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Manufacturing: Smarter than the average factory

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What’s all this talk about “smart factories”? It’s just a bunch of machines being connected to the internet, right? What’s the big deal? What’s the big idea?

True, it’s all about connectivity. But that is, in fact, a very big deal – lots of very big deals, lots of very small deals, just lots and lots of deals, which, when combined, is indeed a huge, historic shift in industrial production, encapsulated by some in terms such as “Industry 4.0” or “Industrial Internet”.

Having been articulated, arguably, by the Germans, talk about “the fourth industrial revolution” or “Industrie 4.0” has permeated virtually all conversations about the future of manufacturing.  [Read more…] about Manufacturing: Smarter than the average factory

Logistics robots: The way you move

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As Joni Mitchell once sang, and Janet Jackson reiterated, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”.

So it was when Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 for a chart-topping $775 million.

Now one of the world’s largest online retailers, Amazon is also growing its logistics business, with 30,000 Kiva robots working away at its warehouses all over the world. [Read more…] about Logistics robots: The way you move

Manufacturing: A different type of industrial cloud

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Not so long ago, computers were almost always in a business location – an accountant’s office, or something like that. But gradually, partly thanks to Apple iMac, the machines started making their way into homes in large numbers. 

But there are still categories of computers which don’t really belong in the home, or at least weren’t designed for domestic bliss. If you can comfortably fit a supercomputer or a mainframe into your house, that’s probably enough domestic bliss for you anyway.

For most of us, desktop computers – or increasingly laptop computers – are just about all the space we can share, and the largest manufacturers of such poor-man’s systems were recently listed by Gartner.

Worldwide computer shipments in second quarter of 2016

  1. Lenovo – 13.2 million units
  2. HP – 12.3 million units
  3. Dell – 10 million units
  4. Asus – 4.7 million units
  5. Apple – 4.6 million units
  6. Acer – 4.4 million units
  7. Others – 15.4 million units

[visualizer id=”7600″]
Source: Gartner

[Read more…] about Manufacturing: A different type of industrial cloud

Sewbots prepare to take millions of jobs off humans in clothes manufacturing sector

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More and more companies in the textiles, clothing and footwear business are turning to advanced manufacturing technologies – robotic sewing machines and connected systems – to reduce the number of humans in their factories, along with the financial and social costs of employing them.

One of the largest apparel manufacturers in India, Raymond, which employs 30,000 human workers, says it plans to replace 10,000 of them with robots over the next three years. [Read more…] about Sewbots prepare to take millions of jobs off humans in clothes manufacturing sector

Vacuum cleaning robots invading homes all over the world

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roomba
Long-exposure photo showing path taken by Roomba in 45 minutes. Picture: Wikipedia

Other than washing the dishes, vacuuming the house is probably the most boring activity in the world, and probably only a very few sane humans would enjoy the activity. 

But household chores need to be done, and it is this human right to avoid boring tasks which the robots are exploiting to find their way into homes all over the world.

In the future, when we look back at how the robots took over everything, it’s probably not industrial robots which will be blamed – because they’re mostly caged off and controlled inside factories: it’s the vacuuming and other cleaning robots we should be scared of.

They might look innocent – with their rounded edges and small, apparently unintimidating size, maybe even reminiscent of a slow-moving pet cat, only better behaved – but vacuuming robots could be seen as the artificially intelligent machine army’s frontline infantry in the battle for the future of humanity, and they are gaining more and more floorspace every day.  [Read more…] about Vacuum cleaning robots invading homes all over the world

Watchmaking robots: It’s a small world

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When Apple wanted to launch a watch, most people may have thought the company would name it iWatch, to go with iPhone, iPad and iLife. 

However, Swatch raised a legal objection on the grounds that it had the rights to a product called iSwatch, and Apple’s iWatch would be too similar. This week, the courts agreed and banned Apple from using the name.

But Apple had already changed its mind some time ago, and went with Apple Watch, which has gone on to sell 13 million units in its first year, estimated to be a faster sales rate than the iPhone.

But as a total, 13 million is barely a drop in the ocean of the global watch market.  [Read more…] about Watchmaking robots: It’s a small world

Chinese whispers: The most populous nation on Earth wants to replace millions of human workers with industrial robots it plans to manufacture

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Towards the end of last year, the nominally communist Chinese government announced that it wants China to become the world’s largest producer of industrial robots. 

In comments made in the past few months, China’s President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have clearly stated their intention to embrace robots and the new industrial revolution brought about by internet connectivity and artificial intelligence.

In a speech to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jinping called for a “robot revolution”, saying: “Our country will be the biggest market for robots, but can our technology and manufacturing capacity cope with the competition? Not only do we need to upgrade our robots, we also need to capture markets in many places.”

And speaking at the China Association for Science and Technology conference in Beijing, Keqiang said the conference will “spur the the growth of the emerging robot industry and create the world’s largest robot market”.  [Read more…] about Chinese whispers: The most populous nation on Earth wants to replace millions of human workers with industrial robots it plans to manufacture

Advanced driver assistance systems trump driverless cars by stealth

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While everyone seems fascinated by driverless cars brought to us via Silicon Valley, established suppliers of advanced driver assistance systems are quietly doing a roaring trade 

The automotive industry is going through some fundamental changes, mostly because of computer technology. 

The changes include higher levels of computer processing, fully driverless vehicles, greater levels of autonomy, internet connectivity, and the switch from petrol-powered combustion engines to electric.

It’s probably inevitable that the combustion engine will be gone from most mass-manufactured cars within a couple of decades, and will eventually only be seen in antique cars and supercars, although even some supercars are going electric.

Which means the road-going vehicle of the near-future will essentially be computers with wheels, connected to the cloud, and largely autonomous – or, in other words, a robot. In fact, this is what is already happening because of advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS.  [Read more…] about Advanced driver assistance systems trump driverless cars by stealth

Be part of our new publication: Industrial Internet

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iot

Contribute articles and advertise in our new digital publication

Robotics and Automation News is planning a new ebook with the working title Industrial Internet.

The digital publication will be distributed through Apple and Amazon stores. Moreover, advertisers and commercial partners will have their content featured on the RoboticsAndAutomationNews.com website and Sensor Data, the accompanying newsletter.

The publication is planned to contain features about the following subjects:

  • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Machine-to-Machine Networks
  • Industrial Networks
  • Wireless Networks
  • Industrial Computers
  • Human Machine Interface
  • Control Systems
  • Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
  • Ethernet
  • Programmable Logic Controllers
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Deep Learning
  • Machine Learning
  • Manufacturing
  • Smart Factories
  • Transportation
  • Logistics
  • Cyber Security
  • Data Management

These are the subjects which are planned. However, it partly depends on you. If you are interested in other subjects we have not listed, contact us and let us know.

If you would like to be featured within any of the features listed or any new ones we develop in co-operation with you, we can agree a structure for a commercial partnership.

An example of a typical partnership would be: Article and Advertising package – from $500.

For more information, contact us: sales[at]roboticsandautomationnews.com

 

Billion dollar brain: Exclusive interview with Professor Alois Knoll

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Professor Alois Knoll, co-ordinator of the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development (Echord), and one of the key scientists involved in the $1.5 billion-dollar Human Brain Project, speaks exclusively to Robotics and Automation News

It’s not every day you learn a new word you like. From my point of view, having been in journalism longer than I’d like to recall, it’s an interesting experience to be reminded of an extract from a biography of Dr Samuel Johnson, “father of the English dictionary”, written by James Boswell in 1791, which I read in my teens.

Nothing specific from what I read applies here, but I’ll paraphrase a quote from Johnson which I think may be most appropriate. “A writer only begins an article. A reader finishes it.”  [Read more…] about Billion dollar brain: Exclusive interview with Professor Alois Knoll