Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

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Construction robotics company Kewazo raises $10 million in Series A funding

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Kewazo, a construction robotics startup, has closed its $10 million Series A funding round, bringing the total funds raised to date to approximately $20 million.

The round was led by Fifth Wall, with notable participation from Cybernetix Ventures, Unorthodox Ventures as well as the construction software company Nemetschek.

Existing investors True Ventures and MIG Capital also participated in the round. This round comes on the heels of Kewazo’s $5 million Pre-Series A that closed in September 2021. [Read more…] about Construction robotics company Kewazo raises $10 million in Series A funding

Universal Robots reports record annual revenue of $326 million

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Universal Robots, the Danish collaborative robot company, has reported Q4 revenue of $85 million, bringing 2022 annual revenue to $326 million, up 5 percent on 2021.

On a constant currency basis, growth over the year was 12 percent.

Kim Andreasen, Universal Robots’ chief financial officer, says: “We are proud to have continued to grow our business despite facing a difficult macroeconomic environment in 2022. [Read more…] about Universal Robots reports record annual revenue of $326 million

2023 Predictions & Forecasts: European countries expected to be worst affected by automation

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When it comes to the workplace, developments in automation mean that the future landscape of work is changing and, in turn, the roles that we undertake. 

While many people fear that this contributes to a decrease in employment, many industries continue to grow and adapt despite automation.

In some instances this can improve work-life balance, allowing manual workers to work normal shifts and robots to work overnight or to remove the menial tasks from your role and retrain to complete tasks that cannot be automated. [Read more…] about 2023 Predictions & Forecasts: European countries expected to be worst affected by automation

North American robot sales on track for another record year for 2022

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North American robot sales in the first nine months of 2022 reached record levels, with all indications pointing to 2022 ending with the highest number of robots sold in a year for the second year in a row.

According to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), from January to September 2022, North American companies purchased 35,804 units valued at $1.875 billion, up 24 percent for units ordered and 27 percent for revenue over the same period in 2021.

Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, says: “Ongoing labor shortages, easier-to-use robotic solutions and new industries embracing robotics, such as restaurants, retail, construction and even agriculture, have led to record units sold here in North America this year. [Read more…] about North American robot sales on track for another record year for 2022

Motional mobility study shows ‘consumer trust in autonomous vehicles is growing’

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Autonomous mobility developer Motional has released new findings from its third annual Consumer Mobility Study, which looks at shifting consumer perceptions toward autonomous vehicles (AVs), as well as preferred AV use cases across generational and gender demographics.

The study found that only one-third (33 percent) of Americans feel uncomfortable with the level of safety, security, and accuracy of AV technology – a shift from 2021 when consumers reported safety (67 percent) as the number one concern related to driverless technology.

Leading the charge in the increasing acceptance of AVs are younger consumers, with a majority of Gen Z survey respondents (67 percent) believing that AVs are safer than human drivers. [Read more…] about Motional mobility study shows ‘consumer trust in autonomous vehicles is growing’

Nimbus’ in-browser simulation ‘reduces costs by 80 percent’

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Cogniteam says its Nimbus Robotic operating system’s in-browser simulation “reduces robot simulation costs by 80 percent”, adding that the software is focused on cost-saving and collaboration, enabling teams to simulate robots at “breakneck speeds”.

Dr Yehuda Elmaliach, co-founder and CEO of Cogniteam, says: “Upload your robot and drag & drop sensors, then run an in-browser simulation without worrying about costs or hardware capabilities.”

Cogniteam says Nimbus unifies development, cloud connectivity, and deployment capabilities. The company says it has also added new low-cost, high-powered in-browser simulation capabilities. [Read more…] about Nimbus’ in-browser simulation ‘reduces costs by 80 percent’

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

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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’

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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’

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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

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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