All-wheel drive (AWD) technology has taken the automotive world by storm in recent years, because of its ability to effectively transfer power to the ground. Today, many sport utility vehicles use AWD for better acceleration, performance, safety and traction in all kinds of driving conditions.

Based in Torrington, CT, systems integrator Plastimation has been designing and building robotic automation systems for more than a decade. The company's portfolio ranges from simple projects, such as a machine-tending application in which a cobot unloads stacks of plastic lids from a molding machine, to complex ones, such as an automated line in which four robots assemble and test a medical device.

The easy-to-use position indicator was designed to simplify format change to more easily meet the ever-decreasing lot sizes resulting from individualized packaging and special formats. It allows users to quickly configure machinery to adapt to varying materials, weights and package counts, while adding precision to the process.

Last month, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover landed on the red planet after 5.5 months of traveling through space. The rover's primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microscopic life and collect the first ever Martian soil samples for analysis.

Have you ever wondered if machine vision could be used to solve your manufacturing applications? Are you interested in integrating machine vision into your process, but you don't know where to start?

Many questions surround artificial intelligence (AI). A common one among non-users is: Can something artificial truly produce real-world benefits? Increasingly, manufacturers in the automotive industry are ready and able to provide an affirmative answer.

Automation engineers have developed ingenious ways to mechanically singulate and orient parts in a feeder bowl.

any assembly operations begin with the scanning of a 1D or 2D bar code. The code might tell an assembler what parts to install and how to install them.

In its latest report, BCC Research projects the global drug delivery market to grow to nearly $227.3 billion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.9 percent. This is great news for the French company Nemera, which designs and manufactures world-class drug delivery devices for the pharmaceutical industry.

Every manufacturer has one want and many needs. The want is universal, to be the leader in its industry or area of specialty. The needs are individual, and may concern issues as diverse as increasing capital, upgrading technology, expanding plant size or hiring more assemblers.