Blog
New Tax Code Encourages Robot Installations
Subsidies have been introduced that would allow companies to
take immediate expensing of high-cost assets, such as robots, instead of depreciating
them over time. This plan works to the advantage of companies struggling to
either find or keep their workforce which is currently needed to perform jobs
that could be automated. Rather than expensing wages as they are paid over
time, companies could purchase robots and take the deduction right away. This
makes an investment in automation a much
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Jan 30th 2018
Why the Apparel Industry is Reshoring Manufacturing
Forty years ago, US-based clothing industry moved manufacturing
overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. Only about 3% of today’s apparel is
domestically manufactured, but that is changing with the adoption of
automation.With the fashion industry’s trend toward automation
solutions that trend toward flexibility, decreased time to market, and carrying
smaller inventories, regional sourcing for apparel offers a competitive
advantage.Another advantage of reshoring manufacturing in the appar
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Jan 24th 2018
Cobots Take Repetitive Tasks Off Workers’ Hands
At Atria Scandinavia in Sweden, 30 employees work alongside three
collaborative robots to increase efficiency in the line where gourmet and convenience foods are packaged. The company has deployed two Universal Robots UR5 robots and one UR10.
Johnny Jansson, Atria’s
Technical Manager, says “Our goal is to get reliable product lines where we can
produce efficiently and effectively while keeping our staffing costs down. As a
food producer, it is extremely important for us to min
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Aug 30th 2017
Robots Taking a Bullet to Protect Your Weed
The marijuana industry has embraced
automation in nearly every aspect of production, safety and security. Traditional,
human-staffed outdoor crop security is “fraught with human error,” says Todd Kleperis, Chief Executive Officer of Hardcar Security, marijuana industry security provider. “At night guards
sleep, they play video games and spend time on social media.”
When violent
breaches happen, “these robots can take a gunshot better than a human. If you’ve
ever been shot, it’s very sc
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Aug 4th 2017
The Automated Chicken Coop
Tell some farmers that they can leave town for a week and not
have to put their lives on hold to go home and feed, they will jump for joy.
Daniel Badiou has invented a robotic chicken coop, Rova, that moves around the
pasture automatically.
Rova is solar-powered with a battery backup that can last for
up to 5 days. Badiou spends only 5 or 10 minutes a day checking on his chickens
through his smartphone. The automated coop comes with a GPS, wireless temperature
and wind sensors and cam
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Jul 24th 2017