Advantech: Investing in Edge AI Innovation to Drive an Intelligent Future

In today's data-driven era, AI has become the core force driving the transformation of all industries. With the continuous advancement of technology, the application scenarios of AI have expanded from the cloud to the edge. As an emerging technology trend, Edge AI is bringing revolutionary changes to industrial automation, smart cities, smart healthcare and other fields with its unique data processing capabilities and real-time response advantages.

Advantech, with advanced technology in the fields of industrial automation and the Internet of Things, is standing at the forefront of the Edge AI technology innovation. Facing increasingly complex market demands and evolving industry challenges, Advantech not only provides a series of Edge AI software and hardware solutions, but also aims to build a more intelligent, efficient and sustainable future.

In in-depth exchanges with the media, China Industrial Control Network, with its unique perspective and professional industry knowledge, revealed how Advantech leads industry trends, responds to challenges, and provides insights into future technology development and application scenarios through its Edge AI solutions.

Software and hardware integration innovation, focusing on the Edge AI segment

The expected growth of the edge AI market heralds a new era of technological innovation and application expansion. Advantech divides edge AI into two categories: traditional automated edge AI and AIGC edge AI. This strategic classification reflects Advantech's accurate grasp of market demand. With the in-depth development of edge computing, the differentiated demand for computing power is becoming increasingly significant, and the computing power and functional requirements of edge AI in different industries are heterogeneous.

Against this backdrop, Advantech is strengthening its presence in key areas such as smart factories, smart healthcare, and smart energy through precise market positioning and segmentation strategies. This targeted solution strategy not only meets customers' needs for diversified and personalized services, but also consolidates Advantech's prominent position in the field of edge AI. By deeply exploring the characteristics and needs of various industries, Advantech can provide more tailored products and services, thereby maintaining its advantage in the fierce market competition.

The product manager further pointed out that Advantech's success lies not only in its keen insight into the market, but also in its persistence in vertical industry development. Advantech focuses on developing customized solutions that can meet the needs of specific industries. This deep customization capability comes from the company's in-depth understanding and long-term development of various industries.

At a time when the demand for differentiated computing power is growing, the software and hardware design of edge AI must be more flexible and customized to adapt to various industry-specific application scenarios. Advantech, which started out as a hardware company, has accumulated deep technical strength and rich industry experience at the hardware level over the years. At the same time, it has actively expanded in the software field and is committed to achieving a deep integration of software and hardware. According to Ju Jian, Advantech's software integration is divided into two categories: one is the integration of operating systems and platform software. While launching related hardware, Advantech provides corresponding operating systems and AI edge platform software for customers to use; the other is the integration of edge AI applications. Advantech has launched industrial AI solutions for image recognition technology in traditional industrial fields, and has also developed knowledge bases and data processing software in the AIGC field.

In promoting the integrated development of edge AI and AIGC technologies, Advantech not only focuses on technological innovation, but also pays more attention to how to implement these innovations and make them a practical force to promote the digital transformation of enterprises. Ju Jian mentioned that Advantech actively adjusts its AIGC products to lower the threshold for medium-sized enterprises to enter the AIGC field. By integrating and packaging hardware architecture, software architecture and rich industry experience, Advantech provides customers with a complete set of out-of-the-box solutions, greatly reducing the trial and error costs of customers in the process of AI fine-tuning and training.

In order to further accelerate the construction and innovation of AI applications, Advantech has specially created the WISE-AI Agent intelligent platform. The platform includes three core services: AgentBuilder integrated intelligent development platform, Datalnsight data integration and intelligent analysis platform, and KB Insight intelligent knowledge management system. Through natural language interaction, data value mining, multimodal data intelligent analysis, autonomous decision-making planning and intelligent control, and zero-code methods, AI application construction becomes faster and more convenient. It is widely used in factory environment, safety and sanitation, intelligent management of production lines, smart energy saving, data intelligent analysis, intelligent knowledge management, AI education training and scientific research, supply chain intelligent management and other scenarios, providing strong support for the digitalization and intelligent transformation of industrial enterprises.

From safety to energy saving, building a sustainable future

In today's digital age, the security and energy efficiency of edge devices are receiving unprecedented attention. As an industrial IoT solution provider, Advantech is well aware of its heavy responsibility in the field of Edge AI. In the face of malware infiltration and security flaws that edge devices may suffer, Advantech has adopted a multi-layered security strategy.

The product manager mentioned: First, Advantech's software platform has passed the cybersecurity certification of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which ensures the security of its software foundation. Secondly, Advantech uses whitelist technology, which is a more stringent security measure than traditional antivirus software. Whitelist technology only allows pre-approved software to run, thereby greatly improving the security of industrial control systems. The application of this technology not only reduces potential security threats, but also provides a solid guarantee for the stable operation of industrial IoT devices.

In terms of improving energy efficiency, Advantech also relies on its remarkable innovation capabilities to actively integrate the concepts of low-carbon environmental protection and sustainable development into product design and solutions. Ju Jian said that Advantech paid special attention to two key indicators, power consumption and noise, when designing Edge AI solutions. In order to meet the needs of different scenarios, Advantech provides a variety of hardware configurations to balance the CPU and AI computing power to ensure that the equipment meets application requirements without excessive energy consumption. For example, in scenarios with low computing power requirements such as street patrol cars, Advantech uses a low-power ARM architecture solution. In scenarios with higher computing power requirements, the noise level of the equipment in different environments is ensured to be acceptable by reasonably selecting fans and cooling solutions.

In addition, Advantech is constantly optimizing its hardware design to achieve lower noise and higher reliability. In noise-sensitive environments such as medical, Advantech's fanless structure design not only reduces noise but also improves the stability of the equipment. With the development of technology, Advantech is also gradually transferring more AI computing power to low-power architectures such as ARM, which not only improves energy efficiency but also reduces costs.

Building a complete edge AI ecosystem from the bottom layer to the cloud

In today's rapidly evolving technology and market environment, ecosystem construction is crucial to the sustainable development and market influence of enterprises. With the continuous advancement of edge computing and AI technology, Advantech is actively building its own ecosystem development circle to enhance the market competitiveness of its Edge AI solutions.

According to Ju Jian, Advantech's ecological construction strategy starts from the underlying computer hardware and has established solid partnerships with many industry leaders. At the operating system level, Advantech has long-term cooperation with Microsoft, Ubuntu, SUSE, and domestically produced systems Kylin and Tongxin to ensure the diversity and compatibility of its products. The support of these partners provides a solid software foundation for Advantech's Edge AI solutions.

At the hardware level, Advantech cooperates with well-known hardware suppliers such as Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, NXP, Rockchip, and Nvidia to ensure the high performance and reliability of its products. The hardware technical support of these partners enables Advantech to provide customized Edge AI solutions that meet the needs of different industries.

In addition to hardware and software collaboration, Advantech has also established a close partnership with cloud service provider Microsoft Azure. The integration of the cloud platform not only provides customers with more flexibility and scalability, but also provides Advantech's Edge AI solutions with powerful data processing and storage capabilities.

Advantech's ecological development circle is not limited to technology and products, but also includes comprehensive support for customers. Ju Jian emphasized that no matter what problems customers encounter in the operating system, development environment or ARM architecture, Advantech has a strong support team to provide direct support and services. This customer-centric service concept not only enhances customer trust, but also establishes a good reputation for Advantech in the market.