With a focus on the Smart factory, virtual reality and the Internet of Things, the Hannover Messe is an excellent platform for Omron to demonstrate solutions and latest technologies for tomorrow?s factories and energy systems. 
Visitors will be able to experience how Omron can support the industry with the transformation towards a smart factory and supply chain with new technologies, intelligent products and data analysis capabilities, the integration of data, processes and products as well as an improved human-machine interaction.
Omron?s innovation solutions are grouped into three areas:
Integrated ? the connected factory: linking machine automation and corporate IT
Intelligent ? the smart factory: provide and use data from devices, production processes and product quality
Interactive ? the collaborative factory: improving human-machine interaction
Omron?s vision of harmonized relationship between humans and machines will be demonstrated by the Ping-Pong robot, our technological evolution aimed at the construction of new relationships between people and machines, through adjustment by the machine to the human partner.
Interactive ? the adaptive Ping-Pong playing robot adjusts to the human counterpart
Omron will display its progress in vision based human-machine interaction concept with the display of the adaptive Ping-Pong robot. The goal of the robot is not to beat the human counterpart but to adapt to his playing skills and keep the ball in play. This technology is the base for future collaborative robot-human interaction concepts where these so-called ?cobots? flexibly cooperate with humans and will need to react to different behavior (gesture recognition) but also to different humans (face recognition).
The following solutions will be available for trying and testing whilst counting on the technical expertise of Omron?s experienced Field Sales and Application Engineers.
Integrated ? Device communication via I/O Link, EtherCat and EthernetIP
Omron?s support of device communication standards has been extended to provide the best suitable performance and ease-of-use for an enhanced range of device classes. In addition to the existing EtherCAT support for high speed motion communication and the widely used EthernetIP, Omron has introduced the IO-link masters NX-IO type and IP67 type as well as IO-link sensors. Setting parameters as well as device and performance status information can be collected and exchanged, providing the basis for fast changeovers as well as for process analysis and predictive maintenance tasks.
Integrated & Intelligent ? Sysmac, the integrated control, programming and data collection platform
The well-established Sysmac Automation Platform provides customers with complete control and programming of machine devices, integrated safety as well as high-speed motion & robotics control. The NX7 machine automation controller – the flagship model within the Sysmac Automation Platform – simultaneously performs large-scale, high-speed, high-precision motion control and ultrafastdata processing. Focusing on the future of sophisticated production sites using IoT, we have developed this integrated controller to provide users with scalability beyond the framework of previous controllers and PLCs.
To support customers in analyzing the production process, achieving higher machine uptime and optimizing the output quality, information about machine performance, device parameters and product quality from inspection systems can now easily be collected in a database and made available for evaluation. All collected data is stored in an SQL database directly from the Sysmac machine automation controller and made available for analysis and long term cloud storage.
In combination with the extended machine simulation capability including robot handling and motion paths based on imported real product object info, this multi-disciplinary concept allows customers to simplify solution architecture, reduce programming and optimize productivity.
The acquisition of Delta Tau Data Systems (hereafter referred to as ?DT?) will allow Omron to combine DT’s PMAC motion controller – widely recognized as the world’s highest level motion controller – with its wide range of products and offer new solutions to its customers globally. Omron will also aim to expand applications of its solutions by adopting the high-performance motion control technology to NJ/NX series machine automation controllers that DT has accumulated over many years.
Integrated – A new generation of Industrial PC platform and touch screens
New generation of industrial PC?s, panel PC?s and industrial-standard monitors, each of which is designed from first principles to be tough, reliable, scalable and performance orientated. Suitable for visualization, data handling, measuring, controlling, regulating and verifying process and machine data, it can be rapidly integrated into both the new and existing applications. Ready-out-of-the-box for seamless connection with machine-, field-, and IT networks.
Alongside the IPC, Omron introduces a new range of industrial monitors with touchscreen. The smart algorithms created allow the touchscreen controller to detect non-standard actions, such as false touches, palm rejection, water and cleaning, even if the user is wearing gloves.
Integrated – Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to protect against data loss
The S8BA series, a DIN-rail mountable, DC-DC uninterruptible power supply is the ideal counter measure to protect industrial PCs (IPCs) and factory automation controllers from momentary voltage drops and power failures. This is of particular importance with the current trend towards collecting device and process data and the use of highly functional controllers when exporting to countries where power supply may be unstable. A UPS could mean the difference between a controller crashing and losing data during a power failure, or having the time to effectively shut it down to save valuable data.

Integrated ? Save space and time in panel building

Omron will introduce a product portfolio covering all signal, control and distribution needs. Each specifically developed to help simplify the overall panel building process. This allows engineers to rethink traditional control panel layouts ? allowing for more modular, flexible and compact designs ? saving time, effort and money throughout the complete panel building process.
One example of this commitment is the new soft-touch technology that has been implemented in our panel solution products. This technology reduces the effort it takes to wire a panel, while ensuring each wire has been fully inserted without damaging the ferrule. That helps guarantee a solid, reliable connection, but also allows for quick release during maintenance or panel upgrades.
In addition, moving to a standard component height across 3 main user categories allows for standardized wiring duct and component placement, optimizing space. This makes it easier for panel builders to move to a more uniform panel design and signaling, which also offers scope for customization and expansion.
Interaction – QR troubleshooting on safety light curtains
This latest F3SG-R range of safety light curtains introduces a novel troubleshooting function based on QR codes. Should problems ever occur with these innovative products, users simply scan a QR code sticker that can be applied to the machine with a smart phone or tablet, and they are taken directly to a web page that provides detailed troubleshooting guidance.
Interaction – Lynx autonomous intelligent vehicle (AIV) with Acuity navigation
As global manufacturing comes under even more pressure to cut costs, shorten supply cycles and operate across global environments, production sites around the world strive to improve productivity. Increased use of labor-saving robots is one of the solutions. By adding the robotics technology of Adept to its current offering, Omron will be very well positioned to provide manufacturers with solutions to these challenges, as well as engineering support.
Adept’s Lynx AIVs provide autonomous materials transport in industries ranging from manufacturing and warehousing to healthcare and semiconductors. Unlike traditional AGVs, Lynx systems require no facility modifications to function. The robots intelligently self-navigate, avoiding obstacles, and they automatically select the optimal path to complete a task. Lynx robots work collaboratively with human counterparts. They are quick to deploy, work as single units or in fleets, and can run in conjunction with the user’s existing enterprise management system.
Standard Lynx mobile robots can operate in dynamic environments where the surrounding features change up 80 percent. Acuity is a system option that further enhances a robot’s navigational capability by using overhead static lighting to pinpoint the robot’s location, allowing operation where the floor level environment is even more dynamic. With Acuity, Lynx robots can perform applications such as work-in-progress (WIP) transport in busy manufacturing settings, materials handing in dynamic warehouses, and can operate effectively in facilities with wide open spaces.

About Omron

Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, Omron Corporation is a global leader in the field of automation. Established in 1933 and headed by President Yoshihito Yamada, Omron has more than 37,000 employees in 35 countries working to provide products and services to customers in a variety of fields including industrial automation, electronic components industries, and healthcare. The company is divided into five regions and head offices are in Japan (Kyoto), Asia Pacific (Singapore), China (Shanghai), Europe (Amsterdam) and US (Chicago). The European organisation has its own development and manufacturing facilities, and provides local customer support in all European countries.
Industry 4.0 will help factories to answer individual customer requirements, will address the growing need for increased productivity and efficiency, but will also address social needs: supporting interactive collaboration between humans and machines. The fourth industrial revolution fits seamlessly into the model behind the SINIC theory, which our founder, Kazuma Tateishi, presented at the International Future Research Conference in 1970.
In the SINIC theory (Seed-Innovation to Need-Impetus Cyclic Evolution, Figure 1), science, technology and society share a cyclical relationship, mutually impacting and influencing each other. In the future Optimisation society described by the SINIC theory, Mr. Tateishi predicts that technologies that automate parts of our human intellect and sensations will form the foundation for future development. In this future society, people and machines will find an ideal level of harmony.
Within Industry 4.0, the future envisioned by our founder is becoming reality. To address the challenges of this digitalized industrial future, we automate machines with technologies leveraging on fully scalable automation solutions and seamless reusability ofautomation assets. Using our long industry experience and competences, we aim to cover digitalization over the full lifecycle of any automation solution.