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Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Linz, Austria, KEBA operates as an automation specialist in various fields. At KEBA Industrial Automation, hardware and software solutions for industrial automation, for example for robotics and the plastics industry, are the main business. KEBA Handover Automation specializes in solutions for contactless handover, for example for banks and parcel service providers. And KEBA Energy Automation develops and produces wallboxes for electric vehicles.

Industrial Automation is the largest of the three divisions and employs the majority of the workforce. KEBA is represented worldwide with 26 branches in 16 countries.

Interview with CSO Martin Schwarz

In an interview with Industrie-Digitalisierung, Martin Schwarz, who has been with KEBA since 2002 and is now CSO and member of the management board of KEBA Industrial Automation GmbH, explains the strategy behind Kemro X, the KEBA platform for industrial automation.

Ulrich Sendler: Mr. Schwarz, what is Kemro X and how did the development come about?

Martin Schwarz (Photo: KEBA Industrial Automation): When we started development ten years ago, the availability of real-time Linux was one of the initial drivers. This enabled us to build and launch an open platform that simplified collaboration between machine builders, end users and third-party integrators.

Instead of many interfaces tailored to individual customers and their machines, Kemro X offers open standard interfaces. That was what our customers wanted. Under the Kemro X brand, we offer complete solutions comprising hardware and software. The software platform does not have its own name. With Kemro X, customers can get everything from a single source and put together their automation solution just like out of building blocks.

Ulrich Sendler: What do you mean by building bocks? What are the components?

Kemro X architecture (Graphic: KEBA Industrial Automation)

Fully modular platform

Martin Schwarz: Kemro X is completely modular. There is a corresponding module for every application and every feature.

On the one hand, functionalities such as safety or visualization, and on the other, industry-specific modules for robotics or injection moulding, for example. And if the customer has their own modules or wants to integrate modules from third parties, this is no problem on the open Linux basis.

Ulrich Sendler: How long has the platform been on the market?

Martin Schwarz: We started four years ago with pilot projects for some customers. But the official launch will take place this year at the SPS in Nuremberg.

Ulrich Sendler: What effect has the openness of the platform had? Have you reached new customers with it?

New market segments

Martin Schwarz: We have, even if we can’t give any names yet because we haven’t yet received approval from our customers. We have opened up completely new market segments for us in addition to the previous main target markets, such as textile machinery and healthcare. We also see demand from semiconductor manufacturers and the packaging industry.

Ulrich Sendler: What has changed in your product development as a result of the platform?

Martin Schwarz: Software has long played an important role for us. Today, it is actually the software that makes the difference in our platform. The hardware is already very mature. But on its basis, we can now offer more and more applications that meet the current needs of our customers. Predictive maintenance, diagnostic services, various software services for software development at the customer’s premises, for example for their roll-out, to name just a few of the existing modules. And AI is currently a very important topic, even when it comes to our customers’ digital business models.

Ulrich Sendler: Also on the basis of the platform?

Focus on AI

Martin Schwarz: Today, we develop almost everything on Kemro X. Around 80% of all new developments are platform components, with only a small proportion being customized solutions. For AI in industry, it is important that data analysis works as close as possible to the machine and not in some cloud.

To this end, we have developed an AI extension module as hardware on Kemro X. The extension module, called “AE 550”, uses a sophisticated toolchain with all the tools needed to collect, process and interpret data and includes, for example, image qualification, instance segmentation, object recognition and gripping point calculation. With this module, we enable industrial companies to quickly get started with artificial intelligence.

Ulrich Sendler: Are the Kemro X modules also available as an app in an app store?

KEBA AE 550 (Photo: KEBA Industrial Automation)

Martin Schwarz: No, we are currently working with licenses for the software modules. We have not yet received any requests from the industry or our customers for an app store or for our apps to be available in another one. Kemro X is not a marketplace. It is an automation platform. Development is moving in this direction, but we are not there yet.

Ulrich Sendler: What can the market expect as the next steps with Kemro X?

Martin Schwarz: Key development topics are safety and cyber security. The requirements here are currently increasing due to new regulations such as the Cyber Resilience Act. And then there is the further use of AI. With the launch of Kemro X at SPS in mid-November in Nuremberg, our new applications will be on display live.