Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

percent

Ethics and robotics: A match made in heaven for risk management?

by Leave a Comment

By Lee Bristow, CTO of Phinity

If your business uses third parties to support core operations (and most do, from SMEs to corporates), you’ll know they need to access essential data. Without this, they can’t deliver the services you require.

Therefore, alongside this new relationship between you and your third party suppliers, comes a new responsibility for you.

You now have an ethical and legal onus to protect the customer information entrusted to you. [Read more…] about Ethics and robotics: A match made in heaven for risk management?

300,000 tons in carbon emissions ‘could be saved by autonomous oil and gas operations’

by Leave a Comment

ABB has published another of its Energy Transition Equation reports that shows how industrial customers can reduce carbon emissions and manage the energy transition for a more sustainable future.

Based on nine months of research and modelling, the report highlights how early adoption and integration of automation, digitalization, and electrification technologies to enable autonomous operations can deliver savings of over 300,000 tons of carbon emissions per annum for offshore sites (approximately 25 percent reduction).

This is the equivalent of removing 150,000 combustion cars from the road and is the same volume of CO2 responsible for five million tons of glacier mass lost each year. [Read more…] about 300,000 tons in carbon emissions ‘could be saved by autonomous oil and gas operations’

OnRobot launches new platform that reduces costs ‘by up to 90 percent’

by Leave a Comment

OnRobot, the world’s leading provider of hardware and software solutions for collaborative robotic applications, has launched the industry’s first automated platform for deployment of collaborative applications – D:PLOY – in Asia Pacific (APAC).

D:PLOY – the biggest innovation since the collaborative robot (cobot) – will revolutionise and simplify automation for manufacturers in almost every industry.

It offers dramatic savings of up to 90 percent on deployment and redeployment time, enabling manufacturers of all sizes to reap the benefits of automation. D:PLOY will work with any leading collaborative or light industrial robot. [Read more…] about OnRobot launches new platform that reduces costs ‘by up to 90 percent’

Augmentus expands US presence to meet growing demand for easy Scan and Plan robot programming

by Leave a Comment

Augmentus will be exhibiting at the Rockwell Automation Fair in Chicago on 16-17 November 2022 as part of its ongoing partnership with Rockwell Automation.

Conventional robot programming is highly difficult and heavily fragmented with the use of proprietary programming languages and extensive training being the industry norm.

As a result, 70 percent of the lifetime costs of robot ownership are software and programming related, and a compounding cost is involved in automating high-mix production environments. [Read more…] about Augmentus expands US presence to meet growing demand for easy Scan and Plan robot programming

Startup company Foamplant launches ‘world’s first sustainable foam’

by Leave a Comment

A startup company called Foamplant, based in the Netherlands, is launching what it claims is “the world’s first and only fully circular, sustainable open cell foam”.

Branded “Moorefoam”, the product will be officially launched at Foam Expo Europe (8-10 November, Stuttgart, Germany).

Patented Moorefoam technology enables circular production in the bedding, furniture, automotive and avionics sectors, says the company. Moorefoam is available to order now, with initial deliveries in mid-April 2023. [Read more…] about Startup company Foamplant launches ‘world’s first sustainable foam’

Attabotics introduces new robot to ‘increase warehouse efficiency’

by Leave a Comment

Attabotics, which describes itself as “the world’s first 3D robotics supply chain system for modern commerce”, has unveiled its Attabot 2022, the first commercialized version of its proprietary robot.

Built stronger and smarter than its predecessor, the Attabot 2022 boasts a simplified mechatronic design that reduces operational costs while increasing the efficiency of automated picking and packing of goods.

Beginning customer operations in August 2022, the Attabot 2022 is equipped with a flexible payload to accommodate larger bins up to 16” tall at 100 lb – an increase of 25 percent from Attabotics’ previous robot release. [Read more…] about Attabotics introduces new robot to ‘increase warehouse efficiency’

Plus One Robotics’ parcel handling solutions surpass 500 million picks

by Leave a Comment

Plus One Robotics, a provider of a parcel handling robotics platform claiming to performing over 1 million parcel picks each day in production, says its platform has reached over half a billion parcel picks globally. 

The company says the 500 million figure is “currently an industry leading metric”.

Erik Nieves, Plus One Robotics’ CEO and founder, says: “Our north star will always be to increase our customers’ total picks per day. [Read more…] about Plus One Robotics’ parcel handling solutions surpass 500 million picks

Vecna Robotics unveils ‘major software release’

by Leave a Comment

Vecna Robotics, a specialist in material handling automation solutions, has unveiled what it describes as “a major software release and hardware upgrades” to its AFL-class autonomous forklift.

The new capabilities expand the company’s reach within warehouse and factory floors by optimizing material transport between other machinery and equipment, with specific focus on low-lift workflows.

The update supports numerous above-ground workflows including: inbound staging to AS/RS induction; delivering materials to ergonomic lift stands for work-in-process flows; and loading and extracting from robotic palletizers and stretch wrappers. [Read more…] about Vecna Robotics unveils ‘major software release’

Study Shows US Drivers Believe Partially Automated Vehicles Are Fully Self-Driving

by Leave a Comment

US drivers may be treating their partially-autonomous vehicles as fully self-driving, according to a new study.

Research shows that owners of advanced systems, such as General Motors’ Super Cruise or Tesla’s Autopilot, believe that these technologies have more capabilities than they actually do.

Academics are concerned that such findings could lead to more unnecessary collisions in the future. [Read more…] about Study Shows US Drivers Believe Partially Automated Vehicles Are Fully Self-Driving

ABB survey reveals re-industrialization ‘at risk’ from global education gap in automation

by Leave a Comment

A global ABB survey has revealed a growing trend in US and European businesses towards re-shoring or nearshoring operations to build resilience in the face of global challenges – but at the same time, a significant education gap in the skills necessary for these strategies to succeed.

Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation Business, says: “The world is constantly evolving – businesses are shifting existing structures and adopting new technologies to future-proof their operations for a variety of challenges and uncertainties, with robotic automation playing a key role.

“We need significant investment in continuous education to prepare our existing and future workforce to thrive in an age of robotics and automation, important not only to prepare for the widespread shifts we are seeing, but to create prosperous societies going forward.” [Read more…] about ABB survey reveals re-industrialization ‘at risk’ from global education gap in automation