Automation Partnerships Drive Smarter Manufacturing Solutions

Innovative companies including ABB, Rockwell Automation, Inc. (RA), Augury, RiACT, and DOBOT Robotics (DR) are making strategic partnerships and other business agreements to provide software and hardware technologies that enhance machine health monitoring and maintenance, promote robotics and automation adoption, expand automation offerings for customers, enhance operational efficiencies, and improve sustainability.

RiACT’s RiFLEX software provides customers with ready-made templates for machine tending, pick-and-place, and palletizing applications. Image used courtesy of RiACT

Rockwell and Augury

RA is teaming up with Augury, a specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine health solutions for manufacturers, to advance machine health issue identification and optimize targeted maintenance responses. The key focus of their partnership is one particular technological synergy: Augury's Reliability Agent and Rockwell's AI-driven maintenance assistance, Fiix MAX. Launched this summer, Fiix MAX serves as a key addition to Rockwell’s Fiix Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). The system provides a centralized platform for asset monitoring, management, and optimization.

The Fiix MAX assistant serves as a key intermediary in the issue detection and maintenance execution process. An intelligent AI-based system is intended to improve uptime by monitoring and staying on top of maintenance issues as they arise. Both Fiix MAX and Augury’s Reliability Agent work in concert, with the latter technology assessing machine history, fault data, and target root causes. Augury’s agent also prioritizes maintenance tasks based on the importance of the machine in use and the severity of the issue. Every decision is backed by data, helping system operators and maintenance teams make informed decisions. Connecting with RA’s Fiix CMMS, Augury’s Reliability Agent helps convert recommended actions into physical, real-world orders.

Director of Production at ICL Iberia, Avi Boubil, shares his thoughts on implementing Augury’s industrial AI agents within the company’s potash mining operations. Video used courtesy of Augury

Promoting Accessible Automation

Another partnership to highlight is the unification of respective hardware and software technologies from DR and the deep-tech software startup, RiACT, developer of a universal operating system for industrial and collaborative robots, RiFLEX. The focus of the partnership is to bring together the hardware capabilities of DR’s collaborative robots (such as the CRH and CRA series) with the RiFLEX system.

Both BR and RiACT seek to democratize automation, promoting accessibility and adoption by reducing complexity in application sets and initial installation. RiFLEX offers users cross-brand compatibility, allowing one or more machines to interact and operate alongside one another. Users can reconfigure (using pre-built application templates) robots in RiFLEX to accommodate the movement/handling of new objects. For manufacturers, RiFLEX’s user-friendly interface cuts down on complex programming and saves time when it comes to getting bots on the factory floor. Integrators can benefit from the ability to connect multiple interfaces and robots via a single standard, enabling faster deployment.

DR and RiACT’s pre-integrated technologies are also hoped to lower the total cost of ownership and support production flexibility. By working together, DR and RiACT are seeking to make the deployment and reconfiguration of robots a more intuitive process, like using a tablet or mobile app.

ABB and Rotork

ABB has announced that it has agreed upon the terms of a recommended cash offer to acquire Rotork, a global supplier of industrial flow control equipment and solutions. By completing the industrial "sense-control-act" loop, ABB's acquisition of Rotork would consolidate the company's influence at the field-device layer. Rotork provides a highly competitive portfolio of smart electric actuators and flow control products, while ABB is currently a global innovator in sensing technology and control systems. For control engineers, this integration could signal a step toward a more cohesive automation stack, in which final control components are made to be more tightly integrated with the larger control ecosystem. By offering a single-vendor approach for the complete control loop, this synergy seeks to streamline the specification and commissioning of intricate infrastructure.

The merger will advance asset management and smart device diagnostics by leveraging the hardware and software technologies of both businesses. The agreement aims to improve lifecycle services and the visibility of industrial processes (in real time) by combining ABB's digital surveillance platforms with Rotork's smart field devices. Rotork will continue to focus on specialized engineering while leveraging ABB's global presence to encourage more intelligent and sustainable industrial workflows. It will operate as a distinct division within ABB's Automation segment.