Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for September 7, 2017

Coca-Cola orders robotic warehouse system from Swisslog

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Swisslog has secured an order for the first of its PowerStore intralogistics systems from Coca-Cola Malaysia.

As part of Coca-Cola Malaysia’s investment of RM500 million ($119 million) to expand the size and production capacity of its current plant at Bandar Enstek, the company has commissioned Swisslog for a flexible, robotic, data-driven automated warehouse for intralogistics.

This will make it the first Swisslog PowerStore system in South East Asia.  [Read more…] about Coca-Cola orders robotic warehouse system from Swisslog

Cambridge Medical unveils its new surgical robot

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Cambridge Medical Robotics, which is developing a surgical robot, has released the first photographs of the system, Versius.

The images show the “revolutionary” design of the robot, including its “highly versatile” surgical bio-mimicking arms.

The release of the photographs marks a major milestone, says CMR, which aims to make minimal access surgery available to all the estimated 6 million people a year who could benefit and make it easier for laparoscopic surgeons to learn and perform the technique.  [Read more…] about Cambridge Medical unveils its new surgical robot

US politicians approve driverless car bill

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The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to create a national framework for the development and testing of driverless cars. 

Until now, the situation has been that each individual state deals with automakers which want to test and develop autonomous cars in their area.

The new measure would allow automakers to acquire permits for up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards, according to Reuters.  [Read more…] about US politicians approve driverless car bill

Taiwan to develop ‘affordable’ industrial robots for factories and warehouses

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The Industrial Technology Research Institution of Taiwan says it is working with local manufacturers to develop what it says will be more “affordable” robots for factories and warehouses – in other words, collaborative robots.

This is according to a report in the Taipei Times.

Patrick Yu, acting division director of ITRI’s mechanical and mechatronics systems research labs, is quoted on the website as saying: “Traditional industrial robots are suitable for large-scale production lines. They need a lot of space and cost a lot of money, which small and medium-sized enterprises cannot afford.”

Traditional robots – the large industrial machines which tend to be caged off and require separate computers to run them, called programmable logic controllers – are said to be too big and expensive for a lot of smaller companies, says ITRI.  [Read more…] about Taiwan to develop ‘affordable’ industrial robots for factories and warehouses

John Deere to buy lettuce farming robot maker Blue River Technology

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John Deere, the farming machinery giant, has reached a deal to buy lettuce farming robot maker Blue River Technology for $305 million. 

Blue River also provides a range of other technology solutions – such as a weed killing machine, drone sensing and phenotyping solutions – to the precision agriculture sector, principally using machine learning.

The lettuce farming robot is called LettuceBot, and is one of the company’s newer products.

John May, president, agricultural solutions, and chief information officer at Deere, says: “We welcome the opportunity to work with a Blue River Technology team that is highly skilled and intensely dedicated to rapidly advancing the implementation of machine learning in agriculture.  [Read more…] about John Deere to buy lettuce farming robot maker Blue River Technology