News

Mälardalen University now offers companies and organizations within the public sector the opportunity to borrow a researcher with cutting-edge expertise for a day. The university wants to create long-term collaborations and increase the innovation and competitiveness of the companies that participate. Now they lend researchers within embedded systems.

In order to drastically reduce emissions and reach the sustainability goals, major changes are required, not least in industry and the transport sector. Therefore, through Swedish IndTech, we arranged a seminar with world-leading industry leaders: Robert Falck and Andreas Follér as well as leading policy actors in the USA: Alyssa Haerle and Jennifer Gerbi.

“Collaboration is the new innovation” said a wise person once, and this is so true! During the Automation Summit conference, it became more transparent than ever that innovation takes place through inter-active collaboration and that the time when research and innovation took place behind closed doors is long gone.

With a shortage of skills and a large recruitment need, capacity management in both the healthcare sector and industry has become increasingly crucial. In a unique project, the two widely different sectors meet to exchange experiences and learn from one another.

The Scanautomatic trade fair has drawn to a close and here we summarise an event full of energy, new technology and great potential for Swedish industry. A big thank you to all members and collaborative partners – new and old acquaintances for inspiring and informative days in Gothenburg at our IndTech Lounge stand.

This year’s winners of the Automation Student competition are Anna Bengtsson and Sofie Nilsson from the Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering programme at the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University. In their degree project they have investigated how wireless regulation can be improved by modifying the control algorithm and basing the communication of control and measuring signals on events instead of fixed time intervals.

On October 4, we arranged the Automation Expo at T2 College in Skellefteå. In addition to the exhibition and mingling, the visitors were able to take part in short presentations in areas such as robotics, competence , production and additive manufacturing. Thanks to all exhibitors and visitors for an inspiring day!

On August 23, a webinar about Quantum computing was held. We talked about how quantum computers can create benefit and within just a few years revolutionize the industry. In five years, experts believe the world will know what actors and what countries will be forefront in the field of Quantum Computing. Since 2018, the investments into Quantum Computing startups in Silicon Valley have sky rocked.

Helena Blackbright is just as her name reveals – really bright! She has a PhD in innovation management and is the link between the Schools and the private sector at Automation Region. Thanks to a large international network, she conducts research on the conditions for innovation and its relationship with new technology.

Swedish industry is facing a digital transformation that will require extensive investments in the coming years. In a chronicle at edig.nu Automation Region’s Process Manager, Catarina Berglund, points out four areas that require special efforts and focus from politicians.

Read the chronicle at edig.se (in Swedish) →

From her family home in Östersund to a student apartment in Linköping and then she moved to Västerås and Automation Region. Her career has never been mapped out or planned, it has instead been a few coincidences along the way and her desire to learn which has led Elin to where she is today.

Skill, courage and a degree of humility are needed when automation solutions will be implemented in a completely new industry. This is something that Science Park Borås is aware of and the companies they collaborate with. Together with Automation Region, they are investigating which types of technology and knowledge from industry can be applied to the textile industry.

In September, Elin Glimberg will join our team at Automation Region. Elin will take on the role of Project Manager for developing events and content. Her duties will be to work with strategic communication and follow-up on the effects of our activities and projects.

Swedish industry is facing a digital transformation that will require extensive investments in the coming years. In a debate article in the magazine Ny Teknik, Automation Region and PiiA point out four areas that require special efforts and focus from politicians.

Read the debate article at Ny Teknik (in Swedish) →

On May 25, a first Automation Expo was held after the pandemic. Automation Region's member companies demonstrated smart products and services in automation, robotics and production technology at Kungsleden's Sports Center in Västerås. Organizers for the day were Automation Region and Mälardalen University.

In the newly published book Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Management, international experts give their views on how AI affects how companies and organizations do business and innovate. Helena Blackbright, innovation researcher at Mälardalen University and project manager at Automation Region, and Stoyan Tanev, professor at Carleton University in Canada, are editors of the book.

“AI technology is now so useful that it is expected to have a major impact on the pace of innovation in many different sectors”, says Helena Blackbright. “It enables radically renewed processes for value creation, at the same time as more and more tasks can be automated and machines begin to surpass human cognitive ability.”

Together with PiiA and GTI (Green Transition Initiative), Automation Region has started the IndTech GTI Program. The purpose is to accelerate the green transition in Swedish industry in collaboration with forefront tech companies in Silicon Valley. During the autumn, a series of talks will be held with selected organizations in Sweden and the USA to identify strategies and working methods.

Automation Region, the strategic innovation program PiiA and Process IT at Luleå University of Technology have been awarded a Seal of Excellence for the work of establishing an innovation environment for IndTech. Seal of Excellence is the European Commission’s quality award for high-class applications.

It's time to apply to the Automation Student competition, which nominates the best automation related degree project of the year. The winning entry is rewarded with a scholarship of SEK 20,000. In the photo Moutoz Abdalrahman and Alistair Brice who won the 2021 edition of the competition with their degree project where they created an automatic assembly line for a pedal car.

Robotlyftet was initiated by the Swedish Government to support automation and robotisation in small and medium-sized industrial companies. The programme started in 2019 and ended in December 2021. An independent evaluation shows that Robotlyftet has had a good effect and contributed to increasing companies' investments in automation and robotisation.

During the year, Automation Region participates in the planning and execution of two important trade fairs, Elmia Automation in the spring and Scanautomatic and ProcessTeknik in the autumn. In addition, our own conference Automation Summit is making a comeback in November with an event in four different cities.

Automation Region is currently strengthening its national focus by establishing a regional node for the Västerbotten and Norrbotten provinces based in Skellefteå. The main purpose is to connect leading industrial environments to promote Swedish competitiveness.

The person responsible for operations at the new node is Ulf Olofsson, Business Development Manager at Automation Region with considerable experience from development projects in automation and digitisation.

Competence is currently developing a digital tool that visualises the labour market – how it is structured and where the jobs are located. The content is based on the data that professionals submit about their own professions. The tool will be web-based and open for use. The user will answer questions in order to be matched against a profession or industry. In addition, the description of the various professions will include a section on labour market demand.

Members, support organizations and partners of Automation Region have the opportunity to publish their upcoming activities on our website. Next three activities in chronological order are displayed on the start page and all activities are in a calendar under the activities tab.

This year’s Automation Student competition has been decided. Ajna Hodzic and Dzenita Skulj have explored, in their prizewinning degree project, how data analysis and machine learning can reduce costs, predict maintenance and improve efficiency in rail transport. The degree project, Data Driven Anomaly Control Detection for Railway Propulsion Control Systems, has been carried out at Bombardier Transportation in Västerås, where the authors have investigated different methods for monitoring and analysing data collected during the propulsion of trains. Two machine learning techniques – monitored and unmonitored learning – are used to detect deviations and predict potential faults.

Throughout Sweden, innovation environments are established with the mission of promoting increased collaboration between researchers, SME’s and industry. Through meeting places and activities, the innovation environments contribute to faster growth in Swedish companies. Now, four strong innovation environments come together to optimize B2B networking and development in a pilot project.