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Data has always existed in the manufacturing environment – in the temperatures, pressures, sounds, and sppearance of machinery – but it hasn’t always been easy to access. Manufacturing professionals would spend years, if not decades, gaining the expertise that would help them understand the meaning of certain measurements and observations. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) promises to revolutionize this learning process by turning such observations into quantitive trends that can be leveraged for decision-making.

The factory of the future wouldn’t be possible without communication protocols that facilitate fast and secure data transfer. A protocol is essentially a way of communicating information between devices on a network that follows a set of agreed-upon rules for formatting and processing. As the trend toward data-driven decision-making prompts manufacturers to gather increasingly large amounts of data from the plant floor, these protocols are gaining prominence.

Robotic solutions can dramatically sharpen your competitive edge as a manufacturer, but they can also introduce more complexity into your operations. To address this issue, Omron have recently introduced their most full-featured machine automation controller to date that’s ideal for complete robotic cells, high-speed motion systems, material handling, and multi-robot systems.