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From the Editor
Robots, Autonomy Will Get Us Back to the Moon
One of my earliest memories was me sitting on the floor of our apartment, watching TV coverage of one of the Apollo Moon missions. Not the original landing (I was just a baby), but one of the later ones. NASA and space was a big deal in the 1970s, where every kid had toy astronauts and rocket models. My first visit to Orlando, Florida, was not just a trip to visit Disney World, but also to take a bus ride out to the Kennedy Space Center and see the original Saturn V rocket. So it’s really cool to see NASA committed to returning to the Moon with its Artemis missions. The first phase had a successful launch this week, with an unmanned rocket planning to go around the Moon and return to Earth. The next phase will include humans returning to the Moon, but they will be assisted by many robots, whether it’s unmanned rovers or other hardware looking to help astronauts and research the possibility of permanent moon bases. Watching the launch (along with those people in the photo), I felt like a kid again watching the earlier moon missions. Congratulations to NASA and let’s hope that the program earns additional successes moving forward. – Keith Shaw, Managing Editor. |
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Techman Robot Launches New AI-based Cobot Series
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Taiwan-based Techman Robot has announced its TM AI Cobot series, a collaborative robot that combines a robot arm with native artificial intelligence inference engine and smart vision system. The all-in-one system is aimed to be deployed in factories looking to accelerate the transition to Industry 4.0. The TM AI Cobot is designed to be “smart, simple and safe,” Techman Robot said. By combining visual processing in the robot arm, the robot can perform fast and precise pick-and-place, palletizing, welding, semiconductor and product manufacturing, AOI inspections and food service tasks, the company said. This is accelerated through the AI-Vision technology. |
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Luxonis Launches Open-Source Personal Robot Platform
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Luxonis, a Colorado-based robotic vision platform, has announced Rae, a fully-formed and high-powered personal robot. The Rae system offers multiple features out of the box, along with experimental programming potential that exceeds other consumer robots on the market, with a goal of making robotics accessible and simple for users of any experience level. The full suite of standard applications include games like follow me and hide and seek, and tools such as barcode/QR code scanning, license plate reading, fall detection, time-lapse recording, emotion recognition, object finding, sign language interpretation, and a security alert mode. The applications are controllable through a mobile app, which users can operate from anywhere around the world. |
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Maxon Launches 5 New Compact Drives
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At this week’s SPS 2022 trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, maxon has announced the launch of five new products. All of the new products are designed for the efficient use of resources and compactness, for technical solutions that need to fit into compact and tiny spaces. The ECX SPEED 8 motors now come with pin connection for space-saving design, maxon said. The new connection variant can be configured in the online shop for all ECX SPEED 8 motors. Pin connections are made for the installation of drives in compact devices, or systems where the available space is limited, or easy cleaning is required. Maxon said the pin variant is used in medical technology, such as surgical robots, hand prosthetics, and implants. |
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Autonomous Tractor Deployed at Belmont Abbey College
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SSC Services for Education, an educational facilities services contractor, has announced it will deploy an autonomous lawnmower to Belmont Abbey College. The Autonomous Stander ZK, developed by Wright Manufacturing, will be deployed at Belmont’s 37.5-acre campus in Belmont, N.C. SSC said the partnership is an example of providing educational institutions with the highest level of facilities services to allow schools to reduce operating costs and maximize tuition fees and tax dollars within their classrooms. The Autonomous ZK’s features enable groundskeepers to address more technical and skilled landscaping needs, while still providing a standard of high-quality lawn care, SSC said. |
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Video: Kodiak Robotics Demonstrates Self-Driving Truck Tire Blowout
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Kodiak Robotics, which develops self-driving trucks for long-haul transportation, announced a successful demonstration that its autonomous technology, Kodiak Driver, can maintain complete control of the truck when it suffers a catastrophic tire blowout. In a video, the Kodiak self-driving truck rolled over a test rig that punctured the front driver-side tire of a Kodiak Class 8 tractor while the autonomous technology was engaged. Even after the tire was destroyed, the Kodiak Driver stayed in control and brought the truck to a safe and complete stop while maintaining its lane. Tire blowouts are one of the biggest safety risks that can occur on the road. |
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Product Profile: GAM GPL Zero-Backlash Robotic Planetary Gearbox
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GAM’s GPL Series Robotic Planetary Gearbox combines the lowest backlash and high tilting rigidity with vibration-free motion for smooth, controlled motion in robotics and motion control applications. Torsional backlash is the error of the output shaft position in relation to the input shaft at zero torque, GAM said. In a gearbox it is primarily clearance between the mating gear teeth. Torsional backlash can be measured by rotating the output of a gearbox in both directions with the input shaft locked. The lower the backlash, the better the precision. It can be combined with torsional stiffness to determine the total lost motion of an application. |
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In Case You Missed It
Amazon Shows Next-Gen Delivery Drone, Expected in 2024
Amazon has provided a first look at its next-generation delivery drone for its Prime Air delivery service. The MK30 is lighter and smaller than the MK27-2, the drone that will be making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, later this year. Amazon said the MK30 has increased range, expanded temperature tolerance, and a new capability to fly in light rain, which will enable customers to choose drone delivery more often for their packages. Read More |
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Featured Article
NASA Launches Unmanned Artemis Rocket for Moon Mission
Following a successful launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, the agency’s Orion spacecraft is on its way to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Carrying an uncrewed Orion, SLS lifted off for its flight test debut at 1:47 a.m. EST Wednesday from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch is the first leg of a mission in which Orion is planned to travel approximately 40,000 miles beyond the Moon and return to Earth over the course of 25.5 days. Known as Artemis I, the mission is a critical part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, in which the agency explores for the benefit of humanity. It’s an important test for the agency before flying astronauts on the Artemis II mission. Read More. |
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Industry News
- Universal Robots Achieves 1,000-Employee Milestone
Denmark-based Universal Robots has announced that it has reached 1,000 employees, one of only a few Danish companies founded in this century to hit the milestone. Since its first collaborative robot was launched in 2008, Universal Robots has become one of the leaders in the cobot space, with offices in more than 20 countries around the world. The success of the company, a division of Teradyne, has also resulted in the growth of the robotics cluster in Odense, Denmark, now home to more than 400 robotics companies.
- Cyngn to Deploy Autonomous Vehicles for U.S. Continental
Cyngn, which develops autonomous driving software for industrial and commercial applications, has announced it was awarded a contract to provide its self-driving Stockchaser vehicles for U.S. Continental, a manufacturer of leather and fabric care products. U.S. Continental said it will use the Stockchasers powered by Cyngn’s Enterprise Autonomy Suite to transport pallets of materials throughout its main manufacturing plant in Corona, Calf., starting in early 2023.
- MIT Researchers Enable Flexible ML Models Through Brain Dynamics
Recently MIT researchers built “liquid” neural networks, inspired by the brains of small species: a class of flexible, robust machine learning models that learn on the job and can adapt to changing conditions, for real-world safety-critical tasks, like driving and flying. The flexibility of these “liquid” neural nets meant boosting the bloodline to our connected world: better decision-making for many tasks involving time-series data, such as brain and heart monitoring, weather, and stock prices. But these models become computationally expensive as their number of neurons and synapses increase and require clunky computer programs to solve their underlying, complicated math. But all of this math, similar to many physical phenomena, becomes harder to solve with size, meaning computing lots of small steps to arrive at a solution.
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Robotics Funding
Attabotics Raises $71.7M for 3D Robotics Fulfillment Platform
Canada-based Attabotics, which develops 3D robotics for fulfillment centers, has announced it raised $71.7 million in Series C-1 funding. The new round of funding, which brings its total raised to $165.1 million, will be used to further accelerate the commercialization of its 3D robotics warehousing solution to meet post-COVID demand. Attabotics develops an all-in-one automated fulfillment system that condenses a typical warehouse by creating a single, vertical storage structure. Inside the structure, robotic shuttles known as Attabots move in three-dimensional space to pick goods that are then presented to workers at a workstation on the outside perimeter. Read More |
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Robotics Funding
Freight Farms Raises $17.5M to Advance Container Farming
Freight Farms, which manufactures container farms and automation software, has announced it raised $17.5 million in Series B3 funding. The new funding will let the company expand its mission to “empower anyone to grow food anywhere through its line of versatile, modular, and easy-to-use container farms and farm automation software.” The company said it develops vertical hydroponic farms in shipping containers, with the goal of creating resilient and self-sufficient communities that can grow fresh, local, and healthy food 365 days a year. With containers that currently operate across 39 countries, Freight Farms said it has created the largest connected network of farms in the world. Read More |
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