Three Swedish organisations – SKF, Ericsson and Chalmers University – have embarked on a two-year, government-backed project that will combine next-generation (5G) mobile communications with manufacturing technologies. The aim of the 5G Enabled Manufacturing (5GEM) project is to improve speed, quality and information flows in advanced production systems.
A US research organisation called Madlab.CC is developing software that allows humans to interact with industrial robots using intuitive gestures.
Innovasic, the US developer of industrial Ethernet silicon products, has demonstrated a “low-complexity” Ethernet concept designed to take Ethernet to the edge of industrial, building, transport and automotive networks.
Profibus & Profinet International (PI) has introduced certification of products that use its encoder profile, thus ensuring the interoperability of drive and motion control applications. Together with PI’s PROFIdrive profile, the encoder profile defines interoperable application interfaces for various drive and motion control technologies based on Profinet and Profibus.
Leading automation suppliers, including Bosch Rexroth, Kuka, National Instruments and Schneider Electric, have joined forces with the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) to develop the world’s first Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) testbed. The aim is to demonstrate the new Ethernet IEEE 802 standards – referred to as TSN – being used in manufacturing applications.
A Californian research-and-development organisation owned by Boeing and General Motors has developed an active variable-stiffness vibration isolator capable of 100-fold changes in stiffness and actuation times of less than 10ms, independent of the load.
Three UK companies are collaborating in a £1.7m project to develop compact, efficient electric drives for marine applications. Rolls-Royce, the magnetic gear developer Magnomatics, and the high-voltage motor manufacturer ATB Laurence Scott, will design, manufacture and test a 2.5MW magnetically geared propulsion motor (MGPM), using Magnomatics’ Pseudo Direct Drive (PDD) technology. The project is being co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.
Swiss researchers have developed a flexible gripping technology that can bend to pick up delicate objects such as eggs and paper without needing to know anything about the type of object or its shape. It could, for example, be used to handle food, to capture debris in outer space or be incorporated into humanoid robots.
Two US companies have announced plans to produce electric motors with a novel cooling technology that results in them being 75% smaller, and much lighter, than conventional motors with a similar power rating. They say that the motors, aimed principally at automotive applications, will deliver the power and torque to drive a passenger car from a package the size of a one-gallon can of paint.
A Finnish research organisation has developed a control system for the industrial robots that, it claims, can cut the time taken to set up and program robots to “minutes”, rather than the hour or more needed when using traditional programming methods.
Profibus and Profinet International (PI) has announced plans to merge its Profibus PA and Profinet technologies to allow plant operators to continue using installed technologies while giving them access to the latest technologies, including Industry 4.0.
ABB has developed a torque and speed control system for high-pressure grinding rollers (HPGRs) used in mineral-crushing applications that, it says, will improve their lives and performance.
At the recent SPS IPC Drives show in Germany, Sercos International (SI) demonstrated a software-based Sercos III master that avoids the need to use a hardware master based on FPGA or ASIC chips. Instead, the Sercos III hardware functions are emulated in host-based driver software running on a standard Ethernet controller.
Leuze electronic has developed a technology which, it says, avoids the need for the muting sensors that are usually required to detect the approach of goods to a light curtain. It says that its Smart Process-controlled Gating (SPG) system will make muting cheaper, simpler and safer.
Bosch Rexroth has developed a range of synchronous servomotors which provide data on their temperature and saturation to the company's IndraDrive controllers, allowing them to improve torque precision and making operating tolerance ranges much tighter than previously possible. Rexroth says that, for the first time, the servomotor can act as a reliable sensor, as well as a data source.
