News briefs for the week check out breaking information from logistics leaders in U.S., with Symbotic and SoftFinancial institution partnering to create a WaaS referred to as GreenBox, with SoftFinancial institution moreover launching its Project R, and Amazon launching its Sequoia robotic/AI overhaul in Houston, then it’s grippers evolving into palms for industrial robots and cobots, and eventually, the first-ever connecting of a robotic prosthetic hand on to the mind.
Finally, tech assist for SME warehouses
U.S.-based Symbotic and Tokyo-based SoftFinancial institution are becoming a member of forces to create low-cost, AI-based logistics automation companies for small-to-medium (SME) warehouses, which the pair say is a $500 billion business. The joint enterprise is named GreenBox Systems LLC and was initially capitalized 65% by Softbank and 35% by Symbotic, for a complete of $100 million.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are “over 21,000 warehouse institutions within the US (as of 2023).” 80% of which have ZERO automation. With practically 15,000 of these warehouses within the SME class and unable to pay the reported $25 million it takes to automate, GreenBox will provide a warehouse as a service mannequin (WaaS).
Symbotic, which already generated “market heat selling AI-powered robotic warehouse management systems” to mega-size shoppers, together with Walmart, Target, and Albertson’s, will now provide a WaaS month-to-month service to warehouses that “don’t have the money to buy them outright.”
“I’ve seen a lot of robotics tech and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” TD Cowen analyst Joseph Giordano mentioned. “Compared to what it replaces, it’s like day and night.”
“GreenBox taps into the powerful potential of AI and other enabling technologies in supply chains, while also making the benefits of automation accessible to more businesses through an ‘as-a-service’ offering,” SoftBank’s Vikas Parekh mentioned in a launch.
“In partnership with Symbotic, GreenBox will equip customers with more intelligent, streamlined, and scalable warehousing solutions while eliminating the burden of major capital expenditures.”
Tech watch: SoftFinancial institution’s secret “Project R”
Looks just like the $100 million Symbotic-SoftFinancial institution hookup as GreenBox Systems could be just the start of a brand new run at buying extra rising applied sciences. What SoftFinancial institution calls “Project R”.
Project R is a tightly-held secret enterprise, however SoftFinancial institution Chairman Masayoshi Son, in accordance with current leaked experiences, “has met with several high-profile investors and entrepreneurs to discuss potential investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.”
Whatever the ultimate investments, look to AI to be the motive force. Son-san mentioned he believes synthetic intelligence will surpass human intelligence inside a decade, and the businesses and people who work with AI would be the leaders within the subsequent 10 to twenty years.
As for logistics, SoftFinancial institution already has investments in Boston Dynamics, AutoStore, Berkshire Grey (acquired in 2023), along with its current joint ‘Warehouse as a Service’ (WaaS) enterprise with Symbotic, referred to as GreenBox Systems (see above).
“Project R is seen as a way for SoftBank to diversify its investment portfolio and to place new bets on emerging technologies. The company has been facing increasing scrutiny in recent years over its investments in the Vision Fund, which has lost billions of dollars.”
Amazon overhauls with new robotics & AI: Sequoia
Amazon introduced a brand new logistics overhaul for its operations utilizing superior robotics and AI that it calls Sequoia (reference to massive, historic bushes). Amazon launched the system this week at certainly one of its warehouses in Houston.
Sequoia, mentioned David Guerin, the corporate’s director of robotic storage know-how, helps to place objects on the market on-line a lot quicker and makes it simpler to foretell supply estimates. The new program reduces the time it takes to satisfy an order by as much as 25%, added Guerin, and may determine and retailer stock as much as 75% quicker.
“The faster we can process inventory, the greater the probability that we’re going to be able to deliver when we said we could,” Guerin mentioned. He expects the brand new system to make up a good portion of the corporate’s operations within the subsequent three to 5 years.
Faced with elevated competitors, Amazon has labored to change into quicker at delivering its merchandise. The firm beforehand transformed its operations to a regionally targeted mannequin meant to retailer objects nearer to clients. Executives see a connection between supply speeds and development.
From grippers to palms for industrial robots
Hands for humanoids? Sophisticated hand know-how designed for medical prosthetics may find yourself on industrial robots and cobots in factories and warehouses…and really most likely as all-purpose palms for humanoid robots.
At MIT, in what’s being referred to as “increasingly sophisticated robotic systems designed to mimic both the structure and function of the human body,” a robotic hand has been developed that would properly serve each a medical and industrial operate.
Robot palms for medical functions are costly to construct and tough to scale into mass manufacturing, subsequently making them ill-suited as grippers for industrial robotics. Until now.
“Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently created a new highly precise robotic hand that could be easier to upscale, as its components can be crafted using commonly employed techniques, such as 3D printing and laser cutting.”
“This work presents a hybrid bio-inspired robotic hand that mixes tender supplies and inflexible components,” wrote Chao Liu, Andrea Moncada and their colleagues. “Sensing is built-in into the inflexible our bodies leading to a easy means for pose estimation with excessive sensitivity.”
Eventually, say the researchers, their new design may very well be built-in with different robotic limbs to create scalable humanoid robots which can be higher at manipulating objects.
Introduced in a paper A Modular Bio-inspired Robotic Hand with High Sensitivity printed within the journal IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft, 2023), the MIT hand relies on a so-called modular construction, which means that it contains a number of constructing blocks that may be rearranged to attain completely different actions (see video).
Real “mind control” for robotic hand
In a first-ever for medical prosthetic {hardware}, a robotic hand has been made to attach immediately with the mind and combine with the nervous and skeletal methods…giving actual management and actual bodily sensations to the recipient.
Previously, the prevailing method for a robotic limb was myoelectric, which is a motor and battery on board the robotic hand that reacts to electrical alerts via sensors on the outside pores and skin which can be generated by muscular tissues within the residual limb.
However, “myoelectric signals recorded by surface electrodes are prone to disturbance and interference, thus rendering prosthetic control in daily life unreliable,” say researchers.
Osseointegration, alternatively, is the method that connects bones to the electrodes implanted within the nerves and muscular tissues. For Karin, her first operation in 2018 hooked up an MIA Hand from Italy-based Prensilia, which now, 5 years on, a joint medical group has additional endowed with 80% of her former hand management and sensation.
The surgical procedure, referred to as “targeted muscle reinnervation” re-arranges nerves and muscular tissues within the residual limb and hyperlinks them to the remaining muscular tissues. This permits the mind to ship alerts to the prosthesis via the nerves, identical to it could do with a pure limb (see video).
To develop Karin’s new bionic limb, “a multidisciplinary group of engineers and surgeons from Sweden, Australia and Italy created what they’re calling a revolution for those suffering limb loss, fusing surgery, implants and AI.”
Rickard Brånemark, an MIT researcher on the challenge says: “By combining osseointegration with reconstructive surgery, implanted electrodes, and AI, we can restore human function in an unprecedented way.”
For the over 50 million limb amputees worldwide, that information is one thing to smile about. And for hundreds of thousands extra, right here’s proof that robotics can create new jobs!
