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02/2020 dialog THE TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE Future Hub Hannover Messe and Industry 4.0 Product testing & Certification The VDE-Institute has hundred years of experience in product safety. Trust in products with the VDE-Mark. § Building and supply technologies § Cables and cords § Commercial appliances § Components and installation technology § Consumer electronics § Household appliances § Industry 4.0 § Information technology § Lighting § Medical technology § Mobility and charging infrastructure § Power tools and garden appliances § Smart Home / Smart Living § Smart Metering www.vde.com/institute EDITORIAL No future without investments Germany is still one of the leaders in production and automation technology. There are still plenty of hidden champions among the medium-sized enterprises in our country. However, Germany risks losing this position along the path to the industrial production of the future. In the future, an economy’s ability to perform will depend greatly on the degree of digitiza- tion and personal attitudes towards this. The US and China have a clear lead here, with huge investments being made in digitization topics such as AI research and the associated startup culture. The 5G race has already reached such speeds that it’s going to take a great leap for Germany to catch up. This is not the way to achieve technological sovereignty! So what do we need to do to retain or win back our sovereignty in the field of technology? Solutions include massive investments in training and further education that are unaffected by lobby- “In the future, an economy’s ability ing and in results-oriented research funding. Politics and busi- to perform will depend greatly on ness need to step up their efforts and pull in the same direction its degree of digitization” instead of complaining. This is not the way to work as a team to- wards a common goal! One of the most critical components for successful digitization is microelectronics. Master- ing the entire value creation chain in this field is an essential prerequisite for claiming a strong technological position on the global market. Chip design and production must take place in Europe – there can be no avoiding “Europe first”. If we give up control of this cross-domain knowledge, the only thing left for us will be a role as a dependent importer of key technolo- gies. This is not the way to ensure innovative leadership! And another thing: Schools, universities, training and further education institutions need newly developed, flexible curricula, STEM didactics, and modern teaching methods. We must not allow learners to be the victims of curricula that have been due for reform for years. This is not the way to show educational leadership! These are just a few reflections on urgently needed measures that would allow Germany and “Made in Germany” to shine again. After all, we are currently experiencing what mo- nopolistic dependence truly means in these times of the coronavirus. It has already caused the postponement of the Hannover Messe – the focus of this issue – at short notice. Happy reading and stay healthy! Yours truly, PHOTOS: COVER: PINKYPILLS – ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; PAGE 03: VDE PAGE 03: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; PINKYPILLS – COVER: PHOTOS: Ansgar Hinz, VDE CEO 03 CONTENTS 12 Future-oriented: The international industry will gather at the Hannover Messe under the slogan “Industrial Transformation” to share ideas in various future hubs about the mega-trends in automation and energy technology en route to Industry 4.0. 32 27 Thumbs down: Until a few years ago, tech companies were seen as symbols of the Gameplay through thought control: The NextMind electrodes attached to the back American entrepreneurial spirit. Today, though, criticism is growing. of the head measure brain activity and translate them into computer commands. 04 TITLE 12 HANNOVER MESSE Once a year, everything at the Hannover Messe revolves around automation and energy technol- ogy. The new focus topics at this TOPICS year’s trade show are the new mobile communications standard 5G and sustainability in the sense 27 CES LAS VEGAS of environmental and climate The Consumer Electronics Show SPECTRUM protection. in Las Vegas presents major tech- nology trends as well a vast range 18 STARTUPS of curiosities. 06 DISPATCHES Industry 4.0 poses major chal- Artificial intelligence/automotive lenges for many companies. Co- 30 NETWORK TECHNOLOGY industry/algorithms/rail transport/ operating with innovative startups It doesn’t always have to be 5G. deep learning/sensors/energy storage/ appears to be a clever strategy Alternative network technologies battery production/electromobility that promises success. such as LoRa (Long Range) can be the better choice for certain 07 PERSONALIA 22 3D PRINTING application areas. Thomas Michael Koller/Hildegard To fully exploit the potential of Müller/Lena Müller/Stefanie 3D printing for industrial manu- 32 CORPORATE POWER Müller/Fralett Suarez Sandoval facturing processes and switch to Technology giants such as this production track, we need to Facebook, Amazon, and Google 08 CHECKING IN think additively – right from the are finding themselves under Is the development of the Gaia X design phase. increasing scrutiny from both data cloud and the underlying politicians and antitrust authori- initiative to create a separate, secure, 24 PARTNER COUNTRY ties – even on their home market and trustworthy data infrastructure Indonesia, South-East Asia’s larg- in the United States. for Europe the right path to take? est economy, is marching boldly into the future. Based on the 34 CYBERSECURITY 11 INTERVIEW slogan “Making Indonesia 4.0”, Europe’s largest research center The engineering and IT company President Joko Widodo has set for applied cybersecurity takes its OSB maintains a unique, highly out an ambitious program. name from Athena, the goddess creative startup culture. Board of of wisdom, strategy, and warfare. Directors member Andreas Rottmair A visit to the site in Darmstadt, explains why this calls for entrepre- Germany. neurial spirit. VDE GROUP 38 VDE GROUP 42 MEET THE VDE PHOTOS: PAGE 04: DEUTSCHE MESSE AG (TOP), ALPHASPIRIT – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (BOTTOM LEFT), NEXTMIND (BOTTOM RIGHT) LEFT), NEXTMIND (BOTTOM (BOTTOM ALPHASPIRIT – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (TOP), MESSE AG 04: DEUTSCHE PAGE PHOTOS: 05 SPECTRUM AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Smart carmakers Good news for the automotive industry: it has the edge over other sectors in the race to build smart factories, and can look forward to increased productivity. In the next three years, the global automotive industry plans to in- crease its investment in the building of intelligent factories by over 60 percent. This was one finding of a study by Capgemini. Build- ing these smart factories could enable productivity increases to the tune of more than $160 billion. According to the plans of automobile manufacturers, 44 per- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE cent of factories are to be converted into intelligent plants. This puts the industry ahead of other sectors. The discrete manufac- People made of turing sector (excluding automotive) plans to increase its share of intelligent factories to 42 percent by 2025, followed by the pro- bits and bytes cess industry with 41 percent, the energy and utility industry with 40 percent, and the consumer goods industry with 37 percent. The Samsung subsidiary STAR “The automotive companies have made more progress than Labs has developed digital avatars expected on their smart factory initiatives in the past two years that are astoundingly human-like – and are now planning on pushing ahead even faster,” says Henrik but for now they are still confined Ljungström, Executive Vice President for Automotive & Manu- to screens. facturing at Capgemini in Germany. “However, this also means that the automotive sector is now facing gaps in its talent pool, in They look like real people and behave its technological strategy, and on the issue of scaling that need to like us too: the “Neon” digital avatars be filled. That is the only way for them to capitalize fully on the developed by STAR Labs. The com- advantages.” pletely computer-generated figures The study surveyed 100 managers from large automotive man- appear on a screen and can reputed- ufacturers and suppliers from 11 countries with revenue of more ly react independently in real time, in- than $1 billion. The countries included Germany, the United cluding the ability to show emotions States, Great Britain, France, India, and Japan. and intelligence. According to STAR Labs, the avatars can answer questions within milliseconds. For now, users still need a tablet in order to commu- nicate with these simulated people. In the future, though, this will be possible through spoken language. STAR Labs still uses human mod- els to generate the figures. The models are only scanned once, though, while everything else is created digitally. The Neon avatars could soon serve as vir- tual assistants, such as in customer service. 06 PERSONALIA +++ 1 THOMAS MICHAEL KOLLER has been directing coupled equipment. +++ 4 STEFANIE MÜLLER also re- VDE’s strategic and operative marketing, brand, and com- ceived a prize for her dissertation on the systematization munications activities since the beginning of the year. He and identification of interference sources and occurrences succeeded Walter Börmann, who has retired. Mr. Koller in historical video documentation. +++ 5 FRALETT joined us from Siemens, where, as Senior Vice President of SUAREZ SANDOVAL was also recognized for her disser- Corporate Communications, he led the strategic realign- tation, in which she demonstrated the suitability of ment of brand management in preparation for an IPO in ad- magneto- inductive waves for efficient wireless energy dition to other responsibilities. +++ 2 HILDE- transmission with free positioning of the receiver. GARD MÜLLER is the new president of the Ger- man Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). 1 2 3 She has taken over from Bernhard Mattes, who stepped down from the position at the end of 2019. Ms. Müller was previously COO for Grid & Infrastructure at the energy provider innogy SE.