International

Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), today announced a 55 percent increase in sales in Q1 2021 over the same period last year. A large number of Q1 sales are of the MiR250, MiR’s latest and most compact AMR, with multiple orders from multinational organizations that continue to invest in large fleets of MiR robots as they automate material handling and internal logistics.

Nearly one in five workers (18%) consider themselves to be digital technology experts since COVID-19, while over half consider themselves proficient, according to a new survey from Gartner. An increased reliance on digital collaboration tools and lack of in-person IT support while working remotely altered many workers’ relationships to technology.

The worldwide market for technology that enables hyperautomation will reach $596.6 billion in 2022, according to a new forecast from Gartner, Inc. This is up from $481.6 billion in 2020 and a projected $532.4 billion this year.

In recent years, the use of robots and robotics has exploded; they are playing an increasingly large role in everyday life – specifically in the business world – and this will only increase throughout and beyond this decade. Bots, by definition, automate manual work. Tasks that used to take us sometimes weeks to complete can now be executed in a matter of seconds with the help of bots. This especially applies to online data collection.

Let me make one thing clear upfront: I am no psychologist. I am not a trendwatcher. But I am interested in how we, as humans, are reacting to hypes. When I was a little boy I experienced some hypes but due to the fact that my parents were immune to hypes somehow, I did not really care. Yes, I did collect stamps, I did like to play with marbles. But, Flippo’s, Pokemon, Tamagotchi did not really make my heart tick. Those hypes did not touch me. However, technology does. But not for the sake of it, I like to be pragmatic about it: let’s put it to work for us in a meaningful way.

Research firm HowToRobot has published a report in which it has described the robotics market in the United Kingdom, including the data of 410 automation firms. Although the application of robotics is broad, the most popular uses at this stage seem to be automation in the supply chain.

Anyone with children knows that while controlling one child can be hard, controlling many at once can be nearly impossible. Getting swarms of robots to work collectively can be equally challenging, unless researchers carefully choreograph their interactions — like planes in formation — using increasingly sophisticated components and algorithms. But what can be reliably accomplished when the robots on hand are simple, inconsistent, and lack sophisticated programming for coordinated behavior?

Army and Arizona State University researchers identified a set of approaches to help scientists assess how well autonomous systems and humans communicate.

In its highly anticipated legislative proposal for AI, the European Commission today projected a clear message: fundamental rights and European values are at the core of Europe’s approach to AI. Europe is basically saying: when it comes to this technology, ‘anything goes’ is no longer the norm. We will not allow everything, just because it can be done. And we don’t just regulate bits and elements of the technology, we set EU wide rules that will resonate across the globe.

Organizations running on SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC can manage a great deal of processes, but there are several challenges. Processes stretch beyond SAP systems; expert work can be expensive and integration with SAP S/4HANA requires specific tasks. Here Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Process Mining can come to the rescue.