This Is Robotics: Radio News

PLEASE JOIN US for podcast #3 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 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 RISE OF DAEGU CITY
Have you ever heard about Daegu City? No? Thought so. Well, Daegu City (Korea) is on its way to being the largest and most influential Robotics Technopolis in Asia...maybe the world.

AND MORE...
Join us at Asian Robotics Review or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn or where ever your podcast resource.

Thanks. You’re going to love what you hear!
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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 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.

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?

Is Australian Robotics Making a Comeback?

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 ICTKorea’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

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.