Kyoto, Japan; Milwaukee, Wis.— Omron Corp. and Rockwell Automation announced April 3 that they have entered into a global technical and product cooperation agreement. Initial emphasis of the new relationship will be on developing, adopting, and promoting common technologies that simplify customer applications and improve performance of industrial automation systems from anywhere in the world. This cooperation is driven by the converging needs of worldwide automation customers. Rockwell Automation will provide technical assistance to Omron, resulting in rapid adoption of open standard technologies such as DeviceNet, ControlNet, and the recently announced Ethernet/IP (Industrial Protocol) into the Omron automation architecture..