Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

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Can robots save the e-commerce holiday season?

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It’s getting close to Christmas and that means it’s time for e-commerce fulfillment managers to start getting worried about the availability of labor for the holiday season.

According to a recent article in Supply Chain Dive, “this year’s peak season promises additional challenges in recruiting new hires as the pool of available labor shrinks”.

As the article points out, the US unemployment rate hit a 50-year low in September 2019. [Read more…] about Can robots save the e-commerce holiday season?

How robotics and AI are changing the fashion industry and warehousing sector

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The fashion industry is investing huge amounts of money in artificial intelligence systems that can provide what is called “sentiment analysis”, which is similar to customer feedback, except that it’s indirectly acquired.

Typically, sentiment analytics systems can gather information from social media pages as well as through natural language processing, perhaps through listening to customer phone calls.

A massive number of data points can be collated and analysed – a quantity of information that only an AI system can process. And after processing it all, conclusions can be drawn. [Read more…] about How robotics and AI are changing the fashion industry and warehousing sector

Veo Robotics launches new solution that aims to make all industrial robots collaborative

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Startup company Veo Robotics has launched its first commercially available product – FreeMove, a hardware-and-software solution which is said to be able to transform standard or traditional industrial robots into collaborative robots. 

Traditionally, industrial robotic arms have been treated with some trepidation, and are still always caged off or otherwise kept separate from human workers.

Their size, weight and speed make industrial robotic arms potentially very dangerous, and without any programming about human workers and how to avoid endangering them, they can be lethal. [Read more…] about Veo Robotics launches new solution that aims to make all industrial robots collaborative

4 AI Functions Already Up and Running in 2019 That’ll Leave You Speechless

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Despite the fact that AI is already being utilised in a huge variety of ways by a myriad of industry, it’s still perceived as being an emergent technology, something of great promise yet to materialise. This couldn’t be further from reality.

These four examples of AI and machine learning have already been saving you time and effort for years at this point, but it’s only really in the last few years that they’ve become completely viable and effective. I mean, remember Siri when it first came out? Spectacularly hit and miss.

AI, along with machine learning, has made a massive number of things possible across industries, proving critical to many different tech platforms. 37% of organisations have been found to utilise AI in some form. [Read more…] about 4 AI Functions Already Up and Running in 2019 That’ll Leave You Speechless

Promobot to ‘mass produce’ humanoid robots

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Russian robotics company Promobot says it is launching “mass production of life-like robots that look like humans”.

Promobot is mainly known as a manufacturer of autonomous service robots and the new humanoid “Robo-C” is the first of its kind from the company.

Promobot calls the android “a robot companion”, and says Robo-C is “the world’s first humanoid android, which not only copies the appearance of a person, but is also able to integrate into a business environment”. [Read more…] about Promobot to ‘mass produce’ humanoid robots

CloudMinds partners with Sprint to develop 5G humanoid robot

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CloudMinds has unveiled the XR-1, which it describes as “one of the first intelligent 5G humanoid robots”.

CloudMinds Technology is a provider of cloud artificial intelligence architecture that makes robots and businesses smarter.

The company demonstrated its “revolutionary” XR-1 robot interact with guests at the Sprint exhibit at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles this week. [Read more…] about CloudMinds partners with Sprint to develop 5G humanoid robot

Campaign to Stop Killer Robots sends peace envoy robot to United Nations

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The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots – an actual political and social group run mostly by humans – has sent a peace envoy robot to deliver a letter to the United Nations building in New York, in the US.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the campaign group will give UN diplomats a letter in which it is demanding that the world stops the development of autonomous war machines.

These can include, but are not limited to, technologies such as drones, tanks and other other machinery controlled by an autonomous computer which is running artificial intelligence systems that decide whether to kill people or not. [Read more…] about Campaign to Stop Killer Robots sends peace envoy robot to United Nations

Helping robots and humans work hand in hand

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As the internet-connected world continues to transform the manufacturing and logistics industry, Technische Universität Dortmund is leading the way in research into human-robot interaction.

With the help of Vicon’s cutting-edge motion capture and VR solutions, the University is developing innovative ways to approach the coexistence of drones and robots with people in warehouse environments.

The manufacturing and logistics sector faces a major challenge: how best to serve the ever-growing e-commerce market – with increasingly small-scale shipments and shorter delivery deadlines – in a cost-effective and sustainable way. [Read more…] about Helping robots and humans work hand in hand

Opinion: Robots are the solution, not the problem, to the workplace safety challenge

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By Richard Mawson, sales manager UK and Ireland at OnRobot

Since the mid-twentieth century, robots have been implemented by businesses worldwide to enhance efficiency and multiply productivity levels.

However, while the introduction of robotic equipment in industrial contexts undoubtedly helped organisations increase their profits and revenues, it also transformed the working environments.

Safety concerns inevitably arose. [Read more…] about Opinion: Robots are the solution, not the problem, to the workplace safety challenge

BWIndustrie installs world’s first UR16e collaborative robot to optimise throughput

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Universal Robots says that BWIndustrie, a French specialist in machining, assembly and robotics, has installed the world’s first UR16e heavy-duty payload collaborative robot.

It becomes the company’s sixth cobot from UR, where it is streamlining the time-consuming and labour-intensive process of deburring metal parts.

Launched at China International Industy Fair to wide acclaim, the UR16e enables BWIndustrie to overcome the barriers of traditional manufacturing by automating the deburring processes in a matter of seconds compared to the several minutes incurred by manual labour. [Read more…] about BWIndustrie installs world’s first UR16e collaborative robot to optimise throughput