United Kingdom

Cardiac surgeons may be able to better plan operations and improve their surgical field view with the help of a robot. Controlled through a virtual reality parallel system as a digital twin, the robot can accurately image a patient through ultrasound without the hand cramping or radiation exposure that hinder human operators. The international research team published their method in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica.

Cloud infrastructure services spend in China jumped 55% in Q1 2021, reaching US$6.0 billion. Total expenditure increased US$2.1 billion compared with Q1 2020 and over US$200 million on the previous quarter according to the latest Canalys data. The dollar-for-dollar annual expansion slowed on a sequential basis, highlighting some disruption to the Chinese cloud service providers’ businesses. But cloud infrastructure services growth in China continued to outpace the rest of the world, supported by the government making it a top strategic priority.

Recently Armand Angeli, Président du groupe CSP/RPA/AI de la DFCG and Président du groupe International de la DFCG, initiated an international CFO round table discussing all aspects of automation. The round table addresses shared challenges for CFO’s, and the need for reliable information on automation, based on the experience of peers.

FedEx and Nuro have announced a multi-year, multi-phase agreement to test Nuro’s next-generation autonomous delivery vehicle within FedEx operations. The collaboration between FedEx and Nuro launched with a pilot program across the Houston area. This pilot marks Nuro’s expansion into parcel logistics and allows FedEx the opportunity to explore various use cases for on-road autonomous vehicle logistics, including multi-stop and appointment-based deliveries.

Organizations running on SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC can manage a great deal of processes, but there are several challenges. Earlier we talked about these challenges with Tanja Breitling-Zboril, Sr. Manager Partner & Alliance Management at UiPath: Processes stretch beyond SAP systems; expert work can be expensive and integration with SAP S/4HANA requires specific tasks.

Maybe you experienced it yourself: after a long flight (do you remember those days) you left the plane and walked through the airbridge. You saw some commotion in front of you. Customs officers are walking upstream. You see them coming in your direction. And then you see what the commotion is all about: they brought their sniffer dog.

The promise that IT will support people in their work above all, which  has been hanging over the market for years, seems to be reached now with RPA, though this cannot happen on its own. A successful automation project requires the cooperation of IT and business, including the use of HR to guarantee the acceptance of technology. The ultimate aim is people-centred IT.

By 2024, 80% of technology products and services will be built by those who are not technology professionals, according to Gartner. This trend is driven by a new category of buyers outside of the traditional IT organisation who are occupying a larger share of the overall IT market. Today, total business-led IT spend averages up to 36% of the total formal IT budget.

Teleperformance announced the winners of the Teleperformance Botathon, part of the company’s All Ideas Matter initiative to spark innovation, collaboration and digital transformation. The tournament, which launched in March in partnership with Automation Anywhere and UiPath, challenged Teleperformance employees to submit their best “automation framework” ideas to improve business workplace and culture, and help advance the digital workforce.

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces developed self-propelled microrobots that can swim, attach to plastics and break them down.