🎄Robots Love Christmas Too! 🤖

irreverant take on robotics and automation

December 20, 2022

It's A Robot Christmas

One day your toaster will be smarter than you, for some of us it already is.

📣 Topics of the Day 📣

  • Gross, Moldy Dishes Are No Match For Nala

  • No, Not Every Damn Thing Is A "Robot"

  • Palletizers For Dummies

  • Tech of the Day: VRCs, Begrudgingly Moving Totes Up

Todays Newsletter Brought To You By

Coast Pneumatics

Another day, another dollar. Not sure where that saying came from but I think it should be a little more real. Like, another day...another day of making a dollar minus taxes minus living expenses minus minus minus. Here at Automation Junkie we do our best to sell our souls for a dollar, or a penny, whatever you have in your pocket. Our latest victim is Coast Pneumatics. They have all kinds of pneumatic parts for your next project. If you need anything get a hold of Taylor Ellis and she'll hook you up. You have to check out their video from forever ago, kinda funny that this was their first YouTube video!

DM her on LinkedIn here: Taylor Ellis

Coast Pneumatics – BEST IN QUALITY AND SERVICE SINCE 1976

https://www.coastpneumatics.com/

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

Cobots For Christmas Children!

Gross, Moldy Dishes Are No Match For Nala

I've done my fair share of dirty dishes! I've been laboring away in a commercial kitchen since 12 years old. I'd ride my bike to a small wings and ice cream take out place after school. That's where I first learned how to use the glorious industrial dish washer. Dishes done in minutes! Now that I think about it what's up with that? My new home dishwasher still spends 45 minutes or more doing my dishes. Well I may have found myself a solution. A little outfit out of Illinois is cranking away at solving the needs of commercial kitchens everywhere. Their latest press release is for the Nala Robotics "Spotless" autonomous robotic dishwasher. Not sure that there's really a business case for this but sure does seem cool!

Click on pic to see the video. Vimeo is kind of annoying that it won't embed the thumbnail.

No, Not Every Damn Thing Is A Robot

I'm stepping onto my soapbox again...this time over what it means to be a robot. What lead me to this is a press release about a company called Ferguson and their army of robots. The press release is about how great these "robots" are. Yeah those are not robots. If I call my dog a robot, does that mean it's a robot too? No, what you folks have are Autostore systems which are tote stacking and destacking devices. Not robots. A robot is a humanlike device which is controlled by a programmable device (computer/plc) and performs actions a human would otherwise be able to accomplish. A robotic arm is basically a mechanized version of a human arm.

If we continue on our path of calling anything that is controlled by a computer that does something, whether autonomously or programmed, a robot we might as well start a new naming convention because well everything is a freaking robot nowadays. My computer...a robot, my garage door opener...a robot, my dishwasher....a robot.

Inside Ferguson’s new Market Distribution Centers: Innovative robots transform supply chain.

State-of-the-art technology leads to productivity and energy-efficiency gains.

https://www.hvacwebconnection.com/news22/ferguson_automated_distribution_center.htm

Tech of the Day: VRCs, Begrudgingly Moving Totes Up

You ever need to move totes from the ground level up to say the 2 or 3rd level in your building? Well don't waste your money on a long run of inclined powered conveyor! That's a total waste of space, and money. Instead seek out vertical reciprotaing conveyor. The name is pretty self explanatory but in case you have no idea what this means (and that's ok too, we still love you just the same) a VRC is basically a device (not a robot 🤨) that can interface with a human, conveyor, or other automation and carries totes up, or down. These devices are super simple, easy to maintain, and relatively inexpensive.

vertical reciprocating conveyor

https://www.pflow.com/

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

Palletizers For Dummies

Some vendors in the automation space want you to feel like they're the smartest guys in the room. I hate that crap. You can smell these guys when they walk in with their cheap cologne and oversized suits. So I was pleasantly surprised to come accross IRIS and this explainer video. They did a great job of creating a system that is simple to use. You don't need a PHD to implement their palletizer and better yet they're not trying to impress you with big words. It's refreshing to see a clean system with a simple to use interface as well as a nicely thought out man to machine interface (ie the light curtain monitored areas).

You know that the smartest guy in the room is generally the quiet one listening for that moment to deliver that one single pointed question that creates an inflection point in the discussion.

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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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