Industrial Robots; Robot Arms; Cameras, Scanners and Vision Systems; Collaborative Cage-free Robots; Mobile Robots; Robot Operating Systems; Warehousing and Materials Handling; New Technologies, and Jobs By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report There are fewer manufacturers of industrial robots than one might imagine: only a little more than 200 worldwide. Of these, less…
Automate and ProMat in Freezing Chicago: A Recap
Automate 2013 held last week in Chicago seemed all about integrating vision capabilities into robotic tasks. The epitome of this was the Industrial Perception robot quickly choosing and grabbing randomly sized and stacked boxes from the back of a truck. The new collaborative cage-free robots from Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots drew large crowds. Another…
M2 – M is for Motion – Part 2
Let’s break down some of the terms pertaining to motion control. I am suggesting a definition along the lines of “An independently functioning system capable of converting energy to perform work”, or something to that effect. The notion being that the most central elements are that it is a system, the system performs work, energy […]
Intuitive Surgical’s stock jumps 11% in two days; iRobot is up 9% in a single day
4th quarter earnings were 23% higher than last year’s Q4 and income rose 16%. That’s 15 straight quarters beating analysts expectations. 2012 revenue was $2.178 billion. Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) expects revenue growth to be 16%-19% for 2013. iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) didn’t report earnings or expectations. It announced that it’s autonomous platform used by InTouch Health in…
GA Tech’s Henrik Christensen Gives Keynote Speech at Automate 2013
In keynote, Dr. Henrik Christensen, Director of Robotics, GA Tech, described the technologies, advancements and myriad evidences of dramatic movement in robotics. The Roadmap for U.S. Robotics is being revised to reflect these changes and advancements — and will be presented to Congress in March. Christensen cited as a significant evidence that Foxconn, Apple and…
M is for Motion Control
During the last decade or so the controls industry has adopted the term “Mechatronics” as a replacement for the previously used phrase “motion control”. I will respectfully break with the current trend and suggest that motion control is the proper term because it better defines the field of knowledge. For one thing, the term […]
CBS News’ 60 Minutes Provides New Definition of Robots
UPDATED 3/6/2013 to reflect 5 critiques and objections to the CBS segment on robotics. CBS New 60 Minutes did a segment on robots, robotics and jobs Sunday evening. They coined a new definition of robotics: “The broad universal definition is a machine that can perform the job of a human. The machine can be mobile…
CBS News 60 Minutes Provides New Definition of Robots
by Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report CBS News Reporter Steve Kroft interviews Rodney Brooks at ReThink Robotics.Click on the image above to see the segment. UPDATE March 6: Many reacted to the 60 Minutes segment as it related to the subject of whether robotics takes away or adds jobs. Abstracts and links…
Feedback
In the past I would have said I was more familiar with the kind of feedback that came from an electric guitar and amplifier. Lately I have become more familiar with the kind that shows up on servomotors and linear feedback on actuators. Feedback technology has become more sophisticated and some vendors like Timken Motion […]
Leap Motion gets $30 million for new Kinect-like device
Hot new Leap Motion Kinect-like product gets another $30 million (bringing the total to $44 million). Leap Motion controller senses individual hand and finger movements so you can interact directly with your computer. Device covers range of 8 cubic feet of 3D interaction space. Sales price of $70. Available in the spring. Bye bye mice.
$100 million P-P-P suggestion for healthcare robotics
Op-ed piece suggesting $100 million be invested in developing eldercare robot similar to the robot in the movie “Robot & Frank.” EU is already funding a similar project called Companionable with their robot named Hector. If America doesn't lead in robotics, they will continue to be a buyer of robots made in Germany and Japan.…
$100 million P-P-P suggestion for healthcare robotics
Hector, the eldercare robot, from the EU-funded Companionable Project. By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report As the robotics industry continues to grow, enters new industries, and provides new applications, strategic focus is necessary or the overall industry will develop haphazardly and spread out around the world. It is important to remember that…
The Future of Control
The industrial controls industry does not seem to follow the economies of scale that the rest of the electronics world seems to follow. This can be explained by the fact that for most industrial control products, the production volumes are generally in the tens of thousands of a specific product and not the high volumes […]
Big 4 Robotic Stocks Outperform Dow Jones
All the projections suggested that industrial robot stocks would perform well this year (and for the foreseeable future), and they did. KUKA’s stock did particular well on expectations that their extensive movement into the Chinese marketplace (with new offices and factories in China) would yield significant rewards. Click to enlarge.
2012 Robo-Stox Wrap-up
If an enterprising firm set up a mutual fund reflecting the worldwide robotics industry, they might choose to separate their picks into three segments, which might look something like this: Industrial Robot Manufacturers Service Robot Makers of security, defense and space robots Service Robot Makers of robots for all other purposes Although I am neither…
2012: Filling a need or feeding a diversion?
2012 has been a year of really great inventions, silly ones, temporary solutions (like the new tethered drone from CyPhy Works), and diversions. All happening seemingly simultaneously, without moderation, guidance and little direction. And most are transitional (or at least incremental) with better solutions in the labs or courtrooms waiting for breakthroughs. But there are…
Filling a need… or feeding a diversion
Today’s robotics industry could use some strategic guidance, particularly in the area of healthcare. By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report It is clear to me that the next big markets for robotics are: SMEs (robot workers and co-workers in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) Medical and healthcare (nursing assistance, surgeon augmentation, operating room…
Why I’m Not Going to CES 2013
I’ve gone a few years in a row to Las Vegas CES and found it VERY interesting for trends in everything “smart,” digital and embedded, and not so interesting in terms of robotics. The auto companies have GINORMOUS displays of their in-car infotainment and embedded systems for the future and that is worth the time…