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What does a robot vision system see when it detects an object on the production line? Computer vision systems have become both advanced and intuitive in recent years. It can be easy to forget that they are still very rudimentary compared to human vision. In this article, we look at one common approach to robot vision and how it affects the computer vision used by your robot.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) refer to a set of injuries and disorders that affect the human body’s movement or musculoskeletal system, for example, the muscles, joints, tendons, nerves and ligaments. Manufacturing and food processing are classed as high-risk, as outlined in a report on the impact of MSDs in the USA. Some jobs are prone to specific injuries due to the type of work involved, such as industrial inspection and packaging jobs, which are prone to upper extremity MSDs. In 2012, the manufacturing industry had the fourth highest number of MSDs, with 37.4 incidents per 10,000 workers.
Robotics is going to be one of the biggest job creators in modern history. But are there enough qualified people to fill those jobs? As various sectors announce skill shortages, we looked at how robotics is affected and which skills are the most important for employers.
The ability to design good scientific experiments is a key skill for any robotic researcher. Without a grasp of experimental design, even the best technological developments may never succeed in being published or turning into real products. In this post, we show why this is a vital skill for researchers and we show you how to implement good experimental design in 5 steps.
As everyone starts to look for “the big technology trends of 2016”, it seems that one technology is overshadowing all others – the Internet of Things. We take a look at why robotics is actually ahead of the game with the IoT trend, and show that some industrial robotic companies have been involved with it for 10 years already.
Calculating the forward kinematics is often a vital first step to using a new robot in research. While there are some good tutorials available online, up until now there hasn’t been a simple step-by-step guide for calculating forward kinematics. In this post, we provide a simple guide along with some tips on calculating the kinematics of any robotic manipulator.
Cinemagoers have long been fascinated by fictional robots, but they’re not usually realistic — until now. Thanks to technological advancements, some of the classic movie robots are now a realistic possibility. If you make some allowances for their limited artificial intelligence, we’re pretty close to making fiction a reality. Let’s look at some of the iconic movie robots that could now be possible thanks to current robotic technologies …
Robots have been getting their names in the record books. Whether it’s taking the first pictures on the moon or observing the deepest volcanic eruption, robots are setting Guinness World Records alongside the most impressive humans. We take a look at 15 official world records which have been set, and beaten, by robots.
