Want a hybrid workforce?
Google X roboticists and engineers aim to provide solution to make sense of robot data in industries such as retail, construction, automotive and healthcare.
A stealth company is trying to solve one of the oddest interoperability problems of the modern era: How do you get robots and non-engineers talking to each other? Founded by the former Director of Robotics for Google, the company, Formant, is making its first public bow thanks to a recently-announced $6 million in funding from SignalFire.
Top 10 Automation & Control Trends for 2019
By Bill Lydon, Editor, Automation.com
The pace of technological change in the automation industry seems to be accelerating as we head into 2019, driven by innovations developed for Internet of Things and general computing. In last year’s Bill’s Top 10 Automation & Control Trends for 2018 - A Year of Technology Driven Change, I shared the view that 2018 would look to bring structural and architectural changes that would be disruptive to organizations and suppliers that resist change. As we enter the new year, there are indeed signs of disruption in various industrial automation niches, leading to a prominent question for 2019.
Question: Is the industrial automation industry approaching a tipping point with innovative new system architectures, software, and edge devices leading to broad disruption?
Amazon robots to deliver packages to your door
These last-mile delivery robots, which are essentially hampers on wheels, can navigate autonomously to their destination to drop off packages which are stowed securely inside. Amazon has begun a trial featuring six of these robots in one neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington, where they’ll be delivering packages during daylight hours on weekdays. They will be accompanied by a human chaperone at first, although the long-term plan is likely for them to operate without the need for such supervision. The ordering experience on the part of the customer does not change.
GTS Freight Group to install robots in warehouse
The AGVs will reportedly manage a block stacked full pallet warehouse. This system comprises two counterbalance AGVs utilising QR code navigation within block stack lanes and Dematic’s AGV Manage Warehouse Control Software (WCS) interfaced with paperless Warehouse Management System (WMS).
Huge Automated Freezer 145 Feet High in Sackville, Nova Scotia
A massive steel structure rising 14 storeys from the edge of Sackville's industrial park is garnering interest and questions from people passing by.
Visible from the Trans-Canada Highway, it's made of 725,000 kilos of steel, hundreds of thousands of bolts, and could be mistaken for something built by the darkside of the Force.