A jury under chair Prof. Dr. Reimund Neugebauer, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, honored the product “omlox – open location standard” as a global and location-technology independent solution. More than 60 industrial companies participated in the omlox project, which provides the first open standard for location services. Omlox unites all location services available on the market ‒ including UWB, WLAN, BLE, GPS, and 5G ‒ and transfers these into a uniform coordinate reference system, making them available for internal use on edge platforms or for global use in a cloud. Omlox supports for the first time the use of all location technologies, bundling position data to enable targeted optimization of process flows. Omlox is an interoperable ecosystem that harmonizes heterogeneous technical infrastructures, making IIoT and Industrie 4.0 affordable for SMEs.

Professor Reimund Neugebauer, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and chair of the HERMES AWARD, said, "Every year, the HERMES AWARD recognizes an exceptional, innovative product. This year, we also found a worthy award winner among the numerous applications: TRUMPF points the way to a versatile, standardized, and flexible production environment. Jointly developed by 60 industrial companies, it is the first open and interoperable standard for location services. The integrative solution makes it easier to use hardware and software from various manufacturers, right up to plug-and-play, a step that companies consistently rate as very helpful."

The ceremony for the HERMES AWARD 2020 took place on 14 July as part of the HANNOVER MESSE Digital Days.

HANNOVER MESSE annually presents the international technology prize HERMES AWARD as part of the fair. The competition, which is open to all companies and institutions that exhibit at HANNOVER MESSE, recognizes products and solutions that demonstrate a particularly high level of technological innovation. In 2020, the prize was awarded digitally for the first time due to the corona-prompted cancellation of HANNOVER MESSE. In 2021, HANNOVER MESSE will again honor the HERMES AWARD winner at its opening ceremony.

The jury members:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reimund Neugebauer (jury chairman), President, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Lukas, Undersecretary, German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Bleicher, Chair for Cutting Production Technology, Institute for Manufacturing Technology and High Power Laser Technology at the Vienna University of Technology
Ken Fouhy, Chief Editor, VDI Nachrichten
Georg Giersberg, Business Editor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Werner Götz, Chief Editor, Industrieanzeiger
Prof. Dr. Kathrin Möslein, Vic President Outreach, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Siegfried Russwurm, Universiy Erlangen-Nürnberg, Member of the Presidium, acatech
Udo Schnell, Chief Editor, MM-Maschinenmarkt
Claus Wilk, Chief Editor, Produktion
Dr.-Ing. E.h. Manfred Wittenstein, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, WITTENSTEIN SE