Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

safety

Techman Robot unveils new ‘all-in-one’ palletizing solution

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Techman Robot has unveiled a new “all-in-one” palletizing solution.

The company launched the new product at an appearance at the Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition.

This year, in addition to the built-in TM vision system of its human and robot collaborative robot, Techman Robot released an all-in-one application-based solution, the TM Palletizing Operator.

It is an integrated intelligent palletizing solution that reduces programming effort. [Read more…] about Techman Robot unveils new ‘all-in-one’ palletizing solution

ABB creates ‘intelligent’ football stadium for FK Austria

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ABB was appointed to transform Austria’s Generali Arena, originally built in 1925, into an intelligent, future-proofed venue that incorporates the latest in smart building technology and energy efficient power distribution.

This is also the first sustainable football venue in Austria. It was retrofitted in co-operation with the Austrian Sustainable Building Council, who helped with planning the design and implementation, which includes a photovoltaic system on the roof of the north stand.

The stadium’s entire electrification value chain – from medium-voltage distribution to each individual socket – has been raised to an advanced level.

[Read more…] about ABB creates ‘intelligent’ football stadium for FK Austria

UPS invests in and already making deliveries with autonomous trucking company TuSimple

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Logistics giant UPS has invested in autonomous trucking startup TuSimple, and has already made some deliveries with driverless vehicles.

UPS says its venture capital arm, UPS Ventures, has made a minority investment in autonomous driving company TuSimple.

Together, both companies are testing self-driving tractor-trailers on a route in Arizona to determine whether the vehicles can improve service and efficiency in the UPS network. [Read more…] about UPS invests in and already making deliveries with autonomous trucking company TuSimple

Webinar: Safety requirements and technologies for mobile robots

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Join us for this important webinar, explaining how new innovations in 2D safety LiDAR are opening up new possibilities for Autonomous Mobile Robots, or AMRs. 

Register now

Webinar: Navigating Mobile Robotics with 2D Safety LiDAR
Date: August 19, 2019
Time: 11:00 am in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tkn4I_L7TQ6WvD70Yg4rFw

Presented by Tyler Glieden, product manager at SICK, one of the world’s leading sensor suppliers, this presentation will explore some of those innovations and how they can enable more intelligent and productive AMRs.  [Read more…] about Webinar: Safety requirements and technologies for mobile robots

Public policy group calls for updating of laws to enable driverless truck platooning

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A US public policy organization called the Competitive Enterprise Institute is urging states to update their laws to enable driverless truck platooning.

The CEO says the measures would offers safety, economic, and environmental benefits.

New automated vehicle technology will help freight truck companies transport consumer goods in a more fuel-efficient way, reducing transportation costs and emissions and boosting highway safety thanks to always-on automatic emergency braking. [Read more…] about Public policy group calls for updating of laws to enable driverless truck platooning

MiR releases new hardware versions of MiR100 and MiR200

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MiR has upgraded its MiR100 and MiR200 robots, to improve quality. The most visible change is that the front camera is replaced with two dual front cameras that increase the field of view.

Motor improvements and other minor improvements have also been implemented in these new models.

The company has introduced two new safety features: overspeed detection and cross speed check. These safety upgrades include full compliance with safety standards EN 1525:1997 and B56.5-2012.

[Read more…] about MiR releases new hardware versions of MiR100 and MiR200

Auto industry leaders publish new automated driving safety framework

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Intel, in collaboration with 10 industry leaders in automotive and autonomous driving technology, have published ‘Safety First for Automated Driving‘, a framework for the design, development, verification and validation of safe automated passenger vehicles (AVs).

The paper builds on Intel’s model for safer AV decision-making known as Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS).

Developing AVs that are verifiably safe by design is critical to enabling higher levels of autonomy on public roads, says Intel.

[Read more…] about Auto industry leaders publish new automated driving safety framework

Mercedes and BMW launch long-term development partnership for automated driving

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Daimler-Mercedes-Benz and BMW have entered into a “co-operation” agreement on the development of autonomous cars, or “automated driving”, as the two companies call it.

Representatives from the two companies have signed an agreement for a long-term strategic cooperation, which will focus on joint development of next-generation technologies for driver assistance systems, automated driving on highways and automated parking.

The developments are intended to vehicles that are classed as “Level 4” – or “full autonomy with human” – on the SAE’s categorisation. SAE is a global engineering association which has published a “levels of driving automation” table which goes from Level 0 for no autonomy to Level 5 for full autonomy. [Read more…] about Mercedes and BMW launch long-term development partnership for automated driving

Autonomous forklifts ‘raise the bar on safety’, says Seegrid

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Thousands of injuries related to manually driven forklifts are reported to US health and safety authority OSHA each year, and a fatal accident involving a manual forklift occurred approximately once per week in the US in 2018.

Many companies are adopting Seegrid vision-guided vehicles (VGVs) as a safe, efficient form of transport in their facilities.

There is no comparison between human industrial vehicle drivers and their Seegrid autonomous driving counterparts – the company claims that injury and fatality statistics prove that its technology is safer.

[Read more…] about Autonomous forklifts ‘raise the bar on safety’, says Seegrid

Nvidia selected to lead European autonomous vehicle safety group

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Nvidia, a chip maker and computing systems supplier, has been selected to lead an autonomous vehicle safety group, called the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), set up by European automotive suppliers. 

As well as CLEPA, Nvidia also works with key international organizations formulating standards and regulations for automated vehicles.

These include the International Standards Organization (ISO), the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe (UNECE), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM). [Read more…] about Nvidia selected to lead European autonomous vehicle safety group