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Predictions for 2025: Generative AI and more technology in factories

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Chris Iveson, CEO and co-founder of FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, shares four predictions for how he believes smart factory operations will evolve in 2025

The manufacturing industry is often bombarded by tech companies and consultants pushing pipedream technologies nowhere near ready for implementation in most factory settings.

Despite this, the smart factory movement keeps marching on, driven by practical, down-to-earth tools that manufacturers can deploy at scale to deliver rapid return on investment. [Read more…] about Predictions for 2025: Generative AI and more technology in factories

AI-generated images: Is this the future of art?

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Dictionary definitions of “art” are many and varied, but for people of a certain age – let’s say around 60 – art used to mean paintings and sculptures… pretty much exclusively.

But over those 60 years – starting around 30 years ago – art started to mean different things, although those “different” artistic expressions still often incorporated the traditional modes of expression – painting and sculpting.

One of those “different” things that came to constitute art was “installation art”, which is usually a relatively large-scale work – taking up one whole gallery room or more. Installation art uses mixed media to create an immersive experience for people to walk through and perhaps interact with or even be an essential part of.

[Read more…] about AI-generated images: Is this the future of art?

Learning from Apple: Designed in the West, manufactured in the East

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Apple wasn’t always the 3.75 trillion-dollar company it is today. The company was close to bankruptcy in 1997, before Steve Jobs returned to launch newly designed and eye-catching products – like the first multi-coloured iMac range, the iPod and then the iPhone – and put the company on the journey to become the modern corporate phenomenon that it is today.

In today’s globalised economy, Apple could now be said to be the quintessential example of a company that designs its products in the United States while manufacturing them in China and across Asia.

Apple is not, of course, unique in this approach. Many other companies have been doing this for a long time. Such companies used to be called “multinationals” before the internet made the term almost redundant.

[Read more…] about Learning from Apple: Designed in the West, manufactured in the East

Humanoid robots: Stepping out of science fiction, into the real world

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For many decades, science fiction films and books have described and shown us a variety of humanoid robots that range from ones that look clearly mechanical and follow simple orders and have limited functionality to ones that are indistinguishable from human beings in appearance but are far stronger, faster and more capable in many ways.

And over those decades, audiences have been encouraged to imagine such robots as figments of the imagination, something for the future – a future after our own lifetimes.

Now, however, instead of waiting there for us to die and spare us from having to deal with it, that future is hurtling towards us with unsettling speed.

[Read more…] about Humanoid robots: Stepping out of science fiction, into the real world

Opinion: The fundamental automation systems driving our universe

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It was Nikola Tesla who said that if you want to understand the universe, “think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”.

That statement, in itself, doesn’t really explain anything at all to the average person like me. Maybe a scientist can make something of it, but even for scientists, such answers are incomplete. In fact, I would argue that the biggest questions all remain unanswered.

I mean questions such as, for example, What happened before the Big Bang? [Read more…] about Opinion: The fundamental automation systems driving our universe

Opinion: Exploring the correlation between robotics utilisation and economic growth

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Here at RoboticsAndAutomationNews.com, we often wonder about the relationship between a nation’s reported economic growth and its utilisation of robotics and automation systems. We have a hunch that the more automated machines a country integrates into its economy, the more growth it experiences. We can’t say we prove this hunch in this article, but we think most readers will agree that it is an important correlation that deserves some investigation.

Economic growth sounds like a concept that’s easy to understand, but we don’t think it’s as straightforward as it seems. Each nation and region has its own way of calculating what is called “economic growth”, and there are countless gears turning to drive nations’ economies forward.

Among these, automation – robotics being a sub-set of automation – has emerged as one of the most powerful engines for transforming many previously small economies into global payers. Over the past few decades, while being derided for using cheap labour to gain an advantage – which undoubtedly has happened, countries like China, Japan, and South Korea have surfed the automation wave to reach remarkable economic heights. [Read more…] about Opinion: Exploring the correlation between robotics utilisation and economic growth

Virginia Tech innovates underwater robotics with support from the Office of Naval Research

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It’s been said that we know more about the surface of the moon than the floor of Earth’s oceans. For more than two decades, Virginia Tech’s Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics has been developing robots that can find what lies beneath the sea surface with the support of the Office of Naval Research.

Bringing together faculty and students from the College of Engineering and the Virginia Tech National Security Institute, the center is developing advanced underwater robots and autonomy algorithms that enable them to operate intelligently without human oversight.

The research team recently was awarded two grants totaling more than $5 million to continue that mission. Two additional grant proposals, totaling about $2.4 million, have been selected by the agency and awards are in process. [Read more…] about Virginia Tech innovates underwater robotics with support from the Office of Naval Research

Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton living the dream of… being an astronaut

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One of the most successful Formula 1 racing drivers of all time, Sir Lewis Hamilton has always dreamed of going beyond the racetrack and outside Earth’s atmosphere – into space.

As Hamilton’s partnership with IWC Schaffhausen comes to an end, the luxury watchmaker decided to make his dream a reality by arranging some flight training for astronauts. (See video below.)

Joining Hamilton to watch this incredible journey, children from Dibia Dream social STEM education programs were reminded that if you train hard, stay focused and work with dedication, you can become anything you want in life and achieve great things.

[Read more…] about Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton living the dream of… being an astronaut

Ports predicted to drive autonomous crane market past $6 billion by 2030

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Ports are receiving significant investment to both optimize and automate daily operations.

According to global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, revenues for autonomous cranes in ports will surpass $6 billion globally by 2030, with Asia-Pacific (APAC) taking up over half of the market.

Ryan Wiggin, senior analyst at ABI Research, says: “The adoption of advanced technologies in port operations continues to grow in all regions but does vary based on infrastructure maturity and union resistance. [Read more…] about Ports predicted to drive autonomous crane market past $6 billion by 2030

Trumpf partners with Intrinsic to build ‘software-defined and AI-enabled’ robotic solutions

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The machine tools industry is experiencing a historical transformation in productivity, powered by intelligently adaptive robotic solutions. For automating tasks like machine tending, specialized types of AI can add immediate and measurable value.

Dedicated teams at Trumpf and Intrinsic have been working closely for several years to bring machine tool and AI innovation together, and building a new generation of robotic solutions.

Together, Trumpf and Intrinsic share a vision that software-defined and AI-enabled robotics will unlock new levels of productivity for machine users, in affordable, seamless ways that make sense.

[Read more…] about Trumpf partners with Intrinsic to build ‘software-defined and AI-enabled’ robotic solutions

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