We want to thank the organisers and everyone we met at Advanced Factories 2021 for what was once again a great event! The Advanced Factories annual event in Barcelona addresses the latest developments in industrial automation and industry 4.0. If you missed this years’ event, here’s a quick recap as well as PAL Robotics’ highlights.
Advanced Factories aims to bring together the most innovative companies in industrial automation, robotics, machine tools, and digital manufacturing, together with the technologies that allow promoting industrial competitiveness thanks to new business models, new production processes, and the implementation of Industry 4.0. The event includes the Factory Innovation Theater presenting the latest innovations from exhibitors. In addition, the Factories of the Future Awards are held annually, which recognize work and excellence in the manufacturing industry.
Advanced Factories 2021 was kicked off by the opening ceremony, which included presentations by Jordi Llinares, Albert Planas, Albert Castellanos, Fernando Guldrís, Jaume Collboni, and Salvador Giró. Albert Planas, CEO at Nebext Company and Advanced Factories General Manager presented the session and welcomed congress attendees and speakers to the event. During the opening presentations, Jordi Llinares, Deputy Director General of Digitization of the Industry and Collaborative Environments, and Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, confirmed significant investments that will be allocated in future funds for digitization and sustainability.
The team from PAL Robotics took part in Advanced Factories together with our TIAGo Base AMR (Automated Mobile Robot) with its various configurations, the StockBot inventory tracking and data collection solution, and robot ARI, the social humanoid for events and public spaces.
We gave live demonstrations of TIAGo Base and its configurations, which include TIAGo Delivery and TIAGo Disinfection, as well as taking part in various presentations. Our team was also on hand to explain more and as well as give advice on the implementation of our solutions. If you missed them don’t worry, you can get in touch with us here, to ask more.
PAL Robotics’ presentations at Advanced Factories 2021 – Industry 4.0 Congress
Our team was delighted to take part in a variety of talks and presentations at the event. These included:
Intralogistics and mobile robots: Industry 4.0 Congress
Our Head of Intralogisics, Jordi Pagès presented here on EU project SIMBIOTS which was recently completed, and where we worked with various partner organisations in Catalonia.
Local partners here included ZANINI, Eurecat, PAL Robotics, PROMAUT, Industria de Robotica i Informatica Industrial (IRI).
SIMBIOTS aimed to consolidate innovation in efficient and sustainable manufacturing in Catalonia, through the deployment of a network of capacities and plants that serve to energize and consolidate the industrial value chain. The overall goal is to apply robots in industrial processes and applications by creating shared workspaces between people and humans that guarantee safety and improve worker ergonomics.
TIAGo robot was also featured at the Eurecat booth to replicate one of the demonstrations from this successful collaborative project, helped by a human co-worker.
The health industry to the relief of economic engines: Industry 4.0 Congress
Sofia Battilana, Relationship & Events Manager presented in the Industry 4.0 Congress
on PAL Robotics experience in the FAST AV project, a collaboration with ACCERION which aimed to address problems during the pandemic such as collapsed health centers, work overload of health personnel, the rapid spread of Covid-19, and maintenance of social distancing.
For this project, there was the implementation of existing PAL Robotics solutions in the healthcare sector – TIAGo Delivery and TIAGo Conveyor, integrations on top of TIAGo Base robot, which allowed the development of PAL Robotics autonomous navigation systems for accurate deliveries of medication and medical supplies, as well as the transfer of food trays in hospitals. This was useful to improve efficiencies and for a decrease in social interactions of healthcare personnel with patients, reducing rates of hospital infection.
AMRs against COVID-19: health intralogistics: Factory Innovation Theatre
Alexandre Saldes Barbera, PAL Robotics’ Director of Innovation and Business Development presented here examples of use cases and how they have used and benefited from our intralogistics AMR TIAGo Base. TIAGo Base is able to create a map of the environment using its laser sensors and to locate itself at all times in a space – the robot’s autonomous navigation allows the robot to move to any point on the map avoiding obstacles at all times.
Alexandre also presented TIAGo Base’s features such as the expansion panel to enable adding different configurations on top of the robot, and the charging station, as well as the technical specifications of the robot such as payload. Included also were use cases in factories, hotels, hospitals, laboratories, and hospitals.
Robotics and automation career opportunities: Factory Innovation Theatre
Francesco Ferro, CEO, presented here on the team at PAL Robotics – emphasising collaboration and team expertise, including in areas such as navigation, software, electronics, production, training, and community, as well as plans for the team to continue to grow.
PAL Robotics’ TIAGo Base, StockBot and ARI robots
Our TIAGo Base AMR is an indoor delivery solution for intralogistics that’s suitable for a variety of sectors including industry, healthcare, and hospitality.
The StockBot inventory tracking and data collection solution is used by top retailers around the world and is one of the most mature in the marketplace.
ARI is a social humanoid robot designed for front-desk activities in organisations and suitable for events, education, and public spaces.
Take a look at just some of our successes to date in intralogistics, retail automation and social robotics:
- TIAGo Base in a manufacturing warehouse
- TIAGo Base in a hotel
- TIAGo Base in healthcare
- StockBot in Decathlon
- ARI robot at Smart Cities event in Barcelona
Whitepaper on AMRs: bringing flexibility to manufacturing
We recently produced a whitepaper that compares AMRs to traditional AGVs, as well as explaining AMR technology, safety, and how AMRs work in practice. Get yours here.
If you are interested in how last year’s event of Advanced Factories went, read our previous blog.
Finally, we thoroughly enjoyed attending Advanced Factories 2021 to find out more on all the latest developments and advancements in Industry 4.0. We would like to thank the organisers for what was once again a great event! We look forward to joining again in 2022! To find out more about PAL Robotics visit our website and to ask us any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Provided by PAL Robotics