Engineer
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the International Robot Safety Conference will be in person this year. The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) has been putting on the event for over 30 years. This year’s show will include more than 40 guest speakers, three days of sessions, and an exhibit hall filled with robots. The conference runs from Sept. 27 to 29 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus in Columbus, Ohio. Carole Franklin, A3’s director for standards development for robotics, told Robotics 24/7 that the conference is designed to cater to two types of stakeholders—those who are new…
Amazon.com Inc. has continued its robotics expansion. Last week, the mega e-commerce retailer announced that it was purchasing Cloostermans-Huwaert, a mechatronics provider out of Hamme, Belgium, for an undisclosed amount. Cloostermans' 200 employees will become part of Amazon’s global robotics division. Amazon has been working with the company since 2019. Cloostermans makes mechatronic systems that Amazon uses to move and stack heavy pallets, totes, and packaged products. Amazon said it is purchasing the 138-year-old company to take advantage of its engineering, machinery, and robotics chops. “We’re thrilled to be joining the Amazon family and extending the impact we can have…
At Peer Robotics headquarters in New Haven, Conn., CEO Rishabh Agarwal and his team are building mobile robots designed to understand human touch. Today, the three-year-old company announced it has raised $2.3 million in its seed round, which it said it will use to build out its fleet of robots in North America. Peer Robotics has two robot systems in its lineup—a trolley movement system, which includes an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that carries payloads up to 100 kg (220 lb.), and a bin movement system, which includes an AMR that can carry payloads up to 250 kg (551 lb.).…
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute is calling on manufacturers that use robotics, AI, and machine learning to participate in a survey this fall. The institute developed the survey with its Data for Artificial Intelligence Working Group, or DAWG, to understand how it can help operators better take advantage of the technologies. Michael Skocik, senior programs manager at the ARM Institute and head of DAWG, told Robotics 24/7 the survey was created to help the group “understand the voice of the customer.” “We want to understand, on their particular side, what are the pitfalls? What are the issues…
Recycling robot provider EverestLabs has opened its first cloud-based robot operation center to give its customers 24 hours of support. The center will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Fremont, Calif., and in Chennai, India, where it has a team of workers. EverestLabs’ team of engineers and technologists will help its materials recovery facilities customers, or MRFs, monitor a range of activities, including pick accuracy and efficiency. They will also help to track upstream issues as well as maintenance problems. “MRF operators are sophisticated and require the same powerful AI and automation capabilities used by the world’s leading…
Collaborative robots are often heralded for being safer alternatives to traditional industrial robot arms. It’s well understood that cobots don’t have to be caged into work cells and can work in proximity to humans. That safety and the relative ease of programming are why collaborative robot arms continue to grow across a variety of applications, from food handling and palletizing to plasma cutting and piece picking. But what is the story behind the sensors and underlying technologies that enable robots to perform their tasks safely alongside people? What advancements give these robots an even better understanding of the world around…
Framingham State University is the latest college in the U.S. to introduce Kiwibot to students. This semester, 15 of the company’s delivery robots will be scurrying around campus, giving hungry students their meals. The SAE Level 3 mobile robots have come to campus as part of a deal Miami-based Kiwibot made with food company Sodexo in February. By the end of the year, Kiwibot said it plans to place more than 1,200 robots at more than 50 college campuses around the U.S. and Canada. To date, the company has deployed its robots at 26 campuses around the U.S., according to…
Boston Dynamics Inc. yesterday announced that it has signed a $10 million agreement with supply chain company NFI as part of a pilot program to see if Stretch is a right fit for the Camden, N.J.-based company. The case-handling mobile robot will initially be used to unload trucks and containers in 2023 at NFI’s warehouse in Savannah, Ga. If all goes well, NFI said it will start placing Stretch machines throughout its North American facilities over the next few years. Boston Dynamics first unveiled Stretch back in March 2021, noting that it was its first robot specifically designed for warehouse…
Design
With a vision inference chip that can generate one quadrillion operations per second, upstart Recogni is going after chip-making heavyweights such as NVIDIA. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company makes chips that are used in autonomous vehicles for visual perception. Recogni said its Vision Cognition Module (VCM) system enables object detection accuracy up to 1,000 m (3,280 ft.) in real time. The onboard chip can also analyze and process multiple streams of data from the autonomous vehicle's high resolution cameras at high frame rates. The company said the Peto-op class system is able to be powered using only 25W…
End-user