Hannover Messe 2024: AI is Key to Competitive and Sustainable Industry
Published on : Wednesday 03-04-2024
Automation, digitalisation and sustainability are the three main drivers in focus at the Hannover Messe this year.
Hannover Messe – one of the world’s largest trade fairs for industrial technology, innovation, and automation – evokes visions of technological innovations on display for a global audience. The annual event traces its origins to 1947, when it was first established as an initiative to help revive the German economy in the aftermath of World War-II. And what a revival the show has witnessed helping Germany scale the industrialisation ladder to become the most technologically advanced country in Europe!
Ironically, a war is raging for over two years on Europe’s eastern borders triggering one of the worst energy crises and more. As Dr Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, organisers of Hannover Messe chose to put it, “Geopolitical tensions, climate change, stagnating growth, high prices for energy and a shortage of skilled workers mean that cost discipline and efficiency are currently the dominant themes in companies. At the same time, artificial intelligence is leading to profound changes in the worlds of work in industry. In addition, business leaders and trade associations are warning of a de-industrialisation of Europe.”
Automation, digitalisation and sustainability
Dr Jochen Köckler was addressing global media on February 21st, at the Preview of the forthcoming edition scheduled from 22 to 26 April 2024, an event that plays a significant role in shaping the industrial landscape globally. “Hannover Messe is more important than ever this year, because the economic environment has rarely been so volatile. In Hannover, technologies and solutions will be presented to enable industry to produce on a competitive and sustainable basis. The trade fair will be all about intelligent and carbon-neutral production, AI, hydrogen, and cross-sector energy solutions. For European companies in particular, Hannover Messe will thus create a bulwark against the impending de-industrialisation of Europe,” said Dr Köckler. “Our exhibitors will show that competitive industrial production is possible in Europe. However, this will require a regulatory framework that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Automation, digitalisation and sustainability are the three main drivers in focus at the Hannover Messe this year. Automation now bolstered by artificial intelligence including generative AI; digitalisation with an accelerated pace with more enterprises embracing the digital ecosystem; and sustainability with special focus on electrification and hydrogen. “Visitors to Hannover Messe are looking for guidance on how they can use automation, artificial intelligence, renewable energies or hydrogen in a meaningful way. This is precisely the expertise that the exhibitors at Hannover Messe can provide,” Dr Köckler stressed.
Norway, the Partner Country
Norway, the Partner Country at the 2024 edition, was represented at the Preview by two speakers – Laila Stenseng, Norway’s Ambassador to Germany, and Per Niederbach, Division Director at Innovation Norway – the Norwegian Government's most important instrument for innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry.
“It’s a big pleasure for me to be here in Hannover and to be able to present Norway to you as the Partner Country of the Hannover Messe this year. The motto of our participation is ‘Pioneering the Green Industrial Transition’. Now this is not only a mere slogan for us, it relates to our long history of industry, our pioneering role in the introduction of new technologies and the development of low emission industries. Norway embodies an energy nation, an industrial nation and a trading nation,” said Laila Stenseng. “Energy production in Norway has characterised our past and our present. Tapping hydrogen in the 20th century as well as the production of gas in the 1970s all the way up to our pioneering role in manoeuvring energies today – we have had a long journey behind us and we will continue to be at the forefront of the development towards a sustainable future,” she added.
Per Niederbach presented an overview of what visitors can expect at the Norwegian Pavilion. “You will meet our partner Yara, a big Norwegian company whose agricultural solutions help farmers increase their yields and improve the quality while reducing environmental impact. Their industrial solutions also help improve air quality and reduce emissions. They are also fast becoming a supplier of ammonia for the transportation sector, as well as a carrier for hydrogen. Norway has positioned itself as a pioneer in sustainable solutions, particularly in renewable energy, electric mobility and green infrastructure, hopefully making us an attractive partner for investors interested in sustainable and eco-friendly ventures,” he said. Referring to sustainable energy, Per Niederbach quoted examples of project MF Hydra, in which Norwegian companies have joined forces to design, build, and equip the world's first ferry to run on liquid hydrogen; and MF Ampère, the world's first electric car ferry. “Norway also has the world's highest penetration of electric vehicles. It embraces Industry 4.0 at speed and with advanced digitalisation and smart technologies in its industrial sectors, adopting cutting-edge technology such as IoT, AI, artificial intelligence and automation, providing foreign investors with opportunities to be part of a digitally advanced ecosystem,” he added.
Norway will be present with a national pavilion in hall 12 (Energy Solutions) and in hall 13, with a pavilion specifically dedicated to hydrogen. At the national pavilion, clean energy and industry 4.0 will be at the forefront, with key players like Statkraft, Equinor, Yara, Siemens and Morrow Batteries taking part. Together, Norwegian companies delivering products and solutions from industries such as hydrogen, CCS, AI and machine learning, digital infrastructure, batteries and charging infrastructure, minerals and materials technology will demonstrate Norwegian industry’s key role in the green transition.
Artificial intelligence is the key
For more than a decade now, Hannover Messe has been the most important trade fair for the digitalisation of industry. Artificial intelligence is now taking industrial digitalisation to the next level by revolutionising industry, making processes more efficient and adding value. By using AI, companies will be able to shorten development times while saving resources and energy.
“The speed at which AI solutions are finding their way into industry is breathtaking. Companies need to invest now and, above all, introduce their employees to the opportunities offered by AI, otherwise they will get left behind by the competition,” emphasized Dr Köckler. “AI is the key to competitiveness and sustainability in industry.”
Dr Fabian Bause, Product Manager at Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co KG, made an interesting presentation on the use of AI in industry. He began by referring to the keynote theme of the 2019 edition of Hannover Messe, ‘Industry 4.0 meets AI’, and how leading tech companies have been working on use cases since then. An example Dr Bause gave was of the Beckhoff XPlanar driverless transport systems that uses artificial intelligence. “These are floating tiles that essentially float over the floor, and for clean rooms, for the food industry, this is something which is very, very interesting as a transport system. Now what has this got to do with AI? It's because, hidden at the very bottom of it, we use neural networks to optimise the flow paths of these products, controlling the movement with a high level of precision,” he explained. If this was an example of a very small system, next Dr Bause referred to wind power, where, according to him, 7 of the top 10 wind turbine producers are Beckhoff customers. “Is it possible to predict wind patterns, to detect this several metres upstream of the wind turbine and then adjust the pitch and the direction in which the turbine is facing to optimise the yield,” he asked. “An AI model is able to look at very small amounts of time, but which suffice to be able to predict what the wind pattern will be, which allows us to increase the yield by a few percent, but only due to the software. So this allows customers to generate a greater yield from their turbines, and this is a retrofittable solution,” he explained.
The exhibitor sneak peek
There were 20 exhibiting companies at the Preview with table top displays of what they are bringing to the Hannover Messe 2024.
TechnoRobotics Ltd, an innovator in collaborative robotics, will present its ‘All-in-One’ solutions for CNC machine applications, such as tending, welding, palletizing, and beyond. These solutions address the critical shortage of skilled labour and the growing demand for cost-effective automation in SMEs. “Our award-winning TeamRobotics® solutions are designed around the four S's: Simple, Safe, Smart and Sustainable. It takes just a few days to transition from manual to automated processes – all at a cost-effective rate with a short payback period,” said Marina Fliamer, founder of TechnoRobotics. She continued: “The solutions promote inclusivity and diversity, empowering women and providing opportunities for people with special needs.”
ai-omatic solution has a solution for unplanned machine downtime that costs companies an average of €532,000 per hour. Since existing predictive maintenance solutions are either scalable but do not provide accurate results, or they are reliable but do not scale, ai-omatic solution predicts unplanned machine downtime with a software that delivers reliable results and can be scaled to a wide variety of use cases. Thereby expert knowledge is continuously integrated into software development. The company has developed a digital maintenance assistant that reduces unplanned downtime by ≈ 17% and provides explainable AI, thereby identifying the root causes of anomalies in machine condition.
To support industrial companies with the challenges of our time, such as the transformation to Industry 4.0 and CO2-neutral production, motion plastics specialist igus is relying on triple intelligence at the Hannover Messe: artificial intelligence, plastics intelligence and Cologne intelligence. The exhibits include smart sensor technology for the maintenance of tomorrow and AI-supported low-cost robotics that are easy to operate. igus will also be presenting an AI-based app that shows design engineers the optimisation potential of their application with lubrication-free motion plastics in a matter of seconds.
Beckhoff Automation was one of the first suppliers to present an application in the automation sector with TwinCAT Chat at Hannover Messe 2023. Further functionalities and application areas will be added for Hannover Messe 2024. In addition to PLC code generation, Beckhoff is also working on a chatbot that automatically creates a TwinCAT HMI project. The goal is that a user will only have to formulate how they want their HMI to be structured and TwinCAT will generate the entire HMI project in the background. The customer will therefore receive immediate feedback in the form of the visualised HMI. Another project involves a chatbot interface to the Beckhoff documentation system.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
For a deeper dive into the dynamic world of Industrial Automation and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), explore our comprehensive collection of articles and news covering cutting-edge technologies, robotics, PLC programming, SCADA systems, and the latest advancements in the Industrial Automation realm. Uncover valuable insights and stay abreast of industry trends by delving into the rest of our articles on Industrial Automation and RPA at www.industrialautomationindia.in
