Technology developers step up industrial setting-programmed robotics
Greg Lynn is the founder of Greg Lynn FORM, and has been a professor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design since 1998. For 30 years he has explored the intersection of the digital and physical in architecture. He is co-founder and chief creative officer of Piaggio Fast Forward, a lightweight urban mobility company.
"Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF), a leader in smart following technology and subsidiary of the Piaggio Group, and Trimble have unveiled a proof-of-concept collaboration to enable robots and machines to follow humans and other machines in industrial applications. It integrates a PFFtag smart following module prototype and Boston Dynamics Spot robot platform controlled by Trimble advanced positioning technology, superseding a joystick.
The proof-of-concept development saw testing of a Spot robot equipped with Trimble laser scanning or Global Navigation Satellite System sensors and Piaggo Fast Forward tag technology at a Colorado customer site.
The proof-of-concept is one of the many robots and autonomous vehicles Trimble provides solutions for and could apply to many industries the company serves, including construction and mining. Through extensive research and observations of how people navigate the physical world, on the other hand, PFF continues to create innovative mobile technology solutions dedicated to improving human efficiency through intuitive collaboration with machines.
“Most robotics companies look at the world as one of obstacles,” says PFF CEO Greg Lynn. “We adopted the opposite approach and this philosophy has fueled our research of how humans and robots physically move through space. We design behaviors that understand people and help automate tasks so you don’t have to build complicated hardware. Working with Trimble to boost the process of replacing remote-controlled robots traveling on predetermined paths in mapped environments enable yet another step in the ultimate goal of providing safe and intuitive operations of machines in industrial environments. Dynamic following technology is one step closer to kicking the doors open to further implementation—from power tools to automated vehicles." — May 11, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Concrete Products website.
Read more about Greg Lynn.
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