The AX Movement Insights platform integrates AI with upkeep workflows, enabling distribution and achievement operations to foretell factors of failure, plan interventions, and scale back unplanned downtime. | Supply: Festo
Whereas automation guarantees a future the place robots can do work across the clock, seven days per week, with out tiring, downtime attributable to surprising points nonetheless holds us again from that future. Festo this week launched its new Festo AX Movement Insights platform, which it stated can scale back unplanned downtime in robotics.
The platform combines AI-based predictive analytics with upkeep workflows, which Festo stated can scale back unplanned downtime throughout conveyors, sortation programs, palletizers, gantries, and material-handling tools.
This newest platform works with Festo’s current software program lineup. Festo AX Movement Insights Electrical software program displays servo drives and electrical axes. AX Movement Insights Pneumatic software program offers situation monitoring for pneumatic cylinders.
AX Knowledge Entry serves as the info layer that makes operational expertise (OT) knowledge accessible for data expertise (IT) evaluation and integration. Collectively, Festo stated the platforms allow achievement facilities to scale predictive upkeep capabilities as wants develop reasonably than committing to a single, monolithic software program rollout.
Festo stated the platform offers versatile deployment choices that assist on-premises and cloud-based environments. This enables achievement and distribution facilities to align predictive upkeep with current IT and operational necessities whereas sustaining management over how and the place knowledge is collected and used.
Festo is a worldwide producer of pneumatic and electromechanical programs, elements, and controls for course of and industrial automation. The firm has subsidiaries in additional than 60 nations, and a wide-ranging 36,000-product catalog.
Movement Insights appears for issues, then takes motion to forestall them
Movement Insights identifies the place issues are more likely to happen. Smartenance AX, Festo’s upkeep administration software program, is the hyperlink to motion. Smartenance AX turns predictive perception into deliberate upkeep by directing crews to the most probably level of failure as an alternative of reacting after a machine stops.
It combines asset monitoring, upkeep planning, and a digital machine logbook, permitting situation knowledge from Movement Insights to set off focused upkeep duties. Along with Smartenance AX, Movement Insights may also be built-in with different upkeep administration programs, permitting situation knowledge to tell current workflows the place clients desire to maintain their present platforms.
AX Movement Insights Pneumatic offers common situation monitoring for pneumatic cylinders from all producers with out requiring extra sensors, {hardware} adjustments, or mechanical modifications. The software program detects anomalies and efficiency drift in pneumatic movement, figuring out not solely impending failures, but additionally underperformance that may result in inconsistent dealing with, elevated air consumption, and throughput loss.
AX Knowledge Entry connects automation programs to enterprise IT environments by making operational knowledge accessible for evaluation past the management layer. By bridging OT and IT, AX Knowledge permits achievement facilities to correlate movement efficiency, upkeep exercise, and vitality use with broader operational metrics.
Festo plans for scale and straightforward deployment
AX Movement Insights software program is scalable by design. Machine builders and system integrators buy licenses just for the features and property they want, with the flexibility to develop protection over time as automation necessities evolve.
Machine builders and system integrators can incorporate AX movement insights software program into their after-sales assist contracts as a value-added service for his or her clients.
AX Movement Insights Electrical integrates instantly with Festo CMMT multiprotocol servo drives and electrical axes used all through achievement middle automation programs. Festo multiprotocol servo drives are appropriate with the main industrial communication protocols, permitting a single drive platform to function throughout combined PLC and community environments.
This simplifies standardization, reduces {hardware} variation in stock, and helps system integrators fee and assist automation programs extra effectively, Festo claimed. The corporate plans to incorporate assist for added manufacturers of servo drives and axes.
