Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for March 28, 2019

GM to invest $300 million and add 400 jobs at Michigan plant

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General Motors is investing $300 million in its Orion Township, Michigan, assembly plant to produce a new Chevrolet electric vehicle that will bring 400 new jobs to the Orion plant.

The investment is part of GM’s new commitment to invest a total of $1.8 billion in its United States manufacturing operations, creating 700 new jobs and supporting 28,000 jobs across six states.

The new Chevrolet electric vehicle is in addition to the existing Chevrolet Bolt EV, further advancing GM’s commitment to an all-electric future.  [Read more…] about GM to invest $300 million and add 400 jobs at Michigan plant

Octopuz to demonstrate system for ‘simpler programming for industrial robots’

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Octopuz is planning to introduce the latest technologies in automatic toolpath solving at the Automate Show 2019, April 8-11 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

For years, Octopuz has provided the robotics market with an intelligent offline programming and simulation solution ideal for a wide range of industrial robots including Kuka, Fanuc, ABB, and Yaskawa Motoman.

Octopuz 2.1 redefines the standards in offline robotic programming by offering a simplified approach to solving toolpath trajectories.  [Read more…] about Octopuz to demonstrate system for ‘simpler programming for industrial robots’

Mitsubishi develops autonomous firefighting robots

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has developed two firefighting robots: the “Water Cannon Robot” and the “Hose Extension Robot”. (See video below.)

As a team, they are expected to play an active role in situations too hazardous for firefighting crews, such as fires at petrochemical plants.

The Water Cannon Robot can extinguish and cool fires where human intervention is difficult, while the Hose Extension Robot automatically lays out up to 300 metres of fire hose to supply water to the Water Cannon Robot.  [Read more…] about Mitsubishi develops autonomous firefighting robots

Volkswagen establishes new joint venture for connected services

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Volkswagen Brand China and its Chinese joint venture FAW-Volkswagen are scaling up their cooperation in the area of digitalisation and connectivity.

MOS Intelligent Connectivity Technology Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Volkswagen Group China and FAW-Volkswagen, will be established in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

The partners are investing a total of RMB 1 billion in the company that will operate under the MOSI brand (Mobile Online Services Intelligent).

[Read more…] about Volkswagen establishes new joint venture for connected services

Geek Plus Robotics to showcase driverless forklift and latest warehouse automation solutions at ProMat

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Geek Plus Robotics will be showcasing its latest and most advanced warehousing robotic solutions at ProMat 2019, the largest supply-chain trade show in the Americas, at Booth N6327, in Chicago, from April 8th to 11th.

New products include the C200 Bin-Carrying Robot Shuttle System, an Autonomous Forklift, and the OpenBox System, a platform to build and manage flexible moving lines in manufacturing and fully autonomous navigation in material handling.

Geek Plus will also demonstrate its M100 moving system and its wide range of cutting-edge technologies and AI-smart material handling robots for bins, pallets, boxes or single pieces – from goods receipt, unloading and storage, to picking, packing and order shipment.  [Read more…] about Geek Plus Robotics to showcase driverless forklift and latest warehouse automation solutions at ProMat

E-commerce in the USA: Fast-growing demand for warehouse robots

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The phrase “e-commerce in the USA” might immediately bring to mind the giant of the sector, Amazon, which is said to have received fully 40 percent of all online shopping orders over the Christmas period in the country.

It’s difficult to imagine how many orders and how much money that really is, but it’s not difficult to imagine Amazon being the winner – the company has been the biggest e-commerce platform in the US for many years.

Top 10 e-commerce companies in the US

According to eMarketer, Amazon has almost 50 percent of the US retail e-commerce market, as it showed in its list, which we reproduce below.  [Read more…] about E-commerce in the USA: Fast-growing demand for warehouse robots

Universal Robots go to work making oil burner parts

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Fluidics Instruments, a Dutch manufacturer of oil burner components, has taken collaborative robot deployment to the next level with seven UR3 cobots working in tandem on an assembly line producing 1,000 oil nozzles per hour.

The company has additional Universal Robots cobots on mobile platforms ready to address ever-changing tasks and has also developed a cobot-powered screw driving application.

With a total fleet of twelve cobots, Fluidics Instruments is constantly increasing production and sales despite the shortage of skilled workers.

[Read more…] about Universal Robots go to work making oil burner parts

NextShift Robotics to show ‘no-following or waiting’ robots at ProMat

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NextShift Robotics, a provider of autonomous mobile robot solutions for automated order fulfilment and warehouse materials management, will be demonstrating its No Following / No Waiting robotic workflow solution at ProMat 2019.

NextShift recently released a video highlighting some of the innovations they will be demonstrating at Promat 2019, to be held April 8-11, 2019 in Chicago, USA.

The company will demonstrate what it claims is a fundamentally different autonomous mobile robot workflow for material handling. The NextShift solution is based on robots that can load and unload containers autonomously.

[Read more…] about NextShift Robotics to show ‘no-following or waiting’ robots at ProMat