Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

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Advancements in Pedestrian Safety Technology

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Walking is one of the healthiest activities for people of all ages and abilities, yet it can be one of the most dangerous forms of exercise in one’s community.

Pedestrian fatalities have been at an all-time high for the last four decades. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) reported that 7,522 pedestrians were struck and killed by cars in 2022. In 2021, 104 pedestrians were killed in the state of Oklahoma alone.

The good news here is that advancements in pedestrian safety technology have the potential to save lives and sharply curb these tragedies. [Read more…] about Advancements in Pedestrian Safety Technology

Automation in Construction: Researchers develop automated system to measure strain and acceleration of precast concrete structures

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Reserarchers at Chung-Ang University, South Korea have developed a smart portable sensing system for monitoring precast structures during delivery. The multimetric portable system uses an IoT sensor to simultaneously measure strain and acceleration of the structures real-time during delivery.

Precast concrete structures (PCS) reduce workforce dependency and construction time. However, they are subjected to vibrations and strain during transport from their manufacturing site to the construction site.

Effective quality control measures require continuous logging of vibration and strain measurement during the delivery, an essential feature that is missing in current systems. To this end, researchers have now developed a novel portable sensing system that can monitor strain and acceleration to enable efficient PCS delivery. [Read more…] about Automation in Construction: Researchers develop automated system to measure strain and acceleration of precast concrete structures

MIT demonstrates reprogrammable materials that ‘selectively self-assemble’

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By Rachel Gordon, MIT CSAIL

While automated manufacturing is ubiquitous today, it was once a nascent field birthed by inventors such as Oliver Evans, who is credited with creating the first fully automated industrial process, in a flour mill he built and gradually automated in the late 1700s.

The processes for creating automated structures or machines are still very top-down, requiring humans, factories, or robots to do the assembling and making.

However, the way nature does assembly is ubiquitously bottom-up; animals and plants are self-assembled at a cellular level, relying on proteins to self-fold into target geometries that encode all the different functions that keep us ticking. [Read more…] about MIT demonstrates reprogrammable materials that ‘selectively self-assemble’

Scientists unveil robotic grippers ‘delicate enough to lift egg yolks and precise enough to lift a human hair’

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Engineering researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated a new type of flexible, robotic grippers that they say “are able to lift delicate egg yolks without breaking them, and that are precise enough to lift a human hair”. (See video below.)

The work has applications for both soft robotics and biomedical technologies.

The work draws on the art of kirigami, which involves both cutting and folding two-dimensional (2D) sheets of material to form three-dimensional (3D) shapes. [Read more…] about Scientists unveil robotic grippers ‘delicate enough to lift egg yolks and precise enough to lift a human hair’

Comau to develop new robotic systems with shipbuilder Fincantieri

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Shipbuilder Fincantieri and Comau Robotics, two Italian industrial giants in their respective markets, have signed a letter of intent to develop prototypes of robotized steel welding solutions and the resulting construction of series of machines, to be implemented at first in Fincantieri shipyards.

Paolo Carmassi, Comau CEO, and Fabio Gallia, Fincantieri general manager, signed the agreement.

The first joint project, of which the operating agreement is currently under way and related tests are scheduled at the Fincantieri shipyards by the first half of the year 2022, will involve a welding robot vehicle consisting of an anthropomorphic welding robot and a remote control tracked vehicle. [Read more…] about Comau to develop new robotic systems with shipbuilder Fincantieri

Cost reduction in aerospace through additive manufacturing

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Spacecraft are developed on Earth, tested, fully assembled and transported in one piece by a launch vehicle to their respective places of operation. Each component must be designed to withstand the high loads of the launch phase.

In most cases, in addition to complex test procedures, this leads to an oversized structure of the spacecraft components, because in orbit they experience only a fraction of the stresses they must endure during rocket launch.

The maximum take-off mass required for transport with the launch vehicle and the volume of satellites, for example, thus cause high space transport costs. [Read more…] about Cost reduction in aerospace through additive manufacturing

Toyota offers free access to virtual crash test dummy software

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Toyota will make its Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) software freely available from January 2021 as part of its efforts toward a safe mobility society.

THUMS is a virtual human body model software program for computer analysis of human body injuries caused in vehicle collisions. Free access to THUMS, and subsequent use by a wider variety of users, is expected to enhance vehicle safety.

Designed to aid vehicle safety technologies’ research and development, and developed in cooperation with Toyota Central R&D Labs, THUMS was the world’s first virtual human body model software when it launched in 2000. [Read more…] about Toyota offers free access to virtual crash test dummy software

IBM to develop an AI IoT solution for ageing infrastructure

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IBM has announced a collaboration with Sund & Bælt — which owns and operates some of the largest infrastructure in the world — to assist in development of an AI-powered IoT solution to help prolong the lifespan of ageing bridges, tunnels, highways, and railways.

The new industry solution, IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure, further extends the IBM Maximo portfolio while providing deep industry and task-specific functionality to help organisations manage, monitor and administer their infrastructure assets.

Organisations struggle with ageing facilities, the difficulty of physical inspections and high cost of continued maintenance. 

[Read more…] about IBM to develop an AI IoT solution for ageing infrastructure