Comau continues its growth in the Robotics sector, and for the third consecutive year has recorded a double-digit increase in articulated robot sales. Similarly, the results in individual industries reflect the global growth trend, which is even more significant as it underlines the success of Comau’s market penetration strategies. In particular, the increase in 2015 […]
Livestock feed maker speeds up changeover for palletizing operations
Managers at Minnesota-based Form-A-Feed, a maker of livestock feed, planned a new production line as they saw business growing. As part of the planning process, Form-A-Feed called on engineers from Plymouth, Minn., Hamer-Fischbein, a company that designs, makes and integrates bagging equipment and Yaskawa Motoman robotic packaging solutions. The engineers looked at ways to boost […]
Watch Google’s Self-Driving Car Hit a Bus
Surveillance video has been released that shows the Valentine’s Day accident between a Google self-driving car and California public transit bus.
World’s slimmest safety relay
The new PSRmini relays from Phoenix Contact are the world’s slimmest safety relays. At just 6-mm wide, the PSRmini allows for 6 A, force-guided safety connections, but at a 70 percent smaller footprint than standard 22.5-mm safety relays. PSRmini safety relays come in two form factors, “slim” and “compact.” The 6-mm slim relay variants have […]
U.K. Companies Grab a Slice of the Surgical Robotics Market
Global demand could reach 10 million procedures per year, as Renishaw, NightstaRx, and CMR work on minimally invasive robotic surgery systems.
Deep Learning Leads to More AI Investments
Artificial intelligence research into deep learning and human-robot collaboration is getting support from major technology companies, as robots get smarter and more capable.
DeepDrumpf Twitterbot Uses AI to Imitate Donald Trump
MIT built the Drumpf Twitterbot using artificial intelligence to learn Donald Trumps speech patterns before publishing ‘remarkably Trump-like statements.’
MakerGirl 3D Printing Workshops Inspire Future Female STEM Leaders
MakerGirl introduces young girls to STEM through interactive 3D printing workshops where the girls brainstorm, design and print their own projects.
MIT, Carnegie Mellon to exhibit at Hannover Fair for first time
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) invented GPS, developed Doppler radar and is a pioneer in 3D printing. Carnegie Mellon University created the navigation software used by NASA’s Mars rovers, built robots that can walk on water and is a birthplace of artificial intelligence. Together they boast more than 100 Nobel laureates. In 2016 both […]
New tech overcomes challenges of dot-matrix text in vision inspection applications
Matrox Imaging has introduced Matrox SureDotOCR, the first OCR technology specifically designed to overcome the challenges of using inkjet-printed, dot-matrix text in vision inspection applications, particularly on packaging lines in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. SureDotOCR will be made available initially as an add-on tool to Matrox Imaging Library (MIL) machine vision software. Existing […]
Autonomous Marine Systems Raises Seed Funding
Interest in the solar- and wind-powered Datamaran from AMS ranges from Maine to Azerbaijan.
Collaborative robots are broadening their marketplaces
Universal Robots, the Danish manufacturer of a line of collaborative robots (also called “co-bots”), recently published financial statements which provide valuable insights into the growth potential of collaborative robots. At present, sales of collaborative robots represent just 5% of the overall robot market. The collaborative robotics sector, according to multiple pay-for research reports, is expected to…
Amazon Alexa Expands Smart Home Voice Controls
Amazon Echo Dot and Amazon Tap are two new Alexa-enabled devices designed to be the voice-controlled back-end for everything in a smart home.
Neato Botvac Connected Adds Smartwatch Controls
An Apple Watch and Android Wear device can start and stop the Botvac Connected robot vacuum and monitor its cleanup progress.
Rethink Robotics Expands German, Chinese Distribution
Jim Lawton, chief marketing officer at Rethink Robotics, describes what the cobot maker is looking for as it seeks international partners.
Robotic cooks, servers and noodle-cutting devices
In many places in China and Japan – and now in Southern California – Chinese cooking, serving and noodle-cutting robots are entertaining customers and helping out in the kitchen. Are they of value? Certainly they attract and entertain customers. Do they perform a service that a restaurant would otherwise have to employ a human worker…
Stanford’s Self-Driving Car ‘Shelley’ Races Around at 120 MPH
Stanford developed “Shelley” to see how the self-driving car adjusts its throttle and braking systems. It hopes to use the data to improve collision avoidance software.
Video Shows Aftermath of Google’s Self-Driving Car Accident
DJI Phantom 4 Drone Comparison
Here’s a look at how the new DJI Phantom 4 drone compares to the Phantom 3 Professional, Phantom 3 Advanced, Phantom 3 Standard and Phantom 3 4K drones.
Renishaw robot system installed at children’s hospital
Renishaw announced that a neuromate stereotactic robot system and neuroinspire surgical planning software have been installed at one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London, U.K. Martin Tisdall and Kristian Aquilina, consultant neurosurgeons at GOSH (pictured right) have already successfully used the systems for several Stereoelectroencephalography (stereo EEG) cases […]
Safety controllers for explosive environments
Schmersal is proud to introduce the SRB-EXi series; a generation of safety relay modules which combines the proven SRB safety relay functionality with the demands of explosion protection. The SRB-EXi are suitable for secure signal analysis of emergency stop equipment and for safety monitoring of switchgear up to Category 4, PLe in accordance with ISO […]
February fundings and acquisitions
It's too early to tell whether the record-breaking pace of 2015 fundings for robotic startups and the number of acquisitions will carry over into 2016, nevertheless here are the transactions that happened in February: Fundings 5D Robotics raised $5.5 million in a seed round from private investors to enable the development of their commercial equipment…