08/25/2010

A project group from TUM (the technical university in Munich) impressed the judges at the competition B&R held this year among European universities highlighting innovative ideas for POWERLINK technology. With their concept for configuring POWERLINK-based machines via Plug & Play, they demonstrated an extremely high level of technical ability and creativity, which the jury of experts from the fields of economics and research rewarded with the €10,000 prize money for first place.

Second place went to a student group from the Czech Technical University in Prague for their thorough revision and improvement of an existing design for a juggling robot. They happily received €5,000 prize money for their contribution. The concept from the Austrian Academy of Sciences for using POWERLINK as an I/O network in a particle accelerator at the CERN nuclear research center achieved third place. The project group was awarded €2,500 prize money.

On the lookout for promising concepts

The goal of the B&R-initiated “European Industrial Ethernet Awards” is to provide promising scientific research projects in the area of real-time POWERLINK network technology a platform with an emphasis on real-world applications, and also to promote cooperation with young technicians. This year, projects related to fieldbus networks, closed-loop control and robotics proved the importance of B&R's competition.

Further information can be found here:
http://www.br-automation.com/award