Does automation always lead to lower costs and greater productivity? Well, obviously, yes. A machine that can assemble 395 paper cups per minute is going to save a lot of money if we install it in our paper cup factory, no question. Even if we keep all out artisanal handcrafts of paper cups and put… Read more »

Labor Day in the United States comes at the end of summer, but in much of the world, it falls on May Day. Every year, on the first of May, a wave of red washes over the globe. Flags unfurl, parades snake through city streets, and rallies fill public squares. This vibrant display isn’t a… Read more »

The animal kingdom continues to be a rich source of inspiration for robot makers. However, a new report from Neuroscience News confirms that animals are still better than robots at locomotion. This was not a foregone conclusion. Cars, trains, and planes all move faster and more efficiently than animals, after all. And when researchers from… Read more »

20,500 American workers suffered trauma from workplace violence in 2020. There were 392 fatalities in that group. 73% of the workers who face violence were women, but 82% of those who died were men. By 2022, when so many of us had gone back to work, the number of deaths reached 525. Manufacturing is not… Read more »

In 2021, services accounted for about 77.6 percent of the American GDP. We can say with confidence that the United States, formerly a manufacturing powerhouse, is now primarily a service economy. Is that a good thing? Maturation or decadence? One position on this question is that a service economy is more mature than a manufacturing… Read more »

“As I stood in the doorway, a strange metallic voice intoned, ‘Would you like a cup of tea, master?’ and a long metal arm with some kind of teapot-shaped device on the end hurled a glittering stream of steaming water up the walls. People were dodging frantically, colliding with each other, shrieking, ‘Switch it off…. Read more »

Chain Store Age recently had a chance to visit one of Amazon’s Robotic Fulfillment Centers. They found that Amazon is not only automating, but also optimizing their systems. They begin by using AI to create demand forecasts that tell the company where to ship items for distribution. If they see that North Carolina is craving… Read more »

The world of robotics is rapidly evolving, venturing beyond the realm of industrial automation and precise machinery. Cultural robotics is part of the effort to extend robotics beyond cultural boundaries, creating greater diversity and inclusion for human users. The problem Traditionally, robots have been designed with a Western-centric viewpoint. Part of this tendency is about… Read more »

There’s something iconic about an old photograph of a skyscraper being built. Take the picture above for example. You’ve got a group of men oozing nonchalance, snacking, reading papers, and possibly drinking alcohol (far right), all while dangling their legs over an I-beam as if they had no idea they were hundreds of feet in… Read more »

Often, the people we get calls from have just discovered Indramat. Don’t think this is like lief Ericson discovering America. This is like discovering a malevolent goblin on your factory floor, since it normally happens only when the component breaks down, after so many years of faithful service that nobody realized it was there. Seeing… Read more »