Monthly Archives: October 2019

What will work look like when everything is digitally transformed, artificial intelligence is optimally deployed and robots are embedded in every aspect of our economy? Thats hard to know, but one company thats focused on making work work better, and helping businesses digitally transform, is Box.

Box, which went public in 2015, still acts very much like a Silicon Valley startup. Except, of course, grown up, with partnerships with Google and IBM and just about any other important company you can think of.

Global communication network concept. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. 3D rendering.

And 95,000 customers, including 69% of the Fortune 500.

I had a chance to interview Box CEO Aaron Levie at BoxWorks, the companys annual conference where it unveils new products, new relationships and new ways of transforming the business of work.

This is a lightly-edited transcript of our discussion.

John Koetsier: You often talk about digital transformation. What percentage of the US economy do you think is digitally transformed?

Levie: I would say a very small percentage.

John Koetsier: Can you put a number to it?

Levie: No. False precision is a waste of time. I have no idea. I'm sorry to be lame. But I would say a very small percentage.

And I think that it's evidenced by the fact that the majority of our interactions with companies is still largely done in a fairly traditional manner. You know, I'm getting on the phone, I have a website that's not very interactive, things aren't personalized to me, I go into a store and it's still hard to navigate. And so I think we're probably still pretty early in this in this journey.

I mean, just the easiest example is trying to change an airplane flight.

How long would that take you ... would it take you two minutes? Or would it take you two hours? And given that the underlying operational work is only two minutes, until the user experience gets to two minutes, then we're not really digitally transformed, right?

So I think we're just very early in this journey right now.

John Koetsier: Same thing on the global economy, I'm assuming?

Levie: Yeah, it varies by country, right? Certainly, I think if you if you look at China, they're probably much further ahead in terms of consumer apps, in a lot of respects.

But now its still so very early, with a high degree of upcoming change.

If I think about the amount of investment and change that people are making to their business models and their cultures, I think we're in for a decade of transformation ahead.

John Koetsier: What changes when a company successfully becomes digital first?

Levie: The way I kind of think about it is how narrow of a gap is there between my time and energy, and my output.

Think about just how many hours in a day are you doing things that a computer could do more efficiently? Because the user experience of how you're interacting could just be way, way simpler, right? Like, how many hours a day do we have in wasted communication or searching for data? Were asking the system for answers ...

John Koetsier: Or doing something in five steps that should be one.

Levie: Exactly.

So imagine if you just got to the utopian state where the computer can do all the parts that it can do best, and the people do the parts that we do best ... and you've got a great kind of harmony. That's that's what I think a digitally transformed workplace looks like.

And with instant sharing and collaboration between teams and people to get access to data instantaneously. So I think we're seeing what that can look like.

I think small startups have an advantage because they can on day one adopt Slack and Box and Google and start working in as close to this modern way as possible. A Fortune 500 company, you know, might have two or three or five years of change. And some of that's going to be technological change.

But a lot of it is going to be cultural change.

For example, what happens in a world where I, as a user, have way more transparency around what my colleagues are working on? Does it change what the company prioritizes? Does it change the communication style of the organization? So theres a lot of cultural change on that front, and we always have to balance the technological change with the cultural change. And I think most companies are going through that.

John Koetsier: Let's talk about the future of work. The future of work stresses a lot of people out: automation, robotics, AI, potential job loss ... does it stress you out?

Levie: I think it stresses me out that it stresses other people out. So I think I'm probably more of an optimist on this by default.

I was talking recently to a CEO of a major logistics and servicing company. And his number one problem and this is a Fortune 500 company, not a small business his number one problem was finding truck drivers.

Like literally, they cannot hire enough.

So I think that we've sort of painted this very bleak picture of a world of AI and world of jobs being completely disrupted. It's just my optimistic view but actually, I think what's going to happen is that individual tasks will be automated, but full jobs, it'll take far, far longer.

And that will give us more time than we think for the economy to evolve through this.

There's no question, there are certain jobs where it's just going to be really tough sledding. 20 years ago that would have been the travel agent on a telephone bank. That specific job did not have a bright future. So you have to find an industry that's growing as opposed to one that's declining because of technological transformation.

I think that we're going to see more surprising upside on jobs because of automation and advancements in AI. In many aspects of work today, if you could make the job more efficient, you wouldn't necessarily hire fewer people, you would just have those people go and work on more important things.

I rarely run into a company that is getting optimal output from its employees. There's a lot of areas of our lives where we're actually artificially under-consuming something ... and we would actually consume that service more if it was delivered more efficiently to us.

I think healthcare is a perfect example.

Personally, I try to avoid the healthcare system at all costs. If healthcare was in a much easier, more efficient experience, then maybe that wouldn't be the case. Maybe we would actually like getting more involved in the healthcare system.

John Koetsier: 30 years ago, Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff said that everything can be automated, will be. Agree?

Levie: Well, if you don't add a time frame, then I would say it's more right than not. But again, the time frame is the important part.

Because what tends to happen is you take one thing, and you automate that, and a new set of things occur because of that automation, that now are not automated. And then I go to automate those things. And it's literally never-ending. And so any individual tasks that we see today that can be automated probably will be automated, but the tasks that get created from those tasks being automated, will not be automated yet.

And so we're always in this ever evolving sort of race for more and more efficiency. And that's just what capitalism does.

John Koetsier: What processes should never be automated?

Levie: Well, I'm a new father. And so I think I actually have an increasing appreciation for parts of the economy that frankly, we have under-invested in. Childcare is a great example. Think about how many millions of people could have childcare if you could deliver it for more people.

That's a job that's not gonna be automated, that's not going to be an app, it's not gonna be a robot that rolls around. That's people. That's empathy. And that's creativity.

So much of this sort of AI myopia, I think, comes from Silicon Valley. We're just like, well, why wouldn't somebody want to interact with a computer for that task, instead of working with a human? But, actually, people like to interact with people. I mean, we're sort of a social species!

So the idea that you're going to go to a restaurant and never see a waiter, because it's just so efficient to do it from an iPad well, maybe in some cases but it will probably be a hybrid model for almost forever. Because there's probably going to be plenty of people that want human interaction.

John Koetsier: As we do automate more and more and add AI and robotics, do we need to change our economic model in some way to account for that? For instance, universal basic income, taxing robots and so on?

Levie: Well, I don't think the robot taxing makes sense, because I think that it's better to let businesses decide which things they need to make more efficient and not have an artificial constraint on how you would run an efficient business.

That being said, I think that it's very, very possible that the economy and how the economy runs in 50 years looks very different than today.

I think that it absolutely is our responsibility to make sure that people are protected in those types of situations. I would just say, though, that it's so hard to anticipate that stage because we're not yet seeing it. We only have anecdotal examples. And it's great to get ahead of it. So we should have lots of policy ideas and re-education programs, but I'm a little bit skeptical of getting overly negative and and dystopian around this future when we're just in the early stages.

But what Im seeing and what everybody I talk to says is that were actually running into a shortage of talent in many areas of our businesses.

John Koetsier: One last thing. YangGang?

Levie: I watch him with complete curious interest. I listen ... a lot of his policies are very provocative and very interesting.

Personally, I would love a world where you could run experiments on a Warren country, a Yang country, a Cory Booker country ... and then we could just see like, which one would work best.

John Koetsier: A/B testing presidents?

Levie: If we could do multivariate testing for presidents that'd be really fantastic. Because I think there's plenty of good ideas there. I have no idea what the unintended consequences of some of these things are.

I think that having more more regulation is a good thing. So a lot of what Warren is pushing for, I think it makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of what Yang is pushing for around jobs and thinking about the future of income, no matter what happens to you ... it makes a lot of sense to go and try out and see what are the results of that.

John Koetsier: Thank you for your time.

Original post:

Box CEO Aaron Levie On AI, Robotics, The Future Of Work, Digital Transformation And #YangGang - Forbes

60 mm Device Features > 13-Bit Accuracy, 19-Bit Resolution, and > 16-Bit Repeatability

MALVERN, Pa., Oct. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH) today introduced a new high precision position sensor that offers more robust performance than existing absolute encoders and better resolution and accuracy than traditional Hall effect sensors for industrial robotics and other demanding applications. The new RAMK060 rotational absolute magnetic kit encoder uses advanced contactless technology to achieve > 13-bit accuracy, 19-bit resolution, and > 16-bit repeatability while maintaining robustness against external magnetic fields, moisture, airborne pollution, vibration, mechanical shock, and changes in temperature. The device features a useful electrical angle of 360 and works over a temperature range of -40 C to +85 C, with higher maximum temperatures available on request.

The rotor + stator kit design of the RAMK060, as well as its off-axis design (for hollow shaft mounting), slim ~6.5 mm profile, and light weight (< 55 g) make it ideal for applications where little space is available but an angular position needs to be detected with high accuracy. The RAMK060 has an outside diameter of 60 mm and inner diameter of 25 mm. Several multi-turn variants are available, including connection to a backup battery when system power is off. SPI, SSI, or Biss-C output signals are available.

Vishays patented design is particularly suited for applications calling for precise and repetitive motion such as arm joints for industrial robots and collaborative robots; steering wheels for automated guided vehicles; and machine tools used in printing, textile manufacturing, and milling.

The key advantages of the RAMK060 are:

This technology architecture provides the best performance with safety guarantees.

Samples and production quantities of the RAMK060 are available now, with a lead time of 16 weeks for larger orders. Customers may request samples by sending an email to mcbprecisionpot@vishay.com.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a Fortune 1000 Company listed on the NYSE (VSH), is one of the world's largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors (diodes, MOSFETs, and infrared optoelectronics) and passive electronic components (resistors, inductors, and capacitors). These components are used in virtually all types of electronic devices and equipment, in the industrial, computing, automotive, consumer, telecommunications, military, aerospace, power supplies, and medical markets. Vishays product innovations, successful acquisition strategy, and "one-stop shop" service have made it a global industry leader. Vishay can be found on the Internet at http://www.vishay.com.

Vishay on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VishayIntertechnology Vishay Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/vishayindust

Share it on Twitter: http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=New @vishayindust position sensor offers robust, high-res performance for robotics and other precision industrial and military apps - http://bit.ly/356XpuL

Link to datasheet:http://www.vishay.com/ppg?32579 (RAMK060)

Link to product photo:https://www.flickr.com/photos/vishay/albums/72157711181091528

For more information please contact:Vishay IntertechnologyPeter Henrici, +1 408 567-8400peter.henrici@vishay.com orRedpinesBob Decker, +1 415 409-0233bob.decker@redpinesgroup.com

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New Vishay Intertechnology Position Sensor Offers Robust, High-Resolution Performance for Robotics and Other Precision Industrial and Military...

Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are two topics that are on the minds of many investors due to the segment's projected ability to disrupt how business is conducted in the future. In this article, we'll take a look at three chart patterns from across the sector that suggest the bulls are stepping in and that prices are poised to break higher from here.

Exchange-traded products are the vehicle of choice for active traders looking to gauge the short-term direction of any given niche. When it comes to robotics and artificial intelligence, the most popular fund is the Global X Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic ETF (BOTZ), which comprises 37 holdings spanning industrial robotics, automation, semiconductors, and autonomous vehicles.

Taking a look at the chart below, you can see that the price of the fund has trended toward the long-term support of its 200-day moving average. The price action over the past several months suggests that the sector is undergoing a period of consolidation, and the move above the support levels suggests that a major reversal is underway. Based on the pattern, active traders will most likely set their stop-loss orders below $19.38 in case of a sudden sell-off and in an attempt to maximize the risk-to-reward setup.

When it comes to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and related subsectors, the company that is nearly impossible to ignore is NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA). Taking a look at the chart below, you'll notice that the stock has been trading within a period of consolidation during 2019 and looks well positioned to start a long-term move higher. The recent bullish crossover between the 50-day and 200-day moving averages is known as the golden crossover and is commonly used by active traders to mark the start of major uptrends. From a risk-management perspective, stop-loss orders will most likely be placed below $161.49 in case of a shift in sentiment and to take advantage of the lucrative risk-to-reward setup.

Another top holding of the BOTZ ETF that could be worth a closer look is ABB Ltd. (ABB), which is currently trading at the mid-point of a well-defined range. As you can see from the chart below, the price has recently bounced off of a major level of resistance and has found support near the 200-day moving average. Recent strength has triggered a bullish crossover between the moving averages, which suggests that the bulls are in control of the momentum and that prices could be poised to move toward the September highs and eventually beyond.

Robotics and artificial intelligence are lucrative fields to be sure and therefore deserve a position in almost any portfolio. Based on the patterns discussed above, it appears as though now could be an ideal time to buy.

At the time of writing, Casey Murphy did not own a position in any of the assets mentioned.

The rest is here:

Charts Look Positive for Robotics and AI Stocks - Investopedia

Robotics researchers from the Queensland University of Technology are working with a Brisbane-based technology company in order to advance the development of the worlds first remote-controlled load-management system, which removes human held taglines for crane operations.

According to a recent press release, the researchers will look at how robotics will transform the manufacture, operation and use of the companys R-Series load-management system.

This system is already being used for projects around the world.

About the initiative

The team is taking a multifaceted approach in identifying ways to further develop the systems.

The aim of the project is to make a traditional piece of equipment, like a crane, and turn it into a smart robot.

The new device will enable the wind farm industry to install wind turbine blades more safely and in more challenging environments.

Currently, it is not easy to install a blade, up to 100m in length, from a moving ship in high winds.

Professor Matt Dunbabin is working on the ways to improve the control system for the device.

Meanwhile, Dr Chris Lehnert is looking at how robotics can be used in the manufacture of the device and data analytics research.

Associate Professor Richi Nayak will be using machine learning to understand how the systems performance could improve, and the Institute for Future Environments will improve the energy use.

The CEO of the company shared that the two-year project will bring together experts in robotics and data analytics to further develop their R-Series systems.

To be involved in a project to adapt the development and manufacturing of the R-Series through the use of robotics is a compelling concept that has enormous potential.

Aside from enabling unprecedented safety for crane operations, the R-Series also improves efficiency and productivity.

The objective is for the product to be used all around the world. With the support and innovative expertise of the partners, the company is confident of achieving this goal.

Utilising technology

Digital transformation is the use of new, fast and frequently changing digital technology to solve problems. This includes Hybrid Cloud Computing in Internet of Things.

In this project, the researchers will be using sensors on the equipment, which will allow the performance of the cranes to be optimised.

This includes investigating ways to improve the energy management and storage capabilities of the device.

Industry 4.0 uses transformative technologies to connect the physical world with the digital world.

It is also characterised by the increased use of robotics, automation and data analytics, making it an exciting time to be involved in constructions and manufacturing.

By embracing digitalisation and integrating advanced manufacturing technologies such as smart robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), the company will create and export new flexible load-management solutions that can be seamlessly integrated and applied across multiple sectors.

Together with the University, they will change industries because they see the benefits that their manufacturing research will create, not just for Australia but also globally.

Read more:

Robotics and IoT, key in optimising manufacturing's crane operations - OpenGov Asia

One University of Louisville study has found that robots can help autistic children with their emotions and behavior in the classroom. A new study aims to take that research several steps further.

Three UofL faculty Dan Popa, Karla Welch and Greg Barnes along with a researcher from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, have received a four year, $1.2 million award from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to study robots impact on autistic kids. UofL is one of a handful of institutions to receive a joint NSF/NIH grant through a program called Smart and Connected Health.

Popa said the grant will allow his Next Generation robotics team and the UofL Autism Center to do three things:

Popa said the goal is to come up with a robot thats a diagnostic tool as well as a friend to kids with autism beginning at age six. Currently, Popa said, there is no objective, quantitative way to assess the severity of a childs autism. He thinks robotics and artificial intelligence could change that.

A robot could potentially be used in group and one-on-one therapy sessions with the child also taking their friendly, non-threatening partner home with them. The robot could continue to collect data on the childs behavior and cognition at home.

Studies show autistic kids interact with technology as well as non-autistic children by the time theyre 18 years old Popa said. If we give them a robot it could help them develop social skills comparable to the robot and, ultimately, other kids.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have too many connections between the part of the brain that controls their motor skills and the part that controls their sensory, social and emotional skills.

With the help of robot peers, we seek to understand not only how these areas influence motor actions but also how those connections influence the social skills, communication, perception of sensations and expression of emotions in people with autism, said Barnes, director of the UofL Autism Center. These advances will help us better understand how to design therapies, using technology, for people with ASD.

Check out the previous story andvideo about UofL research on robots and children with autism.

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UofL research on robots and autistic children expands - uoflnews.com

Osaro, a San Francisco startup developing AI-based solutions for industrial robots, today announced that its closed a $16 million series B funding round led by King River Capital (KRC), with participation from Alpha Intelligence Capital, Founders Fund, Pegasus Tech Ventures, GiTV Fund, and existing and strategic investors. It brings the startups total raised to $29.3 million coming after a $10 million series A in April 2017, which cofounder and CEO Derik Pridmore said will bolster Osaros hiring, international deployment, and R&D efforts.

Alongside the funding round, Osaro revealed that Applied Digital Access, Mahi Networks, and Calix veteran Kevin Pope has joined as VP of engineering. Chiefly, hell support the company in scaling its solutions worldwide.

A key element of our competitive advantage is Osaros deep learning algorithms, said Pridmore, an MIT computer science and electrical engineering graduate who cofounded Osaro in 2015 with a team hailing from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and the University of Massachusetts. These algorithms generalize picking tasks with minimal training data and no SKU registration for quick, scalable solutions. In addition, as a software company, we support a wide array of commodity hardware and robotic arms which lets our customers select options that best fit their needs.

Osaro works directly with partners to procure the machines with which it integrates its software, including those bound for grocery distribution centers, food packaging plants, and ecommerce fulfillment centers. Its machine learning algorithms which Osaro trains using reinforcement learning, a technique that employs rewards to drive software policies toward goals recognize, sort, kit, pack, and assemble objects even in the face of imprecise container placement, jumbled items, and variable lighting. Moreover, they tap a cloud-based and GPU-accelerated backend to self-improve, so that they become more robust over time.

Osaros flagship product, Pick, automates stationary picking stations in distribution centers. But the company intends to tackle more dynamic fulfillment scenarios in the future as it expands into industries like electronics, apparel, groceries, and pharmaceutical.

[Our] approach of developing hardware-agnostic AI software for industrial robotics allows us to work in close collaboration with our customers, integrating Osaro products for their specific use cases, with a focus on scalability and robustness, providing our customers with a long-term competitive advantage, said Pope. Our focus in the next year will be to increase our deployments in North America, Australia, Korea, China, Japan, and Germany.

King River Capital partner Megan Guy, who plans to join Osaros board of directors, added, We are very excited to be leading this funding round. It is rare and exciting to work with a team that has both world class deep learning talent and a highly commercial orientation. Osaros perception and control software enables full automation of some of the most difficult vision, picking, and manufacturing problems, and its ability to integrate with a wide range of robotics hardware means that it can be deployed not only in greenfield environments but also as a retrofit solution to transform industrial automation.

Investment in warehouse and logistics automation is anticipated to climb from $8.3 billion in 2018 to $30.8 billion by 2022, according to Tractica. Amazon acquired robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million in March 2012, and last November, DHL announced it would invest $300 million to modernize its warehouses in North America with internet of things sensors and robots. Separately, startups like Attobocits and CommonSense Robotics have raised tens of millions of dollars for compact automated fulfillment centers that can slot into tight spaces like underground garages.

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Osaro raises $16 million to make warehouse robots smarter with AI - VentureBeat

Theres a new farmer in the cannabis industry and its faster, smarter and sleeker, thanks to artificial intelligence.

From small-scale home systems that take the guesswork out of growing for beginners to commercial operations and predictive software, the technology has the ability to change how the world grows, sees and uses cannabis, from hemp and CBD to marijuana, along with the other crops were more accustomed to like cucumbers and tomatoes. But we arent jumping into the future just yet.

Right now, its kind of an obscure topic, said Nathaniel Morris, founder of William Bond Ai in Ontario, which uses AI to train machines to grow cannabis. Its not going to be obscure for long. [Cannabis] is going to be one of the first industries to be disrupted.

Morris said AI imaging can find impurities in the plants, like mold, or a male plant that can impact the entire crop, better than the human eye, once trained to do so by an expert. The technology isnt really new but adapting it to fit the needs of cannabis growers is.

Morris uses the common agricultural robots from FarmBot, programming the devices to work specifically for cannabis. The technology is expensive, and often doesnt make sense for many farmers growing like tomatoes or cucumbers. But with cannabis, which is legal and booming in Canada, the price point is just right, Morris told NJ Cannabis Insider.

Here in New Jersey, AI is playing little role in agriculture and robotics are scare, too, said Peter Furey, the executive director of the state Farm Bureau.

Thats due largely to prohibitive pricing and a steady supply of labor, said A.J. Both, an extension specialist in controlled-environment engineering with Rutgers Universitys New Jerseys Agricultural Experimental Station.

Eventually, it will come here, too, Both said. Its a matter of time.

For now, theres some robotics in greenhouses, many of them have sophisticated control systems, allowing farmers to use their smartphones to get updates or updates throughout the day, he said.

Thats a similar method employed by Seedo, an Israeli-based company, sells hydroponic, automated grow boxes.

Customers can grow vegetables, herbs and cannabis, with medical cannabis coming in as the most popular, a spokesperson for the company said. Thats because growing at home gives customers more control over additives like pesticides and lowers costs.

To make that happen, theres huge appeal in the AI component Seedo is more than just a fancy, protective box with lights. The device monitors the plant and takes pictures, allowing it to identify changes in real time. It collects information on and controls temperature, humidity, water, lighting and nutrients.

And its all managed from a mobile app, which notifies the grower. Seedo sees this as the optimal way to grow. Its only getting better as the company gleans data from its machines.

The developments in AI helped Seedo become what it is now a leader in accurate agriculture, the spokesperson said. "The AI developments help Seedo truly optimize the entire grow process by processing data from our camera [and] sensors and thereby make the necessary changes to grow parameters.

But AI isnt just important in the growing process: Pot Bot is an app that makes personalized cannabis recommendations based on someones needs. It reads through medical journals and studies on cannabinoids, then pairs symptoms such as insomnia, asthma and cancer with branded marijuana strains to find type of weed is best suited to each.

And that could help build up the lack of research weve had so far on cannabis. Morris said studying cannabis in a lab hasnt proved the best fit. Its more effective, he said, to see how the full spectrum of cannabinoids impact users in their lives. Such a feat takes a lot of data, but AI could be the tool we need.

Artificial intelligence is the first time weve had a tool worthy of the challenge of studying cannabis, he said.

AI and robotics will likely make their way to Jersey farms as they become more affordable. But with that leap will come the concerns that plague AI: what will people do for jobs?

At some point, we need to come to a realization that as a society if we focus on robots, we make sure that doesnt displace paying jobs for people," Both said. "Its a challenging point, and something that we will have to face.

This story first appeared in NJ Cannabis Insider.

NJ Cannabis Insider is produced by NJ Advance Media, which also provides content for NJ.com, The Star-Ledger and other affiliated papers. Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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These robots are learning to grow weed. Yes, theyre pot bots.' - lehighvalleylive.com

Although automation of aircraft maintenance is expected to be a gradual, limited process--aircraft production should see much faster and further-reaching gains.

Consultancy Roland Berger predicts that aerostructures production will move from 35% to around 65% automation within 10 years, a view that has been bolstered by lastweeks opening of Airbusnewest assembly line in Hamburg.

With a special focus on manufacturing longer sections for the A321LR, the new facility features 20 robots, a new logistics concept, automated positioning by laser measurement as well as a digital data acquisition system.

For initial section assembly, eight robots drill and counter-sink 1,100-2,400 holes per longitudinal joint. In the next production step, 12 seven-axes robots join the centerand aft fuselage sections with the tail, drilling, counter-sinking, sealing and inserting 3,000 rivets per orbital joint.

Increasing the level of automation and robotics enables faster, more efficient manufacturing while keeping our prime focus on quality, said Michael Schoellhorn, Airbuss chief operating officer.

Perhaps in a nod to the production problems at Hamburg that have caused delays to A321neo deliveries, Schoellhorn added: We now need to deliver in line with our commitments made to customers while ensuring overall competitiveness.

As Airbus notes, the digitalization that accompanies robotic automation is also an important step, and it will be interesting to see how much the former can improve supply chain and logistics processes going forward.

For the robots themselves, further advances beyond welding, drilling and fastening might prove incrementally tougher to achieve, with Roland Berger estimating that one-third of production work will remain with touch labor the foreseeable future.

The remaining 35% is very difficult to automate unless you completely revolutionize the production system which is something that would take decades, Roland Berger partner Holger Lipowsky has told Aviation Week.

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Airbus Unleashes The Robots In Hamburg - MRO Network

07 Oct 2019 - 8:16

Young adults during an interactive session of Fun Robotics at Qatar National Library.

A group of young adults enjoyed an interactive session of Fun Robotics at Qatar National Library on Saturday. A hands-on introduction to robotics, the Internet of Things, and coding let enthusiastic participants do robotic coding with the aid of drag-and-drop functionality. After this brief introduction, the group solved a daily life issue using robotics.

The program is designed to enable young students to eventually address other real-time problems using the same strategy, applying collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and complex problem-solving.

A participant at the workshop, Sanad Joudeh, a robotics enthusiast who regularly attends competitions in Qatar and the region, said: This event is brilliant. It introduces new concepts in robotics and provides incredible learning materials to participants. The world of robotics is advancing very quickly, so it is always valuable to learn something new about this field. I have been practicing coding and robotics for the last two years, and Im thankful to have been part of a major robotics competition that brought the first cup to Jordan.

Sessions continue every Saturday throughout October. As the course progresses, the level of problems identified and the complexity of programming used to solve them will increase. A mini-challenge day will be held in November, when participants will exhibit their creations.

Zakariya Muhamed, who also took part, said: I am happy that the Library is organizing informative events for youth, and especially for those with an interest in computer science and information technology. Robotics teaches students how to solve complex problems and work together with other students. The lecture today helped me understand the different types of robot sensors and how they function.

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Youth have fun with robotics, coding at Qatar National Library - The Peninsula Qatar

A New Zealand designed and built robotic system is set to transform dairy-herd testing in this country.

LIC machine testing milk samples. Photo: Supplied / LIC

Herd improvement co-operative, LIC, collects about 11 million milk samples from farms every year and until now the samples have been manually tested.

The tests, carried out four times a year on farms help farmers judge the performance of each cow and also test the disease status of each animal.

LIC has been doing the work for the last 50 years.

This has involved a team of about 70 people who manually weighed each sample of milk and then took a small sub-sample which was then analysed in the lab.

It has now installed machines to automate the weighing and sampling process at its Hamilton and Christchurch laboratories.

The custom designed machines have been developed over the last three years by LIC staff and Intellitech Automation.

Chief executive Wayne McNee said LIC has been trying to automate the process for many years.

He said robotic testing is both quicker and more accurate and that the machines do not spill or contaminate samples.

Mr McNee said five robotic machines will be working, while cows are being milked during the season running from July through to April.

He said the main benefit for farmers is a more efficient operation.

LIC has invested $3.2m in developing the machines and it expects to pay the cost off within two years with the savings made.

Mr McNee said seasonal staff will not now be required to do the testing.

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Robotics to transform dairy herd testing - RNZ