More than 860 visitors attended Siemens Energy & Automation’s 2007 Automation Summit in Orlando, Fla. The record-breaking gathering came together at Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort for three-and-a-half days.
“A core value of the Summit is the facilitation of collaboration and best- practice sharing. Over the last few days, we witnessed tremendous cross-pollination among attendees, and received excellent feedback from our user community,” said Raj Batra, vice president of Siemens E&A’s Automation and Motion division.
The event’s conference also hosted more than 150 breakout sessions. These included presentations by customers, industry analysts, partners and Siemens technology experts on the latest trends and technologies, customer success stories and best practice sharing. Attendees also had the opportunity to visit the Summit’s 27,000-square-foot Solutions Showcase, which highlighted 30 Solutions Partner exhibits, as well as products from Siemens E &A and its newly acquired UGS PLM Software.
In one especially celebratory ceremony, Prof. Dr. Michael Bruns, head of Siemens A&D’s Process Automation division, presented a fully functional, gold-plated Simatic PCS 7 controller to Chris DaCosta, controls platform manager at Air Products and Chemicals. The gleaming controller represented the 20,000th PCS 7 controller sold worldwide. Siemens also reported on its new deal with Disney. In exchange for a variety of Siemens’ equipment and support, Disney has added Siemens name to its nightly Illumination fireworks show at Disney World’s Epcot Center and its EarthLab exhibit, and has allowed Siemens to install its Base 21 conference center in the Epcot complex.
In addition, Siemens reported that it’s collaborated with its new division, UGS/EG&G Systems Development & Engineering Services, to develop and launch its RFID PathMinder.
“RFID PathMinder is much more than housing for an RFID reader,” explains Alex Stuebler, Siemens’ RFID business manager.
RFID PathMinder offers an array of optional, fully integrated functions, including RFID reading, advanced event triggering, pre-processing/filtering readings, wireless networking, PLC control, motion control, optical data matrix reader interfaces, status indicators and UPS-protected power. RFID PathMinder also can be configured to include an all-flash memory based industrial PC (Siemens Microbox controller) to support application specific software locally.
