Energy show. The show will profile various energy efficiency solutions that will enable industrial companies to achieve enormous savings and make a major contribution to climate protection. It will also present the technologies and steps needed to successfully transition the world to sustainable energy systems. “Everyone’s talking about the mobility transition, but the fact is, our power grids are simply not yet ready for the widespread use of electric cars,” explained Köckler. Higher load peaks The problem, according to the energy sector, is that electric mobility will result in much higher load peaks than are currently the norm. Moreover, eMobility won’t be able to deliver on its eco-friendly and sustainability promise unless the power it uses comes from renewable sources. “The solutions needed to create power grids that can make electric mobility feasible will all be on show at Hannover Messe,” summarized Köckler. “The digitization of industry, energy and logistics is moving ahead at pace,” he added. “And the consequences of this development are not limited to individual industries or markets. They are affecting our society as a whole and indeed the entire global economy and the very nature of work. “The opportunities are many, and if you want to seize them and be part of the future, then you can’t afford to miss Hannover Messe. Hannover Messe is the only trade show that provides the big picture on digitization and the integration of industry, energy and logistics,” he said. l
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Siemens to establish global robotics research and development centre in China
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ngineering giant Siemens is establishing a robotics research and development centre in China. The company says the facility will be a global research centre in autonomous robotics, and is part of its innovation strategy to “master technology fields that are critical for future success”. Worldwide, Siemens is planning to spend $6 billion this year on R&D, and China is likely to represent a significant portion of that budget. Siemens says the global research community in its China R&D centre will comprise experienced experts from around the world will focus on: l the research and development of new mechatronics systems, l human-robot collaboration; and l the application of artificial intelligence in robotic controllers. In line with this strategic move, Siemens has also entered into a partnership with Tsinghua University, one of Siemens’ Center of Knowledge Interchange universities, to jointly set up a robotics research center in Beijing. The company announced the move on Siemens Innovation Day China 2017, which was held in Suzhou today, on September 14. Around 400 customers and partners joined Siemens to explore the ways in which innovations are contributing to China’s transformation. Dr Roland Busch, chief technology officer and member of the managing board of Siemens, says: “China’s digital transformation is already having a profound impact on its economy. “With Made in China 2025 and the Belt & Road initiatives, China intends to upgrade its national industry and boost its global competence through digitalization-focused innovations. “Siemens is investing heavily in the future of China and partnering with the country and many customers on its way to digitalization.” In addition to autonomous robotics, Siemens’ core R&D areas in China include data analytics, cyber security, industrial editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Siemens’ headquarters in China
internet of things and digital twin, and connected city solutions.
Partnerships To tap the great potential of these technologies, Siemens has been partnering with Chinese governments, universities and customers to address challenges such as: l traffic congestion; l energy saving; l public convenience; and l the environment. The overall plan is to build “digital cities” across the country by optimizing the performance of infrastructure and improving the living conditions of city dwellers through its connected city solutions, says Siemens. Siemens has also been pushing its MindSphere industrial internet ecosystem to
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China’s digital transformation is already having a profound impact on its economy. Dr Roland Busch
China. Siemens and the Hong Kong Science Park today entered into an agreement to create Hong Kong’s first smart city digital hub. This hub will be powered by MindSphere, the cloud-based IoT operating system from Siemens, to tackle the city’s challenges through an “open, interactive and holistic approach”, says the company. Siemens has also extended its cooperation with Zhuhai for a “tailored, intelligent traffic management solution” and utilised Embedded City Sensor Boxes in the Suzhou Industrial Park to help reduce congestion and air pollution, optimize infrastructure operation and improve public safety, says the company. Earlier this month, the Siemens China Cyber Defense Center, which started operation this May, received official National Grade Protection Level 3 certification from China’s Ministry of Public Security. This and its previous ISO27001 certification from TÜV SÜD make Siemens the first industrial multinational company to be compliant with both local and international security standards and capable of protecting industries on their way to digitalization. Siemens has also teamed up with a number of local governments and 87 local universities and technology institutes in China to conduct scientific research and develop talent. Lothar Herrmann, CEO Siemens Greater China, says: “We’re constructing an open, inclusive and trust-based innovation ecosystem in China aimed at value co-creation in the digital age. “Siemens is bringing the next generation of innovations to life for our customers and society, in China and the world.” China has become one of Siemens’ largest R&D locations worldwide. In the year to September, 2016, Siemens had over 4,500 R&D researchers and engineers, 20 R&D hubs and more than 11,000 active patents and patent applications in China. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Aviation
3D printers to build supersonic aircraft New aircraft manufacturer Boom Supersonic is building a superfast plane using Stratasys 3D printing systems
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new aircraft manufacturer called Boom Supersonic is developing aeroplanes which can fly at speeds of almost 1,500 miles per hour. The design of Boom’s planes are reminiscent of the Concorde, the world’s first supersonic commercial jet airliner, operational from 1969 to 2003. But unlike the Concorde, Boom Supersonic’s planes are likely to feature numerous components produced using 3D printing, a technology which didn’t exist when Concorde was flying. The Concorde was eventually ended partly because of the cost of supersonic air travel, but Boom Supersonic is hoping to reduce the expense through the utilisation of new design and manufacturing techniques and technologies. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Boom has what’s described as a “technical partnership” with Stratasys, the additive manufacturing technology company which supplies very high-end 3D printers. The two companies say they want to “bring the commercial airline industry one step closer towards routine supersonic travel”.
Accelerating production Aimed at shaping the future of high-speed aviation, the three-year agreement was signed to help Boom accelerate production of advanced tooling and production-grade aircraft parts based on Stratasys FDM 3D printing technology. FDM is fused deposition modelling, one of the techniques for additive manufacturing or 3D printing. The companies say that by leveraging the design freedom, production speed, and heightened cost efficiencies of additive manufacturing, Boom plans for the first flight of XB-1, their supersonic demonstrator, to take place next year. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Aviation
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Boom is using Stratasys FDM-based Fortus 450mc and F370 3D printers – both designed to produce ondemand parts leveraging production-grade thermoplastics, as well as advanced manufacturing tools that perform even under aviation’s most challenging environments. Boom says its supersonic airliner will fly 2.6 times faster than any other aircraft on the market today. Accelerating to 1,451 miles per hour, the planes could reduce typical New York to London flight times of seven hours to just over three hours.
The Boom engineering office
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Affordable technology Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom, says: “Supersonic flight has existed for over 50 years, but the technology hasn’t existed to make it affordable for routine commercial travel. “Today’s significant advances in aerodynamics, engine design, additive manufacturing, and carbon fiber composite materials are transforming the industry at all levels. Additive manufacturing helps accelerate development of a new generation of aircraft. “With a proven track-record of success across aviation and aerospace, Stratasys now becomes a key catalyst in our design and production processes – helping to transform the future of aviation through the power of 3D printing.” The companies say the agreement which allows Boom to utilise use 3D printing solutions, materials and expert services will improve production speed and enable greater cost savings and performance across critical engineering and manufacturing processes at Boom’s headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Rich Garrity, president of Americas for Stratasys, says: “Boom is working towards a major breakthrough in supersonic, commercial airline travel – and we’re excited Stratasys is now playing a strategic role in helping them achieve their goals. “We are proud to add Boom Supersonic to a roster of leading aerospace companies successfully implementing our additive manufacturing solutions to deliver new innovations in aviation. “Stratasys’ engineering-grade, high-efficiency 3D printing solutions are perfectly suited for producing the complex part designs and custom manufacturing tools this industry demands.” l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
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Arts & Culture
‘Humans’ prepares to return for third series Arts & culture: The award winning UK TV series is coming back for another confrontation between humans and their ‘synth’ helpers – again raising ethical questions in an exploration of the boundaries between artifical intelligence and human consciousness.
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umans is a British television drama series which first aired in the middle of 2015. The first series had eight episodes, as did the second series a year
later. Set in the UK but in a parallel, fictional society, the series depicts a world where it’s commonplace for people to buy humanoid robots as though they were appliances – like washing machines or dishwashers – for the home. The robots are referred to as “synths”, short for editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
synthetic life forms. Although they look and act human in many ways, synths have no rights – they are treated as machines. In the first series, a typical family – husband, wife, two kids – were seen buying a robot called “Mia”, played by Gemma Chan. Mia was bought for domestic chores.
Robot roles In other, concurrent storylines within the series, robots were bought for a variety of other purposes. A robot called “Niska”, for example, played by Emily Berrington (main image, left), was put into prostitution. Generally, however, the robots in the series were used as domestic help. The show attracted some big-name actors from the beginning. Oscar-winner William Hurt, for example, plays a house-bound recluse who has a robot which looks after www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Arts & Culture
Features him. Fans of The IT Crowd comedy show will recognise Katherine Parkinson (main image, right), who plays a central role in the first series of Humans.
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It would be fair to say it’s being eagerly anticipated by its fans, many of whom say it’s one of the best shows on British TV in many years.
Trailing Trinity Carrie-Anne Moss, who played the character Trinity in The Matrix films, alongside Keanu Reeves, also played a big role in the second series of the show. Over the two series so far, Humans has been a critical and commercial success, making the actors recognisable faces if not full celebrities. The show has also inspired similar productions in other countries, and it could be argued that it prompted the return of big-budget franchises such as Westworld, which, as many will know, was originally a 1970s cinema movie, starring Yul Brynner among others. Humans is now filming its third series, although reports in the media suggest this time it will have fewer than eight episodes. It would be fair to say it’s being eagerly anticipated by its fans, many of whom say it’s one of the best shows on British TV in many years. The underlying tension in the story of Humans is created by synths becoming “self-aware” or “conscious”. The synths see they are being treated by humans as nothing more than machines, being kicked around, abused, physically and brutally attacked, and mistreated in innumerable ways. Most synths are unaware that this constitutes mistreatment – or vandalism, as some might suggest – and carry on regardless.
Awakening synths But other synths – the main protagonists of the show – develop what could be described as feelings or an awareness that something is wrong with the way they are being treated. With the help of some human sympathisers, these synths try and escape or fight back. The story has moved significantly further than that, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth binge-watching from the first episode in readiness for the third series when it’s out. We’ll try not to give away too much of the story of previous episodes, and what we’ve told you so far is probably typical of many sciencefiction stories of this type. What makes Humans stand out is the
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terrific cast and very high production values – it’s filmed beautifully, acted intelligently, and written in a way that is informative without being didactic. The overall feeling one gets is one of being in a discussion about what could happen in the future in the real world. When humanoid robots in the real world become as accomplished and as useful as the ones in Humans, how will human society deal with them? Human consciousness is often described as an inevitable byproduct of having so many brain cells which need to work together to figure things out. This is sort of related to something called “emergence”. In a similar way, artificially intelligent robots which are required to process large numbers of disparate data sets may develop theories of their own about, for example, better ways to wash dishes or clean the house than they were taught by the programmers.
Who’s in charge? Artificial intelligence systems are said to be capable of making decisions that they were not pre-programmed to make. AI programs can recognise patterns that humans could not spot, according to some of their makers. These are claims that are generally believed by humans because they can see some of the results – computers beating humans at chess and an even more complex game called “Go” being very high-profile examples of this. It’s inevitable, then, that machines of the future will be more intelligent than humans in practical ways – they’ll drive cars better, build houses better, do our work better than we ever did. And it would seem, then, that such intelligent machines will experience the emergence of something that will probably be too similar to what we call consciousness for it to be dismissed and ignored for long. If they look human, act human, and feel pain like humans, there will inevitably be people who would argue that they should be given the equivalent of human rights. Maybe these rights will initially be nothing more than an extension of existing laws about damage to property, or some version of animal rights laws to cover intelligent and possibly sentient machines. But who knows what will happen in the future? We don’t. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
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Interview
A giant company built on tiny components: Interview with Bosch industrial internet boss In this interview, Stefan Hartung, a senior member of the board at Bosch, talks extensively about the industrial internet, detailing some of the components and devices the company uses to give old machines a new lease of life, and provides some insight into the company’s plans going forward
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osch is as relevant in today’s computerised world as it was after the end of the first industrial age, and the company’s main concern now is keeping it that way. Its relevance comes from making the power tools and household appliances most readers will be familiar with, and also from its development of ideas and technologies which are likely to shape a future which many of us haven’t even thought about yet. Nowadays, all the talk is of Industry 4.0, an umbrella editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
term to describe a range of technologies which have at their centre two tiny components: sensors and chips – both of which are Bosch’s essential stock in trade. And if you want someone to blame for the Industry 4.0 phrase, look no further than Bosch, because it was part of the working group of German industrial giants which coined the term in 2011. In the intervening years, the description has started to make sense, as it refers to the simple idea that the world is going through a fourth industrial revolution. Just to provide context to the idea: l the first industrial revolution was brought about by mechanisation and steam power; l the second industrial revolution was essentially about electrification and mass manufacturing; l the third industrial revolution is said to have been led by computers and automation systems; and l the fourth industrial revolution is where everything is connected together into what are called “cyberwww.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Interview
physical systems” – meaning ning the integration of software and hardware and nd even humans. Such things are probably more important to a company which has been around ound as long as Bosch, but maybe not so much to companies panies which emerged in the last decade or two, for whom m “100 BC” might mean “100 years before computers”. Which is about the time when Bosch was established – 130 years ago to be exact, and computers of course only started becoming widespread spread about 30 years ago. But in an interview with Robotics Robotics and Automation News, Stefan Hartung, a senior ior member of the board of management at Bosch, says this is just the “first phase” of a new learning curve for the company. Hartung’s responsibilities include industrial technology, y y, energy and building technology, ogy, y manufacturing coy, egy. ordination, and general strategy. The company is building a new, billion-dollar lant in Dresden, semiconductor fabrication plant Germany, and is preparing too launch an ter for vehicles artificially intelligent computer er to support its advanced driver S, which is, assistance systems, or ADAS, ving essentially, autonomous driving technology. ner for ADAS is a big money-earner Bosch, which says it earned more than a billion dollars in the sector. ector. Industrial internet, too, is big business for Bosch. The Bosch IoT business also brought in a billion dollars for the company. And, d, editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com tionnews.com
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Stefan Hartung, a senior member of the Bosch board
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Interview according to Hartung, it remains a “giant opportunity”. An old Bosch lathe, dating back to the 1800s, on display at the Hannover Messe. Bosch attached sensors the ‘Stone Age’ machine which enabled it to be connected to the internet via a gateway appliance.
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Stone Age nostalgia Bosch’s Stefan Hartung… went on about the industrial internet and the “master cloud” or something Research by the leading management consultants all show that the internet of things is potentially a trilliondollar market in the next decade or so, and the industrial IoT will be one of the main drivers of that growth. For now, however, many in the industry are still on a journey of discovery, learning what IoT can do for them, in their factories, especially as they often have legacy machines that date back decades. But while they may consider old machines a problem, Hartung says they are no barrier to connectivity – it can still be done. Hartung says: “A large part of industry is in what you might say is a brownfield state, which means it needs a lot of development, in terms of connectivity and in terms of Industry 4.0 standards and applications. “But we showed at Hannover Messe that it’s possible to connect machines and equipment and what you might say are ‘Stone Age’ equipment to the industrial internet of things. “We put this old Bosch lathe on our stand at Hannover Messe, and you don’t find many of those in industry right now, but you find similar kinds of situations where you have machines that have old controllers which are not internet-capable. So what do you now? “The good thing is that you can put sensors on these machines very easily and, in the future, even more easily, especially with low-cost MEMS [microelectromechanical systems] sensors and other sensors which will give you data about the machine operation and the manual operation, which is linked to the machine, unless it is unlinked to all the actual control processing which is in the machine equipment. “So it’s not necessarily the case that you need to exchange the entire SPC [statistical process control] controller and PLC [programmable logic controller] and so on. You don’t necessarily need to do that. “You can just put a wired or non-wired sensor on the machine, measure acceleration of some axis and the vibrations and sound and other things which then tell you if the machine is operating well and what it’s doing correctly. You can analyse what is actually happening.
We showed at Hannover Messe that it’s possible to connect machines and equipment and what you might say are ‘Stone Age’ equipment to the industrial internet of things. Stefan Hartung
“With sensors, you can very easily sense if drives are running, if the machine is operating, or just idle. And that gives you exactly the kind of realtime data which you need for Industry 4.0 standards. “What really differentiates Industry 4.0 is realtime data from the location of the manufacturing up to the business information data suite which you have running the company. “This is a complete contrast to what is the classic manufacturing process, and also to some extent the lean manufacturing methodology, where you always planned what you want to do, you had these production lines, people were working on those lines, and you only analysed afterwards the data relating to the production output.” The XDK Portal, a cloud-based IoT platform, developed by Bosch Software Innovations. Second life Like many industrial companies which used to concern themselves almost exclusively with the manufacturing of hardware and only using software in peripheral ways to achieve that main objective, Bosch has changed.
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Interview
The company has been developing software of its own for quite some time and its Bosch Software Innovations business unit is likely to expand along with its industrial IoT business, which Hartung says is on course for exponential growth. The main driver of the growth seems to be the demand for more information about what’s going to happen in the future. “The old way was a backward-looking analysis, and that was what was used to improve processes,” says Hartung. “In the Bosch manufacturing system and some of the lean manufacturing systems, you now have this sixmonth forward-looking view. So you can forecast a scenario where you would like to be in six months with what we call system design of your factory, and you analyse data much faster – maybe half an hour or maybe an hour or two, depending on how you set up the system, after the data is collected and presented in the business information dashboard, and then go forward. “With Industry 4.0 the vision is that you take data in realtime from the manufacturing field and use it for business optimisation and operational optimisation in realtime – and that’s obviously on a global scale. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
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“The connectivity is obviously just the base layer of this, so that’s the first thing you need to do – connect the data sources, which is the machines. “You could just simply read the data on the controllers you have, and very often you see that – people just read out data from the controllers they have, which normally is data they would not have and don’t read out because normally these controllers are doing some mechanical job on the machine, controlling some axis, some movement, some assembly operations or something. The data they collect is just a read-out thing. “But very often they use additional sensors, which then raise two questions. First, what data do you want to collect? And, second, do you now want to connect it through the internet to some system which is different to the manufacturing system – such as a data analysis system, which is often hosted in the cloud, or something which is different to the operational data collection system which uses the manufacturing controllers. “And that is a connectivity system which we sometimes show as a gateway, which are small technical appliances which are located in the factory, near the sensors on the machines, which connect to the sensors
The XDK Portal shown below is an example of a cloud-based solution, developed by Bosch Software Innovations to realise the enterprise value of Internet of Things data
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Interview or connect to the PLCs.” “The connection can be Wi-Fi, they are in production, but in production sometimes you don’t want Wi-Fi, you want cables to be absolutely safe and for faster data transfer, but Wi-Fi is realtime pretty much. “The data goes up to the analysis layer, and there you can decide how to implement improvements. “The connectivity is the first step. That IoT controller is what we put on the old lathe. “If you want to talk about speeds of data transfer, you have to distinguish realtime from time cycles. “Ultra-fast realtime is the controller controlling a motion. Then medium-speed realtime would be what we would consider the IoT. And then the slower data flow for the backwards-looking analysis.” The Bosch IoT gateway connects data from the machines in the factory to the internet, through which the data can be accessed via the cloud or through company’s servers.
Industrial dualism In the past, factories were isolated places, kept well away from town and city centres, on industrial estates, as well as the internet. Now the machines that operate in those factories are increasingly being connected to sensors, which collect data which can be viewed on a linked human-machine interface. That still keeps the data within the factory, and it might be what some factory managers prefer. The alternative is to connect the machines to an “internet gateway” device, which can be connected to either the factory’s on-site computers or the cloud through a virtual private network. This creates something of a conundrum for those who want free-flowing data and yet would like everything to be secure and private. Given that industrial espionage is as old as industry itself, it’s no surprise that the market is somewhat divided, as Hartung explains. “There’s two philosophies,” says Hartung. “One philosophy is the group that says, ‘I need to definitely know what I need the data for, and I will deploy only the sensors for things which I know I want to use them for’. “And with those customers, obviously you then go into the deeper into the technical things, and ask what is important, what is not important, where we should deploy them, what kinds of sensors, and other aspects of how it should be. “We obviously have our consultants who would go through this process with the clients at our company. We also do external consulting for some companies. “And then there is a second philosophy in Industry 4.0 where you say, ‘Wait a second, we don’t know yet what is going to become important, so let’s just deploy some sensors which take a whole bunch of data, in which some of them we don’t even know if we need them, but let’s see’. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
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“This sounds like an erratic approach, a non-technical approach, but it is actually a technical approach because in the modern sensor world, with these small MEMS sensors, for example, they are dirt-cheap. “So it’s relatively inexpensive to deploy a massive sensor array with each one being so small and measuring nine, 10, 12 things simultaneously, always, and then later do the correlation analysis and data crunching, depending on what data you need at that time. “So that second philosophy usually means you don’t need to do a lot of consulting and planning. You decide to go in first, go for data collection, data lake, data analysis, and improvement as a philosophy which says, ‘If I take too data much, it’s ok, if it’s over-heavy on the sensors, it doesn’t matter, I can scale back later – I can learn later’. “Having said that, it’s not possible to do this in manufacturing without any context. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t deploy any sensors, right? But if you know what you’re doing, you can go with this overshooting approach, or scatter-gun approach, on the sensors – it does make sense sometimes. “But obviously at some point later, you will need to have some intelligence about what data is being collected and what information you can take from that to improve your operations. It just depends on what you want to do.” Sticking to the escrypt Data privacy and security are big issues at the moment, and many companies have been struggling to stop hackers from accessing their systems. Obviously if you have a machine which is not connected to the internet at all, there’s no risk attached. But such situations are increasingly a rarity. Machines in their tens of thousands are being hooked up to the internet and the risk of hacking is obviously growing along with it. Bosch’s answer is its own proprietary encryption technology and knowledge, which the company developed partly through buying a company called Escrypt, a data encryption specialist. But internet security remains a tricky issue for most companies, says Hartung.
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The Bosch IoT gateway connects data from the machines in the factory to the internet, through which the data can be accessed via the cloud or through company’s servers.
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Features “The thing about gateways is that obviously you are now connecting your factory to the internet in some sense, and in whatever sense you do that, you have to be extremely sensitive that you protect your data and your factory,” says Hartung. “Normally a factory is highly protected or even disconnected from the internet and now, with IoT and Industry 4.0, there is a connection necessary to some systems which are on the premises, your own cloud, which you have in the factory, or you could have a controlled gateway if you need a massive cloud, which you will not have in the factory because it’s not costeffective or sensible. “For the remote cloud, you need a controlled and secure data path and you need to know exactly what data is flowing out and what’s coming back. “In most factories, you have a whole bunch of legacy systems, which is normal, and it will never be that the whole factory has PCs, PLCs, which are the most up to date. Therefore you have to be extremely sensitive if you do this gateway work, and make sure that these gateways are perfectly safe in terms of using encrypted handshakes and other key infrastructure technologies. “That’s what we do. We use our Escrypt capability, from our own company, which operates in the data security business – we use their key infrastructures to encrypt and handle data. “The owner of the factory wants the data to be transparent and wants to know exactly what data flows through the virtual private network. Otherwise, if you make a VPN protected channel from the sensor out to some other cloud, whatever it is, and there is no transparency about what is going through, it could leave an attack channel somewhere in the backhaul. “So you have to be careful.”
Chips and everything This interview was conducted in early May, 2017, a few weeks before Bosch’s announcement that it plans to build a billion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing facility. This may explain some of Hartung’s reticence in answering specific questions about microcontrollers and microprocessors. It’s unlikely that Bosch will build all-purpose controllers and processors. It tends to manufacture precisely what it needs, in that each of the chips it makes has a specific function in one or more of its technologies. But Hartung seemed to suggest that the company could expand into manufacturing a broader range of processors and controllers. “We have our own chip capability,” says Hartung. “We do a lot of electronics. Our fabrication plant in Reutlingen is capable of producing Asic [application-specific integrated circuit] chips and automotive electronics chips. “But we don’t do standard microcontrollers and microprocessors.” When it needs standard microcontrollers and editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Interview microprocessors, Hartung says the company sources them from a variety of suppliers, including “Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Intel and other large manufacturers, NXP… we source from everybody – ARM controllers… depending on what you need it for… but these controllers we source… Qualcomm is also a good source”. He brings the conversation back to the Bosch IoT gateway and the components the company produces. “We make our own controllers. We have our own controller portfolio through Bosch Rexroth, and these are our own gateways,” Hartung says. “Typically in these IoT devices you always need some kind of wireless connectivity, or at least most of the time, so you have these kind of chips from these kind of vendors in there, but normally you also have small controllers even on the edge device, which is the critical low-power device attached to the machine, collecting the data. “There, normally you have ARM Cortex controllers in there depending on the capability you need. And then when you go to the internet gateway, you need something more powerful. It can then go up to desktop computers and other, more powerful computing machines.” The crude oil of the 21st century It’s been said that data is the crude oil of the 21st century, perhaps because cars and many other machines are moving away from petrol and going electric. For electric cars to work properly, they need to store and process huge amounts of data. And if cars contain advanced driver assistance systems, which they increasingly do nowadays, they’ll need to process even larger amounts of data. And in the future, when they’re fully electric and fully autonomous, they’ll need to process so much data that very few companies have the necessary computing infrastructure to deal with it. Not all of it can be done in the car itself. Which may explain why BMW is building a data centre 10 times the size of its current data centre, and Volkswagen has become a customer of D-Wave, which sells quantum computers that cost $15 million each. Large-scale, or even hyperscale computing infrastructure is fast-becoming an essential requirement for big manufacturers. “Bosch has its own data centre,” says Hartung. “Obviously we need that, but we also use clients’ data capabilities because sometimes people want to use their own computers and servers. “For our own production, our own data processing, we
The Bosch IoT gateway connects data from the machines in the factory to the internet, through which the data can be accessed via the cloud or through company’s servers
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We have our own chip capability. We do a lot of electronics. Our fabrication plant in Reutlingen is capable of producing Asic chips and automotive electronics chips Stefan Hartung www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Interview
use our own infrastructure, also on the IT side to run optimisations. “At the same time, if you want to be super-large scale, and you need massive cloud capabilities for a certain amount of time only, then you use an external cloud.” Manufacturing customers differ, he says, with each having particular operational set-up and requirements. “It’s what we have to discuss with the clients,” says Hartung. “Some clients are absolutely rigid in their policy, and say, ‘I don’t want to give anybody any data – just give me the algorithms and I’ll run it on my systems’. Which is fine, you know, if you want that. “Others say, ‘I would like to use the cloud, if it’s safe and you guarantee me there’s a protection scheme around it’, and we sign the contract, and it’s ok. “Normally our customers are conservative people, they like to keep things on premise. On the other hand, they know that some capabilities you just cannot build on premise – that’s not sensible because it’s just too expensive. “I think that you have to see it’s all in development. This is a trend. The industry, with its thousands of machines which are mostly brownfield, old machines – some are new, some very few factories are built in this completely connected way – but the world is moving in this direction. “There is not yet a common scheme, where people can say, ‘I want it this way or that way’. They’re all learning through considering their own specific business need for connectivity and data. “I think this is very positive, that we’re seeing a learning spirit now coming to industry, especially in data analysis. This is, I think, the best thing to have come under the editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
umbrella of Industry 4.0 – people are thinking and saying, ‘Is the way I did things for the last 20 years the way I would like to do it for the next 20 years? Maybe not, so let’s try out some new things’.”
Edge of today Even in manufacturing, computing architecture – both hardware and software – is the critical factor in operations, and much of what Bosch does depends on getting that part right. The IoT is easy to say, and perhaps easier to understand now that’s been talked about for a while, but it’s still difficult to create because of various factors, not least of which is lack of computing power at what is often referred to as the “edge”. Hartung explains: “So you have three levels. The first level of the internet of things is what some people call the narrow bandwidth IoT, or some call the edge device IoT, and these are the small devices which have only batteries sometimes, are wireless, and have some limited functionality. “Actually in these devices, programming-wise, you are in a complete crisis because you’re always in an energy crisis. So, as a programmer, you cannot go and program heavily with big libraries and so on, you have to code like 15 years ago, and be efficient, and even then you can only do very limited computation there. “But the second level is the gateway level. There, you can do something. At that level, you have computational power available, but it has one ARM Cortex or whatever, so even there it is limited. “Then you go to another, third level, which is maybe the on-premise cloud, which may have whatever – 100
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The IoT ... is still difficult to create because of various factors, not least of which is lack of computing power at what is often referred to as the “edge”
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Features
servers or so. There you can do quite a lot of things, but it’s still incomparable to a remote-location cloud which might have 10,000 servers or 100,000 servers which you can unlock. “So the new thinking would be, ‘Where do I do job? What do I do on-premise, what do I do on-chip?’ “You can filter some data in the sensor. You can say, ‘This is data I don’t send out because sending means energy consumption’. Every time you send something out, you drain some energy. So you have to decide in the sensor, ‘Do I send or don’t I send?’ “And then in the gateway, you can do a whole bunch of things and combine data, provide context, add layers to it, where the data is from, what machine it’s from, where the sensors are located, what’s the time code, and so on, and send it all up to the on-premise cloud. “There you can do some heavy-duty stuff, data analysis, whatever is necessary, pattern recognition, deep learning algorithms can be applied, and so on. “But if you want to do real heavy stuff, some monstrous data amounts, then you go off and go to the master cloud, which some companies will be capable of developing.”
A billion here, a billion there… What Hartung didn’t say but probably knew at the time – and might have been referring to – was that BMW is building its giant data centre. He also may have known that Apple has become a massive client for Bosch, which has been contracted to supply three sensors for the next iPhone, though he didn’t mention this. But even though Bosch is at the forefront of so many technologies driving the modern world – literally in some instances – Hartung says the company is still learning, especially when it comes to the industrial internet. “The challenge is always a technical challenge, it’s a learning challenge,” he says. “You have to discuss with people, approach people. You are dealing with legacy environments, which means you have always deal with uncertainty. Often you don’t know what’s going to happen. “But to be honest I see it first as a giant opportunity. “For example, we are doing machine tool equipment, editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Interview
The Bosch AI onboard computer will be the foundation for the company’s ADAS systems
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The main benefit is uptime optimisation, so machines don’t break, or before they even start malfunctioning, you see it upfront. That has a huge effect. Prevention is better than cure. Stefan Hartung
hydraulic equipment controllers. If we were to add data capabilities to this kind of equipment, you are automatically into this multi-layer approach of data analysis and learning, and that’s a multi-billion-dollar business. “By our own estimation, we will pass a billion dollars in the industrial internet market very fast. “But there’s a second effect for us. We have hundreds of factories of our own, which means huge efficiencies through deploying these technologies, which is what we are doing now.” Bosch has approximately 270 factories dotted around the world. “This also gives us the capability – which I think is differentiating – of inviting customers to come and see of the things we do. This automotive production may be on the periphery of what you want to do, maybe this is not your product, maybe this is not your process, but it’s worth having a look.”
Going, going… fixed As many readers will know by now, the main feature of IoT in the industrial space is the ability to have a global view of your operation as well as know what’s happening to each individual machine. This brings numerous specific benefits, as Hartung explains. “The main benefit is uptime optimisation, so machines don’t break, or before they even start malfunctioning, you see it upfront. That has a huge effect. Prevention is better than cure. “But the second benefit is also clearly important: It’s a completely different level of productivity you can gain because you are much nearer to what happens in the actual processes. “So you can see things really early, and transfer knowledge from different plants. If your plant in Africa has a system which is working better, why not upload it to the factory here in Europe? Or if it has a machine in China which is operating better than a similar machine elsewhere, why not take the system from China to wherever it is that will benefit from that data. “These are huge advantages that can be gained. It might seem a dream to be able to do this across a global organisation, but it’s just a question of timescale – it just takes longer.” “Through the maintenance and productivity analysis, you see very fast that it has huge effects. “The potential is there, and it’s very interesting to see people doing these kind of things, when you see they’re sceptical at first, and then their eyes open to the possibilities of what they can do – which is often very different and more powerful that what they could do before. “It’s not a miracle thing, but high productivity gains are possible. It’s not linear, it’s exponential. “We are at the early phase of Industry 4.0, and Bosch also. We are not at the end of the curve, this is the first phase of the learning curve.” www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
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A primer on the miracle material GRAPHENE:
The global graphene market size was valued at only $24 million in 2015, but it is expected to grow to around 20 times that size by 2025. Now the International Organization for Standardization has published what is said to be the world’s first graphene standard to provide consistency across the fast-growing industry
G
raphene is sometimes described as being twodimensional, or 2D, which is probably more a reflection of the enthusiasm people feel about the material rather than a statement of fact since graphene is actually one atom thick. It may only be one single atom, but it’s still there, which means that graphene is, in fact, three-dimensional. Another interesting thing about graphene is that the naturally occurring composite mineral it’s extracted from – graphite – has been in use for thousands of years in such things as ceramic paints, and it’s been used in pencils for decades. But only now has graphene been extracted from it and suggested for a wide array of applications. Graphite is a form of coal, which, as most readers might know, is somewhat brittle and soft compared with other types of rock. And yet the graphene made from it is said to be one of the strongest materials ever discovered and has already found a wide range of applications, most notably, perhaps, in the electronics and automotive sectors. The global graphene market size was valued at the relatively small amount of $24 million in 2015, by Grand View Research, but it’s expected to grow to around 20 times that size by 2025. With so much interest in the material, the International Organization for Standardization has published what is said to be the world’s first graphene standard to provide consistency across the fast-growing industry around the world and accelerate commercialisation, according to CEMag.us. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Graphite mines are being dug in more locations around the world, which is not surprising when you read reports that prices for the raw material have been increasing in the past few months and some suppliers have been making significantly higher profits. According to Investing News, the country which produced the largest amount of graphite in 2016 was China, which explains the numerous stories about “coal mining” in the country in the past couple of years. What’s it worth? The price of $10,000 is for processed graphite, and is simply a mid-range figure taken from an estimate published on Green Tech Media, which quotes prices of “between $7,000 and $12,000 per metric ton for natural spherical graphite anode material”. Graphite “flakes”, which are probably what comes out of the mine, is said to be priced at around $1,000, according to Statista.com. Although, on Alibaba.com, it seems you can pick up a ton for about $300. Synthetic equivalents of spherical graphite anode material, says Green Tech, can fetch prices of between $15,000 and $20,000. Details about the grades of graphite are probably
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Graphene
Features
TOP 10 COUNTRIES IN GRAPHITE MINING
Rank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Country China India Brazil Turkey North Korea Mexico Canada Russia Norway Madagascar
Total top 10 Price per metric ton Total market for top 10
2016 mine production 780,000 metric tons 170,000 metric tons 80,000 metric tons 32,000 metric tons 30,000 metric tons 22,000 metric tons 21,000 metric tons 15,000 metric tons 8,000 metric tons 8,000 metric tons
1,166,000 metric tons $10,000 $11,660,000,000
beyond the scope of this article, but it’s worth pointing out another report, in BayStreet.ca, which says that the batteries in Tesla cars contain more graphite than lithium. Lithium-based batteries are still far more common out editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
in the world. They’ve been around a long time, and they’re said to be coming down in price. A report by Navigant Research, mentioned in our article about China’s electric car market, says the global market for lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications is expected to grow from $7.8 billion in 2015 to $30.6 billion in 2024. The exact rate of growth of graphite-based batteries is anyone’s guess at the moment, but most would agree it has massive potential. There are numerous websites which suggest ideas for investments in graphite, such as Seeking Alpha and, of course, Investing News. One of the few drawbacks of graphite is that nature has made it very difficult to extract graphene from it. But as Green Tech points out, a group of Chinese companies is planning to build “graphite megafactories” to produce 260,000 megatons of graphite anodes per year.
Skating on thin graphene While graphite is brittle, when it is broken down into its constituent ingredients, the graphene material is virtually unbreakable – some say it’s as hard as diamonds, or even harder.
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A group of Chinese companies is planning to build “graphite megafactories” to produce 260,000 megatons of graphite anodes per year.
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Graphene
cent in energy costs because of the increased resistance to wear and tear. And a company called RD Graphene claims to have invented what it calls a “design-for-manufacture” process which can create 3D graphene for high-volume manufacture.
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D Graphene claims to have invented what it calls a “design-formanufacture” process which can create 3D graphene for high-volume manufacture
Not only is graphene only one atom thick and superstrong – 100 to 200 times stronger than steel apparently, but it is also flexible and is said to be an excellent conductor. Graphene atoms arrange themselves in a hexagonal mesh structure – with each atom at 0.142 nanometres from each other at their closest. The material is said to be such a good barrier that it doesn’t even allow helium atoms through. So far, research for applications has concentrated on areas such as: l membranes; l composites and coatings; l energy; l biomedical; l sensors; and l electronics. Specific products that would use graphene, apart from batteries as already mentioned, include solar cells, lightemitting diodes – similar to the fancy new tech Apple is using for its latest phones, and a whole new generation of smart screens, whether they are touch panels or windows of buildings which can collect solar energy, which is something the Fraunhofer Institute claims to have developed. A list of graphene manufacturers and suppliers can be found on NanoWerk.com, and probably many other websites, but we’ll randomly highlight one or two here. Advanced Graphene Products claims to be the world’s only manufacturer of high-strength metallurgical graphene, which the company says has various industrial applications. Another company which is developing graphene for industrial applications is Graphenea Nanomaterials, which says it has successfully transferred its graphene using the chemical vapour deposition method to a range of devices, solar cells, light-emitting diodes and other substrates, which essentially means surface material. In China, probably the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics products such as smartphones, a company called 2D Carbon Graphene Material has supplied large quantities of graphene products to mobile phone makers as well as wearable device makers and home appliance companies. A company called Adgero claims its “regenerative” graphene-based braking system saves trucks up to 25 per editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Still at the idea stage It probably should be noted that most of the graphene applications being talked about are still at the early stages. A company may talk about wanting to use graphene in its products, but it’s just too early to guarantee it. For example, Fisker, another high-end maker of electric cars, last year said its new supercars would include graphene batteries, but so far that battery is still in development. Tesla, which has been experiencing some albeit unconnected manufacturing bottlenecks, may want to stick with proven lithium-ion batteries rather than introduce an entirely new technology on a large scale. And although you wouldn’t expect Apple to be any less secretive now than it has been in the past, some have speculated that one of the reasons why there are some delays in the manufacturing of the iPhone X is the difficulty of manufacturing the screens – because they probably use graphene. It was only a few months ago that South Korean researchers were said to have made the first OLED screen using graphene for its electrodes, according to a report on Engadget.com. But producing a limited number is obviously not the same as mass manufacturing, let alone producing enough units for Apple’s literally billions of customers. According to Wall Street Journal, Apple is using Samsung manufacturing facilities in Vietnam to get the screens made – Samsung will make $110 for each iPhone X sold. Apple is also paying LG $2.7 billion for an OLED production line, according to 9to5Mac.com. Money is clearly no object to Apple, but it remains to be seen if the company can do for graphene what it did for a whole basket of advanced technologies, especially sensors. As Chad Lucien, of Hillcrest Labs, told Robotics and Automation News in an interview, it’s because of the economies of scale gained through the global success of the iPhone and other smartphones that the prices of sensors went down dramatically. “The smartphone market has been an enormous contributor to the advancement of these technologies,” says Lucien. “When we started developing our motion technology, a gyroscope cost maybe $6 per axis. Today, you can buy a three-axis gyroscope in a single package for less than a dollar.” l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
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Medicine
Dr Robot:
Robotics and automation in the medical sector
Now that a number of robotic and automation systems have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for operation in healthcare environments, the market is poised to grow exponentially in the next few years.
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obotics in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector has a relatively long history, having started with a robot called the Puma 560 in 1985, according to All About Robotic Surgery.
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Now, however, a number of robotic and automation systems have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for operation in healthcare environments, and the market is probably set to grow exponentially in the next few years as they become fully commercialised. While robotic surgery systems such as Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci may be the most photogenic of the systems, gaining a lot of publicity in recent years, there are numerous other systems being developed, with some already being used in healthcare. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Medicine
Features l CareFusion – owns automated pharmaceuticals l l l l l l l l l l l
For example, Omnicell is doing a brisk trade with its automated pharmaceuticals dispensing machine. Midea, the home appliances giant, is considering launching something similar, although no pictures or details of its robot pharmacist have yet emerged. But there is quite a lot of activity in the sector, which is why we thought we’d round up the companies which are either ready to launch robotic heathcare systems or have already introduced them. Suppliers in the healthcare sector l Intuitive Surgical – this company has developed and commercialised the da Vinci robotic surgery systems and many associated technologies. l Verb Surgical – a joint enterprise between Google and Johnson & Johnson which is developing a “digital surgery platform”, combining robotics with data analytics and other technologies. l Omnicell – a company which has developed, and markets, an automated pharmaceutical dispensing system.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
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Robotic surgery systems such as Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci have been gaining a lot of publicity in recent years
l l l l l l l
dispensing systems with brand names such as Rowe and Pyxis MedStation. Novel Surgical Robotic System – developed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University but not yet commercialised. MicroSure – a Netherlands company which has developed and commercialised a robot-assisted “microsurgery” system. Cambridge Medical – a startup which has raised almost $50 million to market the robotic surgery system it has developed. Kuka – an industrial robot manufacturer which recently acquired the necessary certifications for medical use for one of its machines. Cambridge Consultants – a technology research and development company which demonstrated a robot small enough to assist in eye surgery procedures. Auris – a company which has gained approval from US medical authorities for its robotic surgery system. TransEnterix – another company which has received approval from the US FDA to market its product, called SurgiBot. Preceyes – one of the companies mentioned in an excellent article about robotic eye surgery systems. EndoVia – another company mentioned in the article, and which has been acquired by Hansen Medical. Smith & Nephew – acquired Blue Belt Technologies, a provider of robot-assisted surgery systems. Think Surgical – a developer and provider of a range of surgical technologies, including robots. Mako Surgical – currently being marketed through a website called Stryker, but supplies robotic-arm assisted surgery systems. Aethon – company which specialises in providing mobile delivery vehicles for use within hospitals, and which was recently acquired by ST Engineering. Blue Ocean Robotics – a provider of a mobile robot for disinfecting hospital rooms and internal spaces. Riverfield – a spin-out from the Tokyo Institute of Technology which plans to marketing its robotic surgery system in 2020. Mazor Robotics – specialising in spinal and brain surgery. Titan Medical – robotic surgery platform developer. Meere Company – this Korean company recently won a patent for its Revo-i surgical robotic system.
There are many others which provide a range of technologies, some of which are software-oriented solutions rather than robotic. We’ve included the ones we could find, and know something about. We haven’t included Midea’s automated dispenser because we haven’t seen it yet, and providing a link to the site of a company with such a diverse range of products would probably be unhelpful. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
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British Automation & Robot Association bara.org.uk The aim of the BARA is to promote the use of, and assist in the development of Industrial Robots and Automation in British industry. In 2009 BARA joined forces with the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association) to become a special interest focus group.
International Federation of Robotics ifr.org
Robotics Society of o Japan sj.or.jp The Robotics Socieety of Japan promotes progress in academic ields and providess specialists with ith a venue ffor an nnouncing i heir research and d exchanging echnical informattion.
The purpose of IFR shall be to promote and strengthen the robotics b ti industry i d t worldwide, ld id to t protect its business interests, to cause public awareness about robotics technologies and to deal with other matters of relevance to its members.
euRobotics AISBL is a Brussels based internationaal non-profit association for all stakeholders n European robotics. euRobotics builds upon the su uccess of the European Roboticss Technology Platform and the academic a network of EURON N, and will continue the coopeeration abetween members of these two community driven organisations.
Our Mission is to foster the development and facilitate the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge in Robotics and Automation that benefits members, the profession and humanity. Our Vision is to be the most recognized and respected global organization in Robotics and Automation.
Robotic Industriess Association obotics.org
China Robot Industry Alliance cria.mei.net.cn
The Robotic Industries Association RIA) drives innovaation, growth, and safety in manu ufacturing and service industtries through g education, promottion, and advancement of roobotics, related automation technoologies, and companies deliverring integrated solutions.
CRIA is a non-profit organization composed of enterprises, manufacturers, universities, research institutes,, regional g or local robotic associations, related organizations as well as organizations in the fields of R&D, manufacturing, application and services of the robot industry.
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PHD PHD is a leading manufacturerr of industrial automation actuators, rs, designed to help companies across all industries optimize their manufacturing processes. s. phdinc.com
Witte enstein
ATC
From m machine tools or woodworking oodworking and packaaging machines through robotics and handling equip ipmentt tto ffood d processing, pharm maceutical and medical techn nology or intralogistics, Wittenstein actuators keep you one step ahead of the competition. witten nstein-us.com
The Actuator Technology Company operatess independently and is located close to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. rt. W are acclaimed We l i d and d appreciated i t d for offering vital design support during FEED and detailed design stage (EPC). atc-actuators.com
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society ieee-ras.org
euRobotics AISBL L eu robotics net eu-robotics.net
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Ham--Let More than half a century of excellence servicing the high purityy and process industries with designing, developing, producing and marketing of fluid system comp ponents. ham-let.com -let.com
The Valve and Actuator Co We realise there is an urgent need to provide experienced technical support with competitive pricing. We carry an extensive stock of electric and pneumatic actuators and general valves. valveandactuatorcompany.co.uk
Rethink nk Robotics Our patented p SEA technology uses springs to advance the robot’s motioon control solution from one of rigid positioning to one of force contrrol. rethin nkrobotics.com
Parker Parker actuators come in a wide de range of construction types, ranging g g from compact p light g duty aluminum air actuators, motorized electric actuators, to heavy duty hydraulic designs. parker.com
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Arduino Arduino is an open-source computer hardware and software com mpany, project and user commun nity that designs and manufacturess kits for building digital devices and d interactive objects that can sense and control the physical world d. arduino.cc
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Cogn nex No matter m what the machine vision n application, Cognex offers a complete mplete family of vision products—from ucts—from standalone vision systeems to 3D vision software— that p provide unparalleled accuracy and repeatability. cognex.com
RoboDK
Raspberry Pi
Rockwell Automation
Offline programming has never been easier thanks to RoboDK. You don’t need to l learn b d brand-specific ifi lan l guages anymore. RoboDK handlles the robot controller syntax aand outputs the right program for your robot. robodk.com
The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit caardsized single-board d computers develooped in the UK b the by th Raspberry R b Pi Foundation F d ti with the intention of promoting the teaching of baasic computer science in schoolss. raspberrypi.org
Preferred in ntegration starts with using plug--and-play technology, which mean ns robots connect through Eth hernet/IP with software and d service i e interfaces i t f that simplify dessign, operation and maintenancce efforts to improve machine and nd overall line OEE. rockwellautomation.com tomation.com
Adept Adep pt has cultivated and main ntained key partnerships with indusstry-leading integrators, OEMss, and machine builders acrosss the globe and throughout numeerous application segments. adept.com
Evana Auto omation
KUKA.WorkVisual Dassault Systemes Robotics Programmer p provides a 3D environment wheree robot programmers can create, program, simulate and validate v an entire robot workcell. 3ds.com
Programming. Coonfiguration. Loading. Testing. Diagnosis. Modifying. Archiving. KUKA. WorkVisual group ps all the steps of a project together in a homogenous offline development, online diagnosis and a maintenance environment environment. kuka-robotics.com m
Evana specializes in designing and implementin ng robotics automation solutions thaat fit your specific manufacturing ing needs. Let our robotics eng gineering and robotics manufacturing ing experts develop a custom robotics otics automation solution that meets yyour requirements. evanaautom mation.com
NewB Botic Corporation NewB Botic is a robotic systems integ grator, best known for its sp pecialized engineering services that designs advanced transsformative manufacturing and wareehousing processes for a wide variety of industries. industries newb botic.com
FANUC Autthorized Integrators
Aldebaran by Softbank ABB RobotStudio Aldebaran enables both novices and experts to use its roobots with ease. To do this,, an SDK has been developed to support creation in the best way possible: 3D simulator, simple and intuitive programming software, C++ libraries, Python, .Net. aldebaran.com
RobotStudio provides the tools to increase the p prrofitabilityy of your robot system m by letting you perform tasks succh as training, programming, and optimization without disturbing g production. abb.com
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An Authorized zed FANUC Integrator is ready to analyze your system requirements nts and provide a robotic solution olution that will improve quality, ality, throughput, and productivityy to g p give yyou the return on investment ent you are looking for. fanucamerica.com ica.com
Gene esis Systems Geneesis Systems Group designs, builds and implements p robotic arc welding w systems, assembly autom mation systems and robotic toolin ng, material handling solutions, non-d destructive inspection cells and robottic waterjet cutting systems like n nobody else. genesis-systems.com
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Sensor Readings
Marketplace
Marketplace: companies Microcon Mi ntrollers t ll & Microcchips
Freescale Freescale F l Semico S i nductor d t enables bl secure, embedded d processing solutions for the In nternet of Tomorrow. Freesccale’s solutions drive a more innovvative and connected world, ssimplifying our ives and making u us safer. reescale.com
Atmel Atmel Corporation n is a worldwide eader in the desig gn and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch soolutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio requency compon nents nents. atmel.com
Silicon Labs Silicon Labs is a team of hardwarre and software innovvators dedicated o solving our custtomer’s oughest g embeddeed design g challenges. silabs.com
S nsors Se Ranesas
Alphasense
Renesas Eleectronics Corporation, the world’s n number one supplier of microcontrollers, m is a premier su upplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontroollers, SoC solutions and a broad rang ge of analog and power devices. renesas.com m
Alphasense has established a reputation as a reliable sourcee for a wide range of gas sensorr technologies. We supply high-quality Oxygen,CO2, toxic and flammable Gas sensors to many of the world’s leading industrial OEMs. alphasense.com
STMicroelectronics
4D Te echnology
Sensiron
A world lead der in providing the semiconducctor solutions that make k a positive iti contribution n to people’s lives, both today and in n the future. st.com
4D Technology echnology designs and manu ufactures laser i t fferometers, interf t surface roughness profilers and interfferometry accessories. 4dtecchnology.com
Sensirion is a leading sensor manufacturer, providing relative ve humidity sensors and flow sensor solutions with unique performance. sensirion.com
Infineon
Sano
Hansford Sensors
We provide semiconductor and system solutions, utions, focusing on three centraal needs of our modern society: Eneergy Efficiency, Mobility and Securityy. infineon.com m
Sano is a biomeetric sensoor and software company with a paten nted, breakthrough sensor that w will help people understand what’s happening inside their bodiees through continuously monittoring important markers in their bodies’ chemistry. sano co sano.
At Hansford Sensors, we design, gn, develop and manufacture a wide range of high performance ce industrial accelerometers, vibration transmitters (loop powered sensors) and ancillary ry equipment. hansfordsensors.com
Texas Instruments
EMX
TI’s microcoontroller platform offers innovvative devices with integrated on-chip o architectures, unique intelllectual property, system expeertise in key markets, and a comp prehensive ecosystem y of software, tools and support. ti.com
EMX is one of the world’s leading ing innovators of specialty sensorss in the factory and process automation markets. Our sensors sors are used in automotive, packaging, ging, labeling, g, metal stamping, p g, paper er and wood processing, plastics,, electronics and pharmaceutical al manufacturing. g emxinc.com
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Synap ptics Synap ptics is a world leader in capacitive pacitive touch sensing p g techn nology. This patented techn nology is at the heart of our indusstry-standard TouchPad products ucts and other solutions. synap ptics.com
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Marketplace
Sensor Readings
Marketplace: companies Kawa ada
Kawasaki
SynTouch
For over 40 years,, Kawasaki has been improvin ng technology to meet the high demand of assembly applicattions. Kawasaki’s innovative hardwaare and software can help you solvee your complex assembly challenges. kawasaki.com
SynTouch LLC developed and makes the only sensor technology in the world d that endows robots with the ability to replicate - and sometimes exceed - the human sense of touch. uch. syntouchllcc.com
3D Robotics 3DR helps people see th heir world from above. As North Am merica’s largest personal drone company, c 3DR is a pioneer in making advanced, easy-to-use drone d technology. 3dr.com
Hond da Robotics
DENSO Robotics Yaskawa Yaskawa Motoman offerrs a wide range off industrial i d t i l robot b ttic ti arm models for high-speed p precision assembly and small parrt handling including high-performaance sixaxis robots; flexible seveen-axis manipulators; dual-arm m robots with 15 axes; and more. motoman.com
Universal Robots Universal Robots is a ressult of many years of intensive research in robotics. The product portfolio includes the collaborativve UR3, UR5 and UR10 robot arm ms named after their payloads in kiilos. universal-robots universal robots.com com
Vecna Vecna’s robotic logisticss solutions are a familyy of autonomoous mobile robots, built to operate within human-centric environments. vecna.com
Cutting edge technology, class leading prod ducts and groundbreaking systems ystems are only part of what you can expect when you choose h DENSO Robotics. R b ti densorobotics.com m
”Servving society throu ugh technology,” b has been Kawada’s mission since its inception in 1922. Our mission has been accomplished through techn nological innovations in a vast rangee of operations, including projeects involving transportation, energ gy, and information, all basic necessities of society. globaal.kawada.jp
Hond da has further advanced intellligence technologies enabling its ad dvanced humanoid robot ASIM MO to act autonomously and perfo form uninterrupted i t t d service i tto officee guests. hond da.com
SCHUNK SCHUNK iss one of the largest manufacturer f t rer for f automation t ti components, s, toolholders and workholding equipment. schunk.com m
Epson
iRobo ot
With over 45,000 robots installed in factories throug ghout the world, many of the top manufacturing companies rely on n Epson Robots every day to reducce production costs, improve prooduct quality, increase yields an nd help increase their bottom line. epson.com
iRobot’s ot’s home robots are revollutionizing the way people clean n – inside and out. More than 10 million home robots have been sold worldwide. www w.irobot.com
Robotiq Our goal is to enable all manufacturers rers to take full advantage of robotics. We work with robot manufacturers, system integrators and end-users to automate applications pplications that require fexibility fexibility. robotiq.com m
TEUN
Future Robot
TEUN is a compreehensive concept, based on n a smart unmanned machine, the PIQR. The concept has been developed to offerr a solution for the frequently q y com mplex p laborintensive and expeensive way of unloading contain ners. teun.com
We, Future F Robot, aim to create an exxemplary service robot markket. We deal with Coupon Advertising Robot, Mobile Infotaainment Service, Robot Event Serviice,, and manyy more.
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Honeybee Robotics Since 1983, Honeybee has completed p over 300 p projects j for NASA, the U US Department of Defense, accademia, industry and artists. honeybeeroobotics.com
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Sensor Readings
Marketplace
Marketplace: companies Brain Corpo oration Energid
Stäub bli Stäub bli is a mechatronics solutions provider with three dediccated divisions: textile, connectors ectors and robotics, serving customers omers who want to increase their productivity in many indusstrial sectors. staub bli.com
Energid Technolog gies develops dvanced softwaree and robotic ystems for the aeerospace, griculture, manufacturing, ransportation, deffense, and medical industriess. energid.com
Brain Corpooration develops software, haardware, and cloud services forr consumer robotics. Our goal is to t make intelligent and useful m machines a part of everyday lifee with the world’s first training-bassed operating system for robots – BrainOS. braincorporration.com
Ekso Bionics
Bosch Robo otics
DMG Mori Ellison
Ekso Bionics helpss urvivors of strokee, pinal cord injury aand other forms of low wer extremity weakness k to t walk lk again. i ntl.eksobionics.coom
We are workking on Personal Robotics and the enabling technologies. Our interdisciplinary team conducts research on topics such h as mobil bile manipulation, i l ti navigation, p perception and semantic an nalysis of 3D data. bosch.us
DMG Mori Ellison Technologies is a provider vider of advanced machining solutions to North American metal-cutting manufacturers and th i global their l b l affiliates. ffiliates. ellisoontechnologies.com
ASI
DAIHEN
Autonomouss Solutions is a world leeader in vendor independentt vehicle automation systems. Frrom our HQ in Utah, we serve clients in the mining, agriculture, automotive, governmentt, and manufacturing industries w with remote control, teleoperatioon, and fully automated solutions solutions. asirobots.coom
The D DAIHEN Group makes it our m mission to provide products and services indispensable to primaary industries around the world d, including first and foremost the poower industry or so-called “lifeline” of society. daiheen.co.jp
Dyson Dyson recently invvested in a oint robotics lab with w Imperial College London too investigate ision systems and d engineer a generation of houssehold robots. dyson co uk dyson.co.uk
Clearpath Roboticcs
Axium m
We build the world d’s best unmanned vehiclees for research nd development. Our products will save time, money and headaches on your next project. learpathrobotics. p .com
Axium m designs, manufactures and in nstalls a complete range of autom mated solutions for robotic material handling (palletizing, depallletizing, case packing, and perip p pheral equipments) q p and transformation of plastic products. axium msolutions.com
Aethon Aethon is beest known for its TUG autonomouss mobile deliveryy robot which transports medications, meals and materials m through hospitals. aethon.com
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Aurotek Aurotek delivers high valueadded services and solutions, and helping customers achievee greater value through its introduction of advanced and quality components, acquirement ment of new technology concepts. robot.com.tw
Apex Automation and Robotics Apex Automation A A t ti and d Robotics R b ti s is an Australian company specialising in the design and manufacture of custom-built automation machines and robotic otic systems. apexautomation.com.au
Adept Adept systems provide unmatched ched performance and economic value throughout the production on lifecycle, enabling customers too achieve precision, quality and productivity in their assembly, handling and packaging processes. sses. adept.com
Reis Experts know REIS as creative pacemaker for process-oriented d system y solutions. Since 1957 our ur way has been going dynamicallyy up. The fundamentals: Inventive genius, nius, competence, innovative power, and reliability. reisrobotics.de
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The monthly magazine for the robotics and automation industry Issue 13 May 2018
It’s a nasty world Epic TV show Westworld returns for second series
Watch-making robots An overview of the global watch market and how robotics is making a difference
Minute instruments World’s leading microtechnology event returns for another year
Big money in small tech A closer look at Germany’s place in the microtechnology market
Toyota’s driverless dream Automotive giant to pour billions into self-driving technology