Rexroth was marketing “intelligent” drives back in the 20th century. Now, talk about smart factories centers on AI, or Artificial Intelligence. AI allows a factory to run the way a factory would run under the expert guidance of a human being who knew everything that was going on… and took no breaks or vacations or… Read more »
More than 20% of American vacuums are now robots. Juniper Research claims that 10% of U.S. households will have a robot by 2020. Most of those robots will be vacuums. But robot floor cleaners are not just for home use. Walmart is pushing out a fleet of 360 floor-scrubbing robots by January 2019. The floor… Read more »
According to a recent study, nearly a quarter of workers believe their jobs could be threatened by robots. Experts usually disagree. For one thing, they point out that jobs have disappeared in the past and been replaced by new jobs that couldn’t have been predicted. For another, most current jobs include tasks that could be… Read more »
Happy National Computer Security Day! Manufacturers are especially vulnerable to cyber crime, says a new report, because “they have an abundance of data and relatively weak security.” Does that sound like you? How about this: manufacturers tend to have lots of different equipment from different companies and different time depths. This makes it hard to… Read more »
Google has stepped back from robotics, but Amazon is stepping up. Using the popular open-source software Robot Operating System (ROS), Amazon’s testing platform speeds up simulations with their own machine learning and analytics. Simulations with the AWS RoboMaker can start out with environments like retail stores, racetracks, and warehouses. You can build your robot in… Read more »
New ideas in manufacturing come from many sources. Often they are inspired by animals. The jumping of the kangaroo, the flexibility of the octopus, and many more special capabilities of animals have led researchers in new directions as they think of new ways to use industrial automation to improve manufacturing. Usually, the locomotion of the… Read more »
Automation itself is good news for manufacturers. Gone are the days when you or your team would have to do everything by hand, struggling to get consistent results. With less waste, greater productivity, and safer working conditions, automation deserves a shout out over your turkey dinner. U.S. factory production has risen for five months in… Read more »
Google’s Alphabet has given up on rescue robots after five years of effort. They bought a bunch of robotics firms to begin this effort, and have sold off Boston Robotics and will be “winding down” Schaft. These two DARPUR-winning teams were among Alphabet’s acquisitions, along with companies that had strengths in specific robot abilities like… Read more »
For some years, robot specialists have been looking to animals to get ideas for robots. It makes sense. Not only do animals cover an impressive array of solutions for mobility and manipulative, but all of their solutions have been proven to work. They may work better in an ocean or a veldt than in a… Read more »
Automation is ubiquitous in manufacturing. Many of the increases and innovations in automation in manufacturing result from new capacities. Once a robot can palletize cases of baby wipes, it’s only a matter of time before the robot begins palletizing those baby wipes. That’s not true in all industries. Robots, for example, aren’t very good at… Read more »
