Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China’s Sichuan province, is working to develop a national pilot zone for advancing next-generation artificial intelligence. The Chengdu municipal government revealed an action plan promoting the development of an AI-centered pilot zone in November. According to the plan, Chengdu will invest more than 100 billion yuan (€12.76 billion) in over 170 major projects over two years to support the
Volkswagen, an automotive manufacturers and the global car manufacturer has invested in the full colour, multi-material 3D printing technology from Stratasys to enhance its prototyping capabilities and open up new opportunities within automotive design.
Following the installation of two PolyJet Technology based Stratasys J850 3D Printers, the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Centre is 3D printing a wide range of ultra-realistic prototypes for both interior and exterior applications helping the company to drive further innovation within new vehicle design.
Volkswagen has over 25 years of 3D printing experience to innovate the design and production of vehicles for its customers. According to the company, this latest investment allows the design team to meet Volkswagen’s stringent quality requirements, with the capability to now create complex multi-material prototypes that mirror final production parts with up to 99% precision. This level of realism will enable the team to better test and improve overall part designs.
The J850 provides Volkswagen the unique ability to produce full-colour prototypes in up to seven different materials varying in rigidity, flexibility, opaqueness, and transparency all in a single print. This saves significant time and costs over traditional multi-step design processes such as part assembly and painting.
For vehicle interiors, the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Centre team is also 3D printing parts with different textured surfaces from fabric and leather to wood. Furthermore, the use of an advanced transparent material called VeroUltraClear allows the team to replicate the clarity of glass. The ability to simulate these vehicle features with true-to-life models gives designers the creative freedom to test and perfect new designs quickly and cost-effectively.
Peter Bartels, head of the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Centre, comments, “Volkswagen has always put innovation at the heart of everything it does, in order to develop vehicles that excite our customers and make them proud to own. To achieve this, it is essential we provide our design teams with the latest cutting-edge technologies to unleash their creativity and enable them to set the standard in automotive design. The recent addition of the J850 3D Printers offers us additional capabilities that strengthen our 3D printing operations and allow us to further optimise our design process.”
Andreas Langfeld, president EMEA, Stratasys, adds, “Volkswagen has been a longstanding customer who has always embraced the value of PolyJet 3D printing and pushed the boundaries of the technology to innovate the design process. The J850 is our most advanced system yet, offering companies the means to take their design capabilities to the next level and gain a competitive edge. We are very excited to see what creative applications the Volkswagen team can develop with this technology.”
Facilio, an AI-driven property operations & maintenance (O&M) platform, and Belimo, a global market provider in HVAC field devices, announced a strategic collaboration to enhance the buildings industry by delivering connected and sustainable environments. Addressing the growing need for efficient building operations, Facilio and Belimo will help real estate owners, operators, and service providers turn
As e-commerce volumes soar and labour shortages continue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more enterprises are seeking automated robotics solutions to meet client demand and increase efficiency. Mech-Mind Robotics‘ intelligent industrial robots address key challenges facing industry players today with next-gen solutions that are accurate, precise, and cost-effective.
Mech-Mind Robotics (“Mech-Mind”) is a fast-growing Chinese startup backed by venture capital including SEQUOIA Capital China and Intel Capital with its core massive applied technologies in high-performance 3D cameras, motion planning AI algorithms and software.
Dedicated to making industrial robots intelligent, Mech-Mind showcased its smart robotics solutions at CeMAT ASIA 2020, the region’s most influential intralogistics and supply chain event, on Nov 3-6 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
During the trade fair, Mech-Mind presented its core technologies and solutions in four exhibition zones: high-efficiency assorting of common goods, mixed-carton depalletising with AI+3D vision, parcel loading with AI+3D vision, and high-precision smart camera image and recognition technology.
“At Mech-Mind, we harness advanced technologies such as 3D vision and deep learning to power next-generation industrial robots. CeMAT ASIA 2020 is the ideal stage for us to demonstrate our far-reaching solutions to logistics and manufacturing customers seeking to increase efficiency, improve effectiveness, and reduce time and labour costs affordably. Smart robotics are no longer limited to labs. We are very excited to be part of this,” says Tianlan Shao, CEO and founder of Mech-Mind Robotics.
The star of the booth, Mech-Mind’s goods assorting solution, can be seamlessly integrated with Pick-to-Light systems (PTL) to improve factory efficiency. The solution is integrated with bin vibrating gears to ensure a high bin clearance rate.
The solution supports seamless handling of multiple SKUs without the need to switch end effectors. At the same time, state-of-the-art vision algorithms enable the robots to handle objects of different shapes and sizes, including boxes, bottles and bags all with rapid operation speeds of up to 3 seconds per item for small or light objects.
Mech-Mind’s vision-guided depalletising solution was also on display. Using 3D vision (supported by our Mech-Eye Deep 3D Camera) and AI to deliver smooth robot motion planning, the solution can handle any random pallet pattern with speeds of up to 4.3 seconds for picking one single item.
Also using 3D vision plus AI was the logistics parcel loading solution which can rapidly pick real express parcels, including logistic cartons, poly bags, rigid corrugated packages, jiffy bags, bubble mailers and envelopes with speeds of up to 1600 pieces per hour.
At the booth, Mech-Mind provided a zone dedicated to its Mech-Eye Smart 3D Cameras to demonstrate their unparalleled abilities to recognise objects such as sacks, cartons and bins.
HubStor, a cloud data management provider, announced the availability of its Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Archive-as-a-Service (AaaS) offering for Google Workspaces with support of backup, recovery, replication, and archiving of Google Drive. The announcement continues HubStor’s expansion of its BaaS unified backup and archive platform. With this release, HubStor continues to enhance how enterprises protect their data in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. By leveraging HubStor’s BaaS, customers can
A new phase in the field of road network security and infrastructure monitoring is starting. ASPI Tech, IBM and Fincantieri NexTech announce that the new digital system for civil infrastructure monitoring, based on IBM Maximo, is now in operation. The system has been developed by Autostrade Tech, the technology-focused subsidiary of Autostrade per l’Italia Group, together with IBM and Fincantieri
Optimus Ride, a developer of autonomous vehicle technology systems, announced Sean Harrington has been appointed as its new CEO and member of its board of directors, effective November 30. Harrington replaces co-founder Ryan Chin, who will remain at the company with responsibility over policy and sustainability initiatives.
Under Harrington’s leadership, Optimus Ride will continue advancing its world class technology and plans to scale up its commercial operations. Harrington brings deep expertise developing, commercialising and scaling technology solutions, with experience at both startups and large, global corporations.
Most recently, Harrington was vice President of city solutions at Verizon where he was responsible for a broad portfolio of innovative products and services that helped cities increase livability, sustainability, and safety for their citizens. Prior to that, Harrington was chief operating officer and member of the board of directors at Sensity Systems where he oversaw technology development, marketing, sales, and operations for the company through its acquisition by Verizon in 2016. Harrington has a B.S. in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
“I’m thrilled to join Optimus Ride and lead the company through its next chapter,” says Harrington. “I knew from the moment I met the team and had the opportunity to ride in one of the electric, self-driving vehicles powered by the Optimus Ride system that this was a very special company and I wanted to be a part of it. The mobility industry is shifting rapidly and there is an enormous opportunity for Optimus Ride to transform the way people get around.”
Optimus Ride’s autonomous vehicle technology system, designed to flexibly integrate into existing vehicle platforms, is now deployed at five customer locations around the U.S. With Harrington at the helm, the company plans to expand its suite of mobility services, offering convenient, reliable, safe and zero-emission transportation to corporate and academic campuses, residential communities, mixed-use developments, and other localised environments. Having demonstrated proven results with its early customers, including Brookfield Properties, the real estate developer, Optimus Ride is poised to expand its commercial deployments both nationally and internationally.
“Sean brings a unique mix of product development and go-to-market leadership experience, which will serve Optimus Ride well as the company transitions from initial technology validation to large scale commercial operations,” says John Tough, managing partner of Energize Ventures and chairman of Optimus Ride’s board of directors. “We are very excited to welcome Sean to the Optimus Ride team and we look forward to working closely with him.”
“I’m incredibly proud of the entire Optimus Ride team and what we have achieved thus far,” explained Chin. “Now is the right time for me to step aside from the CEO role and bring in an accomplished technology and business leader who can help us fully capitalise on the opportunity we have created. The whole team is looking forward to Sean’s arrival and I will do everything I can to support him through the transition and beyond.”
To learn more about Optimus Ride’s autonomous vehicle technology system and its distinguished leadership team, Click here.
ChargePoint, provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, and Volvo Car USA LLC are working to make the charging experience seamless for drivers of Volvo Cars’ Recharge models and provide support for its retail network.
The announcement comes just ahead of the launch of the Volvo XC40 Recharge pure electric SUV across North America. ChargePoint will support Volvo Cars retail networks across the United States and Canada and provide opportunities for Volvo Car drivers to buy the ChargePoint Home Flex home charger, adding to the convenience of charging at home.
Volvo Cars’ drivers will also be able to take advantage of one of North America’s EV charging networks with access to most of ChargePoint’s more than 115,000 places to charge and thousands of additional charging spots publicly available through roaming agreements throughout the region.
“The transition to electric mobility is inevitable and the introduction of exciting new EV models like the all-new XC40 Recharge is another example of the shift already underway around the world,” says Michael Hughes, chief revenue officer, ChargePoint.
Anders Gustafsson
“ChargePoint’s collaboration with Volvo Cars in the United States and Canada will provide a platform for EV charging across public, residential, and retail locations in the United States and Canada. With access to North America’s largest charging network, the ability to buy the ChargePoint Home Flex, and by providing support for retail charging deployments, this is a blueprint for collaborations that can advance the electric mobility revolution into the future.”
“This collaboration with ChargePoint gives Volvo Cars a way to break down one barrier to EV adoption, which is the ability to quickly and easily get a charge,” says Anders Gustafsson, senior vice president, Americas and president and CEO, Volvo Car USA.
Home charging solutions
As the adoption of EVs increases, fueling behaviour changes, transforming the driver experience. Unlike fueling ICE-powered vehicles, charging an EV takes place where the car is parked anyway, with more than 80% of charging occurring at home and work. To help enhance the buying experience and make it easier for Volvo Cars’ drivers making the switch to electric, purchasers of the XC40 Recharge and other Recharge models can select to buy the ChargePoint Home Flex, one of the market’s fastest, advanced and flexible home chargers available today.
With the ability to deliver up to 50 amps, Flex allows drivers to charge any EV up to 9 times faster than a standard wall outlet, delivering up to 37 miles of electric driving Range Per Hour. Adjustable amperage options support almost any charging need and can be matched to any home’s electrical supply today and into the future.
Retail charging solutions
As Volvo Cars retailers in the U.S. and Canada prepare for the introduction of the brand’s pure EV, they will have access to ChargePoint’s entire portfolio of AC and DC fast charging hardware and software solutions to fit the wide range of needs required to support the future suite of EVs hitting the market.
ChargePoint will offer Volvo Cars’ retailers special pricing and support as they deploy charging infrastructure at their locations. ChargePoint’s comprehensive suite of solutions and services gives retailers access to assistance from site design to installation as well as a robust warranty.
Public charging solutions
Drivers of the XC40 Recharge and future Volvo Recharge models, will be able to leverage EV charging networks with access to most of ChargePoint’s more than 115,000 places to charge. Through roaming agreements with other EV charging providers, drivers will also be able to access thousands of additional places to charge with one ChargePoint account throughout North America. This represents access to more than 80% of publicly available networked EV charging throughout the United States and Canada.
With the ChargePoint app, drivers can conveniently manage both home and public charging in one place, with the ability to locate stations, check status, start a session and more.
3D Printers