How to Select the Right Cobot for Your Application

Capitalizing on the benefits cobots, of course, requires choosing the right cobot for the job. This article discusses five key considerations for selecting a cobot for your manufacturing application.

Six Considerations When Choosing Machine Vision in Collaborative Applications

Machine vision dates back to the beginning of the modern industrial robot age in the 1980s. Augmenting cobots with vision allows them to perform with higher precision, flexibility, and intelligence. However, integration is not a one-size-fits-all process.

Optimizing Torque Measurement in Robotics Applications

With the advent of lower-cost robots that are easier and cheaper to deploy, collaborative robots or cobots are finding new industrial and consumer applications.

Videos of the Month

Watch the videos of the month, including one on the DARPA RACER program, one on a NASA supercomputer's theory on the Moon's formation, and more.

Rapidly Configuring Robots for Lunar Exploration

A team of MIT engineers is designing a kit of universal robotic parts that an astronaut could easily mix and match to rapidly configure different robot “species” to fit various lunar missions.

Gecko-Inspired Climbing Soft Robot

The new robot, developed by engineers at the University of Waterloo, uses ultraviolet (UV) light and magnetic force to move on any surface, even up walls and across ceilings.

Four Ways AI Boosts Cobot Performance

Incorporating AI into a cobot-based application using a standard teach pendant or graphical user tool has been challenging and time-consuming, even for the most dedicated engineers.

Computational Model Enables Robots to Learn New Concepts

The model allows robots to ask clarifying questions to soldiers.

Compiler Selection for Functional Safety in Robots

A developer needs confidence that the compiler will not introduce errors into the design.

When Cobots Make a Manufacturing Difference

Robots have been widely used in industry for many years, but cobots, or collaborative robots, are a more recent arrival to the market.

Teaching Package-Handling Robots to Navigate Using Visual Cues

We humans are adept at using audio and visual cues for communication while carrying out collaborative tasks. Now researchers are aiming to implement gestural interaction in a networked system of robots.

How Much Do You Know About Humanoid Robots?

How much do you know about humanoid robots?

Executive Roundtable: Collaborative Robots

Will the adoption of cobots by SMEs accelerate in near future? What are the key challenges cobots need to overcome before they become ubiquitous?

Designing a Human-Robot Collaboration System

Scientists analyzed the stability of the collaborative system based on speed and accuracy, as well as the conditions required for successfully performing tasks from geometric, force, and posture viewpoints.

Humans in the Loop Help Robots Find Their Way

Just like us, robots can’t see through walls. Sometimes they need a little help to get where they’re going. Engineers at Rice University have developed a method that allows humans to help...

MIT Engineers Devise a Recipe for Improving Any Autonomous Robotic System

A new general-purpose optimizer can speed up the design of walking robots, self-driving vehicles, and other autonomous systems.

Artificial Skin Gives Robots a Sense of Touch

We tend to take our sense of touch for granted in everyday settings, but it is vital for our ability to interact with our surroundings. Imagine reaching into the fridge to grab an egg for...

New Products

New Products from the August 2022 issue of Motion Design.

Improving Autonomous Robotic Systems

A new general-purpose optimizer can speed up the design of walking robots, self-driving vehicles, and other autonomous systems.

When the Future of Robotics Becomes Pneumatics

Envisioning smaller and more lightweight robotics, designers realized that cobots could be used for millions of assembly tasks now being carried out by humans.

Dog Training Methods Teach Robots to Learn New Tricks

With a training technique commonly used to teach dogs to sit and stay, computer scientists showed a robot how to teach itself several new tricks including stacking blocks. With the...

Autonomous Assemblers Assemble

In-space and planetary surface assembly for human exploration is a challenging domain that encompasses various technological thrusts to support human missions. NASA is developing autonomous assembly agents to...

Sensors Converge 2022

Sensors Expo is returning to the McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA from June 27 – 29, with its new name — Sensors Converge. There are nine conference tracks that highlight the different applications for...

Machine Intelligence to Build Soft Machines

Soft machines — a subcategory of robotics that uses deformable materials instead of rigid links — are an emerging technology commonly used in wearable robotics and biomimetics (e.g.,...