Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

orders

Walgreens chooses Postmates for grocery deliveries

Walgreens and Postmates are partnering to provide quick, convenient, on-demand delivery for customers looking for over-the-counter medications, health and wellness, beauty and grocery products.

Postmates will deliver hundreds of Walgreens’ most popular items from 174 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Whether it will use its delivery robots remains to be seen, but it’s certainly an option in the long term.

Craig Whitmer, VP, merchant business development, Postmates, says: “In the last year, orders from convenience and drugstores have increased by 68 percent. [Read more…] about Walgreens chooses Postmates for grocery deliveries

Universal Robots ‘future-proofs’ production processes at Vietnamese manufacturer with collaborative robots

Universal Robots has helped Vietnam-based Vinacomin Motor Industry Joint Stock Company “future-proof” its production processes with collaborative robots.

VMIC is a subsidiary of the Vinacomin Group, a state-owned coal and mining giant.

VMIC, one of the first state-owned manufacturers to deploy cobots, has seen productivity increase two to three times, with improved product quality, leading to a 50 to 60 percent rise in orders. [Read more…] about Universal Robots ‘future-proofs’ production processes at Vietnamese manufacturer with collaborative robots

Indian government to replace sewage workers with robots by 2020

An Indian company called GenRobotics has developed a range of robots to undertake work down manholes and in sewage environments, and has been receiving orders from a number of states in its home country as well as many places abroad. 

GenRobotics was launched in relatively quiet circumstances in 2015, but then, last year, the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, was in attendance at the launch of the company’s second-generation robots.

Malaysia and the UAE are among the outside nations from which orders have been received for GenRobotics machines, and they join Indian states such as Tamil Nadu, in the south, and Haryana, in the north of the massive country of more than 1 billion people. [Read more…] about Indian government to replace sewage workers with robots by 2020

Swisslog wins two large orders in Scandinavia and Southeast Asia

Swisslog has been commissioned to carry out the comprehensive automation of the Coop warehouse in Langhus.

The delivery includes a high-bay pallet warehouse with six Vectura stacker cranes and a conveyor system, which are controlled by the intelligent Swisslog software SynQ.

 The new distribution centre will be in full operation at the beginning of 2021.

[Read more…] about Swisslog wins two large orders in Scandinavia and Southeast Asia

Foxconn to manufacture ‘95 per cent’ of new Apple iPhone 8

iphones

Foxconn is to produce 95 per cent of the new Apple iPhone, the eighth incarnation of the device, according to a report on PatentlyApple.com. 

It’s not clear from the story whether any of the production will take place in the US, although that’s unlikely given that Foxconn hasn’t even chosen where in the US to expand its manufacturing operations.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has been considering its options, and Michigan is said to be one of the locations being scouted.  [Read more…] about Foxconn to manufacture ‘95 per cent’ of new Apple iPhone 8

German industrial orders increase

siemens robotic electronics factory

DW.com: Orders for German industrial goods have increased sharply, according to a report on the Deutsche Welle website. 

Domestic demand incrased 6.7 per cent while foreign orders were up 3.9 per cent.

The higher demand for capital goods contrasts with business morale in Germany, which DW.com says fell in January.

Giant distribution centers look to robots to deal with increasing e-commerce orders

axium Distribution-center-robotic-depalletizing

Changes taking place in consumer behavior have drawn a new map, a new type of building and a new kind of automation for the retail sector.

Growth has taken place in both the number and size of the facilities that turn e-commerce orders into product deliveries. The distribution center, or operation fulfillment center, is increasingly emerging in locations that experience low real estate costs, offer tax incentives to locate there, have an available workforce for seasonal surges and offer multiple ways of transporting goods from their locations.

In the US, that means areas close to major metropolises, such as New Jersey and Oakland, CA, Midwestern hubs that are unencumbered by traffic-congested highways, such as Omaha, NB and Kansas City, MO, and traditional port cities such as Houston, TX, Norfolk, VA, and Savannah, GA. [Read more…] about Giant distribution centers look to robots to deal with increasing e-commerce orders

North American robotics market sets new records in 2015

Robots at Tesla auto factory
Robots at Tesla auto factory
Robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in 2015, according to Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry’s trade group.

A total of 31,464 robots valued at $1.8 billion were ordered from North American companies during 2015, an increase of 14% in units and 11% in dollars over 2014.

Robot shipments also set new records, with 28,049 robots valued at $1.6 billion shipped to North American customers in 2015. Shipments grew 10% in units and nine percent in dollars over the previous records set in 2014. [Read more…] about North American robotics market sets new records in 2015