The cutting-edge sensor, control and AI technologies designed by Omron Corporation from Japan, which operates a German branch in Langenfeld, Rhineland, have made it a global forerunner in industrial automation. In keeping with its eminent status, Omron is keen to tackle this year's "Connect and Collaborate" motto head on, demonstrating groundbreaking innovations that are destined to shape the future of the manufacturing industry. The company is offering a close-up look at how flexible robot cells, data capture/processing and artificial intelligence can be combined to create production environments that seamlessly switch between customized and mass production. And as if that's not tempting enough, Omron has chosen HANNOVER MESSE for the European premiere of the world’s first onboard driver monitoring sensor, which assesses a driver’s ability to control a vehicle, thus forming a basis for future advances in safe autonomous driving.

The technology in the onboard driver monitoring sensor uses three parameters to evaluate a driver's ability to focus on the serious task in hand. To start with, a sensor in the seat ensures that a driver is present who can manually operate the vehicle. The second test scans drivers’ eyes to check whether they’re watching what's going on. Finally, the driver’s response time for resuming control of the vehicle is measured and classified as either "fast", "medium" or "slow". The development phase of the onboard driver monitoring sensor focused mainly on advancing the company's face recognition technology, OKAO Vision, to the extent that it can now apparently evaluate a driver wearing sunglasses - or even a mask!