Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

ABB officially opened its fully automated and flexible robotics factory in Kangqiao, Shanghai, China. The 67,000m² production and research facility represents a [$150 million (€143.42 million) (1.1 billion RMB)] investment by ABB and will deploy the company’s digital and automation technologies to manufacture next generation robots enhancing ABB’s robotics and automation leadership in China.

San Francisco, United States – OSARO, a global provider in AI-driven robotics for e-commerce, announced a partnership with SVT Robotics to accelerate the integration of pick-and-place robotics systems for e-commerce and logistics businesses. SVT Robotics’ SOFTBOT platform enables companies to integrate and deploy the robots, automation, and IoT devices they need in just days or weeks.

Littleton, United States – Luxonis, a Colorado-based robotic vision platform, to introduce rae, its fully-formed personal robot. Backed by a Kickstarter campaign to help support its development, rae sets itself apart by offering a multitude of features right out of the box, along with a degree of experimental programming potential that far exceeds other consumer robots on the market. The most recent of a long line of Luxonis introductions, rae is designed to make robotics accessible and simple for users of any experience level.

All component-level tests are complete on DARPA’s robotic servicing of geosynchronous satellites (RSGS) program and the on-orbit demonstration mission is on schedule for launch in 2024. The RSGS goal is to enable inspection and servicing of satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), where hundreds of satellites provide communications, meteorological, national security, and other vital functions. Currently, no options exist for visual diagnosis, upgrades, or repairs of a malfunctioning satellite’s components.

Waltham, United States – Vecna Robotics, the provider in flexible material handling automation solutions, announced a software release and hardware upgrades to its AFL-class autonomous forklift. The capabilities expand the company’s reach within warehouse and factory floors by optimising material transport between other machinery and equipment, with specific focus on low-lift workflows. The update supports numerous above-ground workflows including: inbound staging to AS/RS induction; delivering materials to ergonomic lift stands for work-in-process flows; and loading and extracting from robotic palletisers and stretch wrappers.

Calgary, Canada – Attabotics, the 3D robotics supply chain system for modern commerce, revealed the Attabot 2022, the commercialised version of its proprietary robot. Built stronger and smarter than its predecessor, the Attabots 2022 boasts a simplified mechatronic design that reduces operational costs while increasing the efficiency of automated picking and packing of goods.

Rockville, United States – As per a new industry analysis by Fact.MR, a market research and competitive intelligence provider, worldwide demand for X-ray-based robots is projected to increase at a CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period (2022-2027).

Shenzhen, China. 02 September, 2022 – On August 31, UBTech Robotics Corp Limited hosted a forum on “The integration of the high technology and the elderly-care service industry” together with the launching of “The global strategy of smart elderly-care of UBTech Robotics Corp Limited”. Experts and professionals in the healthcare and elderly-care service industry came together to discuss the development and implementation of a technology-driven smart elderly-care system and shared the valuable experience and insights within the domain.

August 16, 2022 – Over the last several years, we have seen significant progress in applying machine learning to robotics. However, robotic systems today are capable of executing only very short, hard-coded commands, such as “Pick up an apple,” because they tend to perform best with clear tasks and rewards. They struggle with learning to perform long-horizon tasks and reasoning about abstract goals, such as a user prompt like “I just worked out, can you get me a healthy snack?”, says Brian Ichter and Karol Hausman, research scientists, Google Research, Brain Team.

Seoul & Cambridge, United States. 12 August, 2022 – Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) announced the launch of Boston Dynamics AI Institute (the Institute), with the goal of making fundamental advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and intelligent machines. The Group and Boston Dynamics will make an initial investment of more than [$400 million (€393.11 million)] in the new Institute, which will be led by Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics.

Automation company Beckhoff UK has announced its new concept for robotics applications with ATRO (Automation Technology for Robotics). With its multi-axis capabilities and modular design, ATRO’s kinematics can be assembled flexibly and offers an internal media feed for data, power and fluids, implemented in such a way that all axes can rotate endlessly.

Research Triangle Park, United States. 1 June 2022 – Jaggaer, the global provider in autonomous commerce, announced a strategic relationship with Billtrust, a B2B accounts receivable automation provider. Suppliers can now reduce manual work and lower administration cost by automating the process of sending out invoices within or outside of Jaggaer’s network of suppliers.

Zurich, Switzerland. 11 May, 2022 – ABB is adding two new robot families to its portfolio of large robots for complex manufacturing applications. Delivering enhanced speed, accuracy, flexibility, and a more robust design including integrated process cabling, ABB’s IRB 5710 and 5720 robots deliver increased productivity and enhanced performance with higher uptime for applications including electric vehicle (EV) manufacture, foundry, forging, rubber, plastics, and metal fabrication.   

Miami, Florida, USA. 1st February , 2022 – UltimateSuite, the task mining company, announced that it has added Robotic Process mining to its platform to enhance Task Discovery. The new addition helps its customers to automatically identify repetitive tasks which can be automated or streamlined to maximise efficiency and increase business return on investment.

Automation Anywhere, a global provider of robotic process automation (RPA), announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire cloud provider FortressIQ, a process discovery and mining company based in San Francisco.

London, UK. 26 October 2021 – Appian announced that Vontobel, a globally operating financial expert with Swiss roots, is deploying Appian Robotic Process Automation (RPA) across the company to accelerate its business transformation and automation initiatives. Vontobel began using the Appian Low-Code Platform in 2016 to streamline operational business processes from front-line customer service to back-office governance, risk, and compliance.

Reading, UK. 26^th October 2021 – Toca, provider of the no code apps and automation fabric, is announcing £2m (€2.38m) of funding from private investors an extension to the £1.4m (€1.66m) raised since 2018. The innovative Toca fabric disrupts the low code app development and traditional RPA markets, bringing these capabilities together into a single no code platform that works across any infrastructure and system.

Laserfiche announced the availability of Laserfiche Cloud in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The SaaS provider of intelligent content management and business process automation’s cloud offering delivers an innovative and trusted system for securely managing content and automating business processes across the enterprise.

The Franco-American start-up Fuzzy Logic announces a €2.5 million seed round of financing from two European DeepTech funds: 42CAP, an industry-specialised German fund based in Munich, and Karista (via the Paris Region Venture Fund), an early-stage VC firm based in Paris.

The National Robotarium, hosted by Heriot-Watt University, is pioneering intelligent sensing and tele-presence robotic technology to allow health practitioners to remotely assess a person’s physical and cognitive health from anywhere in the world.

Appian announced the latest version of the Appian Low-Code Automation Platform. The new release makes it faster and more efficient to build enterprise applications through major enhancements in low-code data, complete automation functionality, user interface (UI) creation, and application deployment.

UK manufacturers are expressing growing interest in the potential of robotic automation to help address impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and protect against future workforce shortages.

The current pandemic presents a major challenge for many organisations, especially when it comes to remaining competitive in an uncertain economic situation. In order to overcome the difficulties, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is adopted by many businesses to boost their productivity, improve service and product quality and increase customer satisfaction.

Gavin Mee, managing director for Northern Europe at enterprise automation firm UiPath, reveals that software robots can support green solutions and, when implemented at scale, could help to significantly reduce a business’ carbon footprint while boosting its efficiency.

The year is 2021. There’s been an overnight shift to digital operations, but the pressure to stay competitive, eliminating bottlenecks, and ensuring stability still remain as business priorities.

Richard Farrell, Netcall’s chief innovation officer, recently hosted a webinar featuring guest speaker Dr Bernhard Schaffrik, principal analyst at Forrester, exploring ‘Transformative Trends for Automation Software’. following Forrester’s recently completed and published evaluation of top RPA vendors ‘The Forrester Wave: Robotic Process Automation, Q1 2021’ – which unearthed the challenges, and opportunities, that companies of all maturities are facing when looking to automate.

Guidance Automation, a provider of guidance, navigation and control technologies,  announces the findings of its latest research regarding the growth of the intralogistics automation sector.