Month: March 2022

Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Center has developed an interface that allows machines from different suppliers to speak to each other in the same language and operate parts of the production line autonomously.

Automakers have been incorporating robotics into their manufacturing processes for decades to reduce costs and boost efficiency. But Ford’s patent-pending system solves a crucial bottleneck in the production line by using robots to operate the 3D printers through the night without human interaction.

The autonomous system marks the first time the Carbon 3D printers and the KUKA-built robots can talk to each other in the same language, opening limitless possibilities for other machines involved throughout the production process to collaborate.

So far, the venture has helped produce low-volume, custom car parts such as the brake line bracket for Mustang Shelby GT500 sports cars equipped with the Performance Package.

“This new process has the ability to change the way we use robotics in our manufacturing facilities,” Jason Ryska, director, global manufacturing technology development, said in a statement.

Javier, the name given to the wheeled robot from supplier KUKA, can run the 3D printer continuously without human interference, even once employees have gone home for the night. Ford says the robots are constantly learning from the printer data to help the automaker achieve more accuracy and reduce margins of error.

“At Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Center, Javier is tasked with operating the 3D printers completely on his own,” Ford said in a statement. “He is always on time, very precise in his movements, and he works most of the day – taking only a short break to charge up.”

Usually, equipment from different suppliers are unable to interact because they use separate communication interfaces. Ford’s system allows equipment from different suppliers to talk to each other, sending commands and feedback in real time.

Once the Carbon 3D tells Javier that the printed car component is ready, Javier retrieves it and puts it aside for a human operator to collect later.

Ford has filed several patents for the technology underpinning its communication interfaces and the precise positioning of robots. Though the process is autonomous, human operators must upload the 3D designs to the printer and maintain the machinery.

Reporting by Jaclyn Trop for TechCrunch.

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Tiny electric cars are becoming a dime a dozen nowadays, so iEV Motors wanted to change things up by introducing a tiny, fully electric vehicle that can extend itself to let passengers inside. iEV Z’s unique chassis can adjust to fit a second passenger in the back or increase cargo space. The iEV Z can be accessed with either a key card or an exclusive app from iEV, so there’s no need for a key fob. The app itself transforms the vehicle, locates it if “lost,” shows remaining battery life, and much more. According to iEV Motors, the iEV Z is six times smaller than a traditional vehicle with a range of 62 miles on a single charge and a max speed of 28 mph. There is a “plus” version of the iEV Z, the iEV Z+, with a 99-mile range and 50-mph max speed. Both versions can be fully charged in 3 hours. You can pre-order the iEV Z from the iEV Motors website right now at a starting price of € 5,850 or $6,460.51 USD.

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Wheelchair mobility has advanced tremendously in recent years, from wheelchairs that let users venture off-road into the wilderness, to chairs that are right at home on a sandy beach. The Italian engineering company Italdesign intends to push the mobility boundaries even further with its introduction of the WheeM-i wheelchair-sharing system.

WheeM-i is a fully electric wheelchair mobility service for wheelchair users. WheeM-i stands for Wheelchair Mobility Inclusion. Wheelchair users book the mobility system through an app. Once scheduled, the user would approach the WheeM-i hub and activate their booked wheelchair. The fully electric system would then lower its body down and release a ramp for the wheelchair user to “wheel on.”

After the user has completed their tasks around the city, they return the chair back to the nearest WheeM-i hub to be charged for the next user. Aside from being fully electric, WheeM-i is also equipped with an onboard collision avoidance system to help its rider get to their location safely. To learn more about WheeM-i head over to italdesign.com  

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BERLIN — The International Energy Agency says the world could quickly reduce global oil demand by 2.7 million barrels a day by cutting down on car and plane travel, helping easing the supply crunch caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Paris-based agency said in a report released Friday that “practical actions by governments and citizens” could significantly reduce oil demand, make fuel cheaper for consumers, shrink Russia’s hydrocarbon revenue and boost efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The IEA said its 10-point plan could, if fully implemented in advanced economies, cut oil demand by the same amount as all the cars in China within four months.

It urged the countries to adopt the measures in time for the annual peak demand season of July and August.

“As a result of Russia’s appalling aggression against Ukraine, the world may well be facing its biggest oil supply shock in decades, with huge implications for our economies and societies,” said the IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol.

The organization’s plan includes:

— Reducing speed limits on highways by at least 10 kilometers per hour (6 mph)

— Working from home up to three days a week where possible

— Introducing car-free Sundays in cities

— Making the use of public transport cheaper and encouraging people to walk or cycle

— Alternating private car access to roads in large cities

— Boosting car sharing and another practices to reduce fuel use

— Promoting efficient freight and delivery driving

— Opting for high-speed and night trains instead of planes where possible

— Avoiding business air travel where alternative options exist, such as economy travel or video conferencing

— Encouraging the adoption of electric and more efficient vehicles

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“Spot,” the nascent Terminator on four legs invented by Skynet, er, I mean, Boston Dynamics, has landed its next public safety gig: firefighter.

The New York Times reports that the city’s fire department has procured two of the $75,000 quadrupeds and plans to deploy them “occasionally,” leveraging them in especially dangerous situations where it’s harder for human responders to deploy. The first fire agency in the country to do so, the FDNY wants to use the “dogs” on treacherous search and rescue missions, where they will allegedly help relay important situational data back to responders.

“I look forward to a positive and productive conversation with F.D.N.Y. leaders to ensure these robotic ‘dogs’ are only being used on rare, specialized, occasions with a goal of protecting our residents and first responders,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, in a statement provided to the newspaper.

If this all sounds very familiar it’s because we’ve been here before, albeit with a different city agency. Back in early 2021, the Times reported that the New York Police Department would be one of the first police agencies in the country to deploy Spot (which the NYPD had renamed “Digidog”) for selective law enforcement missions.

And yet, only a few months into Digidog’s tenure, the Times reported that public backlash had forced the NYPD to return the mechanical canine to its kennel at Boston Dynamics. Adjectives like “creepy” and “dystopian” had dogged the unfortunate product, and, as it turned out, a lot of New Yorkers were uncomfortable with the idea of a quasi-sentient robot stalking around their neighborhood—especially one that could quite easily be equipped with a remote-controlled gun turret.

Now, Boston Dynamics seems to be hoping that New Yorkers will find their metallic contraption more digestible if it’s assisting a different public agency—one with a decidedly better reputation.

But privacy advocates fear that deploying the robo-Rover—even in a limited capacity—could come with a slew of new concerns over how exactly it’ll be used. In an email to Gizmodo, Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, all but called the dog an expensive, invasive toy, one that might never actually get out of the garage.

“This is a costly surveillance gimmick that New Yorkers never needed, and it’s unclear if this latest doggy drone will ever be used,” Cahn told Gizmodo. “The FDNY rank and file have been calling for a pay rise, not new surveillance tech,” he added. Cahn also worries that data collected by the robot could fall into the hands of other agencies: “While I’m more inclined to trust the FDNY with new surveillance gear, there’s nothing to stop the NYPD from taking the data it collects,” he said. “At most, data from other city agencies is just a court order away from the NYPD, and often they only have to ask. If the FDNY wants to have its surveillance tech treated differently, then we need real protections against NYPD access to that information.”

You can certainly see the appeal of having robots do dangerous, dirty work so that humans don’t have to. But fears over whether these dogs will just be creepy spies seems legitimate, given that we once considered flying robots to be a horrifying dystopian fantasy and now you can barely go to a public park without having some teenager’s drone whiz by your head. We reached out to the New York Fire Department for comment on its recent litter of robots but a spokesperson said nobody was immediately available for comment.