TCS and SIMTech develop SmartBox

NEW DELHI: TCS and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have announced that they have produced an industrial controller for distributed, collaborative, complex and mission critical control applications. Called SmartBox, this achievement was a result of 10-month joint research and development initiative by a team of eight experts from TCS and SIMTech.

SmartBox is built using an open architecture that is expected to work seamlessly on vendor-independent hardware. It would be used to run complex, mission-critical embedded applications in existing or new production and process equipment. Furthermore, SmartBox enables these applications to be developed, controlled and diagnosed remotely over the Internet using a personal digital assistant (PDA) and other web-enabled devices.

As part of its go-to-market strategy for SmartBox, TCS would target Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and end-users in industries that require real-time response, such as the semiconductor, process manufacturing, cement and automotive industries.

During the project closing ceremony, TCS announced its plans to develop CemPac, its solution for the cement industry, on the SmartBox platform. Speaking at the project completion ceremony, S Ramadorai, CEO of TCS, said, "By bringing the concept of the next-generation industrial controller to reality, it is now possible to build web-enabled control, optimization and diagnostics applications for advanced manufacturing automation and robotics systems for a wide variety of industries. This will deliver better control, faster response and higher safety in clean room environments."