Integrating Industrial Automation: What You Need to Know

June 2, 2016

Source: Engineering.com Manufacturers are in a constant struggle for efficiency and automation is their weapon of choice. How can a manufacturer integrate automation quickly and easily for the fastest possible implementation and ROI? Dynamic Group, a medical devices and precision products manufacturer from Ramsey, MN, asked themselves these same questions regarding their injection molding and packaging applications. “The main reason we automated was due to the shortage of qualified labor …Read More

How SMEs in the Know Win with Automation

May 26, 2016

Source: Robotics Industries Association A once small machine shop transforms into a Tier 1 auto supplier. A bagel basket maker morphs into a precision fabricator for high-tech Fortune 500s. A Canadian shelving manufacturer beats the competition on price. All SMEs with different products serving different industries, but with one thing in common – automation. Across North America, and the globe, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) outnumber large corporations. Collectively, they …Read More

Robots And Humans Team Up At BMW To Digitally Disrupt Auto Industry

May 19, 2016

Source: Digitalist Magazine A few years ago, BMW created a new team at an assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Installing sound insulation and water-sealing vehicle doors is not a one-person job. On the new team, one team member spreads out material and glues it to the door. A second team member holds the material in place. What made this team so unique? One team member is human. The other is …Read More

New German Collaborative Robot – FRANKA

May 13, 2016

Source: Robotiq 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 companies to get a part of the market. This new German collaborative robot is continuing this wave of small companies emerging with some really awesome concepts. Here’s Franka. With one of the most fast growing robotic economy …Read More

Aerospace Manufacturing on Board with Robots

May 12, 2016

Source: Robotics Industries Association Since the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, to the SpaceX launch and land in 2015, aerospace has shot high. Lucky for us. Because the original biplanes were basically big kites, made from wood, wire and linen literally stitched together by teams of seamstresses. Yes, before Rosie the Riveter there was Sally the Seamstress, or Ida Holdgreve. Aircraft are still “stitched” together, but now their metallic …Read More

Future jobs: How humans and robots will complement each other

May 5, 2016

Source: TechRepublic We often hear of automation replacing workers, but that’s only part of the story. Here’s how machines can work with humans, or free them up for higher-level tasks. Across the world, robots have replaced workers in factories, taken on the role of customer service agents in call centers, and, in the near future, will be driving our cars. But while factory workers, customer service specialists, and taxi drivers …Read More

Assembly of the second prototype (video update)

May 2, 2016

During the last plenary meeting at DFKI’s headquarters in Bremen, Germany (April 18-April 20 2016), project partners, lead by experts from ZeMa, assembled the second FourByThree prototype. The first prototype (already moving) was also available for project partners to analyze. This process of assembly helped the team become familiar with the different features of the robot and enabled some deep technical discussions. Many ideas for improvement emerged and will be …Read More

ISO/TS 15066:2016 takes a step closer to human-robot interaction

April 28, 2016

Source: Control Design The ISO/TS 15066 standard provides safety requirements specifically to robot suppliers and integrators on using collaborative industrial robot systems. The first solid step toward ensuring the safety of human workers in a collaborative robot system is TS 15066, a technical-specification (TS) document that provides supplemental and supporting information to the industrial robot safety standards ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2, which were published in 2011. This technical specification …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

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