Automation and Power Acquisitions and Growth

Acquisitions in the automation space have hit early and often so far this year. ABB is continuing to fill out its portfolio in power distribution and smart grid areas. It's made so many moves in the past month, I can barely keep up. Adept Robotics surprisingly has entered the acquisition game expanding its food automation portfolio. The third acquisition bolsters a company in training for process operators. Then GE Intelligent Platforms acquired SmartSignal in what I regard as a surprise. GE investments that touch on my coverage area have been part of GE Energy. This is the first GE IP investment in quite some time.

I'm not surprised at all by the ABB acquisitions. They fill out a strategic direction that has been publicized. Adept has had corporate financial problems for quite some time. It's good to see that evidently the financial situation has stabilized and that it has money for an acquisition. It's also heartening to see GE invest in the automation arm.

In the first *ABB* acquisition, it announced it has agreed to acquire the business of Insert Key Solutions (IKS), a privately owned specialist software provider, adding IKS' solutions to its recently acquired Ventyx software portfolio. The move is said to create a comprehensive solution set for asset and work management, maintenance optimization, and equipment reliability.

Based in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in the United States, IKS specializes in delivering software solutions for process improvement, increased equipment reliability and operational performance in power generation plants, and transmission and distribution networks. The company has an extensive customer base in the thermal and nuclear power sectors, and a staff of 50 people.

ABB plans to retain the IKS team and will place IKS executives in key roles within the Ventyx team responsible for Asset Suite, eSOMS (asset and operations management software), and IKS solutions.

The second acquisition is Obvient Strategies Inc., a privately owned specialist software provider, also adding Obvient's solutions to the Ventyx software portfolio. Obvient has offices near Atlanta, Georgia, in the US. The transaction is said to further enhance ABB's software offering for asset management, power distribution automation and smart grid applications.

Obvient offers software and services for industries and utilities with geographically dispersed assets. The company's business intelligence software collects, analyzes and reports critical real-time as well as periodic information. This supports decision making and helps users to optimize operations. As well as helping to manage complex operations, the solutions also reduce operating costs and improve asset reliability. Obvient's products compile the power transmission and distribution sector's best business practices into prepackaged solutions. This enables companies to monitor and manage their distributed assets more effectively, on a real-time and event-driven basis.

ABB plans to retain the Obvient team and place its executives in key roles within the Ventyx product management organization. The company has offices near Atlanta, Georgia, and a staff of 40.

Before I could post this, ABB announced another financial move, this time an investment.

It has invested $10 million in San Francisco-based ECOtality, a clean electric transportation and storage technologies company, to enter North America's electric vehicle (EV) charging market and provide ECOtality with a strong global ally in power delivery systems.

ECOtality will use the investment to foster its expansion and finance initial requirements of the EV Project, a program to develop electric vehicle infrastructures in 16 major US cities funded by a $115 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE). The project involves installation of more than 15,000 chargers to support the deployment of 8,300 electric vehicles.

In addition, the companies have signed an agreement establishing ABB as the preferred supplier for ECOtality's power electronics and component parts in North America. The companies will work together to develop charging technologies for electric vehicles that incorporate the advanced consumer interface and billing functionalities of ECOtality's Blink EV charging stations. Through its smart grids industry segment initiative, ABB will contribute its expertise from several projects in Europe involving integration of EV charging solutions.

*GE Intelligent Platforms* has completed the acquisition of SmartSignal, a privately-held, analytics software company based in Lisle, Illinois. SmartSignal specializes in providing Remote Monitoring & Diagnostics solutions to the Power Generation, Oil & Gas and other industrial sectors. SmartSignal is a leading provider of predictive diagnostic software and monitoring services used to anticipate, prevent, and avoid equipment failure. The company has more than 40 product and technology patents, and has won more than 25 awards for product excellence.

SmartSignal detects and identifies abnormal equipment behavior and provides exception-based notifications of developing problems along with diagnoses and prioritizations. Its solutions are device-agnostic and are found on equipment from GE, Siemens, Rolls Royce, Alstom, Flowserve, Waukesha, Byron Jackson, Cooper-Bessemer, and others.

*GSE Systems Inc.*, a global provider of real-time simulation and training solutions to the power, process, manufacturing and government sectors, announced the acquisition of EnVision Systems Inc., which provides interactive multi-media tutorials and simulation models, primarily to the petrochemical and oil & gas refining industries.

At closing, GSE paid $1.2 million in cash to the shareholders of EnVision. In addition, if EnVision attains certain revenue targets for the four-year period ending December 31, 2014, the shareholders of EnVision could receive up to an additional $3.05 million.

EnVision, with headquarters in Madison, NJ and an office in Chennai, India, was founded in 1991. EnVision's tutorials and simulation models serve the rapidly growing entry-level training market for the oil & gas refining and specialty chemicals industries. EnVision's products provide a foundation in process fundamentals and plant operations and interaction. With this knowledge base, users may then graduate to the full-scope, high-fidelity, real-time simulators provided by GSE. EnVision has completed more than 750 installations in over 28 countries and its approximately 130 clients include Shell Oil Company, BP, Total and Chevron. EnVision will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of GSE and be re-named GSE EnVision, Inc.

*Adept Technology Inc.*, a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and autonomous mobile solutions, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held InMoTx, a provider of industry leading technology for the global food processing market. With operations based in Denmark, InMoTx is said to enhance Adept's position in the food packaging industry through a broad portfolio of intellectual property dedicated to inspecting, sorting, grading, and hygienically packaging unwrapped, natural products improving food safety by eliminating the risk of contamination introduced by manual handling.

Under the terms of the agreement, Adept will acquire InMotx in a cash and stock transaction valued at up to $4.3 million, which includes $1.5 million in cash, subject to adjustment, 200,000 shares of Adept common stock and earnout provisions based upon the revenues of the acquired business and related products over the three years following the acquisition. InMotx' founder and chief technology officer will be granted up to 100,000 shares of Adept common stock contingent on his continued employment with Adept for three years following the acquisition. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed by mid-January, 2011. The transaction is expected to be accretive in Adept's fiscal 2012 year.

And in other good news in the industry:

*Advantech*, an international supplier of industrial PCs and automation, adopted a board resolution to acquire 10,427 pings of Linkou Industrial Park at NT$145,000 per ping, or approximately NT$1.512 billion in total. The new park will be a fully functional campus and the second R&D and manufacturing headquarters of Advantech in Taiwan.

In light of the healthy growth and promising prospects for the IPC industry, Advantech is growing rapidly and doubling its revenues every five years. At the same time, production and warehousing facilities in Taiwan have faced space shortages and it is anticipated that the R&D office will also be out of space within the next five years. Therefore, Advantech plans to set up this second headquarters in Linkou. The new campus will become an important base for Advantech manufacturing and R&D over the next ten years and the location of the new park is expected to attract talent from Hsinchu and Taoyuan.

The campus park will be constructed systematically and in stages and include a factory, an R&D center, and an office building. The new campus will also provide a venue for an exchange of global talent and a training center. The long-term development plan includes four major elements, including a manufacturing and warehouse distribution center, an R&D building, stationed staff quarters / training center / convention center, and new business incubation centers.

FIRST Robotics Kicks Off 20th Season of Competition

Set your reservations now for the finals of the FIRST Robotics competition in St. Louis April 27-30. The organization that does so much to promote engineering among students of all levels just kicked off its 20th season of robotic competition. Inventor Dean Kamen was joined by luminaries to Help FIRST kick off its season. Best-Selling author Neal Bascomb explained how FIRST has become "The New Cool." Check out the schedule and try to make it to a competition. Last year I ran out of time. This year, I'll plan it into my schedule.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was joined by public figures to launch the 20th season of the FIRST Robotics Competition with a worldwide Kickoff event originating from Manchester, N.H.

The 2011 season will include an estimated 2,200 teams (over 45,000 high-school students) participating in 57 Regional and District events. All teams will be shown the 2011 robotics game field and challenge for the first time and will receive an exciting, new Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Teams will have six weeks to design and build robots to meet this year’s engineering challenge.

Dignitaries and public figures from across the nation will deliver remarks, including:
-- Hon. John Lynch, Governor of New Hampshire;
-- Walt P. Havenstein, Chairman, FIRST Board of Directors & CEO of SAIC;
-- Neal Bascomb, Author, “The New Cool;”
-- Amir Abo-Shaeer, Teacher and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (and subject of book on FIRST);
-- Robin Saitz, Senior Vice President Solutions Marketing and Communications, PTC;
-- Dr. Woodie Flowers, Chairman, FIRST Executive Advisory Board & Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, MIT;
-- Bill Miller, Director, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC);
-- Dave Lavery, Program Executive, NASA;
-- Jon Dudas, FIRST President;
-- Dean Kamen, President, DEKA Research and Development Corp., and Founder, FIRST; and
-- Special Guests

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an annual competition that challenges high-school students – working alongside professional Mentors – to design and build a robot of their own, and compete in a 'Sport for the Mind' that measures the effectiveness of each robot, the power of teamwork and collaboration, and Gracious Professionalism. Students build and program their own robots against a field of competitors and experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation.

Humanoid Robotic Joint

Cable trays and flexible cable carriers for wiring robots seems like it could be a commoditized technology. But igus has developed an innovative robot joint module system unveiled last April at the Hanover Fair in Germany. Running wires for power and control through complex joints while keeping them from wearing, breaking or entangling is a challenge. The joints in the igus Robolink system are controlled by cable tension, in a similar way to the human mechanics of bones and tendons. All data cables are routed safely through the jointed arms, which are effectively the robot’s skeleton. These cables convey images, acoustics and forces, which are the artificial senses of humanoid robots.

Dr. Rudolf Bannasch is Managing Director at the Berlin-based company EvoLogics, a high-tech company working in the field of bionics and humanoid robots. He provided both the motivation and developmental support behind igus’ ground-breaking Robolink component.

"During the development of humanoid robots, we spend an enormous amount of time on the mechanisms,” says Dr. Bannasch, “We had been dreaming of a straightforward, modular system for quite some time."

The need was to reduce development times so that artificial intelligence programmers could be involved earlier in the process. Luckily, igus has years of field experience with both humanoid and industrial robots. For example, many six-axis robots all over the world are fitted with the company’s Triflex® R multi-axis cable carrier systems.

The robot unit was primarily designed for robot developers and laboratories that work with humanoid systems, as well as with lightweight engineering solutions for handling and automation. igus' development objective was to keep the moving mass as low as possible, so that the actuators can be separated from functioning tools, such as grippers, hands, suction cups, and so on. Particular attention was given to enabling a quick assembly and user-friendly design, as well as using tribo-optimized plastics to provide freedom from lubrication and low weight.

National Instruments adds partnerships

National Instruments has always (at least as long as I've known it) had and depended on a strong and thriving partner ecosystem. The ecosystem is comprised of both integrator/users and technology partners. It's just announced a couple of interesting new partners--Denso Robotics and Honeywell (sensors).

NI and Denso Robotics will collaborate to integrate NI measurement and vision technology with Denso robotic arms. Denso in partnership with NI Alliance Partner ImagingLab, created the ImagingLab Robotics Library for Denso, which communicates directly with Denso controllers to command and control Denso robotic arms through LabView software. The new library provides the ability to use a single software environment to control and integrate every aspect of a machine, ranging from part handling and robot control to advanced measurements and machine vision. Using LabView, engineers who normally would not use industrial robotics now can integrate them into their applications to automate laboratories, precisely assemble components and test complex parts.

Honeywell and National Instruments collaborated to make it easier for customers to set up and configure measurement systems including better connectivity, expanded networking capabilities and improved measurement accuracy. Specifically, the companies combined forces to:

• Improve sensor and data acquisition connectivity -- This tool-less connection eliminates the need for engineers to understand sensor wiring codes and map them to signal conditioning instrumentation, which significantly reduces delays and errors when connecting sensors to the data acquisition system.
• Expand networking capabilities -- Customers have the flexibility to integrate sensors to a data acquisition system via USB for local PC/laptop connections; Ethernet connectivity for local area network connections; and wireless connectivity where cables are inconvenient or uneconomical.
• Electronic transfer of key sensor information -- Using TEDS (IEEE 1451.4), the NI 9237 module accesses relevant sensor and calibration information programmed onto the Honeywell sensor and automatically configures and optimizes the data acquisition hardware. This eliminates the time required to review both sets of data sheets and calibration certificates. It also reduces end-user error by eliminating manual setup of the data acquisition hardware and software.