If you use Rexroth electric motion control, you’ve probably come to rely on the components for consistent, trouble-free performance year in and year out. At some point, however, you may need service or support. In fact, you might think about replacing your servo, drive, or control with a newer model. That shouldn’t be your first… Read more »
Rexroth is showing new products and applications at this year’s trade shows. The Mechatronics@Work demo collects and displays machine and production data. This is central to Industry 4.0, which relies on ubiquitous capture of data to inform decision making. Using the Rexroth IoT Gateway, the Smart Assembly 4.0 Conveyor collects, displays, and communicates data from… Read more »
New connections in factories are opening lots of possibilities for increasing performance, tracking environmental factors, and heading problems off at the pass. Sensors catch temperature, vibration, pressure, velocity, and all the myriad variations in the performance of machines. But they can also track human performance. Smart wearables can identify the highs and lows in a… Read more »
Servo noise can cause a range of problems. Electrical noise in the sense of variations in voltage or current can interfere with feedback and generally confuse the systems. Dirty electricity can create real problems, but there is always some noise in any electrical system. Using the right cables and using them correctly can help with… Read more »
Researchers in robotics spend a lot of time on mobility, grasping, and things of that nature. But new area of research is moving into prominence. Robot voices are becoming more common… and bringing up new issues as they do so. Robot gender Robots don’t usually have a gender… unless they have a voice. Research suggests… Read more »
Your Rexroth DKC drives are at risk from something you might not think about much: condensation. Condensation is the change from a gaseous state to a liquid state. In this context, we’re talking about water vapor in the air changing to liquid drops of water on your drive. Not a good thing. What causes condensation… Read more »
As coworking robots, or cobots, become more important in manufacturing, the focus is mostly on the physical safety of human beings who work closely with robots. But there is quite a bit of research on the emotional aspects of human-robot interaction, too. We know that people will think twice about turning off a robot who… Read more »
Politicians are talking about robots. To a large extent, they’re warning us about robots taking our jobs. Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and philanthropist with a 2020 presidential campaign, thinks we underestimate the dangers inherent in automation. He sees a near future in which millions of truck drivers and retail clerks are unemployed and potentially dangerous…. Read more »
A temple in Kyoto has a new job for a robot: giving a sermon. The robot, which moves and speaks, presents a 25-minute sermon on a traditional Buddhist text called the Heart Sutra. The robot was designed by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University. Ishiguro is known for human-like but androgynous robots. The Kyoto robot… Read more »
Researchers are trying to figure out the best way to make robots persuasive to human beings. The University of Toronto programmed robots to behave in a range of different ways. Some were abusive, telling people they’d be stupid not to follow the robot’s suggestions. Others tried logic, arguing that their sensors gave them specialized knowledge… Read more »
