Court Edmondson
Director of Robotics and Automation, Irish Manufacturing Research
For many, the ultimate robotic system is one capable of tackling nearly any task at any time. This goal has propelled our recent push in humanoid robotic systems. We are now finally able to realise these dreams as well.
With new computing hardware, we can finally get the response times we have been dreaming of for decades to process our sensor our data.
Enablers of step change in advanced robotics
Streamlined software ecosystems are making robotic deployment faster and more accessible. Crucially, a new generation of engineering talent is coming into the workforce with skills that once was only available with a PhD and years of experience.
Access to these new tools and talent means one thing: the robotics field is finally ready to step up and answer many delayed challenges in our vast manufacturing ecosystem. The agile robotic systems we will create with them will surpass the wave of industrial robots seen in the final decades of the 1900s.
The circular economy represents
a goldmine of opportunities for
the robotics community to tackle.
Opportunities for robotics in today’s circular economy
The circular economy, nearly untapped by the robotics field, is full of worthy challenges for our new agile robotic systems too. For decades, robotics has been guided by dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. The circular economy, with its R-Strategies presents a wealth of opportunities that fit into the ‘Three Ds.’ Robotic systems deployed into these labour-intensive tasks will need to disassemble varied products, sort potentially hazardous materials and refurbish goods for a second life. The circular economy represents a goldmine of opportunities for the robotics community to tackle.
Robotics for the R-Strategies
Like canaries in the coal mine, there are some signals that our industry is mobilising. Robotic sorters, using the latest machine vision and AI, identify and sort our recyclable waste — an ability once dependent on human perception. Automated systems for dismantling solar photovoltaic (PV) panels or electronics exist too and are pushing robotics and automation into the supply chain of the circular economy. This proves that we are no longer limited by past limitations. We are finally capable of developing solutions to navigate scores of tasks, enabling return on investment (ROI) faster than ever.
This quest for versatile robotic systems in the circular economy sounds like the ‘holy grail’ that our first generation of roboticists have been pursuing. I’m certainly excited to help us push our industry, purely for the joy of building some awesome robots. However, if we end up helping the planet in the process, I can still feel good about what I have done for the next generation, too.
