Robotics Articles

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Putting robots in the test - robots used for automobile testing
That's right - in the test, not to the test. This automotive test equipment supplier is putting robots in places where historic ally dedicated equipment did the job. The issue here is robotic implementation. Painting and arc welding. Adhesive application and machine tool load and unload. These applications and those mentioned above are really the bread-and-butter, in effect, of robot applications. But then there's testing. This hasn't exactly been one of the primary applications for robots, says J. Scott Myles, vice president of Control Power-Reliance (Troy, MI), a firm that has been producing testing equipment since 1957, the vast majority of it for automotive applications. Read more...

Robots Take Over Automotive Plant Floors
The progress of robots in the past 30 years has been amazing. In fact, the progress in the past year is something to brag about. Proof? Besides taking a plant tour to any automotive assembly plant in the world — especially in Japan — just type “robots” into any search engine on the Internet and get ready to scroll into one of the hottest research areas in modern times. Even more to the point, robotics and the Internet will continue to be used in tandem. While robotics and the Internet suggest a whole new world of automation, the plant-floor world of auto making is where today’s robots do most of their work. Ninety percent of the robots in the world work in factories, and fully half of those help manufacture cars. In fact, human work in the car factory is becoming a matter of supervising robots and other machines. Read more...

The Robots are Coming
When it comes to robots, reality still lags science fiction. But the confluence of several advanced technologies is bringing the age of robotics ever nearer.Today’s robots are smaller, cheaper, more practical and cost-effective and are chalking up major gains in the automation world.

At the end of 2005, there were about 1 million industrial robots globally, with almost half that number in Japan and just 15 percent in the United States. In spite of its low-cost labor image, China is rapidly adopting robotics systems to increase competitiveness. Read more...

The Age Of Robots - household robots being developed - Statistical Data Included
Today, robots already play an important part in our world. Almost every auto assembly line is crowded with robotic arms that weld parts of cars together more precisely than humans can. In space, the Mars rover is a machine that is programmed to roll over the surface of the Red Planet and make decisions on its own of where to go and what to do. On Earth, scientists have used robots to investigate frozen Antarctica, explore the molten interiors of active volcanoes, and peer at the deepest depths of the oceans. Read more...

Report predicts 4 million household robots by 2007
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), in cooperation with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), has published its "World Robotics 2004" survey. The results show that worldwide investment in industrial robots was up 19 percent in 2003, and that in first half of 2004, orders for robots were up another 18 percent to the highest level ever recorded. Overall, the survey projects worldwide robotics market growth over the period 2004-2007 to achieve an annual rate of about 7 percent. Also of interest: over 600,000 household robots were in use by the end of 2003, a number that is anticipated to swell by more than 4 million units by 2007. "In the long run, service robots will be everyday tools for mankind," the report says. Read more...

Linux-powered robots from France? Oui!

When Robots Rule the World
The use of robots around the home to mow lawns, vacuum floors and manage other chores will increase sevenfold by 2007 as more consumers snap up smart machines, the United Nations said. That boom coincides with record orders for industrial robots, said the U.N.'s annual World Robotics Survey, released Wednesday. The report, issued by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics, said that 607,000 automated domestic helpers were in use at the end of 2003, two-thirds of them purchased that year. Most of them — 570,000 — were robot lawnmowers. Sales of vacuum cleaning robots reached 37,000. Read more...