This week Computer World has an article that could be at home in Coin World. It's about new automation at the Royal Australian Mint.

The cover story in our October/November issue of WorldWide Coins, which mailed Friday (Aug. 21) and is also available in the digital version online, tells all about the robots and changes at the Royal Australian Mint. The 8-page story includes lots of pictures showing the robots at work as well as the new materials handling system and renovations throughout the building. Also, there's a 2-page story about how the RAM makes those color coins using pad printing.

RAM's technology is amazing. It was a fun story to do. I was in Australia last September/October and not all areas were complete at that time, but I spent a full day there (much of it wearing a hard-hat and steel-toed shoes) to be able to see the construction areas first-hand in order to understand what they would become upon completion. I did get to see most of the robots in operation.

The laser-guided AGVs are fun. If you step in front of one, it stops instantly and lights go off with a message blinking "human encounter...human encounter." This kind of detail didn't make the final version of the story -- we wanted to use as many pictures as possible to show the manufacturing aspects as well as the museum and gift shop areas. It was difficult to get this story into just eight pages! The pad printing process they use is also interesting ... we just couldn't leave out those colorful coins.