Midlands robotics cluster could drive UK automation boom, plus BMW tests humanoids
Drives & Controls
The UK's leading magazine for automation, motion engineering and power transmission
According to a report in the Financial Times, the new government has asked its migration advisers to review the reliance of UK engineering and technology companies on skilled worker visas. This could be a precursor to restricting overseas hiring by companies in these sectors, which account for about a sixth of all of these visas. Home secretary Yvette Cooper has asked the Migration Advisory Committee to investigate (and report within nine months) on which roles in the sector are suffering shortages, whether these shortfalls are explained by pay, training and conditions, and how suppliers have reacted, other than by hiring from abroad. Cooper wants employers to focus on domestic recruitment, possibly increasing salaries. But Make UK says engineering roles a difficult to fill from within the UK, with 62,000 vacancies in the sector and no short-term way to replace experienced people who are retiring. In fact, it wants visa rules to be relaxed for some technicians. So could we be heading for a showdown between the engineering sector and the new government?
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The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and the University of Birmingham have set up a robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) “cluster” in the West Midlands to act as a catalyst to…
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Figure, the US humanoid robot developer, has unveiled a second-generation machine which it claims is the best performing humanoid robot on the market. The latest version, called Figure 02, has…
DRIVES & CONTROLS IS PROUD to announce the launch of its new Web site which will offer visitors much a better experience than the previous site which had been running for more than ten years. The new site will give visitors many more choices, as well as being visually much more attractive. In particular, the new site will be vastly improved experience when viewed on mobile devices. The site will also carry exclusive, detailed reports from key industry events such as Germany’s huge SPS (Smart Production Solutions) show – probably the most important fixture in the global automation calendar. Visitors will have access to our unrivalled archive of hundreds of news reports that chronicle developments in the automation industry stretching back for more than a quarter of a century.
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The UK has dropped out of the world’s top ten manufacturing nations for the first time, plummeting from eighth to twelfth position, according to new figures from the manufacturers’ organisation,…
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Weidmüller has announced an unmanaged switch with SPE (single-pair Ethernet) connections that transmit data reliably over distances of up to 1km. The 10Base-T1L SPE unmanaged switch also offers Profinet Class…
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?The Japanese bearings-maker NSK has sold its German Neuweg Fertigung subsidiary to a British investor, Stephen Lord (who will become CEO), and to two existing employees, Willi Castro Santanella and…
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Beckhoff has released a generic library that provides robot functions for PLC users. Called TcRobot (TwinCat Robot), it is an open-source library that simplifies the integration of any robotic arm…
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Schneider Electric has launched a training programme for the UK and Ireland (UK&I) in response to the engineering skills shortage. It will cover everything from the automation of machinery and…
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?Cognex has announced an AI-enabled tool which identifies and counts objects on production lines without needing complex programming. The machine vision specialist predicts that the tool – designed for use…