Monthly Archives: August 2017

Over the last decade or so, automated labor has grown as a robust presence throughout the state and its impact is starting to be more directly seen and felt, both commercially and politically

This week, the Brookings Institute released a new study looking at the regional locations of industrial robots. Or, in the institutes phrasing, 'automatically controlled, reprogrammable machines capable of replacing labor in a range of tasks.

A closer look at the Brookings study shows where, exactly, in Ohio these robots are most likely to be found. Both Toledo, with nine robots for every 1,000 people, and the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metro area, with 4.5 robots per 1,000 people, rank in the top 10 of the 100 largest metro areas from the study.

The Youngstown-Warren area is a bit more interesting, though. While that metro are has famously struggled with the shrinking steel manufacturing economy, its beginning to see success in more high-tech jobs, like the Youngstown Business Incubator which has a focus on additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing).

And its that sort of development that could help serve a region that, as The Daily Beast notes, is already home to thousands of companies producing metals, plastics, and polymers as well as the regions biomedical, automotive, and defense industries.

But this isnt the only area of robotics thats made a big impression in Ohio. Gov. Kasich made a big push to set aside a few stretches of highway throughout the state as Smart Mobility Corridors, including a stretch near Columbus.

There are also efforts to bring such tests to corridors throughout Northern Ohio, too.

The central Ohio hub, a 35-mile stretch of State Route 33 around Marysville, is being wired with fiber optic cables for data collection. Ohio State and Honda are both nearby, as are the Transportation Research Center and NHTSA Vehicle Research Test Center. And Wind River, a subsidiary of Intel, has already announced a program with OSU, the TRC, and the city of Dublin to test self-driving vehicles on this stretch of road.

As for the larger impact of robot labor, the Brookings study points toward, but stops short of, larger conclusions behind the placement of these industry robots, including economic anxiety around robots taking human jobs and the political impact.

And that political impact is certainly worth paying attention to. That Daily Beast story highlights the disconnect between the growing high-tech industry in Youngstown and the manufacturing plans that President Trump has touted for the area, promising that cracking down on the unbalanced steel trade of other nations will magically revive an industry that many consider long gone from the area.

To see the other side of the impact of robotics, though, look no further than the Carrier plant near Indianapolis. Despite President Trumps boast of saving jobs at the factory last fall, it was later determined that many of those supposedly saved jobs will be lost to automation at the plant. More robots.

Brookings plans to release another study later this year that more closely examines the disruption to metro areas brought by the changing robotics world. We can only hope that Brookings doesn't hire robot researchers to taint the data.

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Robots Have Quietly Become Ohio's Booming Workforce - Cleveland Scene Weekly

Robotic Industries Association Posted 08/17/2017

Organization's Research Provides Guide for Robotics and Automation Sales, Likelihood of Additional Growth in 2017

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the leading global advocate for the benefits of automating, announced today the results of its research on robotics and automation trends, sales, and growth. A3 provides quarterly statistical reports to its members for benchmarking and business intelligence purposes. As expected, many records were set in the areas of robotics, machine vision, motion control and motor technology for the first half of 2017.

A snapshot of some of A3's research findings includes:

Robotics The North American robotics market had its best opening half ever to begin 2017, setting new records in all four statistical categories (order units, order revenue, shipment units, and shipment revenue). In total, 19,331 robots valued at approximately $1.031 billion were sold in North America during the first half of 2017, which is the highest level ever recorded to begin a year. These figures represent growth of 33% in units and 26% in dollars over 2016. Automotive related orders grew substantially in that time, increasing 39% in units and 37% in dollars, while non-automotive orders also grew 21% in units and 10% in dollars over the first half of 2016.

Motion Control & Motors For the first half of 2017, orders for motion control and motor products amounted to $1.622 billion, up 14% over the first six months of 2016. Shipments totaled $1.757 billion, up 10% over the first half of 2016, and the fastest growing categories in that timeframe, in terms of shipments, were Motion Controllers (21% to $97 million), Sensors & Feedback Devices (20% to $76 million), Actuators & Mechanical Systems (17% to $318 million), and AC Drives (17% to $199 million).

Vision & Imaging In 2017, the machine vision market in North America also posted its best first half performance compared to any other year. A total of $1.241 billion was sold in the first six months of the year, with an increase of 11% over the same period in 2016. Machine vision component markets were up 11% in total to $177 million and systems increased 10% to $1.058 billion. Some notable growth rates were: Lighting (20% to $35 million), Smart Cameras (16% to $183 million), and Optics (16% to $20 million).

Experts expect software to trend up, cameras, lighting, and imaging boards to be flat, and optics to trend down over the next six months. Additionally, expectations are for Application Specific Machine Vision (ASMV) systems to increase and smart cameras to remain flat in the next two quarters.

A3 Expertise A longtime advocate for and supporter of the robotics, machine vision, motion control and motor markets, A3 is comprised of three sister associations: the Robotic Industries Association (RIA); the Advancing Vision + Imaging Association (AIA); and the Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA). A3 is currently at a record combined membership of 1,064 as of July 31, 2017.

"Year over year, our membership has been on a steady growth trajectory, the result of more companies understanding, and embracing, the direct impact automation can have on their bottom line," said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. "We look forward to the continued advancement of our industry and helping companies of all sizes access the connections, information, and training they need to succeed with automation."

A3 On the Road A3 will host several events in the fall of 2017 that support the organizations and industries noted in its research findings. They include:

For more details or to sign up, visit the A3 website.

About Association for Advancing Automation (A3) The Association for Advancing Automation is the global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. A3 is the umbrella group for Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA - Advancing Vision + Imaging, and Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA). RIA, AIA, and MCMA combined represent over 1,060 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups and consulting firms from throughout the world that drive automation forward.

For more information, visit: A3. RIA. AIA. MCMA.

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Robotic Industries Association - Robotics Online (press release)

The Hants Journal

KES Robotics Club comes first in national competition after disaster averted, heading to worlds The Hants Journal After weeks and months of intense coding and late nights of robot building, a scrappy team from King's-Edgehill School in Nova Scotia ended up placing first against 12 other teams from Quebec and Ontario during the Canadian qualifier for the World ... and more »

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KES Robotics Club comes first in national competition after disaster averted, heading to worlds - The Hants Journal

From the sharp stones wielded by our early ancestors to the internet, every step in the evolving relationship between humans and their tools has awakened new possibilities, and new fears. The bottom line on 'bots: There will be human displacement, but fresh opportunities, too.

NORTH READING, Mass. Every day is graduation day at Amazon Robotics.

Here's where the more than 100,000 orange robots that glide along the floors of various Amazon warehouses are made and taught their first steps.

Here they practice their first pirouettes. And heavy lifting too, as they twirl while hauling shelves filled with cinder blocks.

And finally once they've been given the green light by their makers about 38 robots assemble in a tight four-row formation and in orderly fashion wheel themselves up onto pallets that will be shipped to one of the 25 Amazon warehouses that employ automatons.

Amazon staffers call it the "graduation ceremony," and it takes place several times a day. So far this year the company has graduated more than 55,000 robots.

These robots, and the thousands of Amazonians who build, program and use them, are laying out the next episode in a very old story the evolving relationship between humans and their tools.

From the sharp stones wielded by our early ancestors to the internet, every step along the way has awakened new possibilities, and new fears too.

Now, it's the turn of robotics, a discipline that after decades of experimentation and recent big leaps in artificial intelligence has finally reached a maturity that allows mass deployment.

"We're at an inflection point the ability of robots to be useful at a low-cost point," said Beth Marcus, a robotics expert and startup founder who recently joined Amazon Robotics as a senior principal technologist.

This latest wave of automation has spurred anxiety among scholars and policymakers. They warn it might contribute to a growing economic divide, in which workers with more education or the right skills reap the benefits of automation, while those with inadequate training are replaced by robots and increasingly left out of lucrative jobs.

It's not a novel concern: Spinning jennies, which revolutionized the weaving industry, sparked similar resistance in 19th-century England. And in the 1960s, the U.S. government created a task force to study the impact of technology on livelihoods.

"If we understand it, if we plan for it, if we apply it well, automation will not be a job destroyer or a family displacer," President Lyndon Johnson said at the time.

History has shown that, over time, job losses in rapidly advancing sectors are offset by gains in other activities spurred by a growing economy.

That perspective doesn't quell contemporary concerns. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has proposed taxing robots to pay for other jobs, such as teachers. Some scholars also seem to be losing faith in the old playbook.

"There's never been a worse time to be a worker with only 'ordinary' skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary rate," Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee wrote in their 2014 book, "The Second Machine Age."

In a recent report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that technology is contributing to the disappearance of middle-skill jobs, both in manufacturing and in clerical work, even though it helps create both highly skilled and low skilled positions.

Amazon is the poster child for automation, and not only because of the orange warehouse robots. Its machine-learning software lets the company predict customer behavior. New retail concepts, such as the Amazon Go convenience store in downtown Seattle, heavily rely on sensor technology in an effort to do away with the need for cashiers.

Amazon is also working hard to have drones deliver items to people's homes, a move that may replace a lot of delivery drivers.

But automation certainly hasn't slowed down Amazon's colossal appetite for people. The company's payroll expansion has long exceeded revenue growth: In the quarter that ended last June, its workforce grew by 42 percent to 382,400 jobs, versus sales growth of 25 percent.

It's hard to say, in the case of Amazon, how many potential human jobs have gone to the robots, or inversely, how many new positions have been created to handle this new feature of working life.

But Amazon says that warehouses equipped with robotics typically see "greater job creation with more full-time employees," due to the increased volume of orders these centers can handle. Amazon also says automation has meant the creation of desirable, high-skilled jobs designing robots and teaching them how to do things, as well as middle-skilled jobs such as repairing the robots, or simply focusing on more sophisticated warehouse tasks while letting machines do the boring stuff.

Marcus says that there are plenty of tasks humans will monopolize for a long time.

"There are many things humans do really well that we don't even understand yet," she said.

Amazon Robotics' facility, in suburban Boston, was first established by Kiva Systems, a company founded on the concept of flipping warehouse logistics around. Instead of having workers walk to products, it sought to bring items to the workers. The solution: flat, wheeled robots called "drive units" that navigate a warehouse by reading stickers on the floor, all while carrying merchandise on their backs.

Amazon bought Kiva in 2012 for $775 million in cash and started introducing the robots into its warehouses in 2014.

Since then, the robotics facility stopped selling to other customers, while its orange robots, now in their fourth generation, have come to play an important part in Amazon's operations. In fact, robotics seem to be more important to Amazon's bottom line than to other tech giants also making big bets in the field, such as Google, experts say.

A few steps into the Amazon Robotics building, a small sign warns visitors in jest to please not feed the robots.

Some 500 employees work in the facility, mostly engineers and scientists, as well as technicians who assemble the robots. The hardware side is led by Parris Wellman. As a kid he wanted to build cars and went on to earn a mechanical-engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania. There, studying under prominent roboticist Vijay Kumar, Wellman discovered robots. After a Ph.D. from Harvard and a few years in biotech and in medical devices, he joined Amazon Robotics, returning to what he calls his "first love."

What he likes about the opportunity is that he can build something and deploy it en masse pretty quickly.

Another interesting aspect of the work, he said, is that the roboticists get plenty of feedback from the warehouse associates who will be dealing directly with the robots. For example, associates helped designers pick out the color of the new lightweight shelves that the robots carry: yellow, because that makes it easier to see the items they carry.

And it was a maintenance worker at a warehouse who designed, and patented with Amazon's help, a metal rod that staffers use to push inactive robots around the factory floor (it's easier than picking up the 750-pound devices).

"Innovation is not restricted to a particular set of people," Wellman said.

One of these centers is in DuPont, Washington, a warehouse dedicated to mid-size and large items, where 500 humans work alongside hundreds of robots. There the automatons have the run of the core of the warehouse, a maze brimming with metal shelves stocked with merchandise.

They operate in a different space from the humans, who are mostly on the outskirts of the facility. But they work together in an elaborate, seemingly seamless dance.

This interaction with the robotic workforce has created new types of roles.

Barry Tormoehlen, a former electrician and conveyance mechanic, is one of a dozen people at DuPont who do preventive maintenance on the drive units, vacuum their interiors, "wipe them down" every once in a while and fix them when needed.

Over time, Tormoehlen has learned to recognize the individual units, which each have a number and a maintenance history of their own. The collaboration between these robots and humans has created a local folklore.

Workers have painted some of the robots to give them personality: A robot with fiery flames on its sides is known as the "devil drive." Another, decorated by warehouse workers in blue and yellow instead of the usual orange, is dubbed "The Minion," after animated characters who have the same color pattern.

During a recent visit to the DuPont center, 29-year old Ashley Parks, a former medical assistant from Yelm, Washington, stowed newly arrived items of various shapes and sizes onto a shelf atop "The Minion."

"They kind of dance around you," she said of the automatons, adding that they make her more efficient in her job.

As for fears of one day losing her job to a machine, she seemed nonchalant. "I don't think they're going to take away our jobs," she said. "They stay on their side, I stay on my side."

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Are Amazon's robots job robbers or dance partners? - The Providence Journal

Carolynn Mostyn TheSuburbanite.com correspondent

Middleschoolers Owen Garee,of Green,and Dylan Snyder,ofLake,were working together to make the final adjustments to their robot for competition at Portage Lakes Career Center during the VEX Robotics Camp.

Two camps ran July 24 through 28 at the school. The first was a beginner camp and the second an advanced camp. Many of the campers attend both camps.

The team of Garee and Snyder found after programming the robot and making a trial run that the robot's wheels were not steady and were"whacky and wiggly," they said. They then tightened all of the bolts and nuts to keep the robot going in straight lines and staying on the course.

The camp instructors are high school teachers and college students working with IST (Integrated Systems Technology).

Michael James, atech teacher at Elgin High School near Marion,said they put competition into the days at camp.

"Anytime a kid can have competition they will learn and do better," he said.

Jamessaid critical thinking, problem solving and working as a team are important lessons the campers learn.

"If you look at any engineering or any project, you have to work as a team. It is not just 'hey I can do it all myself,' " he said.

James added they do, sometimes, match kids up as teams but for the most partthe kids just sit down and start working together.

"It is amazing how few problems you have with that," Jamessaid. "A lot of them are kids from different schools and they don't know anyone. They start making friends."

The team of instructors travel all over the state doing camps throughout the summer.

Jarrett Taylor and Ben Casper were working to program code their robot to follow the course and pick up a cone and place it on top of another one. The boys explained that instructors are keeping score of each team's progress of different tasks to earn a ranking within the 12 teams.

The students at camp were from various school districts in the area and are going into sixth through ninth grade. This is the fourth year the robotics camp has been held at the career center.

Maria Schlenk, programming and software development instructor for PLCC, said on the first day the kids worked from an instruction book and parts and pieces to build their robots. Once they completed the robots, they use a game controller to drive them around and play with them. The second day, they competed going through mazes and picking things up.

"That was fun for the kids," she said.

Students also began programming the robots, writing a program in a language calledRobotics C, whichtells the robot how to move and what to do. Robots then areoperated autonomously (without a human controlling them).

The STEM camp is primarily engineering and the students are hands-on inbuilding the robots and using their creativity. During the programming or coding, logic, thinking step-by-step and control comes in to play.

"It is thinking logically, critically and problem solving," said Schlenk.

She said the students sometimes want to hurry and get the robot together so they can play with it. That is when they find out that the wheels might fall off and parts don't work. But they learn, Schlenk.

"The more work you put in ahead of time the better the first results," she said. "Take time to do it right the first time and you won't have to redo it. They also learn interpersonal skills. You have to model teamwork and teach teamwork."

The last day of camp parents are invited to watch the competition between the teams.

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Students learn critical thinking, problem solving during PLCC Robotics Camp - North Neighbor News

Pilbara students proved their mastery with robots at the RoboCup Junior WA competition in Perth last week.

Six teams from Wickham, Tambrey and Baynton West primary schools excelled at their first time at the annual educational robotics tournament, competing in dance and rescue challenges with a range of advanced robots.

A four-person team from Tambrey Primary, consisting of Year 6 students Ben Gillon, Daniel Dang, George Ralph and Trey Jankowski, won gold in the competition primary dance competition, beating 54 other teams.

Their creative dance, The 4 Wall-Es, involved several robots acting out Pixar film Wall-E.

Two Pilbara teams also collected medals in the primary rescue category.

Kade Higgins and William Kinninmont, of Wickham Primary School, won silver while Bailey Smith, of Baynton West Primary, took home bronze.

It comes after the first Pilbara RoboCup Junior event, which was also the first in regional WA, was held at Wickham Primary School in June.

Scitech Statewide director Nick Wood said the Pilbara students had excelled at their first showing at the Perth event. The Pilbara teams demonstrated a high skill level and strong problem-solving abilities I think that is testament to the efforts of students, teachers and the school communities to make robotics and coding part of the core school activities, he said.

All the Pilbara schools Scitech work with have done a fantastic job integrating technology into the classroom, and the students are going from strength to strength in coding and computing as well as literacy, numeracy and problem solving.

Tambrey Primary principal Troy Withers said its teams gold medal in the primary dance vision was a fantastic result and the school community was very proud.

Theyve gotten a fair bit out of it and had to get out of their comfort zone, he said. That division was about combining their own physical movement with what the robots were doing, but they pulled it off really well.

Mr Withers said the teams success had inspired other students to take more interest in robotics.

Wickham Primary deputy principal and STEM co-ordinator Melissa Reimers said the results showed how much robotics and STEM talent there was among children in the Pilbara.

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Kids equipped for futureafter success with robotics - The West Australian

Matrix Design, LLC Posted 08/17/2017

New Modular Robotic Deburr Demo Cell Includes interchangeable stations and FANUC robot

South Elgin, IL - Matrix Design, LLC will be exhibiting at Gear Expo 2017 from October 24-26 in Columbus, OH. Thousands of gear industry professionals are expected to attend the event to discover cost-effective solutions and new technologies.

Gear Expo, owned by the American Gear Manufacturers Association, offers learning opportunities and educational options designed to give technology professionals and those that serve the industry tools to succeed in the future. This event takes place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center where attendees will get a one-stop shopping experience that covers all their manufacturing needs including automation, forgings, bearings, heat treating, inspection, and more than 75 other product categories.

Matrix will exhibit in booth #422, a 20 x 20 space, and will feature their brand new Deburr Demo cell. Here, attendees will have the opportunity to see live advanced robotic deburring technologies. This modular-designed automation system includes four interchangeable stations arranged in a quadrant formation around a single M-20iA35M FANUC robot, each featuring various deburring solutions that address the unique challenges associated with deburring.

We are very excited to unveil our new robotic deburring applications system, says Jeff Bennett, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. This new system will allow us to demonstrate our automated deburring technologies to manufacturers as well as qualify new potential deburring applications. Matrixs staff will be on hand to present, answer questions, and to help end users understand how manufacturers operations can benefit from increased productivity, improved safety and work environment, decreased costs, and consolidation of processes.

About Matrix Design Matrix works closely with end users to develop, build, and install robotic automation systems. Specializing in machine tending, deburring, and a range of material handling systems, Matrix has built a reputation for designing and delivering the most optimal and robust industrial automation systems to manufacturers worldwide.

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Matrix Design, LLC - Robotics Online (press release)