When Modern Materials Handling (a sibling site to Robotics 24/7) is interviewing companies for a “System Report,” one of the questions we always ask is: What were your goals for the project? After all, most distribution teams have a bulleted list of three or four high-level goals for a project or a new facility. Typically, they are along the lines of increase productivity without increasing headcount or improve order fulfillment times by 25%. Every now and then, we come across a company with a far-reaching vision for its operations that extends beyond pick and error rates. For instance, we covered…
Honeywell International Inc. yesterday announced its Smart Flexible Depalletizer, which is designed to help warehouses and distribution centers automate the manual process of unloading pallets. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said its latest robotic innovation can reducing the operational risks of potential injuries and labor shortages. Driven by machine learning and advances in perception and gripping technologies, Honeywell said its Smart Flexible Depalletizer minimizes the need for human workers to break down pallet loads. Such roles are at risk for safety incidents, experience high turnover, and are currently difficult to fill. A typical midsize to large distribution center unpacks up to…
With aging populations and the COVID-19 pandemic driving the need for contactless delivery, the demand for service robots has surged, according to Pudu Technology Inc. The Shenzhen, China-based company this month completed its C2-series financing, only four months after it raised C1 funding. Pudu Robotics said it has raised a total of $155 million. The startup is committed to the “spirit of invention” in its mission to improve productivity, efficiency, and smart living, said Felix Zhang, founder of Pudu Robotics. The company is hiring, he added. Founded in 2016, Pudu said tens of thousands of its commercial service robots are…
Opentrons Labworks Inc. today said it has obtained $200 million in Series C funding. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company, which has supplied equipment for COVID-19 testing, plans to use its latest investment to distribute its automated lab platform globally. “Biology opens the door to solve many of humanity’s grand challenges,” said Jon Brennan-Badal, CEO of Opentrons. “For far too long, scientists and clinicians have been locked-in by slow, expensive, and overly complex lab solutions that underpin their work.” “Opentrons’ platform provides the key to unlock their potential,” he added. “We are enabling more R&D, more testing, more biology to unleash innovation…
Design
Getting started with managing robot fleets can be difficult for busy developers and facilities operators. InOrbit Inc. today launched a Free Edition of its cloud-based robot operations, or RobOps, software. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it will help businesses scale their fleets and free them to focus on their unique differentiators. “When we've talked to customers, many think they're going to develop RobOps software in-house, but many times, they don't know how much work that is,” said Florian Pestoni, co-founder and CEO of InOrbit. “But if they're freed from spending the next six months to three years on development,…
General Motors Co. today said it will invest $300 million in Momenta to accelerate the development of next-generation, self-driving technologies for future GM vehicles in China. “Customers in China are embracing electrification and advanced self-driving technology faster than anywhere else in the world, and the agreement between GM and Momenta will accelerate our deployment of next-generation solutions tailor-made for our consumers in China,” stated Julian Blissett, executive vice president of General Motors and president of GM China. “Momenta is committed to developing breakthrough artificial intelligence solutions to push beyond the frontier of possibilities today and significantly improve personal mobility experiences,”…
Berkshire Grey Inc. yesterday announced the launch of its Robotic Shuttle Put Wall, or RSPW, system for e-commerce order fulfillment. The RSPW is an automated put wall that uses artificial intelligence and can increases capacity and throughput, said the Bedford, Mass.-based company. This is more important than ever because of currently heightened customer expectations for fast and efficient fulfillment, as well as labor scarcity. “Businesses will continue to see e-commerce orders rise as global e-commerce sales expect to approach $5 trillion by the end of 2021,” stated Kevin Prouty, an analyst at IDC. “This growth in volume, combined with labor…
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The supply chain industry has surged its warehouse automation efforts considering the e-commerce boom and labor scarcities. In addition to systems such as headphone-enabled voice-picking and exoskeletons that reduce human effort, mobile robots are proving to be the most prevalent productivity-enhancing solution in the warehousing sector. Worldwide mobile robot shipments to warehouses will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 40% from 2021 to 2030 and exceed 500,000 global shipments in 2030, according to ABI Research. “Productivity technologies can achieve far greater return on investment if correctly combined with other technologies,” stated Adhish Luitel, an industry analyst for…
ABB today said it has expanded its range of SCARA robots with the launch of the IRB 920T. The new robot provides the highest levels of speed, accuracy and repeatability for assembly, picking, and handling tasks, the company claimed. It said the IRB 920T is designed to meet the requirements of the electronics industry for high-speed production in increasingly complex manufacturing processes. “The need for companies to respond quickly to changing consumer demands is making SCARA robots a popular choice for production lines where fast and accurate performance is key to ensuring maximum product quality,” said Antti Matinlauri, head of…
NVIDIA Corp. today announced that it is working with Open Robotics to improve ROS 2 performance on its Jetson platform for artificial intelligence at the edge and its GPU-based systems. The company said this initiative will enable robotics developers to more easily and quickly incorporate computer vision and machine learning functionality into systems based on the Robot Operating System (ROS). “We've been working closely with Open Robotics to bring a host of NVIDIA AI technologies to the ROS community,” said Murali Gopalakrishna, head of product management, autonomous machines, and general manager for robotics at NVIDIA. “We want to make it…