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Boston Dynamics’ Handle robot brings mobile manipulation to logistics

April 9, 2019

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

PARTNER PROFILE: Fraunhofer IFF (Germany)

March 27, 2019

In this series, members of the PICK-PLACE consortium are portrayed. After TOFAŞ, ULMA Handling Systems, Mondragon Assembly, IK4-TEKNIKER and CNR-STIIMA, the last partner profile is dedicated to Fraunhofer IFF. Senior research scientist Veit Müller answers the interview. What is Fraunhofer IFF? The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF is an autonomous institute in the nonprofit Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the largest applied research organization in Europe. The Fraunhofer IFF specializes in research and development in the …Read More

Robot hand is soft and strong

March 26, 2019

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

What is the business case for cobots in the supply chain?

March 14, 2019

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

PROJECT NEWS: PICK-PLACE at LOGIMAT 2019 (A summary)

March 11, 2019

Last month, some members of the PICK-PLACE consortium attended LOGIMAT 2019 fair (Stuttgart, Germany, 18-21 February 2019). The fair has been an excellent occasion to learn more about the latest trends in the sector, and has provided interesting feedback for our project. Oier Álvarez, Research and Innovation engineer at ULMA Handling Systems, answers the interview. As ULMA Handling Systems, why did you decide to attend LOGIMAT 2019 fair? ULMA Handling …Read More

Festo’s Agile Robot Handles Objects Effortlessly

March 6, 2019

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

PARTNER PROFILE: CNR-STIIMA (Italy)

February 18, 2019

In this series, members of the PICK-PLACE consortium are portrayed. After TOFAŞ ULMA Handling Systems, Mondragon Assembly and IK4-TEKNIKER it’s the turn of CNR-STIIMA. Researcher Manuel Beschi answers the interview. What is CNR-STIIMA? The Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA) belongs to the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), the largest public research center in Italy. The research activities of STIIMA are focused on the Manufacturing sector, …Read More

Yale’s Robot Hand Copies How Your Fingers Work to Improve Object Manipulation

February 12, 2019

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 And yet, robots are learning to do such things. For example, OpenAI recently taught a five-fingered hand to manipulate a cube, which is great, if you have a lot of patience and/or computing resources, and the budget for a fancy hand and stuff. For those of us …Read More

PROJECT NEWS: PICK-PLACE plenary meeting and comprehensive visit at CNR-STIIMA, Italy

February 6, 2019

Last week, members of the PICK-PLACE consortium gathered at CNR-STIIMA’s headquarters in Milan (Italy) for a plenary meeting and an in-depth visit to their facilities, where relevant previous deployments and new experiments carried our within the project were presented. During the plenary meeting, progress made in each work-package was shared, with a special focus on WP5: System deployment and process validation. A session was also devoted to an extensive discussion …Read More