🤖 Not the same old same old automation newsletter

Industrial robotics and automation is the most boring but hottest industry. It's not hot, like sexy hot, it's just growing freakishly fast with HUGE potential.

That's what she said...

Topics of the Day

• Top Trends in Automation

• Big company buys tiny company

• Get rich quick schemes don't work in our business

• Tech of the Day: Automated Mobile Robots

Random video we found

Top trends in automation are a no brainer

We scoured the internet seeking the latest news but what what we found were several articles about the "top trends" in automation. No surprise these lists are pretty basic. So basic in fact I'm embarassed to write the list, but hey why not.

Collaborative robots

You know the type that are meant to work with people but sometimes change their mind. From machine tending to placing labels on cartons, collab bots are all the rage.

 Safety

This makes sense. Just like the canary in the coal mine there's new tech that helps keep workers on the job longer.

Machinery automation 

You know that old press no one wants to run, or loading the heat treat furnace? Companies are quickly automating these mundane processes where there are inherit risks for people to interact with.

Applied Industrial Technologies buys Automation Inc.

Interesting find in the deep netherworld of the internet. Why would a major player in the process automation space buy a company that maybe would equal 1% of it's own staff? I'm just going out on a limb here but my thought is to simply keep building it's company through a strategy of buying small, tiny, automation companies to gain head count, a customer list, and a sweet ass domain name. Yep, Automation Inc. owns www.automationinc.com. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me otherwise. They're not buying much of anything else. The company has been around since 1981 and has about 50 employees. That's 40 years of existence growing at about one point something employees a year.

Tech of the Day

AMR aka Automated Mobile Robots aka battle bots gone domesticated

AMRs have really spiked in popularity here recently! They are basically a rolling platform that can self navigate through their environment using sensors, ai, and a map of their environment. So basically they kind of know where point A and point B are but they can adapt their path depending on obstacles between those 2 points. The good is that they're easy to set up and can wander about your facility doing their thing. The bad is that they sacrifice process repeatability due to poor facility layout and housekeeping.

These bots are good for basic tasks where you have flexibility in timing. If you have a takt time and absolutely must hit it then these little guys may not be a good idea.

Companies in this space include HAI Robotics, MiR, Arculus, and some of the products from 6 River Systems and Fetch Robotics.

Shameful Plug of the Day

Todays newsletter has been paid for in gummy bears by Autostore. Check out their awesome cube based ASRS system at www.autostore.com

Want your company to be featured? Sign up HERE

When will the robotic startup crash happen?

Seems like every day we hear of another SaaS or social media company having massive layoffs. Has anyone stopped to think about the companies in the material handling and automation space which have been "raising" money? There are a couple like Ambi robotics celebrating additional rounds of fundraising and others like Vecna which had to cut headcount due to lack of funding.

What this tells us is that there is a group of companies that are not profitable and they think they need more cash to become profitable. Robotics and automation is not the same as SaaS. The design and manufacturing of robotics is capital intensive because of the labor costs AND manufacturing costs. I've spoken with many founders in our space and there are the leaders and teams that are actually building systems that solve problems in our space, doing awesome work, and others just selling vaporware with the hopes of being purchased by a bigger company. Covid put a spotlight on the dependence of our material handling systems on human labor in turn spiking interest in robotics and automation.

So when will the crash occur? It won't. The proportion of startups and vaporware manufacturers to legitimately profitable businesses is immaterial. The noise around vaporware will be loud and sensationalized but the market will continue to grow.

That's a wrap for today! Now can someone go find me a thread stretcher?

If you want to help us pay the bills check out our directory of robotics and automation companies.

https://www.automationjunkie.com/

Have feedback? Not sure that I'm looking for it. If you have something constructive you can catch me on Twitter. @robotsrcoming

Spread The Word

Click to Share Or copy and paste this link for sharing https://www.automationjunkie.com/#subscribe