How Recycling Robots Could Help Us Clean the Planet

At the current rate of global population growth and consumption of resources, it appears clear to me where we're going to end: in a waste-covered Earth like that depicted in the movie WALL-E.

Needless to say recycling is one of the most important things we can do to keep our planet sustainable. I think it won't be long until governments all over the world create all kinds of incentives to improve recycling.

Which brings us to ... robots!

Recycling is a very promising area for robotics. Over the next few decades I imagine a future where waste-collecting robots will be moving through air, land, and water, reaching difficult areas to help us cleaning our environment. Picture WALL-E butbefore the whole planet becomes a landfill.

In fact, there are already some recycling bot prototypes roaming around. One example is Dustbot, a robot developed at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna's CRIM Lab, in Pisa, Italy. Led by Prof. Paolo Dario, the laboratory created a robot designed specifically to collect garbage at people's homes.

It's 1.5 meter tall, weighs 70 kilograms and can carry 80 liters or 30 kg of payload. The robot can travel at 1 meter per second and its battery gives it 16 kilometers of autonomy.

Accordingly to this BBC story the Dustbot can be summoned to your address through a mobile phone at any time of the day. Basically the machine -- built using a Segway Robot Mobility Platform -- uses a GPS system and motion sensors to drive around the city and show up at your doorstep.

Once it arrives, the user just selects the type of garbage he wants to dispose using a touch screen. A compartment opens on the robot's belly where the user places the garbage, which is them transported to a drop-off location.

The robot's greatest advantage is its size: it can navigate through narrow streets and alleys where normal garbage trucks can't go.

Innovation Definition

Innovation is a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries.It may refer to an incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. Following Schumpeter (1934), contributors to the scholarly literature on innovation typically distinguish between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully in practice. In many fields, such as the arts, economics and government policy, something new must be substantially different to be innovative. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.

Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. Colloquially, the word "innovation" is often synonymous with the output of the process. However, economists tend to focus on the process itself, from the origination of an idea to its transformation into something useful, to its implementation; and on the system within which the process of innovation unfolds. Since innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, especially when it leads to new product categories or increasing productivity, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers. In particular, followers of innovation economics stress using public policy to spur innovation and growth.

Those who are directly responsible for application of the innovation are often called pioneers in their field, whether they are individuals or organizations.

Will A New Breed Of Innovation Companies Eventually Settle Into The Realm Of New Product/Service Innovation?

The last few years we’ve seen a growing interest on “design” and “design thinking” although we don’t see MBA school rushing to teach using “design thinking” application in business problem solving. Design influence has not only infiltrate B-schools, it has attracted the interest of ad agencies and branding agencies. It is a marketer’s dream to have products that do not require advertising, the balance of form and function itself that consumers recognize instantly, that's will never happen of it does it is rare. Even Apple needs to advertise so adverting is not going away. Except it's very nature has changed. Marketing, in the form of logos, packaging, advertising, and the ever-broadening fuzzy activities known as branding, has attained the status of necessary evil to build brands.

We’re seeing some branding agencies (and adv agencies) are trying to get into products, some are doing a more decent jobs than others. There are some ex-agency creative folks carrying the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility consultants and all they can think of is the obvious. I think branding firm and even ad firm (with a few exceptions) are not right for the job, the same reasons why you won’t hire your lawyer to fix your customer service problems or your accountants to fix your technology problems. Mark Read (WPP corporate) reminded me that some 20 years back ad agency (Bates) helped De Beers to come up with many of the innovation. They pretty much invented the ritual and came up with phrase 'a diamond is forever' and that people have used diamond engagement rings ever since. But when the last time we’ve seen an innovation came from an agency?

Can adv agencies design great products and/or experiences? You would think so? Over the years they have narrowed their skills (rather than broadening) and their core capabilities were reduced to doing the following three things 1/ finding a unique way to positioning a products within its category 2/adjustments of minutia to affect the consumers’ perception of the brand 3/ maximize repetitive exposure and extend reach. Innovation is not a core capability. Deep customer insight is not a core capability (over reliance of traditional research is the problem). Customer engagement is not a core capability (although they refer customer engagement as engaging through a 30sec TVC). It makes you wonder whether a new breed innovation companies will eventually settle into the realm of new product innovation and brand / communication innovation or even push into the space to deliver business model innovation.

Arcxis Biotechnologies

Arcxis Biotechnologies is dedicated to the invention, development and distribution of products designed for the preparation of life science samples, subsequent DNA sequence detection and protein measurement. Arcxis’ innovative products deliver to the arena of life sciences (research/clinical and diagnostic) easier, faster and more reliable solutions, providing cost effective analysis.

Arcxis released its’ first product in 2007. This is an automated instrument to co-process multiple samples for the extraction and purification of nucleic acids. Arcxis continues to develop new technologies for sample prep and detection.

Arcxis has recently completed the first close of its Series B round. The funds will enable Arcxis to accelerate development, testing and commercialization of thier innovative nucleic acid sample preparation platform and their nxt generation sample to answer clinical molecular diagnostic platform. Additionally, Arcxis has been awarded Phase I and II awards from the Department of Homeland Security for its development of the BioPhalanx.

Wear Your Coffee

To sell your coffee product you can use this customize tank and get it to meet your customer.

Innovative products brought to life by the Blue Tools Crew!

One of the fun things about being involved with the products we sell is seeing the evolution from concept all the way to delivery in to the customer’s hands. You can’t help but hope that everyone shares the same excitement you experience. I remember the first time I saw these two new Craftsman innovation items and thinking about how cool and functional they actually were. After all, it isn’t enough for a product to just be new. It has to function to make your life easier, provide you with something that may be missing.

This Holiday, we are introducing a couple of great new wrench innovation items that I hope everyone likes just as much as I do. Not only will they make your life easier, they will lighten the load in your toolbox and in you wallet

At $19.99, the Craftsman Dog bone has the unique functionality of fitting 8 different size sockets on one wrench. It has a Go-thru swivel head that allows for easy access and fits just about any angle. On top of all that, it has a built-in 8lb magnet great for holding fasteners without losing them. When you really think about it, the beauty of this device is replacing 8 different size wrenches in your toolbox and replacing it with just one. It’s durable enough to handle a rugged job, but convenient enough to take anywhere. Pick it up today in standard or metric (14277/14278)

Also at $19.99 is the Universal Wrench Set. Like the Dog bone, this wrench set promises to make your life easier. The unique Universal tooth design on the box head of this wrench fits 6 different types of fasteners including Hex 6pt, Square 4pt, Hex 12pt, External Torx, Spline and partially rounded. It also has a reinforced open end for increased access. It comes in a 6pc set and includes a bonus 7^thwrench and case. When you think about this wrench set, think about the tag line “one wrench, many jobs”. Think about how many different wrenches this can replace in your toolbox. Available in standard or metric (14018/14019)

This is just the beginning of Innovation for Craftsman Mechanic’s tools. 2010 is shaping up to be a stellar year with tons of exciting new products designed to be truly innovative.

Public Savety Innovation In Car

Public Safety Innovation is offer a full range of Emergency and Public Works vehicle installations including, but not limited to:

• Light bars & Sirens (Amber as well as Red/Blue)
• Warning Controllers
• Strobe Accessories
• Command Post Retrofits
• Mobile Data Solutions
• Push Bumpers
• Undercover Solutions
• Prisoner Transport
• Radar & LoJack
• K-9 Vehicle Designs
• Radio Communications
• D.A.R.E. Specialty Vehicles
• Back-Up Electrical Systems
• Vehicle Design Engineering

They provide consistent results built to your agency's specifications. The reliability of your vehicle is only as good as the equipment that goes into it. That's why from the warning lights to the fuses, all parts used by Public Safety Innovation are brand new and properly specified for your equipment.

Through design consultations with our engineer, we will help you address your employee's safety concerns from air bag deployment to placement of displays to securing of weapons.

As a trained brain innovator for now over 50 product innovation brainstorming sessions in the past 15 years, I am amazed at the fumbling that goes on AFTER the session is over. Most innovation sessions end up with hundreds of potentially great product ideas, which are then filtered down to maybe a dozen really good, viable new product concepts. The best of course, are based on the application of new technological solutions to the problems at hand.

Immediately after an innovation session is over, most marketing groups run out to test the viability of the concept in the “marketplace” via VoC (Voice Of the Customer) research or focus groups before they even know if the product is technically feasible: They try to get a feel for whether the market will buy it and under what conditions. I have seen way too many products come back from focus groups “good to go”, beloved by the customer, all featured up, before they have been thought through from a technical and engineering standpoint. The marketing group comes back to engineering with a big smile on their face and a big “thumbs up” saying “OK, the customers love it, now go build it.”

If engineers know anything, it is that almost anything can be built, but at what price and what misery. So the marketers and builders of “business cases” ignore at least four of the six significant areas of feasibility in this rush to Market Feasibility testing: They miss Technical (Engineering) Feasibility, obviously; Manufacturing Feasibility -if you don’t know the technology and the engineering, how the heck do you know if and how you can build it; Pricing (part of the Financial Feasibility), like duh, how much can I charge for it or more appropriately, how much will the customer pay for it; and Patent Feasibility - if you don’t know the technology how can you know if you can protect it or, more importantly, are you infringing on someone else patent. (That only leaves Distribution Feasibility- which means do you have channels in which to get this thing to market untouched.)

The most logical approach, an approach that is from my standpoint cheaper, both in time to market and sunk cost, in the long run, is to look into the technological feasibility of the product, BEFORE you start showing wild ass NPD concepts to the market. If you try to build something to test its technological feasibility, to prove that from an engineering standpoint you can build it, you will by default come up with: 1) A notion of how and if you can manufacture it . 2) You will also get a guess at what it might cost along with what the feature set will cost; 3) You will no doubt go to the patent archives to look for ways of solving the problem, since one of the best ways to solve a problem is to find out how people have solved it in the past. So by going straight to the technological feasibility exercise, you will reduce uncertainty (which is what this feasibility thing is all about) much quicker than if you simply go to the market research first.

A lesson in point: after a brainstorming session a customer brought a focus group “annoited” product to us and said “OK, now they want this thing and we want to use this motor on it, the thing is absolutely feasible with this motor at this cost!” We looked at it for a while and snickered back: “It’s really good that you could do this with this motor, but what about the transmission of the power into the device?” They had based their belief about the feasibility of the product on cost of the motor, without looking at how they were going to get the power into the device”. If they had gone down a path to see if the thing could be engineered and prototyped, to look at its true technical feasibility, they would have more seriously understood where the uncertainty, the risk, was really.

Sometimes, we base our belief about the feasibility of a product on the LEAST important part. If companies would do a little technical feasibility homework BEFORE they take it out for a drive at the church of consumer evaluation, they would save themselves big heartache latter. So remember, GET PHYSICAL FAST!