Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.42
…said it has evolved from a developer of mobile manipulation systems to a provider of software and hardware for person-to-goods automation. “This transition has been an exciting and transformational process for us,” said CEO Lance VandenBrook in a press release. “Onward Robotics better reflects the organization’s strong forward trajectory, our bold and purposeful team, and most importantly, our commitment to moving our clients and the global supply chain forward.” Founded in 2012, IAM Robotics had developed the Bolt autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and the Swift autonomous mobile manipulator. In late 2021, the company went into “stealth mode” to refocus its…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.53
…provides customers with the data collection, analytics, and underwater manipulation capabilities to support assets while reducing their operational footprints and operating costs. Nauticus also said it can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions to improve offshore health, safety, and environmental exposure. “We have the near-term goal of reducing reliance on vessels for offshore tasks,” Radford told Robotics 24/7. “You don't need a jackhammer for a nail. We need to deploy the technology at scale to keep people safe and to create more autonomous systems.” Norway-based Equinor ASA recently engaged Nauticus and its local business partner, Stinger Technology AS, to deply a…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 9.72
…robotic fingers can be trained to execute complex in-hand manipulations of intricate objects, relying solely on the sense of touch to guide their movements. The elimination of dependence on visual input, demonstrates the true potential of tactile-driven robotics. That work follows advances in dexterity in recent years from the likes of both OpenAI and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). While the former is better known today for ChatGPT, in 2018, it made headlines by training a human-like robot hand to manipulate physical objects with unprecedented dexterity by using a reinforcement learning algorithm and code. CSAIL also relied…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.82
…customers, research-and-development organizations, and universities. Meltio Space incorporates robotic manipulation into 3D printing Meltio's product portfolio includes the Meltio M450 metal 3D printer and Meltio Engine Integration, a 3D printing module that it said “turns almost any CNC, robotic arm, or gantry system into a powerful hybrid manufacturing center.” Both systems use the company's patented LMD-based process to make parts of both wire and powder simultaneously with the same printhead. Meltio Space is designed to “bridge the gap between additive manufacturing users and robotics,” according to the company. The new software integrates a six-axis robot manipulator and two-axis workpiece positioners…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 20.44
…manipulate the box. Humans are generally good at whole-body manipulation, but robots struggle with such tasks. To the robot, each spot where the box could touch any point on the carrier’s fingers, arms, and torso represents a contact event that it must reason about. With billions of potential contact events, planning for this task quickly becomes intractable. MIT researchers said they have found a way to simplify this process, known as contact-rich manipulation planning. They use an artificial intelligence technique called smoothing. It summarizes many contact events into a smaller number of decisions, to enable even a simple algorithm to…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 9.14
…final geometry Reducing the frequency of component imaging Robotic Manipulation of Granular and Paste-like Materials Project team: Siemens (principal investigator), University of Southern California Topic areas addressed: Safe and scalable manufacturing of energetics Description: This project seeks to automate the manipulation of granular and paste-like materials with robotics to augment human operators for common handling tasks such as scooping and pouring precise amounts without spillage, including those used in the manufacturing of highly reactive materials. The outputs of this project can also be applied for use in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. The team will develop a robotic skill based…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 22.40
…this enables precise sensing, gentle interaction, and effective object manipulation to accomplish robotic tasks. They added that this development could revolutionize industries such as fruit picking, domestic service, and eventually recreate touch in artificial limbs. “With our Bi-Touch system, we can easily train AI agents in a virtual world within a couple of hours to achieve bimanual tasks that are tailored towards the touch, explained Yijiong Lin, lead author and a member of the University of Bristol's Faculty of Engineering. “And more importantly, we can directly apply these agents from the virtual world to the real world without further training.”…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 12.97
…robot arms, dynamic walking from bipedal models, and fine manipulation from upper-body systems. As a result, Apollo has a modular design, allowing users to decide whether it is best suited for a particular application as a full humanoid, a torso on wheels, or a stationary mounted robot. In addition, Apptronik has put most real-time processing onboard Apollo, with some fleet management and instructions in the cloud, according to Cardenas. “A lot of that is thinking about low compute and making algorithms more efficient to run onboard,” he said. Safety a consideration for collaboration At 5 ft., 8 in. tall, Apollo…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 10.25
…Robotics said it supports data collection, analytics, and subsea manipulation capabilities to support and maintain assets. It added that it can help customers reduce their operational footprint, operating cost, and greenhouse gas emissions to improve offshore health, safety, and environmental exposure. The company said it is developing an underwater robot derived from its Aquanaut that includes technology to support longer and more challenging missions. The electric-powered Aquanaut offers two modes—as a autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). In addition, the Leidos award will fund further operational enhancements to toolKITT, said Nauticus. The proprietary software package…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.61
…collision-free picking with any gripper, and fully autonomous object manipulation. Today, Sereact serves partners across the e-commerce, manufacturing, and third-party logistics (3PL) sectors, including ZenFulfillment, Daimler Truck, Material Bank, and Schmalz. Investors see more use cases for Sereact AI Point Nine and Air Street Capital led Sereact's seed funding. Sereact also has offices in Mason Ohio and at MassRobotics in Boston. “Sereact brings a new paradigm to AI and robotics,” said Ricardo Sequerra Amram, a partner at Point Nine. “By combining vision transformers and LLMs, their solution is fast to deploy, easy to configure, and provides the critical service level…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.37
…operated space vehicles, rather than robotic manipulators. Maneuverability and manipulation: The ultimate goal The ability of space robots to access steep slopes, lava tubes, deep crevasses, and other extreme terrains must be improved for better sample collection. The biggest challenge while developing mobile manipulation capabilities is making robots imitate human movements as flawlessly as possible. This can be achieved by implementing complex and coordinated systems involving actuators, sensors, and embedded controllers. How much space for opportunities? One important thing to keep in mind while mapping the opportunities related to space is that only a handful of countries are active and…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 14.40
…operations, the company said its robots “excel in complex manipulations in unpredictable environments.” PDP 3.0 features “PDP 3.0 makes pallet loading and unloading effortless for third-party logistics (3PL) providers, retailers, apparel manufacturers, and other material handlers,” claimed Dexterity. The company said its software release includes the following new features to expand warehouse operators' ability to automate their pallet operations: Print and apply integration—PDP 3.0 enables 3PLs to automate their case-in, case-out labeling processes. Dexterity automates Amazon FNSKU case-labeling process and other case relabeling value-added services. Pallet stacking—By enabling picking from up to five pallets stacked on one another, PDP 3.0…