Developments

India’s GDP contraction continue to persist another quarter

Following the news that Indian economy has nosedived by 23.9% YoY in the April-June 2020 quarter, the acutest historical decline; Kausani Basak, Economic Research Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on the dip: “India imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world which in turn has led to a wipe out of almost one-fourth of its GDP during April-June 2020. GlobalData’s forecast suggests the economy to contract less intensively by 7.5% YoY in July-September 2020 quarter, as relaxations allowed since June 2020 have revived some employment opportunities and resulted in a deceleration in contraction of production. “GDP contraction is expected to lose pace further to 0.5% YoY decline in October-December 2020 quarter and finally register a marginal recovery of 1.6% in January-March 2021, given the COVID-19 curve flattens successfully. “Closed factories and construction activities during the April-June 2020 quarter had pulled down rural and urban consumption activity alike, aggravating the plight of the millions of poor in India. Even among the urban upper and middle-class population consumption trends are cautious with many postponing purchases due to restrictions and hoping for times of better economic clarity. As a result, the private fixed consumption expenditure has declined by 26.7% YoY in the April-June 2020 quarter. “At the same time, small and medium businesses have suffered tremendous loss and many are relying on the loan moratorium and collateral free loans offered by the government to stay afloat. The dire situation is reflected in the 47.1% decline in gross fixed capital formation in April-June 2020 quarter. Sales of commercial vehicles also declined by 84.8% in the same quarter due to reduced movement of goods in the country. “Exports, which is one of the major contributors to GDP, has recorded a double-digit contraction of 19.8% due to domestic […]

Ideagen launches first cloud version of Q-Pulse software

Ideagen Plc, has announced the first cloud version of its industry leading quality, health & safety and environmental (QHSE) product, Q-Pulse. Q-Pulse is already used by more than 2,000 companies around the world to effectively manage and mitigate their QHSE risks. This update ensures existing and future customers will have access to one fast, simple system, backed by 25 years of innovation, from an established and trusted vendor. Although there is a wide range of benefits available from the new product, there are enhancements specifically aimed at the manufacturing sector. Firstly, Q-Pulse can provide the insight needed to transform production processes, strengthen supply chains and deliver top quality products. Secondly, Q-Pulse helps businesses to quickly and confidently exploit opportunities, grow, unlock new markets and secure new quality standards, with the confidence that comes from data-driven decision-making. Q-Pulse also makes it easier to align an entire business around world class processes that satisfy customers and regulators by making compliance, safety and quality the responsibility of everyone in the business.

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Faro acquires ATS

Faro has acquired Advanced Technical Solutions in Scandinavia AB (“ATS”), a Swedish-based leader in 3D digital twin solution technology. This strategic action will enable customers and their clients with differentiated accuracy and speed, which we believe will accelerate market adoption of digital twin technology. High accuracy 3D digital twin simulations allow capital intensive industries to dramatically reduce their time to market and cost. Founded in 1990, ATS has had particular success in the automotive space where the firm has agreements in place with several well-known global automotive manufacturers. The acquisition will integrate ATS software and its proprietary Traceable 3D system, which enable highly accurate and repeatable 3D scans, into the Faro Webshare Cloud platform. The ATS system will bolster Faro’s ability to improve customers’ time to decision with 10x faster 3D imaging at up to 1mm accuracy and thus has significant implications for all the industries we serve. The ATS facility in Sweden will also serve as a new Faro sales and customer support center in the Nordic region. You can expect to hear more details soon about the integration of ATS from your sales partners.

Seequent keeps world at work on major projects

High-growth geoscience software company Seequent is accelerating the development of its cloud-based solution Seequent Central, enabling organisations to continue work on critical, large-scale, earth, environment and renewable energy projects in the COVID-19 impacted environment. Central works alongside Seequent’s other geoscience analysis, modelling and collaborative technologies, to contribute understanding to subsurface geoscience and engineering design solutions. The cloud-based solution allows people in any location to visualise, track and manage geological models created for infrastructure and critical services projects, in a centralised, auditable environment. A wide range of stakeholders can readily access highly visual up-to-date information to manage risk and make better environmental and investment decisions, to progress projects. Seequent CEO, Shaun Maloney, says: “We’re working alongside customers to do everything we can to make it possible to meet the demands and operational challenges they may be facing in the current environment. Seequent’s software is being used on hundreds of diverse projects across the globe, ranging from infrastructure projects including large-scale rail, road and tunnel projects across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific; renewable energy projects in the US, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Philippines and New Zealand; mining and exploration projects in North and South America, Africa and Australia; and environmental projects such as groundwater management in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Projects include:The Water Replenishment District – Groundwater management in Los Angeles The Water Replenishment District (WRD), the largest groundwater agency in the State of California, has the important job of managing and protecting local groundwater resources for over four million residents. WRD’s service area covers a 420 square mile region of southern Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The 43 cities in the service area, including a portion of the City of Los Angeles, use about 250,000 acre‐feet (82 billion gallons) of groundwater annually which accounts for approximately half of the […]

Using AI to predict new materials with desired properties

An artificial intelligence approach extracts how an aluminium alloy’s contents and manufacturing process are related to specific mechanical properties. Scientists in Japan have developed a machine learning approach that can predict the elements and manufacturing processes needed to obtain an aluminium alloy with specific, desired mechanical properties. The approach, published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, could facilitate the discovery of new materials.Aluminium alloys are lightweight, energy-saving materials made predominantly from aluminium, but also contain other elements, such as magnesium, manganese, silicon, zinc and copper. The combination of elements and manufacturing process determines how resilient the alloys are to various stresses. For example, 5000 series aluminium alloys contain magnesium and several other elements and are used as a welding material in buildings, cars, and pressurized vessels. 7000 series aluminium alloys contain zinc, and usually magnesium and copper, and are most commonly used in bicycle frames. Experimenting with various combinations of elements and manufacturing processes to fabricate aluminium alloys is time-consuming and expensive. To overcome this, Ryo Tamura and colleagues at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science and Toyota Motor Corporation developed a materials informatics technique that feeds known data from aluminium alloy databases into a machine learning model. This trains the model to understand relationships between alloys’ mechanical properties and the different elements they are made of, as well as the type of heat treatment applied during manufacturing. Once the model is provided enough data, it can then predict what is required to manufacture a new alloy with specific mechanical properties. All this without the need for input or supervision from a human. The model found, for example, 5000 series aluminium alloys that are highly resistant to stress and deformation can be made by increasing the manganese and magnesium content and reducing the aluminium content. “This sort […]

SESTO Magnus autonomous mobile robot for materials handling

SESTO Robotics has launched SESTO Magnus – a bi-directional, compact autonomous mobile robot able to carry loads up to 300kg. Having the highest payload rating in the compact class, SESTO Magnus is designed to automate material handling processes in manufacturing, commercial and healthcare industries. Specially built for tight navigation in space-scarce facilities, SESTO Magnus is able to autonomously travel through spaces as narrow as 0.9 metres wide while avoiding obstacles in its path. Its bi-directional same-speed capability means the autonomous mobile robot can reverse out of dead ends without doing a spot turn. With the world easing into the Covid-19 new normal, there is an accelerated urgency for manufacturers and non-manufacturing industries to quickly automate their processes while ensuring safe management measures such as staggered workforce or spilt team arrangements. SESTO Magnus’ small and low profile is designed with manufacturing, healthcare and commercial facilities in mind. Its intelligent software controls enable it to operate safely in narrow passageways and amongst people. Using a single mobile platform, SESTO Magnus is highly versatile and can be configured with limitless applications of autonomous material transportation. From components and parts in manufacturing, to laundry and meal services in hospitality and care facilities, to central sterile services and dispensaries in hospitals, the autonomous mobile robot can be fitted with various top module configurations, customisable to requirements. Current manual handling and transportation processes are often time-consuming and error-prone. In addition, repeated manual handling of heavy loads may lead to labour injuries and accidents. With SESTO Magnus, it reduces the dependency on manual labour which has become a priority for many companies in recent months, as COVID-19 caused major disruptions to the availability of on-premise employees. Powered by SESTO’s proprietary user-friendly interface, operators can easily deploy the robot for material transportation using a tablet or laptop. The […]

Life-Changing medical device with Stratasys additive manufacturing

Bluefrog Design, originally named 3CD, was founded in 1990 by Chris Samwell. With 30 years of combined experience as industrial design consultants, the small but expert team at Bluefrog is nothing if not versatile. Bluefrog serves a wide range of industries including consumer goods, packaging, transportation and medical. Although their clients’ specialities are very diverse, they all look to Bluefrog for innovation. Bluefrog needed the freedom to escape traditional design constraints at every stage of product development. One that could produce fully functional, advanced prototypes with industry-recognized, engineering-grade materials. In a quest to find a solution, the team turned to additive manufacturing. Overcoming complexities Bluefrog’s versatility is best exemplified by their ability to find solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges. The team was recently approached by a young man suffering from paraesthesia, a condition that causes inexplicable burning, tingling or prickling sensation across the skin. For this patient, the only way to ease his pain was to ensure that his clothes touched his skin as little as possible. Despite interventions from doctors, no solution had been found. But it was clear to Samwell the patient could benefit greatly from a custom device he could wear with minimal skin contact that would also minimize his skin contact with his clothing. The device had to be customized to his body, resting only on the areas that were not affected by his condition. Bluefrog Design’s team knew this complex case required a realistic prototype and final product in as little time as possible. They began by creating a complex 3D scan of the patient’s body, which was converted into a 3D printed prototype on their FDM 3D printer. Once tested and modified, the final version was produced in the tough, medical-grade ABSPlus material, chosen thanks to its advanced material stability over time. Notably, due to the round-the-clock capability of the Fortus 3D printer, this process took just three days, a dramatic turnaround for a patient who […]

OnRobot expands product capabilities

Traditional single-purpose industrial robots are losing ground to affordable, easy to use robots and peripherals that can be flexibly redeployed for a wide range of applications. This empowers manufacturers to gain even greater productivity increases from their automation investments. OnRobot is extending its commitment to ongoing customer empowerment with the launch of a software update for its popular, 2.5D camera-based Eyes vision system. The new features, which enable Eyes to be deployed in quality inspection applications and on mobile setups, include one-shot detection for multiple objects, colour and blob detection and automatic landmark calibration tools designed to speed cycle time for mobile robot setups. New visual inspection features for reduced cycle time and fast ROIEyes’ new inspection features enable the system to easily sort, inspect, or pick and place unstructured objects using colour and contour detection – a capability that is beyond most competing vision systems. This detection method requires no workpiece teaching and finds items based on colour and size information input by the operator. Eyes’ inspection features can be used to inspect parts removed from CNC machines, for example, or to check IMM parts for excessive or inadequate material after part has been moulded. The tools also support manual inspections: operators can set up a camera and inspection program, manually place a workpiece in view and execute inspection. No robot required. The update also provides users with one-shot detection for multiple objects, allowing the system to pick all workpieces with only one picture. This reduces complexity for users and improves cycle times. The update includes tools that allow users to request specific workpiece types and specify gripper clearance parameters. Adding Eyes to mobile robotsA new landmark feature has been added to Eyes’ powerful toolkit, enabling easy deployment of Eyes on mobile robots and setups with carts, trays, and […]

Top sensor technologies impacting the future of smart cities

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Opportunities of Emerging Sensor Technologies Impacting the Future of Smart Cities, reports that digitisation and advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) are driving the large-scale adoption of sensor technologies across cities. Combined with key enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-speed internet networks, integrated sensor networks in cities are driving the creation of a connected city ecosystem to enable the optimal use of public resources. The scope of the research includes acoustic, lidar, radar, 3D camera sensors, environmental sensors, flow sensors, gas sensors, and humidity and temperature sensors and also addresses adoption scenarios in key smart cities across the globe. “The need for a smart city is primarily driven by a requirement for a safe, secure, and sustainable environment that allows for effective population management while providing services to citizens in a satisfactory manner,” said Krithika Shekar, TechVision Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “An integrated sensor system aids in establishing a seamlessly interconnected network with an anchor application and a centraliz sed platform. Such a sensor network established for one purpose, such as street lighting, can enable several other connected applications, such as environment monitoring, public safety, and waste management. A centralised network will help reduce duplicated capital costs and eliminates the need for several individual complex networks.” Major investments by top smart city governments in Singapore, New York, and Tokyo show rapid pace of adoption of smart solutions. The rise of smart cities has not only created growth opportunities for sensor makers, but has also accelerated the adoption of several supporting technologies such as 5G, robots, AI, and edge computing, creating endless growth opportunities for smart city applications. For further growth opportunities, smart cities should leverage the following sensor technologies: Electronic sensors are deployed in environmental surveillance sensors and speedometer […]

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