Gary Mintchell

This tale involves two of America’s largest automation companies—Emerson and Rockwell Automation.

Computer vision technology and application seemed to have been in a long lull until semiconductor advances of the past few years. Now companies are unleashing new products at an astonishing pace. This is an updated product from Digi International —a company I covered a long time ago who became less interesting to me and now has returned to my view.

I recently connected with Adrian Heaton, Global Service Manager for ABB Measurement, to discuss the global skills shortage for technical talent in our industry.

Digi International PR has been working overtime sending news to me. This news regards remote monitoring and control.

I went to the Aras customer conference for the first time this year. Interesting company, good products, innovative customers. But, sorry, I’m hardly shocked that a survey of 835 “executive level experts” say their companies are not prepared to use Artificial Intelligence. We are all still feeling our way along the path toward discovering if there is a use or not. AR and VR are much farther along the hype curve and still haven’t really found a place.

Emerson continues on the software development path. In brief: DeltaV Workflow Management delivers scalable recipe authoring and execution technologies for life sciences companies.

I’ve been working some with a software company called Quickbase (disclaimer: they sometimes pay me for posts without dictating content and also for appearing on webinars and podcasts). They produce a number of products and software solutions in a no-code/low-code environment for customers. I picked up a phrase from them called “Gray Work”—the time lost when searching for data and information. This news announces the release of their second edition of the Gray Work research report – the “Gray Work Index” released April 16.

I first met Opto 22 back in the early 90s when I searched for a solution to connect one of my Allen-Bradley devices to a Modicon PLC and discovered their solid state relays. I could at least send digital signals. (Note: I didn’t get the job.) Later I stopped by their booth at a trade show where they wore black arm bands in memoriam for the demise of the PLC. A few years later I joined Control Engineering magazine and had many interviews.

Catching up on some back news. This is part of the flurry of news around chipmaker partnerships with computer hardware suppliers. This one is Advantech, a Taiwan-based computer manufacturer, and Qualcomm Technologies. I have not had a conversation with Advantech for years, but they’ve always been an interesting company not shy about touting their advances as you can see in their release.

I haven’t had word from ISA for quite some time. And especially the cybersecurity certification program. This news concerns GE Power Conversion’s HPCi Controller achieving cybersecurity Security Level 3 certificates of conformance. Congratulations.