Robotics & Automation News

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Simulation tools in the ROS ecosystem: Testing and validating robots virtually

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Robots may operate in the physical world, but increasingly they are born, trained, tested, and refined in virtual ones.

Before a warehouse robot navigates its first aisle, before an autonomous vehicle drives its first mile, and before a humanoid robot takes its first step, there is a good chance it has already spent hundreds or even thousands of hours inside a simulator.

For robotics developers, simulation has become one of the most important tools in the development process. It allows engineers to test software, validate designs, train AI models, and identify failures before expensive hardware is ever powered on. [Read more…] about Simulation tools in the ROS ecosystem: Testing and validating robots virtually

Open source hardware for robotics: Democratizing robot building

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Most discussions about open-source robotics focus on software. The Robot Operating System (ROS) has become the best-known example, providing developers with a common framework for building and operating robots.

Yet software is only part of the story.

Over the past two decades, a growing ecosystem of open-source hardware platforms has dramatically lowered the barriers to robotics development. [Read more…] about Open source hardware for robotics: Democratizing robot building

The power of the open-source community in robotics: Collaboration and shared innovation

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For decades, robotics was viewed as a niche engineering discipline inhabited largely by researchers, academics, and highly specialized industrial automation companies.

Development was expensive, fragmented, and slow. Even simple mobile robots often required years of work and highly customized software stacks.

Today, robotics sits at the center of one of the largest technology investment waves in modern industrial history. [Read more…] about The power of the open-source community in robotics: Collaboration and shared innovation

Alphabet’s Intrinsic looking to integrate more closely with ROS

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Intrinsic – a business unit of Alphabet, the parent company of Google – has been exploring ways to bring the Intrinsic platform “closer together” with Robot Operating System (ROS).

From humble beginnings 17 years ago, ROS has grown to become the “backbone of all kinds of robotics products and projects around the world”, according to Intrinsic.

The open source community has long been at the edge of pushing for greater interoperability in robotics, with ROS playing a “critical role” in many of these advances. [Read more…] about Alphabet’s Intrinsic looking to integrate more closely with ROS

Nvidia unveils generative AI tools, simulation and perception workflows for robotics development

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Nvidia has unveiled a range of updates to its offerings to the robotics industry, unveiling them at ROSCon 2024 with the aim of accelerating the development of AI-powered robot arms and autonomous mobile robots expecially.

At ROSCon in Odense, one of Denmark’s oldest cities and a hub of automation, Nvidia and its robotics ecosystem partners announced generative AI tools, simulation, and perception workflows for Robot Operating System (ROS) developers.

Among the reveals were new generative AI nodes and workflows for ROS developers deploying to the Nvidia Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics. [Read more…] about Nvidia unveils generative AI tools, simulation and perception workflows for robotics development

Tormach to unveil cutting-edge real-time motion control in ROS at ROSCon 2023

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Tormach, a US-based CNC machine and industrial robot manufacturer, will make its inaugural appearance at ROSCon 2023, taking place in New Orleans from October 18 to 20.

This year’s event will mark Tormach’s debut on the ROSCon stage, where the company will present its “groundbreaking fusion of real-time motion control within the Robot Operating System (ROS) ecosystem”, under the title: Real-Time Motion Control in ROS: Uniting HAL with Tormach’s ZA6 Robot.

Tormach’s presentation will explore how its expertise in CNC motion control has led to the integration of the MachineKit/LinuxCNC Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) with ROS, resulting in a seamless interface that empowers high-performance, real-time motion control. [Read more…] about Tormach to unveil cutting-edge real-time motion control in ROS at ROSCon 2023

AutomationWare prepares for future with new robotic joints

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AutomationWare says it is “looking forward” to the rest of 2023 with the new version of its robotic joints (actuators) in J and T versions and UNI EN ISO 9001 certification for the design and production of systems for automation and industrial robotics.

The era of modular and scalable robotics based on AutomationWare’s J&T actuators begins and Robotics becomes Lego
Innovating the world of high-performance actuators.

AutomationWare has chosen a personal approach to the world of robots, producing high-tech actuators, which it uses both to produce robotic solutions itself (especially collaborative arms with special configurations, sizes and payloads) and to meet the demands of customers oriented towards tailor-made, in-house robotic solutions with degrees of freedom necessary for their application. [Read more…] about AutomationWare prepares for future with new robotic joints

MOV.AI releases Flow ROS robot development environment

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MOV.AI, developer of the Robotics Engine Platform announced today the beta release of Flow, a visual Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed especially for ROS-based robot software.

This open IDE speeds up and streamlines robot software development with a visual representation of ROS projects that makes it easy to understand ROS projects and allows simple and intuitive development.

MOV.AI Flow makes it easier to import assets, reduces configuration and integration work, speeds up debugging, and makes it easy to port projects across environments, and share with the community.  [Read more…] about MOV.AI releases Flow ROS robot development environment

MassRobotics partners with AMD to advance adaptive computing in robotics

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MassRobotics, an innovation hub and startup cluster focused on the needs of the robotics community, is partnering with chip giant AMD to introduce and deliver technologies to robotics startups.

Through the industrial suite of AMD tools, platforms and an accelerated app store designed for the robotics industry, robotics startups will be able to further develop innovative solutions around automation, mobility, AI and machine vision-related applications.

AMD, widely known for their FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and adaptive SoCs (system-on-chips), are bringing offerings, such as the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit and Kria Robotic Stack (KRS), which are focused on bringing easy-to-integrate hardware acceleration of ROS 2 to MassRobotics resident startups. [Read more…] about MassRobotics partners with AMD to advance adaptive computing in robotics

Clearpath Robotics launches latest version of TurtleBot

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Clearpath Robotics, a manufacturer of mobile robotic platforms for research and development, and Open Robotics, primary maintainers of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulator, have launched TurtleBot 4 – the next generation of the open-source robotics platform.

TurtleBot 4 is described as a “low-cost, fully expandable mobile robotics platform with improved sensing, increased payload capacity, ROS 2 support, and auto-docking capabilities” aimed at educators, researchers, and developers.

Bryan Webb, president of Clearpath Robotics, says: “This year marks ten years since we started working with the Open Robotics’ founding team on the Turtlebot 2. [Read more…] about Clearpath Robotics launches latest version of TurtleBot