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Factory Automation has undergone quite a few revolutions in the past couple of decades and still continues to evolve. The latest trends are driven by Industry 4.0 or Industrial Internet of Things IIoT. This approach places much more emphasis on data and communication. Real-time information and the ability to process data either in the cloud or at the edge are providing new levels of benefits within the industrial control environment.
We see a massive use of different kinds of industrial ethernet networks including TSN but also an introduction of wireless connectivity technologies. However, one major innovation within connectivity is the expansion to the nodes appearing at the lowest level. That last metre, where data and process signals hold much of the transformational information needed for a successful Industry 4.0 strategy. This is enabled thanks to IO-Link, a bi-directional digital communication technology that bridges the link between the control level and those sensors and actuators.
Here today to discuss IO-Link technology plus their new semiconductor ICs is Milos Hofman from ST Microelectronics.
Milos is the Technical Marketing Manager responsible for the ST Factory Automation Vertical Program. He focuses on smart industrial networks and digital I/O systems.
He has nearly 20 years of experience in the industrial automation field and is behind the specification of several ST integrated circuits.
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