AI-based automation research work from ABB wins Best Paper Award at prestigious IFAC EAAS workshop The research results of a joint partnership between ABB’s Corporate Research Center in Germany and the R&D units of its Energy Industries division have won an important industry award at the inaugural IFAC EAAS Workshop, held in Padova, Italy, as part of the IFAC Joint Conference on Computers, Cognition and Communication (J3C). Organized by the IFAC Technical Committee 3.1 “Computers for Control,” the event brought together leading experts in automation, artificial intelligence, and control technologies to explore the future of engineering.
Driving innovation through research
A dedicated team of ABB researchers contributed several technical presentations to the workshop. Their work highlighted ABB’s commitment to innovative advancements in automation engineering and showcased the company’s deep expertise in AI, digitalization and intelligent systems.
Award-winning contribution
The standout moment during the workshop was recognition of ABB’s publication “The Engineering Data Funnel: Knowledge-enhanced, Agentic-AI-based Data Processing for Automation Engineering”, which received the IFAC EAAS Best Paper Award. Co-authored by Dr. Nicolai Schoch, Dr. Mohamed Elsheikh, Mario Hoernicke, Nika Strem, Katharina Stark, Dr. Sebastian Palacio and Virendra Ashiwal, the paper reflects ABB’s leadership in integrating agentic AI into engineering workflows. This approach streamlines data processing and enhances the efficiency and intelligence of automation systems.
Engineers often receive complex plant design documents in formats like PDFs or drawings, which are hard to convert into digital formats needed for automation software. This creates a process that is currently slow, manual, and error-prone. The Engineering Data Funnel (EDF) is a new AI-based system that automatically transforms these unstructured documents into structured data by combining expert knowledge with multiple AI models that check and coordinate each other’s work. This structured output can then serve as the foundation for a digital twin of the plant – saving time, reducing mistakes and supporting the entire lifecycle of industrial facilities.
Shaping the conversation on modular automation
ABB’s influence extended beyond research contributions. Mario Hoernicke served as Chair and Katharina Stark as Co-Chair of the dedicated session on “Modular Automation and Engineering Workflows”. Their leadership helped guide discussions on flexible, modular, and AI-driven engineering solutions – key themes in the evolution of industrial automation.
A vision for the future
The active participation and recognition of ABB’s Corporate Research Center Germany at the IFAC EAAS Workshop underscore its position at the forefront of automation innovation. By driving research in digitalization, modularization and AI-based engineering, ABB continues to pave the way for smarter, more efficient industrial systems.
