Reports on new automation technology for the automotive industry. Describes a robotic extrusion process for making hollow profile seals. Outlines the potential for eliminating manual operations and increasing productivity.

Describes the Eureka program that promotes multinational industrial R&D in Europe, and provides examples of recent Eureka projects in the area of robotics and automation.

Reports on a European project to develop a robotic system for maintaining live power lines, outlines the stereoscopic vision and voice control systems that enable a robot to perform the tasks through teleoperation, and summarises the results that have been achieved so far.

Reviews the work that Ford has done in partnership with robot companies to develop production‐quality force‐controlled robots. Reports on the first industrial application of a force‐controlled robot at a Ford transmissions plant. Identifies the applications for which force‐controlled...

Eureka project E! 1784 Eurolaser Publics is creating a fully automated solution for the 2D and 3D laser cutting of metals up to 20 mm thick. The European consortium made up of Italian, French and Danish companies has developed a closed loop system incorporating innovative sensors and control...

New haptic robot arms with powerful force feedback could help product design engineers check out complex assembly problems in a virtual reality environment. Companies in the automotive and aerospace industries are likely to be the first to take advantage of the technology. They could be applying...

The 2003 CLAWAR conference featured 130 papers on topics related to climbing and walking robots. The paper reviews the conference, highlighting the areas of entertainment robots, de‐mining robots, manufacturing applications, the use of artificial pneumatic muscles and robots for volcanic...

BMW axle design has evolved considerably in recent years to reduce weight and increase performance. The latest developments have created the need for a relatively precise finish machining operation on axle carriers. To perform this machining, BMW uses innovative Tricept robots due to the high...

Robotic exploration of the planet Mars is the goal of two space missions launched in 2003. Their aim was to use robots and a host of instrumentation to take samples of soil and rock and to analyse them for evidence of life. The NASA project, which landed on Mars in January 2004, has put the two...

Dutch company Insentec has developed a robotic solution for milking cows. Using a standard industrial robot and machine vision, Insentec's Galaxy product is a fully automated milking station that is available to cows 24 h a day. Some 100 systems are already in use on farms around Europe.