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GFT and Google Cloud collaborate on new AI applications for Google’s Gemini Models

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Global digital transformation company GFT and Google Cloud are collaborating to bring their newest manufacturing-specific AI capabilities to factory floors.

Last year, GFT announced its implementation of Google Cloud’s Manufacturing Data Engine (MDE), which fueled new AI use cases, such as visual production line inspection, predictive machine maintenance, and production forecasting.

Now, GFT is unveiling its next set of applications built on Google’s Gemini Models, including the ability to determine the root cause of errors and defects, visual dashboards that enable users to query organization – wide data in natural language, predicting parts obsolescence before it results in machine downtime, and the ability to convert thousands of machine training manuals into avatar-led video demonstrations. [Read more…] about GFT and Google Cloud collaborate on new AI applications for Google’s Gemini Models

Apptronik raises more than $400 million in additional Series A funding

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Apptronik, the AI-powered humanoid robotics company, has successfully closed an “oversubscribed” $403 million Series A funding round, adding an extra $53 million to the previously announced $350 million round led by B Capital and Capital Factory, with participation from Google.

Mercedes-Benz, Japan Post Capital, ARK Invest, Helium-3, Magnetar, RyderVentures (the corporate venture capital arm of Ryder System), a syndicate led by Korea Investment Partners, and others are also joining the oversubscribed round, reflecting strong market demand and investor confidence in Apptronik’s leadership, unique design and technology, and transformative vision for embodied AI.

The Series A funding will fuel production and deployment of Apptronik’s AI-powered humanoid robot, Apollo, and support growing customer demand across key industries – including automotive, electronics manufacturing, third-party logistics, beverage bottling and fulfillment, and consumer packaged goods. [Read more…] about Apptronik raises more than $400 million in additional Series A funding

Google DeepMind releases two new AI models for robotics development

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Google DeepMind has introduced two new artificial intelligence models – Gemini Robotics and Gemini Robotics-ER (short for “embodied reasoning”). Google says this marks a “major step forward” in the development of AI systems designed to control real-world robots.

Both models are built on the Gemini 2.0 platform and are aimed at enabling robots to perform a wide range of tasks with greater generality, interactivity, and dexterity. The initiative also includes a partnership with humanoid robot maker Apptronik to integrate these capabilities into the next generation of robotic assistants. [Read more…] about Google DeepMind releases two new AI models for robotics development

Apptronik partners with Google DeepMind to accelerate advancement of humanoid robots

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Apptronik, the AI-powered humanoid robotics company, has entered a strategic partnership agreement with the Google DeepMind robotics team.

The partnership will bring together “best-in-class artificial intelligence with cutting-edge hardware and embodied intelligence, advancing humanoid robots that can be more helpful to people in dynamic environments”, according to the companies.

Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, says: “We’re building a future where humanoid robots address urgent global challenges. [Read more…] about Apptronik partners with Google DeepMind to accelerate advancement of humanoid robots

Honeywell and Google Cloud to accelerate autonomous operations with AI agents for the industrial sector

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Honeywell and Google Cloud are partnering to launch a “unique collaboration” connecting artificial intelligence (AI) agents with assets, people and processes to accelerate safer, autonomous operations for the industrial sector.

This partnership will bring together the multimodality and natural language capabilities of Gemini on Vertex AI – Google Cloud’s AI platform – and the massive data set on Honeywell Forge, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) platform for industrials.

This will unleash easy-to-understand, enterprise-wide insights across a multitude of use cases. Honeywell’s customers across the industrial sector will benefit from opportunities to reduce maintenance costs, increase operational productivity and upskill employees. [Read more…] about Honeywell and Google Cloud to accelerate autonomous operations with AI agents for the industrial sector

Google Cloud and ‘major manufacturers’ join OPC Foundation initiative

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Google Cloud has become one of the “who’s who of cloud suppliers and world-famous manufacturers” that have joined the OPC’s newly launched Cloud Initiative, according to the OPC Foundation.

OPC, also known as the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), is a machine-to-machine communication protocol used for industrial automation and developed by the OPC Foundation.

The OPC says the new members are looking to align
interoperability requirements in IT and cloud environments based on OPC UA. [Read more…] about Google Cloud and ‘major manufacturers’ join OPC Foundation initiative

GreyOrange’s robotic retail software solution now available on Google Cloud Marketplace

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GreyOrange, a provider of AI-driven warehouse automation technology, says its software as a service (SaaS) application, gStore, is now available on Google Cloud Marketplace.

gStore makes it easier for retailers to precisely locate inventory, manage stockouts, and enables personalized in-store experiences for customers using smart fitting rooms and self-checkout capabilities.

By providing real-time insights into inventory levels, item locations and stock movements, gStore enables retailers to execute store operations more effectively, simultaneously empowering merchandisers to speed up decision-making on pricing, promotions and placements to boost sales and productivity. [Read more…] about GreyOrange’s robotic retail software solution now available on Google Cloud Marketplace

Alphabet’s Intrinsic looking to integrate more closely with ROS

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Intrinsic – a business unit of Alphabet, the parent company of Google – has been exploring ways to bring the Intrinsic platform “closer together” with Robot Operating System (ROS).

From humble beginnings 17 years ago, ROS has grown to become the “backbone of all kinds of robotics products and projects around the world”, according to Intrinsic.

The open source community has long been at the edge of pushing for greater interoperability in robotics, with ROS playing a “critical role” in many of these advances. [Read more…] about Alphabet’s Intrinsic looking to integrate more closely with ROS

Google Might Be the First to Put Real AI in a Robot Body

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Robot technology is moving forward, thanks to heroic efforts by Boston Dynamics and various robot vacuum companies. But it seems like a gap is opening up between what chatbots like Gemini, Claude an ChatGPT can do, and the capabilities of physical machines. The former are writing symphonies while the latter are struggling to stumble across an empty room.

Incredibly, Google engineers foresaw this problem nearly a decade ago. Boffins believed that the invention of the transformer would assist with artificial cognition and improve language models, but they didn’t think it would translate easily into physical activity.

“This problem is currently dogging the household appliance sector,” says Vacuum Wars, a company that is always looking for the best robot vacuum on the market. [Read more…] about Google Might Be the First to Put Real AI in a Robot Body

Nvidia and Google’s Intrinsic developing ‘next-generation robots’

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Intrinsic, a software and AI robotics company at Alphabet, parent company of Google, has integrated Nvidia AI and Isaac platform technologies to advance the complex field of autonomous robotic manipulation.

This week at the Automate trade show, in Chicago, Intrinsic is spotlighting leaps in robotic grasping and industrial scalability assisted by foundation models enabled by Nvidia Isaac Manipulator, unlocking new value in industrial automation with AI.

Nvidia unveiled Isaac Manipulator at GTC in March. Isaac Manipulator is a collection of foundation models and modular GPU-accelerated libraries that help industrial automation companies build scalable and repeatable workflows for dynamic manipulation tasks by accelerating AI model training and task reprogramming. [Read more…] about Nvidia and Google’s Intrinsic developing ‘next-generation robots’