Publication date: 
2022/09/13
The opportunity to consult the digital maturity of your own company with experts present taking a beer that a robot is tapping. All this in the backdrop of the Technology Island full of innovation. This is how the National Centre for Industry 4.0 will be presented for the first time at the International Engineering Fair in Brno this year. As part of the Digital Factory 2.0, it has installed a Technology Island, which will include a varied exhibition based on the installed 5G industrial network and the robotic applications that will use it. The National Centre for Industry 4.0 has invited partners T-Mobile, the RICAIP research centre for advanced industrial production and Česká spořitelna to help. On the digital stage, visitors can look forward to moderated discussions by leading Czech industry figures on currently pressing topics. What to invest in? And where to get the finance for it?

The display of the National Centre for Industry 4.0 (NCP) at the Engineering Fair takes into account the current situation. The focus is therefore on those solutions that have proven to be effective in practice as an aid in managing crises.  The focus is on increasing added value, working with data, strategic planning for company development, and sustainability - both material and energy. A sophisticated strategy together with technologies such as 5G, digital twin and smart applications built on data are the only way to combat the ever-increasing demands on quality, variability and speed of production and the cost of resources.

"The need to invest in digitalisation, robotics and automation - and at the same time in training, research and service quality - is now even more urgent than ever. Only in this way can Czech companies be more successful in creating higher added value, which will not only increase their competitiveness but also reduce the share of expenditure on increasingly expensive energy and materials. Digitalization is not a buzzword, but a way to survive," says Pavel Kračmár, member of the Board of Directors of Česká spořitelna.

 "In the few years we have been operating, we have earned the status of those who not only create and present visions for industrial production of the future, but also those who, thanks to their technological partners and state-of-the-art infrastructure, implement them and push them to the limits of the possible. This is confirmed by the current connection of NCP 4.0 - RICAIP - T-Mobile and Česká spořitelna," says Jaroslav Lískovec, Director of the National Centre for Industry 4.0 and continues: "At MSV, we are not just showing a 5G network, but already functional and practical applications that take advantage of the network's features such as high speed and stability. The infrastructure of testbeds for Industry 4.0 in Prague and Brno, funded by the Czech-German RICAIP centre, is critical for the introduction of innovations into production."

How can a robotic bartender save you in a crisis? The ease with which it can serve you a golden drink is inspiring. Deploying sophisticated machines in production can dramatically increase efficiency and reduce errors.  "The robotic bartender is not just a demonstration that even such a delicate job as tapping beer can be handled by today's robots with ease. This application is also a project in which we are monitoring the energy efficiency of taproom equipment," explains Pavel Burget, Director of Testbed for Industry 4.0 at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics at CTU. "We have also prepared a robot with manual guidance for robot-human cooperation in a 5G network environment, tailored for the MSV display."

"Through digitalization and automation, we have been trying to increase the competitiveness of Czech industry for a long time. Private campus 5G networks will not only help to simplify production processes and work with minimal errors, but also, for example, to optimize energy consumption to a minimum without affecting production or operations," says Luboš Lukasík, Director of the Commercial Enterprise Market Division of T-Mobile Czech Republic, adding: "The cooperation with the National Centre for Industry 4.0 is crucial in this respect, as the Testbed research environment can show companies practically what benefits a private 5G campus network can bring them. The Engineering Fair is thus a great opportunity to showcase 5G networks to a wider audience that doesn't have as many opportunities to see and try the technology in practice."

Contact person: 
Name: 
MGR. ALENA NOVÁKOVÁ
E-mail: 
ALENA.NOVAKOVA@CVUT.CZ