If you think the appetite for smart buildings is limited, you might want to reconsider your position. Thanks to a rapidly growing urban population and increased environmental regulation, operational efficiency is getting more attention. The Internet of Things (IoT) and other advances in technology are key enablers of this efficiency. Gartner research shows IoT can [...]
With all of the recent advancements in automation whether due to robots or computerization/artificial intelligence, how will the workforce be affected? There seems to be a difference in opinion depending upon whose research you consider and how the research was conducted. For example, some research uses an occupation-based approach to gauge impact while others use an [...]
Smart manufacturing and the fourth industrial revolution (a.k.a. industry 4.0) have been mentioned in public forums and the media quite a bit. This month, President Obama announced that a Los Angeles-based team was selected to lead a new smart manufacturing hub bankrolled with $140 million in public-private funds. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been talking [...]
How secure is your industrial control system? According to Reuters, a U.S. government cybersecurity official warned that there has been an increase in attacks that penetrate industrial control system networks over the past year. Industrial control systems are computers that control operations of industrial processes, from energy plants and steel mills to cookie factories and [...]
Until recently, building automation, lighting controls, fire safety and other base building systems were designed to support a single building service and operated independently on proprietary networks and cables. As Green-Buildings.com explains in a recent article, buildings continue to evolve in intelligence. So, it’s becoming more common to see building automation systems incorporate the control [...]
According to Headwaters, an investment bank in Denver, the $85 billion sensor market has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 7.5 percent over the past three years. This market is expected to grow to more than $115 billion by 2019. Nowhere is demand more significant than in the industrial space, [...]
You may have noticed the term “smart building” coming up more frequently in business conversations and publications these days. According to the Continental Automated Buildings Association, an intelligent (aka “smart”) building applies technologies to improve the building’s environment and functionality for occupants and tenants while controlling costs. Is a smart building a pipe dream, or [...]
How likely is it that robots and automation will eliminate the need for members of the workforce? As companies think more about how to increase productivity, robots and automation come to mind which have the potential to impact workers. The application of this technology ranges from industrial robots that generate high ROI in automotive and [...]
Transparency Market Research released a new report titled, Industrial Controls and Robotics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2013 – 2019. The findings in this report provide some noteworthy statistics. The global industrial controls and robotics industry was worth $102.02 billion in 2012, and it is projected to reach $147.7 [...]