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sUPPLEmENt AUtomAtIoN soLUtIoNs For mACHINE bUILDING


55thannIvErsary


From robots to ‘Co-bot software-defined netw o driving intelligent manu fa


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As manufacturing enters the age of intelligent systems, connectivity is poised to become what electricity was to the factory floor and


what the Internet is to the digital economy – the enabling force that makes everything else


possible. Chris Dietzel, global head of products and innovation, DE-CIX, comments


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utomation on the factory floor has, until now, been defined by a very simple relationship – people make decisions, and


machines carry them out. Even as industry 4.0 took hold and entire production lines were connected and automated, most industrial systems still operated within carefully deployed boundaries, performing the same routine tasks with remarkable speed and precision. But what will the typical factory floor look


like in 2030?


a new geneRaTion of coboTs Across the manufacturing sector, a new generation of collaborative robots, or ‘co-bots’, is emerging that can learn from experience, respond to spoken instructions, identify anomalies, and adapt their behaviour in real time. Rather than replacing human workers, they’re being designed to work alongside them. The wheels are already in motion. According to


ABI Research, the global market for collaborative robots is expected to grow from $970 million in 2023 to $7.2 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, the International Federation of Robotics believes intelligent human-machine collaboration will become commonplace before the decade is out. But while this is an exciting vision


of the future, it also raises some important questions. While the AI models these co-bots are based on may be sufficiently intelligent to act autonomously, that intelligence will be muted without the connectivity infrastructure to allow them to see, hear, learn, and act on our behalf.


why inTelligence cReaTes a connecTiviTy PRoblem A robot follows instructions, while a co-bot interprets its environment. That’s the key difference between the technology that’s already on factory floors and the technology that’s now emerging. But the moment machines begin making decisions rather than simply executing them, their appetite for data increases dramatically. Every minor adjustment and


interaction depends on information flowing between sensors, cameras, AI models, edge environments, and cloud platforms. That’s because the machine is no longer simply completing a task, but continuously


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assessing what’s happening around it and determining the most appropriate response. Picture a co-bot working alongside a technician


on an assembly line. It may need to identify components, monitor nearby workers, inspect product quality, and respond to spoken instructions, all at the same time. Those decisions often need to be made in fractions of a second, and if the underlying network can’t move data quickly and reliably, even the most advanced AI model will miss its mark. The challenge for manufacturers in


particular is that many industrial networks were designed for automation, not autonomy. So, as factory systems become more intelligent, connectivity is becoming just as important as the machines themselves.


“The International


Federation of Robotics believes intelligent human-machine collaboration will


become commonplace before the end of the decade”


The Rise of The sofTwaRe-DefineD facToRy Just as modern smartphones move seamlessly between applications, cloud services and wireless networks without users giving it a second thought, tomorrow’s factory systems will need the ability to access computing resources, data, and security services wherever they’re needed. The days of rigid infrastructure built around predictable workloads are coming to an end. Rather than relying on fixed architectures that


treat every application and device the same way, software-defined networks can adapt to changing requirements in real time. For instance, a co-bot positioning components inside a welding cell may require millisecond-level responses to changing conditions, while an inventory management system updating stock records can tolerate a far greater delay. By intelligently directing traffic and resources where they’re needed


www.designsolutionsmag.co.uk


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