Solid story, Ann. There certainly are a lot of opportunities for service robots. In manufacturing, I wonder if another factor is the number of robotic mechanisms and arms that are being designed into the machine themselves rather than a robot as a standalone system. Thanks.
Great article Ann...as always. I was wondering exactly what the service bot segment consisted of...you mentioned roombas. I guess roombas, some mow your lawn, but I can't think of many others atm.
Milking robot systems are amazing. As the price points for milk remain low, it is touger for dairy farmers to stay in business. Deluxe milking robot aytomation systems allow the cow to determine its own milking time which leads to a healthier herd with better milk production.
Well, not really blame them. But the reason for the growth in service robots can be attributed to the baby boomer generation. ANYTHING that has to do with caring for our aging population is going to be a growth industry in the next couple of decades.
This bit of news is definitely surprising; but then again, there has been a lot of innovation and investment in service robots as the need for less expensive labor, as well as general interest in new designs, grows. Perhaps this just means the industrial robot space, which is more mature, is due for a bit of flattening while the nascent service-robot market grows. I myself have watched with a bit of wonder at some of the new designs coming out in the latter and look forward to seeing more as this trend develops.
Most service robots are designed for a task where they would normally work only a few hours a week- maybe an hour a day every day except weekends. So you are comparing the cost of ownership/maintenance of a robot against a few hours minimum wage, not full time employment. This is one reason why service robots won't take over in a hurry. Another reason is that while the cost of complex elecronics is rapidly falling, this represents at most 20% the overall cost - the rest is mechanics and plastics, and here raw material costs are rising. SO you will still find it cheaper to pay your neighbours teenage son to mow the lawn once a fortnight than to buy a robotic lawn mower. (assuming - not unreasonably - that they are equally intelligent)
Thanks, Cadman-LT. There are tons of service robots, in both professional and personal apps. Professional service bots include medical helpers of various kinds used by physicians or other medical personnel, as we detailed in two different medical robot slideshows (see links at the end of the article). Milking robots are also included there. For personal service bots, aside from vacuum cleaners there are medical helper bots used by patients or other non-professional uses. This slideshow on service bots focuses on profession types, but you can see the apps are pretty broad: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=257119
Thanks, Cadman-LT. There are tons of service robots, in both professional and personal apps. Professional service bots include medical helpers of various kinds used by physicians or other medical personnel, as we detailed in two different medical robot slideshows (see links at the end of the article). Milking robots are also included there. For personal service bots, aside from vacuum cleaners there are medical helper bots used by patients or other non-professional uses. This slideshow on service bots focuses on profession types, but you can see the apps are pretty broad: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=257119
I agree with TJ--the growth of many personal service robots is due in part to the baby boomer population bulge. I think the growth in professional service robots is a different story, and it's definitely one that's occurring and going to occur. China is much, much bigger than we are and they are investing in both types like gangbusters. I'll be posting a followup on this report soon.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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