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industrial
Photos from the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge
Ioannis K. Erripis
25 May 2016
Robohub covered the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge that took place during #ICRA16 in Stockholm. Below, you can see an extensive photo gallery as part of our coverage. Check it out!...
Chinese Midea makes $2.5 billion bid for up to 49% of KUKA
Frank Tobe
19 May 2016
In China’s relentless state-stimulated quest to grow their robotics industry, Midea Group, a Chinese appliance manufacturer which already owns 13.5% of KUKA’s shares, has offered to buy up to 49...
I am FRANKA: German collaborative robot can build itself
Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette and Robotiq Inc.
10 May 2016
The robotic industry is currently surfing on a new wave of collaborative robots. With several big companies trying to make their way into the market, there is still a huge effort from emergent compan...
China’s growing robot industry turns to acquisitions
Frank Tobe
25 Apr 2016
Paslin, a Michigan integrator of welding robots, automation systems, and tooling, was acquired by Wanfeng Technology Group for an undisclosed amount (but reported as $302 million i...
How to benefit from the robotic skill shortage
Alex Owen-Hill and Robotiq Inc.
22 Apr 2016
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 robot...
4 reasons why Industry 4.0 will leave AGVs behind
Clearpath Robotics
22 Apr 2016
By Paula de Villavicencio
Technology has been in development for the last decade and has now come to fruition in the form of self-driving vehicles. These vehicles are driving into industrial cente...
Industrial robot sales for 2015 set a new record
Frank Tobe
18 Apr 2016
In a flurry of press releases, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) revealed details of 2015 industrial robot sales of 240,000 units. This set a new sales record and reflected an 8...
Collaborative robots and breaking down evolving risk assessment
Alexandre Paré and Robotiq Inc.
14 Apr 2016
During the last 50 years, industrial robots have been increasingly used in manufacturing industries around the world. The technology has been evolving and adapting to the needs of its users. Over the ...
Filling the void left by Kiva Systems’ 2012 acquisition by Amazon
Frank Tobe
14 Apr 2016
In March 2012, in an effort to make their distribution centers (DCs) as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in house.
There was c...
Smart Digital Factory Lab showcasing Industry 4.0
Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette and Robotiq Inc.
05 Apr 2016
We often see robotic or automated cells purposed to do a single motion or a very specific application. However, with all the new technology available in the market, it is interesting to see how each s...
Japan’s first 5-axis hybrid 3D printer
DigInfo TV
04 Apr 2016
In a collaborative research effort, Enomoto Kogyo, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, and software company C&G Systems have developed Japan’s first 5-axis hybrid 3D printer, capable of ...
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podcast
Hadrian Bricklaying Robot, with Mark Pivac
Ron Vanderkley
02 Apr 2016
Transcript below.In this episode, Ron Vanderkley speaks with Mark Pivoc from FastBrick about Hadrian the bricklaying robot. Fastbrick is an Australian robotics firm aiming to disrupt the local bric...
Stop talking about bringing jobs back from China
Frank Tobe
27 Mar 2016
Ben Casselman, writing on the website FiveThirtyEight, says that manufacturing jobs are never coming back. He warns candidates to not inflame voters with empty promises and provides facts to prov...
Why making robots is still hard
SPARC
23 Mar 2016
Making robots is no easy task. If you talk to roboticists, they will tell you that it took years before the last robot they built or programmed was any good at performing a specific task. And although...
5 innovation challenges in materials transport
Clearpath Robotics
18 Mar 2016
by: Meghan Hennessey
Walk into any manufacturing facility today. Forklifts and AGVs may be in operation serving specific parts of the manufacturing floor, but you’ll also see hundreds of people a...
Testing the lifetime of human-machine interfaces in a few days
Fraunhofer IPA and Martin Haegele
07 Mar 2016
Thousands of repetitions in the space of just a few days: while manually impossible, this can be accomplished by a newly developed robot system from Fraunhofer IPA. Whether it’s a matter of pressing...
Workshop robots controlled by touch
Horizon Magazine
29 Feb 2016
by Fintan Burke
The era of robots that can be controlled by designers rather than engineers will enable Europe’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to compete more effectively against oft...
SVR Case Studies: Fetch Robotics bringing warehouses to life
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
19 Feb 2016
Fetch Robotics builds robot systems for the logistics industry. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Jose, CA. Unveiled in April 2015, the Fetch Robotics system is comprised of ...
First look at 2015 statistics on industrial robots from the IFR report
Frank Tobe
13 Feb 2016
A first look at numbers from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) report on industrial robots shows that worldwide robot sales grew again in 2015, and were 15% more than 2014. Explosive grow...
Using force feedback in robotics
Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette and Robotiq Inc.
15 Jan 2016
For many years, industrial robots were not able to monitor their surroundings. With the introduction of different sensors for robots, they are now able to feel what they are handling and see what the...
3 supply chain trends to watch for in 2016
Meghan Hennessey and Clearpath Robotics
08 Jan 2016
The New Year is upon us and with that comes predictions of what 2016 has in store. Will Automated Guided Vehicle (AGVs) continue to drive materials on the factory floor? What is ‘Industry 4.0’ and...
IoT may be 2016’s hot new trend, but in industrial robotics it’s been around for a decade
Alex Owen-Hill and Robotiq Inc.
06 Jan 2016
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 ...
Why co-bots will be a huge driver of innovation and growth for robotics
Frank Tobe
04 Jan 2016
This article was first published on IEEE Spectrum Automaton and is republished here with permission. For the IEEE version, click here; for the unabridged version, continue reading.
Collaborative ro...
The future of robot off-line programming
Albert Nubiola
28 Dec 2015
If you drive a car, it makes little difference what brand it is: all cars are driven in essentially the same way. The same applies to computers. If you have a Windows PC, the user interfaces won’t b...
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podcast
Construction Drilling, with Konrad Fagertun
Audrow Nash
27 Dec 2015
Transcript below.
In this episode Audrow Nash interviews Konrad Fagertun, Chief Operating Officer of nLink in Norway....
Registration now open for #ICRA16’s Airbus Shopfloor Challenge
Airbus Group
23 Dec 2015
The Airbus Shopfloor Challenge invites robotics teams from around the world to create innovative robotic solutions for a real-life manufacturing challenge, and compete live at the IEEE 2016 Internatio...
“Made in China” initiative is nurturing robotics according to plan
Frank Tobe
21 Dec 2015
The IFR (International Federation of Robotics) estimates that by 2018, one-third of all the industrial robots installed worldwide will be in China and said, "China is engaged on a historically unprec...
Evaluating what’s easy and what’s hard to automate in your workshop
Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette and Robotiq Inc.
17 Dec 2015
If you haven’t already introduced a robot into your workshop, or if you are in the process of introducing such a device, you may be wondering … what is the best place to start? What is easy and wh...
BCG study finds that reshoring with robots works
Frank Tobe
10 Dec 2015
Two important findings from Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) recent survey of US manufacturing executives: (1) Of those who plan to add capacity, most plan to do so in the US, and (2) a rising perc...
How many axes does my robot need?
Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette and Robotiq Inc.
09 Dec 2015
Anyone who has been in robotics long enough is eventually tasked with figuring out how many axes they will need for their robot. Most robots have somewhere between three and seven axes, but how d...
New collaborative robots — and product lines — at iREX 2015
Samuel Bouchard and Robotiq Inc.
07 Dec 2015
We visited iREX 2015 last week at the Tokyo Big Sight. It was great to be in robotland and to be immersed in Japan's point of view on robotics. Some well-known collaborative robot manufacturers are ...
#iREX2015 collaborative robots video roundup
Samuel Bouchard and Robotiq Inc.
04 Dec 2015
Several new collaborative robots were shown at the IREX show in Japan. Check out the video....
Father of robotics Joseph F. Engelberger dies at age 90
Silicon Valley Robotics
01 Dec 2015
Robotics Industry Association | Joseph F. Engelberger, an engineer and entrepreneur who pioneered the robotics field, died peacefully at his home this morning, December 1, 2015, in Newtown, Connecticu...
While Amazon doubles its number of warehouse robots to 30K, competing systems emerge
Frank Tobe
02 Nov 2015
Amazon announced that at the end of September they had 30,000 Kiva robots at work in 13 fulfillment centers, effectively doubling the number of Kiva bots that it had in 2014. "Our intent is to use...
Blueberry picking robot could win $250,000 prize
Silicon Valley Robotics
29 Oct 2015
Here’s an interesting robotics challenge – a coalition of blueberry farmers are offering a $250,000 prize for automation solutions that improve blueberry picking. The deadline for entries in the c...
In-situ Fabricator: An autonomous construction robot
NCCR Digital Fabrication (DFAB)
09 Oct 2015
Digital fabrication enables the seamless combination of digital design with physical construction processes. To fully exploit this emerging technology within architecture, robotic fabrication must be ...
