Fetch Robotics, provider of a leading platform for collaborative robotic solutions, has announced a new support program called FetchCare. FetchCare provides round-the-clock support to Fetch Robotics’ worldwide customers in the logistics and warehouse industries. In partnership with Ricoh USA, Inc., FetchCare proactively and remotely provides service for Fetch’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). FetchCare leverages the FetchCore Cloud Robotics Platform, Fetch Robotics’ cloud-based software platform, to remotely resolve issues. The relationship with a globally recognized support services leader like Ricoh ensures that customers can engage with the right technical resources as needed. “Software is the basis of our collaborative robot solutions…
Don’t look now, but robotics are being applied inside our warehouse, distribution center and fulfillment operations around the U.S.— and it may already be happening inside your facility. In fact, recent research from IDC finds that global spending on robotics and related services will more than double by 2020, growing from $91.5 billion in 2016 to more than $188 billion in 2020. In this Special Digital Edition, our editorial staff has picked out some of Modern’s best robotics coverage from over the last year. We take a snapshot of the current materials handling and logistics robotics market; dig into why…
This week, FedEx and Vecna Robotics made public their working relationship in a technology-business story featured in the New York Times. The article highlights the steps FedEx leadership is taking to leverage advanced technologies to improve overall productivity, reassign workers to more rewarding tasks, and meet growing customer demand extending from a rapidly changing global economy. This is the first time Vecna Robotics has publicly acknowledged one the many Fortune 50 companies with which it’s working, in addition to several small- and medium-sized businesses that are using its fully autonomous, zero-infrastructure AGVs and mobile robots. Vecna Robotics RT4500 tuggers are…
Less than a month away, Pack Expo East (April 16-18, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia) already expects more than 6,000 attendees will convene at the biennial three-day event produced by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Pack Expo East is set to showcase the latest packaging innovations driving the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical device, cosmetics and personal care, industrial and household chemical, and other packaged goods industries. Attendees will witness cutting-edge technology, innovative solutions and the opportunity to participate in free educational sessions held on the show floor. The show will feature 400 exhibiting companies spanning nearly…
“There’s something happening here, What it is ain’t exactly clear”….Stephen Stills Over the years, I’ve watched the adoption of any number of new technologies, from WMS to voice recognition systems to shuttle systems. In all three examples, technologies that we take for granted today were, in reality, fairly slow to become part of what Jim Rice at MIT calls “the dominant design” - just another tool in the tool kit. I’m going to go out on a limb, but I’m now convinced that robotic materials handling is at a tipping point in materials handling, and it feels as if the…
Title: Professor, University of California at Berkeley Location: Berkeley, Calif. Primary Focus: For the past several years, artificial intelligence as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Until a few months ago, Abbeel was a researcher at Elon Musk’s OpenAI lab. More recently, he co-founded Embodied Intelligence with three researchers from OpenAI and Berkeley. The company teaches robots how to pick parts and build assemblies using virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Modern: There are plenty of tech startups out there, but it isn’t every day that The New York Times writes a story about one of them less…
At an Assa Abloy plant in Bucharest, Romania, the skills gap is widening every year. In response, the factory’s management invested in robotics to automate simple tasks and move workers to value-added positions. This generated in-house robotics expertise that set an example for the whole Assa Abloy group. About 500 people work at the plant, assembling locks that are sent to other Assa Abloy factories worldwide to be transformed into finished products. Of the many processes performed, most are done manually by employees who have been working there for decades. According to Adrian Iosif, mechanical design engineer at Assa Abloy…
Global freight transportation and logistics services provider XPO Logistics has rolled out a new cloud-based mobile software platform. Entitled WMx, XPO said this offering, which is geared towards mobile devices, paves the way for the “rapid development and integration of automation and robotics” that is much lower than typical start-up times. XPO said that WMx serves as a single solution for warehouse integration by meshing various supply chain components into a wide ranging application with various customer benefits, including: unified order management, maximum configurability, intuitive dashboard tools analyzing trends and guiding decision-making, and multilingual capabilities that synchronize XPO’s global warehouse…
Pearson Packaging Systems, a provider of discrete equipment and complete end-of-line systems for the secondary packaging automation market, has acquired robotic automation specialist Flexicell, Inc. According to a release, the combined organization will be counted among the three largest FANUC integrators in the packaging industry. With more than 25 years of applying robotics to solve packaging and warehouse automation challenges, Flexicell developed technical expertise and a diversified customer base. Its Ashland, Va., facility will expand Pearson’s manufacturing footprint and provide strategic proximity to key customers and markets. The newly acquired company will continue to operate under its own brand name.…
Tasked with supporting the fulfillment across a growing number of distribution channels, warehouses and distribution centers (DCs) are increasingly looked upon as strategic business assets versus cost centers. Where in the past a warehouse or DC was simply a storage facility for goods or a place to put “stuff” as it made its way through the supply chain, the modern-day facility must be agile and capable enough to support brick-and-mortar, e-commerce, B2B, home deliveries and parcel shipments—to name just a few. Achieving this balance requires one of two things: a whole lot of labor and real estate, or advanced technology…
If there were one clear-cut conclusion to be drawn from our “2018 Warehouse and Distribution Center (DC) Equipment Survey,” it would be that the outlook for spending is bullish. The percentage of respondents saying that they’re “proceeding with investments” reached its highest level in four years, and the percent of respondents saying that they’re “holding off” on material handling solutions shrank by 7%. However, the purse strings aren’t being held wide open across the board. A few subcategories saw tepid or declining indications, and generally, respondents seem more interested in specific types of material handling equipment, rather than large scale…
The North American robotics, machine vision and motion control markets continue to set new records, according to the Association for Advancing Automation’s (A3) annual report on market statistics. “What I find most telling about these results is not simply that the automation market continues to grow, but that it is growing in such a wide variety of industries,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3 . “New industries continue to embrace robotics, vision, and motion, reaping the benefits of automation.” Robotics: $1.9 billion in total sales 2017 was a milestone year for the North American robotics market as it surpassed previous…
