The parliamentary elections in
Germany are just finished with a
result which weakens the up to date
ruling parties of the grand coalition
and strengthens the so called smaller
parties. Especially the success of the
Alternative für Deutschland will
change the political climate to more
nationalism. I believe this is the first
step into a Germany-first mentality
which follows the America-first strat-
egy of US-president Donald Trump.
This comes amiss in a situation in
which the European Community
has a lot of problems already with separatist objectives. But at the
moment it is too early to assess the far-reaching political impacts of
this election. I hope the democratic parties in Germany will find the
right way to work together to solve the problems in Germany and in
Europe nowadays and in the future.
What does the result of the German election mean for the
Embedded Industry? I do not hope that there will be a similar
protectionism like in the USA but fences exist in Europe already
and the My-country first mentality is very popular. But the market
for embedded products is international and fences have no signifi-
cance at all. A good example is our cover story which promotes the
Computer-on-Modules products of a Taiwanese company which
are especially intended to solve potential problems like scalability
in applications for Industry 4.0 and collaborative robotics let´s say
finally in the Industrial Internet of Things. Interaction between the
machine and robot controls, the intelligence of each device needs to
be ramped up to enable real collaborative devices. Artificial Intel-
ligence (AI) technology is one of the drivers of the Industry 4.0
trend that is expected to grow at the highest rates. AI means deal-
ing with simulation and implementation of human intelligence on
a computer. For this intelligence, self-learning algorithms need to
be implemented alongside all the supporting sensor technologies
that deliver the relevant situational information that needs to be
analyzed for making decisions. The critical challenge is turning
legacy machines and robotic arms that are traditionally pro-
grammed to execute 100% predefined movements into such
intelligent machines and robots. Drastically increased computing
performance is required to support all the computing, measure-
ment, motion control and machine vision capabilities that will
ultimately enable customization of products and flexible mass
production on the factory floor through collaborative intelligence.
And looking ahead, this computing performance needs to be highly
scalable to be able to fulfill future demands.
Even though AI has nothing to do with politics I do hope that human
intelligence will similarly dominate the political and economic deci-
sions of the politicians to collaborate solving the even more complex
general problems of our world and lead us all into a peaceful and
prospering future.
With this in mind I hope you´ll enjoy reading this issue
Yours Sincerely
Wolfgang Patelay
Editor
October 17
3
V
iEwpoint
Dear Readers,
