I’ve been on the road three of the past four weeks. After two years of short drives with a couple of exceptions, airports and planes became a strange sensation.

I went to the Honeywell User Group, ARC Advisory Group Industry Forum, and Rockwell Automation ROKLive (its software event). Unfortunately, all in Orlando. And I really don’t want to spend money in Florida. <Sigh>

Sustainability topics were everywhere. Honeywell and ABB are working on ways to get something useful from all that plastic collecting in areas of our oceans and waterways. Emerson is talking hydrogen. Honeywell and ABB were also figuring out ways to find methane leaks so that they can be plugged. With all the bad news we are pummeled with, there’s actually a lot of good in the world. Engineers solving big problems.

Wireless networking continues to advance as we begin to see the reality from the promises of 5G, private networks, and WiFi6. 

The Automate trade show and conference rocked the same week as ARC. It was well attended with the organizers promising a larger show next year again in Detroit. Just as I wondered if the robot market had matured, first came cobot and now PR people send me a couple of releases a day with new things happening. Check out The Manufacturing Connection for a number of stories.

Finally, talk of “open systems” dominated many conversations at ARC. A friend pointed out that no one mentioned “interoperability.” Another friend suggested these were synonymous. Perhaps that’s true. What do you think?

Gary