Amazon is adding even more robots to its already massive robotic workforce Source: IEEE Spectrum / by Evan Ackerman At Amazon’s re:MARS conference in Las Vegas today, who else but Amazon is introducing two new robots designed to make its fulfillment centers even more fulfilling. Xanthus (named after a mythological horse that could very briefly talk but let’s not read too much into that) is a completely redesigned drive unit, one of the …Read More
Source: Festo Whether its grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing – in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modelled after this model …Read More
Source: Spectrum IEEE / By Evan Ackerman TossingBot, developed by Google and Princeton, can teach itself to throw arbitrary objects with better accuracy than most humans As anyone who’s ever tried to learn how to throw something properly can attest to, it takes a lot of practice to be able to get it right. Once you have it down, though, it makes you much more efficient at a variety of …Read More
Source: The Robot Report / by Steve Crowe Holy mobile manipulation, Batman! Boston Dynamics just released a new video of its reimagined Handle robot. The Waltham, Mass.-based company is now calling Handle a “mobile manipulation robot designed for logistics. Handle autonomously performs mixed SKU pallet building and depalletizing after initialization and localizing against the pallets.” Handle uses an on-board vision system to track the marked pallets for navigation and finds …Read More
Source: MIT News / by Rachel Gordon Gripper device inspired by “origami magic ball” can grasp wide array of delicate and heavy objects. Fifty years ago, the first industrial robot arm (called Unimate) assembled a simple breakfast of toast, coffee, and champagne. While it might have looked like a seamless feat, every movement and placement was coded with careful consideration. Even with today’s more intelligent and adaptive robots, this task remains …Read More
Source: Supply Chain Dive / by Edwin Lopez In Influencers Roundtable, we bring together voices from consulting firms to share how they perceive various emerging technologies. The answers below have been edited for clarity and length. No talk of automation is complete without a mention of its apparent nemesis: labor. “We believe new productivity enhancing tools from accounting box, legal system analytics and predictive AI etc. will allow us to …Read More
Source: ValueWalk / by Danica Simic Many video games and sci-fi shows and movies offer a glimpse into a future in which we’re served by robot nannies, maids and chefs. A study conducted at MIT previously demonstrated that AI-powered robots can make pizza, and now engineers at Festo have designed an agile robot arm which can effortlessly handle objects and even learn how to do it better. Festo’s agile robot arm is equipped with a …Read More
Source: IEEE Spectrum / by Evan Ackerman These robotic fingers can turn friction on and off to make it easier to manipulate objects with one hand In-hand manipulation is one of the things near the top of a very, very, verylong list of things that humans do without thinking that are extraordinarily difficult for robots. It’s the act of repositioning an object with one hand, usually with your fingers—you do it whenever you …Read More
Source: IEEE Spectrum / by Evan Ackerman Dex-Net 4.0 enables “ambidextrous” robots to choose the best gripper for the job
Source: Science Daily A team of researchers have developed an artificial tactile sensor that mimics the ability of human skin to detect surface information, such as shapes, patterns and structures. This may be one step closer to making electronic devices and robots that can perceive sensations such as roughness and smoothness.