Robotics Tomorrow
Claudia Jarrett, US Country Manager | EU Automation Inc.

In recent years, there has been a global shortage of welders. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reports that almost 81 per cent of manufacturers can’t find enough skilled welders to meet their needs. Thankfully, automation can help fill the gap. Claudia Jarrett, US country manager at automation parts supplier EU Automation, explains why cobots may be the solution to the world’s welding shortage.

A world without welders?
The American Welding Society has predicted a deficit of 400,000 welders by 2024. According to specialist welding technologists K-TIG, a US welder’s skills are in such high demand they can demand a salary of $100,000.   Full Article

​Control Engineering
Jennifer Chu

For the more than 5 million people in the world who have undergone an upper-limb amputation, prosthetics have come a long way. Beyond traditional mannequin-like appendages, there is a growing number of commercial neuroprosthetics — highly articulated bionic limbs, engineered to sense a user’s residual muscle signals and robotically mimic their intended motions.

But this high-tech dexterity comes at a price. Neuroprosthetics can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are built around metal skeletons, with electrical motors that can be heavy and rigid.  Full Article

Manufacturing Tomorrow
Martin Thunman, CEO and Co-Founder - Crosser Technologies

To help manufacturers understand, and overcome, some of the challenges associated with smart manufacturing, Martin Thunman, CEO and Co-Founder of leading low-code platform for streaming analytics, automation and integration for industrial IoT, Crosser shares his insight.
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Before we examine the challenges of digital manufacturing, let’s reflect on industry’s journey. If we consider Industry 1.0 and 2.0 — when mechanization and steam power, followed by the mass use of electrical power came into play — we’re looking at a totally different era of manufacturing. Then the previous revolution, Industry 3.0, began to introduce automated production, IT systems and robotics to the factory floor.
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All the previous revolutions have a common connection: their technologies all produced data, of some description. But now, as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, autonomous systems, the IoT and machine learning are equipping manufacturers with the ability to take this data, and make plants more productive, leaner and more cost-efficient.  Full Article