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Drone software company secures over $750,000 in seed funding

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Converge, a commercial drone software provider, has raised over three quarters of a million in seed funding. The company’s initial round of funding included investors Samsung NEXT, Techstars Ventures, Kima Ventures, and other angel investors.

The commercial drone market is expected to grow to $58.3 bn as traditional industries incorporate drones to execute tasks from delivery to inspections through to emergency response.

It is the fastest growing drone market segment, however AI software is needed to move beyond intensive, hands-on planning, flying and distilling data to an automated world where drones are a seamless part of business operations.

[Read more…] about Drone software company secures over $750,000 in seed funding

TCG’s Wibu-Systems and Winbond to show IoT and embedded security solutions

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Trusted Computing Group (TCG), in partnership with OpenSystems Media (OSM), will demonstrate and discuss secure embedded and IoT devices and data at Embedded World 2018, Nuremberg, Germany, at Stand 3A-507, February 27 – March 1.

TCG is a not-for-profit organization that develops, defines and promotes open, vendor-neutral, global industry standards, supportive of a hardware-based root of trust for interoperable trusted computing platforms. OSM is the leading media outlet for engineers working on embedded, IoT, industrial, and military applications.

The TCG program includes daily live demonstrations by the member companies Wibu-Systems and Winbond on how to protect IoT and embedded devices and data using several TCG specifications implemented for security purposes.

[Read more…] about TCG’s Wibu-Systems and Winbond to show IoT and embedded security solutions

Baumuller to present handling and automation systems at Plastindia

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Baumüller will show its handling and automation systems for the entire field of the plastic-processing industry, at Plastindia in Gujarat, India, in February.

Baumüller’s product portfolio ranges from individual components to complete systems as well as the associated service, from motors to converters, control engineering, control systems and software solutions for movement functions.

It manufactures drive systems for plastics machines and also delivers customized drive concepts for extrusions, blow molds or injection molding. Drive solutions in material handling as well as solutions for post-processing and further processing are also part of the product range.

[Read more…] about Baumuller to present handling and automation systems at Plastindia

Robotics and automation transformation: Omni-channel and supply chain

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By Vikrant Angia, founder and CEO of VCO Systems

The challenges an omni-channel environment places on retailers require the right solutions through this rapid transformational change.

In conducting hundreds of kaizen events and lean assessments there are specific omni-channel outcomes that must be supported in a wide range of solutions.  [Read more…] about Robotics and automation transformation: Omni-channel and supply chain

Nord drives picked for airport baggage handling system

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A baggage handling system OEM has chosen Nord Drivesystems’ IE4 AC vector drives for a new system installed at a Canadian airport.

Glidepath carried out the work at Victoria Airport in British Columbia, Canada, installing a new handling system with a capacity of 750 pieces of luggage per hour.

“The baggage handling system is made up of 85 conveyors with a total length of some 250 m,” says Jason Williams, project engineer at Glidepath.

[Read more…] about Nord drives picked for airport baggage handling system

Material world: Exclusive interview with Wynright Robotics boss

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Daifuku Wynright was established in 2013 as a result of Daifuku Group’s acquisition of Wynright Corporation and is now the largest material handling company in the world.

Last year, the company generated almost $3 billion in revenue worldwide. Daifuku has approximately 6,500 employees globally, while Wynright has around 500. 

Material handling is the aspect of logistics which is mainly concerned with the movement of boxes from one place to another, usually over short distances, such as from a truck to a warehouse, and then from the warehouse to the trucks for the dispatching of goods to customers’ locations.  [Read more…] about Material world: Exclusive interview with Wynright Robotics boss

MachineMetrics wins IoT breakthrough award

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MachineMetrics, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the winner of the 2018 “Smart Manufacturing Solution of the Year” award from IoT Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Internet-of-Things (IoT) market today.

“A great deal of hesitancy still exists for manufacturers to embrace the technology that addresses the new challenges presented by digital transformation,” said Bill Bither, CEO of MachineMetrics.

“With installing cloud-based monitoring systems being the first and perhaps most important step toward data-driven manufacturing, we designed MachineMetrics to help companies overcome these challenges and create a roadmap forward so they can take this initial and crucial step. We are proud to be developing the future of manufacturing alongside them.”

[Read more…] about MachineMetrics wins IoT breakthrough award

New 3D image sensor for smartphone face recognition from Infineon

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One trend in mobile communications is to unlock smartphones by 3D face recognition instead of fingerprint or PIN.

Making authentication more convenient and more secure, it may soon become indispensable for mobile payment applications and mobile ID.

Infineon Technologies claims its new 3D image sensor chip, with unlock-with-your-face feature, makes the process smarter, faster and more reliable.

[Read more…] about New 3D image sensor for smartphone face recognition from Infineon

Top celebrities most likely to be remade as robots and androids

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There’s probably an awful lot of lonely people out there who yearn for companionship, for intimacy, comfort, or for whatever reason.

And at least some of those people may be more than happy to buy a walking, talking, physical likeness of whoever is the most desirable celebrity of the day perhaps.  [Read more…] about Top celebrities most likely to be remade as robots and androids

Suning launches its smart retail ‘Biu’ store to global markets

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Suning, second largest of China’s top non-state-owned enterprises, has showcased its unmanned, automated ‘Biu’ store at CES 2018.

Suning’s ‘Biu’ store concept is big-data driven and powered by Facial Recognition and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), bringing together the company’s experience and technology applications in “O2O” retail.

Since launching its first self-service store in Nanjing in August 2017, Suning has unveiled a further four cashier-less stores in China, with new stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Xuzhou, along with the inaugural store, proving a huge success with consumers, claims the company.

[Read more…] about Suning launches its smart retail ‘Biu’ store to global markets