FourByThree in Bremen, Germany

April 21, 2016

FourByThree’s latets plenary meeting started on Monday, April 18, and ended yesterday, April 20. This time, the meeting took place in Bremen, Germany, where DFKI’s (Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz) headquarters are located. The goal of the meeting was to exchange information on different aspects of the project and to coordinate for the upcoming months. During the meeting, progress on each work package was shared by partners, the final analysis …Read More

Collaborative robots are broadening their marketplaces

April 19, 2016

Source: The Robot Report Universal Robots, the Danish manufacturer of a line of collaborative robots (also called “co-bots”), recently published financial statements which provide valuable insights into the growth potential of collaborative robots. At present, sales of collaborative robots represent just 5% of the overall robot market. The collaborative robotics sector, according to multiple pay-for research reports, is expected to increase roughly tenfold between 2015 and 2020, reaching over $1 …Read More

How do you really feel about cobots in packaging?

April 12, 2016

Source: Packaging Digest The anonymous nature of our packaging poll about collaborative robots elicited some interesting feedback such as the news that more than 25% of respondents were either using cobots or would in 2016. Given the on-going politicking surrounding the presidential race in the U.S. these past months, Packaging Digest held a primary of sorts when we released the preliminary results of the first question in our short online …Read More

ISO/TS 15066. New safety requirements for a new era of industrial robots

March 31, 2016

Industrial robots have changed many of their characteristics during these last years, enabling the evolution of the automation technology, from the typical robotic applications where the robot is fully surrounded by a peripheral fence system, to the most advanced “cobots” available in the market. Today we can find robots working hand in hand with the operator to carry out manual tasks. In order to achieve such direct cooperation between human …Read More

Robots and humans can work together with new ISO guidance

March 29, 2016

Source: ISO Organization Human and robot system interaction in industrial settings is now possible thanks to ISO/TS 15066, a new ISO technical specification for collaborative robot system safety. Collaborative robotics is when automatically operated robot systems share the same workspace with humans. It therefore refers to a system or application rather than a particular type or brand of robot. Industrial robots do not include an “end effector”, that is, the device …Read More

Collaborative Robots Working in Manufacturing

March 17, 2016

Source: Manufacturing Tomorrow Because cobots are affordable, highly adaptable, and almost plug-and-play, small and medium-sized manufacturers are eager to take on this technology, and some analysts expect that this segment of robotics will see substantial growth. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that investment in industrial robots will grow 10% each year for the next ten years in the world’s 25 biggest export nations, when the robots will take over 23% …Read More

User-defined gestures for controlling primitive motions of an end effector

March 15, 2016

Complete article Abstract: In designing and developing a gesture recognition system, it is crucial to know the characteristics of a gesture selected to control, for example, an end effector of a robot arm. We conducted an experiment to collect a set of user-defined gestures and investigate characteristics of the gestures for controlling primitive motions of an end effector in human–robot collaboration. We recorded 152 gestures from 19 volunteers by presenting …Read More

Why the new ISO/TS 15066 is important for the robotics industry

March 8, 2016

Source: Robotiq Collaborative robots are relatively new and standards are usually long to write down, so it only make sense to have the new ISO/TS 15066 regulation freshly printed out in the last couple of weeks. As we are working with collaborative robots and are a part of the world of robotics, it makes sense to understand the importance of such a regulation and potential future standard. The regulation hopes to …Read More

FourByThree in the European Robotics Forum (ERF 2016)

March 4, 2016

This year FourByThree will also attend the European Robotics Forum, which will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 21-23 March 2016. FourByThree will be present in the seventh edition of the congress within the context of the 3rd Workshop on Hybrid Production Systems. This workshop is dedicated to research projects which focus on Human-Robot collaboration. The workshop’s ultimate goal is to continue the dialogue among the projects themselves, as well …Read More

5 Robotic Essentials for SME manufacturers

March 1, 2016

Source: Hannover Messe For small to mid-sized manufacturers, any gain in productivity can have a huge impact. Automation offers significant advantages, but many small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe that robotics is out of their reach. These organizations can’t afford large, complex robots that don’t fit within their limited floor space, that require specialized personnel to program and maintain them, and that are simply too expensive, with a payback period …Read More

Blog Full Width