Where Innovation Meets Imagination
Safety specialist Pilz has launched a new robot measurement system.
The company says the new force and pressure measurement system, PROBms, “guarantees the standard-compliant safety of human-robot collaboration”.
With the launch of this new rental-based force and pressure measurement system, PROBms, Pilz says it now offers “a complete package for validation of human-robot collaborations in accordance with ISO/TS 15066”. [Read more…] about Pilz launches robot measurement system
The trade war between China and the US is negatively affecting the sales of Fanuc’s industrial robots, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
In recent months, the US and China have been introducing new taxes on imports from each other’s countries, and this has set up Fanuc for a tough year ahead, reports Nikkei.
Fanuc is headquartered in Japan but has global operations. It is believed to be the largest supplier of robotics and automation technologies to the industrial sector. [Read more…] about US-China trade war affecting Fanuc’s industrial robot sales
ABB claims to have connected 7,000 of its industrial robots to its industrial internet of things platform, which the company calls “Ability”.
ABB Ability was launched only last year, but has grown quickly because of the vast number of machines and devices the industrial giant already has in operation out in the world.
The company appears to consider the industrial internet a central part of its business and has been developing a variety of services for application on it. [Read more…] about ABB claims to have connected 7,000 of its industrial robots to its IIoT platform
Koki Transmission has connected all 60 of its industrial robots to the ABB Ability internet platform.
The company is said to have connected its robots for the purposes of condition monitoring and diagnostics.
This is designed to address previous problems which were leading to unplanned downtime in material handling. [Read more…] about Koki connects all 60 of its industrial robots to ABB’s Ability internet platform
After years of rebranding itself as a “digital” company, General Electric is returning to being a plain old $100-billion industrial giant that builds aircraft engines and equipment for the energy industry.
According to the New York Times, GE spent “several billion dollars” building its digital business, with former CEO Geoff Immelt telling the Harvard Business Review that the company “put about $4 billion into developing analytics software and machine learning capabilities”.
The idea seemed to have been, and still may be, to provide the equivalent of an operating system for machinery and equipment which are connected to the industrial internet of things, and, in the process, become one of the top 10 software companies in the world. [Read more…] about General Electric: An industrial giant learning to live in a small world
The European Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises Robotics Applications organization has opened its first call for experimental proposals.
The EU-funded robotics project says this is its first competitive call for experiment proposals.
Within the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, ESMERA aims to boost robotics innovation by European small and medium-sized enterprises. [Read more…] about EU-funded organisation offers €200,000 in funding to each robotics ‘experiment’
Siemens has agreed to buy application developer Mendix for $697 million.
The engineering giant says Mendix will continue as a distinct company and provide the “low-code” cloud software on which it has built its reputation.
The closing of transaction is expected in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019. [Read more…] about Siemens to buy Mendix for $700 million to ‘strengthen digital leadership’
InVia Robotics, a provider of warehouse robots and automation solutions for e-commerce fulfillment centers, has raised $20 million in new funding.
The Series B round was led by Point72 Ventures and included investments from Upfront Ventures and Embark Ventures.
The funds will be used to boost the commercial deployment of inVia’s Picker robots and cloud-based robotics-as-a-service management system in warehouses as necessitated by the scaling e-commerce market. [Read more…] about InVia Robotics raises $20 million in funding for warehouse automation robots
Neural nirvana. Or ignorance is bliss. An opinion piece.
Theoretically speaking, computers can be programmed to mimic everything that a human says or does – or thinks. That might not be the reality now, but most people would probably accept that it’s only a matter of time before we see a fully-functioning humanoid robot, cyborg or android that is indistinguishable from the average human.
But even when they are able to copy us in every way, walking like us, talking like us, and so on, can they, in theory, become conscious?
One problem with answering that question properly is that not everyone agrees on the definition of consciousness. [Read more…] about Artificial intelligence versus natural stupidity: What will save us when the robots take over?
The Russian space agency is planning to send its humanoid robot Fedor to the International Space Station.
Fedor stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research and seems to have been developed as a fighting robot.
Fedor can shoot guns, drive cars and use a variety of tools, including drills, according to a video by Interesting Engineering (video below). [Read more…] about Robots in space: Russians to send Fedor the humanoid robot to the International Space Station
