New Eyes for Precision Machining

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving changes in all industries. In the manufacturing sector, the convergence of physical and digital worlds is giving rise to the smart factory and a new generation of industrial machinery. Known as Industry 4.0, this new era is connecting the IoT and cyber-physical systems to streamline manufacturing and business processes, improve versatility and precision, and reduce lead times and waste.

Turning a traditional factory into a smart factory to achieve these advantages, however, presents multiple challenges. This article describes a PC-based IoT controller that runs on-machine vision solutions and performs IoT gateway services. We look at how this controller delivers new levels of performance and agility to machine vision. We explain the role of real-time industrial Ethernet technologies in ensuring the smooth coordination of multiple control nodes. We discuss how open standards and pre-integrated CODESYS SoftMotion CNC RTE and NEXCOM nexECM software accelerate the development and deployment of multi-function machinery. And we investigate how the performance capabilities of the 6th generation Intel^® Core™ processor product family enable a single IoT controller to perform so many tasks.

The print edition of this article was published in the 13th edition of Intel's Embedded Innovator Magazine (pp. 36-40).