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From the Editor
5 Big Robot Trends Spotted at MODEX 2022
I’m back from MODEX 2022, which showcased supply chain and logistics solutions for warehouse operations and retailers continuing to struggle with labor challenges and e-commerce order demands. Robots and automation were the stars of the show, with a large portion of the expo hall dedicated to systems that can help human workers fill orders and move materials faster and more efficiently. I spotted five big trends for robot companies at the show, read more below. On a personal note, it was good to get back on the road and out of my home office, if only for a few days, but I was definitely feeling the rust of the trade show travel game, as I forgot to pack a few items like my business cards and headphones for the plane ride. But overall, it felt good to travel, and I’m looking forward to my next adventure to see more robots in person.
— Keith Shaw, Managing Editor. |
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China’s Pudu Robotics Launches 4 New Service Robots
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China’s Pudu Robotics, which develops commercial service robots, held a new product launch in Shenzhen, introducing four new robots. Under the theme of “3+X”, the company announced three delivery robots – SwiftBot, PUDU A1 and PUDU D1 – and a new cleaning robot, the PUDU SH1. The SwiftBot aims to reduce human-robot congestion by 50%, increasing machine running speed by 30% in restaurants. PUDU A1, the first composite robot for restaurants, and PUDU D1, the first quadruped delivery robot, open up new possibilities for robot applications across restaurant and commercial environments. The SH1 is a professional small-size digital commercial floor scrubber, dedicated to efficient cleaning, convenient operation, and easy management. |
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Canada’s Kinova Launches Link 6 Collaborative Robot
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Montreal-based Kinova Robotics has announced the Link 6, a new generation industrial robot created from start to finish in North America, and designed for businesses looking to benefit from automation. Link 6 is Canada’s first industrial collaborative robot, featuring automation solutions to enable greater daily efficiency while also improving the quality and consistency of production results. Launch applications include pick-and-place, part assembly and machine tending. The Link 6 controller also includes the highest processing power and memory capacity on the market, which makes it ready to use with AI solutions in the future, while keeping the size of the controller compact. |
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IKO Launches Mini Linear Guides to Simplify Mounting in Tight Spaces
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Expanding its LWL family of miniature guides, IKO has announced the LWLF2 linear motion rolling guide, which addresses the demand for device miniaturization with a compact and lightweight design to make it easier for mounting in tight spaces. The new LWFL2 features the same ultra-small, 2.5-mm height dimension as its predecessor, the LW1, IKO said. It is also designed with tapped rails for bottom mounting and stability. The LWLF2 guide is structured with two rows of balls that make contact with the raceway at four points to provide higher stability and accuracy, even in applications with varying load direction or complexity. |
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Leopard Expands 3D ToF Camera Support for Latest NVIDIA Jetson AI Platform
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Leopard Imaging, which develops and manufactures high-definition embedded camera designs, has announced it is expanding its current solutions based on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier platform to support the recently announced Jetson AGX Orin system-on-module. This includes Leopard’s Time-of-Flight (ToF) and stereo camera solutions for edge computing and image processing. One of NVIDIA’s elite partners, Leopard Imaging develops 3D depth cameras based on several imaging sensors compatible with the Jetson AGX Xavier platform, including hardware and software development, image tuning, and one-stop-shop customization services. |
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NVIDIA Launches Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit for Robotics, Edge AI
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NVIDIA has announced the availability of its Jetson AGX Orin developer kit, a compact and energy-efficient AI supercomputer for advanced robotics, autonomous machines and the next generation of embedded and edge computing systems. Jetson AGX Orin delivers 275 trillion operations per second (TOPS), giving customers more than eight times the processing power of its predecessor, Jetson AGX Xavier. NVIDIA said it does this while maintaining the same palm-sized form factor and pin compatibility, and all at a similar price. The system includes the NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU, Arm Cortex-A78AE CPUs, next-generation deep learning and vision accelerators, high-speed interfaces, faster memory bandwidth and multimodal sensor support to feed multiple, concurrent AI application pipelines. |
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Omnicell Launches Upgraded IV Robotic Compounding System
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Omnicell, which develops automated medication management and analytics, has announced the IVX Station, designed to scale the benefits of IV robotic technology. The new systems are aimed to automate workflows, optimize operations, and help improve patient care in a complex regulatory environment. The completely reimagined, fully automated IV compounding robot is designed to deliver the patient safety, accuracy, cost savings, supply chain control, and compliance benefits of its predecessors, while also addressing industry issues with throughput and reliability. The IVX Station supports three times the throughput speed of current IV robotic technology, includes a design focused on high reliability to eliminate re-calibration downtime, and maintains the approximate footprint of a four-foot hood. |
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In Case You Missed It
TinyMobileRobots Marks 1M Sports Fields Milestone with GPS-Enabled Robot
Denmark’s TinyMobileRobots, which develops fully autonomous GPS-enabled line-marking robots, has announced that it has officially marked its one millionth sports field. The company estimates it has saved customers about 1.6 million hours, $102.5 million and 1.5 million gallons of paint through the use of the robots. The milestone took place in Dallas, Texas, with FC Dallas, which manages 20 soccer fields. The soccer team has been using TinyMobileRobots for four years. The robots can autonomously mark lines for almost every type of sports field, including soccer, American football, baseball, lacrosse, and softball, among others. Read More |
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Featured Article
5 Big Robotics Trends Spotted at MODEX 2022
Thousands of people gathered in Atlanta this week for the MODEX 2022 event, which showcases supply chain and logistics solutions for companies aiming to get products into the hands of customers. A huge focus of the show in recent years has been the growth of automation and robotics systems, which was on display again this year. Because MODEX is held every two years (it alternates with ProMat, which is run by the same events company), the last time the event was held was in March 2020, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. Last year’s ProMat was virtual, which means this was the first time that many attendees (myself included) returned to a tradeshow environment. Read More |
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Industry News
- Confidence in Robot Picking Surges, Survey Says
A new survey from AI robotics company Covariant revealed that more than half of respondents feel that intelligent robots have become smart enough to reliably run pick-and-place stations. Covariant said it surveyed more than 300 logistics professionals to ask them about their current fulfillment challenges, technology investment priorities, and perception of AI robotics. The company also said it wanted to understand logistics professionals’ plans for implementing AI robotics to help automate warehouse picking processes. The survey also revealed investment plans across material handling operations such as sortation, induction, goods-to-person order picking, and depalletization.
- Bridgestone Invests in May Mobility to Advance Data for AV Tires
Tire manufacturer Bridgestone Americas has announced a minority investment in May Mobility, marking its first investment in public-serving autonomous vehicles (AVs). The new partnership will include the future integration of Bridgestone’s digital and predictive tire-centric technologies into May Mobility AVs, granting deeper AV intelligence for safer and more efficient operation. Through the partnership, Bridgestone said it will gain insights into AV operations to improve its core tire products and mobility solutions. The relationship between Bridgestone and May Mobility expands the AV technology company’s ability to operate and service its vehicles in new markets, thanks to Bridgestone’s nationwide network of more than 2,200 tire and automotive service centers.
- Aurora Unveils Toyota Sienna-Based Ride-Hailing Test Fleet
Aurora Innovation has unveiled its test fleet of custom-designed autonomous Toyota Sienna vehicles, which feature Toyota’s Vehicle Control Interface (VCI) and the Sienna Autono-MaaS (S-AM) platform. The Toyota S-AM will serve as the backbone platform for the expecting launch of Aurora Connect, its autonomous ride-hailing product, Aurora said. The company said it has worked with Toyota Motor North America’s engineering team over the last year to establish and refine requirements to prepare the vehicle model platform to integrate with Aurora Driver.
- Treeswift Raises $4.8M to Advance Forest Monitoring via Drones
Treeswift has announced raising $4.8 million in seed funding, led by Pathbreaker Ventures. The company said it has raised $6.4 million total to provide forest stakeholders with more easily accessible precision data and analysis. The company’s SwiftCruise is a drone-based solution that navigates under the forest canopy quickly and efficiently to collect terabytes of data within harsh forest terrain. SwiftCruise can extract individual tree metrics through a combination of cameras, sensors, and advanced machine learning algorithms. The services are used in carbon capture estimation, timber value appraisal, fire mitigation, biomass understory, deforestation monitoring, advanced growth forecasting, and overall forest management.
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MODEX 2022 News
Big Joe Forklifts Launches BUD Cobot
Wisconsin-based Big Joe Forklifts has launched a new collaborative robot, in collaboration with Vecna Robotics, that keeps humans in the loop with material handling workflows. The Big Joe’s User Directed Pallet Mover, nicknamed “BUD”, features an onboard tablet and cloud connectivity to drive autonomously on connected missions once an operator manually loads a pallet and tells it where to go. The robot comes out of Big Joe’s concept of User Directed Automation, where small autonomous machines empower workers as a force multiplier so people can focus on higher value-added work while the robots attend to mundane tasks. Read More |
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Locus Robotics Integrates New AMRs into Mobile Fleet
Locus Robotics, which develops autonomous mobile robots for fulfillment warehouses, announced its expanded line of warehouse AMRs. The new robots are part of new branding for the LocusBot systems that integrates robots from Waypoint Robotics, which the company acquired last year. The Locus Vector and Locus Max robots join the Locus Origin to give the company a comprehensive family of AMRs for several warehouse use cases. The robots can address applications in e-commerce, case-picking and pallet-picking to scenarios that require larger, heavier payloads to support product movement needs in fulfillment and distribution center warehouses. Read More |
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Sponsored Content
Miniature Bearings Support Heavier Robotics Loads and Provide Precise Linear Motion
IKO offers some of the smallest miniature bearings commercially available. The ML miniature bearings can perform under higher loads and provide precise linear motion for medical robotics and automation. Read More. |
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MODEX 2022 News
Plus One, Tompkins Robotics Partner on Sorting, Picking Tasks
San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics, which develops 3D and AI-powered vision software for robots, has announced a partnership with Tompkins Robotics, a developer of robotic automation for distribution and fulfillment tasks. The two companies are teaming up to offer an automated picking solution that combines Plus One Robotics software with Tompkins’ tStort system. The partnership will provide optimized solutions for high-volume e-commerce fulfillment and distribution centers, the companies said. The combined technologies are more flexible at allowing sorting and classifying new package shapes and types, which can then boost throughput rates while customers experience less downtime. Read More |
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OPEX Launches Infinity, its Next-Gen Warehouse Automation Solution
OPEX has announced a new goods-to-person (G2P) system to add to its warehouse automation portfolio. The Infinity system combines storage density, configurability and flexibility to meet warehouse automation challenges for companies conducting tasks that include micro-fulfillment, omnichannel distribution, store replenishment, and e-commerce. Automated G2P technology can deliver the proper item or SKU at the right time to an operator or workstation, to increase productivity, throughput, and eliminate wasted time to improve labor utilization, OPEX said. Read More |
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Sponsored Content
Oriental Motors New Brushless Motors for Battery-Powered Applications
The new BLV Series R motors are designed for battery-powered input type applications, such as automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots and conveyors suited for brushless performance. The motors have higher resolution Hall sensors that allow for increased motor feedback, improved stopping accuracy and lower speed operation. The motor and driver are capable of longer operations from a battery and support Modbus or CANopen communications. Read More. |
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MODEX 2022 News
Rakuten Super Logistics Picks Zebra for Warehouse Operations
Zebra Technologies has announced that e-commerce order-fulfillment operator Rakuten Super Logistics (RSL) has utilized Zebra’s Fetch robots to help increase RSL’s efficiency and productivity. After evaluating several robotics providers, RSL said they chose Fetch’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) as the superior option available in the market. An initial deployment is planned for the second quarter of 2022, with RSL using the robot to manage workflow and augment labor throughout its facility. THe company also expects to roll out the solution across other warehouse facilities throughout 2022 and 2023. Read More |
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AutoStore Extends Reachability of its Bins For Multi-Level Warehouses
Norway’s AutoStore recently announced the launch of its Bin Lift 2.0 system, which aims to extend the reachability of AutoStore bins in multi-level warehouses. Now available in North America, the vertical lift assists the bins, which are durable containers used to hold inventory and handled precisely by the AutoStore robots. Compared to the previous Bin Lift 1.1 model that was only available in Europe, the 2.0 version offers several mechanical improvements and a better user experience thanks to a significant noise reduction, AutoStore said. Read More |
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Sponsored Content
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OSARO Integrates Robots With Automated Bagging Systems
OSARO, which develops advanced robotic automation solutions, has announced a comprehensive robotics system for automated bagging. The OSARO Automated Bagging Solution pairs robots powered by OSARO software with automated bagging machines from vendors such as PAC Machinery and Pregis. The autonomous piece-picking robot then integrates with existing logistics facilities to fulfill orders quickly and efficiently. OSARO said this is available immediately as a drop-in upgrade to either existing or new fulfillment operations. Read More |
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OTTO Motors Adds Autonomous Forklift to AMR Offerings
OTTO Motors, which develops autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) has announced the availability of the OTTO Lifter, an autonomous forklift that can pick up an drop off pallets autonomously. The OTTO Lifter joins the company’s other material handling robots, including the OTTO 100 and 1500. The OTTO Lifter is a smart autonomous forklift that can drive nimbly in crowded and dynamic environments, improving safety in warehouses and other facilities, the company said. WIth advanced safety sensors and class-leading autonomous driving capabilities, the OTTO Lifter can work alongside people, other vehicles, and within an existing infrastructure, giving businesses a material handling solution for as low as $9 per hour. Read More |
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Kindred’s INDUCT Aims to Automate Parcel, Post and E-Commerce Induction
Kindred has announced its INDUCT system, an AI-powered robotic workcell designed to automate the small parcel induction process. The system aims to help parcel, post, and e-commerce fulfillment companies alleviate capacity shortages and increase capacity to address supply chain challenges. Built on Kindred’s proprietary CORE/AutoGrasp artificial intelligence platform, the INDUCT robotic system is a high-speed workcell that identifies items and determines how to handle them (known as induction). The system can accurately pick, maneuver and place items onto a moving belt, bomb bay, or tilt sorter. The platform combines AI-powered machine vision, grasping, and manipulation algorithms to handle parcels of varying size, fragility, and materials. Read More |
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