As one of the world's leading suppliers of drive and control technologies, Bosch Rexroth supports efficient, high-performance and safe motion in machinery and systems of all types and sizes. To do that, the company pools its international application expertise in market segments including mobile applications, plant engineering, general engineering and factory automation. In a drive to finally lift the barriers to unrestricted data exchange in the spirit of Industry 4.0, Bosch Rexroth is launching a revolutionary automation platform with an app-based software architecture that is truly open - ctrlX Automation.

"Our new ctrlX Automation platform crosses the classic boundaries between machine controls, IT and the Internet of Things," explains Executive Board member Dr. Heiner Lang. His colleague Steffen Winkler, CSO of the Automation and Electrification Solutions business unit at Bosch Rexroth, is similarly proud of the solution: "We adopted a radically different approach when developing ctrlX Automation and focused on the question of how Apple, Google or Microsoft would develop an automation platform." The end result is what the company describes as a type of "smartphone for industrial production" - an automation platform that can be enhanced with additional functions on a customized basis using apps. At the heart of the ctrlX Automation concept is a high-performance CPU that is used in all hardware components - in embedded PCs (ctrlX Core), in industrial PCs (ctrlX IPC) and directly in drives (ctrlX Drive). "Implementing product variation in hardware is always an expensive process. That's why we're focusing on achieving variation with software," Winkler says, explaining the innovative approach.

Bosch Rexroth AG (97816 Lohr, Germany)
www.boschrexroth.com