Research Focus

Due to the increasing flexibility of markets, the demands on process plants are growing. There are already various approaches to the modularisation of process plants, but no approach has yet been able to establish itself globally in order to meet the demand for highly flexible plants.

In this context, the question arises in particular as to how this development will continue with increasing intelligence in equipment and components. As the intelligence of the equipment increases, the effort required to automate a plant shifts towards networking the capabilities. 

So will classic control cabinets still be needed in the future, or will each component bring its own controller? How can individual components be networked in such a way that the entirety can still operate efficiently with each other? Which technologies from related fields can be profitably integrated into automation technology for safety and sustainability?

These and other questions are to be examined in detail for application in the BioPharma industry sector in this industrial project with  Sartorius Stedim Systems GmbH.