Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Australian-based robotics company Lyro Robotics creates an autonomous packing robot. | Source: Lyro Robotics Ed Husic, Australia’s Minister for Industry and Science , appointed a National Robotics Strategy Advisory Committee. The committee will help to guide Australia’s strategy for emerging automation technologies.  The committee will develop a national robotics strategy to help the country harness robotics and automation opportunities. The committee will examine robotics from every industry, from advanced manufacturing to agriculture.  “We have brought together some of the nation’s leading robotics and technology thinkers and practitioners to guide the way we develop and use robotics,” Husic said. “Australia has a lot of the key elements that can help in the development of national robotics capabilities: our people, research and manufacturing skills. And while we’re recognized as possessing strength in field robotics, we can do better, across a wider range of activities...

The Kewei composite wing drone combines the characteristics of long-endurance, high-speed and long-distance of fixed-wing UAVs and the vertical take-off and landing of rotor-wing drones. | Source: Kewei Robot Guardforce AI Co., Limited , an AI and Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider, announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Shenzhen Kewei Robot Technology Company Ltd to acquire certain parts of Kewei’s robot business-related assets in China. This story updates our prior story earlier this year regarding the LOI between GFAI and Kewei. As a result of the agreement, Kewei will transfer select equipment assets, client base in the sales pipeline and related sales channels and staff, as well as provide rights to the permanent use of its patents, thereby enhancing Guardforce AI’s new Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) sales and capabilities. The purchase price for these assets is expected to be approximately 2.1 million US dollars, which will be fully paid in the form of 10,500,000 r...

From left to right, researchers Vladimir Vantsevich, Huashuai Fan and Lee Moradi. | Source: WPI Vladimir Vantsevich and Lee Moradi, two professors at Worchester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI’s) Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have established an Autonomous Vehicle Mobility Institute (AVMI) at WPI. The institute aims to expand the university’s interdisciplinary research into autonomous vehicle technologies as well as to boost educational opportunities for students. AVMI will focus on developing technology for off-road autonomous vehicles that travel across rough terrains. This could mean anything from farmland to battlefields to other planets.  “Much of the current research into autonomous vehicles focuses on cars that travel on roads, but we focus on off-road vehicles, from small robotic vehicles to full-scale vehicles, both manned and unmanned, with as many as 8, 12, or 16 wheels that are driven by electric motors or mechanical drivetrain systems with cont...

The resolution and accuracy have almost doubled on The Ensenso N camera while the price has remained the same. | Credit: IDS The Ensenso N-series 3D cameras have a compact body made of aluminum or a plastic composite, depending on the model, and a pattern projector built right in. They can be used to take pictures of both still and moving objects. The integrated projector projects a high-contrast texture onto the objects in question. A pattern mask with a random dot pattern fills in surface structures that don’t exist or are only faintly detectable. This makes it possible for the cameras to make detailed 3D point clouds even when the lighting is bad. The Ensenso models N31, N36, N41 and N46, supercede the previously available N30, N35, N40 and N45. Visually, the cameras are identical to their predecessors. Internally, however, the cameras leverage the new IMX392 sensor from Sony. This sensor has a higher resolution of 2.3 MP over the prior 1.3 MP. All cameras are pre-calibrated a...

Fabric is an automation supplier to retailers who want to create a micro fulfillment center (MFC) to automate order picking for their curbside and home delivery order management workflows. The company designs and builds an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) specifically for automating grocery order picking. The Fabric solution delivers totes of product SKUs to a pack-out station by leveraging a fleet of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) running around on the warehouse floor, beneath a storage array of totes. The AMRs move the totes into and out of the storage array where the totes are then hoisted into a storage position within the storage array. Fabric was founded in 2015, and it has raised $336M (source: Crunchbase) through its most recent series C in October 2021 . A grocery and ambient micro-fulfillment center in Tel Aviv. | Source: Fabric Until recently, the company delivered its solution in a Robots as a Service (RaaS) business model. However, in July 2022, the c...

North American sales have increased 24% in the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. | Source: A3 North American industrial robot sales are on track to reach record highs for the second year in a row according to the Association of Advancing Automation (A3) . North American companies purchased 35,804 units valued at $1.875 billion in the first nine months of the year, from January to September, 2022. This is a 24% increase in units ordered and a 27% increase in revenue over the same period in 2021, setting the industry up to break records again in 2022.  “Ongoing labor shortages, easier-to-use robotic solutions and new industries embracing robotics, such as restaurants, retail, construction and even agriculture, have led to record units sold here in North America this year,” Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, said. “Investing in automation is increasingly seen as a necessary step for performing many of the difficult-to-staff tasks that are necessary to c...

Welcome to Episode 102 of The Robot Report Podcast , which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies and other key members of the robotics community. In this episode, Mike Oitzman and I recap the year that was in robotics. We recap the biggest stories, moments, trends, successes and failures from the commercial robotics industry in 2022. We also want to hear from you. What will you remember most from the year in robotics? Comment below or leave us a voicemail that could be played on an upcoming episode of the podcast. Links from today’s show: Call for presentations for Robotics Summit Nominations Open for RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards In reversal, San Francisco bans police from using robots with lethal force Amazon buying iRobot for $1.7B Intrinsic acquires ROS maker Open Source Robotics Corp Cruise starts autonomous rides in 2 new cities Mobile robot shipments ...