1786-RPFPXLB Making Machines Understand our language - B&R and Microsoft bring generative AI to automation engineering

B&r is working with Microsoft to bring artificial intelligence to its industrial automation software. With the integration of Microsoft's Azure OpenAI services with B&R's Automation Studio engineering platform, developers of machine applications will be able to generate, optimize, and annotate code using intuitive natural language. As a conceptual study in AI-enhanced innovation, the new Automation Studio Copilot is designed to help machine manufacturers roll out more innovative and reliable solutions faster.

Today's factories are a far cry from the greasy gears and clanging steel that linger in our imagination. In these carefully choreographed masterpieces of complexity, visually guided robots and magnetic levitation delivery systems process products through carefully choreographed paths while streaming terabytes of data to the cloud for analysis. Behind the scenes, the entire symphony is conducted by sophisticated software applications created with Automation Studio engineering tools.

Generational change in intuitive engineering

Traditional automation engineering requires many lines of code and is manually written and annotated by professional engineers in high-level languages, but the collaboration between B&R and Microsoft promises to change that. Automation Studio Copilot integrates the powerful generative AI capabilities of Microsoft Azure OpenAI into B&R's common engineering platform. This AI-powered programming assistant translates prompts and questions entered in natural language into machine code and provides useful tips for developers.

"Microsoft is committed to making people more productive and work more rewarding, which is valuable in manufacturing and any other workplace," said Florian Schneeberger, chief technology officer at B&R. . He explains how the shift to low-code and no-code engineering makes development teams faster and more innovative: "We're exploring ways to make machines understand human language, rather than forcing humans to learn the language of machines." Enabling innovation and unleashing potential

Ai-enhanced automation helps companies unlock flexibility, agility, and resilience in addressing today's biggest manufacturing challenges - from market uncertainty, labor shortages, and increased demand for product personalization, to efforts to use energy and materials more intelligently. Automation Studio Copilot allows more businesses to benefit in a simpler way, without the need for a large number of experts.

Dominik Wee, vice president of Manufacturing and mobile at Microsoft, said: "With solutions based on Azure OpenAI services, B&R customers can now spend less time coding and troubleshooting, and more time focusing on innovative and high-return tasks that add value to their business." .

Improve quality and simplify collaboration

In the competitive world of manufacturing, fast time-to-market is key. As innovative technologies emerge at ever shorter intervals, the increase in complexity makes rapid and agile development a formidable challenge. The generative AI capabilities in Automation Studio Copilot provide machine builders and system integrators with the ability to master interdisciplinary capabilities in a relatively short time, while meeting the stringent requirements of reliability and high quality.

The tool's AI-driven code generation is optimized for IEC 61131-3 structured text programming and provides responses based on B&R's existing libraries and protocols. By replacing manual coding with natural language prompts, it gives developers more time to focus on innovative problems and rapid prototyping, and quickly deliver more competitive solutions.

For existing code, Automation Studio Copilot provides AI-driven optimization and annotation. Clear structure and comments improve code readability and simplify collaboration between teams. These quality consistencies also make applications easier and cheaper to maintain over the long term. By being able to ask questions in natural language, users can also intuitively get useful guidance on how to implement their ideas quickly and effectively.