Will the Hannover Messe become a big AI show. No, because users also need controllers for their ML projects, a PLC, embedded applications, connectors, visualization on the machine, cloud platforms for collecting data and service providers to help them do this, and fast con-nections such as 5G. Software will also be in demand, hardware and many visitors will also need new robots for their factories. But the trade fair deliberately looks to the future - it has to, because nothing is worse if performance shows cannot develop visions. And the Hanove-rians provide another valuable service to industry: The AI discussion in Germany revolves too much around the consumer industry. The middle class with its AI approaches hardly occurs. Hopefully this will change in Hanover. Because AI pioneer Sepp Hochreiter summed it up in the magazine Industrial Pioneers: "Don't screw it up", he demanded of the European mechanical engineers in a guest article. The lead in mechanical engineering must not be squandered, now is the time to think ahead and to push ML and or AI.

1. 5G comes to Germany earlier than 2020 and will not start in Berlin, but in Hanover. Nokia, Qualcomm and Deutsche Messe will turn Hall 16 into the Testbed 5G from 1 to 5 April 2019 - the 5G Area is what the trade fair organisers call the 5G Area. In the next few weeks we will be talking to the Federal Network Agency about the frequen-cies, confirms a Nokia spokesman. In the exhibition hall companies will present their solutions for communication technology. Wireless communication via 5G will play a decisive role in the industry for innovative topics such as smart production, net-worked machines, wireless sensor technology and intelligent mobility. For several months now, SmartFactory Kaisersautern has been testing the use of the 5G mobile phone generation for the real-time transmission of large amounts of data on its in-dustry 4.0 demo system.

News and Exhibitors regarding 5G

2. Many an industry representative mixes or still mixes up AI and Machine Learning - this will happen to us even more often and needs a discussion in April. Siri, Alexa and Co. are Machine Learning (ML), even if marketing often tries to persuade us to use AI - ML is done with Phyton, AI with Power Point, some experts joke. We always talk about AI, but that's not right. We do not reproduce the human intelligence, but we operate ML - pattern recognition in data. ML is not yet understood by everyone, the hype is unsettling, but the technology is not as complicated as it seems. Much is based on statistics, "nobody needs to be afraid of that," says Peter Seeberg, AI con-sultant from Munich. A good signal; the Hannover Messe defines itself as a platform for industrial intelligence, meaning the ability of people to use knowledge to enable machines in industry to recognize patterns, make predictions and derive action from them in order to satisfy customer needs even better. In the future, the knowledge for this will increasingly be generated in platforms - they network people with each oth-er and with machines and data. Please don't just have an AI hype, but pick up the in-dustrial users where they are today.

Digital Factory - Home of the digital pioneers!

3. The difference with Cobots is the usability and the user experience. (UX) The mar-ket for Cobots is growing at a double-digit rate and new companies are constantly getting involved and offering their products. Jürgen von Hollen, President of Univer-sal Robots, is pleased about this, because it signals to the Danish Cobot pioneers that they are on the right track then and now. What about the contest? The focus of many Cobot suppliers is still on safety. But that is now set. It is about a better usabil-ity and user expierence with the robot as a tool. "We continue to reduce complexity so that even small businesses can quickly deploy Cobots. "Usability and UX coupled with simple programming becomes a competitive advantage in the robotics world. And for Jürgen von Hollen the trade fair in April is not only important for sales. "It's a huge research platform for us to get to know new technologies.“

Cobots - Man and machine: A team at the top of their game!

4. Teamwork between companies, universities and the state is a prerequisite and guarantee of success for innovations from Sweden. The partner country of the Han-nover Messe presented itself self-confidently as Europe's think tank - ecologically sustainable and economically forward-looking paired with a Nordic looseness. Now the northern Europeans want to bring their ideas into the machines of the world and therefore the Hannover Fair is the right market place for Swedish developers and companies. And then I learned something else: a server running in Baden-Württemberg generates around 10,000 times more CO2 than a server in northern Sweden - thanks to the cold temperatures, but also thanks to hydropower as a re-newable energy source. No wonder that Silicon Valley big names like Facebook or Google have their data centers built in Sweden.

Do you want to become a part of Sweden Co-Lab?

5. Boge's compressed air experts are role models for many machine builders, because the East Westphalians are developing new business models. The focus is on the HST compressor. Boge evaluates the data of the machines during operation and identi-fies potential improvements to save energy or extend running times. Using intelli-gent data analysis, Boge engineers develop new components or software updates that are tailored to the customer's needs. Boge continuously improves its product - even during operation. Thanks to the modular design of the turbo compressor, com-ponents can be replaced in the shortest possible time, the East Westphalians prom-ise. The industrial customer pays nothing for the hardware improvements or the up-dates. Only the savings actually measured are shared between Boge and the cus-tomer over a pre-defined period of time. The investment risk lies with Boge, so it is minimal for the customer.

Please find here more products and exhibitors!

6. Control suppliers develop new products and many a machine manufacturer senses competition from component suppliers. However, the Beckhoff engineers do not want this concern to arise at all. XPlanar remains a component, they assure. The free-floating planar movers move at speeds of up to 4 m/s smoothly and contact-free over planar tiles of any arrangement. The movers are kept at a distance by electromagnet-ic forces. Travelling magnetic fields generated in planar tiles ensure precise and high-ly dynamic positioning of the movers. The result: maximum freedom in arrangement and architecture, maximum flexibility in positioning and optimum simplification of machines and systems. Any impurities due to transported goods are not distributed in the plant; liquids can be processed without spilling, wear and tear and emissions due to abrasion are excluded. The XPlanar system is recommended as a new drive concept: in general mechanical engineering as well as in the food and pharmaceuti-cal industries, and in vacuum as well as in clean rooms. The planar motor system can also be used as a hygienic design version by means of an appropriate cover.

Welcome at the home of industry 4.0 - Industrial Pioneers!

7. Industrial robots can also work with people. Although heavy-duty robots now oper-ate alongside their human colleagues without a protective fence, direct interaction is not possible, according to the researchers at Fraunhofer IWU. For safety reasons, the robot stops moving as soon as a human enters a large safety area around it. A novel technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU now increases the efficiency of this cooperation - and thus of the entire produc-tion process. "We have added effective, secure and flexible interaction to the tech-nology we have used to date," says Dr.-Ing. Mohamad Bdiwi, head of department at Fraunhofer IWU. "For the first time, humans can communicate and cooperate direct-ly with heavy-duty robots. "In production, this cooperation looks like this: When the human enters the work area around the robot, the robot recognizes its gestures, face and posture. On the one hand, he uses the data to make the collaboration secure, and on the other hand to control it. For example, humans can give work orders to their metal colleagues using hand and arm gestures - the robot itself analyzes com-plex movements. "Our technology brings gesture control to industry. Until now, it has primarily been used in game environments, such as consoles," adds Bdiwi. In ad-dition to the human hands, the robot also keeps his face "in view": If the human looks to the side or to the rear, because he is talking to a colleague standing there, for example, the machine knows that the arm movements do not apply to it. Man and robot can work together directly and also hand over workpieces or tools.

Research & Technology - Where the Future Comes Alive!