At the premises of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern, the SmartFactory KL presented two tours as part of an innovation day, which were dedicated to the “I40” key technologies developed jointly by scientists and companies. The first tour, “Industrie 4.0 in Practice”, covered the topics of production control, interoperability and cobots. Tour number two, “Vision 2030 – Technologies for Tomorrow”, then addressed the topics of SFKL node set and digital services, as well as research and industry. “This year, it was important for us to show that I40 is a reality in some places,” said press officer Dr. Ingo Herbst. “We are in the era of application.”

Example of interoperability

SFKL demonstrated the topic of interoperability using the so-called TSN marriage module. The experts synchronized a linear axis from Rexroth and a robot arm from Yaskawa. “The biggest challenge in synchronization lies in the high-performance and deterministic networking of both systems in order to be able to implement demanding motion applications,” says researcher Thomas Bach. “Open and extensible control architectures considerably simplify this networking.”

Example: Digital Twin

Christoph Fischer from DFKI, with which SFKL is closely linked, is working on the topic of intralogistics and 5G. An autonomously moving robot in a hall could be seen in real time as a digital twin on a screen at its station. The positioning of the robot is more than accurate to the millimeter. “This is intended for special applications where absolute precision is essential,” explains Fischer. ‘We can also show how a digital twin works.’ To demonstrate this, he pushed a virtual box in front of the robot on the screen. The robot stopped, although there was obviously no real obstacle in its path. ‘Digital twins save time and money when it comes to trying out technical innovations or simulating processes,’ says Fischer.

Science, politics and business

The three keynote speakers emphasized the close collaboration between research, politics and business in their contributions. Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dr. Martin Hummrich described the SFKL as a beacon for industry in the context of the current difficult times. Dr. Jochen Köckler from Deutsche Messe AG and Prof. Martin Ruskowski from SFKL agreed. They also emphasized the importance of HANNOVER MESSE as a window on the world of German industry, as well as the innovative ability of engineers. In this context, it also became clear that investments are necessary to steer Germany into safe economic waters.

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