Currently, there are more than 1.6 million industrial robots in service worldwide; will that number grow significantly in the next five years?   According to the IFR (International Federation of Robotics), there have been approximately 2.7 million industrial robots shipped worldwide since the 1960s. With a potential service life of 15 years, that means thereRead More

Traditionally employed in heavy industrial applications, robots are moving into other industries. In the medical field, they are used for surgery, therapy, diagnostics, and much more.   Robots for specialized medical applications such as surgery bring together robotics and biology, and we’re seeing an increase in the number of robots specifically designed and developed for thisRead More

Ideal for small, rugged applications such as non-industrial robotics, here are some tips for how to specify nano-D connectors.   Nano-D connectors are often designed for use in small, rugged robotic applications beyond industrial environments. Within these applications, the emphasis on a smaller and lighter form factor intensifies. A key consideration is whether you can useRead More

Interoperability standards are being defined and tested to break the data exchange impasse presented by proprietary architectures in unmanned ground vehicles.   Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) can be counted among the unsung heroes of modern warfare. They are the robotic equivalent of the hard-working people one might see on a cable television profile. They possessRead More

A major concern in robotics applications, cables in motion experience fatigue that can cause failures whether or not that motion is constant. Cable and harness test systems can help identify the source.   Cables in motion experience fatigue that can cause complete or intermittent failures, whether or not that motion is constant. Cable and harnessRead More

The rapid growth of cloud computing requires data centers to scale up, but traditional copper presents limitations in distance, bandwidth, and efficiency.   The business of today’s data-driven world is being conducted in the Cloud. The rapid growth of cloud computing requires data centers to dramatically scale up in order to handle the oceans ofRead More

Fiber optics are poised to enable network functionality like never before with increased data rates and bandwidth inside the data center.   The need to change the data center network from a hierarchal one to a leaf-spine or more meshed one has arisen from the ever-increasing need for compute and storage access and the useRead More

Cloud computing and bandwidth-intensive applications have made the data center more important than ever, and managers want to squeeze every last bit of performance out of its architecture, even down to the connector level.   In today’s environment, data centers are gaining importance due to the trend of outsourcing access to data (through the Cloud) while continuously supporting bandwidth-intensive applicationsRead More

High-speed signal integrity concerns make choosing a connector for mezzanine board-to-board applications even more complex. Julian Ferry of Samtec offers advice on how to specify high-speed mezzanine connectors.   Choosing a connector for mezzanine board-to-board applications presents specification challenges in several engineering disciplines. High-speed signal integrity concerns make the selection even more complex. What is aRead More

Bishop & Associates completed its 2015 customer survey of electronic distributors. In the second of two articles, we reveal the distributors rated best for website usefulness and price competitiveness, as well as best overall distributor.   Bishop & Associates just concluded its annual survey of electronic distributors, in which it asked connector and cable assembly users toRead More

As system speeds increase to multi-gigabit levels and beyond, ensuring signal integrity in high-speed channels requires major backplane connector performance upgrades.   Backplane architecture has served the electronics industry well for many years. Circuitry embedded in up to 40 layers of the backplane can create custom point-to-point, broad parallel bus structures or full mesh networks, essentiallyRead More

Mergers, personnel changes, product news and more are all part of the news briefs for July 14, 2015. Amphenol has made a binding offer of $1.275 billion to Bain Capital for FCI Asia, which will be the company’s second acquisition this year. The acquisition, which will be financed with cash and debt, will close byRead More