President Obama Introduced to IoT and Industrie 4.0

In a recent visit to Hannover Messe exhibition, US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were given a demonstration of Germ  an IoT technology and a taste of Industrie 4.0 by Harting on its stand at the exhibition. The President and Chancellor were shown the Rinspeed “Etos” car which uses a MICA mini industrial computer as the neural interface between Cloud and machine which enables the systems and machines to function as part of the IoT. Etos was created by the group best known for building zero-emission aquatic cars, robot-driven EVs and shape-shifting smartphone controlled carriers.

The next-gen car has a custom bodywork covering the carbon fiber and aluminum structure of the BMW i8 and features a fully autonomous mode and eight HD exterior cameras that constantly track people and objects around it. The ETos comes with its own personalized drone which can peel off from the vehicle to complete tasks such as picking up a bouquet of flowers and dropping it off to your loved ones or taking epic selfies while the car drives you around. Industrie 4.0 is a current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies which include cyber-physical systems, IoT and cloud computing.

The term was originally coined by the German government to promote the computerization of manufacturing. It is the fourth iteration of the industrial revolution with the first mobilizing the mechanization of production using steam power, the second through electric power and the third being the digital revolution using electronics and IT. There are four major design principles in Industrie 4.0 which are Interoperability, Information Transparency, Technical Assistance, and Decentralized Decisions.

The major characteristics of Industrie 4.0 revolves around the strong customization of products under the conditions of highly flexible mass production. Some large scale projects currently taking place in Industry 4.0 are the BMBF leading-edge cluster “Intelligent Technical Systems OstWestfalenLippe”, BMBF project RES-COM and Cluster of Excellence "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries". Big Data Analytics play a huge role in helping predict the possibility to increase productivity, quality and flexibility within the manufacturing industry which allows us to assess the advantages among the competition.