Technologies

Hitachi acquired Kyoto Robotics, a Japan-based developer of 3D vision systems, control systems and more recently picking robots for the logistics industry. Hitachi acquired 96% of all issued shares of Kyoto Robotics and made it a subsidiary. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. Hitachi said the acquisition will enable it to provide one-stop shop of…

Welcome to Episode 40 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. You can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify and more. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave us…

Root AI, a Somerville, Mass.-based startup developing the Virgo harvesting robot for indoor farms, was acquired by AppHarvest for $60 million. AppHarvest is investing approximately $10 million in cash and the remaining balance in AppHarvest common shares to acquire Root AI. Founded in 2018, Root AI’s 19 full-time employees are expected to join AppHarvest’s technology…

Canonical and Open Robotics announced a 10-year partnership around extended security maintenance (ESM) and enterprise support for the Robot Operating System (ROS). ROS support will be made available as an option to Ubuntu Advantage support customers. Open Robotics is the organization behind ROS. Users already taking advantage of critical security updates and common vulnerabilities and…

RE2 Robotics unveils a new product line with the RE2 Sapien arm.

Piab, a leading end-of-arm tooling developer, has introduced its piSAFE program that enables new benefits in applications where safety, flexibility, speed and performance are key. The solutions in the piSAFE program are developed to provide configurable and low-weight products that can be adapted to a customer’s specific needs. While maintaining leading vacuum performance through Piab’s…

The interaction of the eviXscan 3D scanner with UR’s cobots is possible due to a extension (URCap) to the cobot software. It enables the cobot to communicate with the eviXscan 3D Suite scanner software.

MIT researchers have developed a robot that uses radio waves, which can pass through walls, to sense occluded objects. The robot, called RF-Grasp, combines this powerful sensing with more traditional computer vision to locate and grasp items that might otherwise be blocked from view. The advance could one day streamline e-commerce fulfillment in warehouses or…

Open Robotics released the latest version of its Gazebo simulator, called Edifice. The release includes the latest rendering features, as well as new sensors and controllers.

Researchers studied how reinforcement learning enabled a robot arm equipped with a parallel jaw gripper and tactile sensors to insert unknown objects into a hole.

Harmonic Drive announced its new RSF-5 miniature actuator with an integrated servo drive. This evolutionary product eliminates the need for an external drive and greatly simplifies cabling while retaining high-positional accuracy and torsional stiffness in a compact housing. The RSF Mini and Supermini series is a family of compact actuators that deliver high torque with…

There are some tasks traditional robots – the rigid and metallic kind – simply aren’t cut out for. Soft-bodied robots, on the other hand, may be able to interact with people more safely or slip into tight spaces with ease. But for robots to reliably complete their programmed duties, they need to know the whereabouts…

Safety system monitors two protective fields simultaneously around a cobot, making it possible to dynamically reduce or stop the robot’s movement only when a person is too close to the working area.

Packaging operations continue to embrace automation as a way to reduce labor costs and workplace injuries while improving the efficiency and quality of packaged goods. But the use of automation isn’t evenly distributed, with large consumer packaged goods producers running with more automation than smaller packaging firms. One area ripe for increased automation are operations…

Cartesian control of UR’s cobots is now available via ROS. Beta testing of this new code is just beginning.

The TC1 has four integrated pass-through air ports plus optional electrical passthrough modules that connect directly to cobots from Universal Robots.

New motion dataset offers object trajectories and corresponding 3D maps for over 100,000 segments, each 20 seconds long and mined for interesting interactions with cars, people, and more.

OnRobot CEO Enrico Krog Iversen alluded to a series of upcoming product announcements during his appearance on last week’s episode of The Robot Report Podcast. The 2020 RBR50 company has released the first of those products, the MG10 electric magnetic gripper. It is designed for material handling, assembly and machine tending applications in manufacturing, automotive…

Welcome to Episode 37 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. You can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify and more. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave us…

Amazon launched SageMaker Reinforcement Learning (RL) Kubeflow Components, an open-source toolkit designed to help manage robotics workflows. SageMaker RL is designed to make it faster to develop machine learning capabilities for everything from perception to controls and optimization. Amazon SageMaker is a service built on Amazon’s two decades of experience developing real-world machine learning applications.…

Training data is collected in Unity and used to train a deep neural network that predicts the pose of a cube. This model is then deployed in a simulated robot pick-and-place task.

New soft actuator can flap nearly 500 times per second, giving drones insect-like resilience.