This is a technological megatrend. Dumb load-bearing metal structures move to plastic and composite and incorporate energy harvesting and storage material - massless energy. Indeed you could call some of it negative mass energy. Goodbye components-in-a-box.

AWE should be seen as part of a bigger picture. The next generation of zero emission electricity producing technologies has no huge steel and concrete infrastructure, so it can have much less cost and installation time and making it redeployable.

The drone market has boomed in recent years. This is essentially because easy-to-use, reliable and small-sized flying machines have become available at highly accessible prices- well in the range of consumer electronic products. This has created its own demand amongst customers and professional.

Magically, next generation electricity production continuous (base) electricity production can avoid the massive concrete and steel structures currently used for nuclear power stations with their 1000 year fuel rod problem.

The term smart city originally meant little beyond using much more information technology IT. However, new IDTechEx report, "Smart City Opportunities: Infrastructure, Systems, Materials 2019-2029" reveals that much more dramatic changes are both required and possible and humans will be in the driving seat.

Last week a US court held Monsanto's glyphosate responsible for causing cancer in a ground keeper, awarding $289M of damages. You might wonder what the link between this verdict and agricultural robotics is? The answer is everything.

The term machine vision describes a group of technologies that enable a machine to see via imaging for the purpose of process automation, and often refers to industrial vision systems. Applications of machine vision include automated product inspection and vision guided robotics. Here we consider four technology types: illuminating, sensing, processing and learning.

This article will highlight some of the key advancements surrounding automation for the composite industry.

IDTechEx recently visited Automatica 2018 in Munich. This is the largest biannual automation event in Europe. At this show IDTechEx focused on three trends: collaborative robotic arms, mobile robots, and various associated sensors. In this article, we provide a review of various company highlights.

Autonomous haul trucks in mining are here to stay with companies ramping up the roll out of retrofit fleets around the world, but what does this mean in the wider context of next generation mining equipment, with many projects from digital twin IoT solutions to predictive maintenance of equipment showing promise in the adoption of emerging technology. Separating the hype from reality is key in mining, an industry often risk averse to standalone investments and where standards and interoperability challenges typically need be addressed ahead of technology adoption.

Fiber lasers: A versatile technology for lightweighting, battery manufacturing and LiDAR in the automotive industry. Recent advances in fiber laser welding are highly advantageous for lightweighting and battery manufacturing. Fiber lasers are reliable, compact and energy efficient systems that offer the best beam quality for applications where precision is important.

In any emerging technology, the pace of innovation is rapid, sometimes dauntingly so. Patent Analytics is a service that IDTechEx provides utilising our long-standing expertise in a range of emerging technologies to provide clients of our services the answers they need.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 28 June 2018 titled Electric Trucks and Delivery Vans.

Autonomous mobility, in the general public's eye, is now synonymous with cars. Whilst this might be the largest ultimate prize, it is by no means the only commercial manifestation of this technology. Indeed, as the IDTechEx Research report New Robotics and Drones 2018-2038: Technologies, Forecasts, Players demonstrates, numerous autonomous mobile robots are being commercialized in applications where there is (a) a clear commercial purpose and (b) a more structured and predictable environment.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 24 May titled Robots and drones: How everything is changing.

In this article, we will describe the upcoming transformation in the world of robotics. This analysis is drawn from our report New Robotics and Drones 2018-2038: Technologies, Forecasts, Players

The robotic industry is looking for the next big opportunity that could one day rival the automotive sector in size. It may have found its answer in the logistic and material handling sector. In this article we will focus on the use of mobile robots in automating the goods-to-person step in logistics and material handling.

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.