Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1538449
Security has become a significant concern over recent years. The rise of cybersecurity threats has increased awareness of our infrastructure's vulnerability. As a result, the European Union introduced legislation known as the Cyber Resilience Act, which will place additional responsibilities on manufacturers and suppliers. Companies are embracing the use of edge AI to keep their data services within their own networks and to reduce their vulnerability to cyberattacks. Understanding the Pitfalls of Overengineering The attractiveness of AI can lead designers toward unnecessary complexity. In many cases, customers may believe that they need an AI solution, but not every application requires it. Many operations can use more traditional computational methods such as decision trees, finite state machines (FSMs), or signal processing algorithms. These techniques provide autonomy without the need for AI, as we've seen in the example of the robot vacuum cleaner. Adopting an AI solution into a design such as the robot vacuum cleaner would be needlessly expensive. Even in applications that require more flexibility, adopting an MPU-based solution—with its higher costs, higher power consumption, and longer development cycles—may be unnecessary. Highly complex AI also requires new disciplines. Customers will need the expertise of AI scientists to gather the data required to train an AI model, alongside the services of the applications engineer to implement it. Redefining What Is Possible with MCUs The MCU offers a highly capable alternative to traditional MPUs in factory-based situations. C h a p t e r 1 | I n t e l l i g e n c e a n d A u t o n o my o n t h e Fa c t o r y F l o o r My advice to teams exploring edge AI and autonomy is to start small and scale gradually. Build it block by block, system by system, and test the platforms along the way." Allan Lagasca Smart Industrials Segment Leader, STMicroelectronics 9 Autonomy Meets Intelligence: Enabling the Future of Factory Automation