Robotics, Automation & Control

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...

Robot Reads Braille Twice as Fast as Humans

Although the robot braille reader was not developed as an assistive technology, the researchers say the high sensitivity required to read braille makes it an ideal test in the development of robot hands or prosthetics with comparable sensitivity to human fingertips.

AI Helps Robots Manipulate Objects with Their Entire Bodies

Humans are generally good at whole-body manipulation, but robots struggle with such tasks. Now, MIT researchers have found a way to simplify this process, known as contact-rich manipulation planning.

A Bioinspired Multimaterial Soft Robotic Hand

A research paper by scientists at the University of Coimbra proposed a soft robotic hand comprising soft actuator cores and an exoskeleton, featuring a multimaterial design aided by finite element analysis to define the hand geometry and promote finger’s bendability.

Portable Laser-Guided Robotic Metrology (PLGRM)

Innovators at the NASA Glenn Research Center have developed the PLGRM system, which allows an installed antenna to be characterized in an aircraft hangar. All PLGRM components can be packed onto pallets, shipped, and easily operated.

Towards More Accurate 3D Object Detection for Robots and Self-Driving Cars

Researchers from Japan have developed DPPFA–Net, an innovative network that overcomes challenges related to occlusion and noise introduced by adverse weather.

Better LIDAR in Autonomous Systems Starts with MEMS

The global market for automotive LIDAR is expected to grow from $332 million in 2022 to more than $4.5 billion by 2028. We interviewed Eric Aguilar, co-founder and CEO of Omnitron Sensors, Los Angeles, CA, to learn about a new MEMS scanning mirror that could accelerate the market adoption of LIDAR.

The New Industrial Edge Ecosystem for Machine Vision

Siemens is collaborating with Basler and MVTec in its open Industrial Edge Ecosystem. The results are scalable, plug-and-play solutions that combine Siemens’ automation technology with third-party machine vision hardware and software.

New Octopus-Inspired Gripper Enables Versatile Soft Adhesion

A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved, and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team studied the structures of octopus biological suckers, which have superb adaptive suction abilities enabling them to anchor to rock.

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.

My Opinion: The IIoT Gave Birth to the IoT

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) gave birth to the Internet of Things (IoT), but applications of the IoT are growing at an uneven pace due to real-world constraints beyond the capabilities of the technology.

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.

Universal Controller May Lead to Breakthroughs in Robotic Prostheses, Exoskeletons

A team of Georgia Tech researchers in Aaron Young’s lab has developed a universal approach to controlling robotic exoskeletons that requires no training, no calibration, and no adjustments to complicated algorithms. Instead, users can don the “exo” and go.

5Ws of the Dressing Robot

A bimanual dressing robot system developed at the University of York uses AI to mimic how caregivers assist humans in dressing.

SuperGPS Accurate Within 10 Centimeters

This new technology — developed by engineers at Delft University of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and VSL, and which can achieve an accuracy of 10 centimeters — is important for the implementation of a range of location-based applications, such as automated vehicles, quantum communication, and next-generation mobile communication systems.

Optimizing Warehouse Logistics with Autonomous Mobile Robots

Material transport workflows for production and assembly lines are time-consuming, non-value-adding tasks for most manufacturers. AMRs provide a simple, efficient, and cost-effective way to automate material handling and in-house transportation tasks in nearly any situation where employees would previously have been required to push carts around the facility.

New Products

See the new products, including ABB Robotics' expanded SCARA robot portfolio, Bodine's gearmotors, the C6675 control cabinet Industrial PC from Beckhoff, and KEB America's DL4 series of brushless servo motors.

Tiny, Fully Functional Water-Strider and Mini-Bug Robots

Reporting on their work in the proceedings of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, the mini-bug weighs in at eight milligrams, while the water strider weighs 55 milligrams. Both can move at about six millimeters a second.

Liquid Crystals Hold the Key to Shapeshifting Robots

Robots and cameras of the future could be made of liquid crystals, thanks to a new discovery that significantly expands the potential of the chemicals already common in computer displays and digital watches. The findings are a simple and inexpensive way to manipulate the molecular properties of liquid crystals with light exposure.

AI Model to Streamline Operations in a Robotic Warehouse

In the future, the researchers want to derive simple, rule-based insights from their neural model, since the decisions of the neural network can be opaque and difficult to interpret. Simpler, rule-based methods could also be easier to implement and maintain in actual robotic warehouse settings.

Snail-Inspired Robot Could Scoop Ocean Microplastics

Inspired by a small and slow snail, scientists have developed a robot prototype that may one day scoop up microplastics from the surfaces of oceans, seas, and lakes.