For corporate taxpayers, claims for Research and Development (R&D) tax credits are being regarded by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a “Tier One” priority under its new Strategic Initiative, meaning those claims will be carefully examined to determine their validity.

  “Knowledge was their treasure.” Indiana Jones

  We have not changed our outlook—the economy should avoid slipping into a broad-based recession for most, if not all, of 2008.

  In the past, corporate environmental plansvwere mostly cost burdens relating to regulatory compliance, with perhaps a touch of the public relations image of being socially responsible. In the past few years, this has changed dramatically—“green” is becoming a business profit opportunity.

 Future robot systems cannot be a mere extrapolation of today’s technology, but should generate whole new application arenas.

 When we started Automation World, my mantra was that we covered intelligent use of automation. Our marketing people devised the tag line “intelligence for the business of automation.” When I was meditating on the technology trends in automation along with this month’s theme, it struck me as interesting that intelligence was the recurring theme.

  Low power consumption is a critical product differentiator for all types of battery-powered wireless devices.

  While hedge funds and private equity investors who had taken advantage of the lending practices of the past few years may be reeling from the huge swings in the financial markets, the automation industry should be able to survive the credit squeeze.

 Radio frequency identification (RFID)-based asset tracking in a manufacturing setting may encompass automated tracking of fixed or capital assets, engineered assets such as process instrumentation, information technology (IT) assets or reusable containers.

 Sometimes, progress in the automation market takes a while.

  Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one strategy that addresses the growing need for more integration both inside and between global businesses. Its popularity has to some degree overshadowed industry standards, but in fact, SOA needs standards to be successful. Standards that define the communications between businesses and products are critical, but do not eliminate complex and expensive integration mappings, especially when multiple standards and products must be used. The Core Component standards effort of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) addresses this issue at the data level, and is helping to unify data models.

  The industrial automation environment holds the potential for installation of wireless products throughout a factory or plant to yield vast arrays of information that can improve operations and profitability. Already widely deployed in commercial and business applications, industrial wireless adoption has been stalled, purportedly because process control users are slow to change and are paranoid about security. The real reasons for slow introduction are a combination of old-paradigm thinking, compounded by paralysis analysis through standards committees.

 “The chip combines some old, familiar features with some new and pretty innovative features.”

  People who think about technology always wonder what “the next big thing” will be.

  The industry is moving from connecting sensors to connecting information.

 Automation, flexibility and optimization will define the factory of the future. So said presenters at the ARC Forum, held last month in Orlando, where “Next Generation Manufacturing” was the topic.

 Electric power supply is the single most difficult constraint for industrial wireless sensor design. Present-day commercial products rely on chemical batteries.

 The latest generation of machine vision technology offers significant benefits for applications outside the semiconductor industry— a primary past beneficiary of huge investments in the technology.

 Security assessments of plant networks and audits of production equipment reveal that manufacturers are using a wide range of methods to support remote access to their equipment.

 Have automation vendors hit the wall, when it comes to technology innovation?