Monthly Archives: April 2021

Shelf-scanning robot Tally will be donning a new apron soon. Simbe, the company that makes the robot, announced its first deployment with Save Mart, the largest family owned grocery chain in California, which acquired 132 Albertsons stores in 2006 + has continued growing.

Tally robots will be rolling out to 7 stores across all three Save Mart banners in the Bay Area to bring greater visibility to inventory, streamline operations for store teams and improve the customer experience.

This is an important milestone for a sector that's been fixated on wider adoption and sees a real opportunity in the shadow of COVID-19, despite notable setbacks and some in the industry questioning the value of retail robotics late last year. In November 2020, Walmart killed a large contract with Simbe competitor Bossa Nova, which also makes a robot for inventory auditing and data-driven inventory insights.

"The pandemic has further illuminated the critical need for strong on-shelf inventory data, and no retail solution provides this data with greater accuracy and fidelity than Tally," said Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-Founder of Simbe Robotics. "Retailers are facing an ever-evolving landscape, and Tally provides a cost-effective solution that enables them to stay ahead of the curve, with improved operations and efficiency. Through our partnership together, The Save Mart Companies will build a more resilient supply chain and ensure the best possible experience for customers and store teams across all three of the company's banners."

Tally robots autonomously audit store shelves to ensure products are in stock and in the correct location on the sales floor. The real-time data and inventory insights collected by Tally help retailers reduce out-of-stocks by up to 30% and enable store teams to focus on servicing customers. As part of the pilot program, The Save Mart Companies will deploy Tally in three Save Mart stores in the Modesto area; two Lucky California stores in Dublin and San Ramon; and two FoodMaxx locations in Modesto and Tracy.

The data that these robots collect while roving aisles at retail locations, combined with powerful analysis, is meant to increase efficiency by solving for the $1.75 trillion "ghost economy," defined by out of stocks, inaccurate price execution, and lack of product location optimization industry-wide. With up-to-date inventory information, managers using robots like Simbe's flagship Tally robot can enact faster operational decisions at the store level and more nimble inventory management. The problem of poor stock management is so pervasive thatinventory mishaps account for more lost revenue than theft.

A study conducted last year by a leading management consulting firm found that Tally has reduced out-of-stocks by 20%, ensuring customers find the items they're looking for and freeing up time for store employees to prioritize other tasks like assisting customers.

But effective technology doesn't always find its market, which is why partnerships are key right now and why pilots like the one with Save Mart is key to build necessary momentum as retailers embrace automation anew.

"Deepening our commitment to innovation with this pilot program is a reflection of The Save Mart Companies promise to our customers to ensure the best in-store experiences," said Hal Levitt, SVP of retail operations at The Save Mart Companies. "We're pleased to have a strong technology partner in Simbe to support us in testing a new, effective inventory management solution in our stores and allowing us to provide better product availability."

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Retail robots coming to these grocery stores - ZDNet

After a year without a new game challenge, any announcements from FIRST Robotics -- the international youth robotics organization -- or much hope, a homegrown tournament led by other area coaches came together and was recently held at the Sanford Center.

The first-ever Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference invitational event was put together for the robotics teams of the region who otherwise would have gone without a competition season. It also seemed to be one of the first in-person robotics tournaments in the country since COVID hit. Typically, the event is called the championship event and takes place in October, but was canceled due to the pandemic. The Bemidji tournament was unsanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League or FIRST Robotics.

The RoboJacks robot competes on Saturday, April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

According to the RoboJacks website, To our knowledge, this is only the second competition in the world and the first in the United States since the pandemic shut down so many things. As such, the team is excited to be part of this unique opportunity.

The tournament held, Saturday, April 17, featured 24 teams from around the area -- with some familiar faces from around the area including two teams from Cass Lake-Bena, a team from Kelliher and one from Nevis. The RoboJacks ended the competition in the quarter-final round, after four rounds of qualifying matches. The Backwoods Bots from Bigfork, Minn. won the overall competition.

Prior to this, the Pioneer caught up with the RoboJacks in the industrial technology room at BHS, as they tinkered with their robot.

On Thursday, April 15, the build team was hard at work making modifications to their robot at Bemidji High School.

Another corner of the room held programmers, gathered around a computer. In the other wing, the business team discussed fundraising strategies.

The RoboJacks prepare their robot for the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The RoboJacks are down some members of the team this year, as COVID-19 put a stop to regular competition. This led some regular members to opt not to return for the season, and made it difficult for the team to recruit freshmen members.

The team this year has 17 members -- which are broken down into subteams -- programming, build and business. Some of the larger subteams were further split into smaller groups for contact tracing purposes, so if someone in the group were to get sick, the whole team wouldnt be down for the count.

Typically, volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. For example, an engineer might help out the build team, a marketing professional might guide the business team, but these relationships were harder to cultivate during the pandemic.

If there's one thing I wish we had more of, its more mentors, RoboJacks Coach Kirk Anderson said. He added that if any professionals in the area would like to help out as mentors for the robotics team in the future, to get in touch via the RoboJacks website.

We are quite excited about the possibility of having any type of competition this year, Anderson said, ahead of the competition. He is new to the head coach position this year, taking over for former robotics coach Chris Conway.

Build team member Abigail Termont said the event was always a possibility, so the team had been preparing, but that they initially had low expectations.

As initial information was going out, it was, we're planning for this, but don't get your hopes up too far. So (the plan has) kind of always been there and it's only gotten more detailed, she said. We're gonna try to make sure we do this and to keep it as safe as possible.

RoboJacks coach Kirk Anderson looks on as students work on their robot on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

Abigail Johnson, business team lead, said the groups were meeting in some capacity while the school was in distance learning or hybrid, planning for the possibility of competing.

We were doing mostly Google Meets (meetings), just trying to come up with a plan. I know build team members were like measuring parts at home. And the business team mostly worked on outreach, trying to figure out where sponsors were with this year, Johnson said.

In a typical year, the FIRST Robotics would release a game or challenge early in the year, giving teams time to build a robot to compete for the upcoming competition season. As there was no official season this year, there was no new challenge. This meant teams were competing with their 2019-2020 robots, giving them much more time than usual to work the kinks out.

Termont said the group was making some modifications to the way the robot shoots out foam balls and the robots extendable hanging arm.

The lack of in-person events also made fundraising for the team more difficult.

When (the conference championship) is local, it's also a good chance for local businesses and organizations to check out. Since they are the ones who are spending money on the team it's a good chance to see in person what's going on with it, Anderson said.

The local competition event was the culmination of a labor of love -- local teams even built the game pieces used on the field.

The RoboJacks control their robot on April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The main movers and shakers of getting the event going have been Jesse Frost and Matt Wendlund from Cass Lake-Bena High School, Anderson said ahead of the event. There have been several other area coaches that have also put hours of work into making this happen.

Frost currently serves as the President of the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference.

This years game was called Infinite Recharge and had a Star Wars theme. Robots in alliances could earn points by throwing balls into various goals and hanging off of a balancing rail.

If youve never been to a robotics competition before, expect the following: colorful lights, festive team outfits, a glowing game field, students wheeling around large robots and flying balls.

This homegrown competition was no different. Though there were a few technical snags and snafus, overall the event carried on smoothly.

On April 17, the Sanford Center was once again filled with lights, student innovation, and almost certainly smiles. The face masks did little to muffle the long-held cheers.

Bemidji senior Dylan Thomas, head programmer for the RoboJacks, works on their robot after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

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Bemidji area robotics teams compete for the first time in a year - Bemidji Pioneer

Asia-Pacificcontinues to dominate the global industrial robotics market, and revenues are estimated to top $25.08 billion by 2024, with China, Japan and South Korea driving progress. The European region is the second most important, propelled by the automotive industry and Germanythe fifth-largest country globally for industrial robotics. North America's ongoing trend of production automation and keeping all manufacturing operations in-house puts it in the third position, with forecasted revenues of $6.19 billion by 2024.

For further information on this analysis, Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecast,please visit: http://frost.ly/5m6

"The global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a strong use case for industrial robots, which helped assure business continuity," said Nandini Natarajan, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "While 2020 witnessed reduced investments in robotics, the demand for industrial robots will rise sharply from 2021 on. The introduction of low-cost robots and innovative business models such as Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) are expected to drive demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs)."

Natarajan added: "Collaborative robots (cobots) are experiencing rapid market growth thanks to their utility, ease of installation, and consistently decreasing price, making them an affordable and viable solution for a wide range of applications. It will be the fastest-growing segment by 2024, recording a CAGR of 32.8% (2019-2024) and reaching $1.78 million in global revenues. Advances in 5G and edge computing will be instrumental in equipping cobots with improved flexibility and easier implementation."

For further opportunities, market participants should explore these strategic recommendations:

Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecastis part of Frost & Sullivan's global Industrial Automation https://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/information-communications-technologies/Growth Partnership Service program.

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Cobots Lead the Future of the Global Industrial Robotics Market, Finds Frost & Sullivan - PRNewswire

Around the world, grading, sorting, and assembling of fresh fruits and vegetables is done predominantly manually. It would save companies a lot of time and costs if these time-consuming, dull, and repetitive tasks were carried out by robots, says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team. And it would be even more efficient if one robot could perform multiple tasks.

Teachable robotsWageningen Agro Food Robotics began in 2019, the project, Autonomous Robots for Agrifood Processes. One of the aims of this four-year venture is the development of intelligent robots that can be taught to perform multiple tasks, from picking and sorting different types of fruits and vegetables to separating samples of the same type, based on size, shape, and other characteristics. Outsourcing tasks to such robots will allow fruit and vegetable processors to improve their cost/profit balance.

Human-activity recognitionThe Wageningen robots are equipped with cameras that capture the motions of a human expert performing picking and sorting tasks. Human-activity recognition includes data on the person, the scene and the object handled, Chauhan explains. Inbuilt computer vision and deep learning functionalities enable the robots to capture this information and learn new tasks from human demonstrations. Successful experiments have been carried out for different use cases, including picking and sorting mandarins of variable sizes, separating ripe from unripe bananas, sorting intact and damaged cucumbers, and separating out different types from a table of mixed fruits.

Global firstThe first demo application will be ready in Summer 2021, a global first in agri-food applications. An innovation like this requires the technical expertise of robotics and machine learning technologies, as well as extensive knowledge of product physiology and food processing. Here in Wageningen, these disciplines work closely together, Chauhan explains.

The next step will be to test the robots in a factory or a pilot plant and to make them even smarter, with more advanced sensors for sweetness, juiciness, and firmness of fruits and vegetables. Chauhan is already thinking beyond this aim: If people could see robots as co-workers, apprentices even, who knows how the future might look.

"A robot processing oranges could, for example, move easily on to processing strawberries, sorting them by sweetness and marking the sweeter ones with a premium price. Consumer confidence would benefit from the assurance that the products are never touched by human hands a clear USP in these pandemic times," says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team.

For more information:Wageningen University & Researchwww.wur.nl

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Intelligent robots increase the benefit from fresh produce - hortidaily.com - hortidaily.com

SoftBank Robotics, SB Logistics Corp. and Berkshire Grey are partnering to offer an advanced third-party logistics service for e-commerce fulfillment. Berkshire Greys robotic pick and pack systems will enable SB Logistics to process customer orders by robotically handling thousands of SKUS in different product categories.

Berkshire Greys RPP systems are capable of handling significantly higher volumes of SKUs than other robotic providers can handle, while offering levels of careful handling and precise placement that is unmatched in the industry. We challenged Berkshire Grey to increase their capabilities even further to best meet the very high expectations of customers in our target markets. Berkshire Grey met that challenge and developed advanced functionality to enable the most innovative solutions in warehouse robotics, says Fumihide Tomizawa, President and CEO, SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics. With Berkshire Greys RPP systems, we will be able to directly improve the productivity, quality and reliability of our fulfillment services.

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SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics Partner with Berkshire Grey to Develop New E-Commerce Fulfillment Operations - Supply and Demand Chain Executive