Orders Drop for U.S. Robot Makers; World Outlook Remains Strong

Last year was a rough one for makers of industrial robotics, according to a study published last month by the Robotics Industries Association (RIA). Orders from North American companies in 2008 were 21 percent lower than in 2007, though total revenue stemming from them dropped only 16 percent. Orders from outside North America improved the year somewhat; counting those sales, total shipments dropped only 18 percent and revenue dropped 15 percent. Of particular concern for forecasters looking at 2009, however, was a sharper drop in orders placed by North American companied during the fourth quarter of 2008. Those orders were 26 percent lower in unit sales, and brought in revenue 33 percent lower than the same period during 2007. The drop is a dramatic letdown from… View this post

Robot Heroics: Recovering the Dead, Catching Fugitives

Robots made the news repeatedly early this week, for silicon heroics that, for once, had nothing to do with the war on terror or unexploded IEDs. On Friday a remote-operated underwater vehicle was able to locate and recover the bodies of 16 of the 16 people died in the crash of a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter off the coast of Newfoundland. The transport helicopter was ferrying 16 workers to the StatoilHydro owned Hibernia oil platform when the helicopter went down, about 55 kilometers offshore, after a distress call that said the helicopter had lost oil pressure in the main gearbox. Robert Decker, a 30-year-old ice spotter on the North Atlantic rig, was the only one of 18 passengers and crew to survive. He was picked up by… View this post

WPI To Launch Graduate Robotics Engineering Program

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced it will launch a master’s degree program in Robotics Engineering this fall. The new program will be taught primarily by teachers in other departments, at WPI, which established the country’s first bachelor’s degree in robotics engineering in 2006 As many as 30 faculty and staff will contribute time to administer and teach classes in the new program; they will come primarily the Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering departments. The program, which requires 36 credit hours of class time plus a thesis or capstone engineering project at completion, was developed with the help of WPI’s Robotics Engineering Advisory Board. Local or near-local companies that assisted include iRobot Corp., Bluefin Robotics, General Dynamics Robotics Systems and DEKA Research… View this post