The press conference and report are part of a major push by the robotics industry, which is seeking to bolster its position amidst globally declining employment numbers which are sometimes attributed to robotics and other forms of automation.

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Steady advances in automation and robotics are now invisibly encapsulated in navigation, weather avoidance, traffic management, flight controls, safety and communications aids that materially benefit the two-pilot front cabin.

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Engineers at the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (Grasp) Laboratory at Pennsylvania University have developed ways to make small quadrotor robots fly in formation, co-operate and map their surroundings without global positioning systems (GPS) .

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In the Fall quarter of 2008, Sollar enrolled in Sinclair Community College in Dayton and pursued an associate degree in applied science in automation and control technology with robotics.

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