At the end of 2022, Damian Spall, Routeco’s Group Technical Sales Manager attended the Rockwell Automation Fair and his blog below shares information about the event and the exciting technology Rockwell Automation have planned.
Once again the Rockwell Automation Fair, held in Chicago this year delivered a magnificent event to its customers and partners as over 15,000 attendees went through the doors over the two days. There was a clearly noticeable increase in the number of robotics on display this year, and a large increase in the area allocated to software solutions, giving an insight into the areas of strategic focus and investment since the last event.
Unified Robot Control 
One of the key messages that I took away from the event was the progress that Rockwell Automation have made with their Unified Robot Control strategy, and in particular the integration with COMAU robotics, who are a gold Technology Partner. This partnership allows customers who are familiar with using the Studio 5000 programming environment to develop integrated robot solutions, simplifying programming and lifecycle management, which can accelerate their time to market. The Routeco Mechatronics division are actively engaging with our UK customers to demonstrate how they can use robotics and intelligent cart technologies to build next generation, innovative machines and production lines and I expect that this Unified Robot Control approach will make it even easier for engineers to adopt and use these technologies over the coming months.
FactoryTalk Design Hub
One of the other significant launches on show at the Automation Fair was the FactoryTalk Design Hub and its three core solutions FactoryTalk Design Studio, FactoryTalk Optix and FactoryTalk Remote Access. This collection of cloud based software provides centralised, on-demand design tools that empower companies to scale production, adapt to new demands and optimise performance. FactoryTalk Design Studio is accessible using only a web browser and reduces development time by leveraging modern software development practices, an integrated version control system and the ability to support multiple controllers in a single project. FactoryTalk Optix is a new scalable and modern cloud based addition to the Vizualization portfolio. Users can design, test and deploy applications directly from a web browser, anytime, anywhere to achieve their HMI vision.
Next year's Automation Fair will be held in Boston on the 8th & 9th November and should you be interested in attending in person please speak to your Routeco account manager for further details.