Achieving Greater Flexibility with Agnostic Automation Solutions
No matter what sector of the manufacturing or industrial field you’re in, the focus on automation means that AI integration is likely to impact your work if it hasn’t done so already. Trade shows throughout the year such as Automate 2024 reflected the many ways in which the advancing technology is being used. As Machine Design summarized, generative AI tools were presented “to extend capabilities in shop floor predictive monitoring, visual object inspection, work cell design validation and 3D perception for mobile robots.” Another development shaping the future of operations is agnostic automation.
Agnostic Automation
Agnostic automation can come in different forms, but one example of an area it is driving is integrated robot control. As Machine Design highlighted, one vendor at Automate 2024 demonstrated its “agnostic capability by integrating cobots from different manufacturers in a 7th axis application.” Essentially, seventh-axis robots are able to move in more directions, which speaks to agnostic automation’s emphasis on flexibility.
Unlike traditional AI systems, agnostic automation solutions are not tied to specific technologies or providers. “By adopting agnostic AI, businesses can focus on developing and fine-tuning smaller, more specialized models,” writes Kasia Borowska for AI Business. This flexibility is set to affect many technologies that touch the industrial sector, including cloud computing. Experts predict that the increased integration of language-agnostic platforms will support the evolution of more flexible hybrid cloud infrastructures.
Support for the Growing Automation Market
The flexibility that agnostic automation solutions offer to industrial settings better prepares them to further adapt to the increasingly digital environment. While Rockwell Automation’s “State of Smart Manufacturing Report” concluded that “91% of global manufacturers expect to use AI and ML in advanced analytics in their work” in the UK alone, another report, “Integrating Data and Processes Across the Product Digital Thread,” found that a significant gap exists between the want to adopt digitally-driven strategies and the understanding of how to do so. Because agnostic automation solutions are poised to make it easier to integrate such technologies, it also has the potential to help industries within the sector address this challenge.
Sources
● “Automate 2024 Wrap-up: Shifting the Robotics Paradigm to Flexible, Agnostic Solutions” - Rehana Begg, Machine Design
● “Agnostic AI Solutions Support Flexible Implementation” - Kasia Borowska, AI Business
https://aibusiness.com/nlp/agnostic-ai-solutions-support-flexible-implementation#close-modal
● “The future of hybrid cloud: What to expect in 2024 and beyond” - George Lawton, TechTarget
https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/feature/The-future-of-hybrid-cloud-What-to-expect
● “Rockwell Automation: ‘State of Smart Manufacturing Study’” - Helen Sydney Adams, Manufacturing Digital
● “Survey: Integrating Data and Applications Across the Product Digital Thread Is Important or Critical” - Automation.com