2020 is going to be an interesting year to say the least, but let’s first look back at the previous year to see what exciting innovations made our series, and let’s see if there have been some developments in some of our favorite stories!

Exoskeletons: how they’re being used

In January we reported on exoskeletons, wearable devices that help workers lift heavy objects of maneuver in ways that would normally be difficult for people, or likely to cause injury. The original piece was from Construction Dive, where we also went looking for some more information. This month, they published an article including an overview of what exoskeletons are and how they are currently being used. Smaller types, used for specialized, repetitive motions, are the most popular, rather than full-body Iron Man-like contraptions. For example powered gloves or arms that hold specific tools, or wearable chairs (which seem awesome) are common. In short, an essential tool for injury prevention and more powerful movement in the construction and manufacturing industries. Find out everything here.

Spot to join the police’s K9 unit?

The Boston Dynamics robot Spot, which we first reported on in October in this post, is for sale, and finding its way around the workplace doing all kinds of assisting. Police officers are currently testing out Spot as their own assistant. Of course, using robots on the field is not something that we will see tomorrow, but a robot dog can have uses as a law-enforcement agent analyzing environments and scoping out danger. Read more about the test, and the implications, on Futurism.

AI to close the skills gap: applied in cybersecurity

In this post we talked about how AI could be applied to close (or at least narrow) skills gaps, and discussed a company that believed this could be achieved through technology-based analyses of the gaps, and training. On TechRepublic, we found another article that discusses the application of AI in cybersecurity skills gaps specifically. Automating certain tasks is easy, but that leaves a lot of strain and complexity for the experts, of whom there are not enough. The use of AI is tricky, so the article implores: consider each new application or new tech carefully: does this broaden or narrow the skills gap, and how much should be automated? Read more here!

Cobots: how to get started

Cobots, robots working alongside us, can’t be missed in today’s manufacturing environment, but for a lot of companies, it can be tricky to get started. We first had a look at them here, and now we found an interesting article on IndustryWeek sharing how you can successfully introduce cobots in your workplace. So close 2019 with an upgrade to your work floor, and see which boring and easy jobs that don’t require much fine motor skill you can put into the hands of a capable cobot.

Next time we’ll be looking ahead at 2020 to see which exciting things await us to take our mind off whatever changes in the global landscape we’ll be facing. Don’t miss it, subscribe!