High-tech Industry: hardware design services and innovative technologies
The evolution of Industry 4.0 and the IoT is redefining product design and hardware design services.
In a world where factories are increasingly digital and interconnected, the success of product development depends on the following factors:
• manufacturability
• safety
• modularity
• reliability
• short prototyping cycles
• regulatory compliance
Hardware Design Services by MAS Elettronica
Hardware design services usually represent the first phase of any project to create intelligent systems for product innovation.
MAS Elettronica has consolidated experience in the hardware design of complex digital systems based on ARM. We use our mastery in design and manufacturing technologies to create our products and those of our customers, to whom we offer complete hardware, firmware and software design services and a stable and well-tested product.
It starts with an accurate analysis of the application in question through a feasibility study in which the specifications are established. We proceed with the choice of electronic components up to the PCB development and the delivery of the finished product.
Thanks to our twenty years of experience and that of our technological partners, we offer a fast prototyping service for the designed boards. Our technicians take care of the prototype test using state-of-the-art tools, the detailed report is then sent to our customers for comparison.
The hardware design can include a single, complete and independent electronic board, or take care of all the equipment development phases, such as a motor drive, a welding machine, an induction heating system, etc.
Innovative Technologies in Industry 4.0
The industrial world is facing numerous and rapidly evolving challenges, especially since the pandemic began, in fact, Industry 4.0 and the technologies connected to them have been fundamental to counter the crisis.
Digitization and automation are the basis of the hardware design services of this digital transformation, the field of application concerns the following sectors:
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Use of data
This category is divided into 4 main branches:
- Big Data, the huge volume of data that floods companies every day. Attention should not focus on the amount of data, but on what the company does with those collected. This has a huge impact on transformation and innovation.
- Open Data, Public Administrations or private companies make data available to everyone and can be reused for various purposes.
- Internet of Things, the process of connecting to the Internet objects used in everyday life, from light bulbs to medical devices.
- Machine to machine, technologies and services that allow automatic transfer of information from machine to machine without or with limited human interaction.
- Cloud Computing: archiving data over the network on remote hardware rather than on the local workstation. Practical examples of everyday life are emails, social media, online banking, file backup, online shopping.
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Analytics
The collected data must be analyzed and interpreted in order to improve procedures. An example is machine learning, where machines improve their performance thanks to the data stored and analyzed.
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Interaction between man and machine
Here come into play touch interfaces, increasingly used and requested, and augmented reality.
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Transition from digital to real
New technologies capture the energy and use it specifically in order to rationalize costs and optimize performance.
This sector also includes robotics, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, communications and machine to machine interactions.
E-mobility and future challanges
E-mobility is a growing trend that is revolutionizing the way we experience the city. The keywords are flexibility, accessibility and sustainability.
The undisputed protagonists of electric mobility's future are the industries that will be able to produce performing electric vehicles and bring digital innovations in IT services improving user experience.
With e-mobility, we are moving towards green mobility thanks to technology with an eye towards the environment, since electric mobility includes all vehicles that, instead of classic fossil fuels and oils, use electricity as a primary energy source, such as:
• Electric vehicles
• Hybrid electric vehicles
• Transport using hydrogen fuel
E-mobility and today's trends
Let's see together some of the e-mobility today's trends:
1. Shared mobility:
Shared mobility is based on the principle of sharing cars, bicycles, scooters and monowheels. The advantages are numerous, such as:
- Decrease of CO2 emissions, the main cause of pollution
- Reduction of older vehicles circulation with highly polluting emissions. They are less safe and require more maintenance.
- No parking and/or garage costs
- Chance to choose how to move to reach a specific place also considering peak times and traffic, especially if you live in large cities
- Easy access to public transport such as trains and buses even if you live in the suburbs or less served areas
- Easy and ideal for tourists too
- No insurance, road tax, maintenance costs
- Affordable subscription, especially if you think of students
- Control via app to find out the remaining battery life and search for the nearest depot station
2. On-board connection
As for cars, having an internet connection on-board is essential in terms of safety to receive anomalies reports, suspicious movements, remote assistance. Furthermore, the connection with your smartphone also allows you to know in real-time, the exact position vehicle even in case of theft, or to find the nearest charging station.
3. Smart infrastructures
Digital innovations are transforming the way people shop, move around and experience the city. The focus is increasingly on smart cities, i.e. cities with better urban planning, reliable and efficient transport systems and better environmental sustainability. A smart city is where everything works digitally.
Key points for e-mobility
To improve e-mobility diffusion, the battery autonomy and its recharging time are essential. But it is also necessary to invest in Artificial Intelligence. For instance, In Tesla cars, reaching a destination is very simple. The on-board computer shows the shortest and optimized route, which includes intermediate charging stations.
A practical example is to hypothesize to move between 2 cities which are on average 150 km apart. To optimize travel time, the car onboard computer equipped with artificial intelligence will suggest the fastest route and show where to stop to recharge the car and display the duration of each stop.
A challenge for the future is that this technology will soon be accessible also in mid-range vehicles and therefore to a wider market.
Emerging Technologies for Enterprises
Deloitte has produced a report on 2021 emerging technologies designed for companies following the Covid-19 pandemic.
For more than a year now, industries have been facing great challenges, and many businesses are aware of the urge to embrace advanced technology. They know that the transformation must be rapid and that only the mastery of technological innovation will allow them to establish themselves as leaders.
IT architecture becomes a must-have, companies have at their disposal a wide range of emerging technologies, from multi-cloud applications to hardware design to Artificial Intelligence.
Digital Transformation 2021: key targets
Emerging technologies aim to analyse data through artificial intelligence to improve business processes. The main themes of Digital Transformation are 3:
- the future of work
- equity and social inclusion within companies
- industrialization of AI and technologies that support diversity
Emerging technologies 2021: How Businesses Will Improve
There are 9 emerging technologies to help companies achieve a complete digital transformation:
1. Strategy, engineered
Business strategy and technology strategy must communicate, inform and collaborate for business success. It is necessary to follow the same direction through technological platforms based on artificial intelligence to develop data analysis automatically and monitor the results.
2. Core Revival
It consists of refactoring the existing codebase, called legacy code, making it modern and create a cloud-based architecture. Fortunately, emerging technologies make this procedure accessible to everyone today.
3. Supply unchained
The pandemic has created critical disruption periods for the supply chain. The most advanced companies have managed to disconnect these processes and promote some cost centers by projecting them towards the customer. Some have even managed to exploit robots and drones to optimize development processes and making them safer.
4. Machine Learning Operations
One of the main trends is investing in aspects related to machine learning and artificial intelligence to create new learning models, identify anomalies or optimize development processes, thanks, above all, to the analysis of the insights.
5. Machine data revolution
Companies have recognized that the data analyzed by machine learning models are the same as those used for human processes. Therefore, a revolution in information acquisition processes is expected to generate large cloud archives optimized for AI.
6. Zero Trust
Companies need to improve corporate cybersecurity, this process involves a completely different approach to cybersecurity. A zero trust IT policy is to provide users with access to corporate information based on identity and by considering location data and the devices.
7. Rebooting the digital workplace
Following the pandemic, the need has arisen to renew the workplaces that are moving from physical places to digital. Thanks to remote working, employees meet much more often on digital platforms than in offices. Therefore, companies must seek new tools to facilitate these iterations and, at the same time, analyze data to improve production processes and employee experience itself.
8. Bespoke for billions: Digital meets physical
The company must be able to intertwine the digital and offline user experience to standardize outgoing information and ensure smoother purchasing processes.
9. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Technology
The work environment must be fair and inclusive, companies are expected to achieve this in the coming months thanks to emerging technologies and digital data analysis, leveraging natural language processing through artificial intelligence.
Manufacturing Industry: the new trends in Industry 4.0
The manufacturing industry is changing fast, from advanced robotics to artificial intelligence, from products for Smart Energy and IOT applications to virtual reality.
The world of manufacturing is evolving thanks to the combination of technologies that improve its output and productivity.
Classic industry becomes Smart Factory focused on digitized manufacturing with smoother and more dynamic processes, to make the most of available resources.
The new mission is to increase production quantity, speed and quality and cut waste.
COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the manufacturing industry to forecast demand to avoid excessive consumption, stocks and unnecessary costs.
Manufacturing industry towards the digital future
Let's see together what are the new trends in the manufacturing industry and their advantages:
1. Smart glasses connected to the Internet
Equipped with a small video camera, microphone and headphones. Used for remote training on a new machine or for remote support to see and hear what happens in real-time.
2. Quality control with computer vision and artificial intelligence
An automatic and meticulous system that allows the manufacturing industry to cut inspection times and costs. Capable of finding every small imperfection and set up a range of criteria for quality control on production.
3. Remote work
To be competitive also on the international scene, the manufacturing industry handles Big Data through remote control. Their analysis identifies how to solve problems or offers the best solution to apply with a margin of error close to zero.
Thanks to remote working, workers and employees can work from any distance from the industrial plant and collaborate with colleagues and customers worldwide.
4. Collaborative robotics
Industry 4.0 aims to the progressive automation of production processes through interconnected collaborative robots, used to relieve workers' workload, helping them with complex tasks, but also to cut the work and execution times of the operators.
5. Virtual reality
It allows reliable simulations of new processes related to products before putting them into practice in reality to prevent any issues.
6. Augmented reality
Project virtual images into the real world via wearable devices. For instance, if a machine has an anomaly, augmented reality identifies the problem and projects the solutions by showing them as superimposed images. The benefit is a quick resolution to the problem without opening the operator's manual.
7. 3D printing
Used more and more often in the manufacturing industry for the creation of a piece. There are different
advantages:
- cost reduction due to saving on the materials used to produce the components. In this way, waste and emissions also decrease
- halve production and delivery times
- the previous points improve the relationship between factories and customers
Industry 4.0 Technologies can apply to all sectors of the manufacturing industry that will have real competitive advantages.
Machines will never take the place of man but will make work processes faster and more efficient. The new skills required to manage the digital automation systems will create new jobs.