Where Innovation Meets Imagination
As Joni Mitchell once sang, and Janet Jackson reiterated, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”.
So it was when Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 for a chart-topping $775 million.
Now one of the world’s largest online retailers, Amazon is also growing its logistics business, with 30,000 Kiva robots working away at its warehouses all over the world. [Read more…] about Logistics robots: The way you move
Funding from iNovia Capital, Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures and previous investors will expand new Otto Motors division
Clearpath Robotics, a leading provider of self-driving vehicle solutions, announced today the completion of a $30 million investment led by iNovia Capital with participation from Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, RRE Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
Clearpath will use the funding to grow the company’s industrial division, Otto Motors. Clearpath launched Otto Motors in 2015 to focus on self-driving vehicles for material transport inside manufacturing and warehouse operations.
Matt Rendall, CEO and co-founder of Clearpath, says: “Factories operate like small indoor cities, complete with roads, traffic, intersections and pedestrians.
“Unlike city streets, a factory floor is a controlled environment, which makes it an ideal place to introduce self-driving vehicles at scale. Companies like Google, Tesla and Uber are still testing, whereas our self-driving vehicles are commercially available today.” [Read more…] about Clearpath Robotics raises $30 million to expand Otto self-driving logistics vehicle technology
Fanuc has introduced a range of new collaborative robots – the CR-4iA and CR-7iA table-top size collaborative robots – and its CR-35iA heavy-payload collaborative robot.
The CR-7iA, CR-7iA/L, and CR-4iA collaborative robots follow the launch of the larger CR-35iA collaborative robot.
Greg Buell, product manager, Fanuc America, says: “Our collaborative robots are equipped with highly-sensitive contact detection allowing them to share workstations with people.
“This is a major safety and cost benefit as it allows the robot to perform more strenuous tasks or repetitive operations without the need for expensive industrial safety barriers.” [Read more…] about Fanuc launches two new small collaborative robots to go with its big heavy one
Robotics and automation giant Fanuc has demonstrated its new Fanuc Intelligent Edge Link and Drive (Field) system at IMTS.
The company says Field provides advanced analytics and deep learning capabilities for Fanuc CNC (computer-numerical control machine, similar to a computer), and robots, peripheral devices and sensors used in automation systems.
Fanuc claims the Field system allows applications such as Zero Down Time, or capabilities such as deep learning or machine learning to be applied in the edge level of a factory site. [Read more…] about Industrial cloud: Fanuc showcases new Field IoT system for manufacturing
The International Federation of Robots, the source of much authoritative research about the industry, has released its latest survey of the global market.
With such a wide-ranging study, there’s probably something for everyone to highlight which is relevant to them.
For example, from the point of view of Universal Robots, the IFR report’s most interesting and relevant finding is that collaborative robots have been the market driver in recent times.
Given that Universal is a manufacturer of collaborative industrial robots, the fact that they consider that particular aspect of IFR’s study most noteworthy may not be surprising.
Universal recently announced that it has so far sold 10,000 of its collaborative robots worldwide, which probably makes it the world’s largest manufacturer of collaborative robots. [Read more…] about Collaborative robots are driving the global market, says Universal Robots
Ghost Robotics says Minitaur four-legged robot built for highly-precise force feedback applications and movement across unknown, rough and vertical terrains
University of Pennsylvania startup company Ghost Robotics has launched its first patent-pending direct-drive legged robot platform, Ghost Minitaur.
Ghost Robotics specialises in the research and development legged, direct-drive or gearless and proprioceptive robotics technologies.
Founded by University of Pennsylvania PhD candidates, Avik De and Gavin Kenneally, Ghost Robotics is researching and building next-generation legged robots that are superior to wheeled and tracked autonomous vehicles in many field applications. [Read more…] about University of Pennsylvania’s Ghost Robotics launches Minitaur four-legged robot platform for autonomous vehicle applications
Honeywell says its new cloud-based IIoT service helps increase plant utilization and performance and avoid production interruptions
Honeywell UOP has launched a new software-based service designed to allow refiners and petrochemical and gas processing plants to improve performance.
Honeywell UOP’s new Connected Performance Services (CPS) business leverages the Industrial Internet of Things to tap Honeywell’s deep process knowledge, design expertise, and understanding of catalysis with next-generation software platforms from Honeywell Process Solutions, the leading provider of software-based solutions for the process industries.
Zak Alzein, vice president for CPS, says: “This cloud-enabled service makes plants smarter and more responsive.
“Problems that caused plants to be less efficient or less productive and that went undetected for weeks or months now can be resolved quickly and proactively, and decisions that used to take days now can be made in hours. For many plants, the avoidance of downtime and suboptimal performance, and better agility, can be worth millions of dollars per year.” [Read more…] about Honeywell launches industrial internet of things service to ‘improve plant performance’
Comau, one of the biggest names in industrial automation, has signed a new deal with Robotics Benelux as one of its distributors.
Beginning this month, and based in Geldermalsen, Robotics Benelux is going to market all Comau Robotics products and services in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Until now, the region was under the sales responsibility of Comau Robotics in Germany (Cologne). Following its new growth strategy, Comau Robotics is currently building up a global network of distributors. [Read more…] about Comau signs Robotics Benelux as a new distributor
Yaskawa Motoman has launched MotoSight 3D CanonVision which it says provides single-step recognition, picking of randomly placed parts.
The robot-manufacturing giant says its MotoSight 3D CanonVision is an easy-to-use hardware-and-software solution that utilizes a single 3D machine vision head to quickly and easily recognize and pick parts that are randomly placed in bins.
Plus, 3D CAD matching provides simplified, accurate part registration, allowing even complicated parts to be identified. [Read more…] about Yaskawa Motoman reveals MotoSight 3D CanonVision, says it can sort out random parts
Yaskawa Motoman has demonstrated a range of new automation solutions for material handling, human-robot collaboration, and mobile machine tending and material movement during IMTS 2016. [Read more…] about Yaskawa Motoman demonstrates new range of robots at IMTS
