ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
Businesswire | March 23, 2023
Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation, a leader in the design, development and manufacture of advanced robotic systems that redefine human possibilities, is collaborating with Jabil Inc., a leading manufacturing solutions provider, to expand Sarcos’ production capacity for its robotic systems and sub-systems.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sarcos will utilize Jabil’s broad manufacturing services to produce a variety of leading-edge robotic systems and sub-systems. Sarcos also will be able to leverage Jabil’s global footprint, strategic supplier relationships, and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to accelerate volume production while benefiting from advanced supply chain, procurement, and component-sourcing solutions.
“We expect that our relationship with Jabil will advance Sarcos’ manufacturing capabilities tremendously, helping to augment our overall production capacity and enabling us to scale much faster than we could without their support,” said Kiva Allgood, president and CEO, Sarcos. “We are excited to work with a proven manufacturing services leader that has a long-standing record of success and an established global network of vendors and partners as we begin delivering our robotic systems to our customers.”
Sarcos expects to increase the production of its commercial robotics technologies throughout 2023, with manufacturing and assembly occurring at a combination of Sarcos’ facilities in Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh, as well as Jabil’s San Jose, California-based production site. Sarcos anticipates that Jabil will primarily produce sub-systems for Sarcos’ commercial products this year, particularly the Guardian® XT™ dexterous robotic system and may also include the Guardian® XM intelligent robotic system and Guardian® Sea Class Robotic System. In 2023, final system assembly is expected to take place at Sarcos facilities.
“Jabil is pleased to provide our value-added manufacturing services, which we are confident will expand Sarcos’ overall production capacity in a highly cost-effective and efficient manner,” said Craig Trotter, vice president of the capital equipment business unit, Jabil. “Our deep expertise in materials science, mechanical assembly, and human-machine interfaces, along with final assembly and test, will prove pivotal in accelerating world-class production of Sarcos’ industry-leading robotic systems and sub-systems.”
About Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation
Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation designs, develops, and manufactures a broad range of advanced mobile robotic systems that redefine human possibilities and are designed to enable the safest most productive workforce in the world. Sarcos robotic systems operate in challenging, unstructured, industrial environments and include teleoperated robotic systems, a powered robotic exoskeleton, and software solutions that enable task autonomy.
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ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
FANUC America | December 01, 2022
Micropsi Industries today announced that its artificial intelligence (AI)-based software MIRAI is now compatible with numerous robots produced by FANUC, a leading supplier of robotics and factory automation in Japan, and its U.S. subsidiary FANUC America. With MIRAI, FANUC customers can now add valuable hand-eye coordination to multiple FANUC industrial and collaborative robots (cobots) to handle difficult-to-automate functions such as cable plugging and assembly.
Using AI, the MIRAI controller generates robot movements directly and in real-time. Robot skills are trained, not programmed, in a few days through human demonstration, without requiring knowledge of programming or AI. To train a robot, a human repeatedly demonstrates a task by manually guiding the robot by the robot’s wrist. The recorded movements are then transformed into a skill.
“MIRAI is a game changer, For the last 20 years I’ve heard companies ask for this kind of dynamic path augmentation technology repeatedly, so seeing it work is really amazing. What’s even more amazing is how affordable it is to add this kind of automation-enabling technology to any of our robots or collaborative cobots. I’ve already showed this technology to large and small manufacturers that are asking us to implement flexible robot automation faster, and unanimously, they are very interested in implementing MIRAI.”
-Jerry Perez, executive director of global accounts, FANUC America.
That’s because while robots can work tirelessly and precisely with high repeatability, they are limited in their ability to perform complex motorized processes. The required hand-eye coordination is just not present in a robot. If the robot falters due to variances or deviations, employees must intervene, and are sometimes burdened with unergonomic tasks. This inhibits the performance of manufacturing companies who are already struggling with the prevailing shortage of skilled workers.
Cable plugging, which can now be automated quickly and intelligently is just one example of MIRAI's further automation potential. Micropsi Industries plans additional automation projects that will expand the range of applications for FANUC’s industrial robots. The medium- and long-term goal: to revolutionize industrial work from the ground up.
"Cable plugging applications such as flat ribbon cables for the electronics industry or industrial automotive connectors typically require a high degree of flexibility to accommodate shape instability, making it a difficult task for any robot. MIRAI makes this type of application possible, Grabbing a flexible part, guiding it and placing it accurately into a socket may be a trivial task for humans, but it has been basically impossible to complete for industrial robots.Micropsi Industries working with FANUC’s robots will break new ground by making automation possible where it has never been before, In this strategic relationship, our MIRAI intelligent controller meets the world's largest portfolio of industrial robots. Together, we are tapping into the nearly unlimited possibilities of task-specific machine learning for robotics. In doing so, we are making it accessible to even more industries and users, ensuring greater flexibility under real production conditions."
-Prof. Dominik Bösl, chief technology officer, Micropsi Industries.
About Micropsi Industries:
Micropsi Industries provides artificial intelligence-based software for industrial and collaborative robots (cobots). MIRAI, its flagship product, allows these robotic arms to be controlled in real time, in direct response to sensor information. This is made possible by AI that enables the robots to learn from humans and deal with variances so they can more easily and cost-effectively operate in dynamic environments. With offices in Berlin, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Micropsi Industries is working to make task-specific machine learning a reality in industrial automation. The company’s vision is to reliably automate work processes while reducing the effort required.
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Rockwell Automation | May 25, 2020
Marc Baret, Director, EMEA industrial services, Rockwell Automation discusses the future of automation for remote monitoring and cloud analytics
Automation is rapidly changing the jobs we do, the places we work, and even how we define work. Forrester has predicted that one million knowledge-work jobs will be replaced by chatbots, software robotics, RPA and virtual agents in 2020 alone. This may sound like an ominous forewarning, but the report also estimates 331,500 jobs will be added to US workforces alone, uplifted by roles requiring empathy, intuition and mental and physical agility.
As automation adoption increases it will bolster connectivity and reliability and help businesses make data, systems and processes more accessible and available. However, many manufacturing firms are finding their route to automation and digital transformation strategies being slowed down by productivity levels and the simultaneous risk of downtime.
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