As mathematician Clive Humby famously stated, “Data is the new oil.” Like oil, we need to refine and process our data to make it useful – but this concept misses a foundational first step. Before analysis begins or artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms run, it’s critical that you first ensure the quality of the “oil.”  An often overlooked aspect of AI is that algorithms cannot differentiate between good and bad data. Instead, it works on logic, learning from patterns in the provided data. Robust, high-quality data sets are critical for training and validation, ensuring that AI models a ..read more

Decision-makers at power plants constantly juggle numerous priorities on an everyday basis to keep facilities running seamlessly. From maintaining budgets, predicting CapEx expenditures, ensuring safety, prioritizing maintenance activities, and maximizing workforces, to overcoming outside factors like escalating peak demand levels and unpredictable extreme weather conditions – Whew! There are several balls in the air, and not letting one drop can feel next to impossible. Unfortunately, this complex juggling act can leave facilities feeling like an unplanned outage is always lurking around the ..read more

Gecko Robotics is a partner to the World Economic Forum (WEF). This article was originally posted on the Forum's Agenda. Artificial intelligence, like Marc Andreessen famously stated about software over a decade ago, is eating the world. The problem is its diet. Over the next decade, every industry will be fundamentally altered by AI, from healthcare to transportation, and even physics. It’s also becoming increasingly fashionable to suggest that AI has the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, including climate change and our struggle to reach net ze ..read more

I'm packing my bags for Dubai this week to speak at the United Nations Climate Change Conference - or COP28.  ..read more

Enabling today’s industrial facilities to improve their availability, reliability, and sustainability is an important part of improving environmental impact, and is a vital bridge to the net-zero future we’re all working toward. Gecko’s customers are currently leveraging software that’s powered by first-order data to unlock incredible results for environmental impact – eliminating leaks, increasing equipment efficiency and reliability, and operating their equipment smarter.  A new report published by Rho Impact, an analytics firm specializing in emerging climate technologies, explores th ..read more

Weld strength is crucial to the operation of critical assets like submarines. Defective welds can result in costly repairs, restricted performance, or even catastrophic failures. Naval crews rely on submarines to keep them safe during missions – making vessel quality of the utmost importance. It’s standard practice in manufacturing for naval submarines and other critical high-value assets to be inspected before going into service to maximize safety, integrity, and reliability. Traditionally, manual UT and radiographic weld testing (RT), often called X-ray inspection, are used to analyze the t ..read more

Digital transformation continues to gain traction across numerous business sectors. In 2022, companies invested nearly$2 trillion in digital transformation technologies. By 2026, it is expected to reach $3.4 trillion. While digital transformation has been embraced for certain industrial segments - like rotating equipment - fixed equipment has been left behind. Why are so many companies investing in Industry 4.0 technologies? When done right, it is lightning in a bottle. Improvements to safety, uptime, and throughput accelerate the winners to the front of the pack faster than ever.  The p ..read more

You’ve seen the signs on the gates of refineries and other process industry facilities: “This plant has worked 147 days without a safety incident.” For some plant managers, this sign is validation that good processes are in place. For others, especially plant safety engineers and managers (EHS), it’s counting the days leading to something bad inevitably happening. The impacts of safety are twofold when it comes to asset management. First, traditional inspection methods are inherently dangerous to the facility workers and inspectors involved. There’s also a bigger picture that goes beyond the ..read more

With large industrial equipment comes inherent risks and costly consequences when something goes wrong. Asset failures can send devastating ripple effects, causing unplanned downtime, lost productivity and revenue, significant unbudgeted costs, and dangerous safety incidents. Maintenance activities are critical to running operations safely, reliably, and seamlessly across various industrial sectors. The ultimate goal of performing maintenance is to maximize the availability of assets while mitigating or fixing issues.  Though this primary goal remains, how we approach maintenance has dra ..read more

The world’s supply chain continues to adopt modernized approaches as consumers expect fast, often overnight delivery of goods. By replacing manual processes with digital transformation tools and connected technologies, supply chains are boosting their efficiencies, visibility, and flexibility to build resilient end-to-end operations.  Many businesses now rely on implemented technologies like autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and warehouse management systems (WMS) to streamline workflows and gain real-time views into the point-by-point handling of goods across supply networks. A tremendous a ..read more