Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

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Giving airplanes new life with new cockpits

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Technology moves at a blistering pace, and what was modern and cool yesterday is outdated today.

That’s where UPS Airlines was with its Airbus A300 freighter aircraft fleet several years ago. The 52 wide-body “browntails,” with an average age of 18 years, have plenty of life left in them.

But the avionics in the cockpit needed a serious upgrade. The current flight management computers (FMC) used for navigation have just 200 kilobytes of storage. That was fine in 1983, when the A300-600 first flew, but nowhere near enough storage now. [Read more…] about Giving airplanes new life with new cockpits

Elementary Robotics unveils ‘industry’s first’ cloud-based AI camera system

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Elementary Robotics, a rapidly-growing AI vision startup, has unveiled what it claims is the first AI camera system for cloud-based inspection.

The new system, which combines software, deep learning AI, and camera systems make it “faster and easier” for manufacturers to use.

The company also appointed Monique Apter as EVP of sales and marketing and Milind Karnik as EVP of engineering. [Read more…] about Elementary Robotics unveils ‘industry’s first’ cloud-based AI camera system

Mitsubishi Electric to establish factory automation products service center in Malaysia

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Mitsubishi Electric says it will establish the Malaysia Factory Automation Center on the premises of its subsidiary Mitsubishi Electric Sales Malaysia, which is located in Selangor state on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

The new facility, which is scheduled to start operating on March 1, will strengthen servicing and support for Mitsubishi Electric factory automation products in Malaysia and thereby facilitate expansion of the company’s local business in factory automation systems.

The Malaysian factory automation market largely comprises an expanding base of local and Japanese enterprises. These firms span numerous industries, including electrical, electronic, automotive, food and beverage, and more, each of which requires various services for the factory automation products they use. [Read more…] about Mitsubishi Electric to establish factory automation products service center in Malaysia

LK Metrology introduces ‘ultra accuracy’ portable measuring arms

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LK Metrology has introduced what it describes as “ultra-accuracy” portable measuring arms.

The company has expanded its Freedom arm range of 3D articulating arm metrology systems, or portable measuring arms, with the launch of five models in both 6-axis and 7-axis variants.

The 10 new arms bring the total number of different varieties available from LK to 34. [Read more…] about LK Metrology introduces ‘ultra accuracy’ portable measuring arms

Picking the Unknown: Robust and Flexible Robotic Automation in Logistics

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The global pandemic has radically impacted the supply chain and logistics industry, making the need for robotic automation more urgent than ever. With more than 70 percent of labor in warehousing being dedicated to picking and packing, numerous companies are gradually investing in logistics automation.

But what happens when the robots must handle an unlimited number of (unknown) stock keeping units? These companies need a fast, reliable, and robust way to automate picking and placing of a large variety of objects.

This challenge was taken up successfully by the Dutch company Fizyr. The computer vision company based in Delft focuses on enabling robots to pick unknown objects even in harsh logistics environments. [Read more…] about Picking the Unknown: Robust and Flexible Robotic Automation in Logistics

Explosion-proof ANYmal canine robots inspecting Petronas’ offshore platform

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Petronas, a global energy and solutions company from Malaysia, is testing the ANYmal four-legged dog-like robot from ANYbotics for autonomous robotic inspection on its oil and gas platforms. (See video below.)

They recently conducted a successful multi-week installation with the robot ANYmal C on one of their offshore facilities. For commercial use in 2022, ANYbotics and Petronas are co-developing a specialized version of ANYmal for potentially explosive environments.

Petronas relies on robotics to enable unmanned industrial inspections in its production operations. Its long-term partnership with ANYbotics focuses on bringing robotic routine inspection to offshore and onshore facilities targeting the commercial use of the ANYmal canine robot in potentially explosive environments by 2022. [Read more…] about Explosion-proof ANYmal canine robots inspecting Petronas’ offshore platform

Yaskawa achieves 30 million total shipments of AC drives

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Yaskawa, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial robotics and automation technologies, says it has reached 30 million total shipments of alternating current drives.

An AC drive is a device that is used to control the speed of an electric motor, which are present in almost all robots and automated machines.

In a statement, Yaskawa, which shipped the world’s first transistor inverter in 1974, says: “We are pleased to announce that the cumulative shipments of AC Drives reached 30 million units in January 2021.” [Read more…] about Yaskawa achieves 30 million total shipments of AC drives

Bürkert releases new pressure controller for precise time-pressure dosing

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Bürkert Fluid Control Systems has developed a new pressure controller for gases. It ensures stable pressure conditions inside the dosing tank, thereby allowing even the smallest of quantities to be dosed with a high level of precision.

As a result, the fluidics expert offers coordinated system components for time-pressure dosing from a single source. Customers profit from a shorter development period. Further, the digital variant enables automated documentation.

The bidirectional control of the pressure controller Type 8763 allows the pressure inside the container to be increased or actively reduced for precise and repeatable dosing. [Read more…] about Bürkert releases new pressure controller for precise time-pressure dosing

Pandemic-Driven Automation Adoption Will Forever Change These 3 Sectors

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For quite a while now, experts have predicted that a wave of automation would remake labour markets.

For businesses, it would be the beginning of a new age of efficiency. For workers, it would be a job apocalypse.

But no matter how you viewed it, the automation wave wasn’t expected to crest until sometime around 2030. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic threw decades of business technology planning into a sudden tailspin. [Read more…] about Pandemic-Driven Automation Adoption Will Forever Change These 3 Sectors

Digital platform wants to put a robot into every factory

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Too many small- and medium-sized businesses risk losing out on the next big industry transformation, says Søren Peters, CEO of the world’s first digital robot hub, HowToRobot.com. The hub aims to increase robot adoption globally by breaking down the barriers to automation for smaller businesses.

Robots are spreading with haste among the largest enterprises globally. But the many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are lagging behind when it comes to adopting robots.

This, however, is bound to change. The digital robot hub HowToRobot.com now aims to get a robot into every factory across the world by making automation easier and more accessible for SMEs. [Read more…] about Digital platform wants to put a robot into every factory

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