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.

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.