Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

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Foundry workers given ‘robotic’ glove to improve grip and protect hands

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Waupaca Foundry is using an innovative adaptive technology to support workers who manually grind iron castings in the foundry. The “Ironhand” glove is claimed to be the world’s first soft exoskeleton designed for the human hand to improve grip strength and reduce effort.

The system was tested at the iron casting supplier’s Etowah, Tennessee casting finishing plant and is currently in trials at the Marinette, Wisconsin ductile iron foundry.

The system consists of a glove covering all five fingers, and a power pack worn in a backpack or hip-carry. It is activated when the operator starts moving his/her hand to perform a task, using sensors located on the palm and on the fingers. [Read more…] about Foundry workers given ‘robotic’ glove to improve grip and protect hands

Dual Extruder 3D Printing Advantages How to Use

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A dual extruder allows people to print things in two colors, and it helps to make the printing process a little faster, or perhaps a little more efficient, and as yet may prove to offer a broader range of printing options as we advance the technology behind 3D printing.  [Read more…] about Dual Extruder 3D Printing Advantages How to Use

Keep Yourself Safe While Cycling With These Useful Tips

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A couple of decades ago, you could argue that bicycle accidents weren’t a thing. But fast-forwarding to 2022, an increasing number of people are biking to work. And while there are many reasons for this uptick in bicycle fatalities, one of the most common is dooring. [Read more…] about Keep Yourself Safe While Cycling With These Useful Tips

Companies and Climate Change: The Interrelation

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Globalization has brought in a drastic shift in the preferences, choices, and tastes of the people. With a vast range of options available in almost every sector of society, people have an option to pick and choose according to their convenience.

However, amidst all these progressions and advancements, it is imperative to remember that all the goods and resources that we use in our daily lives are a product of different manufacturing industries.

Since the demands and expectations from the market have grown, industry and company owners have also equipped themselves with high functioning and reliable technologies that produce optimum results in a minimum span of time. On the other hand, our world is being extremely ignorant of a looming threat that will eventually affect our ecosystem in more ways than one. [Read more…] about Companies and Climate Change: The Interrelation

Carbon Robotics unveils new farm tech that kills weeds by zapping them with a laser

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Carbon Robotics, an agricultural robotics company, today unveiled its 2022 LaserWeeder implement, an autonomous, laserweeding pull-behind robot that seamlessly attaches to the back of tractors.

The new LaserWeeder is a precise, organic, and cost-effective weed control solution for large-scale specialty row crops.

In addition to an updated build, the 2022 LaserWeeder features 30 industrial CO2 lasers, more than 3X the lasers in Carbon Robotics’ self-driving Autonomous LaserWeeder, creating an average weeding capacity of two acres per hour. [Read more…] about Carbon Robotics unveils new farm tech that kills weeds by zapping them with a laser

Using IDS cameras in fully automated wood parts inspection process

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You always need and see them everywhere: in metalworking, on the construction site, in almost every toolbox… the good old hand brush.

Whether classic all-purpose brushes or brushes for special applications, the German-based company Lessmann GmbH has virtually all of them in its range.

The shape is varied, from straight to ergonomic. But they all have one thing in common: The wooden bodies are made exclusively from untreated red beech. Depending on the model, they also have two hanging holes at the end of the handle.

Production is fully automatic and highly rational. In order to ensure its own claim to the excellent quality of the hand brush woods, Lessmann has been relying on classic image processing for many years. [Read more…] about Using IDS cameras in fully automated wood parts inspection process

MIT unveils dexterous robotic hands that can ‘manipulate thousands of objects with ease’

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MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has revealed a dexterous robotic hand that scientists say can “manipulate thousands of objects with ease”. (See video below.)

At just one year old, a baby is more dexterous than a robot. Sure, machines can do more than just pick up and put down objects, but we’re not quite there as far as replicating a natural pull towards exploratory or sophisticated dexterous manipulation goes.

OpenAI gave it a try with “Dactyl” (meaning “finger” from the Greek word daktylos), using their humanoid robot hand to solve a Rubik’s cube with software that’s a step towards more general AI, and a step away from the common single-task mentality. DeepMind created “RGB-Stacking,” a vision-based system that challenges a robot to learn how to grab items and stack them.

Scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in the ever-present quest to get machines to replicate human abilities, created a framework that’s more scaled up: a system that can reorient over two thousand different objects, with the robotic hand facing both upwards and downwards. [Read more…] about MIT unveils dexterous robotic hands that can ‘manipulate thousands of objects with ease’

Cleveland Clinic develops bionic arm that restores ‘natural behaviors’

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Cleveland Clinic researchers have engineered a “first-of-its-kind bionic arm” for patients with upper-limb amputations that allows wearers to think, behave and function like a person without an amputation, according to new findings published in Science Robotics.

The Cleveland Clinic-led international research team developed the bionic system that combines three important functions – intuitive motor control, touch and grip kinesthesia, the intuitive feeling of opening and closing the hand.

Collaborators included University of Alberta and University of New Brunswick. [Read more…] about Cleveland Clinic develops bionic arm that restores ‘natural behaviors’

Medical Microinstruments’ Symani surgical system saves patient’s arm from amputation

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Medical Microinstruments, a robotics company specialising in microsurgery, says its Symani Surgical System was successfully used at Careggi University Hospital Florence by Professor Marco Innocenti, MD, and his team in a complex, post-traumatic limb reconstruction that saved a patient’s arm from amputation.

The case is the first enrolled patient in MMI’s post-market study.

Prof Innocenti, the head of reconstructive surgery and microsurgery at Careggi University Hospital, performed the procedure which involved a young adult who suffered a motorcycle accident. [Read more…] about Medical Microinstruments’ Symani surgical system saves patient’s arm from amputation

Tools Guide for Your Heavy-Duty Workshop

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Whether you are looking to start the workshop you have always wanted or you want to uplift an existing one, there are a few tools you need to have on your wish list.

If you are a handyman by profession, or you love DIY projects, the most common must-have equipment includes a table saw, radial arm saw, band saw, or a good stud welder, depending on your frequent projects.

Dress-up equipment like a drill press, lathe, and a planer, are essentials every workshop should have. Most projects can be passed only using a drill press, a saw, and proper hand tools. [Read more…] about Tools Guide for Your Heavy-Duty Workshop