Deploy and Manage Robots the Easy Way

Robots have been popular in various industries for years because of their ability to efficiently perform repetitive tasks continuously and consistently. They’re also popular in industries where they can easily perform tasks that would be challenging or dangerous for humans. 

As with many other forms of technology, there has been immense advancement in robotics and they’re now capable of performing tasks that were previously thought of as impossible. The problem is, as robots are becoming increasingly popular and companies are using more of them, they’re becoming challenging to deploy and manage. 

So, is there a way to make this process easier? In this post, we’ll look at this question in more detail and give you the solution you need.   

What Are Robots and Why Are They Important?

In simple terms, robots are machines that are capable of performing complex tasks automatically. Although some robots like ASIMO are designed in a human form, most of them are designed to perform a specific task. In other words, they’re designed with an emphasis on functionality. 

By design, robots are far more efficient and better at performing repetitive tasks because they can work completely autonomously. As a result, they’re often used in various industrial applications. They’re also often used to perform dangerous tasks that would be dangerous for humans to perform. 

Robots are also successfully used in a variety of applications like:

• Manufacturing. Robots are often used in production lines to make the work people do much easier. Here, they can perform repetitive tasks and have a consistent output.
• Retail. Here, for example, robots work in retail settings to help humans fulfill customer orders.
• Security. Robots can be used effectively for surveillance, for military purposes to reduce casualties, and as part of bomb squads.
• Research. Robots can easily collect samples where it would be challenging for humans to do so. 
• Medicine. Robots can, alongside human doctors, perform intricate and complex surgeries.
• Agriculture. Robots can perform various agricultural tasks like harvesting and crop spraying. 

Robots in the Future

Although many companies use robots effectively in the industries mentioned above, it’s expected that, with the advances in technology, they’ll be able to do most of the routine and repetitive jobs that humans are currently doing. 

Because of this, robots will become more commonplace in sectors like manufacturing, retail, medicine, research, and others. No matter what the industry, it’s expected that robots will have a significant impact on the economy with many human jobs becoming redundant. 
And robots will not only have an impact on lower-skilled jobs but on skilled positions too. For example, many jobs for people with college degrees or even professional degrees require a lot of repetitive tasks. For this reason, robots can impact these jobs too. 

What is ROS?

There are many different types of robotics software available that you can use to program and control robots. Here, it’s important to make the distinction between actual robotics software and Robot Process Automation (RPA). RPA is software typically used to automate repetitive tasks on a computer system and does not relate to programming or controlling physical robots.

When looking at physical robots, you’ll typically find the following types of software:

• Offline programming. 
• Simulators.
• Mobile robot planning.
• Real-time path planning.
• Drone control.
• Artificial intelligence (AI).

One of the most misunderstood types of robotics software, though, is middleware. Although it’s not a robot operating as such, it provides a robust framework for running and managing complex robotic systems in one place. So, while you probably wouldn’t use middleware to control a single robot, it will help you when you want to control a robot with multiple components or when you want to coordinate multiple robots. 

Here, the Robot Operating System – ROS is arguably the most popular. It’s an open-source framework that gives researchers and developers the ability to build and reuse code between different robotics applications. As such, it’s been used by some well-known robotics companies and is popular in various industries. 

One of its main benefits is that developers can use their existing code across a variety of robotics platforms. This, ultimately, makes it quicker and easier to implement new functionality into new robotics platforms without needing to reinvent the wheel.  

The JFrog Connect Solution

No matter what software you use to program and control your robots, it’s vital that you’re able to manage these robots efficiently. Although this could be relatively simple when you only have one robot, it could become challenging if you need to manage and coordinate multiple robots. 

This is where JFrog Connect comes in. It’s an IoT management platform that allows you to manage robot software remotely without the need to do this manually. Remember, the benefit of robots is that they can work autonomously without human intervention. So, manually managing your robots impedes your ability to fully enjoy this benefit. 

And here JFrog Connect really shines. It’s the number one IoT management platform that displays all your devices and robots on a single dashboard. This, in turn, allows you to manage them all from one place and at the same time. 

To do this, the platform can connect to any type of Linux system, and it provides you with the entire infrastructure you need to manage your fleet of autonomous robots. In doing so, it saves you time and you can focus on innovation and developing new features instead of device management. 

In addition to giving you remote access to your robot or robots from anywhere in the world, it also gives you some of the following benefits:

• The ability to remotely monitor resources and notifications when there’s an error or anomaly with one of your robots. Here, you can create alerts for robot failures which, in turn, ensures that your robots always run as they should.
• Automatic over-the-air (OTA) remote updates that ensure that your robots are always running the latest software. Because you can easily manage your entire fleet no matter where you are, you’re able to perform OTA updates at scale.
• Due to the platform allowing over-the-air deployment of code to robots, you can easily implement new features and functionality in your robots without having to do so manually. 

Summing Up

Robots will have a significant impact on the economy as they become more commonplace and take over many repetitive tasks humans are currently doing. For businesses, for example, robots can mean more efficiency and productivity at reduced costs.

There is a problem, however. As robots become increasingly popular, and companies use more of them, managing them becomes challenging. As a result, these companies need an effective solution to make managing robots easier and more efficient.

JFrog Connect is this solution. It’s the complete IoT management platform that allows you to access your fleet of robots remotely, monitor their resources, and get alerts when something goes wrong. To find out more about JFrog Connect or schedule a demo, visit our website for more details.