Robotics & Automation News

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Engineering

From Standards to the Shop Floor: Practical Robot Safety Steps Operators Can Apply

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Robots make work faster, cleaner, and more consistent. They also change how risk shows up on the floor. The danger is not only the moving arm, but also the in-between moments, when a cell is paused, a jam is cleared, or a quick adjustment turns into hands inside the fence.

Operators sit closest to these moments, so practical safety habits matter as much as any policy. You do not need to quote standards from memory to work safely. Here are practical robot safety steps operators can apply. [Read more…] about From Standards to the Shop Floor: Practical Robot Safety Steps Operators Can Apply

5 Best Servo Drives for Factory Automation Systems

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A servo drive converts electrical commands into precise mechanical motion, influencing the speed, position and torque of every motor it powers. This capability makes it one of the most significant components of any production line.

When a drive falls short, the effects manifest instantly in positioning errors, lost cycles and unplanned downtime. Five solutions stand out for engineers designing factory automation systems. [Read more…] about 5 Best Servo Drives for Factory Automation Systems

Festo unveils new adaptive gripper for ‘faster, gentler and more hygienic picking’

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Festo has introduced the HPSX Universal Adaptive Gripper, a pneumatic soft gripper engineered to improve speed, hygiene and flexibility in demanding food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics applications.

Combining robust design, food-safe materials and adaptive silicone fingers, the HPSX directly addresses long-standing automation challenges where rapid, precise and gentle product handling is essential.

Peter Potters, product manager at Festo, says: “In developing the HPSX, we refined the gripper’s shape, dimensions and internal geometry to maximise gripping force while minimising air volume. [Read more…] about Festo unveils new adaptive gripper for ‘faster, gentler and more hygienic picking’

Sonair to debut ultrasonic 3D sensor at Modex event

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Sonair, a pioneer in ultrasonic 3D sensing, is introducing its award-winning ADAR (Acoustic Detection and Ranging) sensor to the North American market with its official debut at Modex 2026, Booth #B15851, April 13-16.

The technology arrives in Atlanta following its first commercial deployment in serial production on Cleanfix’s new autonomous cleaning robots. [Read more…] about Sonair to debut ultrasonic 3D sensor at Modex event

How Explosion-Proof Visual Monitoring is Transforming Safety in Hazardous Industrial Automation

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Picture this. You’re standing on an offshore oil platform, surrounded by the constant hum of machinery and the salty bite of sea air. Everywhere you look, there are pipes hissing with pressurized gas, tanks holding volatile chemicals, and automated systems running operations that would have required dozens of workers just a decade ago. It’s impressive, honestly.

But here’s the thing that keeps safety managers awake at night: someone still needs to check on these systems. Someone has to verify that the valves are sealing properly, that the pressure readings match reality, that nothing is leaking or overheating in places where a single spark could spell disaster.

That’s where explosion proof camera systems come into the picture. Companies have spent years developing certified visual monitoring equipment specifically for these unforgiving environments. [Read more…] about How Explosion-Proof Visual Monitoring is Transforming Safety in Hazardous Industrial Automation

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Floor Mats for the 2025 RAM 2500

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When it comes to maintaining a powerful and dependable truck like the 2025 RAM 2500, every detail matters including the interior. While most truck owners focus on performance, towing capacity, and exterior durability, protecting the cabin is just as important.

One of the simplest yet most effective ways to preserve your truck’s interior is by investing in high-quality floor mats. These essential accessories not only enhance the appearance of your vehicle but also provide long-term protection against dirt, moisture, and daily wear.

For truck owners searching for reliable protection, 2025 ram 2500 floor mats are specifically designed to match the dimensions and needs of this heavy-duty vehicle. Unlike generic options, these mats offer a tailored fit that ensures maximum coverage and protection, making them a smart investment for both daily drivers and heavy-duty users. [Read more…] about The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Floor Mats for the 2025 RAM 2500

FieldCamp Introduces AI Dispatcher for Field Service: Skills Matching, Route Optimization, and Emergency Reshuffling Built for the Trades

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A new AI-powered dispatching tool helps plumbing, HVAC, electrical, cleaning, and all the field service companies do more with fewer workers, matching technicians to jobs by skill, optimizing routes, and eliminating the 5:30 AM whiteboard scramble, at a fraction of the cost of a human dispatcher.

March 2026 – FieldCamp (fieldcamp.ai) today highlighted a growing shift in how field service companies are responding to the skilled labor shortage.

Rather than waiting for a workforce recovery that demographic trends suggest will not arrive for at least a decade, service businesses are adopting AI dispatch scheduling software for business operations to dramatically increase the productivity of their existing teams.

The problem is widespread: roughly 30 million field service workers in the United States still receive daily assignments through whiteboards, spreadsheets, text messages, or a single dispatcher who carries the entire operation in their head. When that dispatcher quits or just takes a sick day, the business grinds to a halt. [Read more…] about FieldCamp Introduces AI Dispatcher for Field Service: Skills Matching, Route Optimization, and Emergency Reshuffling Built for the Trades

Mechanical Engineering in Robotics: Challenges and Benefits

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Robotics is often discussed in terms of software, artificial intelligence, and automation, yet every robotic system still depends on physical design. A robot can only move, grip, balance, lift, or survive real operating conditions if its mechanical foundation is sound.

That includes structure, joints, transmissions, materials, thermal behavior, durability, and manufacturability. In other words, robotics may look digital from the outside, but it still relies heavily on mechanical engineering underneath.

That reality becomes even more visible in modern development teams. A startup may bring in a mechanical engineer freelancer to solve a gripper problem or redesign a compact housing, while a larger company may rely on global team management services to coordinate robotics design work across several countries and disciplines. [Read more…] about Mechanical Engineering in Robotics: Challenges and Benefits

ISA releases new standard for SCADA systems

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The ISA-112 Part 1 standard provides a framework for modernizing supervisory control and data acquisition systems and making them easier to design, build, operate and maintain

The International Society of Automation (ISA) – the professional society for automation – has announced the publication of ANSI/ISA-112.00.01-2025, SCADA Systems – Part 1: SCADA Lifecycle, Diagrams and Terminology, which is now available for sale on www.isa.org and is accessible to ISA members as a membership benefit.

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is an automated control system architecture commonly implemented in industrial, utility and manufacturing environments.

The ISA-112 Part 1 standard provides a vendor-neutral and technology-independent framework for the long-term management of SCADA systems and execution of SCADA modernization projects, offering a high-level overview of the SCADA lifecycle as well as diagrams and terminology. [Read more…] about ISA releases new standard for SCADA systems

Potpie AI raises $2.2 million to make AI agents usable inside real-world engineering systems

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Software teams are moving faster than ever, yet the systems they build and maintain were never designed for AI agents to operate inside them. Codebases span millions of lines, context is scattered across dozens of tools, and critical knowledge lives in the heads of a few senior engineers.

Potpie was built to change that. The company announced a $2.2 million pre-seed round to help engineering teams unify context across their entire stack and make AI agents genuinely useful in complex software environments.

The round was led by Emergent Ventures with participation from All In Capital, DeVC and Point One Capital. The capital will be used to support early enterprise deployments, expand the engineering team, and continue building Potpie’s core context and agent infrastructure. [Read more…] about Potpie AI raises $2.2 million to make AI agents usable inside real-world engineering systems