How might the Industrial Internet of Things actually play out?  Big Data and Internet of Things are huge buzz words that are being thrown around pretty loosely.  Mostly opinions and generalities. Breaking it down to something more practical, Big Data is simply the side effect of control equipment that is able to transmit all the […]

Could a future implementation of the Industrial Internet of Things include an application that manages the flow of products super efficiently so that the local grocery store can react to your purchase of a half gallon of milk late on a Saturday afternoon?  Sure, why not? Vending machines have operated this way for years.  Internet […]

Arthur C. Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Every so often a shift takes place that borders on magic.  In the world of material handling there have been a series of advances that cumulatively look like the industry has created magic. Tools from the information age have transformed all aspects of […]

The next revolution in automation is the much hyped, Industrie 4.0 as the Europeans refer to it.  What is it really?  It is the application of relatively unlimited computing power to the existing set of problems we already deal with.  Making stuff, like cars, beer, toothbrushes, whatever.  So it’s the same set of problems with […]

Does Artificial Intelligence mean that mankind’s goal is to create human intelligence?  Depends on who you ask.  If that is the assumption, it is not likely to happen any time soon.  Does AI mean that we have the ability to create control systems with more complex behavior?  Yes, absolutely.  And indeed, that is what Manufacturing […]

The Machine Intelligence debate goes on, with the latest topics including predictive maintenance. The implication seems to be that if a machine can predict equipment failures and eliminate them by creating messages to human operators or maintenance technicians to take preventive action, that this is a sign of intelligence.  The root of the confusion is […]

When cost barriers drop, suddenly old problems start to look like new opportunities. There are many examples of older technology that has never become widely adopted due to cost constraints.  The technology may be forgotten, but the problem that drove it still exists, and the application might still benefit from a new solution. What happens […]

by Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor One company is leveraging CAD, vision systems and robotics to make dramatic improvements in grinding large castings. The next generation of grinding will not look anything like the past. Traditional machining and grinding processes have been around for a long time. Historians record that one of the earliest known lathes […]

Industry 4.0 is a marketing campaign to create a perception of value in something that doesn’t exist yet.  What it really is, is a useful framework to start talking about how manufacturing will evolve in the coming years.  On one hand, the emergence of lower cost, intelligent peripherals and networks is making it practical to […]

The world of mechatronics has an unlikely hero.  A bomb disposal robot became the delivery system for 1 pound of C4 explosive which killed the sniper in Dallas that shot 12 police officers. Strange as it seems, the bomb disposal robot became a bomb delivery system.  Is it a form of Improvised Explosive Device, as […]

Tesla Motors had its first fatality.  The response from Tesla included a very odd statistic.  The company estimates that there were 130,000,000 miles driven last year in Tesla vehicles.  The implication being that 1 fatality is below the ‘norm’ reported in Department of Transportation statistics.   Thus, we can conclude that the driving record for […]

There are three major trends that will shape the coming generation of control technology.  These trends are largely independent and not likely to go away.  They are increasing compute capability, decreasing cost, embedded networking and package independence.  These are all increasing in capability simultaneously which makes possible a universe of new products that weren’t even […]

The architecture problem is stretched further as the next generation of computing emerges.  When it is possible to embed a 32 bit processor that costs $1. into a peripheral, it is more effective to put the processing capability at the point of use.  This enables high data rate traffic between a network of intelligent peripherals […]

The next wave of control system architecture is already emerging.  As processor power continues to grow and cost continues to decline, how do we leverage that emerging capability?  Through an understanding of control system architecture. Industrial control systems are really arrangements of processors whose internal and external structure is designed to solve a unique equipment or […]

The Department of Commerce produces information on about the US economy every five years.  In an economy estimated at $28.7 trillion, the largest segment was Manufacturing at $5.8 trillion.  Manufacturing is all the categories of products from breakfast cereal to the car you drive.  Within the $5.8 trillion manufacturing economy, the Apple, HP, IBM and Dell […]

by Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor Decades of exposure to the realities of keeping farm equipment running have provided FireFly Equipment with insight to the problems, and the solutions, needed to making highly automated agricultural machinery a reality. Forest for the trees? Sometimes we get too close to a problem and the big insights escape us. […]

Wind turbines are complex systems that convert the low speed, low kinetic energy of wind into electricity.  The current state of the art involves using very large propellers turning at around 20 rpm to turn a 60 times gear increaser and spin a generator at 1200 RPM.  From a purely mechatronic standpoint, this is a […]

Windmills have figured prominently in mankind’s ability to prosper on planet earth.  The windmill gets its name from using wind power to grind (mill) grain for food.  One of the main building blocks of sustainable food production is flour.  If you haven’t ever tried it, manually grinding flour requires a lot of work.  As with […]

Engineering of complex systems can sometimes be represented as a series of simplified approximations based on the performance of known subsystems.  In the case of wind turbines, there are 4 subsystems, aerodynamic, gearing, generator and power conversion.  In order to simplify the evaluation process of competing technologies in each category, they can be assigned an […]

Processing water after it has been used into potable water is a complex mix of chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines.  The mechanical problems to be solved include things like how we store water, how we deliver water and creating special equipment for each unique process required when treating water.  In the US we pay […]

Water, somewhat like matter and energy, is not really created or destroyed.  We do not literally consume water, and then there is no more, we use water and it is directly or indirectly recycled.  The notion that we are running out of water in the United States is a misconception.  What is really happening is […]

A thorough understanding of the mechanical load is crucial to successful motion applications.  Gear designers are experts in understanding the mechanical load.  Not just the RMS power requirement, but other issues such as impulse loads, the impact of heat on part geometry and life expectancy. Gear design, like electric motor design, has continued to evolve as clever designs have been […]