30,000+ fans, family, educators and industry leaders attended the 2012 FIRST Championship held in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 600 teams from 32 countries competed in the three levels of FIRST competitions. One week earlier, in Anaheim, California, the 2012 VEX Robotics World Championship boasted similar-sized crowds and included top teams from over 230 VEX Robotics…
Solutions
Tesla and Edison were both right. The “war of the currents” was really not about whether alternating current was superior to direct current. It wasn’t really about Edison’s creation of the power utility as an enterprise to generate and sell electric power versus Tesla’s idea to make electricity free and transmit it through the air. It […]
iRobot stock plunges again on Q1 earnings report… but then rebounds
Click to enlarge. After suffering a 33% price drop early February upon announcing that future governmental sales would be down because of DoD cutbacks and delays, iRobot drops another 6.5% when actual Q1 earnings were reported. Quarterly earnings were 2 cents per share versus $0.27 last year Q1; the company said earnings would grow to…
AeroVironment Gets Additional Puma Orders
AeroVironment receives 3 new orders ($28.4 million from Army, Marines and Air Force) for their popular Puma drone. More than 1,000 Puma’s are produced and in the field already. AeroVironment also makes Raven and Wasp drones for the DoD.
Energy and Policy
Energy is in the news every day. Gasoline prices are only part of the picture, although they are the most prominent indicator because we see them every day. Energy production is not subject to the forces of the free market. Prices are high because the Federal government doesn’t allow American companies to drill and refine […]
Minarik Drives and American Control Electronics Gain ISO Certification
Hegel Holdings, parent company for both the Minarik Drives & American Control Electronics brands, announced that they have earned ISO9001:2008 Certification for the design and manufacture of electronics control solutions for industrial and commercial applications. ISO 9001:2008 certification is granted to organizations that adhere to international standards for quality management that ensure the organization fulfills […]
The New Generation of Motor Design
Motors keep changing. Faraday’s laws haven’t been broken. Rather, we keep inventing new solutions to the fundamental question; how do I achieve lowest cost performance. The primary attribute driving a new motor design can be any of a long list of things. Usually there is a minimum speed and torque. Then there are starting and […]
Cheap Labor, Who’s Next?
I read an interesting statistic. In 2000 the average wage in China was 52 cents/hour. According to a different source, the more recent labor rates have risen to somewhere in the range of $1.20 to maybe $1.70 an hour. Still pretty low compared to the US where the minimum wage is $7.75 an hour. In […]
Health Robotics has banner 1st quarter
Health Robotics, an Italian supplier of life-critical intravenous medication automation, produces robotic devices which make sterile, accurate, tamper-evident and ready-to-administer IVs for hospital use worldwide. The 31 contracted devices sold in the quarter just ended brings to 150 the total number of units under contract.
New Product Development is New Again
New product development is what stimulates commerce. And nothing succeeds like new products that really impress customers. This is the lesson of Apple Inc., and its legendary products the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The lesson here? Selling stuff is not difficult when you’ve done your product design homework. So why doesn’t every company make great […]