How intelligent technologies – including smart pneumatics, AI-driven maintenance and integrated sensors – are driving the next evolution in fluid power.

As fluid power systems continue to serve as the backbone of industrial automation, they are increasingly becoming smarter, more integrated and easier to maintain. Once considered a conservative segment of the automation world, today fluid power is embracing major technological change, particularly in areas like digitalization, AI and intelligent sensor integration.

To help explore these current fluid power innovations, Design Engineering spoke with Robert Michalik, Technical Support Agent at Festo Inc., one of the industry’s leading automation companies. With more than 25 years of experience in pneumatics and fluid power, Michalik shares his deep insights into the shifting landscape of fluid power systems, and how Canadian machine builders, design engineers and OEMs can benefit.

Digitalization and smart sensors

According to Michalik, one of the most impactful trends currently in fluid power is the integration of smart sensors directly into valve terminals and pneumatic components. It’s a shift that he says presents a wide range of benefits to users, enabling a more efficient and cost-effective approach to fluid power.

“Our industry has always been very conservative,” says Michalik. “People stick to what they know, but now we’re seeing real traction with smart integration, and it’s making a big difference.”

Festo’s VTEM and VTUX valve terminals highlight this shift. The VTEM is as Michalik describes it, “the iPhone of valve terminals,” which features embedded proportional pressure regulators and advanced diagnostics in one compact unit. And its VTUX integrates onboard pressure sensors and vacuumgenerators, allowing for automatic pressure control and real-time monitoring.

“This innovation is transformational,” he asserts. “By building sensors into the components themselves, we’re helping machine builders simplify wiring, reduce commissioning time and significantly cut integration costs.”

Predictive Maintenance takes the lead

Despite the clear value that integrated smart sensors present, Michalik goers on to explain that perhaps the most promising application of AI-enhanced fluid power lies in predictive maintenance, which allows engineers to monitor component performance in real time and anticipate failures before they happen.

“Twenty-five years ago, predictive maintenance was a clipboard,” jokes Michalik. “Now, with condition monitoring built right into components like our vacuum generators, you can detect performance degradation and act before downtime hits.”

It’s an innovation that Michalik explains is particularly important in systems that are otherwise invisible to operators. By using integrated sensors and machine learning models, Festo’s components can self-monitor cycle times, pressure levels and performance deviations, issuing alerts when systems begin to underperform.

“We’ve moved from statistical failure estimates to actual real-time insights from your own application and environment,” he says. “It’s a huge leap forward.”

Efficiency and sustainability through smart air management

Energy savings is also a top priority for Festo, Michalik says, driving much of the innovation happening within the company. Its E2M modules, integrated into air preparation units, gather data on airflow and consumption in real time, providing a clearer picture of how a machine is using compressed air.

“You don’t need to change how your operators work,” he says. “The system learns when your machine is idle and adjusts automatically, reducing unnecessary air usage by up to 50 per cent. Combined with AI-based feedback, this approach helps users fine-tune their systems for sustainability and total cost of ownership, which are two growing concerns among manufacturers and OEMs.”

Plug-and-play and the rise of the digital twin

Festo is also placing significant focus on addressing the long-standing issue of design complexity in fluid power by offering digital tools and pre-configured solutions. From sizing software to digital twins, engineers can now virtually test and validate fluid power components before they’re ever installed.

“Everything around the component is changing,” explains Michalik. “The actuator may stay the same, but now we wrap it in digital intelligence that learns from your specific application.”

Festo’s AX AI platform is at the forefront of this digital transformation, collecting and analyzing data from standard actuators without requiring hardware changes, enabling adaptive performance adjustments and more accurate failure predictions.

Process optimization and smarter systems

Although predictive maintenance is clearly the most significant current development and beneficial application for AI in fluid power, Michalik sees a broader, and perhaps more impactful, set of uses ahead in which AI is used not just for component monitoring, but for system-wide process optimization.

“The future is about optimizing at the system level, not just the component level,” he asserts. “AI will eventually learn how your entire process works and find ways to make it better.”

This vision doesn’t require an overhaul of existing machinery, he says. Instead, it relies on building a digital architecture around familiar components, bringing intelligence into systems without increasing design burden.

A smart future for a traditional industry

In a world increasingly driven by data, automation and efficiency, fluid power is quietly, intelligently and powerfully presenting a means to meet these demands. And, as Michalik points out, from the use of integrated sensors to AI-powered insights, the future of pneumatics and fluid power is being reshaped not by revolutionary components, but by smart thinking and intelligent design.

“We’re not radically changing how things look. But we are completely changing how they behave, and how much value they deliver.”