Costas Charalambous is the Technical Sales Manager at Zimmer Group US Inc, which is based in Hickory North Carolina. He has almost 25 years’ experience in the automation industry, mostly working with grippers and other end-of-arm tooling.

Current Trends Toward more flexible End Effectors and End of Arm Tooling Gives Industrial Robots a Helping Hand.

Zimmer Group US is a subsidiary of Zimmer Group GmbH, based in Rheinau Germany. Founded over 40 years ago, they one of the industry leaders in handling technology, particularly grippers, linear clamping and braking products, as well as industrial damping components.

Here are some of the questions that I asked Costas on the pod:

What is happening in end of arm tools? Are you seeing any short, medium or long-term trends?

How has COVID-19 affected automation companies? Are you working differently? EOAT trends during the pandemic?

EOAT in general Trends: smaller, bigger, smarter?

What industries are keeping you busy today?

Complex EOAT or simple?

Can you tell me and our audience about MATCH?

The Future: Are End effectors getting smarter?

Enjoy the podcast.

Regards,

Jim

Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing & The Robot Industry Podcast

Thanks to Costas and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation and PaintedRobot.

If you would like to find out more about Zimmer Group check them out on their website, on LinkedIn and to get a hold of Costas here is his LinkedIn profile.

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Keywords and terms for this podcast: EOAT, End of Arm Tools, #therobotindustrypodcast, Costas Charlambous, Zimmer Group.

Good day everyone and welcome to this edition of A3 #therobotindustrypodcast. Welcome as well, to the future of manufacturing: it's on-demand. My guest for edition #60 of the pod is Greg Paulsen. Greg leads the Application Engineering team at Xometry, a global on-demand manufacturing marketplace. With 14 years of experience in advanced manufacturing, Greg's expertise includes additive manufacturing, machining, sheet metal, injection molding, casting, and quality assurance.

Here are some of the questions that I posed to Greg in the pod:

Greg, Tell me a bit about the company, you are a public company, number of employees?

How does Xometry work?

Idle machines are a manufacturers worst feat, you help fix this?

How many customers and how many manufacturers?

You are suggesting or setting a price?

How does the AI engine work?

How do you qualify the manufacturers on the network?

How do you guarantee the quality?

What happens when the price for a component is too low? How does your AI handle this?

What about materials/availability, a big challenge is supply chain?

Next big issue and expense for many companies is shipping, do you help here?

What are your financial instruments?

Your support line, what are some of the FAQs

Greg, thanks for coming onto the podcast. How can people get in touch with you?

Enjoy the podcast and check out Xometry's 3D printing service and CNC machining service today.

Regards,

Jim

Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing & The Robot Industry Podcast

Thanks to Greg and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation and PaintedRobot.

If you would like to find out more about Xometry check them out on their website, on LinkedIn and to get a hold of Greg, here is his LinkedIn profile.

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Keywords and terms for this podcast: on demand manufacturing, Xometry, Greg Paulsen, and #therobotindustrypodcast.

I welcome Milton Guerry from Schunk USA for this episode of The Robot Industry Podcast. Milton is a busy man. He is involved on committee work with the Robot Industry Association, the umbrella organization of A3 Association for Advancing Automation as well as IFR, International Federation of Robotics, and leading Schunk in the USA.

Automation has stepped up is the theme of the podcast today.

We talk about the technology of gripping and clamping

The new robots: Collaborative technologies and the evolution revolution

The new technologies: Van der Waall principle of adhesion gripper: ADHESO

Reaching new industries: food, electrical vehicles, packaging, and others

Keeping automation simple

Bundling smarter software tools by packaging tooling for automation integrators and end users

Apprenticeship, next generation workforce development, talent development, and working with colleges and competitors

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

Thanks to our Milton and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation and PaintedRobot

If you would like to find out more about Schunk, here is the link to their LinkedIn profile you can find Milton on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/milton-guerry-0036615/

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain management and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Keywords and terms for this podcast: Schunk, innovation, Milton Guerry, end of arm tools, EOAT, clamping, gripping, robotics, robots, workforce development, skills gap, apprenticeships, Morrisville, #therobotindustrypodcast.

Do you know what machines dream of? To finally see the world in motion!

Svorad Štolc is the sensor division CTO at Photoneo. He is an expert in 3D Machine imaging, machine vision, artificial intelligence and parallel computing. In 2001 he gained a masters degree at Comenius University in Bratislava - Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics and he earned PhD. degree in 2009 jointly at Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and Technical University of Košice. For several years, he worked at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna, where he led a research group focused on computational photography and 3D sensing. During this time he published a number of internationally awarded scientific articles. At Photoneo, Svorad is responsible for research and development of the company's 3D sensing technology.

In the podcast we talk about innovation in 3d machine vision as well as:

Standard Structured Light - Spatial Multiplexing of Light

Parallel Structured Light - Temporal Multiplexing of Shutter

Photoneo has picked up some impressive hardware for their innovations including the VISION Award 2018, Vision Innovators Award Bronze 2018 and Platinum 2019, inVISION Top Innovation 2019 and 2021, as well as IEEE, IERA Award 2020.

Thanks to Michal and to Zuzana at Photoneo for putting this interview together.

If you are building a system and would like to get in touch with Photoneo you can find them at https://www.photoneo.com/

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim B

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain management and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Key words and terms for this podcast: Photoneo, Machine Vision, 3D, A3 Association for Advancing Automation, Ehrhardt Automation Systems #therobotindustrypodcast.

I am thrilled to welcome David Dechow to The Robot Industry Podcast.

David L. Dechow is a globally recognized expert in the integration of machine vision, robotics, and industrial automation technologies.  He is the Principal Vision Systems Architect for Integro Technologies Corp., where he performs application evaluation and design of complex automated imaging solutions for inspection, metrology, and robotic guidance.  Prior to his position at Integro, he was Staff Engineer for Intelligent Robotics/Machine Vision at FANUC, and earlier was the founder, owner, and principal engineer for two successful systems integration firms.  His career in machine vision and industrial automation spans more than thirty-five years. 

Mr. Dechow is a recipient of the AIA’s Automated Imaging Achievement Award honoring industry leaders for outstanding career contributions in industrial and/or scientific imaging.  He is a member of the Association for Advancing Automation Imaging Technology Strategy Board, and is contributing editor for Vision Systems Design magazine, and technical advisory board member with Saccade Vision Ltd.

As a key educator within the industry, David has participated in the training of hundreds of engineers as an instructor with the A3 Certified Vision Professional program.  He also is well known for his frequent informative technical articles, papers, webinars, and conference sessions and classes covering a wide range of technical topics involving machine vision and enabling technologies in industrial automation.

Thanks to our Jeff and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems. If you would like to find out more about Integro-Technologies, here is the link to their site https://www.integro-tech.com/ you can find David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddechow/

In the podcast, we start off by talking about Integro Technologies, where David hangs his hat. My questions include:

Diversity of machine vision

Getting the challenging and difficult automation jobs

What is happening in machine vision currently

Enabling technology of computer vision: feeding the data and AI

Chasing new technologies

When vision systems fail

What is happening in camera and hardware advancement

Inspecting French Fries (again)

Hyperspectral, infrared and near infrared technology

Reducing the risk with machine vision applications

AI and Deep Learning explained

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

Thanks to our David and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation and PaintedRobot

If you would like to find out more about Integro, here is the link to their LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/company/integro-technologies-corporation/ you can find David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddechow/

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would li

Welcome to episode #55 of The Robot Industry Podcast. My guest for this episode is Jeff Mahler, from Ambi Robotics. Dr. Mahler is the CTO and co-founder of Ambi Robotics. He received his PhD in AI and robotics from the University of California, Berkeley for his work with Prof. Ken Goldberg on the Dexterity Network (Dex-Net), a state-of-the-art method for rapidly teaching robots to pick up items they've never been trained on before. His robot vision research has appeared in The New York Times, MIT Tech Review, and Forbes, and has been nominated for numerous awards at international research conferences including Best Manipulation Paper and Best Human-Robot Interaction Paper. Jeff also holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. While there, he was the co-founder and lead computer vision engineer at Lynx Labs, a 3D scanning startup that was acquired by Occipital in 2015.

Here are some of the questions that we talk about in this edition of The Robot Industry Podcast:

What do you do at Ambi robotics?

How did you get started?

Who is your ideal customer?

What is their big problem?

Are you robot agnostic?

What is adaptable AI?

How do you use simulation software? Which one?

How important is data for your customers?

What other problems do you solve than just picking and placing?

Robots as a service, data, kitting, packing and pick and place.

Partners and contract manufacturing with DWFRITZ company

Thanks to our Jeff and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems. If you would like to find out more about Ambi Robotics, here is the link to their site https://www.ambirobotics.com/ and you can find Jeff on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-mahler-64b56138/ and you can email him at [email protected]

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain management and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Keywords and terms for this podcast: Ambi Robotics, Ambidexterous Robotics, Warehouse automation, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Adaptable AI, AmbiOS, Ehrhardt Automation Systems, Jim Beretta, parcel sorting robots, Pitney Bowes, A3, DWFRITZ, Dexterity Network, #therobotindustrypodcast.

Chris Tur is President & CEO of Roboworld. He is a Robotic protection expert, patent holder and a TEDx presenter and a really interesting guy. Chris has worked in marketing for GE Aviation, business operations for GE Energy and Global Product Manager for GE Lighting. He has been involved in protecting robots for over 30 years and now has expanded to protecting robot teach pendents.

In this edition of A3 the #robotindustrypodcast we talk about:

Why protect robots?

What are we protecting?

Protecting teach pendants (which are very expensive to replace) with Pendant Armour

Becoming a fabric expert to protect robots and robot seals

What are the worst environments that Roboworld has designed protection against?

Flowing air into a robot suit

Technical materials that get used include Kevlar, Hypalon, Norfab (Aluminized Kevlar), Teflon,

Environments and elements that Roboworld protects against: Splatter, slurry, slag, heat, cold, humidity, sandblasting, abrasives, investment casting, bacteria, caustic wash downs environments and even corrosion inhibitors.

Thanks to our Chris, and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems. If you would like to find out more about Roboworld, here is the link to their site: https://roboworld.com/ and you can find them on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/roboworld/

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain management and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Keywords and terms for this podcast: Roboworld, robot suits, robot protection, robot covers, robot jackets, teach pendant protectors, Pendant Armour, Ehrhardt Automation Systems, Jim Beretta, A3 #therobotindustrypodcast.

The big topic of interoperability is a big challenge for the robotic industry and something that Meili is aiming to fix. Meili Robots is based in Copenhagen, Denmark is a startup company that provides a universal fleet management system for mobile robots. Their focus is in distribution centers and the last mile of delivery.

The promise of Meili is to control your fleet of various robot types and makes on one platform, with automated allocation of jobs to the robots. The company is robot agnostic, and they don't care what is being transported.

Aldus von der Burg is the founder and CEO. In our conversation we talk about:

The last mile of automation

The advantage of being a startup and being robot agnostic

The future of data

The challenge of overlapping software in the autonomous robot deployment space

Fun fact: Meili Robots is named after the lesser-known brother of the Norse god Thor, and allegedly the god of travel.

If you are operating a distribution center and would like to get in touch with Meili or Aldus, you can find him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldus-von-der-burg-15287941/ and if you would like to find out more about the company, https://www.linkedin.com/company/meilirobots/ and https://www.meilirobots.com/about and [email protected]

Thanks to our Aldus, and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems.

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Beretta | Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing, project management, supply chain management and delivering world-class custom automation on-time and on-budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Ehrhardt can build for you at [email protected]

Key words and terms for this podcast: AGVs, AMR, Autonomous Mobile Robot, The Last Mile of Delivery, Robots, Meili Robots, Aldus von der Burg, Ehrhardt Automation Systems, #therobotindustrypodcast, [email protected]

Jeff Huerta is the Vice President of Sales at Vecna Robotics, a Boston based software company that helps retail and distribution companies automate their facilities. Jeff brings more than 15 years of automation leadership experience to Vecna Robotics, with a strong track record of building world-class sales operations. Prior to joining Vecna Robotics, Jeff was Vice President of North America Sales at Balyo, where he led the go-to-market strategy for the company’s self-guided trucks. Previously, Jeff held sales and marketing positions with SICK, where he managed and developed the OEM packaging sales team for the North American market.

Vecna Robotics delivers Automated Material Handling, Hybrid Fulfillment, and Workflow Optimization solutions featuring self-driving vehicles operated by their learning Autonomy Stack. Their solutions deliver value for customers in the distribution, e-commerce, warehousing, and manufacturing sectors. Their unique orchestration engine technology, Pivot.al, allows diverse robot types and humans to work together seamlessly and to flexibly yield an adaptive business solution, capable of meeting the increasingly unpredictable market needs.

Vecna's technology goes beyond traditional automation and focuses on maximizing human and robot capability to create fulfilling jobs, increase productivity, and encourage innovation.

We talk about:

Following The Pallet.

The challenge of attracting and retaining forklift drivers

New forklift drivers and the opposite of an UBER driver

Ergonomics and safety

The boring task of sitting on a forklift, 8 hours a day

24 month payback in Autonomous Mobile Robot Industry

The importance of collecting and reporting data

The future of forklift autonomous industry: sensors and software

Vecna only builds their automation around new fork lifts, they partner with OEMs to build the robots.

If you are operating a material handling and would like to get in touch with Matt, you can find him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-huerta-3463b030/ and if you would like to find out more about the company, https://www.linkedin.com/company/vecna-robotics/ and https://www.vecnarobotics.com/connect/

Thanks to our Jeff, and our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot (dot com) and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems.

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim Customer Attraction | The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing they understand the complex world of automated man

Designing Robots is hard. Building them shouldn't be. This is the topic of our podcast today.

My guest today for the podcast is Matt Wicks. Matt has more than 25 years of experience in the robotics industry with expertise in the areas of logistics systems, motion and industrial controls and software integration for large scale manufacturing and distribution systems. He has extensive experience in the field of advanced robotic solution development, including robotic solution integration and design. Matt is a thought leader in the robotics industry, holds numerous robotics patents and is a featured speaker at various robotics industry events. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri – Rolla (Missouri S&T) and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Missouri. He currently serves on the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) Board of Directors and as the Chairman of the Robotics Industry Association (RIA) Board of Directors.

Matt's job is to engage and attract robot companies to have Celestica build their robots for them on an outsourced basis. If you haven't heard about Toronto based Celestica, Celestica enables the world's leading brands. Through their customer-centric approach, they partner with leading companies in aerospace and defense, communications, enterprise, healthtech, industrial, capital equipment, and smart energy to deliver solutions for their customers most complex challenges. Celestica is a leader in design, manufacturing, hardware platform and supply chain solutions, Celestica brings global expertise and insight at every stage of product development - from the drawing board to full-scale production and after-market services. With teams across North America, Europe and Asia, they imagine, develop and deliver a better future with their customers. Celestica is a publicly traded company on NYSE: CLS and on TSE: CLS in Toronto. Celestica has approximately 28,000 employees and is controlled by Onex Corporation.

In the podcast, we talk about the use cases, electronic documentation, supply chain, driving costs out of robotics and why robots are so difficult to manufacture at production level scale. We talk about when companies need to outsource their robot builds and also talk about the startup community.

If you are building a robot and would like to get in touch with Matt, you can find him https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewrwicks/ you would like to find out more about the company, Celestica, https://www.linkedin.com/company/celestica/

Thanks to our Matt, and his Toronto based marketing team at Celestica HQ: Crystal Wong, Nicki Lakhani, Sandra Moretti, our partners, A3 The Association for Advancing Automation, PaintedRobot (dot com) and our sponsor, Ehrhardt Automation Systems.

Enjoy the podcast!

Jim / Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.

Our sponsor for this episode is Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt Automation builds and commissions turnkey automated solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision