Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Four Vectis systems utilizing the UR20 cobot for welding. | Source: Universal Robots Universal Robots’ UR20 collaborative robot (cobot) is debuting its welding abilities with Vectis Automation, Hirebotics, and Melton Machine & Control Company at FABTECH. The UR20’s extended range broadens the range of weldments the cobot can achieve in a given fixture setup.  “Vectis Automation is ecstatic to offer the long-reach UR20 arm onto our integrated cobot welding and cutting tools,” Josh Pawley, co-founder of Vectis Automation, said. “This cobot will have a huge impact on the market, improving on UR’s already robust and high-performance cobot products.” The UR20 is Universal Robots’ fastest and strongest cobot ever. It features a 44 lb (20 kg) payload, 68.9 in (1750 mm) reach, ±0.002 (± 0.05 mm) repeatability and up to 30% more speed and torque when compared to other UR cobots. All of UR’s cobots are power and force limited (PFL) robots. Just like the e-Series, the UR20 is certifi...

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) tracks the number of robots sold to North American companies each quarter. | Source: A3 37% fewer robots were purchased in April through June of 2023 than during the same period of 2022, according to the Association for Advancing Automation’s (A3) latest report. This slowdown in the robotics industry is due to a low US economy and high interest rates, according to A3.  This is the second quarter in a row the robotics industry has seen a decline in sales in North America, following a record-breaking 2021 and 2022. From April to July of 2023, North American companies ordered 7,697 robots valued at $457 million, a 37% decline in robot orders and 20% drop in value from the same period in 2022.  For the entire year so far, the North American robotics market has ordered 16,865 robots, down 29% compared to the first half of last year. “Over the last five years, we’ve seen a steady acceleration of robot orders as all industries have ...

Source: igus igus is launching a new energy supply system for SCARA robots in cleanrooms: the Clean SCARA Cable Solution is made of tribologically optimized high-performance plastics and works almost particle-free according to ISO Class 2 even in high-speed applications. It is also stronger and more user-friendly than classic corrugated hoses. In electronics production, tiny particles invisible to the naked eye can wreak havoc, ruining electronic components, semiconductors, and displays. Therefore, it’s critical that machines like SCARA robots, which move rapidly along four axes in under a second, generate as little friction and contamination as possible. During these high-speed applications, there is always a risk that tiny particles will detach from corrugated hoses and tubes. Maintaining ultra-clean manufacturing conditions is essential to prevent microscopic contaminants from damaging electronics. Just as microscopic debris can silently destroy production in electronics, con...

Krone and Lemken use Apex.Grace and Apex.Ida from Apex.AI to further develop the ‘Combined Powers’ project, an autonomous drive vehicle and attachments that can take on various fieldwork. | Credit: Apex Apex.AI , a company that develops safety-certified software for mobility and autonomous applications, announced today a joint product development project for commercial-ready autonomous farming systems with Krone , a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and precision agricultural technology, and Lemken , a company that manufactures innovative machines for tillage, sowing and sustainable plant care. The ‘Combined Powers’ concept vehicle, which was developed by Krone and Lemken, is an autonomous drive unit that acts as a smart system that can plow, cultivate, sow, mow, turn and swath. The companies are now transitioning the concept carrier vehicle from the prototype stage to series production by leveraging Apex.AI’s Software Development Kit (SDK), consisting of Apex.Grace and Apex....

A robot attempting to use its whole hands to rotate a bucket 180º. | Source: MIT An MIT research team has developed an AI technique that allows robots to manipulate objects with their entire hand or body, instead of just their fingertips.  When a person picks up a box, they typically use their entire hands to lift it, and then their forearms and chest to keep the box steady while they move the box somewhere else. This kind of manipulation is whole-body manipulation, and it’s something that robots struggle with.  For robots, each spot where the box could touch any point of their fingers, arms, and torso is a contact event that the robot has to reason about. This leaves robots with billions of potential contact events, making planning for tasks that require the whole body extremely complicated. This process of a robot trying to learn the best way to move an object is called contact-rich manipulation planning.  However, MIT researchers have found a way to simplify this...

The Apogee+ exoskeleton aims to help support caregivers in healthcare settings. | Source: German Bionic German Bionic has unveiled the Apogee+, a powered exoskeleton for the North American healthcare market. Apogee+ aims to merge cutting-edge robots with research-backed, data-driven insights to better support caregivers.  Apogee+ is designed to provide personal lift assistance to caregivers, and it specifically addresses concerns with care worker safety and job satisfaction. This is German Bionic’s first foray into the healthcare space, and the mover underscores its success in industrial settings.  “State-of-the-art equipment significantly contributes to making nursing and care professions more appealing,” Norma Steller, Chief Product Officer at German Bionic, said. “And therefore, it aids hospitals and care facilities in their pursuit of attracting and retaining a qualified and motivated workforce.” Apogee+ provides active assistance during lifting and walking, offering...

Searching and selecting a motor for a specific application can often be a challenging task, as there are many potential factors that must be taken into consideration. These include the application’s required voltage, maximum current and diameter, speed, efficiency, and power, among others. Balancing these considerations with other unique application requirements will help ensure the selection of the ideal motor, which is why a collaborative approach between the motion solution and design engineering teams from the outset is vital. When first approaching a miniature motor supplier for assistance in the motor selection process, one of the initial questions that must be addressed is the application’s specific working point, or the application’s torque and speed. Understanding the load on the motor will help pinpoint the necessary motor power and the required motor accessories. It is also vital to discuss how the motor is integrated into the application, as different types of loads will ...

Doosan Robotics’ E-Series of cobots is NSF-certified. | Source: Doosan Robotics Doosan Robotics has partnered with Microsoft and Doosan Digital Innovation to give collaborative robots (cobots) a context-aware control system based on generative pre-trained transformer technology. The partnership was formalized with a memorandum of understanding for Doosan Robotics to use Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service for a GPT-based robot control system.  As part of the agreement, Azure will provide Doosan with access to the GPT language model, and Doosan Digital Innovation will be responsible for adapting the model to be used in Doosan’s robots. Doosan hopes this integration will shorten programming times while also expanding the available functions for their robots.  Doosan plans to leverage GPT’s comprehension capabilities to allow robots to gain more context and nuance in understanding tasks. GPT is a large language model that can understand and generate human-like text based on the...

iRobot’s latest Roomba Combo i5+ is a combo robot vacuum and mop. | Source: iRobot iRobot expanded its lineup of 2-in-1 robots with two new robots, the Roomba Combo j5+ ($799) and the Roomba Combo i5+ ($549). Both of these new Roomba are combo robot vacuums and mops that feature a swappable bin depending on the cleaning mode being used. Both robots have a vacuum bin and a Roomba Combo bin. With the vacuum bin installed, the Roombas can clean a mix of floor types, from carpets and rugs to hard surfaces. The Roomba Combo bin can be filled with water or a compatible cleaning solution to mop floors.  “Following the successful launch of the Roomba Combo j7+, customer demand for more iRobot 2-in-1 cleaning devices continues to grow,” Barry Schliesmann, chief product officer at iRobot, said. “We’re meeting that demand by expanding our 2-in-1 fleet with the Roomba Combo j5+ and Roomba Combo i5+, giving customers greater choice when it comes to an iRobot vacuum and mop option that bes...

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a powerful open-source platform for robotics research, but until recently it lacked industrial-quality hardware that is tightly integrated with the ROS software stack. Robot equipment manufacturers use proprietary, closed-source software and control systems for their manipulators, leaving researchers with a steep hill to climb in order to use ROS on industrial robots. Addressing this need and advancing the capabilities of the ROS development community, Tormach has created a ROS-based industrial robotic manipulator and control system that avoids “black box” issues that plague modern robotics applications. Additionally, Tormach’s control system, PathPilot, uses Python as the robot programming language, creating an intuitive programming interface for robot motion and unleashing the potential of the Python package ecosystem. This open-source, ROS-based robotics platform – which includes the control system, industrial robot hardware, and full access to...

By integrating Cognex DataMan fixed-mount, image-based barcode readers into the OSARO Robotic Bagging System, OSARO solved a difficult technical challenge for Zenni Optical. | Credit: Osaro OSARO has welcomed Cognex Corporation into the OSARO Partners Alliance, an ecosystem of expertise aimed at delivering optimal automation solutions to customers. By integrating Cognex DataMan fixed-mount, image-based barcode readers into the OSARO Robotic Bagging System, OSARO solved a difficult technical challenge for Zenni Optical. Blyn Prokopowich, shipping supervisor at Zenni Optical said “OSARO worked side by side with us to ensure knowledge transfer. They actively responded to all our questions and requests. I’ve seen my team change and they are very, very excited about this challenge. Learning new skills is [better than] doing repetitive motions every day. The skills give them confidence.” The recent deployment at Zenni in Novato, California, showcased the role of Cognex’s DataMan ba...

The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute has announced eight new short-cycle technology projects it will be funding. The Institute plans to award nearly $1.56 million in project funding from various sectors, for a total contribution of $3.26 million across these eight projects.  ARM Institute projects are selected from its Project Calls, which are made in collaboration with the ARM Institute’s internal team of experts, ARM Members, and its Department of Defense collaborators. This most recent project call specifically called for proposals in these areas: Automated robotic task planning Multi-robot, multi-human collaboration, task sharing & task allocation Safe and Scalable manufacturing of energetics AI in robotics for manufacturing Discovery workshops and market studies “Our selections in this latest project call address diverse areas of need in manufacturing – from identifying and road-mapping needed robotics developments to directly creating solution...

  https://www.therobotreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/lifting_task.mp4 Researchers at the University of Bristol based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory have designed a bi-touch system that allows robots to carry out manual tasks by sensing what to do from a digital helper. The system can help a bimanual robot display tactile sensitivity close to human-level dexterity using AI to inform its actions.  The research team developed a tactile dual-arm robotic system that learns bimanual skills through Deep Reinforcement Learning (Deep-RL). This kind of learning is designed to teach robots to do things by letting them learn from trial and error, similar to training a dog with rewards and punishments.  The team started their research by building up a virtual world that contains two robot arms equipped with tactile sensors. Next, they designed reward functions and a goal-update mechanism that could encourage the robot agents to learn to achieve the bimanual tasks. They ...

An Oxa-driven Beep vehicle at the SunTrax testing facility in Auburndale, FL. | Source: Oxa Beep Inc, a provider of autonomous shared mobility systems, and Oxa, previously known as Oxbotica, have partnered to deploy autonomous vehicles (AVs) driven by Oxa in the United States. This will be UK-based Oxa’s first entry into the US market.  This strategic partnership between the two companies will involve Oxa’s autonomy software being installed in a variety of vehicle types operated by Beep. These vehicles can include anything from current passenger shuttles to future vehicle platforms.  “We are thrilled to be working with Beep to deploy our unique autonomy solution to enable safe, secure and efficient passenger transportation in the United States,” Gavin Jackson, CEO at Oxa, said. “This marks a significant step forward for Oxa and the future of self-driving technology. Through partnering with Beep, we have the potential to drive several thousand vehicles over the coming year...