-Manufacturing & Cobot Roundup
-China's AI Action Plan
-Meet The Minimally Actuated Serial Robot
-Robot Drummer Catches Social Media Beat
...and much more! 

Manufacturing & Cobot Roundup

Nikkei Asian Review profiled a new control technology for cobots developed by Panasonic. The system is designed to improve human-robot collaboration on tasks such as warehouse work and nursing. 

Caption: An image from a demonstration test in which a robot moves to the right and puts down the object it was carrying when it detects a person approaching from the left. (Credit: Panasonic)

With the new technology, 1,000 kinds of human movements were first registered so that robots can predict how humans will move and respond flexibly, thereby being able to dodge or otherwise avoid accidents. For example, a robotic arm that carries baggage will place it in a safe place and stop when a person approaches. When the person grabs the bag, the robot will sense the force being used and automatically change the movement of its joints to pose no danger to the person.

FANUC Integrator Minatech, in partnership with Herrmann Ultrasonics, has developed an robotic ultrasonic welding system with automatic tool changeover to allow different types of welds all within one robotic workcell.

Developed by ATI Industrial Automation, this special tool changer can carry and simultaneously switch over power, air, and signal... 

Growth in the heavy duty industrial robot market is being boosted by low component prices, according to a new report. The assembly-line robots market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of +45% by 2021, according to new research. And South Korea's robot industry grew from US$3.64 billion in 2015 to US$4.11 billion in 2016, an increase of 12.9%. 

Harrison Manufacturing - a plastics injection molding manufacturer in Jackson, MS - is using a Sawyer collaborative robot in ergonomically challenging tasks to reduce labor costs and increase throughput... 

Wuhu Municipal People’s Government in China (a robotics cluster city with some 88 robotics companies and research facilities) and Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute have signed a letter of intent for future cooperation. Anhui News reports: 

Based on the letter of intent signed, the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute will give full play to its robot education and research strength and support Wuhu to overcome technical difficulties. The two sides will follow the world robot development trend and make action plans to promote commercialization of some high-end projects.

Moreover, the two sides will promote the agglomeration of robot projects, technology, talent and other sci-tech innovation factors in Wuhu and make an Asia first-class robot production, education and research platform for the city, which will surely inject strong dynamics into Wuhu for the city to better and faster develop itself.

AVWELD showed off a robotic thermal spray system... 

Comau has released PickAPP, an Android application designed to provide quick and intuitive 'Pick and Place' programming functionality. 

Via Engineering.Com: 

Image credit: Comau 

PickAPP is an Android application for an 8- to 10-inch tablet, configured with graphical operations designed to improve the overall user experience. According to Comau, anyone familiar with smartphones will be able to move a robot and create a pick and place process by preparing a list of waypoints, without having to learn robotic programming language. 

Universal Robots officially launched operations in Banglasdesh this week. Bangladesh News 24 reports: 

“After successfully venturing into the Indian and Sri Lankan markets, we are looking forward to setting up and growing in Bangladesh as the country can provide us with enormous opportunities to develop,” said [Pradeep David, General Manager, South Asia- Universal Robots]. 

Industry 4.0 won't be like previous industrial revolutions, says KPMG UK... 

Did you know you can use a UR10 cobot for foam drilling applications? 

The cleaning industry is set to be transformed by digitization and robotics, particulary human-robot collaboration, says the European Cleaning Journal: 

There is much discussion as to whether human workers will be replaced by robots. [Ulrich] Engenhardtfrom Kärcher commented: “This is already possible today for straightforward cleaning of large areas, where workers can be employed on other tasks and, as now, must keep the machines ready for operation. With more complex environments there is still in our view a long way to go towards achieving complete automation, if indeed it will ever be achieved. 

"Our ceo Markus Asch uses the term Cobot – ie, collaborative robot – for the foreseeable future we shall need a form of cooperation which combines the precision of robots with the human talent for improvisation.”

China's AI Action Plan 

China's State Council and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have announced a three-year action plan (2018-2020) as part of the country's goal to dominate the global AI industry. 

The plan was first mentioned some months ago, so the announcement isn't entirely unexpected, but the level of detail and ambition may surprise some... 

Via Digital Journal: 

China is setting out to mass-produce neural-network processing chips; construct robots designed to make daily tasks easier for those with disabilities; and developing machine learning will help radiologists read X-ray scans. 

The plan also spell out how China aims to make its artificial intelligence manufacturing more environmentally friendly and, at the same time, to make energy efficiency of its manufacturing sector 10 percent more efficient by 2020. 

Next Big Future took a deep dive look at the ambitious plan. 

Speaking a month ago, Google's Eric Schmidt suggested that China could overtake the US in artificial intelligence development, so it will certainly be interesting to see what develops between now and 2020... 

Meet The Minimally Actuated Serial Robot  

A team of Israeli researchers has created a new kind of manipulator that's designed to offer the performance and redundancy of a snake robot, along with the low cost of a continuum robot. 

Via IEEE Spectrum: 

Their Minimally Actuated Serial Robot (MASR) is simple, lightweight, and modular, and offers plenty of advantages, as long as you’re not in any sort of hurry.

Essentially, MASR has similar capabilities to a traditional snake robot that uses a series of actuated joints, except that it can only move one joint at a time. This architecture makes this robot much, much slower than a snake robot, but it can also perform some neat tricks that give it a surprising amount of versatility

Robot Drummer Catches Social Media Beat 

Researchers at at Queen Mary University of London have created a social media savvy, drumming robot to test the impact of platforms like Facebook on human-robot relationships.

Dubbed 'Mortimer,' the bot takes pictures of jam sessions and posts them with a supporting comment to Facebook. 

Via PhysOrg: 

Dr [Louis] McCallum said: "One of the most interesting findings was that posts by human participants about the music sessions between them carried significantly more weight within their networks than posts by the robot itself. This suggests a discerning approach to generated posts that is especially relevant in today's world of social media bots, automated content and fake news."

The researchers found that the time spent with the robot increased over the study but session length for the group who were Facebook friends with Mortimer reduced over time. They suggest this may be because the participants had additional contact with Mortimer outside the sessions.

Finally, as the year draws to a close, several websites are looking back on a great year for robotics.

Here are some of the best, so far: 

• The Verge shared its "11 Best, Worst, and Weirdest Robots of 2017"
• 2017 is the year robots "really, truly arrived," says Wired 
• 2017 was a "record-shattering year" and a "tipping point," says ZD Net

But to really get in the holiday mood, make sure to check out Robohub's 'Robot Holiday Videos 2017'... 

I'll be back next week, probably wearing a paper hat and covered in fruit cake, with more news from the world of robotics. Until then, I hope you enjoy the holidays and these videos and links! 

Robot DJ puts the tech into techno for Czech clubbers (Reuters) 
This Robot Can Mix Drinks In Your Hotel Room (Bloomberg)
Marine Robots Detect Whales In The Deep Ocean (Marine Technology)
A New Bio-inspired Robot Can Immediately Adapt To What? (Government Technology)
Meet the French bots bringing sci-fi fantasy closer to reality (VentureBeat) 
KUKA iiwa Cobot Demonstrates the Potential of Collaborative Robots (Engineering.com) 
Sensor-enhanced surgical robot enables highly precise and safe spinal operations (AlphaGalileo)
A Robot Goes to College (Inside Higher Ed) 
Watch robots do chin-ups, push-ups and sit-ups for the sake of science (L.A. Times)
Towards Intelligent Industrial Co-robots (Robohub)