Neil Ballinger explores the open source Robot Operating System (ROS), which he believes will become a common language for industrial automation. 

Find out how and why a sandwich producer has successfully integrated robots into its sandwich production line.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the subject of considerable hype for several years, but is industry now ready to move to the next stage and focus on how it can be sustainably implemented on the factory floor in robotics and industrial automation applications?

Will the Covid-19 pandemic accelerate the speed adoption of robotic and automation across the industrial sector? Suzanne Gill reports.

Mike Wilson argues that it is time for the UK manufacturing sector to look seriously at the adoption of automation, and robotics in particular, to help improve productivity figures.

The robot manufacturer, integrator, and customer all have responsibilities when it comes to ensuring a safe automated mobile robot system workspace, says Ross Lacy.

Today’s automated manufacturing systems need to be more agile and must incorporate greater levels of flexibility to allow manufacturers to bring new products to market more quickly. Tim Bednall explains the role that robots have to play in achieving these goals.

There are thousands of industrial robots used in manufacturing, processing and packaging applications that take-up a great deal of floor space, simply because of outdated safety provisions. Moving to proximity-based safety can release space and improve production efficiency by allowing more freedom of movement on the shop floor, says Oliver Giertz.

The use of automated production cells by Wade Ceramics provides a good demonstration of how automation technology can be combined with traditional manufacturing processes to deliver increased output, improved quality and consistency.

Collaborative robots (cobots) are starting to be accepted within the manufacturing sector. However, safety is still a concern for many. Suzanne Gill finds out how this issue is being addressed.

Nigel Smith comments on some common misconceptions about collaborative robot safety.

Peter Lange believes that combining the power of mobile robots and cobots is key to making factories more flexible to cope with rapidly changing demands.

Laurence Wood discusses how the food industry’s reliance upon manual labour is likely to change in the near future requiring a greater uptake of robotics and automation to help the food industry increase productivity, quality and yield. 

The transition to Industry 4.0 promises to hypercharge manufacturing capabilities and it is essential that manufacturers respond to this transition and start investing in the change, says Scott Fawcett, divisional managing director at Essentra Components.

Mike Wilson looks at the most common headaches faced by food & beverage companies and explains how they can be solved by the latest robotic automation technology. 

Nigel Smith looks at who is leading the way in the race for automated production.

Control Engineering Europe finds out how a new breed of robots – autonomous mobile robots – are supporting lean approaches to production on today’s more dynamic plant floors.

Control Engineering Europe looks at some of the current issues related to the use of collaborative robots in the manufacturing environment.

Suzanne Gill finds out more about the potentially vital work that mobile robotics will play in the factory of the future.

Collaborative robots deliver on the promise of reduced investment costs, simple programming and inherent safety. The compromise, of course, is that they cannot offer the performance of traditional industrial robotics. But, suppose it was possible to have the best of both worlds? Oliver Giertz defines ‘cooperative robotics’.