Market trends and business perspectives
The world’s largest industrial robot company is restructuring its business operations.
Fanuc America will open four new facilities, relocate three facilities to larger offices, and add three new regional training centers in 2016. The expansion will allow the company to better serve its growing customer base, says Fanuc. [Read more…] about Fanuc to open new industrial robot facilities and restructure business locations
Two-armed collaborative robot making light work of difficult injection moulding tasks
A US manufacturer says its use of the Baxter industrial robot “simplifies complexity” in its factory operations.
Donnelly Custom Manufacturing, a company which specializes in short-run injection molding of thermoplastics for industrial original equipment manufacturers, is using Rethink Robotics’ two-armed Baxter robot for flexible automation at its facility in Alexandria, Minnesota.
Donnelly’s focus is on short-run injection molding for customers with low to medium volumes, as well as an array of related engineering and manufacturing services. [Read more…] about Rethink’s Baxter industrial robot ‘simplifies complexity’ for Donnelly
Becoming one of the world’s largest industrial robot companies takes time and a lot of dedication. Work, work, work. No time for play. And having got to the top, the most annoying thing for a company, like Kuka, must be to see a startup company, like DeepMind, which has yet to deliver a single commercial product, make worldwide headlines for building an artificially intelligent computer that plays an ancient Chinese board game no one understands.
So what does Kuka do to make its own headlines? Of course: find another obscure board game no one understands and teach one of its robots how to play that, and get students at a local university to do all the programming.
The board game in question is Settlers of Catan. While at least spome people had heard of Go, Settlers of Catan sounds like an old cowboy movie that no one saw because it was terrible. [Read more…] about Kuka wins competition to find the most obscure board game ever invented
Epson Robots has expanded its 6-axis robot line-up with the introduction of the new Epson C8-Series industrial robots.
The company says the new robot has more reach, faster speeds, and greater payload, adding that its “SlimLine” design enables the Epson C8, C8L and C8XL robots to provide “superior performance for even the most demanding and complex applications”.
Michael Ferrara, director of Epson Robots, said: “Our Epson C4-Series robots have been in the market for a couple of years now and have been extremely well received for a wide variety of applications.
“One of the key factors for the C4-Series success has been the unique Epson SlimLine Design which results in slimmer arms, less overall weight, and a small footprint while providing high performance motion with higher payload curves.” [Read more…] about Epson Robots launches new 6-axis industrial robot
Company says new Otto 100 provides light-load material transport for today’s modern factories and warehouses
Clearpath Robotics has expanded its Otto line of self-driving vehicles with Otto 100. The vehicle is designed for autonomous light-load material transport in factories and warehouses.
“The Otto 100 takes the high quality and reliability of the Otto 1500 and puts those advanced capabilities into a smaller form factor,” said Matt Rendall, chief executive officer at Clearpath. “This enables new self-driving services in distribution, e-commerce, and manufacturing.”
The Otto 100 system delivers dynamic and efficient light-load transport in increasingly congested industrial operations. Traditional material handling systems require costly and rigid changes to infrastructure, often cannot adapt to a changing environment, and are not always safe for collaboration with warehouse personnel. [Read more…] about Clearpath Robotics adds small self-driving vehicle to its logistics product line
One of the world’s largest robot manufacturers, Yaskawa, is moving to make its machines more PC-compatible
Yaskawa Motoman has launched a new robot for machine tending applications, and it’s fully compatible with PC operating systems.
The company says the robot’s heavy-payload of the new MH280 II robot makes it “ideal” for machine tending, which is one of the most common robotics applications today.
With its increased payload, moment and inertia ratings, the new model can also be used in material handling and press tending applications, from boring to milling to grinding. [Read more…] about Yaskawa launches new robot featuring PC architecture
The US auto sector “buys every second industrial robot” sold, according to a report by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR)
The US economy is one of the front-runners in the global automation race. By 2018, the number of industrial robots sold will, on average, rise by at least five per cent per annum, to a new record of 31,000 units (2014: 26,202).
About one-half of these will be installed by car makers and their suppliers. Viewed according to robotic density – meaning the number of industrial robots per 10,000 employees – the US automotive industry, with 1,141 units, already ranks third in the world’s national economies after Germany (1,149 units) and Japan (1,414 units). These are the calculations published in the report 2015 World Robot Statistics, issued by IFR.
[Read more…] about US auto industry buys half of all industrial robots, says IFR
Bosch has combined what it calls its ‘Industrie 4.0 platform’ with Industrial Internet Consortium standards for the first time, calling it ‘an international breakthrough for connected industry’
Connected industry is now becoming an international reality. In a new project, Bosch is working together with partners to combine the technical standards of Germany’s “Industrie 4.0” platform and of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) for the first time. This combination of the two approaches allows the exchange of data between central areas of connected industry.
“Industry 4.0 is not so much a national as an international issue. Only a truly global approach – without competing company standards or differing national regulations – will allow it to develop to its full potential,” said Dr Werner Struth, a member of the Bosch management board, at the Bosch ConnectedWorld IoT conference in Berlin. [Read more…] about Bosch combines Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet Consortium standards in ‘truly global approach’
Kuka, one of the world’s biggest industrial robotics companies, is to develop a smart manufacturing platform in collaboration with Chinese communications giant Huawei.
Kuka and Huawei signed a deal to develop what could be a global network – built on the industrial internet of things – to enable the connection of robots across many factories. The companies say they plan to integrate artificial intelligence and deep learning into the system.
In the new manufacturing era, robots will play an increasingly important role in helping manufacturing businesses remain agile and drive growth, say the two companies.
Under the new agreement, Huawei and Kuka will collaborate in the areas of cloud computing, big data, mobile technology, and industrial robots to help manufacturing customers transform and embrace smart manufacturing. [Read more…] about Kuka to build global deep learning AI network for industrial robots
Industrial robots are increasingly being connected to the cloud, where they can be managed centrally in some sort of control room, which means that a small number of human staff could theoretically manage hundreds, if not thousands, of machines.
Previously they were almost always operated in isolated circumstances within factories, inside a work cell, fenced off from human workers because of safety concerns. They were programmed individually, using a teach pendant, which is like a 20-years-out-of-date oversized mobile phone.
The teach pendant is still used for refinements and modifications after the machine goes online, into work, but nowadays most industrial robots are prepared for a life of work using offline programming. [Read more…] about Industrial robots can now do their work uninterrupted thanks to the cloud and offline programming
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