Packaging & Palletizing • Pick-Place

3D vision offers robotics and other industrial automation some unique advantages, but users should be aware of cost considerations, says Mitsubishi Electric.

A consumer survey supports predictions that online grocery orders will increase to 10% of total sales this year, reported micro-fulfillment provider Fabric. The novel coronavirus outbreak has accelerated this increase, it said.

Berkshire Grey said its new Robotic Induction Station is intended to be quick and easy to deploy and can add capacity and efficiency for operations built around traditional sortation systems and processes.

Photoneo’s director of AI explains the ways in which 3D computer vision, machine learning, and robotics can help logistics operations with depalletization.

ABB said its new IRB 390 FlexPacker is compatible with its digital twin and picking products and can help facilities meet the accelerating demand of omnichannel order fulfillment.

Covariant, which is developing AI for unassisted industrial robotics applications, has raised $40 million.

Coty Cosmetics is a worldwide cosmetics company behind such well-known brands as Sally Hansen, Rimmel and CoverGirl. At the company’s factory in Maryland, eight Universal Robots on four mobile carts now automate the picking and packing of products at the powder presses. The mobile solution delivers $500,000 in annual savings while improving both quality inspection […]

Ripcord is applying industrial automation lessons to the digitization of millions of paper records to help business processes be more efficient, remotely accessible, and less wasteful.

By Matt Wicks, Chief Robotics Solution Architect Automated palletizing solutions, whether conventional or robotic, can offer significant productivity and efficiency improvements to your operation while taking up minimal floor space. Of the two, robotic palletizing systems have become increasingly popular in recent years, both for their flexibility and easy adaptability to changing needs and products.…

By Matt Wicks, Chief Robotics Solution Architect Automated storage and retrieval systems To maximize DC productivity, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are a connected material handling technology that dramatically increases inventory density while significantly reducing picker travel and item search times. Working with warehouse management software, AS/RS support a variety of order-fulfillment processes, such as:…

ICM, a major provider of personal protective gear in Scandinavia, has turned to MiR1000 mobile robots to free staffers for higher-value tasks such as prioritizing pallet loads.

New end-of-arm tooling options, wider interoperability, and improved safety features are enabling enable collaborative robot users to apply automation to more tasks across industries.

Robotic piece picking requires the right end effectors for the items being picked, properly trained machine vision, and interfaces with other systems, notes XYZ Robotics CTO Peter Yu.

Covariant, which won an ABB global competition to assess the maturity of AI for e-commerce order-fulfillment robots, is now partnering with the robot maker to supply that market.

Nomagic, a Warsaw, Poland-based developer of pick-and-place robots for warehouses, closed a $8.6 million seed funding round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and is one of the biggest seed rounds for a Polish startup to date. E-commerce order fulfillment faces worker shortages worldwide. Since automation can relieve human warehouse workers of tedious tasks,…

Universal Robots will be debuting new systems with partners at its booth at ATX, including the miniPAL palletizing system, the Universal Metrology Automation from 3D Infotech, and a Vention offering using a UR5e cobot arm.

The Danish division of Carlsberg, one of the leading brewery groups in the world, was looking to improve safety conditions for employees at its factory in Fredericia, Denmark. To do so, Carlsberg adopted two collaborative robots (cobots) from Universal Robots. With the cobots, Carlsberg has significantly improved staff safety and taken steps towards achieving zero […]

B&R, a unit of ABB, is fully integrating ABB’s robots with the rest of its industrial automation offerings, providing a unified interface and development environment.

In its Everyday Robot Project, X, Alphabet’s “moonshot factory” has been training robots using a variety of machine learning techniques in the hopes of developing general-purpose robots.

Researchers at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision have developed a way for robots to “think on the move,” using active perception to improve grasping and manipulation.

Soft Robotics has made its pneumatic grippers portable with the new coDrive technology, enabling a range of collaborative robotics applications.

Rethink Robotics GmbH is following its plans to continue developing collaborative robots with the quieter and more precise Sawyer Black Edition.