Sending shockwaves through the manufacturing sector, the virus infection incident seen in early August at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has fueled great concerns among manufacturers over how to tackle information security (InfoSec) problems when entering the IIoT (industrial Internet of Things) manufacturing environment.TSMC has indicated that the virus infection incident was mainly caused by human errors seen in the process of software installation at new fab equipment, leading to the spread of the variant virus of WannaCry to part of its fab tools and computer systems.The incident has indicated that even TSMC, a paragon manufacturer long noted for stringent computer security management, can hardly 100% stall virus infection, not to mention small- to medium-size enterprises usually short of information security resources to counter malware invasions or hacker attacks.For enterprises operating in the IIoT environment, information security protection is no longer just a job for IT engineers, and it requires concerted efforts from all the departments including production management, information management, marketing, financial and even general affairs. Enterprises must enhance their information management, inject an accurate IIoT InfoSec concept into employees and work out standard operating procedures (SOP) for employees to follow, so as to effectively block InfoSec loopholes and possible threats from any channel. Gartner has predicted that there will be as many as 20.4 billion IoT devices in use by 2020, with total hardware expenses estimated to hit US$3 trillion. GSMA has also estimated the global production value associated with IIoT applications at manufacturing plants to reach US$3.7 trillion by 2025, with 4.1 billion IIoT networks to be seen in the Greater China region - about one third of the global total.Heavy global spending on InfoSec protectionWith growing IIoT applications, enterprises are investing heavily on IIoT InfoSec protection. Gartner's latest statistics show that annual global spending on InfoSeC products and services is estimated to reach US$114 billion in 2018, up 12.4% from 2017, and to surge 8.7% on year to US$124 billion in 2019.Nevertheless, many companies already incorporating IIoT applications have not actualized their InfoSec protection strategies, as the discrepancies between the standard protocols for OT (operation technology) and IT (information technology) have made OT-IT integration difficult to achieve. In the IIoT era, more devices used in offices and factories, as well as personal devices will have their own IP addresses with network connection capability. In the office, for instance, PC, smartphones, network printers, network phones and cameras, and even illumination systems or punch clocks are all possible entry points for hacking attacksIn building IIoT InfoSec protection system, enterprises must manage to achieve perfect connections between manufacturing and information systems, focusing their efforts on four major aspects: conducting a clear check on all the equipment assets; establishing modes of possible security threats; making constant updates to InfoSec systems, modes of security threats and SOPs; and maintaining close contacts with related institutes, such as Critical Intelligence, Infragard, IoTSF, ISAXC, OWASP and SCADAHacker, so as to get the latest InfoSec information and solutions.
China is moving at full throttles to develop its own tech innovation capabilities seeking to compete well with the US, Japan and advanced Europe countries and become a "super" strong manufacturer by 2035 after advancing to a strong one by 2025.Based on the "Made in China 2025" project, the country aims to build its sown industrial software technology standards and ecosystems by 2020, when its share of the markets for lower-end tech products is estimated to reach 30% along with a 40% penetration rate for in-house developed cloud and terminal industry big data platforms in major industries.China is expected to achieve breakthroughs for some core technologies by 2025, when its in-house developed software products is estimated to command a market share of over 50%, compared to a penetration rate of over 60% for Internet+ and smart industry cloud systems in major industries.At the moment, China still lags far behind advanced countries in independent tech innovation capabilities, relying heavily on imports or foreign-invested firms in the country to supply crucial equipment, core components and infrastructure software.For instance, China has to count on overseas sources for the supply of automation design, precision equipment, industrial-control chips, precision electrical engineering, high-end spindles and diverse high-caliber materials, as well as related software programs for IIoT or industrial robots.
Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Aerospace Industrial Development (AIDC) and Mirle Automation have cooperated in developing high-precision robotic arms specifically for manufacturing aerospace components.Aerospace components makers have usually used 5-axis machine tools in their production, but because such tools are very expensive, they are seeking to use robotic arms to reduce equipment cost by 60%, ITRI said.Currently, aerospace components makers have employed robotic arms in around-cutting, drilling, grinding, polishing and assembly of aircraft skin, ITRI noted. However, there is a technological bottleneck in using robotic arms in manufacturing aerospace components: precision positioning is difficult to meet the required level of ±0.25mm, ITRI said, adding currently, precision of robotic arms with high payloads generally ranges between ±1mm and ±10mm.To solve the problem, ITRI has developed EtherCAT-Motion Intelligence Orchestration (eMIO), a robot controller platform capable of reducing deviation in positioning to a precision level of ±0.23mm. Production cost for Taiwan-made robotic arms equipped with eMIO is estimated to be 50% lower than those with the same precision offered by international vendors, ITRI indicated.ITRI, AIDC, Mirle jointly exhibited an eMIO robotic arm at the recently concluded Tawian Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei.An eMIO robotic armPhoto: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, September 2018
Taiwan-headquartered Ucarer, which helps connect Chinese seniors who need in-home care with homecare professionals, is seeking series B funding as it begins to expand business to Silicon Valley.With its recent launch in Silicon Valley, Ucarer has become the first homecare service platform that specializes in serving the Chinese community in the US.Tech startups are raciing to gain foothold in the homecare space where demand for high-quality and personalized in-home care is growing. Ucarer cited Aging in Place Technology Watch as indicating that tech-enabled homecare startups have received more than US$400 million of funding as of 2018. Chinese in-home care market is underserved largely because of cultural elements and yet Chinese homecare players are currently still in an infancy stage.Ucarer said it has raised US$1.5 million in series A round, led by Taiwan-based family funds in 2017. The company started in 2015 in Taiwan by co-founders Hung-yi Chen, David Lin, and Wilson Liu. The founding members each have two decades of experiences in ecommerce operations, software development, and caregivers management under their belts.Prior to Ucarer, Chen, now Ucarer's chairman, started his career in CRM (customer relationship management) product development management at Oracle, and later came to manage products in different lines of business within Oracle. Then he was CIO and VP of Monday Tech Taiwan, an ecommerce company which was later acquired by Yahoo. Throughout his work and living experiences in Silicon Valley, Taiwan and China, Chen said he understands the homecare needs of the Chinese community."In addition to Taiwan, the Chinese American market in Silicon Valley is the market we're aiming for," said Chen. "There are over seven millions of Chinese immigrants in the US and Canada, and 10% of that population is living in San Francisco Bay Area. The SF Bay Area market demand is around US$250 million annually," he said.Chen also explained that the plan is to use the new capital to further penetrate the Taiwan market and to develop business in the US market. The company chose to land in Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale with the initial focus on the Chinese market in Silicon Valley.Jessica Su, Ucarer's caregiver support director who is in charge of the management of caregivers, said "caregivers who want to offer their services via the platform are thoroughly interviewed and qualified by Ucarer before their detailed information can be added to the portal. Through the know-hows in screening processes, we can deploy the caregivers quickly and carefully."Ucarer started in Taiwan and plans to expand the service to Chinese population all over the world. In Taiwan, the platform offers its customers different care service providers, ranging from certified caregivers, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and creative arts therapists."We're not simply taking the business model from Taiwan to apply in the US," said Chen. "We want to build Ucarer as a household brand name in the US with expanded service to include massages and acupuncture therapists," he added. After launching in Silicon Valley, the company plans to expand to southern California next and eventually all over the US.Ucarer co-founder and chairman Hung-yi Chen (left), and team member Adam Lin at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. Photo: Company
Taiwan-based RFID (radio frequency identification) solutions specialist GIGA-TMS has newly released its Scannel-branded RFID tunnel system designed mainly to track pre-shipment production progress at manufacturing plants.Along with the rapid development of e-commerce and logistics, diverse logistics tracking systems and apps are proliferating to help suppliers and end consumers monitor shipment volume, inventory and shipment arrival time.Brain Ma, Scannel's lead project manager, said that most RFID solutions are applied to logistics and retail aspects, but his company's RFID tunnel system is used to detect pre-shipment operations at manufacturers.The system features tunnel-type UHF (ultrahigh frequency) RFID readers and RFID tags, allowing backstage monitoring center to immediately learn which employee cutting which bundle of fabric at which machine, and to track and confirm the volume of any given product from multiple ones ready for shipment, according to Ma.With a reading accuracy of up to 99.585%, Ma disclosed, the system has been well received among overseas garment makers, especially those of high-price sports jerseys.Ma said that UHF RFID can read tags from anywhere between 1cm and 10-15 meters, much longer than the 1.5 meters allowed by low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) RFID.In the US, all the Wal-Mart supply chain partners are putting UHF RFID on their products, Ma indicated, adding that GIGA-TMS has used UHF RFID to create the world's first and only solution for tracking citizens taking public shuttle buses.
An e-paper digital signage developed by Taiwan's E Ink Holdings (EIH) in cooperation with domestic partners has been adopted by the Taipei City Government, which has installed it at a road intersection of the city since September 1.The signange features an e-paper panel designed by EIH, a mechanical base developed by Green Ideas Technology and a parking app offered by Space4car. It adopts a bistable state technology that can significantly save on power consumption, requiring only 0.8% of power consumed by an LCD equivalent.The e-paper digital signage is powered by battery, and is easy to install and remove, unlike traditional LCD displays that require a power supply company to help with power transmission engineering at much higher cost.Such boards can be applied to offer dynamic displays at parking lots, constant information updates at public buses and guided tours at tourist attractions, EIH said.
Taiwan government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has newly developed a bionic palm that can catch objects in a more agile way and can be applied to the medical sector as prosthetic hand in the future.ITRI researchers said that the bionic palm is made of carbon fiber composite that as light as a smartphone. In addition, the palm is designed based on the actual structure of human palms and features six degrees of freedom, able to catch objects like a human palm.The researchers continued that the driver device of the bionic palm is installed on the back of the palm, which can achieve more natural and comfortable connection with stumped parts.In order to enhance the catching strength of the bionic palm, ITRI adopts metal connecting rod allowing the palm to catch objects weighing over three kilograms and operate like a hand tool.The bionic palm can serve as a chucking tool especially for catching irregularly-shaped or soft objects. If coupled with mobile devices, the palm can be used for patrol services at shopping malls and livestock farms, as well as feed loading and unloading operations at product lines, according to the researchers.They indicated that the bionic palm, first unveiled at the just-concluded Touch Taiwan 2018, is expected to be fitted with smart sensors to serve as a smart prosthetic palm to benefit patients in need of such palms.Bionic palm developed by ITRIPhoto: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, August 2018
Zukku, a palm-size service robot selected to guide visitors to the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, will be introduced to the Taiwan market for use in retail stores, restaurants and service industries, according to CEO Ryota Izawa for Japan-based Hatapro, the developer of the robot.Looking like an owl, Zukku is equipped with IBM Watson technology and AI (artificial intelligence)-based image recognition to analyze people's ages, sexes and facial expressions. In retail stores, Zukku can recognize customers' personal characteristics and such information can be used to recommend merchandise items on digital signage.Taiwan will be the first overseas market for Hatapro, Izawa said at Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei during August 29-September 1.Palm-size service robot ZukkuPhoto: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, September 2018
New Taipei City, the largest municipality in northern Taiwan, has been selected by Intelligent Community Forum, an international organization, as one of the global top-7 smart cities for three consecutive years due to its achievement in promoting application of smart city solutions to its administration and services, deputy mayor Yeh Hueh-ching said during a recent interview by Digitimes.The large population of nearly four million people of diverse background and the big gap in urban and rural developments have been motivating the government to enlist smart city slutions to tackle its problems and provide services, Yeh explained.Smart city hall and energy managementThe city hall is highly automated, including its lighting, air conditioning, ventilation, and elevator systems. Air conditioning on each floor is adjusted based on the estimated number of users via monitoring the use of elevators.The city is experimnting in two of its districts smart micro-grids which feature integration of rooftop PV systems, small wind turbines, energy storage systems and smart energy management systems for adjustable power supply. Such micro-grids enable stable power supply when communities suffer power outage or shortage during peak-load hours. The city also monitors power use in each building and household, understanding their power consumption for reference in energy saving education.Private fundingDdue to insufficient budgets, the city has adopted a PFI (private finance initiative) model to replace 220,000 mercury vapor streetlamps with LED ones in three years without spending any government money. The LED streetlamps save power consumption by 185 million kWh a year, equivalent to carbon reductions by 96,000 metric tons. Many of the LED streetlamps are smart ones equipped with air quality sensors for cloud computing-based detection of air pollution.Many municipal elementary schools have adopted a PFI model to install LED lighting systems. LED lighting suppliers are accepting the PFI model that gives them opportunities of valuable experiments, Yeh explained.PV-powered e-paper bus stop displaysWhile the city is promoting smart bus stop displays, it is difficult to install such displays in remote areas, especially those in the mountains, because of supporting power supply systems. Thus, the city has cooperated with Chunghwa Telecom to install electronic paper (e-paper)-based smart bus stop displays with small PV modules for charging.An e-paper-based smart bus stop display consumes power of only 63Wh daily, much lower than 630Wh for a regular one, and a single charge is enough for the display to run 14 days. And there is no need to dig up roads for laying power conduits. E-paper-based smart bus stop displays are currently in trial run in two remote areas and will be installed in others later.Cross-boundary bus servicesTo facilitate residents commuting to and from neighboring areas, such as Taipei City, the New Taipei City government has developed a bus app allowing users to customize their own commuting routes by specifying the time, the origin and destination. The app, which works on a ride-sharing concept, will then propose the route, waiting for others to subscribe to it. Once 20 people subscribe to it, the bus operator managing the app will start providing the customized service for those subscribers within 20 days.The customized service is characterized by fewer bus stops and more direct routes based on passengers' needs. The first customized bus route came into operation in 2015 and there are now 15.Smart day care centers and othersThere are 56 city-commissions public day care centers in New Taipei. The city government will encourage them to upgrade to smart operations via cooperation with high-tech companies. Smart day care centers will feature real-time monitoring of indoor temperatures, humidity and air quality as well as smart management for children's health.The main municipal library has adopted facial recognition to manage the lborrowing of books. Facial recognition is also used in three small unstaffed smart libraries.Capitalizing on big data analysis of 1.47 million entries of information concerning high-risk families, the city has developed portable risk calculators to help social workers make immediate assessment of risks and give early warning for possible family crises, Yeh said. The city also has established a social security network for assisting families with high-risk children and teenagers by integrating 10 of its departments, private organizations and groups. The network has so far assisted 117,500 such families, he noted.Other smart city solutions include cloud computing-based online teaching platforms for use by very small primary schools and smart farming, Yeh noted.New Taipei City has served as a site for experiments for many smart city solutions, some of which have been adopted by others after successful runs in New Taipei, Yeh said. For example,the smart library solution has been introduced to cities in China and the smart LED streetlamp solution to cities in other Asian countries, Yeh noted.Commenting on the challenges in promoting smart city solutions, Yeh indicated that they should be based on innovative ideas and system integration, and it is important to have everyone motivated, which, however, is not easy.New Taipei City deputy mayor Yeh Hueh-chingPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, August 2018A rooftop PV system as part of a micro-grid in a large communityPhoto: New Taipei City governmentAn e-paper-based smart bus stop display equipped with a PV modulePhoto: New Taipei City government
3D machine vision is increasingly applied to production lines as it can achieve fast and accurate vision that human eyes can hardly do, and a typical application is seen in an automated biscuit packaging line demonstrated by Taiwan's Hiwin Technologies at the just-concluded 2018 Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show.Hiwin's automated biscuit packing line can package120 biscuits per minute, with delta robots adopted to conduct fast and accurate biscuit packing movement. Delta robots, a kind of parallel robot featuring three arms connected to a universal joint at the base, are widely used in picking and packaging in factories.The delta robots at Hiwin's biscuit packaging line are fitted with 3D machine vision to accurately recognize objects, with an object-catching accuracy reaching up to 99.5%, the company said.At the show, Hiwin also showcased a six-axis robot with integrated 3D vision function, able to agilely pick tools from deep boxes for use at production lines.
