2005 may well be seen as a turning point for automation industry fortunes, with even Hurricane Katrina bringing benefits for some. Andrew Bond-looks at prospects for 2006 and identifies a couple of key technological drivers for growth. 2006 looks like being the best year for the global automation industry since fear of the millennium bug persuaded manufacturers to bring forward investment plans in the dying years of the last century. The hangover from that investment spree, combined with an overall slowdown in economic activity resulting at least in part from the puncturing of the dot.com bubble, meant five torrid years for automation vendors during which they were more likely to congratulate themselves on survival than to lament disappointing performance.
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