Market trends and business perspectives
At ProMat 2019, Yale showed its industry-first dual-mode pantograph robotic lift truck.
The truck is capable of autonomously depositing and retrieving loads from locations as high as 30 feet and reaching into double-deep storage.
The high-lifting capability of the reach/forklift truck makes it suited for distribution centres facing pressure to maximise vertical storage space, says the company.
[Read more…] about Yale unveils dual-mode pantograph robotic forklift truckTaxi-sharing app maker Uber has been promised $1 billion in investment from companies including Toyota, Denso, and SoftBank Vision Fund.
The new funds will help accelerate the development and commercialization of its ridesharing services, says Uber in a statement.
Under the terms, Toyota and Denso will together invest $667 million and SVF will invest $333 million, valuing the new “Uber Advanced Technologies Group” entity at $7.25 billion on a post-money basis. [Read more…] about Toyota, Denso, and SoftBank pledge another $1 billion investment for Uber
Fanuc America demonstrated its Zero Down Time (ZDT) Industrial IoT solution at Automate 2019 .
The company’s augmented reality (AR) experience featured manufacturing situations where ZDT could help. The experience included six common manufacturing challenges printed on two graphic display panels that simulated manufacturing facilities.
ZDT’s predictive analytics have already saved millions of dollars by preventing unexpected down time in the automotive industry, says the company.
In addition to reducing unexpected down time, ZDT allows users to maximise production throughput, optimise maintenance costs, increase the life of their robots, and access data from anywhere via the ZDT web portal.
Since its introduction in 2015, ZDT analytics have successfully identified potential equipment issues, and notified customers to take corrective actions and avoid unexpected down time in over 600 cases, saving companies more than $75 million, adds the company.
“The value of ZDT applies to every manufacturer,” said Joe Gazzarato, director of engineering, ZDT Product Development, Fanuc America.
“No matter what industry you’re in, the prospect of maintaining consistent production uptime and reducing costs equates to a competitive advantage – which is what ZDT offers our customers.”
AutoStore has announced a partnership with Kuecker Logistics Group (KLG), located in Belton, MO, USA. KLG provides material handling solutions across North America.
It has experience in a diverse range of markets including solutions for e-commerce fulfilment, retail, wholesale, protein, cold chain, convenience store, pharmaceutical, 3PL and food/beverage distribution.
KLG provides solutions in supply chain management, industrial automation and robotics, life cycle services and more. It designs and builds systems to increase throughput and storage capacities while reducing labour and facility costs.
[Read more…] about AutoStore announces newest distribution partner, Kuecker Logistics GroupCanonical has launched a new version of the Ubuntu computer operating system, which is increasingly popular in industrial devices and networks.
The company says the updated version, Ubuntu 19.04, provides the necessary tools for open infrastructure applications, includes a developer desktop, internet of things functionality, and cloud to edge software distribution.
Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, says: “The open-source-first on Ubuntu movement in telco, finance, and media has spread to other sectors.
“From the public cloud to the private data center to the edge appliance or cluster, open source has become the reference for efficiency and innovation.
“Ubuntu 19.04 includes the leading projects to underpin that transition, and the developer tooling to accelerate the applications for those domains.”
Sensors supplier Sick showcased a new “smart logistics” system at the recent ProMAT Show, one of the world’s largest material handling exhibitions.
Sick says its system demonstrates how to obtain greater efficiency throughout supply chain operations.
Sick presented its new innovations under the banner of “Logistics Gets Smart”, and says they are designed to provide “highly efficient solutions for intralogistics applications”. [Read more…] about Sick demonstrates ‘smart logistics’ system for warehouse automation
North American sales of machine vision components and systems that provide vision intelligence to robots and other machines reached $2.874 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.2 percent over 2017 and a new record for the market.
According to statistics from the AIA, the industry trade group and part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), application-specific machine vision (ASMV) systems led the growth with $1.998 billion in sales in 2018, an increase of 7.8 percent over 2017, followed by smart cameras with $466 million, an increase of 14.2 percent.
Machine vision component markets also set new records in 2018 with $401 million in total sales representing 11.7 percent growth.
[Read more…] about North American machine vision market up 9.2 percent in 2018NTT DoCoMo and Itochu Logistics are planning to trial an internet-of-things solution for delivery fleet management in the US.
The system uses devices compatible with low-power, wide-area LTE-M technology to enable delivery businesses to visualize the status of outsourced trucks in their fleets.
The trial will begin in the United States on May 1, 2019. [Read more…] about DoCoMo and Itochu to trial IoT solution for delivery fleet management in the US
Humatics Corporation, microlocation products and software company, is to partner autonomous logistics solutions company Vecna Robotics on navigation of self-driving vehicles and industrial robots in materials handling.
The integration of Humatics’ KinetIQ 300 microlocation system into Vecna’s fleet of self-driving vehicles enables them to navigate outdoor environments and access areas of the warehouse that had previously been considered difficult, such as loading docks.
Humatics’ technology also helps Vecna vehicles to detect centimetre size objects from over four and half football fields away. This increases navigation efficiency in warehouses with limited permanent infrastructure, as opposed to fixed shelving.
[Read more…] about Humatics partners with Vecna Robotics on navigation systems
Denso is to invest approximately 180 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) over three years – from FY2018 to late FY2020 – to support development and production of electrified automotive products, systems and technologies.
To accelerate business execution around electrification, Denso is establishing the Electrification Innovation Center at its plant in Anjo, Aichi, Japan, in May 2020.
The centre will conduct advanced R&D, develop and test prototypes, and launch mass produce newly developed automotive electrification products, systems and technologies.
[Read more…] about Denso to Invest $1.6 bn in automotive electrification
