Schneider Electric use automation, energy management and digitalization to shape the future

By combining automation, electrification and digitalization, Schneider Electric demonstrated its recent advances in open, software-defined automation and other innovations on Mar. 31-Apr. 4 in its exhibits at Hannover Messe 2025 in Germany. The company reports its users and the industries they serve are beset by changing competitive landscapes, rapid technological advances, rising energy costs, stringent environmental regulations, and supply chain issue. These challenges require interventions and investments to ensure long-term viability and competitiveness. A key solution for these challenges is automation.

Located at the core of industrial operations, automation not only controls processes, but also generates crucial data to derive insights for enhanced decision-making and greater efficiency and productivity. Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Automation Expert (EAE) with open, software-defined automation lets users respond swiftly to changes, integrating digital technologies infused with AI. This software increases engineering and operational efficiency with an adaptable, modular design that enhances supply chain resilience and reduces total cost of ownership. Visitors to the company's booth at Hannover Messe saw how open, software-defined automation and AI-driven solutions can link ecosystems to improve daily outcomes, which showcased in a circular manufacturing, farm-to-fork campus embracing the food and beverage industry.

“Embracing innovation in automation is essential for industries to adapt and compete at the rate of change required today. By integrating information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) with open, software-defined automation, we empower users to achieve new levels of industrial performance that closed systems can’t match,” said Barbara Frei, EVP of industrial automation at Schneider Electric. “Our solutions go beyond virtualization, and support integration of any third-party software and hardware based on the UAO.org open standard, which is fostering a growing, versatile ecosystem that users and their companies can deploy. UAO.org's growth to over 100 members confirms broad industry interest in this new paradigm.”

Put expertise on a platform

Building on the success of EAE, Schneider Electric is introducing its EcoStruxure Automation Expert Platform, which is a unified automation environment that offers a comprehensive overview and management of control applications including control logic, motion, HMI, safety and simulation.

“We’re decoupling software from hardware at the abstraction layer, which makes software agnostic to the hardware it’s running on,” explained Ali Haj Fraj, digital factory SVP in Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. “This gives EcoStruxure Automation Expert Platform its three layers of connected sensors, drives and other items, mission-critical controls, and enterprise-layer access, which allows users the flexibility to deploy them where they want. For example, in our automated farm demonstration, infrared sensors can identify where cows are located, adjust fans in response, and use AI to further optimize environmental conditions for them. The difference now that we’re using software-defined automation to integrate these pieces and orchestrate them more easily.”

Likewise, integrating continuous, hybrid and discrete processes, EAE Platform streamlines engineering and maintenance. It enables multiple users to develop their controls with many popular programming environments, and collaborate on the same project simultaneously, boosting efficiency and speeding up project development and deployment. The platform will be immediately available to customers with the latest version of EAE. It will also include Automation Copilot, a generative AI assistant developed in collaboration with Microsoft that helps engineers rapidly create high-quality, validated code and generate applications. Additional applications will be released later this year.

Other innovations showcased at Schneider Electric’s booth included:

• Newly launched Modicon M660 industrial PC (IPC) controller and Modicon Edge I/O NTS, combined with advanced software, sets a new benchmark in motion control. They’re part of the Modicon Integrated Motion System that uses edge computing, AI and advanced control algorithms to redefine efficiency, enabling smarter decision-making and optimizing performance. This solution was demonstrated in partnership with Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH's paper banding machine that uses paper banderoles instead of plastic for multipack packaging.
• Cameras demonstrated with EAE reduce the time and complexity involved in visual inspections, and enable users to collaborate more effectively, achieve higher accuracy in inspections, and enhance productivity and quality control.
• TeSys Deca Advanced toolless contactor transforms motor management with its Snap-In technology. It’s that’s engineered for resilience and efficiency in harsh environments, eliminates the need for tools and crimping, provides seamless, error-free connections, accelerates installation by up to 75%, and enable precise, ready-to-robot wiring.
• Harmony XVB7 tower lights optimize power, and deliver up to 40 % more energy efficiency with integrated LED technology, offering four times improved brightness. Their flexible modular design reduces installation time by up to 90%, improves functionality, and reduces inventory by up to 300% inventory reduction.
• Galaxy VXL uninterruptable power supply (UPS) features a pioneering high-density design and fault-tolerant architecture that maximize availability and deliver up to 99% efficiency. Ideal for AI-ready data centers, semiconductor facilities, and commercial and industrial manufacturing sites.
• Innovative, data-driven, oat-milk production demonstration was developed with Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen Lippe (OWL) University, which tests new processes and technologies, harnessing the power of EAE and AI.

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