Hozelock is a major user of plastics in its garden equipment products, and since flotation in 1993, has spent £26 million on new facilities at its Aylesbury moulding plant and its Birmingham assembly plant and warehouse. Investments have included new injection moulders with robot take‐out on...

Shows how a leading supplier of robots to the plastics industry, ATM Automation, has extended its Leicester factory to incorporate a new Automation Centre. It has also formed a new Automation Division that is enabling the company to offer complete systems incorporating “downstream”...

Obtains the impressions gained ‐ six months into a trial in a UK hospital setting ‐from using the HelpMate robot to transport materials between wards, labs and pharmacy. Shows how the 24 hours a day availability of the robot has prompted further ideas for its use, for instance, security...

Shows how a manufacturer of component quality loudspeakers has introduced plastic injection moulding into its manufacturing competence profile and also automation through the use of robots. Lists the criteria used for robot selection and summarizes the benefits reaped from robotic automation for...

Describes the history of Integrated Surgical Systems (ISS), the US company that created ROBODOC, a surgical robot system used to perform total human hip replacement surgery, and ORTHODOC, a computer workstation that enables orthopaedic surgeons to examine a patient’s bone more accurately and...

Presents both description and overview of the emerging field of biomechanical grippers and shows the prototype of biomechanical gripper called the Presov biomechanical robot gripper. Biomechanical robots and biomechanical grippers belong under biorobotics and bioengineering systems. Basic...

Claims that recent rapid advances in robotic‐related technology offer the potential for new strategies that can help older adults extend or enhance their self‐help capabilities and, therefore, their independence. Such strategic applications can also help the caregivers of older adults by...

Describes how virtual reality simulation technology is being used and developed to support the design, and programming, of large‐scale robot arc‐welding cells in two of the world’s largest and most modern shipyards. GRASP‐VRI is a shipbuilding‐specific software simulation and offline...

Discusses the world’s first robot for glass‐blowing, developed by French company, CyberGlass Robotics. Looks at the various uses and how it can be adapted for various glass‐blowing techniques which are currently done by highly skilled and well‐trained people.

Automated inspection of the inner surface of a pipe can be achieved by a mobile robot. Pipe inspection is necessary to locate defects due to corrosion and wear while the pipe is transporting fluids. Pipe inspection devices are available for these tasks; they commonly use ultrasonic or magnetic...