Trends in Automation

Abstract

The growing importance of digitalization in business also has its impact on automation. In this section, we will put this into the perspective of significant market drivers, and different views on aspects of automation, across the industrial value chain, or along the automation lifecycle. Key trends in digitalization are having an impact on automation. Making data available for more applications through the industrial Internet of Things (industrial IoT) and cyber physical systems will be covered. Such systems expand the traditional automation stack with more advanced (wired and wireless) communication technologies, and the computing power and storage available in a cloud further extends capacity for additional functionality. An important use of data is artificial intelligence. We will cover AI’s impact on the industry, and how it plays into the automation functionality. The context of the data and its analysis is brought together in the concept of the digital twin that is covered as well. The availability of these technologies, from IoT to AI, allows for an evolution of automation toward more autonomous systems. Autonomy is today mostly seen in vehicles, we will put it into the context of the industrial automation system and will show how systems (among other robots) will become more autonomous, and will get the capability to collaborate. This will open a whole new range of applications, enabled by a bright future of automation.