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When you say autonomous one most commonly thinks of self-driving cars. Nonetheless, the movement to make robots survey and act on their own precedes driving around no-hands. Autonomous robots have the ability to adapt to various scenarios within their scope of purpose and, as such, are being developed for a host of different applications. What is largely proceeding out of the spotlight is an ever-increasing presence within plants and other work environments of robots that are providing the tendrils for the factory-wide brain of the IIoT. These robots can sense their environment, be in constant and instantaneous exchange of information with central processing systems and execute complex directives, managing the necessary sub-steps on their own. Adidas has created a factory that uses autonomous robots to drive on-demand sneaker production. Menial tasks can be done effortlessly and efficiently by robots that, through machine vision, can see and analyze their targets and act according to their AI directives. This is why Château Clerc Milon, renowned wine producer, has implemented robots to take care of vineyards. Autonomous robots are perfect for scenarios in which unfaltering machine vision and pattern recognition enable them to see what the human eye wouldn’t catch. Like for rediscovering long-lost ’50s prototype jet fighters out in the ocean.
Inside Adidas’ Robot-Powered, On-Demand Sneaker Factory
Called Speedfactory, the facility would pair a small human workforce with technologies including 3-D printing, robotic arms, and computerized knitting to make running shoes—items that are more typically mass-produced by workers in far-off countries like China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
“What we enable is speed,” said Gerd Manz, vice president of Adidas’ innovation group. “We can react to consumer needs within days.”
Read the full article at Wired.
Bordeaux: Robot vineyard worker impresses at Clerc Milon
Château Clerc Milon, under the same ownership as Château Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac, has tested a prototype vineyard robot named ‘Ted’ to help with soil cultivation and weeding in its vines.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s MD, Philippe Dhalluin, said, ‘We see robotics as an effective solution for the future.
‘As well as helping to make our vineyard work less arduous and respecting the soil, it will reduce our dependency on fossil energies and the harm caused by traditional agricultural machinery.’
Read more here.
Autonomous sub finds long-lost supersonic aircraft from the 50s
Fraunhofer is reporting that one of its DEDAVEs [unmanned submersible] has located a couple of sunken flight models of a famous Canadian jet fighter, the Avro Arrow. Billed as “the world’s first autonomous underwater vehicle [AUV] to be developed from the outset with a view to series production,” the DEDAVE is designed to be easily manufactured on an assembly line, and thus relatively inexpensive to buy. At less than 700 kg it’s also quite light for an AUV and can travel autonomously for up to 20 hours on one charge of its eight batteries, diving to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters.
Read more about the discovery here.
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