Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.42
February 24, 2023
…driven by things including anxiety related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, mounting employee frustrations, and limited options for flexible work. In 2021 alone, more than 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs, according to the Harvard Business Review. Many of them have yet to return to full-time employment—if they ever do. With such a large exodus, many enterprises are turning to robots and AI. Some have touted automation as the only way to solve the workforce shortage. However, it didn't take long for companies such as Amazon and Tesla to realize that “lights-out” facilities are not necessarily as good as…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.37
February 17, 2023
…French territories. In the context of disruptions around the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts, and an energy crisis, French industry faces the challenge of rapid reindustrialization, noted Fuzzy Logic. There is a strong demand for increased production at lower costs and with better quality. However, with a shortage of qualified personnel and tools, robotics is seen as the key to increased productivity, said the company. At the same time, many industrial robots are inaccessible because of their expense and need for technical expertise. Fuzzy Logic said its Fuzzy Studio software offers the industry an easy-to-use and cost-effective solution to these problems.
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.43
February 16, 2023
…said Hayes. “ASTM did a similar event prior to COVID-19 focusing on exoskeletons, with five vendors and 25 industry partners.” “OEMs walked away with exo sales and saved a lot fo time and money,” she recalled. “Now, they want more robots to be demoed. The goal is implementation.” ASTM International also plans to host a university exoskeleton competition this summer. “Unleash the Bots will show what's out there and what problems robots can currently solve and are not yet addressing,” Hayes added. “Small firms and global manufacturers will have the opportunity to learn what problems are solved and what's already…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.29
February 14, 2023
…and mobile robots to automated storage and software. With post-COVID-19 e-commerce shifts, ongoing labor shortages, and recessionary fears as a given, most of the speakers, exhibitors, and attendees at this year's Manifest were still bullish on automation. They acknowledged the challenges of identifying the best robots for a particular job, as well as the growing needs for interoperability and easy ways to collect, analyze, and present data. Manifest attendance doubles in second year More than 3,000 people attended Manifest at Caesar's Forum—at least double the 1,500 attendees at last year's inaugural event, according to event organizers. Conference sessions began on…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.61
February 10, 2023
…to the accelerated growth of e-commerce demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain challenges have put strain on retailers, noted Darwynn. Consumers “now expect items to be in stock and delivered with speed,” it said. To meet these growing demands and improve Canadian supply chains, fulfillment operations need to take advantage of technological advancements, Darwynn said. The company said its new facility will “disrupt the industry with high-tech solutions that bring significant improvement to the fulfillment network as it scales its end-to-end ecosystem nationwide.” The new fulfillment facility is located at 40 Pullman Court in Scarborough. It spans over…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 2.95
February 07, 2023
While the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic continues, robots are still helping with research and diagnostics. ABB Robotics yesterday said it has developed an automated neutralizing antibody testing system with the University of Texas Medical Branch, or UTMB. The company said it is “the most effective means of determining an individual’s immunity to various strains of COVID.” “The ability to carry out more daily tests is the key to generating more data on individual immunity profiles that will help control the further spread of the virus,” stated Dr. Michael Laposata, professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology at UTMB.…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.40
February 01, 2023
…was in 2018, just a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world and forced many companies to reassess the role technology plays in their operations. While Ally was just having initial discussions about bringing in automation at the time, the pandemic accelerated the company’s timeline, Davis said. It needed to start offering temperature screening, masks, and other tools to help ensure that people stayed far enough apart. Security robots answer the call The team decided to enlist Cobalt Robotics, a provider of security robots, to help it get the job done. The Fremont, Calif.-based startup had just recently…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.36
January 30, 2023
…in e-commerce has slowed since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard a lot about labor shortages last year. Do you expect that to continue? Martinelli: We've discussed the growth in e-commerce sales and labor challenges. Businesses need labor to keep scaling up. COVID changed labor markets, with the “great resignation,” boomers retiring, and immigration restrictions getting tougher. As Joe Campbell at Universal Robots has noted, even if you took all the people who are unemployed, you still couldn't fill the millions of open positions in manufacturing. Would reshoring of production to the U.S. help or worsen that situation?…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.64
January 30, 2023
…to $8.9 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2%, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forecast Research Reports World. Infiniti Research Ltd. predicted a CAGR of 16% and growth of $2.1 billion between 2022 and 2027. Similarly, Technavio estimated a CAGR of 16.43%, with 48% of that growth in Asia-Pacifc. KUKA said it plans to show the KMP 600-S at upcoming events, including ProMAT 2023 in March in Chicago.
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.37
January 26, 2023
…improvement, and our installed base passed 1,000 systems worldwide.” “COVID-19 accelerated e-commerce growth by five years, and there's a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty,” he told Robotics 24/7. “However, trends like urbanization, increasing demand for same-day delivery, and a lack of labor will remain. The need to optimize every inch of space will continue to be a major driver of dense automation.” Founded in 1996, AutoStore claimed to be a pioneer in automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). The company's products are distributed, designed, installed, and serviced by a partner network of qualified systems integrators. AutoStore said its system includes stacked…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.27
January 25, 2023
…in warehouses to move goods to customers. During the [COVID-19] pandemic, there were acute shortages, and labor costs went up. They haven't continued to rise at the same rate, but they haven't gone down. The Walmarts of the world don't have problems with capital, but smaller players haven't traditionally used automation. Berkshire Grey offers robotics as a service [RaaS], which takes the capital burden off of companies and makes it easier for some operators to adopt robots. While e-commerce continued to grow in the second half of 2022, isn't there also a shift toward omnichannel? Geyer: Most of the focus…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.31
January 17, 2023
…have supply chain problems from geopolitical conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic affected robotics developers? “It was a massive disruption,” replied Lau. “Being unable to get parts limited our ability to build robots for two years. Fortunately, we had a good team that could employ creative solutions to get parts we need. We're stockpiling certain serial numbers of parts.” While the robotics industry tends to start small, producing 60 robots rather than 1 million, vendors do need 100% of parts to proceed, she noted. Some companies have had to redesign their systems or have multiple configurations, trading off labor for parts,…
