Category Archives: Robotics

Robotics is quickly infiltrating every aspect our lives, including at home.Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is probably the oldest and most well-known user of robots. These robots and co-bots (bots that work alongside humans) work to efficiently test and assemble products, like cars and industrial equipment. Its estimated that there are more than three million industrial robots in use right now.

Shipping, handling and quality control robots are becoming a must-have for most retailers and logistics companies. Because we now expectour packages arriving at blazing speeds, logistics companies employ robots inwarehouses, and even on the road, to help maximize time efficiency. Right now, there are robots taking your items off the shelves, transporting them across the warehouse floor and packaging them. Additionally, a rise in last-mile robots (robots that will autonomously deliver your package to your door) ensure that youll have a face-to-metal-face encounter with a logistics bot in the near future.

Its not science fiction anymore. Robots can be seen all over our homes, helping with chores, reminding us of our schedules and even entertaining our kids. The most well-known example of home robots is the autonomous vacuum cleanerRoomba. Additionally, robots have now evolved to do everything from autonomously mowing grass to cleaning pools.

Is there anything more science fiction-like than autonomous vehicles? These self-driving cars are no longer just imagination. A combination of data science and robotics, self-driving vehicles are taking the world by storm. Automakers, like Tesla, Ford, Waymo, Volkswagen and BMW are all working on the next wave of travel that will let us sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Rideshare companies Uber and Lyft are also developing autonomous rideshare vehicles that dont require humans to operate the vehicle.

Robots have made enormous strides in the healthcare industry. These mechanical marvels have use in just about every aspect of healthcare, from robot-assisted surgeries to bots that help humans recover from injury in physical therapy. Examples of robots at work in healthcare areToyotas healthcare assistants, which help people regain the ability to walk, and TUG, a robot designed to autonomously stroll throughout a hospital and deliver everything from medicines to clean linens.

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What Is Robotics? Types Of Robots | Built In

RISE Robotics, a leader in high-performance and cost-effective electric linear actuation solutions, raised $3 million in additional funding. The funding round was led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies.

Linear actuators create the push-and-pull movements in the mechanisms of heavy machinery which are essential for lifting and loading materials across many industries, including: construction, agriculture, and waste management. Without linear actuators excavators couldnt dig, garbage trucks couldnt crush, and forklifts couldnt lift.

The majority of heavy machines today rely on hydraulic systems, powered by diesel, to enable motion. It is the most essential, but also the most wasteful component in the overall motion system, producing an estimated 55 million tons of CO2 annually in the US alone according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As OEMs are forced to adapt their products to comply with imminent emissions regulations, the industry has struggled with the slow pace of innovation and high cost of using electricity as a power source for heavy machinery.

RISE Robotics partners with heavy machinery manufacturers to implement a fully-electric movement platform as a replacement for hydraulic systems. Built around a unique electrically-powered mechanical linear actuator, the RISE platform has all the abilities and power of hydraulics, but vastly improved efficiency and control.

Hybrid and electric retrofits to existing hydraulic systems are more expensive than the existing diesel systems and are much harder to control. Hydraulics are slowing and literally weighing down the adoption of electrically powered heavy machines. The RISE platform offers a completely new mechanical motion technology that makes electric-powered motor-to-movement solutions possible. Its a game changer for any manufacturer trying to electrify its heavy machinery.

Arron Acosta, CEO and Co-founder of RISE Robotics

The RISE Cylinder is the core of the platform; the cylindrical package delivers hydraulic performance in a robust linear actuator design that can perform under extreme circumstances for extended maintenance-free service.

Driven by modern brushless motors and lubricated for life, the cylinder eliminates fluids, doubles runtime, halves fuel consumption, and charges batteries with hybrid regeneration.

The RISE platform is a sealed electrically powered and digitally controlled system of steel cables and pulleys. This cable-driven actuation system offers levels of control not possible with traditional hydraulics, and far greater speed than a screw-based linear actuator.

The additional funding will support RISE Robotics work with a leading forklift manufacturer to accelerate the electrification of its machinery, increasing the performance of the manufacturers existing electric forklifts and enabling the electrification of its larger scale machinery, which is currently diesel-fueled.

Reed Sturtevant, a General Partner of The Engine, and angel investor Walter A. Winshall will join RISE Robotics Board of Directors.

It takes a lot to make a machine move. Displacing hydraulics is just the first application of RISE Robotics IP for improving motion and electrifying heavy machinery. Their research, approach and systems will be crucial in evolving how other key mechanical components work, but most importantly these innovations to the fundamentals of how machinery moves will lead the industry toward not just compliance with emissions standards but helping heavy machinery become an oil-free, zero emissions industry in the future.

Reed Sturtevant

RISE Robotics' co-founders Arron Acosta and Blake Sessions met while at MIT and formed the company with Toomas Sepp and Kyle DellAquila. The company was part of the Techstars accelerator and has received angel funding from notable Boston investors and advisors including John P. Strauss, William J. Warner, and Walter A. Winshall. RISE Robotics has two commercial agreements, one with a major manufacturer of lifting machinery, and another with the US Air Force.

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RISE Robotics raises $3M in additional funding; electric linear actuation systems - Green Car Congress

Disinfectant and other use cases will also propel the small drone delivery market in the US to reach $414 million by 2021, and $10.4 billion by 2030, according to ABI Research.

The ability of mobile robotics to successfully disinfect, monitor, surveil, and handle and deliver materials will propel the market to $23 billion by 2021, according to ABI Research. "Crises shift perceptions on what is possible regarding investment and transformative action on the part of both private and government actors," said Rian Whitton, a senior analyst, in a statement. "By the time the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, robots will be mainstreamed across a range of applications and markets."

The coronavirus outbreak has been a good opportunity for companies to display robots for public applications, ABI Research said. One of the more popular examples has been the deployment of mobile unmanned platforms with ultraviolet (UV) light to disinfect facilities, the firm said. Danish company UVD Robots is reaping the benefits of this opportunity and is scaling up deployments of robots to disinfect hospitals, ABI Research said.

SEE: The finance robots are coming: 73% of organizations plan to replace humans with machines this year (TechRepublic)

Additionally, US-based Germ Falcon is offering a similar UV disinfection solution for aircraft, while Chinese TMiRob is deploying disinfection robots in Wuhan, according to the firm. "Automating disinfection is a key part of maintaining health and safety and could be one of the major bright spots in the response to COVID-19," Whitton said.

Drones have also been deployed to enforce curfews and surveil areas for security purposes, according to ABI Research. This represents a big opportunity for aerospace and drone companies to increase sales to government agencies, the firm said. ABI Research expects the small drone delivery market in the US to reach $414 million by 2021, and $10.4 billion by 2030.

In the short term, to enforce quarantine mandates, governments will need to increase their security apparatuses, as well as the productivity of their medical agencies, according to ABI Research. Robots will be key to achieving that through disinfection, monitoring, and surveillance, the firm said.

Furthermore, the shutting down of households and even ships represents a chance for robot delivery companies for both land and air to display their worth, the firm noted. The drone delivery market could take its experience with transporting supplies in the developing world and scale up operations in the most affected countries.

In the long-term, COVID-19 is leading to a significant reassessment of the global manufacturing supply chain, the firm believes. America's dependence on Chinese imports for basic equipment and medicines is becoming a contentious issue, and government representatives are already interpreting the crisis as a chance to revitalize the campaign to re-shore more manufacturing capacity to the domestic market, ABI Research said.

"If this translates into more significant measures by governments to diversify or re-shore the manufacturing of key goods, this could bode very well for the robotics industry, as such changes would require big increases in CAPEX and productivity improvements within developed countries," the firm stated.

COVID-19 represents a disaster for robotics vendors building solutions for developed markets in manufacturing, industry, and the supply chain, ABI Research said. But for vendors targeting markets closer to government, such as health, security, and defense, it represents a big opportunity, the firm said.

"Industrial players [should] develop customized solutions for non-manufacturing use cases or look to build comprehensive solutions for enabling a scale-up in medical supply manufacturing," Whitton recommended. "For mobile robotics vendors and software companies targeting more nascent markets, this represents a big chance to highlight the importance of robotics for dealing with national emergencies, as well as mitigating the economic shock."

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Mobile robotics market expected to soar to $23 billion in 2021 - TechRepublic

SOMERVILLE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RISE Robotics, a leader in high-performance and cost effective electric linear actuation solutions, today announced it has raised $3 million in additional funding. The funding round was led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies that are solving the worlds most urgent problems, such as climate change, through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership.

RISE Robotics technology disrupts how linear actuators are engineered and makes the shift from diesel to electric systems possible, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible. Linear actuators create the push-and-pull movements in the mechanisms of heavy machinery which are essential for lifting and loading materials across many industries, including: construction, agriculture, and waste management. Without linear actuators excavators couldnt dig, garbage trucks couldnt crush, and forklifts couldnt lift.

The majority of heavy machines today rely on hydraulic systems, powered by diesel, to enable motion. It is the most essential, but also the most wasteful component in the overall motion system, producing an estimated 55 million tons of CO2 annually in the U.S. alone according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As OEMs are forced to adapt their products to comply with imminent emissions regulations, the industry has struggled with the slow pace of innovation and high cost of using electricity as a power source for heavy machinery.

Hybrid and electric retrofits to existing hydraulic systems are more expensive than the existing diesel systems and are much harder to control. Hydraulics are slowing and literally weighing down the adoption of electrically powered heavy machines, said Arron Acosta, CEO and Co-founder of RISE Robotics. The RISE platform offers a completely new mechanical motion technology that makes electric-powered motor-to-movement solutions possible. Its a game changer for any manufacturer trying to electrify its heavy machinery.

The additional funding will support RISE Robotics work with a leading forklift manufacturer to accelerate the electrification of its machinery, increasing the performance of the manufacturers existing electric forklifts and enabling the electrification of its larger scale machinery, which is currently diesel-fueled.

Reed Sturtevant, a General Partner of The Engine, and angel investor Walter A. Winshall will join RISE Robotics Board of Directors.

It takes a lot to make a machine move. Displacing hydraulics is just the first application of RISE Robotics IP for improving motion and electrifying heavy machinery. Their research, approach and systems will be crucial in evolving how other key mechanical components work, but most importantly these innovations to the fundamentals of how machinery moves will lead the industry toward not just compliance with emissions standards but helping heavy machinery become an oil-free, zero emissions industry in the future, said Sturtevant.

RISE Robotics' co-founders Arron Acosta and Blake Sessions met while at MIT and formed the company with Toomas Sepp and Kyle DellAquila. The company was part of the Techstars accelerator and has received angel funding from notable Boston investors and advisors including John P. Strauss, William J. Warner, and Walter A. Winshall. RISE Robotics has two commercial agreements, one with a major manufacturer of lifting machinery, and another with the U.S. Air Force.

ABOUT RISE ROBOTICS

RISE Robotics is the leader in high-performance and cost effective electric linear actuation solutions. RISE helps designers embrace high-efficiency, fuel saving actuation solutions that compete with hydraulic cylinders. Designed for medium and heavy duty applications, the RISE Cylinder provides fuel and emissions reductions, improves productivity and extends machine life. Find RISE online: https://www.riserobotics.com/

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RISE Robotics Raises $3 Million in Additional Funding to Drive Forward the Electrification and Sustainability of Heavy Machinery - Business Wire

The recycling industry was already struggling before the pandemic. Now, an increasing number of cities are suspending recycling services, partly out of fear that workers might contract the coronavirus from one another while sorting through used water bottles, food containers and boxes.

One solution: Let robots do the job.

Since the coronavirus took hold in the United States last month, AMP Robotics has seen a significant increase in orders for its robots that use artificial intelligence to sift through recycled material, weeding out trash.

Some facilities that were looking at getting one or two robots are now saying, We need quite a bit more, said the Colorado companys chief executive, Matanya Horowitz. Its all moving quite fast.

Before the pandemic, automation had been gradually replacing human work in a range of jobs, from call centers to warehouses and grocery stores, as companies looked to cut labor costs and improve profit.

But labor and robotics experts say social-distancing directives, which are likely to continue in some form after the crisis subsides, could prompt more industries to accelerate their use of automation. And long-simmering worries about job losses or a broad unease about having machines control vital aspects of daily life could dissipate as society sees the benefits of restructuring workplaces in ways that minimize close human contact.

Pre-pandemic, people might have thought we were automating too much, said Richard Pak, a professor at Clemson University who researches the psychological factors around automation. This event is going to push people to think what more should be automated.

The grocery industry is leaning more on automation to free up employees to deal with the crush of demand during the pandemic.

Brain Corp, a San Diego company that makes software used in automated floor cleaners, said retailers were using the cleaners 13 percent more than they were just two months ago. The autonomous floor care robots are doing about 8,000 hours of daily work that otherwise would have been done by an essential worker, the company said.

At supermarkets like Giant Eagle, robots are freeing up employees who previously spent time taking inventory to focus on disinfecting and sanitizing surfaces and processing deliveries to keep shelves stocked.

Retailers insist the robots are augmenting the work of employees, not replacing them. But as the panic buying ebbs and sales decline in the recession that is expected to follow, companies that reassigned workers during the crisis may no longer have a need for them.

The role of a cashier is also changing. For many years, retailers have provided self-checkout kiosks. But those machines often require intervention by workers to help shoppers navigate the often fickle and frustrating technology.

The pandemic is prompting some stores to adopt even more aggressive contactless options. From farm stands to butchers, merchants are asking customers whenever possible to use mobile payment services like PayPal or Venmo. Banking regulators in Europe last week increased the amount of money that shoppers can pay through their mobile devices, while reducing some authentication requirements.

While fully automated stores, such as Amazon Go, might have seemed like a technological curiosity a few months ago, they are likely to become a more viable option for retailers.

No one would probably have thought of a cashiers job as being dangerous until now, Mr. Pak said.

Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies labor markets, said that with companies hurting for cash, the pressure to replace humans with machines becomes even more intense.

People become more expensive as companies revenues decline, he said.

A new wave of automation could also mean that when companies start hiring again, they do so in smaller numbers.

This may be one of those situations when automation does substantially depress rehiring, Mr. Muro said. You may see fewer workers when the recovery does come.

Even some conversations are being automated away. With closed offices keeping many of its workers away, PayPal has turned to chatbots, using them for a record 65 percent of message-based customer inquiries in recent weeks.

PayPal is also using automated translation services so its English-speaking representatives can help customers who dont speak English.

The resources we are able to deploy through A.I. are allowing us to be more flexible with our staff and prioritize their safety and well-being, PayPal said in a statement.

YouTube said in a blog post that with fewer people in its offices around the world, machines are doing more content moderation.

We will temporarily start relying more on technology to help with some of the work normally done by reviewers, the company said. This means automated systems will start removing some content without human review.

Recycling is one industry that may be altered permanently by the pandemic. Some workers, who earn as little as $10 an hour, have been concerned about coming to work during the crisis and some cities have been scrambling to find enough protective gear for all of their employees. Federal health officials have assured them that the risks of transmission from household refuse is low. But workers in recycling facilities often work side by side sorting material, making social distancing difficult.

At AMP Robotics, executives like Mr. Horowitz say their robots will enable recycling facilities to space out their employees, who stand at conveyor belts weeding through the used plastic and paper.

Another benefit of the bots: They cant get the virus, Mr. Horowitz said.

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Robots Welcome to Take Over, as Pandemic Accelerates Automation - The New York Times

Human beings have long worried about new machinery, computers, and robots displacing human workers and causing economic hardship, with recent one recent poll finding that 76% of Americans believe that inequality between the rich and the poor would increase if robots and computers perform most of the jobs currently being done by humans. The skyrocketing unemployment figures related to the current coronaviruspandemic arent doing much these days to reassure people about their long-term employment future, either. But the risks being highlighted by Covid-19 should actually lead us to appreciate the great potential automated workplace technology has for making our lives better, safer, and healthier.

In todays New York Times, Michael Corkery and David Gelles report on trends in automation that will end up shielding human workers from jobs and job tasks that could increase their health risks. AMP Robotics, for example, is producing trash-sorting robots that can separate recyclable material like used food containers, freeing up human workers for duties that are less likely to carry a risk of infection. Many other industries are moving ahead with automated machines and software that will reduce safety risks from work that has to be done high above the ground, in tightly enclosed spaces, or surrounded by unsafe air.

Replacing one or more workers with a new automated system also doesnt mean that those workers are going to remain (or even become) unemployed. Theres a constant churn of jobs in a large economy, and a large company that saves money on labor costs in one area may well re-deploy employees to other tasks. Any job is really a bundle of job duties, and some of those duties are more valuable, and more amenable to automation, than others. Robot tech is overwhelmingly taking over the duties that are the most repetitive, dangerous, and dirty, leaving him workers with job options that are more creative, safe, and clean.

Former NPR Planet Money host Adam Davidson writes in his recent book The Passion Economy about automation of something that we usually dont think of as a robot-ready taskbeing a good manager. He studied how the salad chain Sweetgreen trained and recruited their workforce, and found out that they were using a sophisticated software program to help nudge and guide their store managers. By dispensing encouragement and extending training and advancement opportunities more strategically, the company is able to keep their frontline employees happier, better identify prospects for advancement, and make each location more profitable. Their software didnt replace managers, but it provided a valuable tool for leveraging their existing abilities, like giving a warehouse worker a pneumatic lifting suit.

Positive stories about win-win results from the march of automation are everywhere in our economy, but they dont get publicized and repeated often enough. The workers who are told they should be the most worried about their jobs being stolen by robots are, in fact, the ones who will likely benefit the most from future jobs that will be safer and more pleasant. We just need our political leaders not to stop this progress with bad policies.

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Robots Are Here to Make Your Job Safer and Cleaner - Competitive Enterprise Institute

Kevin Patel and Nihar Chaniyara grew up among rural India's herbicide-treated crops of corn, sugarcane and mangos. Today they cultivate organics with data, vision models and GPUs.

Twenty-somethings from farming families, they developed Nindamani, an AI-driven, weed-removal robot prototype that took top honors at the recent AI at the Edge Challenge on Hackster.io.

Hackster.io is an online community of developers, engineers and hobbyists that drew more than 2,500 registrants and 80 submissions from 35 countries for the NVIDIA-supported contest.

The students from sun-kissed Gandhinagar - in India's western Gujarat Province - are among 10 winners in the competition that called on participants to use the Jetson Nano Developer Kit.

Clever engineers, Patel and Chaniyara designed multiple iterations of their mechanical weeding arm for metal fabrication. For its brains, they trained Mask R-CNN using cloud GPUs to distinguish weeds from plants. Mask R-CNN is a deep neural network that separates different objects in images or videos. Jetson Nano does inference.

Late nights of work paid off. The Nindamani project landed first place in the autonomous machines and robotics category.

'About 90 percent of my relatives are in the farming sector, so you can understand how I'm relating to this problem,' Patel said.

Their home region produces rice, cotton, potatoes, cauliflower and other staples. Yet farmers there - like elsewhere - face labor shortages and herbicide concerns.

Patel and Chaniyara surveyed more than 8,000 farmers in and around the area for input on the problems and the kind of solutions they need.

'They need this kind of AI and some kind of robotic automation technology so they can solve the labor problem and the chemical spraying,' said Patel. 'This can also help yield and profit.'

The Nindamani prototype joins a wave of so-called swarm farming efforts in robotics to harvest AI for efficiency and sustainability. For India's vast farms that feed nearly 1.4 billion people, advances in agriculture technology matter.

Swarm farming robots are designed to tackle tasks with a 'swarm' of multitasking robots - sprayer, weeder, seeder, harvester, hauler - as modular machines. They're developed to stay busier than traditional single-purpose tractors, consume less energy and cost less.

Nindamani is in its early days as a prototype, but the idea is to also lower the costs of machinery for farmers who might otherwise turn to herbicides.

'Weeding is very tedious work, and that is where the automation and the robotics come in,' said Chaniyara.

Disclaimer

Nvidia Corporation published this content on 10 April 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 10 April 2020 18:07:06 UTC

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NVIDIA : Robotics Duo Digs Into the Weeds with Winning AI Project at Hacketer.io - Marketscreener.com

Before the pandemic, automation had been gradually replacing human work in a range of jobs, but the pandemic could speed up that process as society sees the benefits of restructuring workplaces in ways that minimize close human contact. In other health and technology news: Alexa's role in the pandemic, telemedicine use, and security concerns.

The New York Times:Robots Welcome To Take Over, As Pandemic Accelerates AutomationThe recycling industry was already struggling before the pandemic. Now, an increasing number of cities are suspending recycling services, partly out of fear that workers might contract the coronavirus from one another while sorting through used water bottles, food containers and boxes. One solution: Let robots do the job. Since the coronavirus took hold in the United States last month, AMP Robotics has seen a significant increase in orders for its robots that use artificial intelligence to sift through recycled material, weeding out trash. (Corkery and Gelles, 4/10)

The New York Times:How Do I Get Help? Dying Coronavirus Patient Asked AlexaThey lived about 20 minutes apart in Michigan, but when a cousin gave the sisters Lou Ann Dagen and Penny Dagen each an Amazon Echo Show last year to make video calls, they would keep each other company for hours on end. The virtual assistant Alexa connected them during meals and discussions about what was on television. I think she just wanted to know that I was there, Penny Dagen, 74, said of her sister, who lived in a nursing home. (Vigdor, 4/9)

Mass INC Polling Group:Telemedicine Use Has Nearly Tripled Among Mass. Residents, Poll ShowsAs Massachusetts approaches a projected surge of COVID-19 cases, residents remain keenly aware of a widespread shortage of tests and protective medical gear. But as the health care system seizes under the weight of coronavirus, one sector of it is growing by leaps and bounds: telemedicine. A rapidly growing share of residents are "seeing" their doctors over the phone or computer, according to data from the latest MassINC/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts coronavirus tracking poll. (Duggan, 4/9)

WBUR:Psychiatrists Lean Hard On Teletherapy To Reach Isolated Patients In Emotional PainPsychiatrist Philip Muskin is quarantined at home in New York City because he's been feeling a little under the weather and doesn't want to expose anyone to whatever he has. But he continues to see his patients the only way he can: over the phone. (Noguchi, 4/9)

KQED:Security Concerns Prompt Berkeley Unified To Suspend Use Of Zoom For ClassesAround the country, fear over organized Zoombombing campaigns have prompted school leaders to drop Zoom, while others have switched to alternative platforms. School meeting disruptions and reports of racist and pornographic imagery being shown to young children led the FBI to warn schools about using Zoom, and law enforcement agencies have said they'll take on Zoombombers. (Rancao, 4/9)

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Will Americans Warm Up To Robots In Place Of Workers Amid Threat Of Being Exposed To Virus? - Kaiser Health News

Neato Robotics sent me the Botvac D7 robot vacuum and I really enjoy it. Ive never had a robot vacuum before so I cant compare it to other products, but if youve specifically looked at the D7 before, I recommend it.

This is Neatos top-of-the-line model. This also means top-of-the-line pricing. At US$829.99 it doesnt come cheap, but Neato also has cheaper models like the US$399.99 Neato D3. Of course, lower pricing means less battery life and fewer features, so you get your moneys worth.

The main thing that impresses me about the D7 is how smart it is. You dont have to do much besides emptying the dustbin and making sure there are no cords to get stuck on. Every time it starts, it turns around to note the location of its charger. It then methodically travels around your house, vacuuming everywhere it can reach.

If it runs out of battery, which lasts up to two hours, it drives back to the charger, and once it has a full battery again its smart enough to finish exactly where it was cleaning.It uses laser navigation, which Ive learned is better than other robot vacuums that use infrared cameras.

Speaking of cameras, if youve read my articles regularly, youll know Im privacy-conscious. I was satisfied by Neatos privacy policy, and it doesnt sound like the company wants to share indoor maps of your house like iRobot did. And the fact that the D7 doesnt have cameras puts my mind at ease.

Additionally, you donthave to connect it to Wi-Fi, either. You wont be able to use the app for advanced features, but theres still a physical button on the robot vacuum to turn it on, reset it, and choose the cleaning mode. But as I noted above, even if hackers took control of it in a worse-case scenario, there are no cameras to spy on you anyway.

Something else I liked was that the robot came fully assembled with two spare filters. All I had to do was set it up with Neatos app and let it charge. The package also comes with a physical No-Go Line. Its a flat, magnetic strip you can tape on the floor. Use it if theres an area of your house that you dont want the robot vacuum to enter. You can use the app to create multiple, virtual No-Go Lines as well.

Neatos app is simple and intuitive to use. You can install it on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to start, pause, or stop cleaning from afar, plus get notifications about the robots status. The app shows you a map of your home that the D7 created, and it supports multiple floor plans for homes with more than one story. You can zoom in, use spot cleaning so it will clean certain areas of the house, manage the cleaning profile, and set a cleaning schedule. You can manually drive the robot, too.

There are two cleaning modes in the profile. Eco is a lighter, quieter cleaning run and Turbo is a louder, more powerful mode with maximum suction. Theres also a toggle called Extra Care, so it will take extra care when navigating around your home.All of Neatos robots are in the shape of a D; in other words it looks like a standard manual vacuum. The advantage it has over round robots is the ability to clean corners.

The most recent app update added support for Siri Shortcuts. Its cool to be able to use voice commands to tell the robot to start cleaning, pause cleaning, or send it back to the charger. If you have the D7 model, you can use voice commands to clean zones, a.k.a. certain areas of your house.

As you can see, Im quire pleased with my robot vacuum. I decided that hes a boy and his name is Archie. I did curse at him a couple of times (No dont run over my toes you $%&#@!). But otherwise he works great and cleans well. The D7 can handle most any surface, and if it gets stuck it will just shut down. Pick him up, nudge him a couple of times, and he will resume cleaning as if nothing happened.

Company: Neato Robotics

List Price: $829.99

We Like It. You Should Get It.

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Review: Neato Robotic's Botvac D7 is the Robot Vacuum I've Always Wanted - The Mac Observer

ActiNav From Universal Robots (URF) Is a New Ur+ Application Kit for Companies of All Sizes That Simplifies the Integration of Autonomous Bin Picking of Parts and Accurate Placement in Machines Using UR Cobots. ActiNav Synchronously Handles Vision Processing, Collision-Free Motion Planning and Autonomous Real-Time Robot Control, Eliminating the Complexity and Risk Usually Associated With Bin Picking Applications.

The complexity of automated bin picking is well-known throughout the industry, requiring huge efforts in both integration and programming. Today, most bin picking products are solely focused on the vision aspect of bin picking and often require hundreds of lines of additional programming to bridge the gap from pick to place especially if the place is not just dropping into a box or tote but accurately inserting the part into a fixture for further processing. ActiNav Autonomous Bin Pickingchanges all that, allowing manufacturers with limited or no bin picking deployment expertise to quickly achieve high machine uptime and accurate part placement with few operator interventions.

ActiNav combines real-time autonomous motion control, collaborative robotics, vision and sensor systems in one easy to use, fast to deploy and cost-effective kit. The system requires no vision or robotic programming expertise, but is instead based on a teach-by-demonstration principle using a six-step, wizard-guided setup process integrated into the UR cobot teach pendant. ActiNav can be easily and quickly deployed by manufacturers in-house automation teams or through assistance from a Universal Robots distributor or integrator to deliver increased productivity, quality and efficiency.

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Machine tending has always been one of the mainstay applications for our collaborative robot arms, says VP of Product and Applications Management atUniversal Robots, Jim Lawton. We discovered a significant market need for a simple solution that enables UR cobots to autonomously locate and pick parts out of deep bins and place them precisely into a machine. This is not pick and drop; this is accurate pick and part-oriented placement.

ActiNav isavailablethrough URs distribution channel and via the newUR+ Application Kits platform, an expansion of the cobot pioneers successful UR+ ecosystem of components certified to work seamlessly with UR cobots. Like other UR+ application kits, ActiNav is developed with in-depth application knowledge that eliminates the duplication of engineering efforts when deploying widely used applications. ActiNav works with URs UR5e and UR10e e-Series cobots, a UR+ component or user-defined end effector, and application-specific frame or fixture as needed. The kit includes the Autonomous Motion Module (AMM) and ActiNav URCap user interface software, along with a choice of 3D sensors.

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While there is a variety of approaches to automating machine tending stations, many of which include implementing trays, bowl feeders or conveyors to get the parts to the machine, Lawton explains how ActiNav bypasses this step. Parts are often already in bins, so the most flexible and scalable option is to deliver that bin of parts to the machine and then pick them directly from the bin and place them into the machine, he says. This minimizes floor space and reduces the need for part-specific tooling.

ActiNav autonomously inserts parts into CNC or processing machines such as drilling, deburring, welding, trimming or tapping. The high-resolution 3D sensor and CAD matching enables high-accuracy picks powered by ActiNavs Autonomous Motion Module (AMM) that determines how to pick the part, then controls the robot to pick the part and place it in a fixture each time. The autonomous motion control enables ActiNav to operate inside deep bins that hold more parts; something that standalone bin picking vision systems struggle to accomplish.

IDCs Research Director covering robotics, Remy Glaisner, is closely following the market for automated machine tending solutions. Today more than ever, technology users are looking to preserve the integrity and continuity of business operations, he says. In that context, simplifying the integration or redeployment of highly flexible robotic systems becomes a critical capability for manufacturers and other industrial users.In many ways, ActiNav will set a new level of operational expectations regarding the future of intelligent systems.

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