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www.us-tech.com
September, 2022
3D AR/VR is Driving Today’s Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing
By Dijam Panigrahi, Co-founder and COO, Grid Raster
more attractive than ever before for many manufacturers. Many manufacturing facilities continue
E
to rely heavily on human labor, but an increasing number of locations are now implementing automation and robotics tech- nologies powered by augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) to improve efficiency, lower costs, and minimize human touch points to ease the pain from staffing challenges. Demand for workplace robots
in the U.S. rose by a record 40 per- cent during the first quarter com- pared with the same period in 2021, according to the Association for Advancing Automation, which tracks trends in the robotics industry. Automation-driven robotics
have been widely used in the auto- motive sector, such as assembly line production. But now other industries like aerospace, retail and food production, construction equipment, and pharmaceuticals are seeing increased use of these machines on the plant floor. The business benefits of
ffects of the pandemic, supply chain issues, labor shortages, and inflation are making automation and robotics
increased productivity and reduced costs are obviously a boon to the bottom line. However, other leading drivers show that these tech- nologies are helping to enhance new social dis- tancing policies enacted during the early days of the pandemic.
Increased Flexibility The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated
the need for more operational flexibility where advanced technology and automation can be
applicable. In addition, the ability to scale up or down quickly to meet project deadlines, without impacting hourly shifts, has further helped with manufacturing efficiency. Technologies such as AR/VR-driven
robotics and automation have also greatly increased across plant floors, especially as the need to adhere to tighter supply chain and logistics demands has been paramount. As we move through 2022, continued dis-
ruptions to the global supply chain are becom- ing part of the new normal, and manufacturers continue to address the cascading events in different ways. For example, improving sup- ply-chain visibility and increasing customer satisfaction are clearly important. According to a recent survey of manufacturers by Fictiv, 59% percent said improving supply- chain visibility was their single most important business priority in 2022, while 45% chose improving cus- tomer satisfaction. Better automa- tion-driven technologies are paving the way for these improvements.
Cloud-Based Automation AR/VR is becoming more com-
AR/VR-driven robotics are becoming more prevalent in manufacturing.
mon today in automation and robotics technologies, but there are
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