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Comau Robotics launches IIoT platform to create digital factories

Comau Robotics has unveiled a new solution to create digital factories. The company calls it ‘in.Grid’ and describes it as an industrial internet of things platform.

In the digital factory everything is connected: the machines, the robots, and the individual production units that communicate with each other and with the operators.

Elements transfer data in real time to a central system capable of interpreting and analysing them, thereby making the whole process workflow more efficient.

Comau Head of Digital Product Development Carem Rosito Mercio led the multi-country, multi-sector engineering team that oversaw the development of in.Grid.

The goal was to provide companies with an IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) tool for manufacturing that is agile and customisable to digitise their factory and productivity in line with what is required by Industry 4.0.

“in.Grid was born from two years of research and work conducted by a cross-section team, which involved various Comau business units and functions, such as Robotics and Automation Products, Machining and Digital Initiative Platform in various countries including Italy, India, France, China, USA and Brazil,” explains Carem Rosito Mercio.

“The collaboration with companies from different industrial sectors, from automotive to general industry, made it possible to create a platform capable of responding to the main needs of manufacturing – an open system, accessibility both in the cloud and via an online PC, and adaptability to any machine regardless of brand and its state of sensing.”

The development of the AI algorithm that allows intelligent and custom use of in.Grid is the result of 45 years of Comau experience in process management multi-sector industrial companies.

Comau says the platform can connect factory automation in an extremely simple way by communicating online with the operator via PC, mobile and/or wearable devices, with intuitive and customisable interfaces depending on the tasks that the operators have to perform and their degree of complexity.

In order to optimise factory productivity, in addition to collecting, storing and analysing machine data and process data, in.Grid allows the creation of a plant digital twin to simulate corrective actions of work flows within a virtual environment to conduct preventive and predictive maintenance activities.

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