Spot a Cost Reduction for Operations

This week's digest includes autonomous mobile robots, megacasting, friction stir welding, drill bit optimization, metal 3D printers, ghost teaching robots, and FPGA process control.

Nov 10, 2024

Shop Talk

Capturing this week's zeitgeist

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog debuted at the 2024 NATO Summit over the summer. It has been spotted in service for the first time securing President-elect Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.

Security provides a secondary market for these robots, primarily used for autonomous inspections of industrial infrastructure. Inspection robots are entering into service quickly with ANYbotics’ ANYmal robot establishing new partnerships with Gresco and SLB. Additionally, Gecko Robotics has launched its’ Fulcrum software for data acquisition and quality to derive high-quality data from multiple sources. Autonomous robots are one of the many ways industrial companies are finding ways to reduce costs in operations.

Assembly Line

This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media.

Honda Outlines Key Production Processes Behind New Line of EVs

✍️ Author: Austin Weber
🔖 Topics: Large Component Casting, Friction Stir Welding
🏢 Organizations: Honda

Honda 0 Series is the automaker’s new approach to electric vehicle development, which is focusing on the theme of “thin, light and wise.” The goal of the R&D project is to minimize battery size while providing sufficient cruising range and a nimble driving experience that transcends the existing image of EVs.

Honda engineers are focusing their efforts on four core production technologies, including megacasting and friction stir welding. Megacasting involves molding large cast parts such as one-piece battery enclosures that eliminate seams. A new battery case, which traditionally consists of more than 60 parts, has been reduced to only five parts, making it possible to produce a high-quality, thin and light enclosure.

3D Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is being applied to two processes in the manufacturing of battery cases. The first is the process of joining parts made by megacasting to form the case enclosure, and the second is the process of joining the water jacket cover, which is necessary to provide the battery with cooling. The technology uses only the frictional heat between the rotating rod-shaped tool and the joint to soften and join the aluminum parts.

Here's how to reduce costs just with drills

🏢 Organizations: Fastenal

3D Printing Consolidates Assembly, Reduces Cost for Bar Feeder Component

✍️ Author: Stephanie Hendrixson
🏢 Organizations: One Click Metal, Trumpf

Filmed at the 2024 edition of IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show, the video highlights One Click Metal’s BoldSeries platform, a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) metal 3D printer engineered for safety and ease of use. The compact printer and its associated depowdering/sieving station use powder cartridges to move and store the material, so that the user rarely if ever needs to handle loose powder. Together, the two machines cost about $200,000, making this platform an attractive choice for universities, R&D labs, product development users and end-use part producers, including small and medium businesses with no prior experience in metal 3D printing.

One Click Metal originated as a spinout from laser technology specialist Trumpf. Turning center supplier Index is now a majority investor, and the video above was shot in the Index booth at IMTS. Index is finding applications for LPBF among the components of its machines; one example shown is a slider trolley used in bar feeders. Redesigning the assembled component for 3D printing resulted in a design that can be manufactured at 77% lower cost, with reduced risk of part failure.

Building Custom Robot Simulations with Wandelbots NOVA and NVIDIA Isaac Sim

✍️ Authors: Akhil Docca, Ben Oliveri
🏢 Organizations: Wandelbots, NVIDIA

NVIDIA Inception partner and deep tech startup Wandelbots is making it easier for any roboticist to simulate robots in physics-based digital training environments, delivered through intuitive human-machine interfaces (HMI). Developers, system integrators, and automation engineers use Wandelbots to build their own application interface, connecting end users to the simulated environment. Factory planners can then interact with a robot cell on the shop floor and use the digital world to train the robot.

Using the “ghost teaching” method (Video 1), developers use a visual tool to manipulate a robot’s end effector or workpieces in simulation, teaching it how to move and pick up objects. This intuitive approach simplifies the programming of robot cells by providing a visual interface for positioning and movement, making it accessible even for those with minimal programming experience. With pose data from the simulation automatically transferred to the robot’s program, the need for complex coding is eliminated.

Why the Air Force is Using Virtualitics AI Approach to Weapon Sustainment

🏢 Organizations: Virtualitics, US Air Force

FPGA-embedded optimization algorithm to maximize the acetate productivity in a dark fermentation process

✍️ Authors: José de Jesús Colín-Robles, Ixbalank Torres-Zúñiga, Mario A. Ibarra-Manzano
🏭 Vertical: Chemical
🏢 Organizations: TecNM, Universidad de Guanajuato

This paper presents an optimization strategy to online maximize the acetate productivity rate in a dark fermentation (DF) process. The Golden Section Search algorithm is used to compute the maximum acetate productivity rate as a function of the inlet chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the dilution rate, selected as a manipulated variable. Such maximum productivity is considered as a reference by a Super-Twisting controller to regulate the real acetate productivity rate of the DF process. Due to the lack of sensors to measure the COD online, the optimization strategy includes an unknown input observation strategy integrated by a Luenberger observer interconnected to a Super-Twisting observer to estimate the inlet COD concentration. The optimization algorithm is embedded in an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) device to minimize hardware resources and power consumption. The feasibility of the online optimization strategy embedded in an FPGA, using a digital architecture designed with a fixed-point format representation, is demonstrated by numerical simulations. Results show that the optimization strategy requires 53% of the logic elements and 100% of 8-bit multipliers of an FPGA Cyclone II and the power consumption estimated is only 190mW.

Read more at Journal of Process Control

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Geek+ and Intel launch Vision Only Robot Solution for smart logistics

🔖 Topics: Autonomous Mobile Robot
🏢 Organizations: Geek+, Intel

Geekplus Technology Co. today launched its Vision Only Robot Solution. The system includes Intel Visual Navigation Modules, which Geek+ said will drive the digital transformation of the logistics industry.

Geek+ claimed that its new system is the world’s first vison-only autonomous mobile robot (AMR) using Intel Corp.‘s Visual Navigation Modules. It also features algorithmic innovations in V-SLAM (visual simultaneous localization and mapping) positioning, composite detection networks, and robot following, the partners said. This allows for highly accurate navigation and obstacle avoidance, helping enterprises cope with diverse and complex logistics scenarios while enhancing both efficiency and accuracy, said Geek+.

The vision-only robots equipped with the Intel Visual Navigation Modules debuted at CeMAT 2024 in Shanghai. Geek+ said it plans to strengthen its partnership with Intel to develop more smart logistics systems.

Schneider Electric and Saint-Gobain Collaborate on Innovative Automation Initiative Driving Smarter and Safer Glass Production

🏭 Vertical: Nonmetallic Mineral
🏢 Organizations: Schneider Electric, Saint-Gobain

Schneider Electric, leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, and Saint-Gobain, leader in light and sustainable construction, have joined forces to deploy the first-of-its kind software-defined automation system for glass production.

Unveiled at Glasstec 2024, the world’s leading trade fair for the glass industry, the project addresses the urgent need for enhanced reliability in the critical lehr process. This furnace, vital for annealing and cooling flat glass, usually lasts for 15 to 20 years. However, any downtime in the process halts production completely, as highlighted by industry studies, where a mere 1-minute power interruption can lead to up to 6 months of production loss, often requiring equipment replacement, and costing up to €200,000 per day.

Saint-Gobain together with Schneider Electric has developed the first open automation solution for the lehr process. The proof of concept (POC) is powered by Schneider Electric’s open automation technology, EcoStruxure Automation Expert (EAE) which decouples hardware and software, allowing devices and equipment to be freely connected across architecture layers, regardless of manufacturer.

Construyen en España una planta para reciclar tierras raras con las que producir paneles solares o coches eléctricos

🔖 Topics: Recycling
🏢 Organizations: Glencore Technology

The CSIC (Spain’s Superior Council for Scientific Research) is leading a project called RC-Metals that aims to recover rare earth elements from electronic waste. These elements, including dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodimium, are critical for manufacturing electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels, but are currently very scarce and concentrated in few countries.

A unique pilot plant (ISASMELTMF600) that will use molten metal baths to give these metals a second life. Glencore Technology’s ISASMELT™ provides an innovative, high intensity, yet low cost submerged lance smelting process that is simple to operate which can be used for a range of non-ferrous applications, such as copper, lead and tin, as well as recycling.

Business Transactions

This week's top funding events, acquisitions, and partnerships across industrial value chains.

Robot AI startup Physical Intelligence raises $400 mln from Bezos, OpenAI

🏢 Organizations: Physical Intelligence, Thrive Capital, Lux Capital, OpenAI

Physical Intelligence, a startup that is developing foundational software for robots, said it has raised $400 million in early-stage funding from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Lux Capital. The new funds were raised at a $2 billion valuation, PitchBook data showed.

Multiple startups are foraying into the robotic AI space, including Vicarious, which was acquired by Alphabet-owned Intrinsic in 2022, Universal Robots, Seegrid, and Covariant.

Cintoo raises €37M for industrial metaverse and 3D scanning solutions

🏢 Organizations: Cintoo, Partech

French-American scale-up Cintoo, a leading cloud-based reality data management solutions provider, secured €37 million in Series B funding. Partech led the round, which included existing investors Amavi Capital and Armilar Venture Partners. The fresh capital will help Cintoo enhance its SaaS platform by expanding integrations and strengthening its offerings for the construction and industrial sectors. The company plans to accelerate its AI and Metaverse initiatives while growing its presence in the US and European markets.

Cintoo stands out in the competitive 3D scanning and reality data management landscape with its unique compression and accessibility approach. As CEO Dominique Poulinquen explained to the TFN, “Our core technology transforms laser scanner data from point clouds into 3D surfaces, similar to video games. This compresses the data by 10 to 20 times while maintaining accuracy. The resulting ‘mesh-based’ scans require less storage space and can be quickly streamed in any web browser.”

CynLr cements $10M in Series A funding led by Key Venture Partners to drive robotic automation in manufacturing

🏢 Organizations: CynLr, Key Venture Partners

CynLr has raised $10 million in Series A funding to enhance its advanced robotics solutions. The investment was led by Pavestone and Athera Venture Partners (formerly Inventus India), with contributions from existing backers Speciale Invest, Infoedge’s Redstart, and others.

This latest round brings CynLr’s total funding to $15.2 million. The capital will be allocated toward expanding the company’s supply chain network and increasing the workforce from 60 to 120 members, with additional teams in India, the US, and Switzerland. CynLr aims to bolster its research and software development capabilities, as well as its sales and marketing efforts to drive broader adoption of its robotics technology.

This system can perceive object depth dynamically, even for transparent or reflective objects, by employing real-time motion and convergence through dual lenses. This technology, known as “Event Imaging,” enables CyRo to function with high precision under various lighting conditions.

Advex AI Raises $3.5M Seed Round, Launches Revolutionary GenAI Synthetic Data Platform for AI Vision in Manufacturing

🏢 Organizations: Advex AI, Construct Capital

Advex AI, a bleeding-edge startup tackling the critical data problem in AI Vision for manufacturing, announced their $3.5 million seed funding round led by Construct Capital, with participation from Pear VC, Emerson Collective, and notable angel investors Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox founding CTO) and Ankit Jain (Infinitus CEO). The company also revealed its selection as a top 20 Finalist at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield.

Advex’s platform represents a radical shift in how enterprises develop production-grade AI Vision models. Instead of undergoing months of expensive data collection cycles, AI and automation teams can reduce the time to hours by leveraging Advex’s GenAI platform to automatically figure out what data is missing, then synthetically creating that missing data using advanced diffusion models.

Anthropic and Palantir Partner to Bring Claude AI Models to AWS for U.S. Government Intelligence and Defense Operations

🔖 Topics: Partnership
🏢 Organizations: Anthropic, Palantir, AWS

Anthropic and Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) today announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to the Claude 3 and 3.5 family of models on AWS. This partnership allows for an integrated suite of technology to operationalize the use of Claude within Palantir’s AI Platform (AIP) while leveraging the security, agility, flexibility, and sustainability benefits provided by AWS.

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