Archives for April 12, 2017

Toyota demonstrates robot to make elderly people walk faster

April 12, 2017 by Sam Francis

By Naomi Tajitsu, Reuters

Japanese automakers are looking beyond the industry trend to develop self-driving cars and turning their attention to robots to help keep the country’s rapidly graying society on the move.

Toyota said it saw the possibility of becoming a mass producer of robots to help the elderly in a country whose population is ageing faster than the rest of the world as the birthrate decreases.

The country’s changing demographics place its automakers in a unique situation. Along with the issues usually associated with falling populations such as labor shortages and pension squeezes, Japan also faces dwindling domestic demand for cars.

Toyota, the world’s second largest automaker, made its first foray into commercializing rehabilitation robots on Wednesday, launching a rental service for its walk assist system, which helps patients to learn how to walk again after suffering strokes and other conditions. [Read more…] about Toyota demonstrates robot to make elderly people walk faster

Universal Robots partners with Nissan to increase manufacturing productivity through collaborative robots

April 12, 2017 by Sam Francis

Universal Robots says Nissan has simplified processes, reduced relief worker costs and stabilised production output through deployment of the company’s UR10 cobots

Universal Robots says the Nissan Motor Company has successfully deployed Universal Robots’ UR10 robot arms at its Yokohama factory.

The automaker joins other global automotive manufacturers including BMW and Volkswagen who are using Universal Robots’ collaborative robots (cobots) to automate their processes.

Universal Robots says that through the deployment of its cobots, Nissan has enhanced its production processes, resulting in a higher level of output and stability as well as time and cost efficiencies. Nissan’s ageing workforce also enjoy a reduced workload, and were redeployed to less strenuous tasks. [Read more…] about Universal Robots partners with Nissan to increase manufacturing productivity through collaborative robots

Aerospace industry places unique demands on holemaking technology

April 12, 2017 by Sam Francis

Plan ahead to get tooling that can handle today’s new materials, say Nate Craine and Greg Torres, of Allied Machine & Engineering

The aerospace industry is bigger than ever. As more and more people rely on air transport, the Airbus Global Market Forecast predicts the need for 33,000 new passenger and freighter aircraft in the next 20 years.

Between recent space endeavors and increasing air traffic, fabricators are constantly faced with new problems to solve.

In aerospace, the parts needed are often unique or newly designed and the deadlines are tight. With materials constantly changing, fabricators must be able to create new ways of safely and effectively drilling through them in as short a time as possible. [Read more…] about Aerospace industry places unique demands on holemaking technology

EIT Digital launches ‘Robot IoT Interface’ solution

April 12, 2017 by Sam Francis

EIT Digital has launched what it calls a “Robot IoT Interface”, a new technology project being developed with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Poitiers-based startup Agileo Automation.

The goal of the technology is to enable different kind of robots and machines to connect to different cloud platforms.

Agileo’s managing director, Marc Engel, says: “Robots and machines may produce data in a standard or non- standard format according to their internal controller.

“The devised solution is a generic gateway that can receive the produced data, translate it into an OPC-UA model and then make it available in an IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) platform located in the cloud.” [Read more…] about EIT Digital launches ‘Robot IoT Interface’ solution