United Kingdom

RE2 Robotics, provider of intelligent mobile manipulation systems, announced its new robotic arm brand, RE2 Sapien.  With RE2 Sapien Re2 develops a human-like robotic arm solution that is intended to improve operational efficiencies, worker safety, and overall productivity. RE2 Sapien systems feature intelligent robotic arms with intuitive human-robot control interfaces and outdoor (including underwater) computer vision and autonomy capabilities.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.1 trillion in 2021, an increase of 8.4% from 2020, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The source of funds for new digital business initiatives will more frequently come from business departments outside IT and charged as a cost of revenue or cost of goods sold (COGS).

Stratom, developer of autonomous ground vehicles and robotic systems for logistics and operational applications, has been awarded a contract with the U.S. Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) to develop an autonomous ground vehicle refueling (AGVR) prototype system to integrate onto a Palletized Load System (PLS) flat rack for autonomous convoy operations.

Robotics company AutoStore announced that SoftBank has acquired 40% of its company.  AutoStore currently has a global customer base with more than 600 installations and 20,000 robots across 35 countries. It delivers automated storage and retrieval systems, coupled with its proprietary software, to serve the increasing demands of today’s supply chains.

In recent years, robots have gained artificial vision, touch, and even smell. “Researchers have been giving robots human-like perception,” says MIT Associate Professor Fadel Adib. In a new paper, Adib’s team is pushing the technology a step further. “We’re trying to give robots superhuman perception,” he says.

Since July 2020, the 200 skips that collect Toulouse inhabitants’ waste from the 13 waste disposal centers managed by SUEZ have been equipped with embedded artificial intelligence. Under test since 2019, the ffly4u solution has been deployed with the objectives of reducing fuel consumption, optimizing skip flows and reducing costs by optimizing collection resources.

“Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a low-threshold option to acquaint an organization with digital transformation,” says Nikie van Duurling, Strategic Lead RPA at Deloitte Tax & Legal. “Instead of working with complex technology projects, here very simple tools are used to assist and improve existing processes.” 

Finnish Stora Enso has undergone a colossal transformation: from a mere paper manufacturer to a sustainable specialist in renewable products. Its CFO, Seppo Parvi, has been overseeing this repositioning for nearly seven years. Today he is once again steering the €10 billion turnover conglomerate through turbulent waters. His recipe is remarkably simple: keep a constant eye on your cash flow and your working capital, and make sure your people are always on board.

The key theme of SAS Open D[N]A Café on March 4 was symbiotic robotics, the interaction between humans and robots. The host of this café, Arthur de Crook, interviewed Jaimy Siebel and Joost van de Loo of RoboValley, the thriving robotics community driven by TU Delft Robotics Institute. RoboValley aims to stimulate the development of intelligent robotics by furthering collaboration between industry, government and academia. Here are some takeaways.

In customer service it is important to achieve an equilibrium between automation and the human touch. A robot can be of great value. But there comes a point where humans provide the added value, and are able to prevent frustration by the customer. We talked about bots and customer service with Darren Parker,  Director EMEA Enterprise Customer Success at Zendesk. The key is the classic ‘know your customer’.