🦾 Industrial Automation Will Set You Free 🤖

I've fallen and dont want to get up!

People will knowingly let you down,but robots will always love you

📣 Topics of the Day 📣

• PLC+Robot Programming = Automation Art

• Robots Are Taking Over The Sciences

• iRobot Is The Robot Biz OG

• Tech of the Day: WMS vs WES vs WCS

Todays Newsletter Brought To You By

VERSABUILT ROBOTICS

You have a high mix cnc environment? Still have people waiting around for your machining processes to complete just so they can unload the current part and then load the next blank in? That’s pretty dumb. You can do better! Stop paying humans to do dumb things. We have brains and feelings and ..um well that’s about it. Pay people to solve problems, not robots. That’s why robots are around..to do robot stuff, like those jobs that your company requires to be done OVER and OVER and OVER again.

So does what I’m saying resonate in you? Am I whispering deep into your soul the sweet words of wisdom you seek?! Awesome. Call Versabuilt. They know a thing or two about making complex problems (not your emotional problems) simplified. These bandits specialize in robotic tending systems for CNC equipment. Give them a shout and let them know ol’ Tommy sent you. They may give you a discount, or more likely jack up your price!

https://www.versabuilt.com/

Don't do a job that doesn't bring you joy. If your job sucks, go find a new one!

Tis the Season

PLC+Robot Programming = Automation Art

Have you ever been in an MRI machine? Getting your brain and chest scanned to see what’s broken in you? I have, and quite recently in fact! Surprisingly I had no idea that just a few short weeks after my visit to the ER I would get a case study from the team at Artiminds that shows how interconnected our worlds are. These guys and gals worked on a sweet project at Siemens Healthineers where they took an existing cobot and PLC and made them better. This robotic workcell had the job of screwing in over 200 screws into the stretchers that people ride on when in an MRI machine. I had the pleasure of riding on one of these units and recall the incredible number of screws holding the various guides and parts together.

So my personal problems aside how did the team at Artiminds make this system better? They say they “recast” the software which integrated the plc and robot…I say they gutted the system and gave it the brain of an artist! Artiminds built a robot programming suite(RPS) that now solves two issues Siemens had. They can quickly train robot programmers within days AND rapidly teach and deploy robotic arms into production processes. The team at Artiminds built this software platform in 8 months! The coolest part is that Siemens can add almost any manufacturer of robot and still use this common platform to integrate them into workcells!

Oh and if you care to know, I was totally fine.

https://www.artiminds.com/

Robots Are Taking Over The Sciences

Robots and automation are quickly taking over the world. And now robots are working towards helping understand our past! Take robots and history, mash em up and I'm in love. What if one day AI could explain the origins of the universe? So the article below is about a robot that looks at microscopic fossils and helps researchers catalog them. This science could eventually be applied to other areas like foren

Tech of the Day: WMS vs WES vs WCS

When I got into the material handling automation game way back when there were three acronyms I needed to know, like really know and understand. WMS (warehouse management system), WES(warehouse execution system), and WCS(warehouse control software). I was schooled on these over my career and today..school is in session kids!

Each of these software packages add value within the 4 walls of a warehouse in different ways. One of the most annoying things to hear in a meeting is someone misuse these acronyms acting like they really have a clue! Not being able to differentiate these will make you stick out as less brilliant than your peers.

OK first up! WMS. Warehouse management software. This is the magical system that converts those pesky sales orders into some instructions for the warehouse team. At it’s core a WMS knows where all your inventory is located (so it does inventory management) and has order processing logic (so it knows where to send people and the order of operations). A great WMS can do all kinds of magic. It’ll keep track of all your inventory, tell you which locations to pick and put products, do order batching in waves dynamically based on workload parameters, auto generate cycle count orders, and other cool warehousing stuff. So think of a WMS as a high level management tool.

Next up..WES…actually lets skip this one for now and hop to the WCS next. Warehouse Control System. This is a mouthful of words for the software that tells your conveyor, your labelers, your packaging machines, and other automation what to do. When that box with your order of edible underwear is routing its way around the conveyor system the WCS is what gets the barcode information of what’s in the box, then the WCS tells a divert to fire and push that box down a chute. That WCS also monitors the end of that chute to see if it’s backed up and if it is it will keep boxes from going down that chute until there is room. This is just a small example of what a WCS does but at it’s core it’s the software that combines the various hardware in a conveyor or robotic system and drives functionality of that hardware. WCS doesn’t have any complex algorithms, generally it just sees where a product is and routes it to the end point.

Now let’s talk of the secret sauce! oooohhh warehouse execution system (or software). What does this little widget do? A WES is part WMS part WCS. A WES will bridge the gap between the higher level WMS and lower level WCS. Your WMS doesn’t allow you to create a process flow in your facility, no problem, the WES will do it. Need your conveyor to react based on various inputs from multiple systems, WES has you covered! A good WES really fills in the gaps and is that layer of logic that translates the information from the WMS and adds intent to what the WCS is doing.

Looking for an automation vendor or want your company to be featured?

iRobot Is the Robot Biz OG

Hey why don't you learn something new today like I did. You really need to check out this video put out by the team at iRobot. They've been doing cool stuff forever but unlike some of the other guys in the biz aren't constantly bragging, cough cough Boston Dynamics. The group that brought you the Roomba vaccuum robot also built a robot for the moon and oil rigs. Crazy cool tech!

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

https://www.automationjunkie.com/

Have feedback or want to contribute a video, article or tacos? Maybe I'm interested maybe I'm not sure that I'm looking for it. If you have something constructive you can catch me on Twitter. @robotsrcoming or email us at [email protected]

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