By Frank Tobe, editor and publisher, The Robot Report UPDATED: October 6, 2013 CBS Evening News focuses on jobs aspect of deploying robots in American factories. Click to see. Small and medium shops and factories (SMEs) are an untapped marketplace for robotics and direly in need of automation to remain competitive in this global economy.…
A dilemma of high risk high reward
The following article by Frank Tobe, editor and publisher of The Robot Report, first appeared on Robohub.org in their special focus series: High-risk / High-reward. Often funding sources – the groups taking the risk – are not the beneficiaries of the rewards of the venture. Intuitive Surgical and Rethink Robotics are two examples. NSF, DARPA and…
Rethink Robotics’ Baxter and Universal Robots UR5 and UR10 Succeeding
By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Low-cost robots are marching into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Much has been said about the need to augment the skills and increase the productivity of small factory workers by using robotic assistants called co-robots. Europe funded an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) public-private consortium to…
China’s Mammoth Intro to Robotics
by Frank Tobe and Manoj Sahi According to Xinhua, the official press agency of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will deploy 1 million robots over the next three years to improve efficiency and reduce labor for tasks better suited to a robot. The robots will be used…