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 0.27
March 18, 2023
…among retailers and warehouses. The trend up to the [COVID-19] pandemic was just-in-time inventory and to store as little as possible. The assumption was that manufacturers could pump out products and get them to customers as fast as possible. When the pandemic hit, not only were manufacturers struggling to ramp up to meet demand, but they needed overflow space. It changed customer behavior, and they had to pay a bunch more for warehouse space. Does this mean that good data visibility and analytics are as valuable as space? Oliaro: Most of the customers we work with don’t do a good…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.27
November 17, 2021
…it is open for reservations. Nommi noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer expectations “for high-quality, low-touch, and speedy food options.” With restaurants operating with 2.8 fewer employees in the front of house and 6.2 fewer workers in the back of house, automation is increasingly seen as necessary for survival, it said. The company's team includes food and robotics experts from Miso Robotics, SBE, C3, Walt Disney Imagineering, and iRobot. Nommi claimed that its standalone robotic kitchen can be customized for a variety of cuisines and brands. C3 fills digital kitchen orders Nommi has partnered with C3 (Creating Culinary…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.27
July 09, 2020
…intralogistics keep growing quickly, given the disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic? Unemployment has skyrocketed. Some manufacturers temporarily had to shut down sites, and many companies have tightened their budgets, at least in the short term. At the same time, e-commerce has spiked, especially in sectors like grocery. And while it may be too early to tally the impacts of the pandemic on robotics, in the long term, the technology’s ability to increase productivity with minimal added labor bodes well for the technology, says Rian Whitton, a senior analyst at ABI. “From what we’re seeing, there has been a huge increase…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.27
September 22, 2021
…based on the growth we have seen driven by COVID-19 and labor shortages.” “At the same time, robotics developers face challenges with system complexity, unstructured environments, and complex sensor configurations,” Gopalakrishna said. “NVIDIA is working to make it easier for them to build realistic and scalable models, train machine learning algorithms using synthetic data, and deploy models on the edge.” Open Robotics to extend ROS for NVIDIA AI “As more ROS developers leverage hardware platforms that contain additional compute capabilities designed to offload the host CPU, ROS is evolving to make it easier to efficiently take advantage of these advanced…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.26
May 13, 2022
…robotics, is sure to continue attracting investment. Self-driving cars, COVID-19 shape robotics We've talked before about the potential for robotics in general to benefit from the money currently pouring into AV development. Have you seen any of that happen yet? Sharma: The field of robotics has immense application in the development of autonomous vehicles. As such, investments in the AV market have benefited companies primarily engaged in robotics. Self-driving technologies such as ADAS [advanced driver-assist systems] and lidar have boosted investment in robotics. Large automakers such as Ford, BMW, Honda, and General Motors have been investing heavily in the development…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.26
March 15, 2022
…she'll follow up throughout the day and tomorrow.” The COVID-19 pandemic heightened awareness of the need for social engagement, said Skuler. “Early customers may have gotten ElliQ for different reasons, but we're now seeing higher alignment with the value of having a roommate they can depend on,” he said. Intuition Robotics partners for additional services ElliQ’s service comes with a series of wellness coach sessions to help older adults define their goals. ElliQ then proactively motivates them to take control of their physical, mental, and social health, said Intuition Robotics. In a recent pilot study, ElliQ was shown to more…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.25
April 16, 2021
…created for this competition. The pandemic and beyond The COVID-19 pandemic increased interest in robotic avatars, but when it eases, do you expect that interest to continue? Morie: Avatar technologies can also help with lessening the carbon footprint of travel and provide many more opportunities for those whom travel is simply not possible. As “avataring” in to a robot body is immediate, hours that might have been spent in an airport or train station are no longer lost. As we get more sophisticated ways to transmit our senses—like touch and smell—this may become a preferred way to travel, for many…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
June 24, 2023
…full employment. The trillions injected into the economy during COVID-19 led to an inflationary effect, which could become intrinsic, but the central banks will have to see. Was Shopify's sale of mobile robot company 6 River Systems to Ocado (itself said to be up for purchase by Amazon.com) a sign of weakness in certain segments? Sharma: Supply chain issues were a big problem during the pandemic, as well as high demand from consumers. Home delivery had become critical, and then there were shortages on the worker side. You'd think that supply chains and warehousing would already be automated, but at…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
January 07, 2022
…open to CES attendees but scaled back due to COVID-19. Going back to the IMS, we showcased where the 19 teams were in their journey toward eventual head-to-head racing. Based on a variety of conditions, like weather, we didn't feel that putting multiple cars on track was a safe bet at that time. We wanted to first show that autonomous cars could go fast in a safe but exciting environment, so we had a time-trial format. We did include things like pylons for obstacle avoidance. It was important to ensure that teams couldn't just program vehicles to stay on a…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
May 26, 2023
…faced financial challenges after the e-commerce boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, the largest AMR and ASRS providers still had a strong presence, such as Locus Robotics, Mobile Industrial Robots, and AutoStore. The trends toward heavy-duty mobile robots for palletizing, such as those from Zebra Technologies, and robots for reaching high storage, such as from Hai Robotics and Exotec, were also in evidence. “So much education still has to happen,” said Jennifer Samples, vice president at AMR provider ForwardX Robotics. “We have three levels of clients: people who know they need automation but don't know where to begin, others…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
January 11, 2022
…about his background, how Universal Robots has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company's plans for innovations in 2022. You came to Universal Robots from Schneider Electric—how familiar were you with robotics before becoming CEO? Povlsen: I grew up in Odense and went to the University of Southern Denmark, where the whole cobot thing started. I'm a robotics engineer and studied at the same place as UR's three co-founders. There wasn't that much of a robotics community when I was studying, but a lot of our professors were helping to launch startups. When I was done with my studies, I…
