Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

Abdul Montaqim

Foundational insights: Exclusive interview with Deloitte’s manufacturing leader

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Some sectors of technology change so fast it can be bewildering for people whose jobs and livelihoods depend on keeping up with new innovations and developments which can mean the difference between profit and loss, success and failure. 

Traditionally, larger companies have been wary of the threat of smaller, more nimble and more flexible competitors launching more innovative products and services faster and at a lower price point and taking away their market share.

It doesn’t always happen, but it does sometimes. Corporate history is littered with many stories of successful companies which went from being the dominant market leader to being an also-ran, or worse.  [Read more…] about Foundational insights: Exclusive interview with Deloitte’s manufacturing leader

As good as a lifelong guarantee: Interview with Fanuc America boss

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Exclusive interview with Neil Dueweke, general manager, automotive new domestic and automotive components group, Fanuc America

Industrial robotics and automation is a complex area for a someone with no background in engineering or any related disciplines. 

Which is why it’s always interesting to ask for the observations of experts who work within the sector.

Fanuc has a greater number of industrial robots installed worldwide than any other company – some 400,000 at last count. By that measure, it’s the biggest industrial robot company in the world.

And as Neil Dueweke (main picture), general manager, automotive new domestic and automotive components group, Fanuc America, explains in this exclusive interview with Robotics and Automation News, installation is by no means the end of the relationship with a customer.  [Read more…] about As good as a lifelong guarantee: Interview with Fanuc America boss

From the biggest to the smallest: Hitachi takes first nimble steps in robotics market

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Exclusive interview with Dong Li, research engineer at Hitachi R&D Europe, about the company’s new humanoid robot, Emiew

At street level, the Barbican area of London, England has the strange quality of looking like a small underground city. But it’s actually not.

True, it has an Underground railway station, but the rest of the commercial and cultural district – with its museums and office blocks – is mostly above ground.

It may be because the buildings are so imposing that they overshadow the often narrow streets and block out the sun in some places. The bridges overhead connecting one set of buildings to another, or one side of the road to the other, and the tunnels that go underneath the building complexes themselves, exacerbate the feeling of being underground.  [Read more…] about From the biggest to the smallest: Hitachi takes first nimble steps in robotics market

Range against the machine: Exclusive interview with Garry Kasparov

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With so many people voicing their fears about a future world in which artificial intelligence not only influences our day-to-day activities, but also makes life-or-death decisions in security and defence scenarios, there is arguably no one more qualified to comment on the issue of man versus machine than Garry Kasparov. 

For younger readers who may not know who Kasparov is, he is probably the most celebrated and most controversial chess grandmaster there has ever been.

Back in the days when the Cold War as at its height, and the then USSR and the US were constantly on the verge of wiping humanity from the face of the Earth, Kasparov took on the very icon of American power, IBM, and what was at the time its most powerful supercomputer, Deep Blue. It was the first time such tests were conducted in such an internationally high-profile way.  [Read more…] about Range against the machine: Exclusive interview with Garry Kasparov

Chinese search giant Baidu launches $1.5 billion fund for autonomous car tech

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Baidu – China’s equivalent of Google – has launched a $1.5 billion fund for autonomous car technology.

The company’s newly established Apollo Fund will invest in 100 autonomous driving projects in the next three years.

Meanwhile, Baidu has unveiled the latest iteration of its Apollo open-source autonomous driving platform, Apollo 1.5. The Apollo platform has gathered 70 partner companies so far. [Read more…] about Chinese search giant Baidu launches $1.5 billion fund for autonomous car tech

Deepfield Robotics to showcase precision agriculture technology at Agrilevante

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Deepfield Robotics is preparing to showcase its robotics and automation technologies for the agriculture market at the Agrilevante event, in Italy.  

The company is a startup established by industrial giant Bosch, and has a variety of solutions for the burgeoning precision agriculture market.  [Read more…] about Deepfield Robotics to showcase precision agriculture technology at Agrilevante

Interview with Ubuntu boss: A rich ecosystem for robotics and automation systems

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Exclusive interview with Mike Bell from Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu

There’s a lot of talk about the Robot Operating System. Understandably so. But the most widely used operating system in robotics and automation systems development is actually Ubuntu. 

In fact, ROS is not actually an operating system at all – it’s a set of software frameworks, or a software development kit, to be installed into an operating system like Ubuntu.

As Mike Bell, executive vice president of internet of things and devices at Canonical, explains in an exclusive interview: “It’s a bit confusing because it’s called Robot Operating System, but the reason is because if you’re developing robot applications, you don’t need to worry about the fact that it’s running on Ubuntu.

“You just write your application to interface into a ROS SDK and then deploy on Ubuntu.”  [Read more…] about Interview with Ubuntu boss: A rich ecosystem for robotics and automation systems

Denso creates consortium for network and computing infrastructure of automotive big data

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Denso, the main supplier of automotive components to Toyota, is part of a new consortium which will develop infrastructure for driving data.

As well as Denso, other companies in the consortium are Ericsson, Intel, NTT, NTT Docomo, Toyota InfoTechnology, and Toyota Motor.

Together, the companies have initiated the formation of the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium.  [Read more…] about Denso creates consortium for network and computing infrastructure of automotive big data

Investing in robotics with a $100 million fund and a humanitarian perspective

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Investing in robotics is something many people are interested in. 

Not surprising, since funds which have invested in robotics and related technologies on the stock markets have returned significantly more profits than funds in other business sectors.

Rewired is a new fund which is starting out with $100 million to invest in what it says will be “the next generation of robotics”. [Read more…] about Investing in robotics with a $100 million fund and a humanitarian perspective

A smooth revolution: Exclusive interview with Genesis Robotics CEO

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There’s been a lot of talk about, and tremendous interest in, Genesis Robotics because of its new invention, the LiveDrive, an actuation system which could not only revolutionise industrial robotics and automation, but could also transform automotive vehicles as well as change many other machines, devices and whole sectors. 

But for the people behind the technology, one especially interesting potential application for LiveDrive is exoskeletons and what the company calls “assistive robots”, which they see as being in virtually every home in the future.

In this exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Robotics and Automation News talks to Mike Hilton, CEO of Genesis Robotics, about its development of LiveDrive, its potential applications, as well as the company’s negotiations for the licensing of its technology as well as the possibility of an acquisition.  [Read more…] about A smooth revolution: Exclusive interview with Genesis Robotics CEO