On the end of January the University of Tartu and Bolt presented the test car procured for the University of Tartu’s autonomous driving lab. This high-technology vehicle will be used for experiments in several research and development fields. The aim is to conduct test runs in urban traffic this year already.

Yanmar and Nauti-Craft announced that both companies have entered into a technology transfer agreement with the purpose of commercializing Yanmar’s boats by utilizing Nauti-Craft’s patented marine suspension technology.

Cooperation between Yanmar and Nauti-Craft began in 2016 with Yanmar evaluating the technology by constructing a 10-meter Suspension Boat concept. Yanmar showcased the concept boat at the Japan International Boat Show in Yokohama in March 2018 where it was widely appreciated and confirmed the marketability of the technology.

ABB and Ericsson, together with Swisscom, showcase for the first time, how easily and effectively robots can be controlled over wide distances utilizing the real-time communication capabilities of 5G.

During WEF 2020, world leaders will witness the potential of no-latency communication enabled by 5G. At the Congress Center in Davos, Switzerland, an ABB YuMi® collaborative robot will carve a message in a sandbox that will be replicated at the same time by a second YuMi® robot located 1.5 km away.

Euro NCAP publishes its Best in Class for 2019. Fifty-five cars were assessed among which forty-one achieved the top accolade. This makes 2019 one of the most impressive years on record since Euro NCAP started to evaluate consumer safety of cars on the European market.

HP revealed its list of predictions for 3D printing and digital manufacturing in 2020. Informed by extensive interviews with a team of experts, this year’s research identifies top trends that will have a major impact on advancing Industry 4.0 such as the need for more sustainable production, how automation will transform the factory floor, and the rise of data and software as the backbone of digital manufacturing.

In October 18, in a first for drone delivery in the U.S., Wing delivered packages, over-the-counter medication, snacks and gifts to residents of Christiansburg, Virginia.

With an expanded Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Wing became the first company to operate a commercial air delivery service via drone directly to homes in the United States. Wing’s FAA permissions are the first to allow multiple pilots to oversee multiple unmanned aircraft making commercial deliveries simultaneously to the general public, paving the way for the most advanced drone delivery service in the nation.

3D lidar is an optical perception technology that enables machines to see the world, make decisions and navigate. At present, machines using lidar range from small service robots to large autonomous vehicles.

Lidar technologies and markets are rapidly evolving, there are more than 100 3D lidar players worldwide. Each player claims to offer a unique, next-generation product that is superior to competing technologies. The technology landscape is cluttered with numerous options for every component in a lidar system.

IDTechEx identified four important technology choices that every lidar player and lidar user must make: measurement process, laser, beam steering mechanism, and photodetector. The beam steering mechanism is the most complicated and critical choice.

A robot which encourages kids to wash their hands has helped pupils at a remote Indian primary school take a fresh approach to hygiene. The hand-shaped robot, dubbed ‘Pepe’, is the product of a collaboration between researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in India.
 

ABB today opened its first global healthcare research hub on the Texas Medical Center (TMC) campus, in Houston, Texas – showcasing a number of concept technologies, including a mobile YuMi® robot, which will be designed to assist medical and laboratory staff with laboratory and logistics tasks in hospitals.

The dual-arm mobile YuMi® will be able to sense and navigate its way around its human co-workers autonomously, while learning to find different routes from one location to another. It has the potential to undertake a wide range of repetitive and time-consuming activities, including preparation of medicines, loading and unloading centrifuges, pipetting and handling liquids and picking up and sorting test tubes.

Following the recent news (Wednesday 2 October) that UPS has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to operate a fleet of aerial delivery drones;

Mike Vousden, Automotive Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on this home delivery development:

“This remarkable development heralds a new era of parcel logistics. It is a clear indicator of how UPS will provide coverage on critical ‘last mile’ of parcel delivery – the distance between the delivery van or local hub, and the front door of the intended recipient.