Origin, developer of an open platform for additive mass manufacturing, is collaborating with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to find a solution for manufacturing COVID-19 test swabs. Over the last 2 weeks, Origin has quickly shifted its resources from being a 3D printer manufacturer to become a medical device manufacturer and has started production to address the shortage of COVID-19 test kit supplies. BIDMC, an academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School, selected Origin's 3D-printed test swab to be part of a clinical trial to evaluate it for efficacy and safety. Origin's 3D-printed swab passed a rigorous initial…
Drone Delivery Service Drones to deliver prescription medicines from a Florida CVS pharmacy for the largest retirement community in the U.S. Service supports social-distancing efforts and faster, same-day delivery of time- or temperature-sensitive medicines Service begins in early May in cooperation with the FAA Services to use Matternet’s M2 drone system UPS (NYSE:UPS) and CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) today said UPS subsidiary UPS Flight Forward (UPSFF) will use drones to deliver prescription medicines from a CVS pharmacy to The Villages, Florida for the largest U.S. retirement community, home to more than 135,000 residents. The service will use the Matternet M2…
NVIDIA has announced the completion of its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., for a transaction value of $7 billion. The acquisition, initially announced on March 11, 2019, unites two of the leading companies in high performance and data center computing. Combining NVIDIA’s computing expertise with Mellanox’s high-performance networking technology, the move will enable customers to achieve higher performance, greater use of computing resources and lower operating costs. “The expanding use of AI and data science is reshaping computing and data center architectures,” says Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With Mellanox, the new NVIDIA has end-to-end technologies from AI…
Robotics are being applied at a rapid pace inside our warehouse, distribution center and fulfillment operations around the U.S.—and according to recent reports, there’s a good chance they’re coming to your facility. In fact, the latest forecast shows that shipments of logistics and warehousing robots will grow from 194,000 units in 2018 to 938,000 units annually by 2022. The labor crunch and the ability of AMRs to offload manual travel are central to this growth, but there are other benefits to robotics besides reducing the labor requirement. Today, vendors tout the synergies of human-to-robot collaboration, ease of system scalability, and…
Atlanta-based global transportation and logistics bellwether UPS said this week its UPS Supply Chain Solutions group has rolled out a new Warehouse Execution System (WES) offering, entitled Smart Warehouse Technology, with a focus on augmenting distribution center efficiency. Company officials said that this new WES, which was developed by UPS and Softeon, a provider of supply chain technology services, is geared towards enabling faster intake and fulfillment for customers, notably those with fluctuating order patterns, are able to get products on time. And they added that this new WES enables UPS to define specific customer requirements so that the highest…
Unique Software Development has launched the “MakerCause” initiative at makercause.com to centralize efforts to produce 3D-printed respirator masks, face shields and nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs to support healthcare workers, first responders and individuals with suppressed immune systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. This launch coincides with the formation of a partnership with MaketheMasks, an initiative by the inventors of the Montana Mask, a 3D-printed respirator mask that is in wide use across the country. Unique Software Development was recently highlighted in the media after marshaling its inventory of 3D printers to produce reusable respirator masks using the open-source design made available by…
Q: What’s the current state of robotics in logistics? A: Over the course of the past decade, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) became accepted as a proven technology for increasing throughput and productivity for a wide range of materials handling applications. Looking ahead, we anticipate that there will be 4 million robots in 50,000 warehouses by 2025. To reach that scale, the next decade will be spent rapidly deploying AMRs in the real world and orchestrating their activities with other automation solutions alongside human workers. Q: How is Vecna responding to these trends? A: Vecna Robotics’ Pivotal™ technology safely transforms OEM…
EnvisionTEC has successfully completed a clinical trial to use the EnvisionTEC 3D printed nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs for COVID-19 testing. EnvisionTEC, as well as a growing number of their Envision One cDLM customers who have also registered with the FDA to take part in this endeavor, have the mass production capabilities to produce up to a million of the swabs per day. EnvisionTEC worked with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to develop a swab design and material to be printed on their Envision One cDLM 3D printer. The Envision One is capable of producing up to 2,400 swabs in 24…
In response to a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kia Motors has announced that production of face shields has begun at its manufacturing plant in West Point, GA. Initial donations of medical use face shields assembled at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) will be made in Georgia, Alabama, New York and California. With a monthly capacity of 200,000 units, the face shields are being assembled by paid volunteers from KMMG, which has implemented a series of safety measures to protect team members, including: conducting temperature scans, providing face masks and gloves, and staggering…
Our objective is to revolutionize customer productivity by delivering the best automation technologies. When human+machine workflows can easily adapt to ever-changing environments and demands, we create an ongoing improvement cycle that yields substantial and sustained value for our customers. About Vecna Robotics Vecna Robotics delivers autonomous material handling solutions via self-driving vehicles powered by their proprietary continuously improving software, Pivotal™, and 24/7 customer service team. Vecna Robotics' solutions deliver value for customers in the distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing sectors by automating cross-docking, line-side delivery, replenishment, case-picking, kitting, goods-to-person, person-to-good, and oversized/non-standard SKUs delivery. Vecna Robotics' technology goes beyond traditional automation…
We understand that operations are at the heart of every business that deals with the delivery of physical goods. That’s why we created a game-changing materials handling solution using the industry’s most advanced autonomous mobile robots and artificial intelligence: Nimble enough to adapt to your needs, powerful enough to make your operations consistently exceed customer expectations. Vecna Robotics’ Pivotal™ technology safely transforms OEM material handling equipment into fully-autonomous self-driving vehicles, orchestrates tasks across resources for optimized workflow efficiency, and employs the power of AI to create a machine learning feedback loop for system-wide continuous improvement. By leveraging the best strengths…
America Makes is announcing two challenges—the Fit to Face-Mask Design Challenge in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs; and the COVID-19 Maker Challenge, a joint event by Challenge America and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Innovation Ecosystem. “Both of these opportunities seek to tap into the amazing innovation we’ve seen to date from the entire AM community during this crisis,” says America Makes Executive Director John Wilczynski. “This industry is uniquely positioned to take on these challenges as we have the ability to rapidly design and test products that will solve very real problems for frontline workers.” Fit to…
