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Rethink Robotics, a pioneer in collaborative robots, has shut down under mysterious circumstances surrounding heavy debts and a botched buyout. What, if anything, does this mean for collaborative robots in general? If you’re thinking the shutdown proves cobots are a passing fad, the evidence suggests otherwise. While the demise of Rethink Robotics might initially put collaborative robots on shaky ground in the eyes of manufacturers, the innovator was followed by several strong companies int …

Eliminating human error from manufacturing is one of the primary goals of industrial automation. Advances in robotic technology have introduced a more flexible, less expensive robot that mimics the actions of a human.Traditional robots are typically single-purpose uses, such as stacking pack boxes on a pallet. New collaborative robots can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks and can be easily moved around a factory floor when a change is needed and do not require a complete floorplan chan …

The days of conventional robotics may be numbered. In the past, small and medium sized businesses faced costly, bulky and complicated solutions to achieve automation with an extended period to see a return on the investment. Today, cobot automation solutions are much cheaper, much safer, easy to program, and increase profitability in a much shorter timeframe. For small and medium sized businesses, collaborative robots are a perfect gateway to automation. Below are four outstanding reas …

As CTO and co-founder of Universal Robots, Esben Østergaard, pulled away the black fabric covering the new e-Series cobot at last week’s Automatica fair in Munich, it not only introduced the world to a new collaborative robot line that enables faster development for a wider variety of applications. It also marked a ten year anniversary of the cobot concept being publicly exhibited as a commercially viable automation tool. Back in 2008, as Universal Robots’ modest exhibit opened at Automati …

At the 2018 PACK EXPO East, a packaging trade show held at the Philadelphia Convention Center in April, Automation Distribution teamed up with Precision Automation, which specializes in packaging, processing and material handling systems, for a fantastic display featuring collaborative robots and custom laser engraving equipment. The Universal Robots UR3 was outfitted with a custom plate to hold a plastic luggage tag which, when detected by a vision system, was fed into the Arca l …