June issue

Vol : 1, Issue 06, June 2017, Monthly

Science Gazette &Technol gy Rise of Intelligent Machines: AI & Robotics Pradeep David, General Manager (India & Sri Lanka ) Universal Robots

Bill Schweber for Mouser Electronics

Ashish Gula , Country Head Telit India

Future lies in the hands of collaborative robots

Alternatives for Complex Robotic Motion

Digi za on and its rela onship with IoT

NOTION

Are You Robo Ready?

And for thousands of companies throughout the world 2017 will represent the Year of the Robot.

Collabora ve robots and mobile service robots are on the rise in factories across the globe. Many companies, especially SMEs, are looking for new and viable ways to integrate robo cs and automa on into their opera ons to drive produc vity and profits.

Pradeep David, General Manager India& Sri Lanka at Universal Robots believes future lies in the hands of co-bots.

But many Indian manufacturers have been slow to embrace automa on and new technology. Much of this resistance seems to be ed to cost, low awareness, exper se and a lack of understanding of how they could produce an a rac ve return on their investment.

Some manufacturers feel “they are not cost effec ve” and “see no need” However, most of the new genera on robots are significantly less expensive than tradi onal, sta onary robots, which can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000. Collabora ve robots are now available in the $20,000 to $50,000 price range, with prices dropping further each year.

So what are you wai ng for? Are you ready for the rise of the robots? Has your company considered adop ng or expanding its robo cs technology? Are there repe ve, dangerous or onerous tasks that could be more efficiently managed by machines? Have you explored what sorts of gains in produc vity, efficiency, and waste reduc on could be achieved by deploying robots in your opera ons? Have you assessed what possible return on investment and costbenefit analysis robo cs would bring – including savings in labor costs? Does your company have the talent to exploit robo cs technology to the fullest?

Keeping the importance of the automa on, AI and Robo cs in driving the electronics Indian manufacturing ecosystem, the June issue of Scigaze e Magazine focuses on the rise of intelligent machines, current trends in AI and security concerns a ached to it.

We hope you thoroughly enjoy reading June issue.

Regards, Sagar Rawat Asst.Editor edit@scigaze e.com

Scigazette | 03 | June, 2017

contents 20 Cover Story

Rise of Intelligent Machines: AI & Robotics Inside News

05 09 Design

Maxim Integrated

Safeguarding Sensitive Data Via Hardware-Based Design Security

Stephan Dubach, CEO, Toradex Group

In Conversation

11

“Based on the fact that the complexity of technology will continue to increase, developers will need professional support during the design phase�

14 Tech Focus

Diego Grassi, Senior Manager Market Development, u-blox

How our cities are becoming smarter and what it means for us

17

Bill Schweber for Mouser Electronics

Alternatives for Complex Robotic Motion

Pradeep David, General Manager (India & Sri Lanka ) Universal Robots

In Conversation

Future lies in the hands of collaborative robots

29 In the digi zed scenario, networking will con nue to blanket the world.

31 Digi za on and its Rela onship with IoT 33 Preparing for Cyberwar 36 New Products

25

News

Innovative Technology for Future Oriented Off-the-Grid Applications

Stäubli Electrical Connectors, the specialist in advanced contact technology and the rewarded startup company Power-Blox signed a strategic

cooperation and will jointly offer efficient solutions in the field of energy storage and off-the-grid systems.

With over 20 years of experience in the photovoltaic industry and more than 1 billion installed PV connector components, Stäubli Electrical Connectors provides more than 150 GW or 50% of the worldwide PV capacity. With the new technology called “Swarm Power”, developed by the Swiss start-up company Power-Blox and its intelligent energy cubes, an offthe-grid energy supply can be produced without any technical know-how or configuration.

Power-Blox is the first modular solar energy system, which offers alternating current up to the megawatt range based on swarm technology. This revolutionary concept also allows for a completely mobile supply and functions as a portable outlet.

Schneider Electric Announces New StruxureOn Digital Service for Data Centers

Schneider Electric has introduced StruxureOn, a digital service that connects data center physical infrastructure assets to the Schneider Electric cloud enabling the delivery of simplified and faster services.

With real-time visibility into system performance, maintenance and service requirements via mobile app, StruxureOn data-driven analytics can proactively advise of potential failures, fundamentally improving the ability to service critical equipment prior to failure.

As part of the digital service, Schneider Electric's Service Bureau personnel is readily available to remotely troubleshoot an issue or, in cases that can't be addressed remotely, dispatch a field service representative armed with the necessary information and equipment to quickly resolve the issue and minimise downtime. Schneider Electric's Service Bureau acts as a 'second set of eyes' providing around the clock incident monitoring so that data center and facility managers can rest assured that immediate action will be taken to curtail the impact on data center operations.

Scigazette | 05 | June, 2017

News

Back to School: Telit Launches IoT University Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced its official launch of Telit IoT University. Designed for IoT developers and integrators, Telit IoT University, which is part of the company's IoT Know How suite of services, will teach customers and partners how to succeed in launching IoT solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes.

It is located at the Telit IoT Platforms division in Boca Raton, Florida, and features a broad curriculum, including courses and hands-on labs co-developed by Telit and Florida Atlantic University's Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE). This education-focused initiative is an

expansion of the company's original deviceWISE University program, and includes an innovation and design lab that showcases Telit deviceWISE Ready partner applications and gives students experience with a variety of hardware components required for a successful IoT deployment.

Strechable Batteries Printed to Light Wearables Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first printed battery that is flexible, stretchable and rechargeable. The zinc batteries could be used to power everything from wearable sensors to solar cells and other kinds of electronics.

The researchers made the printed batteries flexible and stretchable by incorporating a hyper-elastic polymer material made from

isoprene, one of the main ingredients in rubber, and polystyrene, a resin-like component. The substance, known as SIS, allows the batteries to stretch to twice their size, in any direction, without suffering damage.

The ink used to print the batteries is made of zinc silver oxide mixed with SIS. While zinc batteries have been in use for a long time, they are typically non-

rechargeable. The researchers added bismuth oxide to the batteries to make them rechargeable.

Cyber Security 2020 meet held in Delhi In a recently held event hosted by RAH Infotech, IT industry experts came together to discuss the 20 threats each CEO should prepare for by 2020 and how to combat the ever challenging cyber security issues.

Speaking at the event, the guest of honour Mr. Pavan Duggal, Chairman International Commission on Cyber Security Law & Advocate, Supreme Court said “Data is the most critical component of any business and

securing it should be the first priority. Ransomware is just the tip of the iceberg. Organisations must brace up for more powerful Scigazette | 06 | June, 2017

attacks with cyber criminals finding smarter ways to break into any network.�

News

India poised to become winner in IoT industry, says IT secretary Launching the second edition of the 'IoT India Congress 2017', Information Technology Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said with the two largest industries — information technology (IT) and telecom — that power the IoT industry, India is poised to become a winner in this space.

“The capabilities in entrepreneurship in different sectors, the aspirational and second-to-none startup community in India and the young demographics makes me optimistic that India can forge ahead in this direction,” Sundarajan told reporters here.

The global IoT market is set to exceed $300 billion by 2020 and with almost 1.9 billion devices to be

connected to the internet in India by 2023, Indian IoT market is forecast to secure 20 percent of the global IoT business ecosystem to reach nearly $15 billion in next three years.

EU to Investigate Qualcomm's $38 Billion Bid for NXP Semiconductors

Antitrust regulators for the European Union will investigate the $38 billion deal between Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductors.

Should the deal go through, Qualcomm will become the leading supplier of chips to the automotive market. The company currently supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple.

The European Commission released its concerns over the deal, citing the combined company's incentive to squeeze out rivals in baseband chipset sales and near field communications by bundling its products.

The EU expressed concern that Qualcomm might alter NXP's intellectual property licensing protocol by tying NXP's patents to its own portfolio.

The deal is set to be the largest ever in the semiconductor industry. U.S. antitrust regulators okayed the deal in April. The European Commission will decide on the deal by Oct. 17.

China launches drone swarm of 119 fixed-wing UAV’s

China has launched a recordbreaking swarm of 119 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles that

broke the previous record of a swarm of 67 drones, the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) said.

The 119 drones performed catapult-assisted take-offs and formations in the sky.

According to the CETC, "swarm intelligence" is regarded as the core of artificial intelligence of unmanned systems and the future of intelligent unmanned systems.

Zhao Yanjie, an engineer with CETC, Scigazette | 07 | June, 2017

said that since drones were invented in 1917, intelligent swarms have become a disruptive force to "change rules of the game".

Reports in the Chinese official media in the recent past said Chinese military is also testing to launch mass armed drones as a new technique in battle conditions.

China is currently the largest maker of drones.

News

SoftBank unit buys robotics businesses from Alphabet Inc Japan's SoftBank Group Corp said on Friday that a unit of the company will buy two firms that build walking robots from Alphabet Inc, which would add to the group's growing artificial intelligence portfolio.

The Japanese company will buy Boston Dynamics and Tokyo-based Schaft, which design and manufacture robots that simulate human movement. It did not disclose the terms of the transactions.

SoftBank's shares rose as much as 7.9 percent after the deal was announced, hitting a 17-year high. “Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the information revolution, and Marc (Raibert) and his team at Boston Dynamics are the

clear technology leaders in advanced dynamic robots," SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son said in a statement. Raibert is CEO and founder of Boston Dynamics.

Upcoming iPhones may not support LTE speeds

Apple and Qualcomm have been battling for a while now, with

Apple most recently claiming that the chip maker 'has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with', Apple said in a statement in January this year.

A report by Bloomberg highlighted that Apple will need to rely on both Qualcomm and Intel modems for its upcoming devices.

Apple's reason for using two

suppliers is to prevent relying on a single supplier.

However the problem is that whilst Qualcomm's modems are capable of the one gigabit download speeds, Intel is not. Intel is working on a modem with the same capability but reports suggest it will not be ready in time for Apple's next release.

Samsung Electronics to invest big as part of 'Make In India' Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on Wednesday announced an investment of INR 4,915 crore in India to add fresh capacity at its Noida plant, where it manufactures smartphones, refrigerators and flat panel televisions.

The expansion of the plant on an additional 35 acres of land adjacent to the current facility will double the production capacity of both mobile phones and

refrigerators. The investment proposal was recently approved by the Uttar Pradesh government

Scigazette | 08 | June, 2017

under its Mega Policy.

The investment indicates Samsung's commitment to 'Make in India' and 'Make for India' and to the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Noida plant is the Company's first of two manufacturing units in India and was set up in 1996.

Samsung's Noida plant started with the manufacture of televisions in 1997. The current mobile phone manufacturing unit was added in 2005.

Scigazette | 09 | June, 2017

Scigazette | 10 | June, 2017

Interview

“Based on the fact that the complexity of technology will continue to increase, developers will need professional support during the design phase�

We had the pleasure to ask a few questions to Stephan Dubach, CEO, Toradex Group about the advent of embedded computing in India and insights about the global trends for ARM computing 1. Please introduce Toradex and its contribution to the embedded computing ecosystem.

Toradex is the leading provider of ARM-based system on modules (SoMs). A very broad portfolio of computing platforms with 10+ years product lifecycle combined with highly optimized OS's enables lowest Total Cost of Ownership for the developer of IoT Devices.

always bring the latest technology to tomorrow's embedded product.

3. What sets Toradex apart from the competition?

Toradex is one of the few SoM providers who is fully into direct sales and support for its B2B customers.This business model allows us to be very

2. Can you provide a detailed overview of the impact of Toradex on embedded computing in recent years?

Toradex has set global trends for ARM computing which have become standard meanwhile. Toradex SoMs allow engineers familiar with microcontrollers to easily upgrade to a full featured OS with standard interfaces and GUIs, which is now an industry-wide requirement.

With the introduction of the Apalis SoM family, Toradex also enabled developers, who were previously deploying industrial PC platforms, to transition to lower-power and lower cost ARM-based solutions. ARM-based computing platforms keep on outpacing Industrial PCs with regard to growth rate.

Having established a very close collaboration with the major SoC manufacturers, Toradex has been able to Scigazette | 11 | June, 2017

Interview

close to our customers and their needs.

Our unique offerings are our global network and premium, free-of-charge support for product developers. Together with the production-ready BSPs developed in-house, Toradex is the one-stop-shop for inventors of embedded products.

Purely focusing on the embedded market, Toradex in addition provides free lifetime product maintenance (Hardware and Software).

Last but not least, Toradex offers two pin-compatible product families (Colibri and Apalis), each one of them allowing for usage in a scalable application and/or in multiple products using just one single carrier board.

4. While selecting a CoM partner, what are the factors OEMs should consider and how does Toradex address these requirements?

Clearly the most important requirement of embedded customers is shortest time-to-market. In order to facilitate this, Toradex is offering free professional support in the local language in the major markets around the globe.By not charging for the support of our products, the interest of both the OEM and of Toradex are fully aligned. Revenue on both sides are only building up if the customer makes it to market in time.

Another important aspect to consider is the quality of the software provided and the related cost. The difference between a BSP ported by an external third party or a highly optimized operating system with premium performance and true industrial robustness can end up in multiple man-years of additional development at the OEM. Toradex develops both the hardware and the operating systems in-house, while the latter makes up around 90% of our engineering effort. Still, Toradex is the single point-of-access for an OEM, independently whether the issue is related to SoC, the hardware design, or the software.

Furthermore, OEMs of embedded products should care about product maintenance and product changes, both being essential requirements when talking about 7+ years of product lifecycle. At Toradex,

you are not just getting free lifetime product maintenance, but also a product change policy which is suitable for embedded products.

5. With established locations in India, what are your future plans for the Indian market, and how does this tie in to your global roadmap?

The Indian Embedded market is still small compared to other regions, but developing at a very high pace.

In the past, the country with the very young population was the workbench for software engineering, developing products targeting foreign markets. Nowadays, we observe a fast-growing Indian middle class, which is driving a huge domestic market demand.

Currently, the term SoM is not yet known to all the engineers in India. The ever-increasing product requirements drive the migration from microcontroller-based products to a SoM. But we also expect the demand for high-end modules to significantly grow over the coming years, as the Indian industry will ask for more demanding computing platforms.

6. Key products you are manufacturing and your focus markets?

Toradex is focused on the SoMs and the respective Operating System. The product portfolio does range from a Cortex-A5 based module with 400MHz up to a Quad Core Cortex-A15 with a very CUDA-capable GPU. While offering a generic embedded computing platform to its customers, Toradex did not decide to favor any specific market segment.

Currently, our major market segments are: · Industrial Automation · Medical · Transportation · IoT · Securtity

Scigazette | 12 | June, 2017

Interview

7. What do you see as the most active areas for research and advancements in this field?

Very clearly, Artificial intelligence / Deep Learning (which seem to be the only technology to enable driverless cars), is one of the biggest topics in technology. The potential behind Deep Learning is disruptive, hence no one can provide an estimate today.

Other areas which need improvements are Networking and Communication, IoT protocols, Image Processing, Deep Learning, Security, and ease-of-use.

8. Can you talk on the technology and trends evolving around embedded computing?

Customers are expecting any device to offer a Graphical User Interfaces and/or to connect via Bluetooth, are becoming a standard even for simple devices, this leads to the use of standard operating systems like Linux.

Like on the PC, temperature is becoming the limiting factor for high-performance ARM systems. Low power consumption at high performance is becoming a key design element. Software plays a significant role, too, by delivering appropriate and reliable power management capabilities.

More and more parts of the parts used for embedded systems are only driven by consumer applications (e.g. RAM and Flash). This is against the long-term focus of embedded systems, and needs to be addressed in a product maintenance strategy.

9. Which areas of embedded computing have the potential for successful development in the near future?

In the future world, private users will expect any device to be connected to the internet in order to access these devices remotely from any place in the world. We will therefore continue to see a fastgrowing demand of embedded computers across all industries.

Looking at the industrial world, “IoT” and “Industry 4.0” combine data collection technologies at the node(which have been invented already many years back), with latest data processing services in the cloud. This new combination allows for previously unseen insights into complete processes or data mining and respective conclusions based on the input data.

Today, it is not possible to properly rate the many technologies in embedded computing. Some of the key drivers, which are still in work in progress, are interoperability, security, imaging, artificial intelligence and, last but not least, edge computing (i.e. where data is processed at the node and not pushed into the cloud).

10. What according to you will drive the evolution of embedded computing globally in the next few years?

In the consumer world, x86 PC systems are increasingly being replaced by ARM-based tablets or portable devices (i.e. smartphones). Driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), a similar evolution is happening in the embedded market and the requirement for interoperability of the devices will push the need for the standardization of interfaces and protocols.

Backed up by various market overviews, it is a proven fact that the number of ARM-based embedded systems does grow significantly faster than the traditional PC-based platforms. The major driver for this change in architecture is lower power consumption, lower cost as well as the wider offering in the market. But as the software ecosystem of ARM is not as standardized as the one of the PC environment, the quality of the related software will be the key to the success of any ARM-based product.

Based on the fact that the complexity of technology will continue to increase, the developer will need professional support during the design phase.

Scigazette | 13 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

How our cities are becoming smarter and what it means for us

Diego Grassi, Senior Manager Market Development, u-blox We are told that the connected city is going to be a smarter city,but what does “smarter� actually mean in this context, and how will cities be connected? We don't yet have all the answers to these questions, but public authorities, businesses, academic institutions, NGOs and individuals have, over the last few years, evolved a common understanding of what smart cities are and how they will evolve in the future. It is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, though. Geographic, cultural, financial and technical considerations will dictate priorities for the application of technology to the smart city concept.

However, the unifying idea is that the smart city enhances the lives of its inhabitants. This may mean less traffic congestion and lower pollution, or the more effective supply of clean water. It can be a city where energy consumption and CO2 emissions are minimized, and one in which businesses are helped to thrive and public authorities can deliver better services for their citizens. The smart, connected city is one of the most exciting aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT) that Really Matter.

While definitions and applications are still evolving, it's clear that the smart city concept embraces the supply of energy and water, transportation, infrastructures, the management of buildings and the work of municipal authorities. In all these areas, the multifaceted IoT enables us to collect data from an almost infinite variety of sensors and other sources,

process that data locally or in the cloud, and initiate actions based on information derived from the data.

The sensors, some of which will be location-aware, will communicate wirelessly with others around them and with gateways that link them to the cloud.

Smart meters have already been installed in many municipalities around the world. These enable better management and monitoring of energy consumption, for both consumers and utility companies. Meter readings are instantly available to whoever needs them. Electricity, gas, oil and water consumption can be monitored locally or from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Consumers program their electrical appliances to use off-peak energy, saving money and helping load-balancing on electricity grids. Utility companies no longer need to send people in vans to read their customers' meters.

Instead, data is collected remotely, accurately, at low cost and in real time. Some of this data can be used to inform predictive maintenance programs, improving reliability of supply while lowering operating and maintenance costs. Other data enables smarter management of the electricity grid, again reducing waste and saving money.

Lighting accounts for nearly 20% of the world's electricity consumption and by far the largest proportion of this is city lighting. However, smart city lighting, for example in streets and in car parks, can now be controlled automatically. Light is

Scigazette | 14 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

provided when it's needed, but switched off to save energy when it's not. Sensors detect both environmental conditions and traffic levels to determine the most appropriate illumination level for street lighting.

The automation of traffic control promises shorter, safer journeys and lower pollution levels. Emergency services will reach their destinations faster, saving lives, and businesses will operate more efficiently by reducing wasted travel time. Citizens will benefit too; travel should become less stressful and shorter commuter journeys may result in more leisure time.

Smart parking services will mean driving directly to available spaces, rather than circling streets or car parks to find that illusive vacant space.

The volume of data being generated by smart cities is already immense and growing at an accelerating rate.

Although there are legitimate concerns about security and privacy relating to individuals, much of the data will be generated and transmitted as machine-tomachine (M2M) communications. Some will inform municipal authorities in ways that enable them to optimize their work, either by saving money or facilitating new and improved services. For example, chemical sensors will monitor air quality, cameras will improve security, inductive sensors in roads will provide instant traffic updates and waste collection

services will become more effective and efficient thanks to innovations such as smart bins, whose location and status can be monitored remotely.

Other information derived from smart city networks can be made available to consumers on websites, via mobile apps and on displays. Real time information

on public transportation services is already displayed at bus stops and railway stations in some cities and businesses may also make use of smart city data to create targeted advertising, perhaps delivered to smart screens at transport terminals, shopping malls, and sports and entertainment facilities.

Of course, connected devices will require robust, secure communications at every point in the chain, from sensor nodes to the cloud and back again. This is where a plethora of wireless positioning and communications technologies come into play.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) are becoming more accurate, partly due to data fusion techniques that combine satellite signals with location information derived from cellular and Wi-Fi

networks and, in the case of vehicles, data from wheel-tick sensors.

Familiar Wi-Fi and Bluetooth links, in a variety of flavors suited to different IoT applications, will proliferate, particularly where cell phones are used as internet gateways. Then there's Narrow band IoT (NBIoT), a new, ultra-low power technology for communicating small amounts of data over existing cellular radio networks. NB-IoT has already been proven in a number of applications, including remote metering, where it eliminates the need for dedicated networks. Here, it facilitates rapid smart meter deployment with communications delivered over established, secure and reliable cellular networks that offer guaranteed quality of service. NB-IoT is particularly effective in challenging locations such as inside buildings, or even in cellars.

For video and other high-band width communications, high-speed, low latency 4G LTE networks are already playing a vital role. 5G is emerging too, and in the near future will increase network capacity and speeds by an order of magnitude. Communications links will be able to carry data from millions more sensors and consumer will be able to download Ultra HD videos in seconds.

Scigazette | 15 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

u-blox's unique heritage combines in-depth experience in positioning, short range wireless and cellular radio technologies, so the company is perfectly positioned to provision smart city wireless networks. u-blox's integrated circuits and modules deliver secure, robust communications, whatever the environment. Equally important, modules are simple to install, scalable and easily upgraded as standards

evolve. They also feature low power consumption, long operating life and minimal maintenance. As wireless standards develop, u-blox is playing a major role by participating in the most relevant industry bodies, enabling the company to keep its customers at the forefront of developments.

The smart city is bringing a better quality of life to hundreds of millions of citizens around the world and u-blox is delivering the connections that make it all possible in this vitally important aspect of the Internet of Things that Really Matter.

Below are five examples of smart cities in the making: Bristol, UK The BristolIs Open initiative is explained as, “Using data sensors, smart city technologies will be able to respond in real-time to everyday events including congestion, waste management, entertainment events, e-democracy, energy supply and more”.

Initiatives range from the council making its underground ducts and fiber optic networks accessible to service providers to participating in the REPLICATE project (Renaissance in Places with Innovative Citizenship And Technology) – a European research and development project that aims to deploy integrated energy, mobility and ICT solutions in city districts.

Georgia, US The Georgia Power Company uses a power distribution technology that provides smart throttling of energy generation in response to demand fluctuations. It then offers its customers the option of a Smart Usage Rate to control their power bills by

paying attention to which appliances are running and when they're used in order to better manage demand.

Yinchuan, China Yinchuan describes itself as “the premier Smart City capital of China”. The city administrators set themselves three objectives: to benefit people's livelihoods, efficient administration, and industry derivation. Working with ZTE Corporation, the city has built a “Map-Network-Cloud” architecture to manage, among other things, government affairs, smart transportation and smart environment protection.

20,000 sets of servers process the city's data.

Kigali, Rwanda Started in Kigali, Smart Rwanda is a country-wide initiative to develop smart cities and smart villages that use information and communication technologies (ICT) to help tackle development challenges such as poverty, availability of basic services, and employment. The idea spread and the concept of Smart Africa came out of Kigali's “Transform Africa Summit” held in October 2013.

Smart Africa's goal is to mobilise US$300 billion of investment in the ICT sector by 2020 to make the whole continent smarter.

Santiago, Chile Santiago is home to 40% of Chile's population of around 18 million people. In 2012, outgoing President Sebastián Piñera set a goal for Chile to become a developed nation, measured in terms of GDP per capita, by 2020. Santiago's smart city initiatives are playing a central role with declared goals to “improve quality of life for its inhabitants by increasing access

to energy, creating environmentally friendly smart homes, and emphasising the use of sustainable energy”. Electronically controlled home appliances, installation of smart meters with two-way communication, and electronic information at bus stops all form part of the initiative.

Scigazette | 16 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

Programmable Versus Fixed-Function Controllers: Alternatives for Complex Robotic Motion

Control of today's sophisticated robot arms, regardless of their size or power, often requires simultaneous management along multiple axes for their motion control. Modern electronics–the motors, power-switching devices (Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors [MOSFETs] or Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors [IGBTs]), device drivers, control systems (now digital, formerly all analog), and feedback sensors–now make achieving precise motion control easier than it was just a few years ago (Figure 1). At the same time, however, the demands on system performance have increased dramatically, so the overall project is as difficult as ever.

Figure 1: A basic motion-control system for robotics includes algorithm-execution functions, motor drivers, power devices, and a feedback path; mechanical linkages, motor, and sensor (in most cases); and voltage and current measurement and control at key points. (Source: National Instruments)

Scigazette | 17 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

Nonetheless, there's one unavoidable fact: Robotics is largely a mechanical function, so the realities of such systems must be part of the control loop. These include gear backlash, mechanical tolerances, vibration, motor performance, rotating mass inertia, momentum, flexing of mechanical structures, variable loads, and more. For these reasons, it is important to decide what type of motor is the best fit—usually the choice is between brushless DC motors and stepper motors in low/moderate power situations.

Another necessary decision is related to sensor-based feedback. Most robotic applications use some type of feedback sensor to accurately gauge the end-effector's position, and thus velocity and acceleration (recall that velocity is the time integral of position, and acceleration is the time integral of velocity). This feedback transducer can be a Hall-effect sensor, a synchro/resolver, or an optical encoder. While it is easiest to put the encoder on the motor, placing it there may not provide required data about the endeffector's actual situation, with sufficient accuracy for the application, due to mechanical issues noted above. Therefore, the sensor may need to be mounted closer to the load endpoint.

Some motion-control applications operate without a sensor, which reduces cost and mechanical complexity. Rather than using a sensor for feedback, Sensorless Field-Oriented Control (FOC, also called vector control) uses precise, synchronized readings of the current and voltage at each phase of the motor windings; FOCs then perform complicated frame-of-reference transformations and matrix calculations in real time to determine the motor's position. Eliminating the sensor reduces hardware cost, but it necessitates significant computational capability and more complex programming. Many robotic designs still prefer to use sensors because FOC does not provide the same level of confidence, credibility, and robustness that using direct-sensor readout offers.

Understanding Basic Robotic Configurations While the general public may associate the term "robot" with a mobile, life-like servant or assistant, most robotic systems in the industrial domain are stationary and use a variety of mechanical arms and configurations to perform tasks. Among the most common arrangements are: The Cartesian robot, which has three linear axes of motion, one each in the x, y, and z-planes (Figure 2).

This setup is used in pick and place machines, application of sealant, and basic assembly.

Figure 2: The Cartesian robot is the easiest to comprehend and control because it has the simplest equations and works in the x, y, and z planes. (Source: RobotPark)

Scigazette | 18 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

In a cylindrical robot, all motion is confined to a cylinder-shaped zone. It combines linear motion in the y plane, linear motion in the z plane, and rotational motion around the z-axis (Figure 3). This robotic arrangement is used for assembly, tool handling, and spot welding.

Figure 3: The cylindrical robot has motion along two linear axes and around one rotational axis. (Source: RobotPark)

The spherical or polar robot combines two rotary joints and one linear joint, and the arm is connected to the base with a twisting joint (Figure 4). Motion is defined by a polar coordinates system and confined to a spherical zone. They are found in welding, casting, and tool-handling applications.

Figure 4: The spherical or polar robot combines motion around two rotary axes and along one linear axis, and it requires numerous calculation-intensive transformations between coordinate frames of reference. (Source: RobotPark)

The approaches cited here offer three degrees of freedom, using a combination of linear and rotary motion; however, some applications need only one or two degrees. More advanced robotic arms or articulated robots combine additional linear and rotary motion, for almost human-like dexterity and flexibility (Figure 5). Some leading edge arms provide six, eight, or even more degrees of freedom.

Figure 5: The articulated robot arm combines multiple rotation and linear motion modes for many degrees of freedom, but it also requires careful coordination among the actuators and arms. (Source: RobotPark)

Scigazette | 19 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

Other designs use special combinations of linear and rotary motion for application-specific situations, such as the parallelogram implementation; an implementation used for precise and rapid motion over short distances, for example, pick and place of tiny components. As the number of degrees of freedom increases, achieving rapid, smooth, accurate, and synchronized control along each of these degrees grows exponentially more challenging.

Considering Trajectory Profiles The motion-control objective in robotics seems simple enough: have the end-effector optimally reach its target position as quickly and accurately as possible with the supported load. Of course, there are tradeoffs involved, as in all engineering decisions, depending on the priorities associated with the optimum result in the given application.

For example, is it acceptable to accelerate and decelerate more quickly to more rapidly reach a higher velocity if the result is overshot and if there is even possible oscillation at the end point? Is it worth trading accuracy for speed, and to what extent? How are the choices of acceleration, velocity, and position related to the desired transition from position A to position B? What are the priorities and parameters that define "optimum" in a particular application?

Specialists in motion control for robotics and other motion applications have developed standard trajectory profiles that provide various ways to implement the desired tradeoff solution for a given application. All choices involve significant real-time calculation based on the present situation and feedback signal, but some impose a more substantial, high-resolution computation burden. These profiles include: The simple trapezoid, where the motor accelerates at a fixed rate from zero to a target velocity, stays at that velocity, and then ramps down at a fixed rate to zero velocity at the desired position (Figure 6).

Higher rates might speed up the entire positioning cycle, but they might also induce sudden changes in acceleration motion, called the jerk, which, in turn, adds to inaccuracy and overshoot.

Figure 6: The simplest motion-trajectory profile is the trapezoid, which has constant acceleration to the target velocity, constant path velocity, and constant deceleration between start and endpoints. (Source: Performance Motion Devices)

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Tech Focus

The S-curve, a frequently-used enhancement to the trapezoid, where the acceleration rate ramps up from zero, then decreases as the target velocity is achieved (Figure 7). Then, as the target position is reached, the deceleration rate is ramped up and then reduced as the endpoint is near. The S-curve actually has seven distinct phases, in contrast to the three phases of the trapezoid.

Figure 7: The S-curve path is more complicated than the basic trapezoid, but it eases the jerk (change in acceleration) at each transition point of the path. (Source: Performance Motion Devices)

In contoured motion, the user establishes a set of desired positions, and the motion controller directs a smooth, jerk-free transition profile through all of these points (Figure 8). This allows the ultimate in flexibility and control, which is necessary for advanced motion situations. The required calculations of control directions to achieve smooth curve-fitting are complex and must be accomplished without loss of resolution due to rounding or truncation errors, despite the many calculations.

Figure 8: The contoured-motion path allows the user to define a series of position marker points between starting and ending points, and the controller must guide the end-effecter through these in a smooth curve. (Source: National Instruments)

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Tech Focus

There are other profiles in use, some of which are associated with specific application groups or industries. Regardless of the desired profile, it's one thing to want it and another to make it happen. The well-known, highly effective Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) closed-loop control algorithm is the most common approach used to drive the motor and end-effector to do what is wanted with high enough accuracy and precision (Reference 1).

Effective control of a single axis is a manageable project, but robotic control becomes far more difficult when this control extends to two, three, or more motors and degrees of freedom, which must be closely coordinated and synchronized with the performance along one dependent on the status of the others.

Determining Standard Versus Custom Motion Control Applications For standard motion control applications, a dedicated, fixed-function, embedded controller Integrated Circuit (IC) offers ease of use and rapid time-to-market. In contrast, if a non-standard, customized profile is needed or if the correlation between the various axes is complicated and must accommodate unusual or unique events, then the design team may consider a fully user-programmable processor. This solution is implemented with a processor with Digital Signal Processor (DSP) capabilities for the computationintensive aspects or with a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). When considering programmable devices, the vendor, third-party tools, and available software modules are factors in making a specific selection, in addition to the hardware functions of the IC itself.

Note that these controllers are generally not the same as motor drivers, which are the MOSFET/IGBT drivers/devices that control motor power, for two reasons. First, these power devices must be sized to the motor, independent of the controller. Second, the high-density complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor-based process technologies used for these digital controllers are very different than the processes for power devices. For smaller motors, however, it is possible to integrate the controller with the driver and power device. Despite the fundamental differences, the term "controller" often refers to the power-device functional blocks, which can lead to confusion in keyword searches.

Some examples of motion control ICs show the spectrum that these devices span. At the basic singlefunction end, the Toshiba TB6560AFTG is a PWM chopper-type stepping motor controller and driver IC designed for sinusoidal-input microstep control of bipolar stepping motors (Figure 9). Housed in a 48-lead Quad Flat No-leads (QFN) package measuring just 7 Ă— 7 mm, it provides high-performance forward and reverse driving of a two-phase bipolar stepping motor using only a clock signal, and it can deliver up to 2.5A to the motor windings.

Figure 9: The Toshiba TB6560AFTG is a stepping motor controller with microstepping capability that also includes 2.5 A power MOSFETs for direct drive of the motor coils. (Source: Toshiba Corporation)

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Tech Focus

One of the issues with stepper motors, even when used in micro stepping mode, is that their output motion can vibrate as they start or stop their step motion. While not a problem in many situations, it can be a concern in the handling of delicate objects like glassware, or if it induces system resonances.

Therefore, the TB6560AFTG allows the user to tailor the rise/fall of the current drive and establish rise and fall transitions for this current to minimize vibration (Figure 10).

Figure 10: In application, the Toshiba TB6560AFTG requires only a few external components and is guided by high-level directives from a system processor, which it translates into detailed stepping control signals. (Source: Toshiba Corporation)

At the top end of the robotic motion-control pyramid are advanced units such as those in the Texas Instruments C2000 microcontroller families. C2000 represents multiple broad families of devices with various combinations of basic processing, numeric capabilities, types and number of input/output, and housekeeping functions like timers, watchdogs, and pulse width modulation generators.

For example, processors in the TMS320 Delfino series under the C2000 umbrella (Figure 11) offer native floating-point support to eliminate the challenge of fixed-point development, and they also support porting code between fixed- and floating-point native devices with the IQMath™ virtual floating-point engine. This eliminates the need for a second processor with a single or dual core that is efficient at both the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) math tasks and microcontroller system-control tasks. They also include a Trigonometric Math Unit (TMU) accelerator, which expedites trigonometric-based algorithms common in many control-loop calculations such as torque loops.

Figure 11: The C2000 family from Texas Instruments consists of several subfamilies, each in turn with many members; the Delfino group includes a powerful processor and embedded coprocessors plus many hardware-based internal support functions to reduce programming load and speed execution. (Source: Texas Instruments)

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Tech Focus

Supporting this processor are development tools and kits such as the LAUNCHXL-F28377S C2000 Delfino LaunchPad, which is based on a TMS320C28x 32-Bit CPU core (Figure 12). The LaunchPad features a F28377S microcontroller unit (MCU) which provides 400 MIPS of total system performance between a 200 MHz C28x central processing unit and a 200 MHz real-time control co-processor. This microcontroller contains 1MB of on-board flash and includes highly differentiated peripherals such as 16-bit/12-bit analog-to-digital converters, comparators, 12-bit digital-to-analog converters, delta-sigma sinc filters, high-resolution pulse-width modulators, enhanced capture modules, enhanced quadrature-encoder pulse modules, Controller Area Network (CAN) modules, and much more.

Figure 12: Tools such as the LaunchPad from Texas Instruments are critical for developing, integrating, and evaluating the advanced hardware and software of applications that C2000 Delfino-class processors target. (Source: Texas Instruments)

In addition to the MCU, the LauchPad has a built-in isolated XDS100v2 JTAG Emulator, which enables realtime in-system programming and debugging via USB. The LaunchPad also includes dual 40-pin headers to support two BoosterPacks simultaneously; includes a free, unrestricted version of Code Composer Studio (CCS) Integrated Development Environment (IDE); and adds a free download of controlSUITE™ software.

Conclusion Motion control options for robotics range from basic, dedicated-function ICs to highly integrated, extremely flexible MCUs with a large array of auxiliary processing and support functions. Although embedded devices may seem limiting, some of them allow selection of a variety of motion profiles and setting of critical parameters, and they are quite adequate, have low cost, and are easy to use. For advanced designs with unique or extremely sophisticated requirements, or designs needing additional levels of connectivity along with control, MCUs offer effective solutions with evaluation and development kits supported by verified code packages, debug and code-development tools, and validation suites.

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Cover Story

Rise of Intelligent Machines: AI & Robotics

The idea of machines that operate on the principles of the human brain has been around for more than fifty years. However, for most of the history of artificial intelligence, progress has been measured by how well machines solve particular problems, such as playing chess, driving cars, or passing the Turing Test. Relatively few artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques are based on an understanding of how the brain works and how it solves problems.

The impact of intelligent machines will rival and likely surpass the impact of computers operating under traditional principles, i.e. computers with pre-programmed rules, rather than learning systems. This endeavor will involve many people and many companies around the world.

Machine Intelligence: A Focus on Flexibility To be intelligent, a brain or machine must take in a stream of sensory data, automatically find patterns, adapt to changing conditions, make predictions about future events, and be able to act as required to get desired outcomes. Essentially, this automated pattern finding, learning, and behavior is what the brain does and what intelligent machines need to do.

Today's computers operate on entirely different principles. In a simple sense, we can think of them as “programmed machines” where brains are “learning machines”. Since learning machines are often implemented on programmed computers, it is worth clarifying this distinction. To us, a “programmed computer” or just “computer” is one that executes a series of instructions where the programmer knows in advance what problem he or she is trying to solve and the algorithms for solving it. On the other hand, a learning machine does not know in advance exactly how to solve a problem. It has to learn from data. If a learning machine is implemented on a computer, the software is not solving the problem directly but instead implementing the learning rules and methods. A learning machine always has to be trained, where a programmed computer does not.

Programmed computers have many strengths. They can be programmed to execute any algorithm, they are fast, and they are reliable. The result is great performance for applications where the inputs and desired outcomes are known.

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Cover Story

But programmed computers are unable to do many tasks that our brains perform easily, such as understanding language, analyzing a complex visual scene, planning, moving through a world filled with obstacles, or learning new solutions as the world changes.

Intelligent machines will accomplish tasks that humans cannot do. For example, intelligent machines can directly ingest data from non-human sensors such as GPS or radar. An intelligent machine using the same learning principles as the brain could automatically find patterns in a scanning radar data stream, make predictions, and identify anomalies.

The explosion of sensors in every area of human endeavor will require automated learning systems in order to understand and make use of that data.

Throughout the evolution of programmed computers, no one could imagine which applications would be important even ten years in the future. Similarly, we expect there will be important applications for intelligent machines that we can't imagine today. This unclear future argues for flexibility as an essential component of machine intelligence. Intelligent machines designed around flexibility offer the promise of solving any problem where we have large amounts of data, the need for individualized models, and a need to understand data in a rapidly changing environment. Finally, another important reason to have a flexible, general purpose architecture is the notion of “network effects”. If each problem has a custom-built solution, the learning involved in solving that problem cannot be easily applied to the next problem. Moreover, the costs of crafting individual solutions to every problem are high, and are reliant on the availability of a small cadre of highly skilled data scientists. A universal, highly flexible approach will attract the greatest talent and resources. The accumulated value of shared applications, algorithms, utilities, tools and knowledge will enable the work to progress faster. Ultimately, this approach will yield lower cost solutions for a broader range of problems.

The Brain as a Blueprint If you talk to someone outside of the field of artificial intelligence or machine learning and suggest that the path to create intelligent machines is to first understand how the human brain works and then build machines that work on the same principles,

they will invariably say “that makes sense.”

However, this view is not held by everyone inside the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. A typical response you might hear is that “airplanes don't flap their wings”, suggesting that it doesn't matter how brains work, or worse, that by studying the brain you will go down the wrong path -- like the people who tried to build planes with flapping wings.

This analogy is mistaken. The Wright brothers understood well the difference between the aerodynamics of lift and the need for a method of propulsion. In fact, Orville Wright's motivating question was, “if birds can glide for long periods of time, then...why can't I?” Bird wings and airplane wings work on the same principles of lift. Those principles had to be understood before the Wright brothers could build an airplane. Wing flapping is a means of propulsion and there are several ways to create propulsion; the specific method used doesn't matter that much. By analogy, we need to understand the principles of intelligence before we can build intelligent machines. We might find that we deviate from the brain in some of our methods, but since the only example we have of a truly intelligent system is the brain, and since the principles of intelligence are not obvious, it is wise to first understand these principles before attempting to build intelligent machines.

What does AI mean today?

Today, due to the scale of the challenge, research scientists still lack a digitally federated environment in which to fully sustain AI. Because of this, they typically deploy several types of shortcuts (such as heuristic approaches) to develop algorithms that represent their best bet of localizing and managing views of specific intelligent logic. This takes the form of a centralized model that attempts to represent the intelligent logic researchers would like to use, then connects as much information and data to that as possible.

Many large companies and universities are using more and more computing power and connecting to more and more data. However, this is strengthening their analytics capability rather than building what we understand as their intelligence; the focus is on automation, not autonomy. So far, the focus on

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Cover Story

hardwired algorithms such as semantic or logic representation or neural mimicking and learning has not derived a solution that best represents intellectual logic. These approaches do not replicate the natural order within the universe and they are unlikely to efficiently yield the expected benefit from

AI, at least in the medium term. Of course, in time this will be achieved – a natural organisation will take place. However, we will get there faster if we understand the basic patterns of how intelligence evolves in nature.

AI in governance Deep learning, a part of AI, can be employed to tackle issues of scale often prevalent in the execution of government schemes. It is essentially a process that can be used for pattern recognition, image analysis and natural language processing (NLP) by modelling high-level abstractions in data which can then be compared with various other recognised contents in a conceptual way rather than using just a rule-based method. Take for instance the Clean India Initiative directed towards the construction of toilets in rural India. Public servants are tasked with uploading images of these toilet constructions to a central server for sampling and assessment. Image processing AI can be used to flag photographs that do not resemble completely built toilets.

site. Considering the scale of this initiative, which involves creating more functional toilets, being able to check every image rather than a small sample will actually help increase effectiveness. Further, AI can be applied to the Prime Minister's initiatives such as the Digital India Initiative, Skill India and Make in India with varying effects. The range of application for AI techniques in such large-scale public endeavors could range from crop insurance schemes, tax fraud detection, and detecting subsidy leakage and defense and security strategy.

The Make in India and Skill India initiatives can be heavily augmented as well as disrupted by AI adoption in the short term. While the former is aimed at building the nation-wide capabilities required to make India a self-sustaining hub of innovation, design, production and export, the latter seeks to aggressively build and enhance human capital.

However, the point to consider here is that if investments are made in the two initiatives

Image recognition capabilities can also be used to identify whether the same official appears in multiple images or if photos have been uploaded by officials from a location other than the intended

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Cover Story

without due cognizance of how Industry 4.0 (the next industrial revolution driven by robotic automation) may evolve with respect to demand for workforce size and skill sets, there is a possibility of ending up with capital-intensive infrastructures and assets that fall short of being optimized for automated operations and a large workforce skilled in areas growing beyond the need for manual intervention only.

AI can also be consumed in traditional industries like agriculture. The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture runs the Kisan Call Centers across the country to respond to issues raised by farmers instantly and in their local language. An AI system will help assist the call centre by linking various available information. For example, it could pick up soil reports from government agencies and link them to the environmental conditions prevalent over the years using data from a remote sensing satellite. It could then provide advice on the optimal crop that can be sown in that land pocket. This information could also be used to determine the crop's susceptibility to pests. Necessary pre-emptive measures can then be taken—for instance, supplying the required pesticides to that land pocket as well as notifying farmers about the risk. With a high level of connectivity, this is a feasible and ready to deploy solution which uses AI as an augmentation to the system.

Ethical considerations One of the major concerns in any conversation involving AI is the topic of ethical, legal and societal norms. AI research needs to base itself on a sound understanding of the various implications of any innovation and ensure alignment with rules and norms. Common concerns are the breach of privacy that might arise from an environment where hackers can exploit AI solutions to collect private and sensitive information.

A bigger threat is the misuse of ML algorithms by hackers to develop autonomous techniques that jeopardize the security and safety of vital information.

There is a need to define what 'acceptable behavior' for an AI system translates to in its respective

application domain. This should ideally drive design considerations, engineering techniques and reliability.

Due diligence in ensuring that AI technologies perform in an easy to understand manner and the outcome from their applications is in line with the perception of fairness, equality and local cultural norms to ensure broad societal acceptance.

AI development will hence need involvement of experts from multidisciplinary fields such as computer science, social and behavioural sciences, ethics, biomedical science, psychology, economics, law and policy research.

AI algorithms might, by design, be inherently subject to errors that can lead to consequences such as unfair outcomes for racial and economic classes—for example, citizen profiling based on demographics to arrive at the probability to commit crimes or default on financial obligations. AI system actions should therefore be transparent and easily understandable by humans. Deep learning algorithms that are opaque to users could create hurdles in domains such as healthcare, where diagnosis and treatment need to be backed by a solid chain of reasoning to buy into patient trust. Trustworthy AI systems are built around the following tenets: Transparency (operations visible to user) • Credibility (outcomes are acceptable) • Auditability (efficiency can be easily measured) • Reliability (AI systems perform as intended) • Recoverability (manual control can be assumed if required) Owing to their vague and contextual interpretation, ethical standards pose a challenge while being encoded into AI systems. Some architectural frameworks that have been widely cited to counter the above challenge are: • An architecture designed with operational AI distinct from a monitor agent responsible for legal and ethical supervision of any actions

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Cover Story

A framework to ensure that AI behavior is safe for humans and implemented through a set of logical constraints on AI system behavior The real challenges In order to build a truly empowering AI we need to take a fundamentally new and broader perspective that builds a digital environment (including proposals for the infrastructure and social organisation) and enables digital intelligence to flourish. This means adopting the following set of resolutions: Ÿ To build AI platforms that are additionally based on the laws of complexity and thereby exploit approaches linked to natural evolutionary models Ÿ To evolve our existing cloud infrastructures to be more cortex-oriented Ÿ To use the Internet of Things (IoT) as a consistent platform to create an interface that could work like a digital membrane in our physical world Creating basic systems following these principles will bring us closer to the moment in which much more of our world can be better understood and even predicted, having optimized our capacity to be aware of the complexity of our world and our day-to-day activities.

Both physical and digital worlds stand on the same fundamental building blocks: particles, atoms and matter. It is apparent that both will follow the same pattern of evolving to generate increasingly complex structures.

Understanding and exploiting this will enable us to build AI in a way that is more efficient and empowering for the human race.

In order to build improved augmented intelligence or AI systems we need to leverage the complexity and natural structure of our own world and existence. We need to create more socially oriented and communicative systems that interact with us as individuals and groups in a more standard and universally structured way. We also need to build a supporting digital environment in which AI systems can navigate and operate separately and together in clusters.

With this in mind, by exploiting both digital content and the IoT we can build digital-like membranes in our own physical and human world. Of course this is not a trivial task and we therefore will need to build on what has already been discovered and created.

Looking ahead The field of AI has awed researchers and users equally over time. Right from Alan Turing's paper in the 1950s to sci-fi movies, there has been a debate on what AI can do and how human beings will be affected by it. In many ways, this thought process and speculation are not surprising; rather, they are typical in the case of any evolving field about which complete knowledge is yet to be obtained. The only difference is that AI will constantly evolve and, hence, being able to foresee the next change becomes a big ask.

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In-Conversation

Pradeep David General Manager India & Sri Lanka at Universal Robots

Future lies in the hands of collaborative robots

In this interview Pradeep David discusses with us the rise of Robotics in India and how well Universal Robots is spearheading this collaborative robots revolution.

Pradeep David is the General Manager at Universal Robots in Bangalore, he is one of the strong pillars of the company responsible for setting up & running the operations of Denmark based Universal Robots A/S, in India.

Pradeep joined Universal Robots India in October 2015 and ever since has been persistent with his effort and sure vision of the ambitious growth strategy for the company to fulfill the goal of making the company a market leader in the segment of robotics that they operate in. Here is the in-depth conversation.

1. How well has the Indian market responded to Universal Robots products and services?

The Indian operation is the newest addition to UR Globally and just about a year old and has witnessed over 200 CoBots deployment already, majorly in the market segments of automotive industry followed by FMCG, Electronics, Education and R&D Centers.

Our three different collaborative robots are easily integrated into existing production environments. With six articulation points and a wide scope of flexibility, the cobot arms are designed to mimic the range of motion of a human arm. The nominal investment cost is quickly recovered as our robotic arms have an average payback period of just six months.

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In-Conversation

Some of key customers on board with UR are Bajaj Automotive, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ford, TVS, Hindustan Unilever, P&G, L'Oreal, Siemens, TCS, Aurolab, Denso etc. With the growing demand of CoBots in India the company will be looking at expanding the customer base in various sectors. Now Our cobots have over 65 patents pertaining to Robot Safety, Robot Construction, Trajectory Control, Robot Calibration & Programming.

Indian CoBot market which has just taken shape, has shown a remarkable growth with revenues expected to cross INR 30 crores in 2 years, taken conservative estimates, as all indications are for doubling the business year on year.

2. What distinguishes Universal Robots from the others players in the similar segment?

Our cobots have over 65 patents pertaining to Robot Safety, Robot Construction, Trajectory Control, Robot Calibration & Programming. Eighty percent of the thousands of UR robots worldwide operate with no safety guarding (after risk assessment), right beside human operators. The safety system of our robots is approved and certified by TĂœV (The German Technical Inspection Association). This is the key which separates industrial robots from 'Cobots'.

There are 4 types of collaborative operations as per ISO/TS 15066 guidelines on safety. Safety rated monitoring stop, hand guiding, speed and separation monitoring, power and force limiting.

If the robots come into contact with a person, our patented technology limits the forces at contact. The robots can also be programmed to operate in reduced mode when a human enters the robot's work area and resume full speed when the person leaves.

With respect to the hand guiding operation, the human operator uses a hand-operated device and the robot system moves based on motion commands of the operator. It is a kind of manually controlled operation in that the operator is in direct control of the robot system's operation. This is considered automatic operation, not manual operation.

3. How is Universal Robots helping shape the future of robotics in India?

Robots are playing a very important part in the industry today but the future lies in the hand of collaborative robots which work along with humans to create new avenues.

Universal Robots is not just a name. When we say

universal we mean it. The UR arms can be implemented in virtually any industry, in any process and by any employee. Around the world, more than 10,000* operating UR robots are testimony to just that – and to the clear objective we've had from the very beginning: To make collaborative robot technology accessible to companies of all sizes.

Robots are our life. So whether you are looking for a robotic solution for the sake of precision, speed, optimization or ergonomics, we can help you. And probably at a price that will take you by surprise; our robotic arms have an average payback time of just 195 days, which makes them the most favorable on the market, within reach of most companies. But that is far from the only reason why Universal Robots is the world's no. 1 in collaborative robots: When we say the UR robot arms can automate virtually anything we mean virtually anything; from assembly to painting, from screw driving to labeling, from packing to polishing, from injection molding to welding and whatever other processing task you can think of. And thanks to the flexibility of the UR family, the robot arms are even economically viable for small-batch and mixed-product assembly.

Universal Robots is also providing platforms for new developers. Universal Robots+ which is Universal Robots latest addition is a unique ecosystem that adds value for the developer community, distributors and end consumers of the Danish pioneer in humanrobot-collaboration. Universal Robots+ unites the developer program +YOU with a showroom for presenting innovative Plug&Play applications. We are very soon opening a Universal Robots+ platform for external R&D. Our idea is to facilitate the developers with a platform where they can develop their own apps and we also provide them with kits that they can work with. If they are good enough, we sign them and expose the app globally and come up with advertising for our partners. We are keen to provide all and any kind of assistance and training for software developers to develop new products right here in India. We will be setting up workshops and will give a chance to developers to interact with our team, provide them tools and support. But the testing ground is ours, which is provided through the training academy where we provide free training. This is fully compatible and consumer centric.

4. From India's perspective, how do you see the future of Human-Robot collaboration shaping up at office workspace, industrial level?

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In-Conversation

Recently there has been much new advancement in robotic manufacturing technology, enabling robot workers to be integrated into the labor force to increase productivity and efficiency. The new term 'CoBots' (collaborative Robots) which has come into the picture is a remarkable combination of industrial robotics and automation. The idea is for humans and robots to be inter-dependent and achieve what each of them does best, safely. There are a few things requiring human ingenuity that are best done manually, whereas the accuracy, precision and repetitive mass production at higher efficiency is best taken care of by robots. These cobots provide an added incentive to the workforce as consistent quality production is possible with human supervision.

Industrial robots are usually preferred in large manufacturing plants for activities like assembly line, glue dispensing, machine tending and even processing. For years manufacturers have been weary of implementing such robots simply because of safety concerns and also because they are space consuming, heavy and expensive, especially considering the fact that they require a safety cage or enclosure to avoid any contact while co-working with humans. Human and robot system interaction in industrial settings is now possible thanks to ISO/TS 15066, a new ISO technical specification for collaborative robot system safety. The certification legitimizes these robot systems or Co-bots and ensures that they are properly safeguarded.

Instead of replacing human and causing job loss, collaborative robots helps companies in expanding operations, thereby creating job opportunities.

Cobots help companies to expand multi-fold, thus creating jobs and many more opportunities at supervision roles. In a human-machine study conducted by MIT researchers at a BMW factory, it was shown that teams made of humans and robots collaborating efficiently can be around 85 percent more productive than teams made of either humans or robots alone. We develop industrial collaborative robot arms that automate and streamline repetitive industrial processes. This approach enables production departments to assign their staff members more enjoyable tasks – creating jobs that provide them with new challenges that add value to the company.

5. What are the major challenges that you face in deploying the technology in the Indian region?

The only challenge that we face in the Indian context is the lack of awareness regarding the value proposition of collaborative robots. There are endless possibilities with collaborative robots due to their ability to work alongside humans. We want to target the SME sector and give these smaller businesses a chance to grow and increase their efficiency and output. Manufacturers can use collaborative robots as an advanced tool available for any worker in the factory to use for stand-alone operations. We have started creating awareness on collaborative robots and will continue to do so in the coming years.

6. Please talk about the Collaborative Robotic Arm and how is it helping companies in increasing their efficiency?

Collaborative robots are designed to work alongside human workers, assisting them with a variety of tasks.

Because co-bots are affordable, highly adaptable, and almost plug-and-play, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are eager to adopt this technology, and some analysts (myself included) expect this segment will see massive growth in the next few years.

There are many reasons for the emergence of collaborative robots: companies are using them because they can be placed alongside humans in small-spaced electronics assembly lines, because they are affordable and easily trainable, and because they are flexible to handle short runs, repetitive and boring jobs, and ergonomically challenging tasks.

Collaborative robots are lightweight and incredibly easy to operate cost effective and safe to operate.

The rise of collaborative technology has brought them to the manufacturing industry to integrate and collaborate among humans to increase efficiency, productivity and quality. The human-robot collaboration is different from traditional robots.

The days of hiring expensive external consulting every time a robot has to be programmed are over.

The new reality is operators with no programming experience can quickly program the Cobot arms (with the help of patented, intuitive, 3D visualisation). All we have to do is move the robot arm to the desired waypoints or touch the arrow keys on the easy-to-use touch screen tablets. The cobot arms come with an average payback time of 195 days. That's the fastest in the industry-quite simply because they are void of all the added costs traditionally associated with automation such as

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In-Conversation

external programming resources and shielded work cells. So automation can no more be considered out of reach now.

Moreover production setups today often need to be flexible and agile in order to meet changing demand and stay competitive. The light weight cobot arms are easily moved and re-deployed to new processes, enabling you to automate virtually any manual task, including those with small batches or fast change-overs.

Universal Robots has been the frontrunner of collaborative robotics since the term was coined. More than 80% of the UR robots arms in operation worldwide works right next to humans-with no safety guards to shield them and making robot technology accessible to all levels of industry. And cobots are more than happy to do the jobs that human operators find repetitive and dull. The safety system of our robots is approved and certified by TuV(The German Technical Inspection Association). The cobots have 15 advanced adjustable safety functions, These TuV NORD approved safety function are tested in accordance with: EN ISO 13849:2008PL d, EN ISO 10218-1: 2011, Clause 5.4.3 Our oldest customer Bajaj Auto Ltd. have deployed rd over 150 co-bots since 2010 and are now the 3 largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. They saw a gradual rise in the productivity and efficiency in their production after deploying Universal Robots Collaborative robots. It also increased the productivity of their employees along with their product quality after associating themselves with Universal Robots.

They are of the view that the added benefits of the co-bots are easy use, very low annual maintenance and higher energy efficiency.

UR Cobots have immensely benefited the customers in terms of speed to market, responsiveness, consistency in quality and cost effectiveness. Our CoBots are also doing out of box applications for customers. They perform basic functions, what we like to call pick and place applications, which includes picking things from one place, processing them and then, putting them back, etc. this is for perfumes, shampoos, dyes – Procter and Gamble and Unilever would use a lot of palletizing – are the 2 main applications that are driving the business right now and we foresees good business coming from this sector along with the electronic, Auto and metal sectors.

Almost all the industries are responding well to Industrial Automation and Robotics technology whether it is Automotive and Subcontractors, Food & Agriculture, Furniture & Equipment, Electronics & Technology, Metal & Machining, Plastic & Polymers, Pharma &Chemistry, Scientific & Research, Healthcare, Fashion etc If we talk about India, Automotive industry is the biggest market for our cobots, followed by FMCG , Electronics, Education and R&D Centers. Other sectors are also picking up fast and we are expecting Indian cobot market to grow immensely in next two years.

8. Your views, predictions or closing comments, if any.

While global cobots market is projected to grow to $3,811.483 million by 2021, the Indian market is comparatively quite nascent. According to market estimates, America and APAC region will drive the global market for collaborative robots over the forecasted period due to increase in manufacturing activity and a surge in demand for these robotic solutions by the enterprises operating in the regions.

The 2016 annual result of Universal Robots is a testament to the market growth, with revenue reaching DKK 662 million (around INR620 Crores) and delivering a profit of DKK 92 million (around INR 86 Crores) before tax. Taking advantage of the impressive growth of the market, Universal Robots are aiming to double their numbers in India in 2017 and this will only go up from there.

Presently, India is one of the countries with the least adoption rate of industrial robots. By 2018, India is predicted to adopt 6000 robots unlike our Asian counterparts, China which will ship at least 1,50,000 robots into their country by that time. Businesses around the world are looking at automating their processes as it not only increases the efficiency of an organization but also improves the quality of products being produced by the respective manufacturing units. Robots are being looked at as an advanced tool that will enhance production operations. For countries like India, this is the right time to start adopting Robots. Universal robots optimizes production levels and the key industries that these co-bots are best used for- the Automotive, Food and Processing, Electronics and Technology, Metal and Machining, Research, and Pharma industries.

7. Which Indian industries have responded well to the industrial automation and robotics technology?

Scigazette | 33 | June, 2017

Scigazette | 34 | June, 2017

Scigazette | 35 | June, 2017

Technology

Digitization and its Relationship with IoT

Ashish Gula , Country Head Telit India.

The digi za on of everything is an impera ve for digital innova on and engagement which has emerged.

Businesses in every sector have already realized that they must use digital channels to engage with their key stake holders to maintain relevance and drive the conversa on. The challenge for businesses is to face the implica ons of the change being bought around due to Digi za on. In par cular, the loss of control over the customer rela onship, increased compe on, threat of commodi za on, and the need to engage digitally with suppliers, partners and employees in addi on to customers.

Digi za on is drama cally changing the world. It is impac ng all of our lives, and no individual, company or country can escape its impact. India is set for a “Digi za on Revolu on” and the overall digi za on of the country is up for a complete overhaul. This transforma on has emerged as the most transforma ve means to ignite sustainable growth and improve society. Those countries and companies that embrace the digital transforma on will uncover limitless possibili es to drive innova on, growth and jobs of the future.

The IoT is bridging the physical, digital, cyber and virtual worlds and this requires sound informa on processing capabili es for the “digital shadows” of these real things. IoT applica ons are gradually moving from ver cal, single purpose solu ons to mul -purpose and collabora ve applica ons interac ng across industry ver cals, organiza ons and people, which represent one of the essen al paradigms of the Digi zed economy. Many of those applica ons s ll have to be iden fied, while involvement of end users in this innova on is crucial. "The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered to be one of the enablers that would benefit from this Digi za on drive. It is fuelled by the advancement of digital technologies, as well as drama cally changing the way how companies engage in business ac vi es and how

Scigazette | 36 | June, 2017

Technology

people interact with their environment. The IoT's disrup ve nature requires the assessment of the requirements for its future deployment across the digital value chain in various industries and applica on areas.

In India Digi za on would act as a catalyst towards the growth of Inter of Things (IoT). Re-inven ng the IoT func on to cater to Digi za on requires far-reaching changes, from talent to infrastructure and it takes mul ple years to complete. Fortunately, companies can adopt an approach that delivers results quickly while s ll reshaping IoT for the long term. This two-speed approach requires first building a “high-speed” IoT func on to work alongside the exis ng IoT func on and focusing on one or two valuable business areas such as web and customer rela onship management.

According to NASSCOM, the Indian informa on technology (IT) industry has had a phenomenal run. The industry crossed the $100 billion mark in 2012 and is expected to treble to more than $300 billion by 2020. The role of IT in business is shi ing from that of an enabler to a strategic partner. The explosion of data is making it necessary for businesses to proac vely adopt technology in order to differen ate themselves, and the digital wave is turning out to be a disruptor across industry ver cals.

IoT has played a crucial role in the success of digi za on across the country and various industries. It has made the mode of payments so easy that there is no direct access to the customer at me of purchase. The process where customers can pay their bill through any of the mul ple acquirers via mul ple banks POS to the merchant/ brand is possible with help of Internet of things (IoT). For a country like India, digi za on could be a real game changer. Its extensive reach, seamless connec vity, and mass digital literacy are aspects that can truly ring in the dawn of a digi zed India. With the IoT revolu on and the upward graph of economic growth, a truly digi zed India in the next five years is not an unreachable goal. The seed of a massive revolu on that digi za on holds within it has poten ally opened up unlimited opportuni es for businesses – to pioneer this transforma on, achieve increased profitability in the process and enable businesses achieve customer delight.

“Digi za on Transforma on” has changed the way how people have started thinking. As digi za on takes center stage, Indian banks have plans up their sleeve for the year ahead. Banks so far have been the backbone of the country as they can drive or push the country's GDP. Indian banking is set to become the fi h largest by 2020, according to a joint report prepared by KPMG and Confedera on of Indian Industries (CII). But 2016 was an upheaval, as the banks ba led demone za on and the debit card breach affec ng close to three lakh accounts. The year ahead too won't provide any relief, as the task to do damage control and the pressure to leverage digital is huge. This where IoT can help banks not only counter security threats but also successfully implement hardware and so ware infrastructure that would ba le the pains of Demone za on.

It is not only the banks that are impacted by the Digi za on wave but every sector of the economy is transforming itself from cash based to using of Internet as the means of payment. Take for example the transport logis cs sector or the Third Party Logis cs (3PL) sector in India. 80% of this sector is an unorganized sector with cash transac ons and under invoicing impac ng government revenues. With the focus on Digi za on, this sector would now be forced to implement hardware and so ware technologies to reduce costs and also reduce cash and under-invoicing transac ons. This would lead to a full eco system which would be IoT enabled where hardware and so ware technologies would interact with each other to provide maximum benefits to the companies. Similarly, nearly in every sector the usage of IoT would grow leaps and bounds in the coming years in India.

The digital payments landscape in India is s ll nascent though it has seen significant ac vity in the past 2-3 years. The opportunity that lies ahead is enormous. The digital payment offerings of the future need to combine the simplicity and universality of cash with the security and convenience offered by digital payments as highlighted in the Google-BCG report. IoT technology will be the key enabler for mass adop on of digital payments. The right product has to cater to the heterogeneous needs of the customer solved in a customized manner. The payment methods have to be simple, fast, efficient, and secure. With those in place, the complexi es of using digital will be gone and the habit of using cash will soon be a thing of the past.

Scigazette | 37 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

PREPARING FOR CYBERWAR Dr Vishal Saraswat, Cryptographer & Asst Professor at C. R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Hyderabad Wars these days are proxy wars, direct or indirect, and the cyberspace has proved to be a fertile ground for such wars leading to the development of cyberwar Traditionally, a country's military operations dealt with four domains: land, water, air, and space. But since a couple of decades, the advent of Internet and its growing penetration has changed the nature of war and introduced another domain in the military operations, cyber. The cyber domain is comprised of much more than just computers connected to a network. While the location of the users and the physical systems is part of the cyber domain, the cyberspace itself is beyond the three spatial dimensions, length, breadth and vertical, and the temporal dimension, time, and has become the inherent fifth dimension of battlespace. New dimensions keep being added to the battlespace with advances in human civilization, but the cyberrevolution is as epochal as the industrial revolution, if not more.

War in Cyber Age Until 20th century, military only worried about protecting its data and securing its communications (cryptography) and dealt with intercepting and interpreting the data of the adversary (cryptanalysis) while cyber-security was mainly in the domain of the

software industry and dealt mostly with protecting computers and data from financial harm. In the 21st century the cyber-attacks crossed from the digital world into our physical realm, for example, Stuxnet destroyed Iranian nuclear program in 2012. Now, cyber-security is not just about hacking, malwares, web defacements, email spoofing, identity thefts, and online financial frauds but also entails data theft, Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, unauthorized access to critical infrastructures of the country, online surveillance and digital espionage.

Wars these days are proxy wars to a greater or lesser degree and the cyberspace has proved to be a fertile ground for such wars leading to the development of a new kind of war, cyberwar. Cyber warfare has the potential to avoid attribution or retribution, while attacking the military installations' critical infrastructure and communication networks to cause catastrophic effects that goes far beyond the loss of human lives. Keeping these in mind, in April 2015, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order in which he stated

Scigazette | 38 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

“The increasing prevalence and severity of malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat.”

India in Cyberspace India is already among the most heavily cyberattacked country today, second only to the United States. India has been victim to several cyberattacks that have not only compromised sensitive government and defence forces' systems, but also caused loss of lives by propagating manipulated information. After the Assam violence in 2012, social media was used to propagate hate messages causing loss of many lives and the mass exodus of North East people from major cities in India. More recently, in early September, details about India's top secret Scorpene submarine program were published online.

On May 17, the cyber-security firm Symantec announced that a Chinese cyber-espionage group called Suckfly had breached the systems of several Indian central government departments including one which was responsible for implementing network software for different ministries and departments and had access to their information. A week later, on May 25, another cyber-security firm, Kaspersky Lab, announced that it had tracked at least one another Chinese cyberespionage group, called Danti that had penetrated Indian government systems through India's diplomatic entities.

Edward Snowden's revelation also revelaed that different Indian networks have exposed the vulnerabilities in the existing cyber-security setup and defence mechanism. So, with an increasingly belligerent cyberspace, where do India's cybersecurity measures stand up?

Ensuring Cybersecurity To deal with data protection and computer crimes, in 2000, the Indian government enacted the Information Technology Act, 2000, that defined cybercrime and established a Cyber Appellate Tribunal to resolve disputes The Act was amended to plug the loopholes in 2006 and 2008, along with existing laws to make them compliant with technologies.

Banks under Threat Ÿ In 2016, Indian banks had to face tough attacks on their digital security walls. The following major cases of data breaches were directly meant to jeopardise economic security: Ÿ In the biggest ever breaches of financial data in India, over 3.2 Million Debit Cards were compromised through which cards with Visa, Master Card and Rupay platform of State Bank of India, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, YES Bank were infected; Ÿ India's third largest private sector bank, Axis Bank, reported that it suffered a cyber attack where it's authorities found an unauthorized login by some offshore hacker, reported intrusion was from Russian security researcher Kaspersky Lab; Ÿ A Pakistani hacker dubbed as 'Afzal Faizal' in the month of August claimed to have gained access to a Nationalized Bank from India, though officials claim that no financial loss or data leak took place In 2004, the government established Vigilance Telecom Monitoring cells (VTM) to deal with clandestine telecom operations and security issues.

These VTMs subsequently evolved into Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells to act as the technical interface between Security Agencies and Telecom Service Providers.

In 2004, a cyber crisis management plan was put in place and the Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-In) was formed as the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats and strengthen the security of the Indian Internet domain. CERT-In maintains a national repository of cyber-attacks, like hacking and phishing, and analyses the attacks, traces the incidents, and profiles the attackers. It reports incidents, issues early warning and response, issues security guidelines and advisories, and develops preventive strategies. The defence establishment has already set up a sectoral CERT for itself. Railways and the power sector are also planning to have a CERT of their own.

With an aim to create information security awareness and towards capacity building in the area of Information Security, the government approved the project Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA). The ISEA project trains the government personnel, including non-IT professionals, legal and police personnel

Scigazette | 39 | June, 2017

Tech Focus

etc., regarding the pervasive nature and impact of cyber security on all walks of life. The project has launched non-formal modular/short-term knowledgecum-skill oriented courses etc. for working professionals at all levels. Information Security curriculum is also introduced in classroom mode in formal courses like M.Tech./M.E./M.S., B.Tech/B.E., Post Graduate Diploma courses, etc. through academic institutions The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) was established to facilitate the routing of domestic Internet traffic through the peering the Indian Internet service providers (ISPs), rather than using servers in other countries. This reduced the chances of Indian data being intercepted unlawfully by foreign agencies while allowing our agencies to monitor the traffic more efficiently.

Industry has also played its part in making the cyberspace secure. Data Security Council of India (DSCI) was established in 2008 by National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). DSCI brings together government agencies, data protection authorities, regulators, industry associations from sectors including IT-BPM, BFSI and Telecom, industry associations, and think tanks for establishing best practices, frameworks, standards and initiatives in cyber security and is working towards capacity building in cyber security and cyber forensics through training and certification program for professionals and law enforcement agencies.

While the above agencies are more oriented towards civilian policing, the government established the Defence Information Warfare Agency (DIWA) and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) to lead the nation's offensive and defensive operations in the cyberspace. NTRO is a highly specialised technical intelligence gathering agency under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office and acts as a super-feeder agency for providing technical intelligence to other agencies on internal and external security. DIWA is an information warfare agency under the operational control of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nodal agency for all defence related intelligence, and handles all elements of the information warfare. DIWA frames the policies for cyber-wars, formulates counter-measures to enemy propaganda, and handles information manipulation and psychological operations.

The Way Ahead The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is already formulating guidelines and regulations for ensuring protection of protected systems and critical infrastructures and will be formally launched soon. The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project is in works to integrate the intelligence grid connecting databases of core security agencies of the Government of India to collect comprehensive patterns of intelligence that can be readily accessed by intelligence agencies.

NETRA (Network Traffic Analysis), a software network to intercept and analyze internet traffic on real time basis using pre-defined filters is to be deployed nationwide soon. A new Telecom Security Policy is in works. The National Cyber Security Policy draft is available and would be implemented soon. National Cyber Coordination Centre was also approved to coordinate the intelligence gathering activities of various agencies and to develop cybercrime prevention strategy, deliver cybercrime investigation training and review outdated laws.

While the government is moving in the right direction, we need to speed up and scale up the process. As the country becomes more networked, the avenues for a cyber-attack will multiply and the nation will need to continually reinforce the country's cyber security framework and infrastructure and its related technologies in almost real time. The resources for this preparation are not readily available within the government and we need to include industry as partners on our team and build with industry a foundation of trust and confidence in a cooperative manner. Their commercial and civil ventures give them a tremendous knowledge base and the insights and the skills needed to get the job done. Whenever the military has approached private partners for its various requirements, their support led to significant advances and saved critical time and precious resources. This time too, we need to bring in the industry's talent and its expertise towards successfully defending and dominating the cyberspace. While large IT companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and Mahindra are already contributing to the defence sector in many other ways, we need to involve these companies for our cyber-security needs too. Many smaller home grown start-ups working in cyber security may also be roped in for specific issues.

Scigazette | 40 | June, 2017

New Products

IPM CIPOS Mini integrates power factor correction for further components. It is designed to control induction motors and permanent magnet synchronous motors with singlephase PFC in variable speed drives. These are typically found in applications like air conditioning and low-power motor drives of up to 2 kW power capability.

For more information visit: www.infineon.com/IPM.

Infineon Technologies introduces the new CIPOS Mini featuring power factor correction (PFC).The intelligent power module (IPM) combines a single switch boost PFC stage and a 3 phase inverter in one package.

With the PFC integrated into the inverter module, the integrated CIPOS Mini IPM helps to reduce system size and the bill of material. Moreover, the additional PCB space gives room

Vishay unveils IHLP low profile, high current inductor

BMA Connectors and Adapters with Operating Frequency of 22 GHz

Vishay Intertechnology introduced a new IHLP low profile, high current inductor in the 1616 case size that combines a high operating temperature to +155 °C with a low profile of 2 mm for commercial and industrial applications in extreme environments.

With a frequency range up to 2 MHz, the Vishay Dale IHLP-1616BZ-51 is optimized for energy storage in DC/DC converters and high current filtering up to the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of the inductor (see table below).

Applications include notebooks, desktop PCs, and servers; low profile, high current power supplies, PMICs, and point of load (POL) converters; industrial and telecommunications power systems; and DC/DC converters for distributed power systems and FPGAs. For more information visit: www.vishay.com

Pasternack, a leading provider of RF, microwave and millimeter wave products, has released a new line of 52 BMA connectors and adapters with maximum operating frequency of 22 GHz. Typical applications include blind mating, rack and panels, phased array systems. RF backplanes and high-speed switching.

Pasternack's new product line is made up of 45 connectors with VSWR as low as 1.2:1, and 7 adapters with VSWR as low as 1.15:1. They feature gold-plated BeCu contacts, 50 Ohm impedance and a temperature range of -65°C to +125°C. Many of the models provide radial and axial float to help with alignment. Military versions are made of stainless steel and commercial versions are constructed of brass. Hermetic versions are also available. These BMA connectors and adapters are ideally suited for military electronics and telecommunications applications.

Visit https://www.pasternack.com/pages/RFMicrowave-and-Millimeter-Wave-Products/bmainterconnects.html

Scigazette | 41 | June, 2017

New Products

World's Smallest 24W DC LED Drivers Seoul Semiconductor, a leading global innovator of LED products and technology, has developed the industry's smallest phase-cut DC LED driver series, with a power density 10X higher than conventional LED drivers. he NanoDriver Series is the world's smallest miniature converter at just 13.5mm wide, and is available in four versions rated for 16W and

24W output power for operating LED lighting with input power of 120V or 230V (50 – 60Hz), and can be driven by AC or DC power supplies. Manufactured with Seoul Semiconductor's original Acrich technology, the NanoDriver Series features an IC directly attached to the substrate, dramatically reducing the size of the converter.

To learn more about the

NanoDriver Series please visit: http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en /technology/drivers

Maxim's Dual IO-Link Master Transceiver for Industry 4.0 Applications Designers of Industry 4.0 applications can now achieve robust communications and reduce power dissipation by 50% with the MAX14819 dual-channel, IO-Link master transceiver from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Today's fanless programmable logic controller (PLC) and IO-Link gateway systems must dissipate large amounts of power depending on IO configuration (IOLink, digital input/output, analog input/output). As these PLCs evolve into new Industrial 4.0

smart factories, special attention must be considered to achieve smarter, faster, and lower power solutions while also meeting IOLink and standard IO (SIO) compliance.

Maxim continues to provide a portfolio of advanced factory automation solutions that creates pathways toward achieving Industry 4.0. The unique architecture of the MAX14819 dissipates 50% less heat compared to other IO-Link Master solutions and is fully compatible in all modes for IO-Link and SIO compliance.

Find more information about MAX14819: https://www.maximintegrated.co m/products/MAX14819

Artesyn Extends Industrial DC-DC Converter Range Artesyn Embedded Technologies extended its range of low power output industrial DC-DC converters, targeting a diverse range of applications, including instrumentation, data communication, telecommunication and computer peripheral equipment, and industrial automation.

The new models in Artesyn's ATA series isolated DC-DC converters cover 6 watt and 8 watt power

outputs and comprise 14 variants per power output series. The DIP16 form factor minimizes occupied board space and offers very high power density.

Scigazette | 42 | June, 2017

All ATA series converters feature ultra-wide 4:1 inputs; seven of the models have 9–36 V inputs and the other seven have 18–75 V inputs. Within each of these two categories, there is a choice of five single output models, offering voltages of 3.3 V, 5 V, 12 V, 15 V or 24 V, and two dual output models offering +12/-12 V or +15/-15 V. For more information visit: https://www.artesyn.com/

New Products

Industry's Smallest Diameter Circuit Protection Thermistor Ametherm today announced a new circuit protection thermistor that offers the industry's smallest diameter for a UL-approved device with a maximum continuous current rating of 6.0 A and energy rating of 40 J. Previously, designers had to rely on devices with larger diameters from 15.0 mm to 25.0 mm to achieve the high current and energy ratings of the new SL12 10006. Offering a radial lead package with a maximum diameter of only 13.0 mm and height profile of 5.5 mm, the device released today saves board space, lowers costs, limits excess circuit board heat, and enables faster reset times.

The small size and high current

rating of the SL12 10006 make it ideal for appliance motors and fractional horsepower motor drives, 300 W to 600 W switch mode power supplies, LED drivers, and small inverters for recreational vehicles. The device features a resistance of 10.0 Ω, dissipation constant of 13.5 mW/°C, and thermal time constant of 42 s. The thermistor can handle body temperatures up to 210 °C at 100% of its maximum current rating.

The SL12 10006 circuit protection thermistor is available direct or through distributors such as DigiKey and Mouser. Samples and production quantities of the devices are available now, with factory lead times of eight weeks.

For more information or to request a sample, visit www.ametherm.com. Or call 800808-2434 (toll free in the United States) or 775-884-2434 from outside the U.S. and Canada.

Low Capacitance TVS Diode Arrays from Littelfuse Littelfuse, Inc., the global leader in circuit protection, has introduced a series of a low-capacitance TVS Diode Arrays designed to protect high-speed, differential data lines against electrostatic discharge (ESD), cable discharge events (CDE), electrical fast transients (EFT), and lightning induced surges. Each SP2555NUTG Series TVS Diode Array (SPA Diodes) can protect up to four channels or two differential pairs up to 45A and up to 30kV ESD. The SP2555NUTG Series offers higher surge

tolerance that existing TVS Diode Arrays on the market and meets the lower voltage targets of emerging Ethernet protocols.

Typical applications for the SP2555NUTG Series include protection for 10/100/1000 Ethernet, WAN/LAN equipment, desktops, servers and notebooks, LVDS interfaces, integrated magnetics and Smart TVs. For more information visit: Littelfuse.com

Scigazette | 43 | June, 2017

New Products

IBM Research Alliance Builds New Transistor for 5nm Technology

Microchip simplifies the design of low power LCD applications

IBM and its Research Alliance partners GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung, and equipment suppliers have developed an industry-first process to build silicon nanosheet transistors that will enable 5

A new family of low-power microcontrollers (MCUs) for driving Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) featuring Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) and intelligent analog is now available from Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and FlashIP solutions. The nine member PIC16F19197 family includes a battery friendly LCD drive charge pump, 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter with computation (ADC2), a low-power comparator, and active clock tuning of its high frequency oscillator. They are the first 8-bit MCUs optimised for popular low-power and battery-powered touch enabled LCD applications.

The PIC16F19197 family consists of 28- to 64-pin devices with up to 56 KB Flash and 4 KB RAM. The charge pump ensures that LCD screens maintain consistent contrast even as battery voltage drops. The ADC2 automates signal acquisition and processing tasks, making robust touch buttons and sliders easy to implement.

nanometer (nm) chips. The details of the process will be presented at the 2017 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits conference in Kyoto, Japan. In less than two years since developing a 7nm test node chip with 20 billion transistors, scientists have paved the way for 30 billion switches on a fingernail-sized chip.

The resulting increase in performance will help accelerate cognitive computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other data-intensive applications delivered in the cloud. The power savings could also mean that the batteries in smartphones and other mobile products could last two to three times longer than today's devices, before needing to be charged.

Anritsu Enhances Vector Star VNAs to Support 5G High Data Rate Anritsu Company introduces the Universal Fixture Extraction (UFX)option for its VectorStarÂŽ vector network analyzers (VNAs) to provide signal integrity and on-wafer engineers with an increased range of on-wafer and fixture calibration choices, even when a full set of calibration standards is not available. Developed to address the design challenges associated with the high-frequency, high data rate requirements of 4G and emerging 5G systems, as well as backhaul and data centers, UFX features unique analysis toolsso engineers can more accurately and efficiently evaluate designs.

VectorStar VNAs configured with UFX provide signal integrity and on-wafer engineers with multiple benefits. The VNA solution speeds time to market by enhancing model accuracy through improved test fixture de-embedding thereby improving first time yields. It also provides engineers with the ability to develop high-speed data throughput products with competitive advantages.

For more information visit: www.anritsu.com

Scigazette | 44 | June, 2017

Research

A solution for precise, low-cost eye movement detection Imec and Holst Centre (set up by imec and TNO) have developed a sensing technology to detect eye movement in real me based on electrical sensing. Paving the way for the next genera on of eye-tracking technology, imec's solu on has promising applica ons in the fields of virtual and augmented reality.

Today's eye movement detec on technology makes use of high-resolu on cameras embedded in eye-tracking screens or glasses. Such devices are already being commercialized for numerous applica ons, including healthcare, research and gaming.

While camera-based solu ons can accurately determine where users are looking, most cameras' frame rates are not fast enough to match the eye's most rapid movements, such as saccades – a typical movement during reading. Using a more sophis cated camera that matches the eyes' speed would significantly increase the already high cost of these devices and could have implica ons for their commercial use. Imec's solu on, based on electrical sensing, offers a much more inexpensive alterna ve, while solving the issue of the image processing delay.

Imec's sensors were integrated into a set of glasses, with four built-in electrodes around each lens, two to pick up the eye's ver cal movement and two for horizontal movements. Parallel to that, an advanced algorithm was developed to translate the signals into a concrete posi on, based on the angle the eye is making with its central point of vision. Imec's solu on also offers insights on the eye's behavior, like the speed of movement or the frequency and dura on of blinks.

"Human eyes have a natural electrical poten al", stated Gabriel Squillace, researcher in the Biomedical Applica ons & Systems group at imec. "At imec, we are leveraging this feature to develop the next-genera on of eye-movement detec on devices that can detect the eye's posi on in real me at a five mes lower cost and up to four mes faster than what is currently available on the market. Imec's ul mate goal is to develop a solu on that can track the eye's most rapid movements, such as saccades, enabling seamless real me tracking for AR and VR applica ons."

Other possible applica ons for this technology include a complement to current camera-based solu ons, poten ally developing cheaper and faster eye-movement detec on devices.

Currently being tested and showing promising results on eye behavior and blink detec on, users are able to interact with screens by moving the cursor with their eyes and using different blinking pa erns for dis nct ac ons, such as selec ng files, drag-and-dropping or opening and closing applica ons.

Scigazette | 45 | June, 2017

Research

New millimeter-wave technology could make future vehicles much safer Hiroshima University and Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited (MIFS) today have developed a low-power millimeter-wave amplifier that feeds on 0.5 V power supply and covers the frequency range from 80 GHz to 106 GHz. It was fabricated using MIFS's Deeply Depleted Channel (DDC) technology. This is the first W-band (75−110 GHz) amplifier that can operate even with such a low power-supply voltage. Details of the technology will be presented at the IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC) 2017, running from June 4th to 6th in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The W-band covers the frequencies used by automo ve radars. Sophis cated driver-assistance and self-driving will require radars with millimeter-wave beam scanning capability that can "see" in day and night condi ons and even in adverse weather condi ons. Such a phased array will consist of up to hundreds of transmi ers and receivers. As ba ery-powered cars become more common, it is impera ve that these circuits be low power.

Lowering the power-supply voltage is the most effec ve means of accomplishing that. However, transistor performance drops with voltage and no W-band amplifier has so far operated at as low as 0.5 V . The team of researchers successfully demonstrated a W-band amplifier at 0.5 V by bringing together MIFS's DDC technology and design techniques developed by Hiroshima University. The DDC technology offers highperformance silicon MOS transistors even at low voltages and is currently available from MIFS as a 55-nm CMOS process. The design techniques further improve transistor and circuit performance at millimeter-wave frequencies.

"Now that seriously low-power W-band circuits really seem possible, we should think about what we can do with them. Applica ons aren't limited to automo ve radars and high-speed communica ons between base sta ons. What if you have a radar on your smartphone? Today's smartphones can already sense things like accelera on, audible sound, visible light, and Earth's magne c field. But the only ac ve probing device is that ny LED (light-emi ng diode) that can illuminate at most a few meters. Add a millimeter-wave radar on a smartphone, and it doesn't have to be a so-called primary radar, which only detects waves reflected back. Your smartphone could respond to waves from your friend's radar and send some signal back. A whole lot of new applica ons could be created, including games," said Professor Minoru Fujishima, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Ma er, Hiroshima University.

"Another significance of our 0.5-V W-band amplifier is reliability. We researchers know that some millimeterwave circuits presented at major conferences, biased at 1 V or higher, won't last long. They degrade as you measure them, within days or even hours, not years, because of the so-called hot-carrier effects. You wouldn't want to get into a car that loses its sight so quickly. The 0.5-V supply voltage will significantly reduce hot-carrier genera on," Prof. Fujishima added.

"Compared to conven onal CMOS, our DDC transistors offer excellent performance in low-power opera ons.

We have proven that we can extend those outstanding quali es to the millimeter band. I am delighted that our collabora on with Hiroshima University has produced a millimeter-band amplifier. We plan to move forward by building a design environment for maximizing the capabili es of DDC technology," said Mutsuaki Kai, Vice President of Technology Development, Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor. The research group plans to con nue exploring the possibility of low-voltage millimeter-wave CMOS circuits.

Scigazette | 46 | June, 2017

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