Virtually every organization is wrestling and experimenting with automation. But most are missing the benefits that come from deep and systemic change. One of the largest failings, in our estimation, is that organizations aren't spending the time necessary to deeply understand the work they're considering automating. They aren't deconstructing jobs so the specific tasks that can be automated can be identified. And without deconstruction, companies risk significant collateral damage and minimizing their ROI as they attempt to automate entire jobs.
More than 700,000 Multiple Launch Rocket System submunitions have been demilitarized since the Army started using an automated nine-robot system conceptualized, built and programmed by Sandia National Laboratories engineers.
Looking like a delegation of toasters from space, a generation of electrically powered, self-driving mail trucks will roll out of a suburban Detroit industrial park later this year. Their mission: revolutionize mail and package delivery.
Europe has an estimated EUR 100 billion worth of unexploited mineral resources lying at depths of 500-1,000 m. Following centuries of active mining, the continent's more accessible mineral deposits are mostly depleted. However, there are still deep-lying resources in abandoned flooded mines and in unmined underwater deposits that can't be exploited using conventional dry mining techniques.
Edge Hill University's robot, Robbie, has become a soap fan after watching episodes of popular UK drama Emmerdale to learn about dementia.
People are prepared to save a robot at the cost of human lives under certain conditions. One of these situations is when we believe the robot can experience pain. This has been indicated in research led by the team of Sari Nijssen of Radboud University, in collaboration with Barbara Müller of Radboud University and Markus Paulus from LMU Munich, which will appear in Social Cognition on 7 February.
A new design in firefighting robots, already successfully tested in the field, could make firefighters' jobs less dangerous and address one of the biggest challenges with firefighting robots – the ability to maneuver in a burning structure.
A prototype robot that uses intense suction to climb around the outside of aircraft and inspect them for damage has successfully been trialled at Cranfield University.
A Korean research team has proposed a new paradigm for a wearable hand robot that can aid people with lost hand mobility. The hand robot collects user behaviors with a machine learning algorithm to determine the user's intention.
Toshiba Corp. has unveiled a remote-controlled robot with tongs that it hopes will be able to probe the inside of one of the three damaged reactors at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and manipulate chunks of melted fuel.
Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia created the first soft robot mimicking plant tendrils. It is able to curl and climb using the same physical principles determining water transport in plants. The research team is led by Barbara Mazzolai, and results have been published in Nature Communications. In the future, this tendril-like soft robot could inspire the development of wearable devices such as soft braces that actively morph their shape.
Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU have developed an innovative technology enabling people and large industrial robots to work together in an intuitive way that feels a lot like human teamwork. Using the benefit of this technology, robots can recognize gestures, faces and postures to make this collaboration that much safer and more efficient. Fraunhofer IWU is set to present this innovation at the Hannover Messe Preview in hall 19 on January 24, 2019, and at the Hannover Messe in hall 17 at booth C24 from April 1 through 5, 2019.
Amazon on Wednesday began putting cooler-sized robots to work delivering packages to customers in a neighborhood outside Seattle.
In the 21st century, governments cannot ignore how changes in technology will affect employment and political stability.
A bipedal robot walks on the surface of a distant planet. Its sensors scan the environment, sending data back to Earth. It comes to a crumbling hillside, flexes its knees and leaps, thrusters whirring, to land safely above the loose rock.