Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

David Edwards

German citizens to be given €1,200 a month for doing nothing

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German citizens are to be given €1,200 a month, or about $1,400, for doing nothing in an experiment to evaluate the effects of a concept called “universal basic income”.

Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is an idea that has been around for many years, and has many supporters and advocacy groups around the world, but was never really taken seriously in the past.

The notion of the government giving everyone in society a fixed regular amount of money whether they work or not sounds like a communist plot to take over the world. [Read more…] about German citizens to be given €1,200 a month for doing nothing

Panasonic to invest extra $100 million in battery-making factory in the US

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Panasonic is to invest an additional $100 million in a battery-making factory it is building in Nevada, US, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The so-called “Gigafactory 1” is currently equipped with 13 production lines, but the new investment will enable Panasonic to add an extra line and increase capacity by 10 percent.

The expansion is intended to boost the supply of batteries to automaker Tesla for its electric vehicles. The original agreement between the two companies stipulated that Panasonic builds and equips the facility to produce batteries, while Tesla provides and manages the land and utilities. [Read more…] about Panasonic to invest extra $100 million in battery-making factory in the US

Apple poised to become $2 trillion company

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US tech giant Apple is poised to become a $2 trillion company “very soon”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company was the first to achieve a trillion-dollar market capitalization a couple of years ago, and today is about 1 percent below the level needed to exceed $2 trillion.

Apple is somewhat different from other “tech” companies, by which is meant computer technology.Other such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others tend to be software-oriented. [Read more…] about Apple poised to become $2 trillion company

Warehouse automation company Attabotics raises $50 million in new funding

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Attabotics, a warehouse automation company, has raised $50 million in Series C funding.

The investment round was led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board through its Teachers’ Innovation Platform, along with existing investor Honeywell, and brings Attabotics’ total funding to $82.7 million,

Attabotics says the new money will be used to “further accelerate its commercialization, invest in new technologies, scale manufacturing operations, and more”. [Read more…] about Warehouse automation company Attabotics raises $50 million in new funding

New AppHarvest funding round brings total to $150 million

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Indoor farming startup AppHarvest has raised $28 million in its latest funding round, bringing the total to $150 million.

As Bloomberg reports, AppHarvest is building “the world’s largest greenhouse” in Morehead, Kentucky in the US.

AppHarvest uses similar indoor farming techniques to those used by so-called “vertical farming” companies in that it can irrigate its crops using 90 percent less water than traditional farming techniques. [Read more…] about New AppHarvest funding round brings total to $150 million

Wing AI partners with KiwiBot to develop robotic delivery services

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Wing AI is partnering with KiwiBot to develop robotic delivery services.

The companies say the partnership will “help make consumer deliveries easier, safer, and more affordable in the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Wing is a 24/7 mobile assistant app powered by humans and artificial intelligence. It is the only on-demand concierge app that learns about its users to better tailor and improve its services. [Read more…] about Wing AI partners with KiwiBot to develop robotic delivery services

Reducing Complexity for Engineer-to-Order Manufacturers Finally Possible

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By Thomas R. Cutler

Reducing complexity for engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturers is finally possible. More than 50 percent of all manufacturers now acknowledge aspects of plant operations include customization.

Many ETO companies assume it is impossible to automate the entire end-to-end process surrounding product configuration, design, engineering, and production. [Read more…] about Reducing Complexity for Engineer-to-Order Manufacturers Finally Possible

BP’s sale of its petrochemicals business suggests big oil is trying to become big electric

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BP recently sold its petrochemicals business for $5 billion to Ineos, a move which suggests that “big oil” companies are trying to become “big electric” suppliers.

The Wall Street Journal says the sale was the “largest deal by an oil major since the coronavirus outbreak gripped the global economy”.

WSJ says the transaction would enable BP to different itself from its rivals, many of which are forecasting significant growth for the segment and don’t look like they want to sell or leave the petrochemicals sector. [Read more…] about BP’s sale of its petrochemicals business suggests big oil is trying to become big electric

What robots want: Using machine-learning to teach effectively

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By Hyunsoo (Hyun) Kim, co-founder and CEO of Superb AI

AI is having a moment. One need only casually scan the news each week to see that the topics of artificial intelligence and machine learning have grown like ivy, extending their tendrils into stories as varied as racial bias, hiring, and of course, identifying spiders.

But for all the diverse applications of AI across our inboxes, magazines and evening news, few outside of the engineering community have a robust understanding of what the terms actually mean, or how the robots and algorithms we increasingly rely upon come to know how to do the complex jobs humans assign to them.

For starters, the machines involved in machine learning are increasingly more likely to take the form of a disembodied hivemind than a humanoid assistant. [Read more…] about What robots want: Using machine-learning to teach effectively

China overtakes US as world’s leading patent generator

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China has overtaken the US as the world’s leading researcher, generating 58,990 patents in 2019 compared with America’s 57,840. 

This is the first time since 1978 that the US has lost its position as the world’s leading producer of patent-winning inventions or innovations. (See animation below.)

The figures were published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations. [Read more…] about China overtakes US as world’s leading patent generator