Rare earths are vital to modern electronics and electrical engineering. They are relatively non-toxic and more effective compared to alternatives. See the IDTechEx report, "Toxicant Materials and Alternatives in Electronics and Electrical Engineering 2018-2028".

Agriculture is facing major long-term challenges. Some forecasts suggest that world population is set to grow by 2.3 billion by 2050. This, together with rising global income levels that typically increase food demand per capital, would require raising food production in 2050 by 70% compared to 2005 levels.

Traditional robotic arms are caged, operating in robot-only zones. This is changing with the emergence of collaborative robotic arms.

In this article, we will explore the basis of the industrial robotic arms growth supercycle and consider the short- and long-term future of sales. We will also discuss the impact of other trends such as the rise of collaborative robotic arms, the emergence of new players and applications for surgical arms, and the progress in other uses of robotic arms such as dairy farming.

In the past five years or so several major research groups have demonstrated that robots can learn to grasp novel varied objects with accuracy levels around 80-85%. Still performance levels, even in the labs, are sub-human but this is changing fast.

Robotic technology is quietly transforming the world of agriculture. In this article, we demonstrate how diverse this emerging industry is in terms of forms, functions and fortunes.

Last mile delivery remains an expensive affair in the parcel delivery business, often representing more than half of the total cost. Its importance is also growing thanks to a change in the composition of total deliveries with B2C deliveries rapidly taking on a bigger share. E-commerce companies are also pushing next-day and now same-day services, often at a major growing loss, hoping to take away that last stronghold of bricks-and-mortar shops: instant customer fulfilment. It is within this context that autonomising the movement in the last mile delivery step finds its imperative.

Autonomous mobile robots are causing a paradigm shift in the way we envisage commercial and industrial vehicles.

Trucking is a big business. In this article we will demonstrate how and why trucking driving is going autonomous.

This article covers a number of topics to highlight how robotic technology within agriculture is altering the landscape.

This premium articles consider mobile robotics on material handling industrial vehicles. It show how the rise of navigational autonomy will render, in time, the incumbent infrastructure-dependant automated vehicle technology obsolete, and how it will have a transformative impact on the fortunes of the greater material handling vehicle industry. Indeed, it will show how navigational autonomy will induce a colossal transfer of value from wage bills paid for human-provided driving services towards spent on autonomous industrial vehicles. This, in turn, will fuel the growth in this material handling vehicle industry (e.g., forklift), creating significant revenues over a business-as-usual scenario. This takes place despite our technology roadmap showing that hardware commoditisation will slowly devalue such driving services particularly in high-wage regions.

Raghu Das introduced the technologies covered and an introduction to the IDTechEx Show! USA 2017

tacterion's innovative and unique technology is a highly flexible and stretchable sensor called sensorskin.

Raghu Das, CEO and Chris Clare, Event Director, IDTechEx tells you what to expect at the upcoming IDTechEx Show! held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, November 15-16 2017.

The idea of drone delivery sharply divides commentator opinion: some dismiss it as a mere publicity stunt whilst others consider it a game changer that will bring near instant product fulfilment to e-commerce, stripping traditional shops of their last major differentiator.

In this article, we provide an overview explaining the major technology changes and market trends that underpin this growing interest. We will also consider how the future will look like, discussing the rapid rise and fall of multiple technologies.

Trucking is a big business. In the US, trucking industry revenues are in excess of $726bn. No wonder then that autonomous trucking is a hot topic.

New robotics is already quietly transforming many aspects of agriculture, and the agrochemicals business is no exception. Here, intelligent and autonomous robots can enable ultraprecision agriculture, potentially changing the nature of the agrochemicals business.

Robotic technology will transform the forklift industry, causing a colossal transfer of value from human-provided driving services, towards spending on autonomous industrial material handling machines, thus fuelling an industry revenue boom far exceeding recent growth trends.

Last mile delivery remains an expensive affair in the parcel delivery business, often representing more than half of the total cost. Its importance is also growing thanks to a change in the composition of total deliveries with B2C deliveries rapidly taking on a bigger share.