such as Fanuc and Emerson , the future of automation will require the input of newcomers . Wandelbots is a German startup with a focus on what the company calls a ‘ human-centered ’ approach to robot programming . Having raised € 6mn ($ 6.73mn ) in series A funding , Wandelbots hopes to explode and disrupt the existing system of robot programming , which differs between companies and systems , by introducing demonstration-based machine teaching . Wearing a sensor filled jacket , users can perform actions which are then replicated by robots , drastically reducing the time taken and cost of programming . “ We are providing a universal language to teach those robots
in the same way , independent of the technology stack ,” says CEO Christian Piechnick in TechCrunch .
Though automation , as we envisage it today , has existed since at least the 1940s and the advent of numerical control , it is clear that we are currently at the beginning of a new era of automation . With AI , machine learning , drones and other technologies all driving new developments in automation , manufacturing as we know it is being transformed , bringing new levels of efficiency and entirely new possibilities to industry .
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