Robotics & Automation News

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Soft Robotics using Nvidia simulation technology to develop its gripping system

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Soft Robotics has applied Nvidia Isaac Sim’s synthetic data to food processing automation in efforts to improve safety and increase production.

Developers have been striving to close the gap on robotic gripping for the past several years, pursuing applications for multibillion-dollar industries. Securely gripping and transferring fast-moving items on conveyor belts holds vast promise for businesses.

Soft Robotics, a Bedford, Massachusetts startup, is harnessing Nvidia Isaac Sim to help close the sim to real gap for a handful of robotic gripping applications. One area is perfecting gripping for pick and placement of foods for packaging. [Read more…] about Soft Robotics using Nvidia simulation technology to develop its gripping system

Recogni claims world’s fastest computing system for autonomous driving

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Recogni, a developer of AI-based perception for autonomous vehicles, has unveiled its Recogni Scorpio, which the company claims is “the world’s first 1,000 TOPS (Peta-Op) class inference solution for autonomous mobility”.

The company’s vision-inference chip enables superhuman object detection accuracy up to 300 m in real-time under various road and environment conditions, and the ability to process multiple streams of ultra-high resolution and very high frame rate cameras.

Microprocessor Report says that Recogni’s solution “performs far better than the inference engines in leading SoCs such as Nvidia’s Orin”. [Read more…] about Recogni claims world’s fastest computing system for autonomous driving

Ambarella unveils ‘world’s first’ centrally processed 4D imaging radar architecture for autonomous vehicles

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Ambarella, an edge AI semiconductor company, has launched what it says is “the world’s first centralized 4D imaging radar architecture”, which allows both central processing of raw radar data and deep, low-level fusion with other sensor inputs – including cameras, lidar and ultrasonics.

The company says this is a breakthrough architecture which provides greater environmental perception and safer path planning in AI-based ADAS and Level 2+ to L5 autonomous driving systems, as well as autonomous robotics.

It features Ambarella’s Oculii radar technology, including the only AI software algorithms that dynamically adapt radar waveforms to the surrounding environment—providing high angular resolution of 0.5 degrees, an ultra-dense point cloud up to tens of thousands of points per frame and a long detection range up to 500+ meters. [Read more…] about Ambarella unveils ‘world’s first’ centrally processed 4D imaging radar architecture for autonomous vehicles

Rivelin Robotics launches software-oriented robotic system at Formnext

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Rivelin Robotics has launched a new software-oriented robotic system it calls “NetShape Robots” at Formnext 2022, the company’s first trade show.

Rivelin says it is “decompressing after a very intense week” at the Frankfurt show.

The startup says “the response was – and continues to be – immense” from the industry, from potential investors and, most importantly, from Rivelin’s existing and potentially new customers. [Read more…] about Rivelin Robotics launches software-oriented robotic system at Formnext

PickNik Robotics and CisLunar Industries to develop metal processing facility in space

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PickNik Robotics, a robotics software and engineering services company, has agreed a collaboration with CisLunar Industries, a space technology company working on in-space metal processing.

The companies will explore how PickNik’s MoveIt Space software for robotic arms can help CisLunar with the precision feeding of metal materials into their in-space metal-processing system, Modular Space Foundry.

Workflows will include the dismantling, manipulation, transport, and transfer of simulated or actual metal debris into pieces of appropriate size and shape to be fed into the in-space metal processing system. The purpose is to support the processing and removal of space debris. [Read more…] about PickNik Robotics and CisLunar Industries to develop metal processing facility in space

Autonomous trucking developer Inceptio partners with chipmaker Ambarella

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Inceptio Technology, an autonomous driving truck technology developer, has selected two each of Ambarella’s CV2FS and CV2AQ edge AI systems on chip (SoCs) – a total of four CVflow SoCs – for its automotive-grade central computing platform.

This platform is at the core of Inceptio’s full-stack XuanYuan autonomous driving system for trucks, where Ambarella’s SoCs provide high-performance and low-power processing simultaneously for seven 8MP cameras, including AI compute, for surround camera perception and front ADAS safety features like collision avoidance.

Susan Beardslee, ABI Research’s principal analyst for supply chain management and logistics, says: “Globally, there were over 223 million registered commercial vehicles (light-duty to heavy-duty) by the end of 2021. [Read more…] about Autonomous trucking developer Inceptio partners with chipmaker Ambarella

The big AMR fleet computing debate: Distributed vs centralized

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By Limor Schweitzer, CTO and founder, MOV.AI

A shift in mobile robot computing needs

Over the past year, we have seen the growing adoption of centralized computing in Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) fleets. In this article, we ask if this trend is the best approach, especially in advanced deployments with a large number of AMRs and dynamic, non-sterile environments.

Past generations of AMRs, or more accurately Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), operated in sterile environments, with physically marked fixed routes and simple, predefined tasks. The computing requirements were almost nonexistent. [Read more…] about The big AMR fleet computing debate: Distributed vs centralized

Stäubli Robots to unveil new hygienic robotic solutions at trade show

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Stäubli Robotics will present live demonstrations plus an educational session on its new hygienic robotic solutions for the food industry at IPPE 2022 in Atlanta.

The International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) takes place January 25-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

As a leading provider of advanced automation solutions for the food industry, Stäubli Robotics is a must-see for inventively engineered robots used in food production, processing and packaging applications. [Read more…] about Stäubli Robots to unveil new hygienic robotic solutions at trade show

New Kuka robotic technology ‘guarantees highest hygiene standards’

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Kuka says it is now using a range of new lubricants in its robotic technology which “guarantees the highest hygiene standards”.

The food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries impose special requirements on robotics.

Kuka says its new “Hygienic Oil” (HO) portfolio and “Hygienic Machine” (HM) variants are designed to avoid potential contamination and comply with the highest hygiene requirements. [Read more…] about New Kuka robotic technology ‘guarantees highest hygiene standards’

Berkshire Grey launches ‘reverse logistics’ solution to deal with e-commerce goods returns

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Berkshire Grey, a warehouse robotic solutions company, has introduced its “Reverse Logistics solution” to help retailers accelerate the resale of returned goods and improve labor utilization in the returns process.

Projections indicate that by the end of January, consumers will return approximately $120 billion of goods following the holiday season, creating a significant inventory and cost challenge for retail.

By implementing Berkshire Grey’s Reverse Logistics solution for returns processing, e-commerce providers and retailers can reduce the time to recirculate returned items back onto the shelf and optimize labor productivity, ultimately improving profitability. [Read more…] about Berkshire Grey launches ‘reverse logistics’ solution to deal with e-commerce goods returns