United Kingdom

Christophe Bollard is a Global Business Services leader with extensive experience in organizational transformation, technology and the Future of Work. He has experienced automation both at the end user side and as a consultant. In this interview with Rocking Robots he shares some of his insights on successfully implementing automation.

Marina Bill has been appointed as new Vice President of the International Federation of Robotics with immediate effect. She represents IFR along with IFR President Milton Guerry.

The Ukraine armed forces claim they have used the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to destroy Russian armored vehicles. In a video posted on scial media a strike on a military convoy is shown, apparantly by a drone. This would be the first time drones are used to kill in a major conflict, although the Bayraktar has been employed in other engagements as well.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has continued its partnership with TIBCO. Over the past season, the F1 team has used TIBCO Spotfire in race simulations that influence up-to-the-minute car setup and configuration decisions. The team also used the TIBCO Cost Visualizer Tool for detailed cost-value analysis across engineering and finance data sources to comply with FIA cost cap regulations.

ABB will deliver a comprehensive range of robotic solutions for Scania’s new highly automated battery assembly plant in Sweden. The new facility is part of Scania’s strategy in the electrification of heavy vehicles. Scania will invest more than SEK 1 billion ($108 million) in the facility over several years and the new Södertälje plant is expected to be fully operational by 2023.

Several researchers have recently published their findings in providing robots with sensitivity. A Korean research team has developed an electronic skin that can sense tactility just as humans do. And a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) has introduced a soft haptic sensor that uses computer vision and a deep neural network to accurately estimate where objects come into contact with the sensor and how large the applied forces are. They both work to the aim of robots being able to feel their environment as accurately as humans and animals.

VirtaMed, provider of medical simulation training, and Memic Innovative Surgery, provider of surgical robotic technology, announced a partnership to develop a new virtual reality simulator program to support surgeon skills training for the Hominis Surgical System.

Lightning eMotors has completed the expansion of its manufacturing campus in Loveland, Colorado by 102,000 square feet to a total of over 226,000 square feet and reconfigured workstations throughout the plant to incorporate advanced automation and augmented reality systems across multiple workstations and assembly areas.

Fashion start-up Lalaland will run its e-commerce fashion platform on Amazon Web Services. Virtual fashion models are generated on this platform using AI and machine learning, representing different body types, sizes, hair types and skin tones that are closest to the shopper’s preference.

Over three-quarters of workers do not feel ready to operate in a digital-first world, but only 28% are actively involved in digital skills learning and training. There is a major gap emerging between everyday digital skills and those needed for work, especially among younger workers. Using collaboration technologies is viewed as the most important digital workplace skill for workers over the next five years.