Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for May 11, 2018

MachineMetrics partners with Tsugami/Rem to market industrial IoT platform

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MachineMetrics and Tsugami/Rem Sales have entered a partnership to bring predictive manufacturing analytics and remote machine monitoring to customers across North America.

The MachineMetrics Industrial IoT manufacturing analytics platform, paired with Tsugami/Rem Sales’ Swiss-type machines will benefit end-user customers through improved production visibility, predictive analytics, and service.

Bill Bither, CEO of MachineMetrics, says: “For years now we have been working directly with manufacturers to improve manufacturing equipment uptime, OEE, and productivity with real-time machine monitoring and analytics.  [Read more…] about MachineMetrics partners with Tsugami/Rem to market industrial IoT platform

ABB and Heliospectra partner in the Middle East and Africa

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Technology collaboration to explore “innovative and sustainable control solutions” to increase horticultural and commercial food production

ABB and Heliospectra are joining forces to explore solutions that they say will boost the productivity and the sustainability of greenhouse and controlled environment agriculture produce industry in the Middle East and Africa.

ABB is an industrial giant with a big controls business, and Heliospectra is said to be a world leader in intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments.

The collaboration propels exploration of new food production technologies and commercial infrastructure to address increasing demand for sustainably grown agricultural products.  [Read more…] about ABB and Heliospectra partner in the Middle East and Africa

Protecting the environment with drones and robots

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New commercial and research roles for unmanned vehicles. By Peter Feuilherade for the International Electrotechnical Commission

History provides many instances of technologies developed for military application being spun off and used in the civilian sector for different, broader uses and at lower prices.

Drones and other unmanned powered vehicles are a good example.

The earliest recorded military action using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, dates back to 1849, when Austrian forces used pilotless balloons to drop bombs fitted with timed fuses on Italian revolutionaries besieged in Venice.

However, strong winds blew many of the “flying bombs” back across the city, and they fell on Austrian troops encamped on the mainland.  [Read more…] about Protecting the environment with drones and robots

Emerson releases new zoned safety valve island

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Emerson has introduced the ability to integrate multiple safety zones within a single ASCO Numatics Series 503 valve island.

This enables the creation of up to three independent electro-pneumatic safety zones, while also allowing independent non-safe sections to co-exist within one valve island assembly.

Alternative solutions enable the isolation of one zone only per island.  [Read more…] about Emerson releases new zoned safety valve island

Opinion: 3 tips for an augmented future of work

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By Gabe Batstone, co-founder and CEO, Contextere, an industrial software company

The unique human capabilities of curiosity, adaptability, and judgment are more important than ever before.

As intelligent machines are creeping into our world, harnessing and combining machine and human strength will lead to better results.

This holds true especially for the manufacturing and industrial sectors, as they are at an inflection point where humans and machines are learning to co-exist.  [Read more…] about Opinion: 3 tips for an augmented future of work

Segway Robotics raises more than $1 million on Indiegogo for new vehicle

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Segway Robotics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Segway-Ninebot Group, concluded what it says was a “successful” Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign this week, having raised $1.1 million in 50 days from 952 backers.

The initial goal of $100,000 was achieved less than 33 minutes after Segway Robotics started its crowdfunding campaign for Loomo, a smart machine that toggles between a mini personal transporter and mobile robot sidekick.

Loomo begins shipping to Indiegogo backers in late May and this will continue through the summer, with hundreds of Loomos to be shipped every week.  [Read more…] about Segway Robotics raises more than $1 million on Indiegogo for new vehicle

Festo credits digitalisation for record growth in 2017

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Festo recorded an increase in sales of over 12% to approximately €3.1 billion for the 2017 financial year. This positive development continued into the first quarter of 2018. The strongest driver of growth was the electronics industry.

With the “digital customer journey”, the company is placing the customers at the focus of its digitalisation strategy and is launching the first digital products on the market this year.

Festo reinforced its technological standing in late 2017 with the appointment to the Management Board of Dr. Frank Melzer, who will further advance the digitalisation of the core business and the future-oriented industries. The global workforce grew to 20,100.

[Read more…] about Festo credits digitalisation for record growth in 2017

B&R launches new generation of its industrial PC range

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Automation PC 2200 is the latest generation of B&R‘s 2000 series of compact industrial PCs. Equipped with Intel Atom processors from the Apollo Lake generation, the Automation PC 2200 is available in either box PC or panel PC format.

Despite its compact dimensions, the Automation PC 2200 is a full-fledged PC system. Available with either dual or quad core processors, the Automation PC 2200 offers fully scalable processing power.

Thanks to B&R Hypervisor, the Automation Runtime real-time operating system can run simultaneously alongside Windows 10 IoT Enterprise or Linux. The Automation PC 2200 is suitable as an IoT gateway or as a fully-fledged edge controller or edge device. [Read more…] about B&R launches new generation of its industrial PC range

Schaefer launches new warehouse management system

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SSI Schaefer is claiming to be ushering intralogistics into a new era of optimized performance and guaranteed maximum information transparency with WAMAS LRM, its new “Labour and Resource Management” system.

The intelligent system is said to look at everything from individual processes to the entire internal material flow in order to optimize procedures and productivity.

It is the latest addition to the range of  IT services based on proprietary logistics software WAMAS, developed by SSI Schaefer, a global provider of solutions for warehouse and logistics systems.

[Read more…] about Schaefer launches new warehouse management system

Panasonic’s Air Inventions wins technology design award 2018 at Milano Salone

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Panasonic‘s “Air Inventions” installation, showcasing a range of Panasonic’s technologies in air conditioning, audiovisual, and lighting, at Milano Salone, won the Best Technology Award at the Milano Design Award 2018.

The Milano Design Award is an official competition of the Milano Salone produced by the Fuori Salone and hosted by other organizers.

In 2018, they added five awards in addition to the grand prize. The “Best Technology Award” that Panasonic won this year is given to extraordinary solutions and proposals that help address and resolve pressing social issues.

[Read more…] about Panasonic’s Air Inventions wins technology design award 2018 at Milano Salone