Artificial intelligence and the interaction of man and machine are the major topics of the automation of the future.
The Hannover Messe 2019 will also be held under the motto “Integrated Industry – Industrial Intelligence”.
In Festo’s TechTalk, four experts discussed the potential and opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and explained how Festo is positioned in this context.
How does anticipatory machine maintenance work? How is artificial intelligence advancing automation? And how can Germany as an industrial location benefit from these activities?
Answers to these questions were provided by Dr Frank Melzer, Member of the Management Board Product and Technology Management; Tanja Krüger, Managing Director of Resolto Informatik GmbH (a company of the Festo Group);
Dr Elias Knubben, Head of Corporate Research and Innovation; and Dionysios Satikidis, Digital Strategy and Business Model.
Festo’s online press conference will be available exclusively to journalists from Thursday, 28 February 2019 3 p.m. at www.festo.com/opc. Please register under the same link in advance. Starting from March 5th you don´t have to register any more.
BionicSoftHand – a pneumatic gripper with AI based on the human model
Dr Elias Knubben showed an example of how Festo can use reinforcement learning for automation engineering: the Head of Corporate Research and Innovation presented the BionicSoftHand, the new Future Concept from the field of bionics. The natural model for this gripper is the human hand. The BionicSoftHand is pneumatically operated so that it can interact safely and directly with people.
Its fingers consist of flexible bellows structures with air chambers and other soft materials. This makes it light, flexible, adaptable and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces.
By means of artificial intelligence, the bionic robot hand learns to independently solve gripping and turning tasks similar to the human hand in interaction with the brain (see press release on the 2019 bionic projects).
Festo at the Hannover Messe 2019 trade fair
From 1 to 5 April 2019, Festo will be showcasing the new Future and Bionic Concepts along with further product innovations for factory and process automation at its main booth in Hall 15, Booth D11. A further stand with products from Festo can be seen at Siemens in Hall 9, Booth D35 in the Mindsphere Lounge. Here Festo will be presenting the field of energy monitoring via dashboards.
At Microsoft in Hall 7, Booth C40 and at the OPC Foundation in Hall 9, Booth A11, the topic of “Motion controllers with OPC UA communication servers” will be on display.
Festo will also be represented with a computer workstation at the booth of EPLAN in Hall 6, Booth H30.
You can also visit the shared booths of PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) in Hall 9, Booth D68 and “Plattform Industrie 4.0” in Hall 8, Booth D24.
At the shared stand of the technology initiative SmartFactory e.V. (Hall 8, Booth D18), Festo AG & Co. KG and Festo Didactic SE will be participating in the non-proprietary demonstrator for Industry 4.0
and showing the use of Smartenance, the first IoT-capable maintenance management tool. You can also visit Eichenberger Gewinde AG (a company of the Festo Group) in Hall 16, Booth F08.
