Manufacturing

Dave Evans, CEO of Fictiv, reviews robotics manufacturability and the benefits of digital manufacturing. Also, Marc Alba, Senior Vice President, NTT, discusses Jibo’s future.

By leveraging a combination of sensing / digitalization and AI / ML, Omnirobotic provides “high-mix” manufacturers a spray, coating and finishing solution, delivered as a service, that reduces robot programming costs while increasing productivity.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) deployments are up substantially, with more to come. As the technology has proven to deliver business value, many new adopters are skipping long term pilot projects and moving directly to partial or full roll-outs.

The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute’s Suzy Teele recently interviewed Yaskawa Motoman ‘s Roger Christian about the strategic advantages of partnering with ARM, and how the relationship benefits Yaskawa and advances the role of robotics in manufacturing.

The total number of robotics transactions held steady year over year, but the autonomous vehicle and manufacturing automation providers received less investment. Healthcare systems, field robots, and drones got funding in September 2020.

For small-to-medium manufacturers (SMMs), especially those with high-mix, low-volume production loads, collaborative robots provide many benefits over traditional industrial robots for certain tasks. But deploying cobots can be challenging. Thankfully, the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) can help.

RBR’s offers hot takes on ONRobot’s sanding solution, Brain Corporation’s new CTO, the US DoD seeking sensing solutions, and the Dive Technologies / Virginia Tech partnership.

Market research and consultancy firm Interact Analysis estimates that worldwide revenues for mobile robots will reach US $2.4B in 2020, representing a 45% increase for AMRs and 11% for AGVs over 2019. But that is only the beginning.

Purchasing robots, CNC machines and other industrial equipment for manufacturing operations can be a difficult process, and one fraught with uncertainty, especially for small-to-medium manufacturers. The US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) has some suggestions and best practices designed to support decision making and reduce the risk.

Trade conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and now the COVID-19 crisis, is putting global supply chain at risk, and as a result companies are expected to reverse the multi-decade trend of offshoring. As robotics and automation becomes more capable, cheaper, and easier to implement, the technology is likely to accelerate reshoring initiatives.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, robotics investment and acquisition activity did not slow down in August 2020, with funding flowing to autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and drones.

Members of the ARM Institute, a public-private partnership of more than 250 member organizations that promote collaborative robotics and workforce development, will discuss the current state-of-the-art for robotics manufacturing, as well as what the future holds, during RoboBusiness Direct event on September 3rd, 2020.

Building on the success of the inaugural series, the RoboBusiness Direct Fall program will once again have robotics industry experts addressing critical robotics business development issues through an integrated series of online presentations and continuing media coverage and analysis.

The future of manufacturing is dynamic, flexible human-machine collaboration. Veo Robotics provides a 3D sensing and control system that makes standard industrial robots responsive to humans so they can work safely side-by-side.

Robotics fundings, mergers, and acquisitions in July 2020 stayed at comparable levels with transactions from a year ago and June.

When inflexible automation collides with manufacturing trends requiring more flexibility, productivity suffers. Why? Manufacturing as currently practiced — with poor human-machine collaboration — is not sufficiently responsive to the long-term trends of shorter product life cycles and increasing product diversity.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have proven to increase the productivity and reduce the cost of warehouse automation operations. While the costs of AMRs continue to drop, even as their capabilities increase, there are often hidden, and sizable, costs associated with their deployment. Here’s what to look for, and how to mitigate their impact.

Robots and industrial automation enable disproportionate GDP gains, but are they resilient to disruptions and changing demands?

The emergence and rapid proliferation of collaborative robots have resulted in the proliferation of a new class of ‘lean’ integrators specially adapted to the needs of SMEs who wish to leverage automation. The lean integrator has evolved precisely to deliver robot installations that yield higher productivity at a lower price point, and that can be installed in a fraction of the time of a traditional robot work cell.

New research by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu shows that since 1987, automation has taken away jobs from lower-skill workers without being replaced by an equivalent number of labor-market opportunities.

In June 2020, investment and acquisition activity picked up a bit for autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, healthcare systems, and industrial automation.

Boston Dynamics’ VP of Business Development and Universal Robots’ CEO Jürgen von Hollen are featured in this episode of The Robot Report Podcast.

Labor shortages and high levels of workplace injury and illness have always challenged the food manufacturing sector, especially meat producers. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. Robotics automation provides a solution.

A new study co-authored by an MIT economist Daron Acemoglu shows firms that move quickly to use robots tend to add workers to their payroll, while industry job losses are more concentrated in firms that make this change more slowly.

Despite strong economic headwinds from global shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some funding and merger activity continued in April 2020, particularly in healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing.