Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

cities

Alstom unveils recharging system for electric buses

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Alstom has launched the latest innovation in its range of ground-based recharging systems – SRS dedicated to electric buses.

The premiere, as part of the “Paloma” pilot project currently under way in the southern Spanish city of Malaga, sees a prototype of SRS for e-buses operating at a bus stop in front of the University of Malaga’s School of Industrial Engineering.

It is equipped with a 200 kW charger and is associated with a 12-metre Linkker e-bus which is running on Bus Line 1, operated by EMT, the local transport operator. [Read more…] about Alstom unveils recharging system for electric buses

‘Prawn day’ – it’s a thing

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US delivery firm Postmates, launched its first annual Prawn Day, offering two days of deals on select “prawn-related” merchants its service on 15-16 July.

Customers who visited the app found Prawn Day themed content and deals.

The company, which operates in more than 3,500 cities, added some of the most sought-after local and national restaurants, serving 70 of the top 100 restaurants in the US.

Kerlink and Tata Communications launch partnership to expand LoRaWAN network deployments

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Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the internet of things, and Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS), have formed a partnership to promote and deploy LoRaWAN IoT networks globally.

The partnership was announced at the LoRa Alliance three-day All Members Meeting in Berlin. LoRaWAN stands for long-range wide area network.

Kerlink and TCTS will demonstrate to telecom carriers, start-up IoT connectivity providers, cities and large multinationals how LoRa technology is one of the most responsive and reliable protocols for IoT connectivity. [Read more…] about Kerlink and Tata Communications launch partnership to expand LoRaWAN network deployments

Flying taxis set to take off

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With traffic jams a common occurrence in the world’s cities, frustrated drivers sometimes find themselves looking to the heavens for a little help from above. A few years from now, the skies could in fact offer a tangible solution.

The Boston Consulting Group predicts that people around the world will take 1 billion flights in air taxis in 2030, once sharing services have also established a presence on fixed routes above the ground.

What is more, most of those air taxis will be capable of operating without a pilot.

[Read more…] about Flying taxis set to take off

Lilium launches air taxi. Flying cars could take to the skies next

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Flying cars have been around a long time, but only as test vehicles, often engineered and built by tinkerers who may have been seen as somewhat eccentric for even dreaming up such a machine.

But in the past couple of years, these “eccentric tinkerers” have been usurped by corporate bigwigs who maybe see a big market for the technology.

In the most recent development, a German company called Lilium has completed a successful test flight with its all-electric flying car.

[Read more…] about Lilium launches air taxi. Flying cars could take to the skies next

Arrow Electronics to take part in Qualcomm’s Smart Cities Accelerator Program

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Arrow Electronics, Inc. will take part in the Smart Cities Accelerator Program of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. for the global acceleration of edge compute, 5G appliances and NB-IoT distributed sensors.

Qualcomm Technologies is promoting a library of Smart City solutions that combine existing mobile broadband networks while re-imagining existing infrastructure in cities around the world.

This will help drive additional value and integrate solutions with secure interoperability, edge processing and an ecosystem to deploy at scale.

[Read more…] about Arrow Electronics to take part in Qualcomm’s Smart Cities Accelerator Program

Perspective: Learning from urban mobility systems in the Middle East

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By Ralf Baron, Thomas Kuruvilla, Morsi Berguiga, Michael Zintel, Joseph Salem, and Mario Kerbage

The Middle East may have been late to urbanization, but this has provided a unique opportunity to shape its urban mobility strategies.

Rather than adopting a piecemeal approach, leaders such as Dubai are following an ecosystem model that addresses mobility holistically.

In this article, contributed by experts at consultancy Arthur D Little, the authors explain this new model and the lessons it provides for other cities across the world as they struggle to meet their own urban mobility challenges.  [Read more…] about Perspective: Learning from urban mobility systems in the Middle East

Big feature: Historic opportunities presented by smart cities

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city by the water

Experts from the Arthur D Little consultancy provide a detailed overview of the historic, “trillion-dollar” opportunity presented by the move to smart cities, in this article by Ralf Baron, Morsi Berguiga, Jaap Kalkman, Adnan Merhaba, Ansgar Schlautmann, Karim Taga

The 100 largest cities in the world produce 25 per cent of the planet’s wealth. To succeed, more and more cities are going “smart” in order to meet their biggest challenges and enrich the quality of their citizens’ lives.

This unstoppable trend is driving double-digit growth in a trillion-dollar global market.

What are the opportunities for telecom companies, utilities, financial institutions, transportation companies, software developers, equipment manufacturers and others in the smart-city market?  [Read more…] about Big feature: Historic opportunities presented by smart cities

Smart cities: A matrix of information superhighways

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tokyo
Tokyo, the world’s most populous city, with almost 40 million residents. Picture by Moyan Brenn, via Wikimedia

Johannes Petrowisch, partner account manager at industrial automation software company Copa-Data, discusses the role of data collection and analysis in the smart cities of tomorrow

The largest ant colonies in the world contain over 300 million individuals and cover areas that are several kilometres wide. Ants mostly rely on tactile and chemical means of communication to keep these huge systems in order.

Luckily, as humans, we have additional tools at our disposal to make our homes and cities more efficient, more organised and, to put it simply, better places to live in.
[Read more…] about Smart cities: A matrix of information superhighways

Qualcomm signs up partners to develop smart cities and industrial applications

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qualcomm snapdragon chipset

Qualcomm says a large number of companies have agreed to use its chipsets in their future technologies for smart cities and industrial applications 

Qualcomm Technologies says it has secured more than 100 design wins across more than 60 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and module OEMs based on its MDM9x07 chipset family comprised of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X5 LTE (9×07) modem and MDM9207-1 modem for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The flexible chipset family offers security-focused and optimized cellular connectivity, as well as edge processing for a large array of devices and systems within the IoT.

These modems are designed to address customer connectivity and power challenges in a wide range of use cases including in:

  • smart cities;
  • commercial applications; and
  • industrial designs.

[Read more…] about Qualcomm signs up partners to develop smart cities and industrial applications