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“Our automation journey started with RPA”, says Nikola Kisidayova, RAPID Manager (Robotics, Automation, Process Improvement and Digitalization) at Holcim European Business Services in the third edition of our CFO Chat with Armand Angeli of The CFO Automation Experience. In this chat she talks in-depth about the strategic role of RPA, and the evolution towards intelligent automation. “It was an eye-opener for our processes’.

Europe has 5 million kilometres of powerlines. Inspecting these powerlines by helicopter is a costly, and not really sustainable, business. Long range-drones could be a solution for these kinds of inspections. At ERF last week FuVEX was showing a drone that could extend the legal range from line-of-sght(500 meter) to 20 kilometres. For this video Rocking Robots spoke to Carlos Matilla: “The key is to do it safely.’

A new milestone in mobility has been reached with the adoption of a proposal to extend automated driving in certain traffic environments from the current limit of 60 km/h to up to 130 km/h.

As sustainability was the overall theme of ERF 2022, one of the organisations present was ITU with AI for good, an initiative of the United Nations. Intelligent robots have become part of the mission of AI for Good, which is helping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN with technology. At the same time it is important to inhibit the negative implications of the growing use of robotics, says Guillem Martínez Roura, AI and Robotics Programme Coordinator, AI for Good in this interview with Rocking Robots.

The global robo advisory market is expected to grow from $18.71 billion in 2021 to $28.10 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.20%. The market is expected to reach $135.11 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 48.08%, according to the report “Robo Advisory Global Market Report 2022” from ResearchAndMarkets.com.

‘Robotics is a source of economic growth in Europe, but at the same time it raises societal concerns’, says Anneli Roose of Robotics4EU, a Horizon 2020-project of the European Commission in this interview with Marco van der Hoeven at ERF 2022. Robotics4EU aims to discuss and adress these concerns, and bring stakeholders together. Among other things, they launched the commmunity Robospot.org  ‘Robots, and AI-powered robots, are the future, but we must talk about the socio-economic issues.’

A balanced approach based on the classical combination of people, processes and technology is the right recipe for success in an automation journey, says Carlos Garrido Pedraz, Head of European Business Services in this second edition or our CFO Chat with award winner Holcim. Host Armand Angeli of the CFO Automation Experience discussed RPA success with Carlos and his colleague Nikola Kisidayova, Manager Robotics, Automation, Process Improvement and Digitalization. “Invest in people, and skill them in the right way.”

Aspina, a US-based manufacturer of motors and modules in fields such as industrial equipment, home appliances, housing, automobiles and medical care has announced the development of an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) for transportation in manufacturing plants.

Robots can be a very powerful tool in the energy transition, says Elinor Doubell, VP Digital Science at bp, in this report from the European Robotics Fair. Earlier this week she was one of the keynote speakers on robotics and sustainability. In this video she talks to Rocking Robots about the way robots change the way of working at bp.

“What was once done by dozens of people is now done by three or four”. Earlier this year Holcim won the “Top Process – Automation Implementation” award at the CEE Business Services Summit & Awards in Warsaw. For this edition of our CFO Chat Rocking Robots worked with Armand Angeli from the CFO Automation Experience, who discussed the winning automation strategy of Holcim with Carlos Garrido Pedraz, Head of European Business Services  and Nikola Kisidayova, Manager Robotics, Automation, Process Improvement and Digitalization.