If there’s one industry that stands out in its need for automation, it’s agriculture. In the United States, agriculture relies heavily on immigrant labor. Agriculture involves a lot of jobs that Americans aren’t willing to do. It also involves jobs that are dangerous and difficult. That’s not a coincidence. But automation is supposed to solve that problem. In the past, it was very hard to come up with agricultural robots. Robots generally aren’t good with variable shapes, and fruits and vegetables are pretty variable. However, between improvements in robot “vision” and produce bred to be more uniform, this is less [&hellip

Programming is obviously essential for Industry 4.0 innovation. But Rexroth is doing away with programming for many machine users. Just as the Personality Modules of the 20th century allowed an engineer on the floor to replace a faulty component with minimal downtime, the new alternatives to programming allow Rexroth motion control users to keep their facilities running with minimal effort. There’s the EasyMotion Test Drive software that uses an Excel interface. People who can use Excel can now control robots without any PLC programming language skills. Motion commands can be downloaded directly to the drive, with no need to connect [&hellip

Nearly eighteen years after joining forces with Bosch, Rexroth is getting a new branding look. A multicolored logo with the tagline “A Bosch Company” is designed to have animation enlivening its look online. The new look will come to printed materials, too, relying on the liveliness of the design to convey the idea of movement. The new Bosch Rexroth slogan, “We move. You win” is also designed to get across that idea of movement. Rexroth is the global leader in industrial motion control, especially when thinking of Industry 4.0, the future of industrial motion control. The idea of motion is [&hellip

More than a decade ago, an experiment found that people will empathize with robots, especially if the robots are designed with this in mind. Human subjects who had finished a task with a robot that looked a lot like a cat were about to turn off the robot. They were surprised to her the robot say, “You don’t have to turn me off.” The robot went on to plead for its life, and the subjects argued with the  robot, apologized, and generally had a hard time switching off the machine. A new study finds that people still have trouble turning [&hellip

Automation World is suggesting that the next step in automation is the democratization of engineering.  The democratization of publishing is a reality now: with open source publishing software, AI in the web and automation from websites, anyone can publish their thoughts online and reach people more or less the same way Life magazine used to. Can people now take the art and science and enormous investments that have until now led to the production of objects like cars, use a 3-D printer and a little creativity, and get the same results? Maybe so. There are millions of poor quality websites [&hellip

One of the special things about Rexroth’s motion control is its modular design. This allows you to pull a faulty component off the machine, replace it quickly with an identical unit, and get your facility back up and running fast. With the legacy components made by Indramat, Rexroth’s precursor in electric industrial motion control, this modular design is all about the programming module, or Personality Module . With all the parameters for the motor preprogrammed into the module, a drive could be configured very quickly. Changing to a new drive is a snap — pop out the Personality Module and put [&hellip

One of the big problems robots have is locomotion. You may have a robot that can “see” pallets and place them accurately, but getting a robot to move across the factory floor is very difficult. They fall down, run out of energy, and get stuck. Robots have recently been built which can, given perfect circumstances, walk or climb stairs. They can’t do much else, though. And they can’t keep it up in the context of working in a factory. They’re basically machines for moving in a particular way. A new biorobotics study may help change that. Mechanical engineer Mathew Woodward [&hellip

 Rexroth has been using remote support for some time, incorporating virtual reality into field support for repair in factories. Now a Japanese university is kicking it up a notch with wearable robots. Called Fusion, this robot takes collaboration to a whole new level. In the context of a remote repair, the on-site technician can wear the robot like a backpack. The expert at a remote location can see the situation from the tech’s point of view with a camera that peers right over the wearer’s shoulder. This can improve the situation immediately, since the tech and the remote expert [&hellip

Plenty of manufacturers are updating their systems now. Often, they’re retrofitting legacy machines with new sensors, or bringing a new machine into a pre-existing system with legacy components. This can work very well. New Belgium brewery is an example of a facility that uses Rexroth systems from all time depths. Doing so allowed them to save millions of dollars and keep their commitment to sustainability. But there can be legal questions when you bring in some new elements for your motion control systems and keep some of the pre-existing elements in place. Who is responsible if there’s a problem? If [&hellip

The DKC Ecodrive is one of the most popular servo motors ever. While we might expect “eco” to be short for “ecology,” it was actually meant to suggest economy. The DKC was a cost-effective automation solution. It still is. The DKC Drive Controller is connected with the AC servo motor with a power cable and a feedback cable. It may have an auxiliary bleeder module and/or a capacitance module. It has its own firmware, and its own power supply module. it may also use a transformer for a direct connection to the mains. Error messages will be displayed directly in [&hellip