J.V. Manufacturing started our relationship with the Makino ATHENA team in January 2019.
We were proud to serve as the first beta tester for the groundbreaking ATHENA system, which offers voice controls that assist the operator and augments machine operation to help address offset industry skillset issues. Since the beginning, J.V. Manufacturing has worked closely with Makino to help to develop ATHENA around the needs of the machine operator.
ATHENA assists the operator with a wide range of machine functions and skills, including:
• Controlling: Set-up and run the machine
• Reporting: Ask for important machine metrics
• Calculating: Manage critical data and tool life
• Coaching: Access manuals, specs, codes, informative videos
• Anticipating: Receive notification of cycle completion
• Repairing: Send e-mails to maintenance
People interact with technology using voice commands in their daily life using smartphones and other home electronic appliances, and we have come to accept and utilize voice-driven technology at a growing rate. This is certainly the wave of the future, and it is a technology that the new generation of workers will intuitively adopt and quickly put to practical use. ATHENA utilizes existing voice-recognition technology and innovatively applies it to the machine interface. This capability empowers a new world of possibilities on the shop floor, as ATHENA can tap into all of the machine operational and process data.
The introduction of ATHENA profoundly changes the way we interface and interact with a machine via voice control, and this technology will only grow and expand its impact on manufacturing. We have just passed through the technological threshold of machine voice control, and there will come a day sooner than later when we won’t be able to imagine not talking to our machines.
Learn more about Makino’s ATHENA system, here.