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Amsterdam to have new 3D printed stainless steel bridge

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Additive manufacturing company MX3D is 3D printing stainless steel bridge to cross one of the oldest and most famous canals in the centre of Amsterdam, the Oudezijds Achterburgwal.

Gemeente Amsterdam is MX3D’s collaborative bridge building department’s first customer.

The company equips typical industrial robots with purpose-built tools and develops the software to control them. The approach allows the company to 3D print strong, complex and graceful structures out of metal.

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Festo to show bionic and future concepts at Hannover

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From 23rd to 27th April 2018, Festo will be exhibiting new future and bionic concepts as well as further product innovations for factory and process automation at its main booth in Hannover Messe, with the stations “Learn, Build, Operate, Inspire”.

Festo will present a self-learning workplace for human-robot collaboration, the digital customer journey from “Learn”, “Build” and “Operate” to “Inspire”, the fusion of hardware and software in the context of digitalisation and further bionic and future concepts.

The networking of humans, machinery and IT is shaping tomorrow’s production. Not only production plants are now increasingly automated: even the components themselves are becoming more intelligent and are being networked to an increasing extent.

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Manufacturers ‘slow’ to introduce digital supply chains, says new report

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Manufacturing companies are slow to integrate digital supply chains into their networks, according to a new report by Deloitte and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. 

Deloitte, one of the largest management consultancies in the world, says the lag is occurring despite the “significant advantages” digital supply networks, or DSNs, can provide.

The study, Embracing a digital future: How manufacturers can unlock the transformative benefits of digital supply networks, reveals a disconnect between executives’ opinions of their DSN efforts and actual implementation.  [Read more…] about Manufacturers ‘slow’ to introduce digital supply chains, says new report

Robotic arms being employed as camera operators

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If you’re an enthusiast who occasionally makes a YouTube video, you probably use the webcam integrated with your computer. 

But if you’re more serious, you probably buy yourself good-quality video and audio equipment and your productions are of a higher standard.

Take one step further on from that and what’s possible is that you avail yourself of the services of a camera operator, someone who can move the camera to follow you around as you show us how to make that croissant and coffee we all so desperately need first thing in the morning.  [Read more…] about Robotic arms being employed as camera operators

Robot density rises globally, South Korea ahead

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The automation of production is accelerating around the world: 74 robot units per 10,000 employees is the new average of global robot density in the manufacturing industries (2015: 66 units). By regions, the average robot density in Europe is 99 units, in the Americas 84 and in Asia 63 units.

The top 10 most automated countries in the world are: South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, USA, Italy, Belgium and Taiwan, according to the 2017 World Robot Statistics, issued by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

“Robot density is an excellent standard for comparison in order to take into account the differences in the automation degree of the manufacturing industry in various countries,” says Junji Tsuda, President of the International Federation of Robotics.

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PMC ‘increases efficiency and quality’ with Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer

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Plastic Molded Concepts, a plastics injection molding manufacturer, has installed Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer robot at its Eagle, Wisconsin facility to drive business growth and offer high-quality jobs for workers. (See video below.)

Rethink claims that PMC has found that using Sawyer “increases throughput efficiency and job quality” in its facility.

PMC has turned to automation to boost the productivity of its 38 molding machines. As a first step, Sawyer is making parts for a pressure gauge.

Larry Floyd, president at PMC, says: “We qualify our success in terms of efficiency, and there’s no better solution to efficiency than automation.  [Read more…] about PMC ‘increases efficiency and quality’ with Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer

Country insight: Robotics and automation set to make in-roads into Malaysian logistics industry

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Malaysia is a southeast Asian country with a population of about 32 million, and a diverse ethnic mix which includes 50 per cent Malays, 23 per cent Chinese and 12 per cent “indigenous”, along with 7 per cent Indians and 9 per cent “others”, according to the most recent study. 

Its location and geography – with thousands of miles of coastline and almost 30 ports – make Malaysia an ideal logistics hub for the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

The largest port in the country is said to be Port Klang, which used to be called Pelabuhan Swettenham. Like any major port, it has road and rail connections to the rest of the country and beyond – to Singapore and Thailand among other places.  [Read more…] about Country insight: Robotics and automation set to make in-roads into Malaysian logistics industry

Omron to show factory automation solutions at WCX

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Omron Automation will demo its wide-ranging innovations in robotics, sensing, control, safety, vision and more at the SAE World Congress Experience (WCX) this April in Detroit, USA..

One of the company’s key demos at WCX 2018 will feature the FH vision system, a powerful solution for high-speed inspection for automotive and electronic applications.

The LD Mobile Robot exhibit will show how self-navigating autonomous intelligent vehicle (AIV) can adapt to a wide variety of applications and payloads.

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ABB cobots and software on show at Pack Expo East

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ABB will feature robotic and motion technologies such as the YuMi collaborative robot and the ABB IRB 460 palletizing robot for packaging and warehouse distribution applications at Pack Expo East 2018, April 16-18 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, USA.

For food & beverage, an ABB demo will feature an IRB 360 FlexPicker® with PickMaster™ software and an IRB 910SC SCARA robot working together to pick and place apples from a randomized infeed flow.

Both the FlexPicker and the SCARA robots feature Soft Robotics grippers, a technology that can manipulate items of varying size, shape and weight with a single device.

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How cities innovate through robotics

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How can robots provide services for cities and their inhabitants? What are the benefits of using robots for the inspection and maintenance of urban infrastructures?

A new video created by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya shows how ECHORD++ is encouraging cities to innovate through robotics, especially in the field of sewer inspection.

The video shows the concept of the ECHORD++ Public end-user Driven Technological Innovation (PDTI) scheme, which we offers R&D consortia the possibility to develop robotic technology according to the needs of public bodies.

Two application areas have been identified: Healthcare and Urban Robotics.

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