One of robotics' most colorful proponents is Drew Greenblatt, President of Marlin Steel. In a recent NY Times article he vividly describes how he has used robots to automate basket-making to a precision – and competitive – artform. When I bought the company, we had minimum-wage employees who would hand-bend each of the four bends at the…
Renk Systems on the 15MW Dynamometer
Engineering calculations may say the design will work, but experience has proven that conditions in the real world cannot be fully anticipated. This fact was expressed in early Department of Energy writings about the promotion of wind power in the United States. In order for wind power technology to become successful, design validation and testing […]
Migration from Mexico to U.S. tapering off
In a recent newsletter from Harvest Automation, the start-up company that produces robots that move potted plants at nurseries and greenhouses, HA cites two very revealing trends regarding migrant workers. These two trends are causing a double whammy for American farmers: 1. Shifting migration patterns have come to a point where migration from the…
IT and Control
The lines between plant control systems and Information Technology systems are blurring. Even more than I previously thought. Consider the latest from Rockwell Automation; Rockwell Architecture and Software business grew more than twice as fast as the Control Products and Solutions group in the second quarter of 2014. Which suggests that companies are recognizing the […]
12.6% CAGR forecast for mobile robotics market
A recent $4,800 Transparency Market Research report forecasts that for the period from now until 2019, the global mobile robotics market will grow at a 12.6% CAGR. Revenue is expected to grow from $6.2 billion in 2012 to $14.3 billion in 2019. The report limited its scope to four segments: Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles…
Why was this man smiling at AUTOMATICA?
34,500 visitors from more than 100 countries came to Munich this June to visit AUTOMATICA 2014 and examine the robotics-related wares of 731 exhibitors from over 42 countries. But why was Esben Østergaard, CTO of Danish Universal Robots smiling? Perhaps it was because his company was one of the showpieces of AUTOMATICA’s focus this year on Service Robots?…
IT, the Cloud, and Manufacturing
What is the cloud? It is a virtual computing world. Server farms with massive computer resources that can host any application. Instead of installing Excel spreadsheet on your laptop, you can connect over the Internet to a spreadsheet program. You can run the application, do calculations, and save data as a server file or on […]
Global robotics and autonomous systems patents tripled in last 10 years
The UK Government Patent Office, in a global study of recent patents, has identified 8 technologies which they believe will propel future growth across the world. Under the presumption that patent data can give valuable insight into innovative activity, the UK Government commissioned their Intellectual Property Office to review the international patent scene. The result…
BP gets first FAA approval to use commercial UAVs
BP, the oil and energy company, received the first FAA early-use approval to fly Puma UAVs in and around Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Puma’s are small, weighing only 13 pounds. They are 4’7” long with a wingspan of 9’ and manufactured by AeroVironment. The battery version can fly for 3-1/2 hours while the solar-powered version can…
IFR Maker/User Panel at AUTOMATICA
In a crowded back room at AUTOMATICA 2014 in Munich, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) sponsored a panel of prominent robot users explaining their needs to a panel of executives representing the major robot manufacturers. The panel was moderating by Ken Fouhy of VDI Nachrichten, a German newspaper and web portal for technology news in the…
Electric Motor Efficiency
The notion of increasing efficiency in electric motors has been with us for some time. The US government has been pushing efficiency standards for quite some time. It’s a little like legislating gravity to stop operating. Politics and engineering don’t mix well. Engineering is all about what we can prove, politics is often about getting […]
Recent Fundings
The biggest funding was announced at AUTOMATICA 2014: The Partnership for Robotics in Europe launched SPARC – a €2.8 billion public-private program to increase Europe's share of the global robotics market. Two smaller fundings in the Service Robotics space also occurred. Medrobotics Corp, a Raynham, MA-based start-up, closed an “E” preferred stock funding of $26 million. Funds…
Testing the Big Boys
By Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor Mechatronic challenges come in all sizes, but the new 15-MW Drivetrain Test Facility at Clemson University may be the biggest in the world. Ever since the publication of the Department of Energy’s “20% by 2030” windpower roadmap, the question of equipment testing has been noted as a key ingredient to […]
Aldebaran Robotics + SoftBank = Pepper
The latest creation from Aldebaran Robotics, Pepper, is designed to live with humans. It doesn’t clean or cook but it talks, is mobile, can read emotions, and reacts autonomously to “make people happy.” Pepper was created specifically for SoftBank and the Japanese market and is designed to be engaging and friendly, a companionable to communicate through an intuitive artificial…
IFR reports record 2013 industrial robot sales
At a press conference this morning at AUTOMATICA 2014 in Munich, International Federation of Robotics (IFR) President Arturo Baroncelli announced that 179,000 industrial robots were sold in 2013, a 12% jump from 2012 and the highest number of units sold ever. Further, he said that “Incoming orders in the first four months of 2014 increased…
Magnetics and Mechatronics
What do we know about magnetism, really? It’s kind of a mysterious force. The earth is a giant permanent magnet. The magnetosphere protects us from cosmic radiation and intense ultraviolet rays that would strip the oxygen from our atmosphere. Any iron object can be made into a permanent magnet by holding it parallel to the […]