2 July 2015, 08:56
As part of the Pioneers Festival 2015 in Vienna, Austria, a strategic cooperation was announced between KUKA, a leading supplier of robot-based automation, and TTTech, one of the world’s leading real-time technology companies. KUKA and TTTech will jointly invest in real-time technology platforms and start-ups in order to implement Industry 4.0 solutions even more quickly. The first joint investment by KUKA and TTTech is in a Silicon Valley start-up with a focus on real-time cloud computing.
Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution – with the goal of implementing the intelligent factory of the future. The realization of Industry 4.0 requires the connection of cloud-based IT infrastructure with real-time control systems. KUKA and TTTech are addressing these requirements by joining forces in a strategic cooperation.
“The cooperation with TTTech underscores our strategic goal of playing a leading role in the implementation of Industry 4.0,” says Dr. Till Reuter, CEO of KUKA AG. “Together with TTTech, we are investing in real-time platforms and cloud-based technology start-ups in order to seamlessly link cloud computing with our real-time critical control infrastructure. Our customers will profit not only from the connection of intelligent automation solutions with real-time and security expertise through increased up time, but also from higher productivity and the continued development of innovative security architectures.”
KUKA and TTTech are already currently collaborating in industry consortia. For example, they are working together on the expansion of the industrial communication standard OPC UA (IEC 62541) to include the new standard IEEE 802.1 TSN (Time Sensitive Networks).
A vital component of this collaboration with innovative start-ups is the “open innovation” concept. This allows KUKA and TTTech to take advantage of external and internal idea generation, innovations and market access.
“We see open innovation as a key concept for the establishment of Industry 4.0. Since the Pioneers Festival is an excellent platform for this concept, it was an ideal context to announce this strategic cooperation with KUKA,” says Georg Kopetz, co-founder and executive board member at TTTech. “Thanks to the joint investment in start-ups and the rapid development in innovative real-time control platforms that will be possible through this, KUKA and TTTech are further strengthening their areas of expertise and utilizing the positive market dynamic to even greater advantage for their customers through the implementation of Industry 4.0.”
“The cooperation between KUKA and TTTech is a perfect example of the emergence of the ‘true economy’, where entrepreneurial investors cooperate with innovative start-ups. Established companies and start-ups work together in the true economy to make scalable innovations possible and thus accelerate the implementation of the industrial internet through entrepreneurial growth,” states Andreas Tschas, co-founder & CEO of Pioneers.
The Pioneers Festival in Vienna is one of Europe’s largest conferences, bringing together start-ups with established companies, media outlets and investors.