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

  The first questions that people are asking right now are, “Do we face a near-recession in the near-future, or is talk of a recession (partly due to housing pressures) overblown? Will business spending slow by the end of the year?”

  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.

 Just over a year ago, I considered ISA to be a “melting iceberg.” Since then, the organization has been making good progress, and plans are crystallizing for new growth and success.

  Everyone knows that emerging countries—India, China and many others—are starting to grab significant market share in U.S. and world markets.

 It’s a new game out there. Don’t complain about it—join it and enjoy it.

 Think everything that can be automated has been automated? Think again

 Automation professionals are a pretty smart bunch of people. For decades, control system vendors packaged automation solutions in black-box configurations—open them and make changes at your own risk.

 The robots are out of control. As assembly line operators scurry to get out of their way, plant managers rush to the control room to take charge.

 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.

 While “Big Brother” may not be watching you, it’s a sure bet that someone is. Almost all aspects of our lives are exposed to scrutiny, from security cameras to Internet links to Google searches.

 This issue kicks off our second year of publishing Automation World. The first issue went into the mail in June 2003. That was preceded by four months of planning, arguing, cajoling, traveling and writing.

 The health of manufacturing companies is the top concern for us at Automation World. We not only look at manufacturing companies in the broad sense, but we are also concerned with the health of automation suppliers and the automation industry, which has an impact on the former.

 If you missed one of the most important documents on manufacturing to come out of the current government, you’re not alone. On January 16, the Bush administration unveiled its strategy to bolster the United States’ manufacturing sector in an 88-page report titled, “Manufacturing In America.” Unfortunately, the announcement, which was made by Secretary of Commerce Donald L.

 A couple of months ago, I attended a conference at which the keynote speaker, David Kepler, chief information officer of Dow Chemical Co., discussed the Law of Unintended Consquences as it relates to cybersecurity.

 GE Fanuc Automation, Charlottesville, Va.-based affiliate of GE Industrial Systems (www.gefanuc.com), has aggressively entered the embedded computing space and leveraged the technology to upgrade its industrial automation offering.

 The statistics are startling. Almost 2.3 million U.S. jobs were lost in manufacturing from July 2000 through April 2003. The pain is personal.