BERNSTEIN: China's insane spending on robotics is fundamentally changing capitalism
Oscar Williams-Grut for Business Insider: Analysts at global investment manager Bernstein believe the "age of industrialization is coming to an end," with robots set to destroy manufacturing jobs globally.
That may not sound seismic. After all, the industrial revolution happened hundreds of years ago and manufacturing jobs have been the minority of all jobs in the West for decades. But Bernstein is arguing that the nature of capitalism is undergoing a fundamental change.
Analysts Michael W. Parker and Alberto Moel argue that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, the foundational textbooks of economics, is becoming redundant because of two trends: the rise of robotics and China's modernising economy. Cont'd...
Robotics startup Exotec raises $3.5 million to help warehouses pack and dispatch goods using mini robots
Paul Sawers for Venture Beat: A French robotics startup has raised €3.3 million ($3.5 million) to build and grow a fleet of mobile robots that help warehouses prepare orders for delivery.
The company was founded in 2015 by former GE Healthcare software architect Renaud Heitz and BA Systèmes technical director Romain Moulin, and Exotec Solutions (“Exotec”) robots have already been tested across a number of industries. With $3.5 million more in its coffers, the company expects to launch its first robot — called Exo — into the wild in early 2017. The most recent round was raised from 360 Capital Partners, Breega Capital, and a handful of its existing investors.
The miniature robots are being targeted at any logistics operator that relies on humans to traverse large warehouses picking items off shelves, and it promises to cut employees’ average daily distance covered from 15km to 4km per day and to “[double] the productivity” of each worker. The robots are controlled by what the company calls a “centralized intelligence system,” which liaises between the humans and the robots on the ground. Cont'd...
Meet the robot whisperer who trains "big, monstrous, industrial robots" to follow her every command
Charlotte Whistlecroft for DigitalSpy: If you think you're happy with your job, Madeline Gannon will definitely make you question your life, as this woman has managed to train giant robots to do things for her.
Nope, we're not joking - the founder of the Madlab Research Studio created "big, monstrous, industrial robots" and then tamed then, and she even has a nickname to prove it: The Robot Whisperer.
Which is all pretty impressive, if not terrifying, stuff.
Speaking at the WIRED Next Generation event in London, Madeline passed on her robot-taming skills to the audience of 12-18 year olds and shared her passion for turning 6-foot-tall factory line robots into tools any human can communicate with. Cont'd...
Dual Check Safety Improves Stop Position Prediction
The process of having employees work alongside robots is constantly improving. While this change may seem to be a small change, it does give more space for actual collaboration.
RR Floody's Powerful New Flexible Feeder System Pairs Mitsubishi Electric Robot and Cognex Vision System
With manufacturers more and more concerned about being able to change product and component mix on the fly, they are demanding a more flexible feeder bowl solution that allows for changing component recognition without expensive and time-consuming retooling of the system every time.
Mobility for Robots
IPRs Robot Transport Units (RTU) Increase Both the Action Radius of Robots and the Productivity of Loading Stations
Brushless Motors: What's the Big Difference?
The electronic switching of currents to the coils of the BLDC motor is more efficient than the mechanical switching of the DC motor.
RoboBusiness 2016: Our Takeaways
Just like at Automatica last summer, it almost felt as if the robotics event was morphing into an IT event. So much so that Michael Loughlin of nelmia Robotics Insight joked that it looked like manufacturers forgot that their job is actually to build stuff.
Is a Robot After Your Job?
Robots may be after your job, but you could be their boss.
Vision-guided Collaborative Robots Deliver Fast Return on Investment in Production of Firehose Valves
The Universal Robot is so simple and non-intimidating that our programmers were already in the mindset of I dont need any guidance, I can do this on my own. It was almost like a PlayStation video game where they could pick up the controller and figure it out without reading the rules to the game.
Foxconn reaches 40,000 robots of original 1 million robot automation goal
From Next Big Future: In 2011, Foxconn had announced a plan to replace 500,000 mainland Chinese workers with 1 million robots over the next 3-5 years.
Foxconn is the company that builds Apple's iPhone and iPad hardware and many of the android smartphones as well.
Foxconn, has so far installed 40,000 production robots across China as it looks to minimize the number of people it employs.
With the exception of some components like servo motors and speed reducers, the robots are being built entirely in-house, Foxconn's Dai Chia-peng told Taiwan's Central News Agency, as quoted by DigiTimes. It's unclear how many of the so-called "Foxbots" are being used to manufacture Apple products.
The machines are, however, said to be operating an industrial facility in Zhengzhou, a tablet plant in Chengdu, and computer/peripherals plants in Kunshan and Jiashan. Cont'd...
Mobile Cobots are Coming
A mobile cobot (mobile collaborative robot) is an intelligent, transportable robot that will assist humans in a shared workspace.
Special Tradeshow Coverage for FABTECH
FABTECH will be held from November 16th - 18th in Las Vegas, Nevada. This RoboticsTomorrow.com Special Tradeshow report aims to bring you news, articles and products from this years event.
The Real Cost of Robotics
Realize that the arm is but a tiny part in the long list of equipment that had to be provisioned, installed, and configured in the name of your automation project.
Japanese Robotics Giant Gives Its Arms Some Brains
Will Knight for MIT Technology Review: The big, dumb, monotonous industrial robots found in many factories could soon be quite a bit smarter, thanks to the introduction of machine-learning skills that are moving out of research labs at a fast pace. Fanuc, one of the world’s largest makers of industrial robots, announced that it will work with Nvidia, a Silicon Valley chipmaker that specializes in artificial intelligence, to add learning capabilities to its products.
The deal is important because it shows how recent advances in AI are poised to overhaul the manufacturing industry. Today’s industrial bots are typically programmed to do a single job very precisely and accurately. But each time a production run changes, the robots then need to be reprogrammed from scratch, which takes time and technical expertise. Cont'd...
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Factory Automation - Featured Product
OnLogic Karbon 520 Series of Scalable Rugged Computers
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Robotics and Automation - Featured Company
TM Robotics (Americas) Inc
TM Robotics, in partnership with Shibaura Machine, formerly known as Toshiba Machine until 1st April 2020, offers a comprehensive range of industrial robots ideally suited for high-precision assembly, machine loading/unloading and material-handling applications that can be dust proof, clean room, or IP65/67. The company's extensive product line starts with a Cartesian solution available in thousands of combinations from single actuators to four-axis solutions; six-axis solutions that can include precise vision-control; and a complete range of SCARAs from low cost to the industry-leading SCARA with 1200-mm reach that can carry up to 20 kgs. TM Robotics sells and services robots throughout Europe, the Middle East, India, Russia, and Africa, as well as North, Central, and South America, from headquarters in Hertfordshire, England and Elk Grove Village, IL, USA. For more information, visit www.tmrobotics.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
