AMD, ECM and GrayMatter Robotics earn inaugural Automate Innovation Awards

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the North American trade alliance representing more than 1,300 organizations, announced the winners of the inaugural Automate Innovation Awards. This year’s winners—AMD, ECM and GrayMatter Robotics—will be honored at a special ceremony on May 6 at Automate 2024 in Chicago.

The Automate Innovation Awards is a competition that recognizes groundbreaking automation products introduced to the market in the previous 12 months. The winners must showcase innovative and unique technologies in the field of industrial automation that also demonstrate a clear and measurable impact in terms of increased efficiencies, reduced costs, improved quality and/or enhanced safety. The three award categories were designed to encompass the scope of how automation technology is implemented in real-world installations: hardware, software and systems.

Figure 1: The Advance Micro Devices (AMD) Embedded+ Architecture is the first architecture of its kind to combine the AMD x86 processor with integrated graphics and programmable hardware for artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing and sensor fusion applications.

Hardware: The Advance Micro Devices (AMD) Embedded+ Architecture is the first architecture of its kind to combine the AMD x86 processor with integrated graphics and programmable hardware for artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing and sensor fusion applications (Figure 1). This architecture won the award for the way it simplifies and accelerates design to enable original design manufacturers (ODMs) to deliver optimized hardware platforms off the shelf and help customers to bring automated technology and products to market faster.

Hardware finalists included Framos Technologies' FSM:GO optical sensor module, Mettler Toledo's SLP33xD IO-Link load cell, Pro Spot International's Cobot Spot Welder and Roboception's rc_visard NG vision platform.

Figure 2: PrintStator is an advanced electric motor computer-aided design platform developed by Boston-based startup ECM to enable the design, optimization and manufacture of electric motors. Motors designed using PrintStator incorporate ECM’s PCB Stator technology.

Software: PrintStator is an advanced electric motor computer-aided design platform developed by Boston-based startup ECM to enable the design, optimization and manufacture of electric motors across multiple use cases while also factoring in global technology and regulatory trends. Motors designed using PrintStator incorporate ECM’s PCB Stator technology (Figure 2). The software was chosen as the winner for designing motors that are 70% lighter than conventional options, use 80% less raw materials to produce, are up to 30 dB quieter and achieve efficiencies in excess of 90%.

Software finalists included Doosan Robotics' Dart Suite platform and eurotech's Everyware GreenEdge deployment software.

Figure 3: Scan&Grind from GrayMatter Robotics comprehensively meets the challenges of manual grinding operations, providing efficiency, consistency and adaptability in high-mix manufacturing environments.

Systems: Scan&Grind from GrayMatter Robotics comprehensively meets the challenges of manual grinding operations, providing efficiency, consistency and adaptability in high-mix manufacturing environments (Figure 3). The system’s advanced features, including automated programming of the robot based on scanned data, customizable process parameters and automatic target recognition, make it feasible to leverage robotic technology in a wider range of mass- and specialized-production applications.

System finalists included Cognex's In-Sight SnAPP, Novarch Technologies' NovAI, Slamcore's Aware and eurotech's Everyware GreenEdge on eurotech's Reliagate 10-14.

“Innovation drives the advancement of automation technology for increasing industrial efficiency, improving worker and consumer well-being and achieving greater sustainability,” said Clarissa Schwendeman, director of marketing, A3. “By recognizing and rewarding innovations that play a pivotal role in shaping the future of automation, we celebrate the industry pioneers leading us toward a smarter, more efficient and sustainable future.”

All Automate registrants are welcome to attend the special awards ceremony at the Automate Show Theater, Booth 3641.