While 3D printers show promise today in the manufacturing of parts and small assemblies, many products that industrial companies produce require the assembly of a massive number of diverse parts and subassemblies. Mass production has undergone a noticeable change in many industries over the past generation, most notably through the introduction of robotics in factories. Few would take issue with the argument that robotics have greatly improved quality and reduced costs in the manufacturing of automobiles, for example.
Robotics research and development has primarily focused on greatly improving dexterity of the devices and better programming interfaces. An IIoT infrastructure offers the promise of helping to define a new generation of industrial robotics.
Next-generation robotic devices will use 3D-embedded vision and multi-spectral imaging...
