The importance of Advanced Automation Technologies has increased exponentially across a range of industries, driving radical transformations in production, research and development. These technologies are redefining how we interact with the digital and physical world, with applications ranging from cutting-edge scientific research to high-precision industrial processes, and their adoption promises to improve efficiency, safety and sustainability across a wide range of sectors, laying the foundation for a more connected and efficient future.

February 28, 2025

9:00: One of the most prominent examples of the influence of advanced automation is found at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research), the global epicentre for particle physics research. In this context, automation is crucial for the construction, operation and maintenance of highly complex critical scientific experiments, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where robots and automated systems are used to control accelerator conditions, manage data and perform repetitive or dangerous tasks with extremely high safety requirements.

Borja Fernández, a researcher at CERN, will introduce us to several of the topics in a conference divided into two parts: In the first, he will review the objectives, facilities, experiments and achievements of CERN during its 70 years of history and will address the future of CERN in the medium and long term, going on to talk about Control Systems for particle accelerators and other industrial facilities at CERN, showing as an example the Cryogenics system of the "Large Hadron Collider".

In the second part, he will address the safety standards and the techniques used to guarantee the correct operation of critical systems, ending the conference with a discussion on the present and future in the research of mathematical techniques capable of guaranteeing the operation of the programs of critical control systems.

March 7, 2025

9:00: There are currently many companies and research centres involved in the development of automated driving, achieving advances that have been enhanced by the emergence of artificial intelligence techniques.

Ray Lattarulo, researcher at Tecnalia Research & Innovation, will offer us, in this conference, a comprehensive understanding of automated driving, starting with a tour of its historical evolution to contextualise current advances. He will then go on to analyse in detail the perception and decision-making algorithms used in autonomous vehicles, and will conclude by showing us where the next steps are headed.

11:30: In this presentation, Jorge Macías, Head of the Hot Rolling Department at Aludium, will explain how the different automation, regulation and process control techniques, as well as predictive models, have their application in the aluminium industry. He will then discuss the modelling of the behaviour of the rolling mill and the transformation of aluminium, predictive regulation systems and how perception systems, among other techniques, improve processes in critical installations of the factory, such as the plate milling machine, the rolling mills, the leveller, etc. This leads to significant savings in time and resources, and the production of a high-quality product. This significant reduction in production costs forces those responsible to make adjustments and reviews periodically to refine and optimise them.

April 4, 2025

9:30: The first lecture, given by Roberto Sánchez, Project Engineer at Ingemat and alumnus of the INCAR Master's program, focuses on understanding how an Industrial Automation engineer connects with a project development company and what their work in the Automation and Control department is like. His presentation includes some successful examples of completed projects.

11:30: The increasing complexity of multiple manufacturing processes hampers the expansion of automation in large industrial sectors. Specifically, the limited flexibility of commercial robotic solutions and automated cells to adapt to highly dynamic environments or operations, as well as to unstructured or overly flexible processes, is pushing the industry to further explore the need for shared work environments in which autonomous robotic systems collaborate with human workers to provide the necessary adaptability and flexibility to the system. In this context, Gorka Sorrosal, a researcher in the Control and Robotics Group at the Ikerlan Technology Center, will present control technologies and strategies applied to robotic systems that enhance the native capabilities of commercial robotics, giving robots greater cognitive capacity. These solutions are part of the results of several industrial and research projects and will be exhibited during the conference, demonstrating that advances toward empathetic robotics with its human co-workers are key to improving both the efficiency of complex manufacturing processes and the working conditions of human operators.

May 9, 2025

9:30 a.m.: Conference “ ” by Jon Juez (Petronor)

Coffee break

11:30 a.m.: Conference “ ” by Rafael González (Petronor)