Over the last several months, I have spoken to several groups about robotics in small manufacturing. Everyone gets that robots, and specifically the digital-fabricating robots that are particularly interesting to me, are machines that offer useful automation — automation in the sense of helping a producer make a lot of…

I’ve argued for revitalizing manufacturing in our communities by encouraging and supporting new, local entrepreneurs whose small manufacturing operations will be made competitive by digital fabrication technologies and digital infrastructures. But how do we accomplish that encouragement? The answer is simple: grow local support. Grow facilities, incubators, and infrastructures appropriate…

Having proclaimed the virtues of digital fabrication as a way to make local, small-manufacturing competitive again, I need to explain that for me this is not just an abstract concept. At ShopBot/Handibot, we’re betting on it. …

Bringing manufacturing back to our communities will not happen automatically. Yes, we can be hopeful about re-invigorating local manufacturing in a new-industrial-revolution world based on digital fabrication technologies. Digital fabrication leapfrogs the labor-demanding and capital-intense mass production methods that defined the last industrial revolution. …

The “new industrial revolution” promises a paradigm-shift that can favor the entrepreneurial small manufacturer. This opportunity for the little guy creates an opening for re-establishing manufacturing in our communities. The enabling technology that underlies the opportunity is called digital fabrication. Digital fabrication, for many types of products, leapfrogs the current…

When the eager hero of the “Start-Up” podcast (Season 1) pitches his pod-casting business plan to a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, the VC lets him know that his dream is no more than that of a small-minded, “life-style” entrepreneur. The budding business-builder is deflated. The plan he’s carefully honed for…