Motion Control

New Products

See the new products, including Kollmorgen's latest update to its AKD2G Servo Drive, Teledyne FLIR IIS's Bumblebee® X series, Emerson's Movicon.NExT™ HMI/SCADA, Pleora Technologies' expanded eBUS Edge GigE Vision software transmitter solution, Bodine Electric Company's 12 new AC inverter-duty hypoid hollow shaft gearmotors, Linear Servo Motor from Moticont, and more.

Modular Design Strategies Reinforce Electric Actuator Selection over Hydraulics

When electromechanical actuator designers began integrating electronics inside their housings, it gave a control and efficiency advantage that opened the door to applications that had long been the sole domain of hydraulics cylinders. Those same electronics, coupled with recent experience applying electric actuators in new applications, now enable a modular design strategy that makes customizing electric actuators easier, further enhancing their advantages over hydraulics.

Using Machine Learning to Teach New Tricks to ANYMal Robot

ANYmal has for some time had no problem coping with the stony terrain of Swiss hiking trails. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have taught this quadrupedal robot some new skills: it is proving rather adept at parkour. ANYmal is also proficient at dealing with the tricky terrain commonly found on building sites or in disaster areas. Read on to learn more.

Deep Learning Models Enable Robotic Motion

MIT engineers are aiming to give robots a bit of common sense when faced with situations that push them off their trained path. They’ve developed a method that connects robot motion data with the “common sense knowledge” of large language models, or LLMs.

Generative AI that Imitates Human Motion

An international group of researchers has created a new approach to imitating human motion through combining central pattern generators (CPGs) and deep reinforcement learning (DRL). The method not...

Teaching Robots to Move by Sketching Trajectories

Getting robots to perform even a simple task requires tons of behind-the-scenes work. Part of the challenge is planning and executing movements, everything from turning wheels to lifting a...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an...

Giving Household Robots Common Sense

Whereas prior works have focused on leveraging LLMs directly for planning in symbolic spaces, this work uses LLMs to guide the search of task structures and constraints implicit in multi-step physical demonstrations.

Humanoid Robots: The Next-Generation Robotic Workforce

While the adoption of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and collaborative robots (cobots) has increased in logistics and manufacturing industries, mobile manipulation robots (MMRs) — or...

Tech Focus: Leveraging Generative AI for Industrial Environment

Del Costy, President and Managing Director at Siemens Digital Industries (Plano, TX), unveiled how the company is making automation easy with their first generative AI-powered...

Product Focus: New Order Fulfillment Solution Helps Reduce Intralogistics Footprint

Intralogistics solutions provider Kardex (Zurich, Switzerland) demonstrated one of the fastest order fulfillment solution per square foot on the market at...

Product Focus: Small, Fast, and Element-Resistant Industrial Robots

Comau (Southfield, MI) debuted its new S-Family of small yet powerful robots at Automate 2024. The first two high-speed robots, with payloads of 13 kg and up to 18 kg, are...

Product Focus: Modular Large Robots for High Payload Assembly

ABB Robotics (Auburn Hills, MI) is continuing the expansion of its modular large robot portfolio with the introduction of the new IRB 7710 and IRB 7720 that made their debut at...

Product Focus: Redefining Material Handling with AI-Driven Pallet Detection

At Automate 2024, Denmark-based Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) showcased its latest MiR1200 Pallet Jack — an AI-powered autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solution...

Technology Focus: Turning Robot Operations Data into Actionable Insights

InOrbit.AI (Mountain View, CA), a provider of robot operations (RobOps) solutions, introduced InOrbit RobOps Copilot™ at Automate 2024. This innovative technology...

Jeff Burnstein on the Transformative Impact of AI and Automation

Automate, the flagship educational conference and tradeshow for robotics and automation professionals, has returned to Chicago for the first time in five years. The event...

Product Focus: Innovative Low-Profile AMR for Flexible Manufacturing

AFORMIC (Duncan, SC) is showcasing its latest cutting-edge autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for flexible manufacturing and warehousing during the Automate Show. The...

Product Focus: One Kilowatt Wireless Charging for Mobile Robots

WiBotic (Seattle, WA) is demonstrating its new 1kW (1000 Watt) wireless charging system at the Automate Show. WiBotic’s new platform will provide a larger class of mobile...

Tech Focus: A New Generation of Mechanical Axes

Festo (Islandia, NY) introduced its newest generation of Cartesian-handling-system mechanical axes at Automate 2024. The ELGD-TB, tooth belt, and ELGD-BS, ball screw, axes feature an...

Flexible “Skeletons” for Soft, Muscle-Powered Robots

Our muscles are nature’s perfect actuators — devices that turn energy into motion. For their size, muscle fibers are more powerful and precise than most synthetic actuators. They...

Building Bionic Jellyfish for Ocean Exploration

Jellyfish can't do much besides swim, sting, eat, and breed. They don't even have brains. Yet, these simple creatures can easily journey to the depths of the oceans in a way that humans,...

Treating Liver Cancer with Microrobots Piloted by a Magnetic Field

The idea of injecting microscopic robots into the bloodstream to heal the human body is not new. It’s also not science fiction.

Test Your Knowledge About Cobots

Cobots are robots designed to work alongside humans rather than in their own space on a broad range of tasks. So, how much do you know about cobots? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

Squishy, Metal-Free Magnets Power Robots and Guide Medical Implants

“Soft robots,” medical devices and implants, and next-generation drug delivery methods could soon be guided with magnetism — thanks to a metal-free magnetic gel...

How To Shift Gears in a Molecular Motor

Scientists have long strived to develop artificial molecular motors that can convert energy into directed motion. Researchers at Linköping University have now presented a solution to a challenging...

Dragonfly Wings Used to Study Motion

Scientists from Hiroshima University undertook a study of dragonfly wings in order to better understand the relationship between a corrugated wing structure and vortex motions. They discovered that...

Researchers Explore the Phenomenon of Holonomy

BB-8 of Star Wars fame is known for its adorable beeps, dome-shaped head, and spherical body. But fighting alongside the Resistance is just one of its many talents. As this spherical robot...

A Self-Driving Needle Steers Through Living Lung Tissue

The lungs are one of the most difficult organs for physicians to navigate. They have a dense network of blood vessels, bronchi, and other critical anatomical structures that makes...