#1 Global Robotics News Podcast
This Is Robotics: Radio News
Fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics...technology, business and people.
"You're Going to Love What You Hear!"
Episode Show Notes, Webpage Links & PDF Downloads
PLEASE JOIN US for the podcast premier program of This Is Robotics: Radio News, a fresh, new and lively look at our wonderful world of global robotics…technology, business and people.
The lineup for our premier show includes:
BACK TO THE FUTURE WITH SURGICAL ROBOTS
Oh, boy, new millionaires will be made
WHEN THE ROBOT BURNS THE TOAST
Toyota Research Institute’s kitchen robots
THE DEMISE OF DUMB
The rise of “smart” robots for factory and warehouse
THE FOUR MOST REVOLUTIONARY ROBOTS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
We have our picks. What about yours?
FUTURE REVOLUTIONARIES: THREE TOP ROBOT CONTENDERS
Three contenders for the “most revolutionary” list ten years from now.
The lineup for podcast #2 includes:
THE TROUBLE WITH COBOTS
Arguably the most important advance in robotics in the last 50 years has got a problem: sales. Why is that? Important and far-reaching consequences of those puny sales are a major concern for manufacturing and productivity.
THE FANTASTIC FIVE
Five fascinating robot innovations from Asia, each with a massive upside for the global robotics industry.
CHINA AND ITS INLAND TRADING PARTNERS: ITS SUPERCITIES!
Morgan Stanley fanned out 30 researchers across China to take the automation pulse of five unique regions. The results are fascinating.
WORLD ROBOTICS THROUGH THE YEAR 2030
Boston Consulting Group has put an interesting lens to the next decade of robotics, highlighting “seven unfolding developments that will influence the direction of robotics in the next ten years.”
The lineup for podcast #3 includes:
AMAZON, ASTRO AND OUR LIVING ROOMS
Is Amazon about to crack the code on how to make a mobile robot a part of the family? Amazon shocked the robotics world in 2012 with Kiva, then again in 2015 with Alexa, and maybe now is gearing up for a trifecta.
PHILOSOPHY MEETS THE WORLD OF AI, ROBOTICS AND BIG DATA
We’ll visit the resumes of philosophy majors to see how they are uniquely qualified for the world of AI, robotics and big data. Yes, you heard right: philosophers.
INTERNATIONAL INTERNET DAY: WRONG DATE, WRONG PEOPLE…
Every October 29th International Internet Day is celebrated around the world, but did you know that it’s the wrong date, the wrong people, and the wrong computers? Larry Roberts and Tom Marill did it first in February of 1966, three years earlier than 1969 event celebrated widely. And the reason why Larry and Tom did it is absolutely fascinating.
SPACE JUNK & ROBOTS
We’ll visit with Space Junk in Low-Earth Orbit. Whether it’s mom’s dinner table or outer space, we haven’t learned to clean up after ourselves. Meet the robots that want to take on the chore.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MACHINE TOOLS TO EVERYTHING
We’ll peer into the wonderful world of machine tools—tools that make tools, without which there are no robots, automation or smart factories. There are only three countries that dominate. Perish the thought that we have a trade war with any one of them.
The lineup for podcast #4:
PITTSBURGH: HOW ROBOTICS SAVED A CITY
By 2000, 29 steel companies in Pittsburgh had declared bankruptcy, cratering its middleclass, and any future upon which the great city might have had hopes to grow and thrive. How did robotics bring the city back from the dead?
Pittsburgh: From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub by Henry Lenard
IS THIS THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMRS?
Unless you’ve been under a rock somewhere, you’ve undoubtedly heard the noise of their wheels and the rush of their whizzing by you, either on TV news, YouTube, or better, in person. What you’re seeing and hearing is the future arriving in a hurry. They’re called AMRs, robotics newest celebrities, autonomous mobile robots.
GLOBAL ROBOTICS PATENTS: THE PATENT WARS!
Patent activity is a useful indicator of technological progress and innovation in robotics. “Between 2005 and 2019, 72,618 robotics patents were granted worldwide.” Who is leading, who is on the rise, and who are the also-rans?
In other words, the patent wars! Who’s winning? Let’s take a look.
THREE BREAKTHROUGHS: CAPSULE ROBOTICS, THE ALL-ROBOT AUTO PLANT, AND THE DEXTEROUS, FIVE-FINGERED COBOT HAND
Instrument-free, noninvasive diagnosis and therapy inside the digestive tract will be performed through a new branch of robotics: capsule robotics.
In Japan, it seems that only “smart” robots need apply for work at Nissan’s brand new “intelligent” auto plant.
What’s the next big breakthrough tech for the cobot. How about a dexterous, sophisticated five-fingered hand?
The lineup for podcast #4:
PITTSBURGH: HOW ROBOTICS SAVED A CITY
By 2000, 29 steel companies in Pittsburgh had declared bankruptcy, cratering its middleclass, and any future upon which the great city might have had hopes to grow and thrive. How did robotics bring the city back from the dead?
Pittsburgh: From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub by Henry Lenard
IS THIS THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMRS?
Unless you’ve been under a rock somewhere, you’ve undoubtedly heard the noise of their wheels and the rush of their whizzing by you, either on TV news, YouTube, or better, in person. What you’re seeing and hearing is the future arriving in a hurry. They’re called AMRs, robotics newest celebrities, autonomous mobile robots.
GLOBAL ROBOTICS PATENTS: THE PATENT WARS!
Patent activity is a useful indicator of technological progress and innovation in robotics. “Between 2005 and 2019, 72,618 robotics patents were granted worldwide.” Who is leading, who is on the rise, and who are the also-rans?
In other words, the patent wars! Who’s winning? Let’s take a look.
THREE BREAKTHROUGHS: CAPSULE ROBOTICS, THE ALL-ROBOT AUTO PLANT, AND THE DEXTEROUS, FIVE-FINGERED COBOT HAND
Instrument-free, noninvasive diagnosis and therapy inside the digestive tract will be performed through a new branch of robotics: capsule robotics.
In Japan, it seems that only “smart” robots need apply for work at Nissan’s brand new “intelligent” auto plant.
What’s the next big breakthrough tech for the cobot. How about a dexterous, sophisticated five-fingered hand?
The lineup for podcast #7:
WELCOME TO THE AMERICAS: ADDVERB TECHNOLOGIES
“We Change the Way Things Move” says Addverb Technologies. A Twelve Time Zone Chat: Boston, Bangkok, Delhi and San Diego crackled on last evening as Asian Robotics Review was introduced to Addverb Technologies for a chat with its new CEO for the Americas, Mark Messina. And we recorded it all!
WHERE THE ROBOTS ROAM
After all those heady numbers of AMRs are bought, sold, and shipped; and then step off the gangplanks to work, where the hell do they go? Join us in the Lehigh Valley, south of Chicago, and in LA for a look at the fantastic, cavernous halls of commerce “Where the Robots Roam”
FANTASTIC FIVE #2
Five Fantastic Robots That Are Transforming Industries and Changing Our World! Fantastic Five travels the globe looking for special, purpose-built robots that take on heretofore impossible challenges…and pull them off! Fantastic Five salutes the robots and the innovate teams that built them.
FINDING THE GENIUSES THAT ROBOTICS NEEDS Are You One of Them?
There are a million undiscovered geniuses in the world who, in order to be revealed and flourish, need to experience a spark of passion that ignites and illuminates their genius. Among them are roboticists-in-waiting who will change the world. Let’s find them. These 35 free online robotics courses—from superb educators at prestigious universities—certainly help.
The lineup for podcast #8
The Very Best of This Is Robotics
Fan Favorite Top 5 podcasts
THE TROUBLE WITH COBOTS
from 9/2021 podcast #2
Arguably the most important advance in robotics in the last 50 years has got a problem: sales. Why is that? Important and far-reaching consequences of those puny sales are a major concern for manufacturing and productivity.
SEX ROBOTS WILL NEVER MAKE YOU CRY
from 8/2021 podcast #1
The allure, fascination and repulsion for humanity’s new best friend
THE FANTASTIC FIVE OF ASIA
from 9/2021 podcast #2
Five fascinating robot innovations from Asia, each with a massive upside for the global robotics industry.
IS THIS THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMRs?
from 11/2021 podcast #4
Unless you’ve been under a rock somewhere, you’ve undoubtedly heard the noise of their wheels and the rush of their whizzing by you, either on TV news, YouTube, or better, in person. What you’re seeing and hearing is the future arriving in a hurry. They’re called AMRs, robotics newest celebrities, autonomous mobile robots.
FINDING THE GENIUSES THAT ROBOTICS NEEDS Are You One of Them?
from 2/2022 podcast #7
There are a million undiscovered geniuses in the world who, in order to be revealed and flourish, need to experience a spark of passion that ignites and illuminates their genius. Among them are roboticists-in-waiting who will change the world. Let’s find them. These 35 free online robotics courses—from superb educators at prestigious universities—certainly help.
KOREA’S ROBOT TECHNOPOLIS
A fascinating piece on the rise of Daegu City, which will be, by 2028, the biggest and most important robot city in all of Asia. Decade of work pays off in high-tech victory as Daegu City wins nationwide competition as mega-site for Korea’s Robot Technopolis
MOXI AND THE WOMEN WHO BUILT HER
A well-deserved shout to Diligent Robotics scoring a $30 million investment, and what it means for service robotics as well as to robotics companies founded by women
CLASH OF TITANS: HACKING ROBOTS
With all that’s going on in the world today, how do we cyber-harden our industrial robots from malicious interventions? With 3-million industrial robots deployed worldwide, protecting them is becoming a very real problem. The newest game in town for robots is defending themselves from hacking and cybercrime.
FANTASTIC FIVE
Showcasing five ways to save big on robots, cobots and automation, while streamlining productivity on the cheap.
ELON AND HIS ROBOT HOMBRE
Elon Musk, as humanoid robot builder, in a story we call Elon and His Robot Hombre. So what if he misses a few deadlines. You know he’s going to ace the final exam.
Elon Musk is the best thing to ever happen to humanoid robotics.
Will Farm Robots Become Our Next Gas-Guzzling, Fume-Spewing Agents of Climate Change?
Farm Robots…and the coming explosion in their numbers. As the world moves toward an additional 2 billion people, going from 7 to 9 billion total, the global food supply, according to the UN, will need 70% more food. Farm robots are the only way that will happen. But, with millions of new farm robots, will farm robots become our next gas-guzzling, fume-spewing agents of climate change? It’s going to happen, but there is a solution.
Is This the Beginning of “Womb-to-Tomb” Algorithms?
Hiring algorithms, says a recent study, mistakenly reject certain men, women, and handicapped. What does that mean for future of robotics and tech staffing?
Algorithms sift through our resumes; algorithms scrutinize our job interviews. They are also part of our annual performance reviews and raises, weigh in on our promotions, layoffs…even firings. New York City is cracking down on them, others may follow. See what we uncovered.
Nationwide Implications for New York City’s AI Bias Audit Law
Robots Offer Singapore a Bright Future
Like other countries in East and Southeast Asia, Singapore has taken on a 20-year project to build a robot technopolis or robot city.
The Jurong Innovation District (JID) has received $313 million in new investments over the past year. It’s part of Singapore’s future vision to mobilize Industry 4.0 and its Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific plans into a place where robots, cobots, automation, industry, education, and people will coexist together in harmony that pegs robots and automation as “essential enablers” for its future.
Robots Offer Singapore a Bright Future, If…
Who Are the New Heroes of Robotics?
They are not Hollywood creations. They are real, and their explorations are more than enough to send thousands of young people off in pursuit of careers in robotics.
Yet very few kids know about them and their fantastic adventures.
Last month, I was asked to speak to a cohort of high school students hellbent on robotics careers. The group was a robotics scholars summer program for high school kids put on by SuperTech and Code Tenderloin in San Francisco. Great course; wonderful bunch of high schoolers.
Many young people are urged to get into robotics, but many times that’s as far as the advice goes. What awaits them in robotics is a bit of a mystery. For inspirational models, they harken to things like Star War’s sagas and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Nice, but there’s so much more, I told them. Like the new heroes of robotics.
HONORING INDIA’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE (1947-2022)
India: An Unexpected Revolution in Robotics
There’s a revolution in robotics just emerging in India that bears watching.
An unexpected revolution!
No one expects robotics revolutions to take place in India, no one ever has. Why?
Cerebral more than mechanical has been the rap most often heard about India. India has always shown itself fantastically adept at constructing unrivaled intellectual kingdoms.
However, India has been in search of its own, indigenous, mechanical realm in which to tinker and fashion, innovate and invent.
Robotics just might be that magical realm. The long-awaited intersection of the cerebral with the mechanical.
The five Indian co-founders of Addverb Technologies have taken on the mission of bringing machine building, as robotics, to India
India: An Unexpected Revolution
WORLD ROBOTICS THROUGH THE YEAR 2030
Boston Consulting Group has put an interesting lens to the next decade of robotics, highlighting “seven unfolding developments that will influence the direction of robotics in the next ten years.”
THE FOUR MOST REVOLUTIONARY ROBOTS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
We have our picks. What about yours?
WHAT’S NEW IN ROBOTICS?
What’s New in Robotics? Travels to an Indonesian village, the Czech Republic, then Sweden, and finally California News briefs take a look at an exosuit or wearable robot to manage spastic muscles for those afflicted with multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral palsy (CP), followed homemade ingenuity in service robots with a service robot that has a rice cooker for a head; followed by a 3D-printed cobot arm that actually “works”, and finally the 45-second pizza, robot-made in a moving truck…only in CA
ROBO AI NEWS (NEW WEBSITE)
We have launched a new website that’s rapidly building itself out and nearing completion. It’s called RoboAINews (roboainews.com), and it’s located at roboainews.com. As its name denotes, it’s a website all about “smart robots” the convergence, that we see happening day by day, the inevitable convergence between robots and artificial intelligence. It’s a major step up for both robots and the rest of us, as “smart robots” are already changing the entire direction of robotics technology.
THE DEMISE OF DUMB
The rise of “smart” robots for factory and warehouse. A new generation of robots is on the rise, and their calling card reads, smart! A new type of robot, the “smart” robot, is quickening into reality. Robots (especially cobots) and mobile machines are getting interconnected with multiple sensors and onboard compute power, all imbued with artificial intelligence /machine learning (AI/ML), data analytics and cloud computing.
WORLD ROBOTICS THROUGH THE YEAR 2030
Boston Consulting Group has put an interesting lens to the next decade of robotics, highlighting “seven unfolding developments that will influence the direction of robotics in the next ten years.”
IN A NUTSHELL AT PACK EXPO INTERNATIONAL 2022
Post-COVID, tradeshows have been slowly lumbering back into the global event circuit this past year or so, most to highly receptive audiences. One of the biggest returnees, PACK EXPO International (Chicago, October 23-26), absent since 2018, promised to return larger than ever with a flurry of new looks, staging, and attendee outreach.
Upon hitting the show floor, the jump-out realizations to grab onto at Pack Expo 2022 are two: More cobots doing more things better and more flexibly than ever; and then, upon closer inspection of those same cobots, the fact that integration of cobot systems is the next great advance in robotics. If that’s all you took away from the show, you would have, in a nutshell, seen the future of packaging and packing.
PHILOSOPHY MEETS THE WORLD OF AI, ROBOTICS AND BIG DATA
We’ll visit the resumes of philosophy majors to see how they are uniquely qualified for the world of AI, robotics and big data. Yes, you heard right: philosophers.
According to David Deutsch, arguably the founding father of quantum computing, is betting on it in his article that he titles: “Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence.”
Yes, philosophy, that most ancient of human brain teasers. And if AI is to ever emulate the thinking capability of a human being, philosophy is the answer.
For all those job-hunting philosophers, listen up. Jobs are looking for you.
INTERNATIONAL INTERNET DAY: WRONG DATE, WRONG PEOPLE…
Every October 29th International Internet Day is celebrated around the world, but did you know that it’s the wrong date, the wrong people, and the wrong computers? Larry Roberts and Tom Marill did it first in February of 1966, three years earlier than 1969 event celebrated widely. And the reason why Larry and Tom did it is absolutely fascinating
ROBOTS, COBOTS AND PHARMA 4.0
Robots and cobots, more and more, are beginning to exert an outsized impact on life-saving and disease-preventing new drug discoveries, medicines, and therapeutics.
From drug discovery, to the manufacturing and packaging of new pharmaceuticals, the marriage of AI and robotics has been crucial to the process.
In what’s now being called Pharma 4.0, a new world is emerging for robots and cobots, and they are proving themselves up to the task, and then some.
NEW WORKPLACE LAW: NYC LAW 144
UPDATE: NOVEMBER 2022. New workplace law: NYC Law 144, which takes effect in 40 days or less, January 1, 2023. The new law covers the use of AI in hiring and promotions. Businesses in NYC will hire approximately 90,000 people in 2023 and all hiring will have to adhere to Law 144. There are over 200 robotics, AI and automation companies in NYC, which this law will most definitely impact. An adverse impact will have a definite ill-effect on innovation. What can be done, if anything, to avoid trouble?
And as with many laws emanating from New York, they have a habit of going nationwide, followed by worldwide implications as well.
The details: Confusion Reigns over Approaching New York City AI Bias Audit Law
TIME MAGAZINE’S BEST 200 INVENTIONS FOR 2022
WHAT’S NEW IN ROBOTICS? Time Magazine is out with its Best 200 Inventions for 2022. It’s got 25 separate categories, and robots are everywhere! Robotics, now quickly integrating with AI, has seeped its way into a vast swarth of technology. And the future forecasts even more! Join us for a look.
Read it all here: Robotiq: What’s New in Robotics? 18.11.2022
HOMAGE TO PITTSBURGH: BACK FROM THE BRINK!
The Fall & Rise of Pittsburgh: From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub. The inspirational story of America’s Steel Town collapsing and going bankrupt in the 1980s, and its fight to regain prominence as a great city and world renown as a global robotics hub.
Former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said that during the 1980s and early 1990s, when every politician was saying how they were going to bring the mills back, there were people in Pittsburgh who were building out an entirely new economy based upon technology and education. “It was not an overnight success; it was 30 years of work!”
Join us for this heartwarming Thanksgiving tale of a city refusing to give up. It’s become a fan favorite worldwide and an instant holiday classic here at This Is Robotics.
Read more: From Dying Steel Town to Global Robotics Hub
CHINA’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE & BEST GIFT EVER!
How China went from 88% of its people in utter poverty, making $2.06 per day, to having the largest middle class in human history. Larger than the entire population of Europe. And it’s all due to one man: Deng Xiaoping, the diminutive (5’2”) paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China, who in 1978, at the age of 74, changed China forever. Keeping the sheen on Deng Xiaoping’s “Big Idea”
China’s Christmas Miracle
TOP 5 ROBOTICS TECH TRENDS FOR 2023
That’s followed by the Top 5 Robotics Tech Trends for 2023. It’s our What’s New in Robotics? column from our partnering with Robotiq. The experts have made their forecasts, and we’ve got the Top 5. They’re awesome picks
What’s New in Robotics? Robotiq Blog 30.12.2022
KRISPY KREME GOES BIG TIME FOR ROBOTS
With cobots elbowing themselves into the food business like with White Castle burgers and Chipotle’s Chippy, the tortilla-chip-making cobot, both from Miso Robotics, what about confections, and the sweet-tooth crowd? Are robots in their future, too? Well, yes… Krispy Kreme, the 85-year-old, NC-based donut giant. is going robot.
SPACE JUNK & ROBOTS
We’ll visit with Space Junk in Low-Earth Orbit. Whether it’s mom’s dinner table or outer space, we haven’t learned to clean up after ourselves. Meet the robots that want to take on the chore.
Space Robots to Sweep Up Orbiting Debris
CAPSULE ROBOTICS
Instrument-free, noninvasive diagnosis and therapy inside the digestive tract will be performed through a new branch of robotics: capsule robotics.
CHINA TO AMP UP ROBOT USAGE 2023-2025
Already the world’s largest buyer of industrial robots for 9 straight years. A country that buys on average 21,000 industrial robots a month!
Does that sound like a country that needs to “Amp Up” its robot usage?
Yes, and there’s good reason for it.
China’s got a failing grade for its “Made in China 2025” plan in which it promised 50% of all industrial robots bought would be homemade by Chinese robot makers. Today, that’s at 39%!
More worrisome still, China registered more deaths than births last year, marking 2022 as the first time the country’s population has dropped since the 1960s. Fewer workers mean a need for more automation; robots primary substitute.
China’s new plan for 2023: “Robot + Application Action Plan”
INTERVIEW PT. 1: MARK MESSINA CEO ADDVERB: FIRST YEAR IN NA & MICROLOGISTICS
Mark’s insights and outlook for how logistics will deal with Micrologistics, 5G and Cybersecurity in 2023.
WHAT’S NEW IN ROBOTICS? AFTERMATH OF CES2023 GOOD FOR ROBOTICS?
CES for 2023 came and went quietly this year (January 5 to 8, Las Vegas), minus much of the online-hoopla that for weeks preceding its opening usually attends the world’s largest consumer electronics show.
Attendees looking for robots at CES2023 also got a quiet show.
Post-COVID (since 2021), CES simply has yet to fully recover and return to its heady times of years past. A half-day’s rambling about would have been enough to see all the robots at CES2023 that really mattered.
As Brian Heater of TechCrunch remarked: “At some point when we weren’t looking, CES became a car show.”
Isn’t it time we asked ourselves: “Should Robotics Events Have an Exclusive Online TV Network?”
There’s the Travel Channel, the Cooking Network, HGTV, Court TV, the Golf Channel, and myriad others. Why not a 24×7 Robotics TV Network?
See also Robotiq’s blog: See also: What’s New in Robotics? 13.01.2023
INTERVIEW PT. 2: MARK MESSINA CEO ADDVERB: 5G & CYBERSECURITY FOR LOGISTICS
Mark’s insights and outlook for how logistics will deal with 5G and Cybersecurity in 2023. Mark offers up a fascinating insider’s look at 5G and protecting logistics assets from his twin viewpoints as both a logistics engineer and an executive business leader delivering intra-logistics automation for Addverb Technologies.
FABULOUS FEBRUARY
Hi everyone and welcome to This Is Robotics for February.
It’s been a mere two months into 2023 and already big things, major innovations, are happening in robotics.
And some of them are quite fabulous and are the harbinger of follow-on innovations that are even more fabulous.
Because of what’s popped to the surface these last 2 months, we’re going into full-stop mode for This Is Robotics for February Episode 17. We’re calling it Fabulous February.
Because, If this is what the first two months of 2023 are like for robotics, the remaining 10 months may well be the best in years.
We’ll take a look at Service robotics, logistics, then cobots x3 with one of them being the arrival of the ultimate, affordable, and simple-to-use cobot for SMEs at $9k.
I’ve been writing about cobots for ten years, and this is the first to come along that’s tailor-made for SMEs and its not from an old-line robot maker or a new-line cobot maker; it’s from a 50-year-old, German company that makes high-performance plastics. The company is named igus, and the cobot is called the ReBel. And it could easily revolutionize the use of cobots for SMEs.
How about a personal robot as family historian?
All the elements to build one exist, there needs only a company smart enough to take it on. Perfect for ancestry.com.
Instead of a family scrap book or memory sticks of media loaded with a family’s life events and special occasions, what about an undying, self-repairing home robot as family historian that records and stores everything.
A family robot that would record (audio and video) of the good, bad, and ugly of a family all year long, and then with the help of generative AI, organize it all into an annual movie co-narrated by Orson Wells and Lauren Becall (both deceased but with AI anything is possible)? Narrator choice is up to you.
It’s the ultimate hand-me-down, like the grandfather clock of robots.
OKAY, LET’S GET ON WITH Fabulous February.
Hi everyone and welcome, I’m Tom Green, your host for this episode of This Is Robotics, and your fellow companion on one of the most incredible journeys in human history: robotics.
Thanks so much for tuning us in today.
March 20th, at 5:24 p.m. EDT) spring rolled in. It’s that time of year when the ground begins to thaw, birds return, and many vendors introduce their outdoor robots. Outdoors meaning robots for backyards, construction sites, farms, and major infrastructure projects most everywhere. In short, it’s springtime for robots.
In honor of March, we’ll review some of these new spring robots for 2023. Renovate Robotics, Swap Robotics, Built Robotics, and GlüxKind.
Then, we’re off to Korea as Korea makes its $177 billion move at becoming a robotics kingpin: trying to be the third or fourth-largest producer of robots worldwide, as well as making a strong move on leadership in artificial intelligence. Big things are happening in Korea, and robotics will be a direct beneficiary of Korea’s remarkable plan for AI leadership, not only in East Asia and Asia…but the entire globe.
Articles in Asian Robotics Review:
Major Growth Spurt Ahead for Korean Robotics
2023-2026 Korea could leapfrog competition through integration of robotics, AI/ML, and ICT
Korea’s Plan for AI/ML Dominance…Brilliant!
Korea looks to ramp up artificial intelligence and converge with recent successes in robotics (6x growth from 2009 to 2016). Can Korea pull it off?
Our last two segments for this episode ask the question: What happened?
Generative AI: Finally, America Gets a Real Wake-up Call
In 1983, the United States had 50-plus manufacturers of industrial robots. Today there are zero…as in none! Well, excepting for the recent one ABB in 2015 (Swiss/Swedish conglomerate) built in Michigan. Americans are left to “assembling” other peoples’ robots. Even though the U.S invented robots.
What if there’s a supply-chain fiasco preventing shipments? Or worse, what if embargos from US alliances make it impossible to import from Germany, Japan, Italy or China.? What has that mean’t for manufacturing in the U.S. today? Will America’s logistics go the same way as industrial robots.
Between 2000 and 2010, the US lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs. The US remains the second-largest manufacturing country in the world, but its global dominance has been well and truly lost.
What happened? And is this decline a harbinger of what Generative AI might do in the very near future? We’ll let you know what the leadership of DHL, a company that ships 5 billion packages annually, says about the situation.
Finally, our last news report: Machine Tool Kingpins: Germany, Japan & China Machine tools keys to the future of global manufacturing. See also Asian Robotics Review news report and free downloadable PDF from Bismarck Analysis on machine tools.
The Importance of Machine Tools
To Have and Have Not: Advanced Manufacturing’s Most Important Skill
Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #19
For two years running now, we are the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.
Thanks for joining us today
Topping the news of the month is Walmart with its blockbuster 5-year plan filled to the brim with automation and robots. A story we call: Walmart Goes All-In for Robots.
In short, it’s a massive upside for the entire robotics industry.
That’s sure to prompt other retailers to follow suit. Some already have and are ahead of Walmart. Even Walmart’s suppliers are sure to speed things up as well. Got to get those gazillions of cans of Campbell’s soup shipped to Walmart’s 4700 stores either fast or faster.
Walmart vendors winning out: Symbotic, GreyOrange & Alert Innovation.
Check out the Robotiq blog for the full story
Then we’re off to a factory automation story circa 1803, the world’s very first automated factory, from which the reverberations, here 200 years later, still ring out loudly. The noted historian Simon Winchester wrote about it, and he’ll narrate what happened.
The Future of Warehouse Work: Technological Change in the U.S. Logistics Industry.
As he does, think about robot-driven automation in today’s warehouses and factories. There’s a lot of relevance for where today’s automation is headed.
Following Simon and the world’s first automated factory from 1803, is our piece on Australian robotics.
Once high-flying, Australian robotics went into an eclipse after the 2014 budget cuts. Listen to the sadly haunting news clip from 2014 that recounts the tragedy. And now the country wants a return to its former glory. Here, a decade on, is that possible?
Know this, the world needs Australian robotics and Australian innovation. It’s a tragedy that the government let it wither. Can Australia now make a comeback?
Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #20
For two years running now, we are the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.
Thanks for joining us today
We’d really be remiss here at This Is Robotics if we didn’t put some sense into the biggest robotics story of the last several months. That story is of humanoid robots, bi-pedal humanoid robots hooking up with AI.
Our next story is called Humanoid Robots and AI Cross the Rubicon…together. The point of no return!
Where once people were frightened of humanoid robots taking jobs and more, they now seem to be frozen in fear over generative AI.
And with humanoid robots and AI converging, the spectre of a twin fear of humanoids high on AI running amok is scaring more than a few.
Let’s make some sense of what is really going on in this fast-paced world where the benefits from the convergence far outweigh the negatives.
Here also are two new articles courtesy of What’s New in Robotics, from our blog partnership with Robotiq, leader in automating work with easy-to-use cobot solutions.
The first one we call: Robots, needles & babies, which is about robotics disrupting infertility and in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination, referred to as IVF.
Our second article from What’s New in Robotics story that we titled: Robot Lost & Found, which is the first-ever development of a robot designed to find lost items for dementia patients.
Our next story asks the question: Is India next up for an automation makeover? It appears so, and Indian robotics is rolling out to the launchpad to drive it all.
The Wall Street Journal, the International Federation of Robotics, and the International Monetary Fund are out with glowing reports on India’s upcoming successes.
The timing couldn’t be better.
See our companion articles in Asian Robotics Review:
Indian Robotics: Sometimes the Future Is Now
Asia-Pacific 70% of Global Growth 2023
Finally, in an interview with Simon Winchester, the historian looks at the precision engineering styles of Henry Ford and Henry Royce as he celebrates the unsung breed of engineers who through the ages have designed ever more creative and intricate machines. He takes us on a journey through the evolution of “precision,” which in his view is the major driver of what we experience as modern life.
Welcome everyone to This Is Robotics, Episode #21. I’m Tom Green your host and fellow traveler in the wonderful world of robotics.
This is our first podcast while the world is hip deep in generativeAI. In fact, much of our show today is about AI and robotics.
We lead off with our partnership blog What’s New in Robotics? with Robotiq, the automation company that helps you elevate your workforce with easy-to-use cobot solutions that do the work for you.
Two of our blog posts from What’s New in Robotics? talk about an “inflexion point” arriving in 2023 heralding exponential advances in AUTONOMY and ADAPTIVITY. Both advances are arriving simultaneously with gererativeAI, which should make for an interesting year.
Following that one of our main AI articles this episode: Does AI Need a Body?
GenerativeAI, say the experts, is limited while AI is disembodied, but give it a body… and whamo! With a body, AI explore the world on its own. Because of that, look for bi-pedal humanoid robots in 2023 to get a lot of attention from AI.
Casey Neistat had AI write a vlog script on places of interest in Manhattan. Casey shot the script, edited it, and then presented it on his YouTube channel.
Here’s Casey’s take on AI as a scriptwriter:
Even Casey thinks something major is missing. Could it be a body?
Then we present a segment on cobots. Yes, cobots again! A segment we call Cobots Sing the Blues. What is going on with cobot sales? The cobot is one of the greatest advances in robotics, yet for nearly a decade now, it’s sales have been flaccid: less than 5% of total robot sales…and seemingly going nowhere fast.
Our big question is are cobots chasing the wrong customer? We say, yes, and have for some time now.
I personally love Elite cobots, which I think are the best out there; and I love what igus has done with the REbel for $7500. But there’s something missing, and we contend that it’s the right fit with the right customer.
Our concluding section offers up and in-depth analysis of the cobot and how to fix sales: we call the segment: The Trouble with Cobots!
EXTRA: Download PDF version: The Trouble with Cobots
This summer of 2023 is one to particularly remember for robotics. We’ll remember 2023 for a long time, even as it spawns two more equally amazing and remarkable years to come 2024 and 2025. Robotics technology and sales will thunder into the quarter-century mark of this millennium’s first 100 years.
Today’s podcast looks at three bellwether happenings for robotics here in 2023…and the carryover for them through 2025.
Of course, leader of the bellwether gang is generative AI or genAI that bull-rushed the world this spring sowing fear, chaos, glee, elation…and even adulation as it blindly fast changed most everything around us…and continues to do so.
Then there was the rise of general-purpose robots and cobots. Oh my, these smart robots and cobots change everything and are the future of everything. Like Google and DeepMind’s RoboCat.
We’ll take a look at the RoboCat effect on robotics going forward. Plus, from a real-world look at smart robots in action, we’ll look at Lockheed’s use of smart robots. See how and why Lockheed got a 10x productivity bump. Are these smart critters the future? You bet.
Then another amazing happening in robotics: two countries, not just one, making a bid for greatness. In March there was Korea and its $177 billion dollar move into leadership in East Asia with all things AI and robotics.
We profiled Korea in a multi-series article set in March and then featured Korea in the March edition of the This Is Robotics podcast.
Next up, is our second pick for greatness. India. India’s time has come. Not only for robotics and automation but as a country that has enabled the extraordinary ascent of India’s indigenous robotics technology. The intertwined future of India’s economics and its robotics technology.
As economist Tyler Cowen put it: “With Rishi Sunak as prime minister of the U.K., it is now impossible to deny what has been evident for some while: Indian talent is revolutionizing the Western world far more than had been expected 10 or 15 years ago.”
And finally, from Gutenberg to GenAI. Why is it that humans will always reign supreme? I found out at 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Asia… in the pages of a book from 2014 by Steven Johnson called How We Got to Now. Mother Nature did things to us in both brain and body that make us supreme. Sorry AI.
Article Set for Rise of Indian Robotics
Is Addverb Technologies the Big Bang of Indian Robotics?
Indian Robotics: Sometimes the Future Is Now
Can India Build a Homegrown, Indigenous Robot Industry to Rival China’s?
Top 10 Best Homegrown, Industrial Robot Builders in India
Hi folks, and welcome once again to This Is Robotics: Radio News, Episode #23
I’m Tom Green, your host and companion on this incredible journey called robotics.
For two years running now, we have been the #1 Robotics News Podcast worldwide…we’re up to over 100,000 fans, and you my dear folks put us at #1. Thank you very much.
And thanks for joining us today
It’s August, the harbinger of September, and the 4th and final Quarter 4 for 2023. That year went fast! Maybe because it was such a rollicking year for GenAI converging with everything, especially robotics.
August observed National Kiss & Make Up Day. Did You? If not, and you’re still angry, indecisive, or ready to move on, we have a special segment that just may be of help. Sex Robots.
Could falling in love with a robot friend be such a bad thing?
Dr Helen Driscoll of the University of Sunderland says “The point is, people already fall in love with fictional characters, even if there is no chance to meet and interact with them.” How many humans readily let go of their emotions and fall in love with a character in a movie? Plenty!
And we’ve also had an Astro sighting. You know Astro, Amazon’s $1600 diminutive home robot that rolled into our lives in 2021, and then disappeared. Seems Astro is now fueling up with GenAI, which Amazon has named Burnham. It won’t be around for a few years, says Amazon. Which for any other product would surely mean the kiss of death.
But, the entire category of home robots has also disappeared. What’s with that?
There’s a potential forecast looming that says home robots are looking at a marketplace of $16 billion. If they ever show up!
We love Coming to America stories, and our Orangewood Labs article is just such a tale of fresh ideas and hard work washing up on our shores. Just goes to show that immigrants come to the U.S. with more than their suitcases.
Orangewood is about three Indian guys who are on a mission to democratize robotics for the small manufacturer, which is a segment in dire need of automation.
Okay, let’s get on with the news.