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Hitachi combines several business units to create $4 billion digital company

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Industrial giant Hitachi is best known for making electronics gadgets and heavy machinery. Its annual turnover is just under $17 billion and it employs 335,000 people worldwide. 

But the 107-year-old company is apparently taking a leaf out of its industrial rival General Electric’s book and creating a new digital business.

GE Digital is now one of the world’s top 10 software companies, and its industrial internet of things platform, Predix, has become ubiquitious.  [Read more…] about Hitachi combines several business units to create $4 billion digital company

Neousys launches ARM-based IoT gateway

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neousys igt-20

Neousys Technology has launched an industrial grade ARM-based gateway, which it calls IGT-20.

The company says unlike System on Module (SoM) that’s commonly provided as a barebone component, IGT-20 is based on AM3352 from Texas Instrument’s Sitara AM335x family and will be shipped as a ready system pre-installed with Debian.

The industrial nature of IGT-20 means it is in compliance with common industrial certifications such as CE/FCC, shock and vibration.  [Read more…] about Neousys launches ARM-based IoT gateway

Swiss robots planning to build houses using 3D printers

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ETH Zürich, a university in Switzerland, has unveiled a plan to build a three-storey house – dubbed DFab House – using robots and 3D printing. (See video below.) 

Structural engineers and sustainability experts from ETH Zürich have teamed up with business partners on the project, which is designed to bring numerous building technologies from research labs into the real world.

The project is overseen by the National Centre of Competence in Research Digital Fabrication, and its architects, robotics specialists, and materials scientists.  [Read more…] about Swiss robots planning to build houses using 3D printers

Cyber-physical systems and manufacturing’s new frontier

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The real world and its digital twin are collaborating to bring forth something called “mass customisation”, a new manufacturing culture which, as the term suggests, will be the basis for the most diverse ecosystem of engineered products ever seen. 

To understand and articulate some specifics about what’s being called “the new frontier of manufacturing”, one of the world’s largest management consultancy firms, Deloitte, partnered with the Singularity University, a forum for technology futurists co-founded by Ray Kurzweil, to organise a conference called Exponential Manufacturing, featuring many thought leaders working in the industrial sector.  [Read more…] about Cyber-physical systems and manufacturing’s new frontier

MIT spin-out Tulip raises $13 million to ‘digitally transform manufacturing’

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tulip manufacturing app warehouse

New Enterprise Associates leads $13 million round, with participation from Pitango, to expand product research and development and continue growing customer support capabilities

Tulip, the MIT spin-out which has developed a Manufacturing App Platform, has raised $13 million in Series A financing.

New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Pitango Venture Capital and many returning angel investors.

Tulip says it will use the capital to grow its world-class product, design, and research teams, while expanding its customer support capabilities in response to significant customer growth.  [Read more…] about MIT spin-out Tulip raises $13 million to ‘digitally transform manufacturing’

Video: Microsoft looks to strengthen partnerships with industrial companies

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Microsoft has been offering industrial companies a range of digital services based on its Azure platform over the past few years and is probably the leading tech company in the space.

Microsoft’s global infrastructure and Azure cloud platform enables companies with worldwide manufacturing or logistics operations to create software applications either specifically for their own companies or for other companies.

The company has also developed special connectors which can accept data from devices which use the OPC-UA standard, a data transmission protocol which is increasingly being adopted in industry for sensor-laden machines and components.  [Read more…] about Video: Microsoft looks to strengthen partnerships with industrial companies

Video: Siemens predicts small number of companies will dominate industrial internet

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Only a small number of companies will dominate the industrial internet, according to a business development executive at Siemens, who was speaking to RoboticsAndAutomationNews.com at Hannover Messe. (See video below.) 

The German engineering giant recently launched its MindScape IoT platform and more than 50 individual apps for a variety of scenarios in industry.

Matthias Lutz, business development manager, digital factory division, Siemens, says: “I personally do see a couple of platforms co-existing in future, and maybe a couple of very specialised ones.

“But in the end, in my opinion, I think it’s a matter of two to three large platforms.”  [Read more…] about Video: Siemens predicts small number of companies will dominate industrial internet

Huawei links up with GE Digital to offer industrial cloud solution

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Huawei and GE Digital are partnering to jointly launch their industrial cloud-based predictive maintenance solution. 

In an interview with Robotics and Automation News, Catherine Du, Huawei’s director of marketing, said the company is looking to increase its share of the nascent but fast-growing sector of business.

“Huawei is one of the leading ICT vendors,” said Du. “We supply a wide range of technologies to the market, from Big Data to IoT, so we feel that now is the right time for us to reach out to the industrial space and build new partnerships.”

And although Huawei’s current focus is on the industrial market, the company is looking to promote its brand globally going forward, in the wider business-to-business market and in the consumer space, says Du.  [Read more…] about Huawei links up with GE Digital to offer industrial cloud solution

SAP and Kuka partner to design the ‘factory of the future’

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SAP and Kuka say they will work together around Industrial 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to develop more flexible and automated production processes.

Both companies want to collaborate, particularly in the areas of manufacturing, mechanical engineering and the automotive sector.

The integration of Kuka robots into SAP’s digital manufacturing is based on standard protocols such as OPC Unified Architecture.

In addition, Kuka and SAP plan to provide Kuka robot applications based on the SAP Leonardo IoT platform.  [Read more…] about SAP and Kuka partner to design the ‘factory of the future’

The human factor: GE Digital automation boss hints at new directions for Predix

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Exclusive interview with Matt Wells, of GE Digital. By Abdul Montaqim

GE Digital is a subsidiary of General Electric, the quintessential American multinational corporate conglomerate with operations in more countries than the United Nations. 

But far from being just one of its parent company’s dozen or so subsidiaries, GE Digital is something of a shooting star, outperforming many other subsidiaries to the point where it is informing, if not transforming, the entire culture and ethos of the company.

Nowadays, General Electric likes to be known as a “the world’s digital industrial company”, except they capitalise the words to emphasise the importance of the virtual realm.  [Read more…] about The human factor: GE Digital automation boss hints at new directions for Predix