Robotics & Automation News

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Seat and Grupo Sesé launch a parts delivery service using drones

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The Seat factory in Martorell is the first Spanish plant to receive components via drone delivery. In collaboration with Grupo Sesé, the Spanish carmaker has a pioneering service connecting Sesé’s logistics centre in Abrera with the Seat factory using drones.

The first parts delivery service between two production plants in Spain by drone will deliver steering wheels and airbags to the Seat assembly lines.

The pilot project is being carried out under the supervision of the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA) and will go forward in an experimental phase with several flights per day.

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Panasonic launches initiative to encourage ‘social integration of robots’

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Panasonic has launched an initiative to promote robot development via open co-creation. The “Robotics Hub” is the central axis of Panasonic’s quest to integrate robots into society in the near future.

Nine years ago, in 2010, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), one of the largest public research and development management organisations in Japan, released some very curious data.

In their future market projections of domestic robot turnout, they forecast a sharp expansion of robots in the services field by 2035. By “services field,” it is meant medical care, logistics, nursing and welfare, cleaning, security and so forth.

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Raytheon and United Technologies aerospace businesses to merge

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Raytheon Company and United Technologies have entered into an agreement to combine in an all-stock merger of equals.

The transaction will create a premier systems provider with advanced technologies to address rapidly growing segments within aerospace and defence.

The merger of Raytheon, a leading defence company, and United Technologies, a leading aerospace company, comprised of Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney, will offer a complementary portfolio of platform-agnostic aerospace and defence technologies.

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Mitsubishi Electric launches new lift and escalator company in Laos

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Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has established MELCO Elevator Lao Sole Co., Ltd. (MLAO) to accelerate its lift and escalator business growth in the highly promising Mekong regional market.

The new company, which was established by Mitsubishi Elevator (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (MET), a Mitsubishi Electric subsidiary, began operations on July 1, 2019.

The new company is expected to strengthen Mitsubishi Electric’s sales of lifts and escalators as well as related provision of high-quality maintenance services.

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Robert Bosch Venture Capital leads growth funding round in MegaRobo

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Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, is leading a growth financing round in MegaRobo. 

The Chinese high-tech robotic company with over 100 employees is headquartered in Beijing and integrates cutting-edge machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide modular automation solutions for lab automation, smart retail and light industrial sectors.

“MegaRobo’s technology increases efficiency in production automation. Already today, robots from MegaRobo are used for special applications in the end-of-line production of household appliances at Bosch”, says RBVC managing director Dr Ingo Ramesohl.

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Additive manufacturing to generate $100 billion in Asean by 2025, says ThyssenKrupp

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ThyssenKrupp has presented a white paper on additive manufacturing (AM) potential in the ASEAN region, titled Additive Manufacturing: Adding Up Growth Opportunities for ASEAN.

The white paper provides deep insights and perspectives on the state of additive manufacturing in the ten member countries of ASEAN. There is huge potential for the ASEAN market given its contribution to global manufacturing output.

The paper was developed by ThyssenKrupp with the support and contribution of a multidisciplinary team of experts and partners in Singapore including the global industrial 3D printing leader EOS and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC).

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Siemens sells electric aircraft-propulsion business to Rolls-Royce

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Siemens and Rolls-Royce have signed an agreement for the sale of Siemens’ eAircraft unit. Through its Vision 2020+ company strategy, Siemens intends to sharpen its portfolio’s focus.

Siemens said the company’s business with electric and hybrid-electric systems for aircraft will have substantially better growth perspectives with new owners closely connected to the aerospace industry.

Closing is subject to the usual conditions and is expected to take place in late 2019. The partners have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.

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Universal Robots certifies ATI’s automated tool changer QC-11

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ATI Industrial Automation’s QC-11 Automatic Tool Changer is a vital component of many robotic applications and is now certified to work with collaborative robots from Universal Robots.

The QC-11 enables automatic exchange of robotic end-effectors without any manual intervention. With an ATI Automatic Tool Changer, a robot can use multiple end-effectors in a single process.

Preceding the QC-11 in the UR+ program are ATI’s Axia80 Force/Torque Sensor and MC-10 Manual Tool Changer. There are more than 150 products in the UR+ portfolio featuring plug-and-play solutions for UR cobots.

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MiR releases new hardware versions of MiR100 and MiR200

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MiR has upgraded its MiR100 and MiR200 robots, to improve quality. The most visible change is that the front camera is replaced with two dual front cameras that increase the field of view.

Motor improvements and other minor improvements have also been implemented in these new models.

The company has introduced two new safety features: overspeed detection and cross speed check. These safety upgrades include full compliance with safety standards EN 1525:1997 and B56.5-2012.

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FedEx to use Dollar General stores for parcel drop-off and pick-up

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FedEx Corp. and Dollar General announced today a strategic alliance that will offer new, convenient access to FedEx drop-off and pickup services at thousands of Dollar General stores across the USA.

The effort is designed to increase access for all customers, particularly those living in rural communities.

FedEx and Dollar General plan to begin rolling out the service in more than 1,500 Dollar General stores in late summer 2019, building to a total of more than 8,000 stores by the end of 2020.

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