Luis Roman, the global head of site & supply at Johnson & Johnson, has been announced as a keynote speaker at the NextGen Supply Chain Conference. The conference, which will be held at the Chicago Athletic Association hotel from Oct. 21-23, is produced by Peerless Media and Robotics24/7’s sister brand, Supply Chain Management Review. Read more about Roman, the keynote address, the conference and SCMR here.
Toronto, Canada-based robotics sensor and edge AI provider Forcen recently announced it closed a $8.35 million Canadian dollars - or approximately $6.12 million United States dollars - funding round. The round was co-led by Brightspark Ventures and BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund with participation by Garage Capital and MaRS IAF, and returning investors including EmergingVC. Forcen said it will use this investment to scale up prototype production facilities to support more customers and continue developing its force/torque sensing technology and edge AI. Founded in 2015, the company said it creates force/torque sensing components and edge AI software systems designed…
French vacuum handling system components manufacturer COVAL SAS recently announced the latest addition to its range of multi-stage vacuum pumps, the CMS M series. COVAL said its CMS M series has been designed and developed with two guiding objectives: compactness and performance. It has been designed for industrial applications which require high suction flow rates. CMS M multi-stage mini vacuum pumps are the product of COVAL's research, seeking to provide a powerful, durable solution for grippers handling porous parts, emptying tanks, or random gripping in harsh industrial environments. A compact design and optimized multi-stage Venturi system can enable suction flows…
Elysium Robotics recently announced it has developed artificial muscles for high-dexterity applications such as humanoid robots and prosthetics. Mark Hammond, Elysium co-founder, said the company’s actuators can be used to produce a low-cost hand with human performance. A 27 degree-of-freedom hand can be built for under $1,000 using the company’s technology. Elysium has created a soft robotic dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) that can be mass-produced at low cost, with a performance and footprint similar to human muscle. By applying a voltage across the fibers, tension can be modulated, and size and strength controlled just like human muscles. Current actuators limited…
Software-defined autonomous vehicle control system technology provider Applied EV recently selected CISSOID's new CXT-ICM3SA series of silicon carbide (SiC) inverter control modules (ICMs) to drive their latest generation of autonomous vehicle electric motors. Semiconductor manufacturer CISSOID said it is dedicated to serving the electric mobility (e-mobility) market. The company’s software-powered SiC ICMs are augmented with onboard programmable hardware, which can accelerate the response time to critical events, reduce load on processor cores, and enhance functional safety. “We are excited to embark on this collaborative journey with Applied EV to drive innovation in e-mobility,” said Dave Hutton, CISSOID CEO. “By combining…
Flexible material handling automation systems provider Vecna Robotics recently announced the close of its Series C round at $100 million, with $40 million in new funding including equity and debt, which nearly doubles the company valuation from the previous round. Tiger Global Management, Proficio Capital Partners, and IMPULSE participated in the investment round. Vecna said the cash infusion will be used to fund new workflow-specific innovations that can enable it to deliver rapid ROI to cost-conscious warehouse operators served by the $165 billion pallet-moving autonomy market. “Finalizing this capital raise, with the help of our existing investors and a new…
Global modular warehouse storage automation company AutoStore recently relocated its United States headquarters to an expanded facility in Salem, N.H. The company said its U.S. headquarters relocation will bring over 100 jobs to the greater Boston region and will support the company’s continued growth and investment in the North American automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) market. At over 40,000 square feet, AutoStore said its new facility will better serve and support end customers with a growing service team, revamped training programs, and comprehensive onsite technology demonstrations. AutoStore Academy to offer hands-on and virtual training The Salem headquarters will house…
Airports are home to a variety of industries and businesses. Airside operations function alongside cargo and baggage ground handling logistics. Customer-facing terminals house security checkpoints and retail outlets. Runways, taxiways, ramps, and large grass fields make up most of the land area, while restaurants and stores inside terminals are compressed into expensive real estate. “When I think of an airport, it's like a small city,” said Cole Wolfson, director of the xBridge innovation center at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). “There's just about every industry that you can think of that operates here. And so there's boundless opportunities to find new…
“When Locus Robotics started, getting 10 robots to work together on the floor - work well together - was a big, big challenge. Now, we have customers running nearly 1,000 robots over a million square feet.” Neil Bentley, senior director of product management at Locus Robotics, succinctly described the history of the Wilmington, Mass. company. Locus recently surpassed the 3 billion pick mark across its deployments, a major milestone and one that grew from 2 billion to 3 billion item picks in just over eight months. The chicken or the egg? As Locus received funding and developed its offerings, the…
Founded in 2019, California-based Robust.AI knew the bar was set high for its initial software and hardware rollout. Three years later, when its Grace software suite and Carter collaborative autonomous mobile robot (AMR) debuted, Robust set out to differentiate itself from the marketplace. Who knew it would all come back to the bar? “Designed with humans in mind” Kavitha Velusamy is the senior vice president of engineering at Robust.AI. She joined the company in 2021 and has played a major role in the development of Grace and Carter. One of the first things that users will notice about Carter, and…
