Have you considered advanced motion control to improve your machines productivity? The manufacturing plants of our fathers and grandfathers are gone forever, along with the “three Ds” (dirty, dangerous, and dull) describing the jobs therein. Machine and worker productivity is the heart of economic growth, and emerging consumer applications (online shopping, smartphone connectivity, growing environmental […]

Global shipments for motion control products increased by 10.3% to $3.3 billion in 2016 According to new statistics released by the Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA), the industry’s trade group… “New opportunities in automation for motion control and motors help drive this growth,” said Dana Whalls, Vice President of MCMA. “Automation technologies are enabling […]

Businesses Ordered More Robots Last Year Than Ever Before North American businesses ordered 35,000 robots in 2016, a 10% increase from 2015, according to a report on Tuesday by trade organization Robotic Industries Association. Meanwhile, sales on those orders in the region reached an all-time high of $1.9 billion last year, beating the previous record […]

Automation need not lead to job cuts The era of automation has already begun in Singapore with robotic processes being implemented in industries such as transport, financial, and food and beverage, often making human workers redundant. “Automated talent” may soon replace foreign talent as the target of criticism by workers that are affected by corporate […]

Association for Advancing Automation (A3) Launches Trade Association in Mexico The Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the leading global advocate for the benefits of automating, announced that it is forming a not-for-profit trade association that is specifically dedicated to supporting and promoting the rapidly growing Mexican automation industry. With the world’s 11th largest economy, Mexico […]

IIoT and the Changes It Demands During a panel discussion at PI North America’s general meeting, industry experts talked about how the Industrial Internet of Things is affecting the needed skillsets, tools and collaborations throughout manufacturing. Read More The dawn of the new industrial era with the smart factory Right now, we are witnessing the […]

A3 Kicks off 2017 with Business Forum and Record Industry Results The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) today announced its annual A3 Business Forum, taking place January 18-20, 2017 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. With more than 525 global automation executives scheduled to attend, the A3 Business Forum […]

The Dos and Don’ts of Modern Search Algorithms Look up machine vision definitions and you will read about cameras collecting an image and computers running specialized software to analyze the image, helping machines make an automated decision based on that image. After the flash of the strobe and collecting photons to create an image, the […]

Robotics: Here to Stay It is estimated 15,000 dairy farms across the world milk with robotics, with most herd sizes ranging from 50 to 250 cows. The most popular location for robotics thus far has been in Western Europe where labor costs are higher than many regions of the world…The work tends to be more […]

A new standard in robotics On the wall of Aaron Dollar’s office is a poster for R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the 1920 Czech play that gave us the word “robot.” The story ends with the nominal robots seizing control of the factory of their origin and then wiping out nearly all of humanity. Dollar, fortunately, […]