Robohub.org
 

A dilemma of high-risk / high-reward


by
09 July 2013



share this:

Often funding sources – the groups taking the risk – are not the beneficiaries of the rewards of the venture. Intuitive Surgical is an example.

NSF, DARPA and NASA funded a project to solve a very real problem: providing medical attention to Americans in remote places such as space, war or scientific expeditions. The initial concept was to be a telepresence project but with no known solution. That was the high-risk research project funded by the three agencies.

During the development phase, two enterprising team members, Frederic Moll and Robert Younge, concluded that true remote-presence surgery couldn’t be achieved with then-current technology but could be achieved within a controlled network,and by so doing there would be many benefits to the surgeons and patients involved. The two wrote a business plan, got venture money and proceeded to develop the system now known as the da Vinci Surgical System within a company subsequently named www.

Shortly before going public, and before getting FDA approval, Intuitive Surgical was sued for patent infringement by Computer Motion, Inc., which had its own system, the ZEUS Robotic Surgical System – a system which was already approved for use in Europe.
singleport_da_vinci

Intuitive Surgical’s new da Vinci single port system.

The litigation was resolved in 2003 when the two companies agreed to merge, thus ending the litigation. The ZEUS system was ultimately phased out in favor of the da Vinci system. The litigation created an active depository of intellectual properties – hundreds of patents and trade marks – that Intuitive Surgical has vigorously defended in a way that has created a competitive void in the commercialization of similar devices and systems.

Consequently Intuitive Surgical has grown to be a growth company with large profits and is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (NASDAQ:ISRG). But it didn’t exactly happen with the high-risk / high-reward formula. Intuitive Surgical and it’s VC backers got the reward and NSF, DARPA and NASA are still searching for their solution.

SRI and Stanford University did get money for licenses to use the technologies they developed, but not the huge rewards stemming from the successes of Intuitive Surgical.

As is often the case in startups, the solutions and products that finally emerge in the marketplace are ones that are different from those that initiated the startup. Sometimes this involves changes in funders, partners and ownership and those that reap the final rewards are often removed from the originating project.

dilemma_yield_signHigh risk takers are most often governmental agencies with a strategic social/political issue to resolve. Corporate R&D departments also invest in future scenarios but to a lesser extent – they most often pragmatically acquire the technology they need and rework it to fit their specific requirements.

Hence the dilemma: does the initial risk taker expect to get the double reward of (1) product solution and (2) profits from their sale, or just the altruistic reward of seeing that their initial problem, for which they are risking their money, is being addressed in the broader marketplace solving the original problem, reward or not?



tags: , , , ,


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 108 – Giving robots the sense of touch, with Anuradha Ranasinghe

  07 Feb 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Anuradha Ranasinghe from Liverpool Hope University about haptic sensors for wearable tech and robotics.

Robot Talk Episode 107 – Animal-inspired robot movement, with Robert Siddall

  31 Jan 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Robert Siddall from the University of Surrey about novel robot designs inspired by the way real animals move.

Robot Talk Episode 106 – The future of intelligent systems, with Didem Gurdur Broo

  24 Jan 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Didem Gurdur Broo from Uppsala University about how to shape the future of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation.

Robot Talk Episode 105 – Working with robots in industry, with Gianmarco Pisanelli 

  17 Jan 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gianmarco Pisanelli from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre about how to promote the safe and intuitive use of robots in manufacturing.

Robot Talk Episode 104 – Robot swarms inspired by nature, with Kirstin Petersen

  10 Jan 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Kirstin Petersen from Cornell University about how robots can work together to achieve complex behaviours.

Robot Talk Episode 103 – Delivering medicine by drone, with Keenan Wyrobek

  20 Dec 2024
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Keenan Wyrobek from Zipline about drones for delivering life-saving medicine to remote locations.

Robot Talk Episode 102 – Soft robots inspired by plants, with Isabella Fiorello

  13 Dec 2024
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Isabella Fiorello from the University of Freiburg about bioinspired living materials for soft robotics.

Robot Talk Episode 101 – Microscopic surgical robots, with Christos Bergeles

  06 Dec 2024
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Christos Bergeles from King's College London about micro-surgical robots to deliver therapies deep inside the body.





Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2024 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association