Participating in Embedded World means entering a highly specific technological environment, different from the vertical trade fairs traditionally linked to individual application sectors such as medical, railway or automation. It is not, in fact, a context in which companies primarily present themselves as suppliers of a finished product or a complete industrial service. On the contrary, Embedded World is the place where the technologies upstream of innovation take shape: electronic components, modules, chipsets, sensors, development platforms, embedded architectures, software tools and integration solutions.
It is precisely in this scenario that Eletech, the lead company of the International Design Centres (IDCs), the R&D division of Elemaster Group, finds a particularly natural position. For those working in electronic design, an event such as Embedded World represents a privileged observatory of the technologies that can be integrated into customers’ products, becoming real functionalities, enhanced performance and competitive advantage.
As Corrado Crippa, Hardware Design at Eletech, explains, the exhibition does not so much showcase “the final object” as rather the elements that make its intelligence, connectivity and evolution possible. In other words, it does not display the “device”, but the components that enable the device to communicate, gather data, connect to the web, determine its location and process information. And it is precisely at this point that Eletech’s value comes into play: the ability to take these technologies, understand their potential and integrate them into a concrete project for the benefit of the customer’s finished product.
Embedded World is first and foremost an accelerator of technical vision. It makes it possible to stay up to date on the latest solutions, observe how components are evolving and gather concrete ideas for proposing new, more effective and higher-performing design approaches to customers.
Embedded artificial intelligence: concrete application directly within the product
One of the most evident themes to emerge from the exhibition was undoubtedly artificial intelligence. The most interesting aspect observed at the event concerns what many operators define as Edge AI, that is, artificial intelligence that works directly at the point of use, within the product itself, without the need to continuously delegate processing to the cloud.
This evolution is particularly significant because it opens the way to a new generation of embedded solutions that Eletech and Elemaster can integrate into their developments and into new products designed for customers. These are AI-oriented applications built to operate directly on the device itself, whether a machine, a piece of equipment or a specific electronic system, with the aim of improving its operation in a tangible way. We are therefore not talking about generic artificial intelligence, but about customised AI, linked to the product and its application context, capable of gathering data, interpreting it and turning it into a real improvement in performance.
This approach proves particularly interesting for the entire world of sensing, predictive maintenance and the analysis of data collected in the field. In these areas, the value lies not only in the possibility of acquiring information, but in the system’s ability to use it to better diagnose what is happening, guide the behaviour of the electronics and make the product more efficient, more responsive and more intelligent.
From a technological point of view, all this translates into solutions that integrate sensors, microcontrollers, coprocessors and development tools designed to manage and process data directly within the product, thereby improving functionality, efficiency and responsiveness. For a company such as Eletech, expertise does not consist merely in knowing these components, but in being able to select, integrate and adapt them to the customer’s specific application, turning a technological possibility into a concrete product function.
This is precisely one of the most significant aspects to emerge at Embedded World: the artificial intelligence showcased at the event is artificial intelligence directly applied to the product, designed to solve real needs. It is a technology that can find application in very different sectors, precisely because it works according to the logic of the specific application.
Alongside embedded AI, another major theme observed at the exhibition concerns the world of wireless connectivity. There is, in fact, a wide range of wireless solutions that can be integrated into the finished product and that Eletech and Elemaster can use to offer customers increasingly advanced services, where this type of requirement exists.
The objective is not only to connect the machine, but also to make it smarter, more intelligent and more efficient, in other words capable of building a historical memory of its own operation and improving its performance through sensing and the use of integrated coprocessors, able to make the most of the quantity of data collected.
The concept of wireless connection also serves to enable a further level of performance development, not only locally but also in the cloud, within the company or, in any case, in an environment external to the machine itself.
Also of great interest is the world of System on Module (SOM) solutions. The exhibition clearly showed how these modules have become increasingly compact and quicker to integrate and develop, in order to respond to the growing needs of the market: on the one hand the need to reduce space, and on the other the need to accelerate time-to-market.
According to what emerged at the exhibition, there is a strong push towards the miniaturisation of these modules, given the current need for electronics to fit into increasingly constrained spaces and to respond to time-to-market requirements that are becoming ever more decisive.
For those developing new devices, this translates into a concrete opportunity to accelerate design and reduce footprint, while at the same time maintaining good application flexibility.
All this takes on even greater significance when viewed from the perspective of the markets in which Elemaster Group operates. The technologies seen at Embedded World, in fact, do not remain theoretical exercises or stand demonstrations: they can find application in many real fields, from medical to railway and transportation, from avionics and aerospace to automation and energy, through to high-tech mobility, all sectors in which the Group operates.
From design to production: the value of an integrated supply chain
In this scenario, Eletech and Elemaster position themselves as the link connecting the potential of the components available on the market with the creation of a concrete electronic product. The company is able to design, integrate, validate and produce solutions developed on the basis of the customer’s specific requirements. Added to this is an important distinguishing element: the in-house availability of tools, expertise and laboratories that make it possible to accelerate development and validation activities, reducing intermediate steps and making the path from design to industrialised product smoother.
It is an approach that enhances the product life cycle, in which the project does not stop at the concept or design stage, but continues through technical verification, compliance with reference standards and transition to Elemaster’s production capability. It is precisely this long-term continuity that strengthens the Group’s value proposition: not only to devise an electronic solution, but to accompany it through all the stages that make it ready for the market.
A further interesting aspect concerns the model of collaboration with the customer. Eletech operates with great flexibility, adapting both to projects developed from scratch and to co-design paths. In some cases, the customer already has strong expertise in its own product and requires targeted support on a specific portion of the system. In other cases, by contrast, the customer knows the application environment well but does not have the necessary electronic expertise in-house, and therefore relies on Eletech for the complete development of the solution.
This ability to work both as a co-design partner and as a full-service counterpart is one of the most significant strengths. It makes it possible to respond to very different needs while always maintaining the same attention to technical quality, integration and coherence with the final product.
Embedded World as a catalyst for electronic design innovation
In light of all this, Embedded World can be seen as something more than a simple technology update exhibition. For Eletech, it represents a genuine stimulus for ideas, a place in which to observe component evolution at close quarters, identify new application opportunities and enrich its know-how with tools useful for future projects.
Ultimately, participation in Embedded World confirms the ability of Eletech and Elemaster Group to operate at the point where component innovation, design expertise and industrial vision meet. It is there that a new technology begins to become part of a real product, designed, validated and ready to be brought into production.