BRING INTELLIGENCE TO THE EDGE OF THE DIGITAL FACTORY

#News(IoTStack) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

A Bay Area company, Iron Ox, is nurturing the first robotic farm in the U.S. Inside a San Carlos, California, warehouse, Angus is busy at work, lifting and moving 800-pound hydroponic boxes where greens and herbs are growing. Its closest colleague is a robotic arm, outfitted with cameras, that can perform tasks such as transferring seedlings between different containers. Eventually, Iron Ox’s founders want to scale and replicate this autonomous indoor farm in other locations.

What’s happening inside this warehouse presents a picture of how industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, and fulfillment are transforming with the integration of automation. Indeed, the digital factory is bringing the productivity-enhancing promises of Industry 4.0 to life. Working alongside human operators, robots are performing tasks that are repetitive in nature as well as those requiring the stamina or strength that is beyond human capacity. With the right level of intelligence, digital factories gain the flexibility to dynamically adjust the manufacturing line on the fly based on new or changing requirements. This arrangement is enhancing efficiency and productivity. And it’s only the start. Achieving true industrial convergence hinges on additional technological advancements in four key areas:

Industrial internet of things (IIoT)
Cloud computing
Data analytics
Artificial intelligence

Now imagine a nimble IIoT platform with 17 software-configurable IOs in a footprint of less than 1 cubic inch. This is the first time this performance density has been achieved in the industry and it is made possible by Maxim’s efficient analog process technology that operates with 50% less power versus previous IIoT solutions. Maxim’s new Go-IO IIoT reference design provides a level of performance that helps unleash the true potential of industrial convergence

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