Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

touch

5 Unexpected Ways to Wear Aviator Glasses

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Aviator glasses are a classic style of eyeglasses that have been around for many years. Whether you’re looking to make a fashion statement or simply block out the sun, aviator glasses are a great option. In this blog post, we’ll explore five unexpected ways to wear aviator glasses.

From adding an extra layer of protection from the sun to making a statement at a special event, aviator glasses can be used in a variety of different ways. Keep reading to find out how. [Read more…] about 5 Unexpected Ways to Wear Aviator Glasses

Restaurant robots ‘can soon replace key jobs’, says report

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Capterra research finds that three-quarters of restaurants are now using automation

As labor shortages and rising costs continue to cut into profit margins, restaurants are looking for ways to improve their business model – and automation is increasingly looking like a viable solution.

From conversational AI drive-thrus to full-service fry cook robots, the possibilities are endless, but not all roles can be replaced.

Capterra’s 2022 Restaurant Automation Survey found that more than half of restaurant leaders say front-of-house restaurant workers can easily be automated with today’s technology, but some disciplines remain currently beyond automation. [Read more…] about Restaurant robots ‘can soon replace key jobs’, says report

Soft assistive robotic wearables get a boost from rapid design tool

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Scientists created a new design and fabrication tool for soft pneumatic actuators with integrated sensing, which can power personalized healthcare, smart homes, and gaming.

Soft, pneumatic actuators might not be a phrase that comes up in daily conversations, but more likely than not you might have benefited from their utility. The devices use compressed air to power motion, and with sensing capabilities, they’ve proven to be a critical backbone in a variety of applications such as assistive wearables, robotics, and rehabilitative technologies.

But there’s a bit of a bottleneck in creating the little dynamic devices that have advantages like high response rates and power to input ratios. They require a manual design and fabrication pipeline, which translates to a lot of trial and error cycles to actually test and see whether the designs will work. [Read more…] about Soft assistive robotic wearables get a boost from rapid design tool

Robotic pets: How to choose and what you should know about them

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Communication with pets helps reduce stress levels, distracts from troubles and reduces anxiety. There is even a method of treatment – pet therapy. Four-legged pets make a person move more and expand their social circle – after all, pet lovers will always find common topics for conversation.

Communication with animals is especially useful for older people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, for children with mental disorders and for patients who are in the hospital for a long time. Pets save them from loneliness, help overcome depression, reduce anxiety and irritability.

But sick people can’t always get a cat or a dog – they can’t take care of them, and nursing home residents and hospital patients aren’t allowed to keep animals. It’s for such people that they made companion robots. [Read more…] about Robotic pets: How to choose and what you should know about them

Facebook files patent for robotic eyeball

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Social media giant Facebook has filed a patent for a robotic eyeball, according to a report on Gizmodo.com.

The “mechanical eyeball” is said to feature human-like abilities and can be integrated to humanoid or other types of robots.

Why Facebook, which recently rebranded itself as Meta, is developing a robot eyeball is subject to considerable speculation. [Read more…] about Facebook files patent for robotic eyeball

LK Metrology introduces ‘ultra accuracy’ portable measuring arms

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LK Metrology has introduced what it describes as “ultra-accuracy” portable measuring arms.

The company has expanded its Freedom arm range of 3D articulating arm metrology systems, or portable measuring arms, with the launch of five models in both 6-axis and 7-axis variants.

The 10 new arms bring the total number of different varieties available from LK to 34. [Read more…] about LK Metrology introduces ‘ultra accuracy’ portable measuring arms

Robots sense human touch using camera and shadows

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Soft robots may not be in touch with human feelings, but they are getting better at feeling human touch.

Cornell University researchers have created a low-cost method for soft, deformable robots to detect a range of physical interactions, from pats to punches to hugs, without relying on touch at all. Instead, a USB camera located inside the robot captures the shadow movements of hand gestures on the robot’s skin and classifies them with machine-learning software.

The group’s paper, ShadowSense: Detecting Human Touch in a Social Robot Using Shadow Image Classification, published in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies. The paper’s lead author is doctoral student, Yuhan Hu. [Read more…] about Robots sense human touch using camera and shadows

Okuma makes ‘conversational programming’ standard on its CNC machines

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Okuma, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial equipment, has introduced “conversational programming” as standard on its CNC machines.

Okuma says its Advanced One Touch (AOT) conversational programming software enables shops to “easily create programs without the need for highly-trained programmers, achieve faster setup times, and increase machine productivity”.

Okuma America says that select machines from Okuma’s core product line now come equipped with the Advanced One Touch-Interactive Graphics Function (AOT-IGF), the conversational programming software designed for Okuma’s lathes, machining centers and multitasking machines. [Read more…] about Okuma makes ‘conversational programming’ standard on its CNC machines

Why Technology Has Been So Important In The Past Year

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The past 12 months or so have been completely unprecedented. Life as we know it was flipped completely upside down, all around the world. Not a single life hasn’t been touched by what has happened and it has been something that none of us has ever seen, or are likely to ever see again.

One thing that we can all agree on, no matter where we are reading this from, is that technology has been one of the most important things in our lives while everything has been going on.

Not only has it enabled schools to keep teaching and businesses to keep trading, but it has also meant that we have been able to keep in touch with our loved ones when we have needed them most. [Read more…] about Why Technology Has Been So Important In The Past Year

Columbia engineers develop ‘tactile robot finger with no blind spots’

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Researchers at Columbia Engineering say they have developed a new type of robotic finger with a sense of touch. Their finger can localize touch with very high precision – less than 1 mm – over a large, multicurved surface, much like its human counterpart. (See video below.)

Matei Ciocarlie, associate professor in the departments of mechanical engineering and computer science, says: “There has long been a gap between standalone tactile sensors and fully integrated tactile fingers–tactile sensing is still far from ubiquitous in robotic manipulation.”

Ciocarlie led this work in collaboration with Electrical Engineering Professor Ioannis Kymissis. [Read more…] about Columbia engineers develop ‘tactile robot finger with no blind spots’