Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for February 20, 2018

From academia to business: Making robotics as big as the computer industry

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In this exclusive interview, Dr Andrew Goldenberg, founder and chief technology officer of Engineering Services Inc, and currently also the chief technology officer of publicly listed Super Robotics Ltd of Hong Kong and of Anzer Intelligent Engineering of Shenzhen, China offers his perspective

When you’ve been in the robotics and automation industry for more than 35 years, you tend to form opinions that other people want to hear and learn from – even if those opinions are not entirely complimentary to the listener. 

Dr Andrew Goldenberg is professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and chief technology officer at Super Robotics, Engineering Services, and Anzer Intelligent Engineering – all part of the same group – and he’s an avid reader of Robotics and Automation News.

But just because he likes many things about the website doesn’t mean he agrees with some of our more “offbeat” articles, as we call them – the possibility of alien robots from Planet X infiltrating life on Earth and so on.  [Read more…] about From academia to business: Making robotics as big as the computer industry

Fraunhofer demonstrates lightweight robot that can harvest cucumbers

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Progress in the field of robotic agricultural technology continues apace as German research institute Fraunhofer demonstrates what it says is a lightweight robot that can harvest cucumbers. 

Fraunhofer developed the robot as part of the European Union’s Catch project, which is aimed at developing robotic solutions for agriculture, especially cucumber-picking.

Fraunhofer says its robot has the potential to keep crop cultivation commercially viable in Germany, where labour costs are high and farming can be expensive.  [Read more…] about Fraunhofer demonstrates lightweight robot that can harvest cucumbers

Material handling equipment supplier Nitco opens expanded facility in New Hampshire

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Material handling equipment supplier North Industrial Truck Company has opened a new and expanded facility in Concord, New Hampshire. 

The new site is designed to showcase the company’s forklifts, construction equipment, warehouse solutions, and other products.

Nitco says the new facility provides a “huge showroom” for its “cutting-edge” industrial equipment, as well as an expanded shop for top technicians working on the machinery.  [Read more…] about Material handling equipment supplier Nitco opens expanded facility in New Hampshire

Steel fabricator makes intelligent upgrade

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Zalk Josephs Fabricators is a structural steel fabricator that specializes in the commercial market in the upper Midwest of the USA. It uses CNC systems for sawing, drilling and plate processing. It wanted to move to a more integrated and automated approach.

Chris Simonson, president of Zalk Josephs Fabricators, says: “Ficep was able to assist in this process by going through numerous plant layouts where the Ficep software was used to simulate past jobs showing real time productivity and exposing material handling bottlenecks.

“As we were going from stand-alone machines to combined drill/saw and drilling/coping, we needed to be convinced that we could achieve the throughput required to feed our fit up area.”

[Read more…] about Steel fabricator makes intelligent upgrade

Kawasaki ‘Successor’ to expand human-robot remote collaboration

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Kawasaki Heavy Industries has a new robot system, Successor, that reproduces the movements of expert engineers through remote collaboration.

The company is first introducing the system into the robot manufacturing line at its Nishi-Kobe Works and will begin limited sales to select customers in FY2018, followed by general sales in FY2019.

Successor is a system that features newly-developed remote control devices that enable remote collaboration. Remote control will make it possible to apply robots to a wide range of fields, and the system is compatible with a wide range of Kawasaki robots.

[Read more…] about Kawasaki ‘Successor’ to expand human-robot remote collaboration

Universal Robots opens repair center in Shanghai

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Universal Robots‘ newly renovated location in Shanghai will handle all repair requests as well as house a complete inventory of spare parts for Universal Robots collaborative robot arms, servicing the entire China mainland region.

Universal Robots General Manager in China, Adam Sobieski, said: “In China, which is developing very fast, not only the system integrators but also the end users prefer just-in-time services and solutions,” he says.

With the 200 sqm new center in Shanghai and support from a local technical and application team, Universal Robots China says it is able to deliver a timely after-sales service locally.

[Read more…] about Universal Robots opens repair center in Shanghai