Grocery 4.0: Ocado reshapes retail with robotics and automation
Jon Excell for The Engineer: Online grocer Ocado is establishing a reputation as a major technology player. Jon Excell reports
If prompted to name a UK company at the cutting edge of robotics and automation, few of us would cite one of the country’s best-known grocery retailers.
But, as The Engineer learned on a recent visit to one of its key facilities, online supermarket Ocado is establishing a reputation as a major technology player: harnessing and developing machine-learning systems, Internet of Things concepts and robotic hardware to a degree that leaves many traditional engineering businesses in the shade. Full Article:
Researchers fire 3-D printed ammo out of a 3-D printed grenade launcher
Mr. Seung kook “Sunny” Burns and Mr. James Zunino for US Army Blog: Researchers at the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) successfully fired the first grenade created with a 3-D printer from a grenade launcher that was produced the same way. This demonstration shows that additive manufacturing (commonly known as 3-D printing) has a potential future in weapon prototype development, which could allow engineers to provide munitions to Soldiers more quickly.
The printed grenade launcher, named RAMBO (Rapid Additively Manufactured Ballistics Ordnance), was the culmination of six months of collaborative effort by the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), the U.S. Army Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program and America Makes, the national accelerator for additive manufacturing and 3-D printing.
RAMBO is a tangible testament to the utility and maturation of additive manufacturing. Cont'd...
The optimist's guide to the robot apocalypse
Sarah Kessler for Quartz: Machines, you may have heard, are coming for all the jobs.
Robots flip burgers and work warehouses. Artificial intelligence handles insurance claims and basic bookkeeping, manages investment portfolios, does legal research, and performs basic HR tasks. Human labor doesn’t stand a chance against them—after the “automation apocalypse,” only those with spectacular abilities and the owners of the robots will thrive.
Or at least, that’s one plausible and completely valid theory. But before you start campaigning for a universal basic income and set up a bunker, you might want to also familiarize yourself with the competing theory: In the long run, we’re going to be just fine. We’ve been here before. Cont'd...
RTOS 101: Performance Analysis with Tracealyzer
When developing firmware using a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), how do you measure the software performance?
Hole-in-One: Cleveland Golf Case Study
In order to keep up with its strong heritage while also having a mind for the future, Cleveland Golf invested in additive manufacturing during the early millennium.
How Linear Actuators and Motion Systems Are Used in Modern 3D Printing Industry
Succinctly, each of the motion systems of 3D printers discussed has their advantages over the other, and in many cases, a combination is required to design the interaction of mechanical components in the printing space.
Ford is trying 3D printing for car parts
Aaron Smith for CNN: Ford (F) figures they will be lighter than their metal counterparts, and therefore more fuel efficient.
The company will start with spoilers, those streamlined decorations fastened to car exteriors to make them look faster. For now, the company is testing parts for its Ford Performance race car division, but 3D-printed parts could be used for mass-market cars and trucks in the future.
Ford released photos of 3D-printed parts, like the plastic molding for car interiors. The company hinted that it might one day be able to 3D-print more complicated parts, like intake manifolds. Cont'd...
The Internet of Things in Restaurants
The future of IoT in the very competitive food service space relies on the innovations of applications which provide clear ROI or have a strong business case. It is a pennies business and each application will need to stand on its own.
Talking Automate 2017 with Dipesh Mukerji, VP Marketing & Strategy for KINGSTAR
Automate 2017 is the largest culmination and collaboration of our customers and prospects in the world of industrial automation, robotics, semiconductors, surface mount technology, motion control, machine vision and so much more.
The Future of 3D Printing: How will it impact your life?
3D printed plane parts will improve the efficiency and performance of planes, including making them significantly lighter in weight, as well as lead to new design features that will be simpler and more intricate than the planes we fly in today.
3D Printing Is Already Starting To Threaten The Traditional Spare Parts Supply Chain
Gilles Roucolle and Marc Boilard for Forbes: The race is on to use 3D printing to produce small-series parts, on demand and on location, for industries from aerospace to automotive. At stake is the shape of a $400 billion market for spare parts manufacturing and logistics. And those changes are not 20, or even 10, years out - they are happening now.
Using models built through computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing can produce virtually any solid object, even those with complex architectures, and in a range of materials, including plastic, ceramic, and metal. Currently, about half of 3D printing - also known as additive manufacturing - is used for prototyping. This saves manufacturers time and money, because they can develop new components or products on-demand, with less waste and without expensive tools and molds. Cont'd...
Designing for the digital world
Tim Fryer for Eureka: Head in sand time is over – Industry 4.0 is happening and is here to stay. In this article, the first in a series, Tim Fryer spoke to some of the leading automation companies about what Industry 4.0 means to design engineers.
The elevator pitch for Industry 4.0 would be something like ‘it is the digitisation of manufacturing and the supply chain’. The three previous industrial revolutions started with steam and mechanisation, progressed onto automated assembly lines at the start of the 20th century, and then the introduction of computers to the work place in the 1970s was the third. Cont'd...
Japan worker shortage has only one winner so far: robots
Leo Lewis for Financial Times: Earlier this week, Japanese TV audiences glimpsed a potentially revolutionary contraption from the Matsue College of Technology that rapidly separates closed shijimi clamshells into those with a live mollusc inside and those without.
Cut to footage of a human sorter, expertly performing the same function at a rate of just 90 kgs of shijimi per day and whose job this machine seems destined to replace. In other parts of the world, the juxtaposition could seem cruel or politically charged; in Japan, it is almost celebratory. The great conundrum for investors — and increasing preoccupation of sellside analysts attempting to talk clients out of underweight Japan positions — is whether the equity market provides a neat play on Japan’s deepening worker shortage and the promised surge in wages that has to date been all gong and no dinner. Cont'd...
A 10K tiny house 3D-printed in 24 hours
Lacy Cooke for Inhabitat: Building a house typically takes months, exacerbating the housing crisis so many people face worldwide. Apis Cor, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in 3D-printing, decided to tackle that crisis with a groundbreaking mobile 3D-printer that can print an entire 400-square-foot tiny home in just 24 hours. What’s more, doing so costs just over $10,000 – a steal compared to most modern homes.
On their website, Apis Cor says the construction industry may be sluggish now, but they will persevere in disrupting that industry “until everyone is able to afford a place to live.” Their revolutionary mobile 3D-printer is small enough to be transported, so assembly and transportation costs can be slashed. Although their mobile printer only needs a day to print a home from a concrete mixture, the company says their buildings will last up to 175 years. Not only is their process speedy, but environmentally friendly and affordable too. Cont'd...
Achieve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Using Hygienic Conveyors
So how do you measure the productivity of your manufacturing equipment? How do you gain insight to improve your processes? The answer is Overall Equipment Effectiveness, or OEE.
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