This year's winner of the prestigious international Hermes Award, presented annually at Hannover Fair to acknowledge outstanding innovations pioneered by individual companies, is Bosch Rexroth for its Open Core Engineering project.
The technology unites the previously separate worlds of programmable logic controllers (PLC) and information technology (IT). Bosch Rexroth has created a seamless solution based on open standards, software tools, function packages and the Open Core Interface. Traditional PLC-based engineering can now be combined with the enhanced capabilities of high-level programming languages.
In addition, innovative functions can be run as native applications on external devices such as smartphones. Via these native apps, it is possible to read and write data directly to the controllers. This gives OEMs an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors by creating customized software functions without the direct support of the respective controller manufacturers.
Karl Tragl, the company’s CEO, said that the Open Core technology is essential in this new world of converged classical IT, automation software, the Internet of Things, and services. “Our genes are open interfaces,” he said, “so this technology just follows along.”
Following up on conversations of prior years about the benefits of combining hydraulic and electric motion in a single package, he said that implementing this technology has proven to provide a 1.5-year payback. The combination is different enough from either hydraulic or electric only, that the company has organized the combined product as a separate category.
Jochen Köckler, member of the managing board at Deutche Messe AG, acknowledged Bosch Rexroth as an internationally successful manufacturer of high-tech products. “For many years the company has exhibited at Hannover Messe in order to present its dynamic innovation processes to decision-makers,” he said. “The award-winning solution makes a major contribution to ‘Integrated Industry’ and will accelerate the trend towards networked industrial production.”
The Hermes Award was presented April 7 during Hannover Fair’s opening ceremony by Johanna Wanka, federal minister of education and research. “Industry is on the threshold to a fourth industrial revolution,” Wanka emphasized in her speech. “The Open Core Engineering project is an outstanding example of the potential of Industry 4.0 for innovative and efficient communication in the field of production.”
This is the first time the Hermes Award has singled out a software product, according to Wolfgang Wahlster, chairman of the jury and CEO of the Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). “In the context of Industry 4.0, more and more factory automation functions are being transferred to software,” he noted. “The award-winning solution will simplify the migration from today’s factory-based world to the Internet of Things. Open standards will ensure that the digital product memory will be available everywhere in real time.”
During Bosch Rexroth’s press conference, Tragl emphasized that the company still invests 10 percent of its sales in facility expansion and R&D. Energy efficiency gained by combining hydraulic and electric motion control has been a company strategy for some time. This year, Tragl talked about "4E"—energy system design, efficient components, energy recovery and energy on demand.
Citing Hannover Fair’s theme of "integrated industry," Tragl touted the new Open Core technology that opens access to Bosh Rexroth's controller core to allow direct access with classic IT programming languages. Among other things, this will allow manufacturers of smartphone apps to get access to real-time data.
