Market trends and business perspectives
by Sam Francis
Industrial robot manufacturer Kuka says it has received an order in the “single-digit million euro range” from the Korean automotive supplier Donghee Industrial.
The order was booked in the second quarter of 2019.
Donghee relies on robot-based friction stir welding from Kuka in the area of electric mobility. [Read more…] about Kuka receives large order from Donghee for robotic welding systems
by Sam Francis
Kuka has developed a mobile robot for semiconductor production. The system integrates a robotic arm with an autonomous wheeled platform.
Kuka says it developed the system because the production of semiconductors is particularly complex.
Until now there was no mobile, automated semiconductor production system that enabled component transfer from one step to the next. That has now changed with the Kuka wafer handling solution. [Read more…] about Kuka develops mobile robot for semiconductor production
Siemens Healthineers is set to acquire what the company describes as a “forerunner in robotic-assisted vascular interventions”, Corindus Vascular Robotics.
The engineering giant says the acquisition of Corindus is a “strategically significant extension of Siemens Healthineers’ Advanced Therapies business”.
Siemens Healthineers will combine its cardiovascular and neuro-interventional therapy systems with Corindus’ technology, driving procedure optimization for image-based minimally invasive therapies. [Read more…] about Siemens to acquire robotic surgery systems maker Corindus for $1.1 billion
Columbia university has developed a robotic neck brace that it says “dramatically improves functions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. (See video below.)
The brace incorporates both sensors and actuators to “restore roughly 70 percent of the active range of motion”.
The novel neck brace, which supports the neck during its natural motion, was designed by Columbia university engineers. [Read more…] about Columbia university develops robotic neck brace that ‘dramatically improves’ movement
Columbia University has demonstrated a robotic cane which it claims can “improve stability in walking”.
The developers say the device acts as a cane-like mobile assistant to provide “light-touch” operation to help the elderly and others with impaired mobility.
By adding electronics and computation technology to a simple cane that has been around since ancient times, a team of researchers at Columbia Engineering have transformed it into a 21st-century robotic device that can provide light-touch assistance in walking to the aged and others with impaired mobility. [Read more…] about Columbia university demonstrates robotic cane to ‘improve stability in walking’
by Mai Tao
Ever since Amazon acquired Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million and took the startup company’s robots off the market, warehouse managers have been looking for alternative suppliers.
At that time, there simply no significantly well-known alternatives or proven solutions, but now, seven years on, there is a relatively large number of companies which build and supply warehouse robots.
It’s highly unlikely to be a coincidence that, in the intervening years, Amazon has grown extremely fast to become not only the world’s largest online retailer but also one of the largest logistics companies – not just in its native US, but worldwide. [Read more…] about From old mail order catalogues to same-day delivery: Warehouse robots are the quintessential sign of changing times
by Sam Francis
A startup company called Makr Shakr has opened its latest robotic bars in the European cities of Milan and London.
Makr Shakr was founded in 2014 by MIT professor Carlo Ratti and claims to be the world’s leading producer of robotic bars.
The Milan installation is in the heart of the Italy’s fashion capital, and is said to be the city’s very first robotic bar. [Read more…] about Makr Shakr opens latest robotic bars in Milan and London
A robotic surgery startup in Switzerland claims to have become the first to enable the laser cutting of bone tissue.
Bones in humans have been cut using saw for “thousands of years”, says Advanced Osteotomy Tools, adding that the company now offers the “technology reinvent bone surgery”.
The instrument AOT has developed is called “Carlo”, short for “cold ablation robot-guided laser osteotomes”. [Read more…] about Robotic surgery startup claims to be first to enable laser cutting of bone tissue
by Mai Tao
New robots save money and boost innovation through ‘desktop-to-notebook integrated design’, says Johnson Zhu of Elephant Robotics
High acquisition costs of new technology are harming small businesses that can’t afford to go all-in like the big companies.
Robotics are the lifeblood of large industrial plants and big companies, enabling them to automate multiple tasks while increasing productivity.
Smaller businesses, on the other hand, can’t afford to create innovative products or services or rapidly scale by using the same formula, because they’re in a different league game. [Read more…] about Opinion: The new wave of robotic arms helps small businesses
by Anna
ATI Industrial Automation’s QC-11 Automatic Tool Changer is a vital component of many robotic applications and is now certified to work with collaborative robots from Universal Robots.
The QC-11 enables automatic exchange of robotic end-effectors without any manual intervention. With an ATI Automatic Tool Changer, a robot can use multiple end-effectors in a single process.
Preceding the QC-11 in the UR+ program are ATI’s Axia80 Force/Torque Sensor and MC-10 Manual Tool Changer. There are more than 150 products in the UR+ portfolio featuring plug-and-play solutions for UR cobots.
[Read more…] about Universal Robots certifies ATI’s automated tool changer QC-11
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