May 24, 2016
Fog computing is a key enabler for the Industrial Internet/Industry 4.0. and thus an essential building block for the intelligent factory of the future. The investment and related joint development programs blend together Nebbiolo’s fog computing know-how with the leading real-time communication platforms from TTTech to enable KUKA, a global innovation leader of Industrie 4.0, seamlessly linking cloud services with its real-time critical control infrastructure.
This strategic cooperation between the three companies will result in a portfolio of “fog enabled” products and services that act as a bridge between the world of IT and the world of industrial machinery. Fog computing is built on many of the same concepts as cloud computing, but applied to the more compact and highly robust embedded systems that are found on the manufacturing floor. The combination of fog computing with real-time communication standards such as OPC UA and Deterministic Ethernet including IEEE TSN now enables customers to freely, but securely, access and use data from machines in ways that have never been possible before.
The Nebbiolo real-time fog computing platform was successfully demonstrated live at the world's largest industrial fair in Hannover this April, linking KUKA robots with a large number of machines from several of its industrial partners across the fair and supporting fleet management, data acquisition, software upgrades and other advanced cloud-based services. Nebbiolo Technologies also participated in a TTTech demonstration of real-time OPC UA over TSN at the Industrial Internet Consortium booth.
Partner Statements:
Dr. Christian Schlögel, CTO at KUKA:
“We believe that fog computing is one essential element for Industrie 4.0, because a scalable middleware layer is required. The customers are understanding, that IoT starts at the edge. Nebbiolo Technologies enables us to provide a real-time foglayer to offer a complete cloud stack from machine to the fog to the cloud. We already presented first results about this collaboration to our customers at Hannover Fair with a big success.”
Georg Kopetz, co-founder and member of the executive board at TTTech:
“We are incredibly excited to co-invest with KUKA in Nebbiolo Technologies, a company founded by some of the leading innovators in the fast emerging field of fog computing and with a high market potential. TTTech’s brand promise is a continuous commitment to innovation for our leading industrial customers. By integrating TTTech’s advanced real-time and safety technologies with the fog computing know-how from Nebbiolo, we can offer together with our strong partner KUKA a unique new way to capitalize on the concepts of Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT.”
Flavio Bonomi, CEO and co-founder at Nebbiolo Technologies:
“We are absolutely convinced that the only way to inject bold innovation into the Industrial Automation domain, particularly as a young Silicon Valley start-up, is to do it in partnership with the most open and innovative established players in that field. Consequently, we feel proud and blessed by our partnership with KUKA and TTTech, since they are perfectly positioned to channel our technology, in the spirit of Industry 4.0, towards the evolution of the industrial floor but also towards the future of the automobile and transportation.”
