International

The digital revolution is built on a foundation of invisible 1s and 0s called bits. As decades pass, and more and more of the world’s information and knowledge morph into streams of 1s and 0s, the notion that computers prefer to “speak” in binary numbers is rarely questioned. According to new research from Columbia Engineering, this could be about to change.

Pascal Bornet is a recognized expert and pioneer in the field of intelligent automation (IA). He explains that the impact of IA goes far beyond the context of businesses, as it also impacts people’s lives and our society as a whole.

Sarcos Robotics, developer of robots that augment humans to enhance productivity and safety, announced that it will become publicly listed through a merger transaction with Rotor Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company.

RE2 Robotics, provider of intelligent mobile manipulation systems, announced its new robotic arm brand, RE2 Sapien.  With RE2 Sapien Re2 develops a human-like robotic arm solution that is intended to improve operational efficiencies, worker safety, and overall productivity. RE2 Sapien systems feature intelligent robotic arms with intuitive human-robot control interfaces and outdoor (including underwater) computer vision and autonomy capabilities.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.1 trillion in 2021, an increase of 8.4% from 2020, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The source of funds for new digital business initiatives will more frequently come from business departments outside IT and charged as a cost of revenue or cost of goods sold (COGS).

Stratom, developer of autonomous ground vehicles and robotic systems for logistics and operational applications, has been awarded a contract with the U.S. Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) to develop an autonomous ground vehicle refueling (AGVR) prototype system to integrate onto a Palletized Load System (PLS) flat rack for autonomous convoy operations.

Robotics company AutoStore announced that SoftBank has acquired 40% of its company.  AutoStore currently has a global customer base with more than 600 installations and 20,000 robots across 35 countries. It delivers automated storage and retrieval systems, coupled with its proprietary software, to serve the increasing demands of today’s supply chains.

In recent years, robots have gained artificial vision, touch, and even smell. “Researchers have been giving robots human-like perception,” says MIT Associate Professor Fadel Adib. In a new paper, Adib’s team is pushing the technology a step further. “We’re trying to give robots superhuman perception,” he says.

Since July 2020, the 200 skips that collect Toulouse inhabitants’ waste from the 13 waste disposal centers managed by SUEZ have been equipped with embedded artificial intelligence. Under test since 2019, the ffly4u solution has been deployed with the objectives of reducing fuel consumption, optimizing skip flows and reducing costs by optimizing collection resources.