Robotics & Automation News

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inspections

KDDI and QYSEA launch ‘world’s first sea-to-air drone’

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Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI, commercial drone manufacturer ProDrone, and underwater robotics firm QYSEA have unveiled what they say is “the world’s first sea-air integrated drone”.

The innovative vehicle, which has a footprint of less than 1 sq m, was unveiled during a flight showcase at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise in Yokohama.

The “revolutionary” Sea-Air Integrated Drone aims to modernize offshore and marine operations with its intelligent capabilities, high working efficiency, and minimized manpower required. [Read more…] about KDDI and QYSEA launch ‘world’s first sea-to-air drone’

Boston Dynamics and IBM partner to bring mobile edge analytics to industrial operations

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By Skip Snyder, senior partner, IBM Consulting and Mike Pollitt, chief sales officer, Boston Dynamics

The demand for AI-driven robotics is increasing in operations like those in manufacturing and warehouse settings to help organizations with data and analytics that identify problems in real time, improve decision making, and perform tasks more efficiently. But to experience the true benefits, these operations need AI as close to the origin of the data as possible.

According to an IBM Institute for Business Value survey, 56 percent of manufacturers have implemented AI-driven robotics to make autonomous decisions, while 83 percent agree intelligent automation will help their organization meet strategic challenges and improve business results. However, businesses point out that most edge and IoT devices today are stationary, inflexible and often incapable of responding to rapidly changing environments.

To address this challenge, IBM and Boston Dynamics have announced a new alliance focused on delivering data analysis at the edge to help industrial companies improve worker safety, optimize field operations, and boost maintenance productivity in environments like manufacturing facilities, power plants, warehouses and more. Enabled by AI and hybrid cloud innovations from IBM Research, IBM Consulting will develop edge payloads that integrate with Spot, the agile, mobile robot from Boston Dynamics. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics and IBM partner to bring mobile edge analytics to industrial operations

SICK launches compact 2D vision camera with deep learning onboard

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SICK is launching its first vision camera with a pre-installed Deep Learning app onboard to make it simple to create custom quality inspections of complex or irregular-shaped goods, packaging and assemblies, especially where they may have previously defied automation using traditional systems. 

The SICK Intelligent Inspection Deep Learning App runs on SICK’s newly launched Inspector P621 2D programmable vision camera.

The all-in-one package enables machine builders and end-users to set up vision classifications using artificial intelligence in a fraction of the time and cost it would take to program challenging inspections based on recognising the pre-set rules and patterns of traditional vision systems. [Read more…] about SICK launches compact 2D vision camera with deep learning onboard

Explosion-proof ANYmal canine robots inspecting Petronas’ offshore platform

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Petronas, a global energy and solutions company from Malaysia, is testing the ANYmal four-legged dog-like robot from ANYbotics for autonomous robotic inspection on its oil and gas platforms. (See video below.)

They recently conducted a successful multi-week installation with the robot ANYmal C on one of their offshore facilities. For commercial use in 2022, ANYbotics and Petronas are co-developing a specialized version of ANYmal for potentially explosive environments.

Petronas relies on robotics to enable unmanned industrial inspections in its production operations. Its long-term partnership with ANYbotics focuses on bringing robotic routine inspection to offshore and onshore facilities targeting the commercial use of the ANYmal canine robot in potentially explosive environments by 2022. [Read more…] about Explosion-proof ANYmal canine robots inspecting Petronas’ offshore platform

Sarcos Robotics chooses MFE Rentals as resale partner for its snake-like robot

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Sarcos Robotics and MFE Rentals have agreed a partnership giving MFE Rentals customers premier access to the snake-like Guardian S robotic crawler system (main picture).

The Guardian S is a compact, multi-purpose remote visual inspection tool designed to traverse challenging terrain while maintaining real-time two-way video, voice and data communication.

Sarcos says the Guardian S robot, created and built in the United States, is designed to navigate unstructured and unpredictable environments that previously no other crawler had the capabilities to access. [Read more…] about Sarcos Robotics chooses MFE Rentals as resale partner for its snake-like robot

Elementary Robotics raises $13 million for its machine learning and computer vision offerings to industry

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Elementary Robotics, a Los Angeles-based robotics startup, has raised $12.7 million in its Series A funding round led by Threshold Ventures, an early-stage investor in technology companies.

Founded in 2017, Elementary has built a hardware and software platform for applying machine learning and computer vision to the industrial world for intelligent automation of quality and traceability workflows.

The new capital, which also had participation from existing investors Fika Ventures, Fathom Capital and Toyota AI Ventures, is being used to allow Elementary Robotics to continue developing and installing its automation products at scale. [Read more…] about Elementary Robotics raises $13 million for its machine learning and computer vision offerings to industry