This Week in Logistics Tech News
May the Fourth Edition: Battles are raging. Robots are everywhere. + more.
Humans with all our needs and feelings make our much more consistent robot counterparts look pretty desirable as employees. But humans just knocked robots off their pedestal when security researchers hacked the heck outta some industrial robot arms — the IRB 140, to be specific.
This is a major liability for manufacturers who rely on the accuracy of these machines. This news serves as a reminder that as tech becomes smarter and more pervasive in all of our daily lives, we need to all be aware of the inherent security concerns involved.
Thus far, only human hands could be trusted for apple pickin’. And with $4 billion worth of apples harvested in the US each year, that’s a nice little boost for human employment.
But the damn robots just remembered vacuums exist. Abundant Robotics has created a prototype that can spot apples “roughly” as accurately as a human and pull them down just as gently with its vacuum arm.
And after recent trials, Abundant believes its ready for commercial scale implementation, where a single commercial-sized robot could replace 10s of people.
Qualcomm has apparently threatened to make a request to the International Trade Commission to prevent the importation of iPhones into the U.S. (A threat to make a request doesn’t actually sound that intimidating, but ok…) This is in retaliation for Apple refusing to make royalty payments to Qualcomm after what Apple claims has been years of unfair terms and unsuccessful negotiations.
If the ITC request goes through, that would be a major blow for Apple who makes 40% of its sales in the American market.
Bees make honey. Unless they’re dead. Which is why the honey supply chain depends upon live bees. (You’re welcome for teaching you how bees work.) A new technology in beekeeping, called BeeScanning, uses intelligent computer vision and object recognition to scan ordinary smartphone photos and alert beekeepers to the presence of dangerous Varroa mites in bee colonies. Therefore, giving beekeepers time to stop a large-scale infestation. Saving the bees and the Cheerios.
In less combative news…
Some of Tesla’s executives just signed on with Redwood Materials, a company focusing on “advanced technology and process development for materials recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse.” Though there is not yet a direct link between Tesla or Musk and Redwood Materials, this could be an indirect step for Musk into the materials handling business, which would make sense for the manufacturing of vehicles and solar panels.
Apple has created a $1 billion fund for advanced manufacturing. When asked about this fund and Apple’s recent expressed commitment to more US hiring, Apple chief Tim Cook said, “A company should have values because a company is a collection of people, and people should have values.” Which is a good quote… I guess…
And now the highlights in self driving:
An autonomous car developed by Michigan-based auto supplier Delphi Automotive Sunday started its 3,500-mile journey across the U.S. The modified Audi Q5 is due to arrive in New York a little more than a week later.
Samsung just received approval from the South Korean government to begin testing its self-driving tech on public roads.
Canada just opened a new testing site for driverless vehicles in Stratford. Ontario.
Other suggested reads:
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