Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

The Gen 7 platform is designed to enhances the cobot user experience, says UR.
| Source: Universal Robots Universal Robots A/S introduced Gen 7, its seventh-generation robotics platform, today at the IMTS trade show. The Teradyne Inc. subsidiary said the unified system upgrade enables customers and partners to deploy advanced AI-powered applications into industrial operations with the same robot experience that operators, technicians, engineers, and integrators prefer to work with every day Anchored by the PolyScope X robot operating system, Gen 7 has a fully re-engineered control box, teach pendant, and tool flange. UR said it designed all of these to make demanding tasks and setups easier. The Odense, Denmark-based company also added three new robot arms, UR10g-1750, UR17g-1300, and UR18g-950, named after their payload (in kilograms) and reach (in millimeters), to its e-Series and UR Series lineup. They are larger than some of its previous models. “Our vision as a whole at the...

Credit: Baumis Robots (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). By Emmet Cole In our new monthly series, we showcase a selection of robotics stories from society, business, research, and culture, as we track the field’s ongoing journey from specialized industrial machines to an increasingly visible social phenomenon. Reshoring reimagined? In early August, The Information published an article that claimed U.S.-based founders, investors and startups, are travelling to an electronics market in Shenzhen to buy servomotors, sensors, controllers and gimbals. The report also claimed that Unitree and Zhiyuan robots are being bought intact, then stripped down into parts and carried back to the USA in suitcases. By late August, in a separate development, reports emerged that a US Department of Energy lab is investigating whether Chinese LiDAR sensors pose a security risk, if widely used on vehicles in the United States. According to TechCrunch , the research is being funded by one or more co...

ASI has worked with U.S. Sugar and Everglades Group to deploy autonomous tractors across South Florida. Source: Autonomous Solutions Inc. American farmers are being asked to feed a growing nation with a shrinking workforce, rising input costs, and weather that has become less predictable every decade. They’ve always adapted — from horses to tractors, from paper records to GPS guidance. The question we hear most often isn’t whether to adopt autonomous technology. It’s whether the technology is ready for the realities of their operation. After more than 25 years of deploying autonomous fleets in some of the most demanding industrial environments on earth, my answer is yes. And I can show you exactly what that looks like. This past summer, Autonomous Solutions Inc. ( ASI ), U.S. Sugar Corp., and Everglades Equipment Group announced the deployment of the largest autonomous vehicle fleet in the history of American sugarcane farming — across hundreds of thousands of acres in South Florid...

UltraSense claims that ultrasound can mitigate the wear and tear at the point of tactile sensing. Source: UltraSense Physical AI is moving from digital reasoning into real-world interaction. Robots can see, plan, navigate, and move with sophistication. Yet manipulation depends on reliable touch, creating an opportunity for ultrasound. The question is no longer whether robots need tactile sensing . For humanoid hands, dexterous grippers , logistics robots, service robots , and industrial systems, touch must detect contact, map force, sense shear and slip, and understand material interaction. The question is which tactile architecture can scale. Many tactile and electronic-skin approaches rely on flexible electrical sensing layers placed on or near the contact surface. These include capacitive, piezoresistive, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and impedance-based structures integrated into elastomers, flexible substrates, conductive networks, or multilayer films. These technologies have...

ASI is providing autonomy to existing field equipment. Source; Autonomous Solutions Inc. Today’s autonomous vehicle fleets are successfully addressing pain points in geographically remote or rugged locations. Everyday, the technology is improving worker safety and operational efficiency. But, in the next 10 years, we’ll see a massive leap forward in field robotics, according to Mel Torrie, the founder and CEO of Autonomous Solutions Inc., or ASI. The use of mobile robotics in outdoor applications is poised to advance significantly over the decade. To unlock the next level of productivity, developers must design autonomous vehicles to support that integration and foster collaborative relationships among platforms. At RoboBusiness , ASI ‘s Torrie will lead the session, “Designing the Robotics Ecosystem for Outdoor Autonomy.” He will explore why the intersection of autonomous vehicles and advanced robotics will further revolutionize field deployments. Torrie wi...

Sponsored by GAM . GAM rack, pinion, and gearbox systems are optimized for high performance in all the components. (Image: GAM.) Picture a scissor car jack — the one in your trunk for changing a tire. The spinning motion as you turn the crank translates to the linear motion as the jack rises. This is how a rack and pinion system works. The spinning part is the pinion, a gear that receives the rotational input. The toothed part being pushed along is the rack, a long bar with gear teeth that the pinion rides against. Depending on the application, either the rack moves back and forth while the pinion stays in place, or the rack stays fixed and whatever the pinion is attached to travels back and forth (or up and down). It is important to select the right rack and pinion system, as a wrong decision can impact both performance and cost. “If you go too small with your rack and pinion, it can break,” says Matt Ruggles, senior design engineer at GAM, a U.S.-based manufacturer of servo gear...