September 2021

n COMMENT THE TECH GIANTS ENTER AUTOMATION The technology titans are showing a growing interest in industrial automation. Earlier this year, Amazon announced a suite of technologies and services to help manufacturers embed intelligence in their production processes. It claims that the services – which combine machine learning, sensor analysis and computer vision – constitute the most comprehensive suite of cloud-to-edge industrial machine-learning services available. Now it is Google’s turn. Its parent company, Alphabet, has launched a business that aims to make industrial robots easier to use, less costly and more flexible. It has been developing the business, called Intrinsic, for more than five within its secretive X division, which works on future technologies. Intrinsic is led byWendy TanWhite, a British entrepreneur who founded the Moonfruit Web site business in the 1990s. She says that the software tools Intrinsic is developing will allowmore people to use industrial robots for new products, businesses and services.“Intrinsic is working to unlock the creative and economic potential of industrial robotics for millions more businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers,”she declares. This will allowmore manufacturing to be done locally in less developed countries, cutting transport costs and emissions, and creating jobs around the world. Currently, just ten countries produce 70% of the world’s goods. TanWhite says that“the surprisingly manual and bespoke process of teaching robots how to do things”currently limits their potential. It can take hundreds of hours for specialist programmers to code robots to perform specific jobs, and many tasks are unfeasible for robots because they lack the sensors or software to understand their surroundings. So the Google developers have been exploring ways to give robots the ability to sense, learn, and make adjustments as they’re operating. This will allow them to perform tasks currently regarded as being impractical or unaffordable to automate. Google believes that industrial robots are on the cusp of a shift similar to the one that occurred when PCs gave people and businesses access to previously unattainable computing power. Meanwhile, another outpost of Alphabet’s vast empire, Google Cloud, has been demonstrating its interest in industrial automation by surveying more than 1,100 senior manufacturing executives in seven countries on their use of AI (artificial intelligence). Among other things, the survey revealed that the Covid pandemic has spurred a significant rise in the use of AI and other digital technologies, with 76% reporting that they have turned to technologies such as data analytics and the cloud because of Covid. Almost two-thirds of manufacturers now rely on AI to help them in day-to- day operations, with companies now spending an average of 36% of their IT budgets on AI, with the UK being the front-runner on 40%. Two thirds of UK manufacturers are now using AI, slightly behind Italy (on 80%) and Germany (on 71%), but way ahead of Japan and Korea, where only half of manufacturers have adopted AI. Given the predicted growth in the industrial automation sector, and the fact that many technologies now span the gap between IT and operational technology, the interest of the tech giants in the sectors is hardly surprising. Let’s hope that they don’t come to dominate the automation sector in the same way that they have done in some other sectors. Tony Sacks, Editor 22 The UK’s premier event for plant,asset, maintenance and works management engineers and directors 85% BOOKED! #PlantAssetExpo www.maintenanceuk-expo.com Damien Oxlee +44 (0) 1732 370342 damien.oxlee@dfamedia.co.uk Georgie Turner +44 (0) 1732 371084 georgie.turner@dfamedia.co.uk 5-7 APRIL 2022 HALLS 9 & 10 NEC BIRMINGHAM IN ASSOCIATION WITH: CO-LOCATED WITH: SPONSORS S E C U R E Y O U R S T A N D N O W S O F T W A R E S O L U T I O N S Talking Industry