Robotics & Automation News

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Yaskawa expands in China and makes plans for Brexit amid US-China trade talks

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Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Barack Obama discussed trade earlier this week, and agreed this was a crucial time for relations between the two nations amid growing areas of competition. 

One of the business sectors being contested is manufacturing, where advancements in the crucial technologies of robotics and automation could be the factor which decides which country is more successful.

China has embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the country from the low-wage, labour-intensive workshop of world into an advanced manufacturing nation, capable of developing its own high technology, in particular industrial robots and the internet of things.  [Read more…] about Yaskawa expands in China and makes plans for Brexit amid US-China trade talks

Video: Industrial robots market

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The industrial sector is currently the largest market for robots – with applications in automotive; electronics or electrical; metal fabrication; and other segments.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, the market for industrial robots is at record levels.

In 2015, robot sales increased by 15 per cent to just over than 250,000 units sold worldwide. China was estimated the biggest buyer.  [Read more…] about Video: Industrial robots market

Deco Lighting increases production speed ‘by 1,200 per cent’ using Rethink’s Sawyer industrial robot

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deco-lighting

Smart lighting manufacturer claims collaborative robot makes assembly 1,200 percent faster

Deco Lighting, a lighting technology manufacturer, is planning to deploy Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer industrial robots to reduce production time with precision sub-assembly on each line.

By introducing Sawyer into this process, Deco Lighting hopes to reduce assembly time on its products from about an hour per unit to less than five minutes.

Based in Commerce, California, Deco Lighting marks a paradigm shift in the LED lighting industry through optimization in design and manufacturing.  [Read more…] about Deco Lighting increases production speed ‘by 1,200 per cent’ using Rethink’s Sawyer industrial robot

Japan planning to invest billions in service robots

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Japan Robot Week 2016 was hailed “a great success” by the organisers, as the event finished. 

In 2015, the Japanese government announced “Japan’s Robot Strategy”, designating the subsequent five years as a term for dedicated focus on robotics innovation.

Leading up to 2020, the government pledged to invest approximately $1 billion in robotics-related projects, aiming to expand the service robot market to $14 billion – about 20 times today’s market value.  [Read more…] about Japan planning to invest billions in service robots

Bank of America hires chatty virtual robot

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By David Henry, Reuters

Bank of America plans to provide customers with a chatty “virtual assistant” named Erica that will use artificial intelligence to make suggestions over mobile phones for improving their financial affairs.

Michelle Moore, head of digital banking for Bank of America, said in an interview on Monday that Erica will be smarter than a robot because she will bring up topics on her own, using predictive analytics as opposed to only answering questions customers ask.

For example, Erica may recommend taking steps to lift a sagging credit rating she noticed. Or, she may propose a customer make higher monthly payments on an outstanding credit card balance to reduce interest expenses.  [Read more…] about Bank of America hires chatty virtual robot

China making ‘30 per cent more industrial robots’

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cctv propaganda

China made 30 per cent more industrial robots in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Communist government’s propaganda outlet CCTV. 

CCTV quoted a “ministry of industry and information technology official”, who was speaking at the Shanghai Industry Fair last week, when providing the figure.

China is already thought to be the world’s largest market for industrial robots, but it wants to become a maker of the machines as well.  [Read more…] about China making ‘30 per cent more industrial robots’

Kuka unveils Cybertech industrial robots in China

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Kuka has presented its new Cybertech range of industrial robots for the first time, choosing the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai as the venue for the launch. 

The company says the “Cybertech Nano” robots can be used in a variety of applications, including loading and unloading of machines and for welding operations.

Kuka’s brand ambassador Timo Bell – the famous table tennis player – was scheduled to present at the event, and will be helping to demonstrate its other established robot range, the KR3 Agilus.  [Read more…] about Kuka unveils Cybertech industrial robots in China

Additive manufacturing: Renishaw to showcase new technologies

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Renishaw to demonstrate new tech for additive manufacturing process chain at formnext 2016

Global engineering and technology company Renishaw will showcase its latest developments and highlight the role that metal additive manufacturing plays in the manufacturing process chain at formnext, taking place between the 15th and 18th of November, 2016, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Renishaw will exhibit in Hall 3.1, on stand F68. Highlights on the stand will include a Moto 2 motorcycle and the Robot Bike Company R160 bespoke mountain bike frame, one of the latest innovations to come out of Renishaw’s global network of Solutions Centres.

The show comes soon after the inauguration of the first of Renishaw’s Solutions Centres, a global network of facilities aimed at making metal additive manufacturing more accessible to industry.  [Read more…] about Additive manufacturing: Renishaw to showcase new technologies

All’s well that ROS well: Robot Operating System taking over the world

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If aliens from beyond our solar system or even our galaxy were to land on Earth and wanted to communicate with intelligent machines that can move around and shake hands, chances are that one of the first in line to greet our otherworldly visitors will be a robot with a brain built using the Robot Operating System. 

The simple reason for this is that ROS is one of the most ubiquitous platforms for robotics in the world today, helped largely by the fact that it is an open-source project, in contrast to the majority of robot operating systems which are proprietary and closed.

Described as a collection of frameworks for robot software development, ROS was originally developed in 2007 at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. ROS was then extended by Willow Garage, and that’s when it really started taking off.  [Read more…] about All’s well that ROS well: Robot Operating System taking over the world

New flavour of Robot Operating System launched

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A new version of the Robot Operating System has been launched, and this is one for the machines. 

Officially called the Hardware Robot Operating System, the new solution is described as “a standardized software and hardware infrastructure to easily create reusable and reconfigurable robot hardware parts”.

Writing on Robohub.org, Victor Mayoral, CEO of Acutronic Robotics and a researcher at the Open Source Robotics Foundation, says H-ROS means “constructing robots will no longer be restricted to a small elite with high technical skills”.

H-ROS was initially funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the Robotics Fast Track program in 2016 and developed by Erle Robotics.