At the Hannover Fair, ABB has announced a remote condition-monitoring service for variable-speed drives that will use the Internet of Things to provide real-time information about drive events, and help to predict their maintenance needs, operational risks and possible system faults. The service will provide expert reports on a drive’s condition and e-mail warnings of potential faults or restricted availability. It could, for example, spot overheating which could interrupt production and eventually damage a drive. It will also prevent some semiconductor faults.

The US Air Force has set a new world speed record for magnetically-levitated (maglev) transport by accelerating a rocket-propelled sled to a speed of 1,019km per hour (633 mph) at its Holloman base in New Mexico.

At next week’s Hannover Messe, ABB will unveil a smart condition-monitoring sensor that can be attached to low-voltage motors from any manufacturer. ABB claims that the sensors – which link wirelessly to cloud-based servers – will cut motor downtime by up to 70% as well as extending motor lifetimes by up to 30% and cutting their energy consumption by up to 10%. ABB developed the device jointly with the Swiss chip developer, EM Microelectronic, which is part of the Swatch group and started out in the 1970s as a developer of low-power chips for watches.

Fanuc, Rockwell Automation and Cisco are collaborating with a Japanese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up called Preferred Networks (PFN) to develop a technology that will link CNC (computer numerical control) machines, peripheral devices and sensors to robots, to deliver analytics designed to optimise manufacturing processes.

Two industrial communications standards organisations – the OPC Foundation and Object Management Group (OMG) – together with the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and members of Industrie 4.0, have announced a collaborative strategy to achieve technical interoperability of their standards for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

The German manufacturer Festo has developed a technology that uses a robot to “spin” interconnected fibreglass webs to create 3D structures. The technology, called 3D Cocooner, is inspired by the way that insects spin their cocoons and is the latest in a series of nature-based technologies that Festo has developed in recent years. It will make its public debut at this month’s Hannover Fair in Germany.

German researchers are developing intelligent motor systems that can monitor their own operation without needing any extra sensors. By transforming the motor itself into a sensor, the research team at Saarland University, led by Professor Matthias Nienhaus, is creating smart motors that can tell whether they are running smoothly, can communicate and interact with other motors, and can be controlled efficiently.

A German plant producing hydraulic valves has become the first in the world to combine the technical standards of Germany’s Industry 4.0 platform with those of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). The Bosch plant in Homburg is using the technologies to manage and optimise its processes to avoid consuming electricity at expensive peak times.