Expectations of Automation

The growth of fac­to­ry automa­tion has tak­en off in the last decade due to the surge in tech­nol­o­gy. This growth has led to high­er expec­ta­tions of automa­tion, which have been met by indus­try and new inno­va­tions. With all the new devel­op­ments it will be excit­ing to take a peek into what the future of automa­tion holds.

Growth of Fac­to­ry Automation

There have been many new devel­op­ments in indus­tri­al automa­tion that have led to its growth. There has been the devel­op­ment of the pro­gram­ma­ble log­ic con­troller (PLC) which has made pro­gram­ming robots eas­i­er and more reli­able. The easy pro­gram­ming of the PLC has been espe­cial­ly help­ful in car man­u­fac­tur­ing with auto­mo­bile test instal­la­tions which requires repro­gram­ming often.

Anoth­er devel­op­ment in indus­tri­al automa­tion is the replace­ment of large main­frames with PCs for con­trol sys­tems. This has helped reduce man­u­fac­tur­er costs along with sav­ing fac­to­ry space. PCs are also less com­plex to oper­ate than mainframes. 

No one knows for sure what the future of fac­to­ry automa­tion holds, but some pos­si­bil­i­ties include nan­otech­nol­o­gy, wire­less soft­ware, and com­plex adap­tive sys­tems. Inno­va­tors are look­ing to make all indus­tri­al soft­ware wire­less while hav­ing a com­plex adap­tive sys­tem in which peer-to-peer net­works can com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er. Aid­ing in the wire­less net­works will be nan­otech­nol­o­gy which involves the use of small, low cost sen­sors. Anoth­er pos­si­bil­i­ty in future indus­tri­al automa­tion will be auto­mat­ed fac­to­ries con­trolled by a sin­gle remote con­trol. This would allow for faster net­works, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and for more cus­tomer involvement.

Robots​.com stays on top of the growth of fac­to­ry automa­tion by car­ry­ing the lat­est mod­els of robots. Some of the newest addi­tions to our inven­to­ry include the Motoman MA1900, the Motoman MH165, the Fanuc M10iA, and the Fanuc LR Mate 200iC.

Vision Robots

Anoth­er area of growth in indus­tri­al automa­tion is the inven­tion of vision robots. These robots are com­posed of vision algo­rithms, tem­per­a­ture soft­ware, and cam­eras in order to be able to detect parts and nav­i­gate. Fanuc has devel­oped vision soft­ware called iRVi­sion in which robots use laser sen­sors to posi­tion and auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjust pro­gram­ming in order to com­plete a task. One unit this is com­mon­ly used with is the Fanuc M‑16iB, which is car­ried by Robots​.com.

Automa­tion in the U.S.

The growth of automa­tion goes beyond just man­u­fac­tur­ing; it has helped the U.S. cre­ate jobs, improve safe­ty, and advance med­i­cine. Advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing with robots has pro­duced high­er qual­i­ty cars that in return keep our roads safer with few­er acci­dents caused by mechan­i­cal errors. Automa­tion has also helped keep our mil­i­tary safe with the use of ground robots and aer­i­al drones instead of humans in com­bat zones.

The growth of fac­to­ry automa­tion has also lead to the cre­ation of new jobs. Robots do not take away jobs, instead they make them. Man­u­fac­tur­ers need peo­ple for oper­at­ing the robots, allow­ing peo­ple to hold safer and bet­ter jobs. For every 1 engi­neer, there are 7 tech­ni­cian jobs cre­at­ed. The U.S. leads in the man­u­fac­ture of med­ical, house­hold, and defense robots; fur­ther dri­ving the increase in the workforce.

For a quick quote, please con­tact Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881.