Can a Robot be Creative?

Humans are special. We do amazing and incredible things that make us remarkable and unique. Expressing creativity through art is one of those things. A cheetah with a paintbrush won’t create a masterpiece comparable to something made by Renoir. It will just eat the paintbrush. Regardless of what the infinite monkey theorem tells us, a… Read more »

Platinum and Gold Autonomous Nanobots

We work with robots. More specifically, we deal in servo repair and maintenance for industrial machinery. Even more specifically, we specialize in Indramat motion control systems. But even though we work with robots, there are some robots that are well out of our wheelhouse. Like autonomous nanobots made out of platinum and gold, for example…. Read more »

Manufacturing and Politics

If you’ve been keeping up with the presidential primaries, you’ve probably heard plenty of talk about manufacturing. Whether politician A is sharing his experience of single-handedly running a steel mill as a boy, or politician B telling about how his father was born in an auto plant, politicians have been singing the tune of manufacturing… Read more »

Manufacturing Jobs and the State of Manufacturing

For the past couple hundred years, you would be safe measuring the current state of manufacturing by the amount of employment in the industry. While the employment rate is not an exact means of gauging the success of an industry, the more manufacturing jobs the better the manufacturing industry is doing. This was true when… Read more »

Fewer Robots?

If you were to ask a room full of roboticists, manufacturers, consumers, theoretical physicists, and all of their grandmothers whether manufacturing is becoming more automated or less automated, the answer would be unanimous. Automation is the future of manufacturing and pretty much everything else, and everybody knows it. You hear about the increasing use of… Read more »

A Look at Indramat Motors

If you’re looking for information about Indramat motors, there’s a good chance that you are in need of motor repair or that you need to replace your motor. It’s not because Indramat motors aren’t well made. In fact, it’s the opposite. All Indramat components are burly and well built. If you’re still running a system… Read more »

Robo-farming

What do you think of when you hear “robo-farming” or “robot farm”? It’s pretty obvious, right? You know how farmers wake up at the crack of dawn to the sound of a robotic rooster call, and then, wiping the sleep from their eyes, they don a pair of denim overalls and head to the fields… Read more »

Things Are Looking Good for Manufacturing

The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that American manufacturing is off to a good start in 2016. The number of new orders for manufactured durable goods in January increased by just over $11 billion to $237.5 billion. This is an increase of nearly 5%, which is the largest increase in the industry since March of… Read more »

McDonald’s Embraces Automation

People like to portray advances in automation as being a job war between humans and machines; a thunderdome type situation in which there can only be one winner. This isn’t always the case, however. Industrial automation has provided a lot of benefits to the manufacturing industry, and while it’s true that there are fewer jobs… Read more »

Robots vs. Humans: Pros and Cons

Robots can do things better than humans. When it comes to heavy lifting, precise motion, and not breathing, machines will best humans every time. But robots aren’t universally better than humans. Humans can do things better than robots, too. There’s not a robot yet that can top humans at empathizing with others, contemplating the meaning… Read more »