International

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems.

The Army of the future will involve humans and autonomous machines working together to accomplish the mission. According to Army researchers, this vision will only succeed if artificial intelligence is perceived to be ethical.

Network provider Verizon has acquired Austrian-based incubed IT, the creator of a software platform that provides autonomous navigation tools to administer, manage and optimize mixed fleets of robots in industrial settings. This acquisition will expand Verizon’s robotic capabilities to power robotic automation for enterprise customers, for a large part based on 5G.

Annual installations of industrial robots more than tripled within ten years (2010-2019) reaching 381 thousand units in factories around the world. The International Federation of Robotics shows top 5 trends shaping industries around the globe. “The mission to combine traditional production with ´go digital strategies´ puts robots in a pole position,” says Dr Susanne Bieller, General Secretary of the IFR.

Seegrid, vendor of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for material handling, today premiered a new autonomous lift truck, Palion Lift AMR, further expanding the capabilities of the company’s fleet of mobile robotics solutions.

Last week The Banking Scene organized a webinar on Automation in Banking. In an hour long discussion the benefits and pitfalls of automation in finance were discussed. This report summarizes the proceedings: “Be very transparent with your compliance team, your security team, cybersecurity team, and specifically in relation to the vendors that you’re going to engage with for these different components to build out your RPA and Intelligent Automation tool stack”.

The worldwide low-code development technologies market is projected to total $11.3 billion in 2021, an increase of 23.2% from 2020, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The surge in remote development during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to boost low- code adoption, despite ongoing cost optimisation efforts.

Teradyne today announced that Kim Povlsen has been appointed President of Universal Robots. Povlsen, a Danish native, brings global executive leadership from a high-tech and commercial perspective and will lead Universal Robots’ next stage of growth and innovation. His appointment reinforces Teradyne´s commitment to Universal Robots’ Danish origin and its role in further developing the local robotics community. Kim begins his new role at Universal Robots on March 1, 2021.

The global smart robots market size is expected to reach $25 billion by 2026, rising at a market growth of 27.2% CAGR during the forecast period, according to Researchandmarkets in their report “Global Smart Robots Market By Component, By Mobility, By Operating Environment, By End User, By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 – 2026”.

The two-day Machine Tending Expo, February 23-24, focuses on deploying cobots to tend machines such as CNC, press brakes, injection molding machines or 3D printers. In live demos, keynotes and interactive booth sessions with exhibiting partners, Universal Robots shows its solutions on how to implement cobots, tackling the labor shortage, while improving crucial machine uptime.