Networked machinery, intelligent decentralised components, modular production: these keywords denote various aspects of Industrie 4.0. Pilz, too, is addressing the question of what form the automation of future production will take.
With our automation system PSS 4000 we already network several control systems that are each running independently. Thanks to a central software platform, users have an overview of all control systems. This Multi-Master approach will be standard in almost all systems in the factory of the future. The cloud-based function blocks will be supplemented with new services. That way, we will make it possible for components to send signals independently, which will enable the production facility to reorder and thus replenish materials. Precious time in the engineering stage and production process will be saved as a result.
What will the future requirements be for IT security and data protection? What form must uniform standards take to serve the needs of a digitalised economy? We investigate these and other questions together with research partners such as SmartFactory KL, Arena 2036 and the Industrial Internet Consortium.