The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), North America’s largest automation trade association representing more than 1300 organizations, has announced the winners of the inaugural Automate Innovation Awards. This year’s winners—AMD, ECM and GrayMatter Robotics—will be honored at a special ceremony on May 6 at Automate 2024 in Chicago.

The Automate Innovation Awards is a prestigious competition that recognizes and celebrates the most groundbreaking automation products and solutions introduced to the market in the previous 12 months. The winners showcase innovative and unique technologies in the field of industrial automation that also demonstrate a clear and measurable impact in terms of increased efficiencies, reduced costs, improved quality and/or enhanced safety. The three award categories encompass the scope of how automation technology is implemented in real-world installations: Hardware, Software and Systems.

Hardware: The AMD Embedded+ Architecture is the first architecture of its kind to combine the AMD x86 processor with integrated graphics and programmable hardware for critical artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing and sensor fusion applications. This architecture simplifies and accelerates design to enable original design manufacturers (ODM) to deliver optimized hardware platforms off-the-shelf and help their customers to bring automated technology and products to market faster.

Software: PrintStator is an advanced electric motor computer-aided design platform developed by Boston-based startup ECM to enable the design, optimization and manufacture of electric motors across multiple use cases while also factoring in global technology and regulatory trends. Motors designed using PrintStator incorporate ECM’s PCB Stator technology.  They are 70% lighter than conventional options, use 80% less raw materials to produce, are up to 30 dB quieter and achieve efficiencies in excess of 90%.

Systems: SCAN&GRIND from GrayMatter Robotics is a comprehensive solution to the challenges of manual grinding operations, providing efficiency, consistency and adaptability in high-mix manufacturing environments. Traditionally, robots have been limited to mass-production grinding due to the economic impracticality of manual programming. The system’s advanced features, including automated programming of the robot based on scanned data, customizable process parameters and automatic target recognition, make it feasible to leverage robotic technology in a wider range of mass- and specialized-production applications.

“Innovation drives the advancement of automation technology for increasing industrial efficiency, improving worker and consumer well-being and achieving greater sustainability,” says Clarissa Schwendeman, director of marketing, A3. “By recognizing and rewarding innovations that play a pivotal role in shaping the future of automation, we celebrate the industry pioneers leading us toward a smarter, more efficient and sustainable future.”

Winners to be honored at Automate 2024 on May 6th  

All Automate registrants are welcome to the special awards ceremony on May 6 at 4 p.m. at the Automate Show Theater (Booth 3641). To read more about the winners, the full list of finalists and the expert judges who selected this year’s winners, visit https://www.automateshow.com/trade-show/automate-innovation-awards.