ABB is a technology oriented international conglomerate, serving manufacturing, process and consumer industries, utilities and the oil and gas sector, with 160000 employees in more than 100 countries and revenues of about 24 billion of US dollars.

Further, ABB Corporate Research Ltd is one of the ABB research centers world-wide, with 170 employees, supporting the operating companies by furnishing them with fundamental research, new technologies and innovative solutions for future product generations. The fields covered at ABB Corporate Research Ltd include (a) Automation, (b) Electric Power Technologies, (c) Engineering Systems, (d) Computer aided Information Processing and (e) Electronics and Instruments. ABB Corporate Research has extensive collaborations with leading universities and leading research institutes within the EU and world-wide. Research strategies and priorities are determined jointly by the group research management team and the business units involved.

ABB is continuously looking into ways to improve the distribution and transmission of power. ABB's main expertise in this field is in insulation, current conduction, limitation and interruption, electromagnetic interference and electrical systems engineering. The Automation and Information Technologies Group at ABB Corporate Research Ltd in Baden, Switzerland is one of the driving departments in these developments. The group has considerable expertise on applications of modern control technologies to power plants, railroad equipment, power electronics and electrical systems.