2015-03-17, 12:25
Adding Intelligence to IIoT in Factories and Utilities
Wearing a pair of technology-augmented glasses an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) assembly line worker stands before an incomplete section of an AirBus 380 aircraft frame, contemplating the correct bolt. Beside the worker are rows of networked robots. Once a bolt has been selected, the robots and not the worker will then drill them into place. There are about 400, 000 bolts on a standard aircraft so what could have taken hundreds of man hours may soon take only a few hundred thanks in part to new technology from National Instruments.
"What AirBus is doing is classic Industrial Internet of Things … what they call Factory of the Future," said Eric Starkloff, EVP of Global Sales and Marketing at National Instruments. Interviewed in advance of his panel at SXSW, he told Forbes that aircraft today is still built with a lot of human assemblers, not like a car which is mostly built by robots. "There are some robots, but the challenge to overcome is to have robotic systems work collaboratively with humans."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertvamosi...uture-tech
Wearing a pair of technology-augmented glasses an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) assembly line worker stands before an incomplete section of an AirBus 380 aircraft frame, contemplating the correct bolt. Beside the worker are rows of networked robots. Once a bolt has been selected, the robots and not the worker will then drill them into place. There are about 400, 000 bolts on a standard aircraft so what could have taken hundreds of man hours may soon take only a few hundred thanks in part to new technology from National Instruments.
"What AirBus is doing is classic Industrial Internet of Things … what they call Factory of the Future," said Eric Starkloff, EVP of Global Sales and Marketing at National Instruments. Interviewed in advance of his panel at SXSW, he told Forbes that aircraft today is still built with a lot of human assemblers, not like a car which is mostly built by robots. "There are some robots, but the challenge to overcome is to have robotic systems work collaboratively with humans."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertvamosi...uture-tech