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SPS Italia 2020 will take place online from September 28 to 30, and ST will take part in the event to help attendees benefit from the latest trends. Experts will answer questions in English and Italian. Demo content will be in English. However, videos and narrated presentations about the demos will either have Italian audio or subtitles. It’s the fourth time we participate in this conference, which focuses on Industry 4.0 and, more specifically, industrial automation. And it’s a great way to reach out to the immense community of local engineers.
Industrial automation can be a tricky subject. It is easy to lose oneself in such a broad topic that covers all aspects of production and innovation. We thus thought The ST Blog could serve as a magnifying glass by highlighting some of the latest phenomenons that will be on display at SPS Italia 2020. It is also a way to help our community define what Industry 4.0 means today. As a result, we will shine a light on four trends: predictive maintenance, factory automation, power management, and distributed ledger technologies in IoT.
1. SPS Italia 2020: Predictive Maintenance or the Imperative of Launching Something
The organizers of SPS Italia 2020 held a roundtable on September 10 around predictive maintenance. And Antonio Cirone, Marketing Manager for South and East Europe at ST, took part in the discussions. During his interventions, Antonio reminded the audience that it is crucial to keep a global picture in mind. Too often, design leaders can focus on a particular technology and miss the forest for the trees. Predictive maintenance is still new, and many applications have yet to sprout. Nonetheless, managers must keep an eye on market trends and realize that an early start is traditionally more advantageous. Too often, projects get incredibly complex, which leads to delay. However, with a platform like the STWIN SensorTile node, teams can rapidly design a proof-of-concept and start coding. It’s by shipping that teams improve their products and their customers’ experience.
2. SPS Italia 2020: Factory Automation or the Importance of a Prototyping Platform
Another essential advantage of an event like SPS Italia 2020 is the ability to guide engineers. Many of them are looking for practical solutions to start their projects. Hence, despite the online nature of the event, we will showcase various demos around factory automation. For instance, we will demonstrate the X-NUCLEO-IOD02A1. The expansion card houses the L6364 dual-link SIO and IO-Link transceiver. Engineers can even pair the board with our X-NUCLEO-IKS02A1 sensor shield. The stack thus turns into a powerful prototyping platform for industrial applications. And since we provide an IO-Link stack, engineers can start experimenting with it in just minutes. It removes a lot of the frictions that tend to plague the start of a proof-of-concept.
3. SPS Italia 2020: Power Management or the Need to Anticipate the Future
Our presence is also highly symbolic because it stems from a desire to welcome the community into the latest innovations. Many new technologies are coming every year, but it can be challenging for thought-leaders to spot the most relevant. It is why we will have demos on our latest generation of Silicon Carbide devices. We recently held a webinar to help managers know when and how to use and choose these devices. We also outlined five questions decision-makers ought to answer with their teams. Hence, we will bring the same expertise and advice to our virtual visitors. Moreover, we will also showcase the STDES-VIENNARECT, a reference design for power factor correction modules. The platform relies in part on our SCTW35N65G2V SiC power MOSFET to show how it can benefit industrial applications.
4. SPS Italia 2020: Distributed Ledger Technologies or the Call to Adopt Cryptocurrencies in IoT
Finally, Beatrice Rossi, Software Application Engineer and System Research and Applications at ST, will offer a presentation on Enabling Distributed Ledger Technology on STM32. As a co-author of a foundational paper on the subject, she can offer unparalleled technical expertise. Beatrice will go over the typical embedded systems that use DLT to transmit information. She will also delve into the security challenges inherent to this type of application. Cryptocurrencies in IoT are highly popular, as we recently saw with the IOTA experiment on STM32. However, managers must transcend the hype and better understand the inherent technical challenges. Beatrice’s presentation will explain how to deal with memory constraints and how to secure applications. She will use practical examples so attendees can leave with the tools they need to jump on the DLT bandwagon.
