OMRON Corporation has announced its plan to successively incorporate artificial intelligence (AI)/ internet of things (IoT) technologies into its factory automation (FA) equipment up to 2020 in a bid to offer solutions to the social issues facing many manufacturing businesses, such as the shortage of skilled engineers and rise of labor costs.
By equipping FA equipment with optimal AI algorithms to replace the knowledge and intuition of skilled engineers with AI, OMRON aims to realize the “manufacturing floors of the future” in which “machines bring out human capabilities and creativity”. OMRON is the only FA equipment manufacturer in the world that has all of the necessary equipment for automating manufacturing sites under one umbrella, including sensors and other input devices, motors and other output devices, safety devices, and robots. So far, OMRON has constantly provided its customers with a variety of benefits made possible by the world’s cutting-edge information technology.
Such initiatives include renovation of programmable logic controller architecture into one that is software-based and suitable for informatization, and proactive use of EtherCAT, IO-Link, and other open networks. Based on its many years of experience and knowhow in developing FA equipment to help its customers to solve their manufacturing issues, OMRON believes that it is important to implement optimal AI algorithms that are carefully selected for each piece of equipment in order to replace the skills of experienced workers with AI on manufacturing floors.
