In the rapidly accelerating landscape of Industry 4.0, the tools used to design, simulate, and maintain machinery are just as critical as the hardware itself. For engineers and system integrators working within the B&R (Bernecker + Rainer) ecosystem, the release of Automation Studio 7.1 in 2021 represented a significant milestone. As the central engineering environment for B&R—which became an integral part of the ABB family following its acquisition—Automation Studio serves as the nervous system for a vast array of complex machinery. This essay explores the significance of Automation Studio 7.1, analyzing its features, the technological improvements introduced in the 2021 release, and the broader implications for the field of industrial automation.
Automation Studio 7.1 runs on VMware Workstation or VirtualBox only if hardware virtualization and 3D acceleration are enabled. Automation Studio 7.1 2021 Download
: Available at the B&R Industrial Automation portal. In the rapidly accelerating landscape of Industry 4