It’s true that 2017 was a banner year, with a 30% year-over-year gain. So what happened in 2018 to slow that progress?

• China’s auto sales were down for the first time in 28 years — down 6% — and U.S. sales were flat. Globally, car sales were down 3%. This caused the automotive sector of the robotics industry to be down by 15% in China and 26% in the US.
• Global smartphones were also down 5%, which caused the electronics sector of the robotics industry to decline by 8%.
• According to Henry Sun, director of strategy at MINO Automotive Equipment China, “Consumers appear to be taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, as there is some uncertainty with rumors of policies affecting auto purchases, as well as uncertainty surrounding the general economy.”
• On the bright side, he also said: “EV manufacturing is a big stimulus for automotive robots. Installation of new production lines and plants and re-tooling of existing ones — such as battery and e-motor assembly — and expanding the EV portfolio is fundamental to many OEMs’ long-term strategies. China is the global focal point for EVs, and significant investments will be made [over the next many years].”

Although robot sales were down in Asia, they were up 6% in the Americas and 7% in in the EU. In fact, the U.S. had a really good year, up 15% from 2017, while both Canada and Mexico were down 15% and 13%, respectively.

Double-digit growth was seen in other types of manufacturing, including the food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and metals sectors, reported the IFR.

IFR spokesman Steven Wyatt recaps 2018

Challenges on the horizon

Looking forward, the auto industry is likely to be more volatile, particularly as it transitions from the combustion engine to EVs (electric vehicles) and self-driving vehicles begin to come to market.

Speakers in the IFR CEO Roundtable, held at Automate in conjunction with the IFR’s announcement of its 2018 preliminary figures, stressed that finding skilled workers continues to be a primary concern.

Another challenge is that robot makers need to provide operating software for their products that is easy to learn, doesn’t require a legacy programmer, and is intuitive to use.

“The U.S. government is not doing a lot to strengthen U.S. competitiveness in robotics,” said Robert Atkinson, president of ITIF (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation). “The National Science Foundation does have a national robotics initiative to support research, but it is largely under-funded, not tied enough to industry needs, and is focused only on robots that complement, rather than replace workers.”

Byron Clayton, CEO of ARM (the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute), said: “The shortage of skilled workers is driving changes in how potential and existing employees are recruited and trained. Unskilled workers must be taught to operate, program, and maintain robots and related technologies.”

Introduction of machine learning

Junji Tsuda, IFR president and director chairman of the board of Yaskawa, discussed the role AI will play in the next few years in the robotics industry.

“AI is the great accelerator to enhance the capability of sensors and analysis of data,” he said. “AI technology application has already started, [but] we need system integrators‘ involvement to accelerate the process. … There are two aspects of AI application: one for engineering, and the other for stable operations.”

• For engineering, the digital twin will be the key method, and machine learning with a simulator will be the biggest contributor.
• For stable operations, sensors will be the key factors to control quality of manufacturing and to keep machines running without unpredictable failures.

About the IFR

The IFR is composed of all of the national robot associations around the world, major R&D institutes, and big robot suppliers and integrators.

It is the primary resource for worldwide data on the use of robotics and produces two annual reports covering sales for the previous calendar year: World Robotics Industrial Robots and World Robotics Service Robots. The 2019 reports covering 2018 activity will be available in late September or October at a cost of around $2,250 for the set.

The IFR also sponsors the annual International Symposium on Robotics held this year in conjunction with Automate. It also co-sponsors the IERA Awards, which recognize the entrepreneurial commercialization of ideas into actual products.

Odense Robotics Cluster.

Denmark is a country with less than 6 million people but a very successful working robotics cluster that performs as a funder, equalizer and instigator. Denmark is 6th in global robot density (a measure of the number of multi-purpose industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing sector) behind Korea, Singapore, Germany, Japan, and Sweden, yet Denmark doesn’t have an auto industry contributing to those figures.

Clusters are a big thing in the incubation, support, funding and nurturing of roboticists and their endeavors. There are many stakeholders in the Danish cluster:

Companies that use robots
Governmental agencies that want to turn technology into tax-paying entities and jobs
Engineers and entrepreneurs who want to learn and be inspired by successes and about the startup scene
Students who want to see where the jobs are; executives who want good local talent and help in navigating local regulations
Investors who want to participate in the space
Educators who want to know there will be uses for their research, training and students
Cooperation between the various government-sponsored organizations, local universities and hundreds of robotics-related companies is what makes the overall Danish cluster successful. See how extensive it is by enlarging the image atop this page.

Clusters often ride on the coattails of successful companies. This is certainly the case with the Odense Cluster (the largest sub-set of the Danish robotics support system). Universal Robots (UR) has become a country-wide leader in Denmark and particularly in Odense, where it is headquartered and where it employs 500-plus people. In 2015, Universal Robots sold to an American supplier of test equipment, Teradyne, for $365 million, making many of UR’s top people multi-millionaires. And those very same people are already reinvesting some of their money in new ventures in Odense and throughout Denmark including MiR Mobile Industrial Robots (which also recently sold to Teradyne for $272 million), and OnRobot (more on this company below).

New e Series cobots from @Universal_Robot at #Automatica. Here’s the new UR5e with new safety features, integrated force torque sensors and better repeatability. pic.twitter.com/jo90zHDRrC

— The Robot Report (@therobotreport) June 19, 2018

Another mark of a good robotics cluster is the ability to provide local, regional and international media with timely newsworthy facts and figures; not just generic publicity but real information. Universal Robots is a classic example: from their beginning they had a network of PR firms working for them and operating from a policy of always providing real information, no matter the situation or circumstance. By being a small-knit community, the very same network of PR firms that helped promote UR are now promoting MiR, OnRobot, and many others.

There are multiple robotics clusters around the world successfully providing for the needs of their respective communities (and a few not really achieving their desired goals). Odense and the Danish Cluster certainly fall into the former category. In my opinion, they do so because they are organized at every level to be offering and have people in place that are business smart, humble and cooperative in approach, and public-spirited and generous in nature.

Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of UR from 2008 through the sale to Teradyne in 2015, fits those descriptors and has been a participant, contributor, advisor and also a beneficiary of the Danish Cluster.

[Editor’s NOTE: To become acquainted with the Danish and Odense Cluster, consider attending their Investor Summit on September 12th and R-18 Robot Fair on September 11-13 in Odense.]

OnRobot CEO Enrico Krog Iversen. (Credit: OnRobot)

The Danish Growth Fund brought Enrico in to help salvage and take over leadership of a failing company with a great product. The floundering UR had a business plan to (1) do all to help their customers customize their robots for their applications; (2) to create a secondary profit center similar to the Apple App Store for all the necessary accessories (grippers, covers, cameras, sensors, stands, etc.); and (3) to provide comprehensive service and repair.

Krog Iversen believed that letting integrators and distributors do the hands-on work and provide all the accessories and customization for the end users allowed UR to concentrate on the least number of products to manufacture with the fewest, if any, options.

His formula made for efficient manufacturing but required a network of integrator-type distributors, which he and his VP of sales, Thomas Visti, cultivated and compiled. Krog Iversen’s revised business plan was a key transition point for UR: deciding not to be involved in how its robots would be configured to meet end-user needs.

This focus on manufacturing efficiencies and product testing carried forward as unit sales increased from hundreds to thousands and by late 2010, after only three rounds of funding and a serious global financial crisis, UR became profitable and was self-funded thereafter. In 2015, Teradyne acquired UR for $365 million and at the beginning of 2016, he left to explore other opportunities.

The same set of integrator/distributors developed and utilized by UR was used to jump-start sales at MiR Mobile Industrial Robots by MiR founder Visti.

Spearheading OnRobot Merger
The newly-merged, Odense-based OnRobot is also using the same group of integrators to boost the sale of their line of end-of-arm products. OnRobot – a merger of US-based Perception Robotics, Hungary-based OptoForce, and Denmark-based OnRobot – has two goals: (1) to provide everything that goes on a robot and (2) be the leading collaborative end-of-arm tooling company in the world.

“Collaborative robots have the potential to become the comprehensive standard in industrial automation. We want to make collaborative applications even easier to implement and to take them into completely new areas of application – all from one source and all with a single user interface,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of the new OnRobot.

Ambitious, yes, but timely, well-connected, and well on its way with sales up 200% year-over-year, and plans to continue at that pace for quite some time. OnRobot makes and integrates grippers, sensors and other co-bot equipment to facilitate the use of the resulting technology in applications such as packaging, quality testing, material handling, machine tending, assembly and welding, and is planning to acquire and manufacture additional technologies such as vision and sensor systems and provide worldwide support.

OnRobot’s lineup of robotic grippers. (Credit: OnRobot)

Stepping up his board memberships, funding, consulting and advising activities since the sale of UR, Krog Iversen now serves as the CEO of the new OnRobot. He brings a wealth of robotics experience, contacts and business wisdom to what could be a future business of significance. The niche business that Iversen shunned for UR, is now being heralded for OnRobot.

As robot arms become less expensive and their control systems more open and flexible, end-of-arm tools (vision and sensor systems, tool changers, apps, and grippers of all types – all of the items OnRobot makes and sells) become more important. Some academics even say someday soon smart end-of-arm tools may control the robot instead of the other way around.

Thus, Krog Iversen embarks on a new robotics venture with a great set of products, a broad distribution network, a supportive robotics cluster, and lofty goals. We wish him well.

The top fundings were:

1. Rockwell (NYSE:ROK) made a $1 billion equity investment in PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), an automation control software provider to government and industry.
2. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is investing $500 million in JD (JingDong) (NASDAQ:JD), the Chinese equivalent to Amazon and China’s 2nd largest e-commerce provider.
3. Yitu Technology, a Chinese vision systems and AI startup, raised $200 million in a Series C funding.
4. CMR Surgical, the Cambridge, UK developer of the Versius surgical robotic system, raised $100 million in a Series B funding.

This month’s $2.1 billion in fundings brings the year-to-date total to $7.1 billion!

Fundings

1. PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), a IoT, Industry 4.0 and control software provider to government and industry, has partnered with Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, “to accelerate growth for both companies and enable them to be the partner of choice for customers around the world who want to transform their physical operations with digital technology.” Rockwell is making a $1 billion equity investment in PTC as part of the deal in which the two agreed to align their respective smart factory technologies and industrial automation platforms.
2. JD (JingDong) (NASDAQ:JD), the Chinese equivalent to Amazon and China’s 2nd largest e-commerce provider, raised $500 million from Google/Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG). Like Amazon, JD is heavy in the automated logistics business and now, with this investment, JD plans to open restaurants staffed by robots starting this August and ramping up to 1,000 by 2020. (The restaurants will serve 40 or fewer dishes with customers ordering and paying by smartphone.) JD is also involved in last mile deliveries and just launched 20 mobile robot carts in the Beijing area (each robot can deliver up to 30 different parcels). Google has been partnering and investing in smart logistics, online grocery shopping, virtual assistant shopping and same day delivery and this investment in JD adds to that effort.
3. Yitu Technology, a Chinese vision systems and AI startup, raised $200 million in a Series C funding from ICBC International Holdings, SPDB International and Gaocheng Capital.
4. CMR Surgical, the Cambridge, UK developer of the Versius surgical robot system, raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Zhejiang Silk Road Fund and included existing investors Escala Capital Investments, LGT, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Watrium. CMR employs over 200 people and is close to submitting its surgical robotic system for regulatory approval.
5. Quantum Surgical, a French surgical robotics startup, raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Ally Bridge Group with participation from China’s Lifetech Scientific through its joint venture with Ally Bridge Group.
6. Bossa Nova Robotics, a San Francisco inventory management AI-enhanced robot maker, raised $29-million funding in a Series B-1 round led by Cota Capital, with participation from China Walden Ventures, LG Electronics, and Intel Capital, Lucas Venture Group, and WRV Capital.
7. Ceres Imaging, an Oakland, CA-based aerial spectral imagery and analytics company for the ag industry, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners and joined by Romulus Capital.
8. DroneDeploy, a San Francisco provider of software solutions for drones (automated safety checks, workflows and real-time mapping), raised $25 million in a Series C round led by Invenergy Future Fund with participation by Scale Venture Partners, AngelPad, Emergence Capital, AirTree Ventures and Uncork Capital.
9. Starship Technologies, the Estonian mobile robot delivery startup, raised $25 million in a seed round from existing investors Matrix Partners and Morpheus Ventures, along with extra funding from Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk and Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn. The money will go toward expanding the fleet which they forecast to exceed 1,000 robots across 20 work and academic campuses, as well as various neighborhoods, in the next year.
10. Silexica, a provider of AI-on-a-chip for ADAS vehicle applications, raised $18 million in a Series B round led by EQT Ventures Fund with previous investors Merus Capital, Paua Ventures, Seed Fonds Aachen, and DSA Invest.
11. Verity Studios, a Swiss indoor entertainment drone startup from one of the co-founders of Kiva Systems, raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Fontinalis Partners with Airbus Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Kitty Hawk.
12. Matternet, a Silicon Valley developer of drone logistics solutions, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Boeing HorizonX Ventures led the round and was joined by Swiss Post, Sony Innovation Fund and Levitate Capital.
13. Andrew Alliance, a Swiss developer of a line of bench-top lab pipetting robots, raised $14 million in a Series C funding round from Tecan Group, the Waters Corporation, Inpeco, Rancilio Cube, Sam Eletr Trust and Omega Funds. Andrew Alliance has supplied 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, the top four diagnostic companies, and 16 of the top 20 of the world’s leading academic research institutions with lab robots.
14. Savioke, the Silicon Valley hospitality robot maker, raised $13.4 million in a Series B funding from Brain Corp, Swisslog Healthcare, NESIC and Recruit. The addition of Swisslog as an investor opens a new market for Savioke: hospital point-to-point delivery helping nurses, lab techs and other healthcare workers deliver essential items throughout the hospital.
15. NextInput, a Silicon Valley developer of MEMS-based force-sensor solutions, raised $13 million in a Series B funding round from Sierra Ventures, Cota Capital and UMC Capital.
16. Hailo Technologies, an Israeli chip making startup developing deep learning capabilities on edge devices, raised $12.5 million in a Series A round from Ourcrowd.com, Maniv Mobility, Next Gear; Zohar Zisapel and Gil Agmon.
17. Sphero (Orbotix), a Colorado-based robotic toymaker (think Star Wars, Spider Man and Lightning Mcqueen), raised $12.1 million as the first part of a $20 million fundraising led by Mercato Partners. Sphero spun out Misty Robotics to handle new robot toy business, readjusted its staff after a lackluster holiday sales season, and is remaking itself into an education-first robotics company.
18. WaterBit, a Silicon Valley precision ag irrigation system provider, raised $11.4 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and including TJ Rodgers and Heuristic Capital.
19. Chowbotics, the Silicon Valley salad-making robot, raised $11 million in a Series A-1 funding round led by the Foundry Group and Techstars. They will use the funding to develop grain, breakfast, poke, açai and yogurt bowls.
20. Box Bot, a Berkeley-based developer of autonomous delivery robots, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Artiman Ventures led the round and was joined by Pear Ventures, Afore Capital, Ironfire Ventures and The House Fund.
21. Kittyhawk, a San Francisco-based drone innovation company, raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Bonfire Ventures and joined by Boeing HorizonX Ventures and Freestyle Capital.
22. Smart Ag, an Iowa developer of an aftermarket kit for driverless tractors, and AutoCart, a plug-and-play system that automates existing grain cart tractors, raised $5 million from Stine See Farm.
23. CyPhy Works, sans founder Helen Greiner, raised $4.5 million from unknown sources in a Series C funding round. CyPhy provides “persistent” tethered drone platforms for defense and public safety. The company previously raised ~$35 million. Its backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Nexus, Lux Capital, and investment arms of UPS and Motorola. Greiner is now working with the U.S. Army on robotics and artificial intelligence initiatives.
24. Chasing Innovation Technology, a Shenzhen startup making underwater drone products, raised $3 million in a Seed round from Shenzhen Capital Group.
25. InterModalics/Pick-it, a Belgian vision system provider for co-bots, raised $2.9 million from Urbain Vandeurzen and PMV to provide growth capital for the Pick-it vision and distancing device.
26. Acryl, a Korean voice and emotion recognition AI startup, raised around $934,000 from LG Electronics (which equated to a 10% stake in the venture).
27. Centaurs Tech (Chewrobot), a Chinese and American voice processing startup, raised an undisclosed Series A amount from Zongton Capital, Leaguer Venture Capital and Boyaa Interactive.

Acquisitions

1. Bonsai AI, a Berkeley software and AI startup, was acquired by Microsoft (in what might be called an acqui-talent grab) for an undisclosed amount. Bonsai’s 45+ employees will be used by Microsoft to build the machine learning model for autonomous systems of all types.
2. Carter Control Systems, a Maryland integrator of material handling logistics systems for high-volume mail handlers and postal automation, was acquired by Systems Solutions of Kentucky, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lummus, a legacy provider of machinery and parts for cotton gin companies, for an undisclosed amount. Systems Solutions is an integrator of letter, parcel, baggage and cargo sortation devices and conveyor equipment. Carter offers a full range of robotic solutions for picking, packing, machine tending, assembly and palletizing.
3. ESYS Automation, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator, was acquired for an undisclosed amount by JR Automation Technologies, also an industrial robotics integrator.
4. FFT Production Systems, a German integrator of industrial robots, was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International for an undisclosed amount. FFT provides complete vehicles and production plants for Tier 1 equipment makers in Germany, the USA, Japan, China and other countries. In 2017, FFT recorded revenues of over $984 million and employs over 2,600 people.
5. HEXAGON (STO:HEXA-B), the Swedish conglomerate integrating sensors and software into precision measuring technologies, acquired American AutonomouStuff, a developer and supplier of autonomous vehicle solutions, for an undisclosed amount estimated to be around $160 million. Hexagon has ~18,000 employees and net sales of ~$4.2 billion. During 2017 Hexagon acquired MSC, Vires, Catavolt and Luciad to enhance their autonomous, visualization and mobile capabilities. AutonomouStuff joined Baidu’s Apollo project team working on autonomous vehicle solutions earlier this year and had 2017 sales of $45 million.
6. MyStemKits, an Atlanta-based STEM learning kit that uses 3D printed items, was acquired by Robo 3D, a San Diego 3D printing equipment and supplies provider, for an undisclosed amount.
7. OnFarm Systems, a Fresno, CA-based SaaS for farmers, was acquired by Swiim, a Denver, CO irrigation system provider, for an undisclosed amount. The plan for the acquisition is to integrate SWIIM’s water balance monitoring and reporting data into the OnFarm dashboard thereby creating a more user-friendly product for SWIIM’s clients.
8. On Robot, a Danish gripper maker startup, has become the remaining name in the 3-way merger/acquisition of On Robot, OptoForce, a Hungarian force sensor provider and Perception Robotics, a Los Angeles gripper and tactile sensor developer. No financial information was provided.
9. RedZone Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based multi-sensor inspection provider for wastewater pipeline systems founded 30 years ago by famed roboticist “Red” Whittaker, was acquired by a group of investors led by Milestone Partners and including ABS Capital Partners, for an undisclosed purchase price.
10. Scott Technology (NZ:SCT), a NZ-based food handling robotics provider, has acquired the assets and IP of Transbotics (OTCMKTS:TNSB), an American AGV manufacturer. No financial details were provided.

IPOs

1. Albert Analytical Technology (TYO:3906), a Japanese analytics firm developing AI for self-driving vehicles, issued shares to Toyota Motor in return for $3.6 million of cash “For technological innovation as in the development of automated driving technologies with advanced analytical capacity centered on AI and machine learning.”
2. Odico Formwork Robotics (CPH:ODICO), a Danish construction robotics provider, issued 10 million shares to trade on the Nasdaq First North Denmark Exchange.

The International Symposium on Robotics (ISR) was held in conjunction with Automatica with a series of robotics-related keynotes, poster presentations, talks and workshops.

The ISR also had an awards dinner in Munich on June 20th at the Hofbräuhaus, a touristy beer hall and garden with big steins of beer, plates full of Bavarian food and oompah bands on each floor.

Awards were given to:

• The Joseph Engelberger Award was given to International Federation of Robotics (IFR) General Secretary Gudrun Litzenberger and also to Universal Robots CTO and co-founder Esben Østergaard.
• The IFR Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation (IERA) Award went to three recipients for their unique robotic creations:
  1. Lely Holding, the Dutch manufacturer of milking robots, for their Discovery 120 Manure Collector (pooper scooper)
  2. KUKA Robotics, for their new LBR Med medical robot, a lightweight robot certified for integration into medical products
  3. Perception Robotics, for their Gecko Gripper which uses a grasping technology from biomimicry observed in Geckos

IFR CEO Roundtable and President’s Message

From left: Stefan Lampa, CEO, KUKA; Prof Dr Bruno Siciliano, Dir ICAROS and PRISMALab, U of Naples Federico II; Ken Fouhy, Moderator, Editor in Chief, Innovations & Trend Research, VDI News; Dr. Kiyonori Inaba, Exec Dir, Robot Business Division, FANUC; Markus Kueckelhaus, VP Innovations & Trend Research, DHL; and Per Vegard Nerseth, Group Senior VP, ABB.

In addition to the CEO roundtable discussion, IFR President Junji Tsuda previewed the statistics that will appear in this year’s IFR Industrial Robots Annual Report covering 2017 sales data. He reported that 2017 turnover was about $50 billion, that 381,000 robots were sold, a 29% increase over 2016, and that China, which deployed 138,000 robots, was the main driver of 2017’s growth with a 58% increase over 2016 (the US rose only 6% by comparison).

Tsuda attributed the drivers for the 2017 results – and a 15% CAGR forecast for the next few years (25% for service robots) – to be the growing simplification (ease of use) for training robots; collaborative robots; progress in overall digitalization; and AI enabling greater vision and perception.

During the CEO Roundtable discussion, panel moderator Ken Fouhy asked where each CEO thought we (and his company) would be five years from now.

• Kuka’s CEO said we would see a big move toward mobile manipulators doing multiple tasks
• ABB’s Sr VP said that programming robots would become as easy and intuitive as using today’s iPhones
• Fanuc’s ED said that future mobile robots wouldn’t have to wait for work as current robots often do because they would become more flexible
• DHL’s VP forecast that perception would have access to more physics and reality than today
• The U of Naples professor said that the tide has turned and that more STEM kids are coming into the realm of automation and robotics

In relation to jobs, all panel members remarked that the next 30 years would see dramatic changes in new jobs net yet defined as present labor retires and skilled labor shortages force governments to invest in retraining.

In relation to AI, panel members said that major impact would be felt in the following ways:

• In logistics, particularly in the combined activities of mobility and grasping
• In the increased use of sensors which enable new efficiencies particularly in QC and anomaly detection
• In clean room improvements
• And in in-line improvements, eg, spray painting

The panel members also outlined current challenges for AI:

• Navigation perception for yard management and last-mile delivery
• Selecting the best grasping method for quick manipulation
• Improving human-machine interaction via speech and general assistance

Takeaways

I was at Automatica from start to finish, seeing all aspects of the show, attending a few ISR keynotes, and had interviews and talks with some very informative industry executives. Here are some of my takeaways from this year’s Automatica and those conversations:

• Co-bots were touted throughout the show
  • Universal Robots, the originator of the co-bot, had a mammoth booth which was always jammed with visitors
  • New vendors displayed new co-bots – often very stylish – but none with the mechanical prowess of the Danish-manufactured UR robots
  • UR robots were used in many, many non-UR booths all over Automatica to demonstrate their product or service thereby indicating UR’s acceptance within the industry
  • ABB and Kawasaki announced a common interface for each of their two-armed co-bots with the hope that other companies would join and use the interface and that the group would soon add single-arm robots to the software thereby emphasizing the problem in training robots where each has their own proprietary training method
• Bin-picking, which had as much presence and hype 10 years ago as co-bots had 5 years ago and IoT and AI had this year, is blasé now because the technology has finally become widely deployed and almost matches the original hype
• AI and Internet-of-Things were the buzzwords for this show and vendors that offered platforms to stream, store, handle, combine, process, analyze and make predictions were plentiful
• Better programming solutions for co-bots and even industrial robots are appearing, but better-still are needed
• 24/7 robot monitoring is gaining favor, but access to company systems and equipment is still mostly withheld for security reasons
• Many special-purpose exoskeletons were shown to help improve factory workers do their jobs
• The Danish robotics cluster is every bit as good, comprehensive, supportive and successful as clusters in Silicon Valley, Boston/Cambridge and Pittsburgh
• Vision and distancing systems – plus standards for same – are enabling cheaper automation
• Grippers are improving (but see below for discussion of end-of-arm devices)
• and promises (hype) about digitalization, data and AI, IoT, and machine (deep) learning was everywhere

End-of-arm devices

Plea from Dr. Michael Zürn, Daimler AG

An exec from Daimler AG, gave a talk about Mercedes Benz’s use of robotics. He said that they have 50 models and at least 500 different grippers. Yet humans with two hands could do every one of those tasks, albeit with superhuman strength in some cases. He welcomed the years of testing of YuMi’s two-armed robots because it’s the closest to what they need yet it is still nowhere near what a two-handed person can do, hence his plea to gripper makers to offer two hands in a flexible device that performs like a two-handed person, and be intuitive in how it learns to do its various jobs.

OnRobot’s goals

Enrico Krog Iversen was the CEO of Universal Robots from 2008 until 2016 when it sold to Teradyne. Since then he has invested in and cultivated three companies (OnRobot, Perception Robotics and OptoForce) which he merged together to become OnRobot A/S. Iversen is the CEO of the new entity. With this foundation of sensors, a growing business in grippers and integrating UR and MiR systems, and a promise to acquire a vision and perception component, Iversen foresees building an entity where everything that goes on a robot can be acquired from his company and it will have a single intuitive user interface. This latter aspect, a single intuitive interface for all, is a very convenient feature that users request but can’t often find.

Fraunhofer’s Hägele’s thesis

Martin Hägele, Head of the Robotics and Assistive Systems Department at Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart, advocated that there is a transformation coming where end-of-arm devices will increasingly include advanced sensing, more actuation, and user interaction. It seems logical. The end of the robot arm is where all the action is — the sensors, cameras, handling devices and the item to be processed. Times have changed from when robots were blind and being fed by expensive positioning systems; the end of the arm is where all the action is at.

Moves by market-leader Schunk

“We are convinced that industrial gripping will change radically in the coming years,” said Schunk CEO Henrik Schunk. “Smart grippers will interact with the user and their environment. They will continuously capture and process data and independently develop the gripping strategy in complex and changing environments and do so faster and more flexibly than man ever could.”

“As part of our digitalization initiative, we have set ourselves the target of allowing systems engineers and integrators to simulate entire assembly systems in three-dimensional spaces and map the entire engineering process from the design through to the mechanics, electrics and software right up to virtual commissioning in digitalized form, all in a single system. Even experienced designers are amazed at the benefits and the efficiency effects afforded by engineering with Mechatronics Concept Designer,” said Schunk in relation to Schunk’s OEM partnership with Siemens PLM Software, the provider of the simulation software.

Internet-of-Things

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “The world is in a massive transformation which can be seen as an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. The computing fabric is getting more distributed and more ubiquitous. Micro-controllers are appearing in everything from refrigerators to drills – every factory is going to have millions of sensors – thus computing is becoming ubiquitous and that means data is getting generated in large amounts. And once you have that, you use AI to reason over that data to give yourself predictive power – analytical power – power to automate things.”

Click to enlarge.

Certainly the first or second thing sales people talked about at Automatica was AI, IoT and Industry 4.0. “It’s all coming together in the next few years,” they said. But they didn’t say whether businesses would open their systems to the cloud, or stream data to somebody else’s processor, or connect to an offsite analytics platform, or do it all onboard and post process the analytics.

Although the strategic goals for implementing IoT are different country by country (as can be seen in the interesting chart above from Forbes), there’s no doubt that businesses plan to spend on adding IoT. This can be seen in the black and blue chart on the right where the three big vertical bars on the left  of the chart denote Discrete Manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics.

Silly Stuff

As at any show, there were pretty girls flaunting products they knew nothing about, giveaways of snacks, food, coffees and gimmicks, and loads of talk about deep learning and AI for products not yet available for viewing of fully understood by the speaker.

Kuka, in a booth far, far away from their main booth (where they were demonstrating their industrial, mobile and collaborative robotics product line including their award-winning LBR Med robot), was showing a 5′ high concept humanoid robot with a big screen and a stylish 18″ silver cone behind the screen. It looked like an airport  or store guide. When I asked what it did I was told that it was the woofer for the sound system and the robot didn’t do anything – it was one of many concept devices they were reviewing.

Nevertheless, Kuka had a 4′ x 4′ brochure which didn’t show or even refer to any of the concept robots they showed. Instead it was all hype about what it might do sometime in the future: purify air, be a gaming console, have an “underhead projector”, HiFi speaker, camera, coffee and wellness head and “provide robotic intelligence that will enrich our daily lives.”

Front and back of 4 foot by 4 foot brochure (122cm x 122cm)

Twenty-seven startups were funded in May for a total of $2.5 billion.

The top five were:

1. Cruise Holdings announced a two-phase funding by SoftBank Vision Fund totaling $2.25 billion. $900 million will be funded right away. Future funding of $1.35 billion is contingent on two things: regulatory approval and at the time when Cruise AVs are ready for commercial deployment. At that time GM will also invest another $1.1 billion thereby providing sufficient capital to reach commercialization beginning in 2019.
2. UBTech Robotics, the Chinese toy robot builder, raised $820 million to help them develop adult-sized robots for commercial applications.
3. Ocado, the UK online grocer, raised $247 million by selling a 5% stake to US grocer Kroger.
4. Roadstar AI, another Chinese startup, raised $128 million for their radars and sensors for self-driving vehicles.
5. SoundHound, a Silicon Valley developer of voice-enabled AI for consumer robots and self-driving vehicles, raised $100 million.

This month’s $2.5 billion in fundings doubles the January thru April total of $2.5 billion. Thus a YTD of $5 billion!

Four acquisitions occurred in May. The most notable was SPX Corp., the large inspection equipment components manufacturer, which acquired CUES, a Florida robotic pipeline video inspection and rehab company, for $189 million.

Fundings

1. Cruise Holdings announced a two-phase funding by SoftBank Vision Fund totaling $2.25 billion. $900 million will be funded right away. Future funding of $1.35 billion is contingent on two things: regulatory approval and at the time when Cruise AVs are ready for commercial deployment. At that time GM will also invest another $1.1 billion to provide the combined capital to reach commercialization beginning in 2019. As a result of this two-pronged funding, SoftBank Vision Fund will end up owning a 19.6% equity stake in GM Cruise.
   

   Placing the roof instruments. Look at all those LiDARs!

2. 

   Functions of new UBTech humanoid robots.

   UBTech Robotics, the Chinese toy robot builder that’s been featured in the Guiness Book of Records for the most simultaneous dancing robots, raised $820 million in a Series C funding round led by Tencent Holdings with participation from Green Pine Capital, Haier Group, Minsheng Securities, CDH Investments and Telstra. The new investment brings UBTech’s valuation to approximately $5 billion. UBTech said the money would be used to develop adult-sized humanoid robots and will focus particularly on the R&D of servo systems, movement control algorithms for walking, and computer vision.

3. Ocado, the UK leader in home-delivered groceries using robot-run distribution centers, which raised ~$192.5 million (in Feb) by selling shares of it’s publicly traded stock (LON:OCDO), has established a licensing deal with US grocery chain Kroger whereby Kroger will take a 5% stake in Ocado – an investment valued at ~$247.5 million and Ocado will help Kroger set up systems to help it manage online ordering, fulfillment and delivery operations. Ocado invested $57.5 million on technology last year, up from $46 million the previous year. The company is developing proprietary technology and has also increased its tech staff to 1,100.  The company uses about 500 robots interacting with each other on a grid which have allowed it to process more than 20,000 orders.
4. Roadstar.AI, a Chinese self-driving startup integrating multiple sensors and LiDARs, cameras, radars, GPS and IMU to provide time and spatial synchronization for self-driving vehicles, raised $128 million in a series A round led by Wu Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group and also Yunqi Partners, CMBI International Capital Corporation Ltd and Vision Capital.
5. SoundHound, a Silicon Valley developer of voice-enabled AI for consumer robots and self-driving vehicles, raised $100 million in a round full of strategic partners: Tencent, Midea, Hyundai, Daimler and France Telecom (Orange).
6. Rapid Micro Biosystems, a Mass-based lab sciences testing equipment provider, raised $60 million in a venture round led by Bain Capital and Xeraya Capital
7. Saildrone, an Alameda, CA autonomous marine surface vehicle collecting scientific data, raised $60 million in a Series B funding led by Horizons Ventures and also Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and The Schmidt Family Foundation.
8. Hesai Photonics Technology, a Chinese laser sensor maker for self-driving vehicles, raised $39 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed and Baidu. Hesai also makes a natural gas safety drone which can sense leaks in hi-rise buildings.
9. Medical Microinstruments, an Italian maker of a robotic platform for microsurgery, raised $24.5 million in a Series A round led by Andera Partners with participation from Panakes Partners and Fountain Healthcare, returning seed investor Sambatech, and industry veterans Gus Castello, former Senior Vice President of Product Operations for Intuitive Surgical Inc., and John Engels, founder of AxoGen, Inc.
10. Cowa Robot, the Chinese follow-me suitcase startup, raised $21.2 million in a Series B round jointly led by SoftBank China Venture Capital and China Creation Ventures with additional participation from Infore Capital, China Minsheng Investment Group.
11. Soft Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based startup which designs and builds soft robotic gripping systems, raised $20 million in a round led by Hyperplane Venture Capital and including Scale Venture Partners, Calibrate Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Yamaha Motor, Material Impact, ABB Technology Ventures, Taylor Farms Ventures and Haiyin Capital.
12. Trio.AI, a Beijing startup developing a dialogue engine for IoT and robotics, raised $17 million in a Series B round led by HanFor, China Minsheng Investment Group, Foxconn Technology Group and Xiamen Torch Group.
13. Superpedestrian, the Boston-based developer of the Copenhagen Wheel to enhance bicycles by amplifying pedal power by up to 10X, raised $16.5 million in a Series B round from Extol Capital LLC, Spark Capital and General Catalyst. This brings Superpedestrian’s total investment to ~$44 million.
14. Fictiv, a San Francisco-based developer of a virtual manufacturing platform used by Silicon Valley autonomous vehicles and medical robotics providers, raised $15 million in a Series B funding from Accel, Intel Capital, FJ Labs, Tandon Group, Stanford-StartX Fund, and Bill Gates.
15. Arevo Labs, a Silicon Valley provider of carbon fiber 3D printing technology, raised $12.5 million in Series B funding led by Asahi Glass and joined by Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Leslie Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
16. Resson, a Canadian ag analytics provider, raised $10.9 million in a Series C round led by Mahindra & Mahindra with existing partners McCain Foods, Monsanto Growth Ventures, Build Ventures, Rho Canada, BDC Capital, East Valley Ventures and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
17. EcoRobotix, the Swiss ag-tech startup developing a mobile weeding robot, raised $10.7 million in a Series B funding round led by BASF Venture Capital with participation by Business Angels Swiss, 4FO Ventures, Investiere, and CapAgro.
18. Algolux, a Canadian provider of machine-learning stacks for autonomous vision and imaging, raised $10 million in Series A funding. General Motors Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Drive Capital, Intact Ventures, and Real Ventures.
19. ForwardX, a Chinese follow-me suitcase developer, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by CDH Investments and Eastern Bell Venture Capital
20. Metawave, a Silicon Valley developer of beam steering radars for autonomous vehicle apps, raised $10 million in funding. Investors include DENSO, Toyota AI Ventures, Hyundai Motor Company, Asahi Glass, Motus Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Autotech Ventures, Bold Capital, SAIC Capital, Western Technology Investment (WTI), and Alrai Capital.
21. Verifly Holdings, a U.K.-based manufacturer of drone control systems and on-demand insurance sales agency, raised $7 million in funding. Investors include Slow Ventures, OpenOcean, and the founders of Kayak and HotelTonight.
22. Hummingbird Technologies, a UK-based drone, aerial and satellite sensing ag startup, raised $4.1 million in a Series A funding round from The European Space Agency, Sir James Dyson, Newable Private Investing and Velcourt, the UK’s largest commercial farming operation.
23. Plus One Robotics, a Texas vision and controls systems developer for robotic automation, raised $2.35 million (in 2017) in a seed round led by Schematic Ventures and joined by Lerer Hippeau, FF Venture Capital, First Star and Dynamo.
24. SkySquirrel Technologies (which recently merged into VineView), a Canadian ag drone and analytics provider for the wine industry, raised $2.3 million (in January) from an Ontario-based private investor and Innovacorp.
25. Kewazo, a German robotic construction equipment startup, raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by MIG Fonds 14 and Alfred Bauer.
26. C2RO Robotics, a Canadian startup enabling mapping, self-localization, and autonomous path planning in real-time with cloud-based SLAM, has raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Chicago-based Harbor Street Ventures, with the participation of Fonds InnovExport, TandemLaunch Ventures and several angel investors in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
27. Beijing Tiddler (AI Nemo), a Chinese consumer products and home companion robot developer, raised an undisclosed amount in a Series C round led by Baidu with participation from Foxconn.

Acquisitions

1. CUES, a 50-year old, 365-person Florida robotic video pipeline inspection and rehab company, was acquired by SPX Corp, an inspection equipment components manufacturer, for $189 million.
2. SkySquirrel Technologies, a Canadian ag-industry startup, has merged into VineView, Scientific Aerial Imaging, a California ag startup which will now be headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. SkySquirrel’s founder and CEO will remain CEO of the new combined company.
3. Mavrx, a failing San Francisco-based aerial imagery platform startup, was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Israeli ag aerial imagery provider Taranis. Mavrx, which raised $12.5 million since 2012, ran into some financial and operational difficulty and was not able to service its clients for the upcoming growing season despite providing a popular product with a 90% customer renewal rate.
4. Jodone, a Boston robotics-related software and AI startup, was acquired by RightHand Robotics for an undisclosed amount.

IPOs

• None

Failures

• Ticktock AI — tried lots of approaches but never solved any problems that people wanted solved — good review here.

An Aside:

It seems like seed rounds are getting bigger and less frequent while Series A rounds are happening later in the development cycle. So says Bessemer Venture partner Amit Karp in a recent post on Medium.

“Most early stage startups we meet these days attempt to raise a $2M-$4M seed investment with some seed rounds expanding even further. These larger seed rounds are often led by a new pool of dedicated seed funds. In addition, the larger funds sometimes also participate in these early rounds, which results in even larger seed rounds (and often higher valuations). Angel investors are often added into the mix to bring more credibility and help with their experience in the early stages of the startup, but it’s a ‘professional’ seed investor who often leads the seed round.”

According to Karp there are several implications to these new large seed rounds:

1. 1. Series-A financing is pushed later, and Series-A investors now expect to see much more business traction before they commit.
   2. Series-A rounds have also become larger and are now often north of $8M. This reduces the amount of Series-A investors as it requires a larger fund to invest in that stage.
   3. Securing a Series-A investment is more difficult than it used to be since there are fewer funds and the startup needs to demonstrate more business traction.
   4. Lastly, and likely most important, is that the winners are separated from the losers earlier than ever. It is very difficult for a startup which raised a $500K seed round to compete with another startup that raised $4M at the same stage. A similar phenomena to the massive SoftBank fundings.

Reviewing The Robot Report’s Y-T-D 2018 seed rounds, there were 13 fundings averaging $3.8 million each thus confirming Karp’s thesis from our smaller sample of robotics-related fundings.

• • May: $1.2M and $1.1M
  • April: $3M
  • March: $10M, $6M, $2M and $1.1M
  • February: $11.5M, $5.5M and $2M
  • January: $3M, $2.8M and $750k

Ocado , the UK leader in home-delivered groceries from robot-run distribution centers, has established a licensing deal with US grocery chain Kroger (NYSE:KR) whereby Kroger will take a 5% stake in Ocado – an investment valued at ~$247.5 million and Ocado will help Kroger set up systems to manage online ordering, fulfillment and delivery operations utilizing Ocado-proven technologies. Ocado will see the Kroger chain build up to 20 Ocado-designed robot-run warehouses over its first three years.

In a recent letter to Kroger stockholders, CEO Rodney McMullen said that Kroger is redeploying capital to emphasize improving its digital capabilities and enabling customers to shop in the store, by ordering online and picking up their order at the store, or getting their groceries delivered to their homes. Although McMullen didn’t single out Amazon or any other competitors in the supermarket arena, Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods and Walmart’s price-cutting moves and partnering with online grocery deliver service Instacart are rapidly changing the landscape of grocery shopping.

“Kroger is right in the middle of such a reinvention,” McMullen said in the shareholder letter. “We are proactively addressing customer changes and we’re making strategic investments to create the future of retail: a seamless digital experience, customer-centric technology solutions, an enhanced associate experience, space-optimized stores and smart-priced products.”

Ocado has begun to commercialize its technologies and signed its first major deal outside the U.K. with Casino, the operator of French supermarket chain Monoprix. Then came Canada’s Sobeys in January, and this month it was the turn of Sweden’s ICA. The Kroger deal is the biggest yet, and Ocado’s share price is at the time of writing up 56% on the news.

Ocado invested $57.5 million on technology in 2017, up from $46 million the previous year. The company is developing and deploying proprietary technology, has a tech staff of 1,100, and uses about 500 robots interacting with each other on a stacked grid which has allowed it to process more than 20,000 daily orders.

Earlier this year (in February) Ocado raised ~$192.5 million by selling shares. Back then the stock was priced at £487. Today it closed at £861, an increase of 76%!

Handling, distribution, transport and delivery – and the amortization of facility setup charges which often represent more cost than raw materials and manufacturing combined – are part of mounting challenges faced by today’s fulfillment executives. Accordingly, warehousing and material handling are a big business for hundreds of different types of companies that provide conveyors, rollers, racks, vision systems, hoists, shelving, electric motors, slides, barcode readers, printers, ladders, gantries, tugs, forklifts, skids, totes, carts, and software systems of all types. Most of these vendors provide products which serve the man-to-goods model, ie, a person goes somewhere in the warehouse, finds the item, and either puts it into further play in the system or packs it himself.

Kiva Systems shattered that model with their goods-to-person robots and dynamic shelving systems. Amazon was so enamored with Kiva’s robotic solution that it acquired Kiva and their robots. Since that acquisition Amazon Robotics (as Kiva Systems was renamed) has since produced over 130,000 Kiva robots and put them all to work in Amazon warehouses and DCs thus proving the efficacy of the method – a method which has been copied and also expanded upon by multiple vendors listed below.Bottom line: In warehouse and supply chain logistics focused on e-commerce fulfillment, whether third-party logistics service providers or e-retailers and their logistics arms, fixed and exorbitant front-end costs for conveyors, elevators and old style AS/RS systems have become anathema to warehouse executives worldwide who are clamoring to lower fixed costs while increasing flexibility and handling more goods. Comprehensive software and analytics — particularly predictive analytics — are on executives near-term agendas. Hence the need to invest in NextGen Supply Chain methods offered by the companies listed below.

Automating lifts, tows, carts and AGVs

Human-operated tows, lifts, AGVs and other warehouse and factory vehicles has been a staple in material movement for decades. Now, with low-cost cameras, sensors and advanced vision and depth-sensing systems, they are slowly transitioning to more flexible mobile robots (AMRs) that can autonomously tow, lift and carry and can work in either autonomous or human-operated modes.

Of the top 20 industrial lift suppliers tabulated by Modern Materials Handling, only 5 offer kits or optional self-driving add-ons.

Vendors providing kits and systems for existing forklifts and carts to convert them to Vision Guided Vehicles (VGVs, AMRs) for line-side replenishment, pallet movement, etc. include:

• RoboCV is a Russian provider of autopilots for warehouse machines at Russian facilities for Samsung, VW and 3PLs. RoboCV also provides cloud-based task optimization and traffic control.
• Balyo,  a French provider of autonomous vehicle kits to forklift OEMs Hyster and Yale.
• Seegrid, a Pittsburgh-based provider of vehicle autonomous kits for OEM Raymond, 3PLs and distribution centers of all types, also makes their own VGVs, and provides software and engineering systems to minimize human involvement and maximize VGV productivity.

Vendors providing AMRs, VGVs and AIVs (Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles) for goods-to-person, point-to-point, load transfer, restocking, etc. include:

• 6 River Systems
• Aethon
• Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+)
• Canvas Technology
• Clearpath’s OTTO robots
• Fetch Robotics
• Grenzebach
• Kuka
• Locus Robotics
• Mobile Industrial Robots
• Robotnik Automation
• Seegrid
• STILL
• Swisslog
• Toyota’s Autopilot
• Vecna Robotics
• and others

Grasping

Where humans surpass machines is in the quick visual determination of what to pick, how to grasp, and then move the item to wherever it needs to go. Until recently, this has been the missing link in automated fulfillment and one of the biggest challenges in robotics acceptance. A few vendors are perfecting the science that enables high speed random grasping from moving conveyors or bins:

• RightHand Robotics
• Universal Logic
• Kinema Systems
• Swisslog
• Soft Robotics

Vendors providing grasping capabilities in addition to autonomous mobility include:

• InVia Robotics
• IAM Robotics
• Magazino
• Dorabot
• GreyOrange (see below for details)

Indoor navigation

Navigation systems have changed along with all the other technological improvements and often don’t require floor grid markings, barcodes or extensive indoor localization and segregation systems such as those used by Kiva Systems (and subsequently Amazon). SLAM and combinations of floor grids, SLAM, path planning and mapping systems, indoor beacons, and collision avoidance systems are adding flexibility to swarms of point-to-point mobile robots and enabling traffic control and dynamic inventory placement.

Kiva look-alikes

In March 2012, in an effort to make their fulfillment centers as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house, leaving a disgruntled set of Kiva customers who couldn’t expand and a larger group of prospective clients who were left with a technological gap and no solutions. I wrote about this gap and about the whole community of new providers that had sprung up to fill the void and were beginning to offer and demonstrate their solutions. Many of those new providers are listed above.

Recently, another set of competitors has emerged in this space. Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD (JingDong), VIPShop, Tencent and others have funded companies who copied the Kiva Systems formula to provide Kiva-like goods-to-person robot systems and dynamic free-form warehousing for their in-country fulfillment and distribution centers.

Now some of those companies are braving the prospect of IP infringement proceedings from Amazon and are expanding outside of China and SE Asia to Europe and America:

• Grey Orange Robotics has sites using their systems in Japan and Europe and exhibited at Europe’s Logimat trade show where they launched PickPal, an autonomous picking robot which can pick a wide variety of SKUs using machine vision and a scalable gripper system specifically suitable for high-volume order fulfillment.
• Beijing Geekplus (Geek+) Technology also has sites using their systems in Japan and Poland and had booths at MODEX and CeMAT trade shows to introduce Geek+ to the West.
• Xinyi Logistics Science & Technology (Alog) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia.
• Shanghai Express Warehouse (Quicktron / Flashhold) – 
• Hanzhou Hikrobot Technology (HIK) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia.

Kiva alternatives

• Symbotic
• Swisslog
• Dematic
• Locus Robotics
• Fetch Robotics

[NOTE: The lists shown above are not fully comprehensive. The universe is much larger. I have some knowledge of the vendors shown and know that they are beyond pilot projects, researching and prototyping which was my criteria for including them.]

Fifteen disclosed transaction amounts totaling $808 million of which the $600 million to SenseTime, the Alibaba-funded Chinese deep learning and facial recognition software provider focused on smart self-driving vehicle systems, was by far the largest.

Year to date, fundings total $2.3 billion!

Seven acquisitions also occurred in April. The most notable was the acquisition by Teradyne (which previously acquired Universal Robots and Energid) of MiR (Mobile Industrial Robots) for $148 million with an additional $124 million predicated on very achievable milestones between now and 2020.

Robotics Fundings

SenseTime, a Chinese deep learning and facial recognition software provider focused on smart self-driving vehicle systems, raised $600 million in a Series C funding round led by Alibaba Group with participation by Temasek Holdings and Suning Commerce Group.

Formlabs, a Somerville, Mass.-based manufacturer of industrial quality 3D printing systems, raised $30 million in a Series C funding. Tyche Partners led the round, and was joined by Shenzhen Capital Group, UpNorth Investment Limited, DFJ, Pitango and Foundry Group.

Zimplistic, a Singapore-based kitchen robotics firm which makes the $999 Rotimatic roti maker, raised $30 million in a Series C funding led by Credence Partners and EDBI.

6 River Systems, a Massachusetts-based point-to-point logistics mobile robot maker, raised $25 million in Series B funding in a round led by Menlo Ventures with participation from all existing investors (Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot). Details here.

Houston Mechatronics, a Texas defense and space systems integrator, raised $20 million in Series B funding from Iain Cooper and Simple-Fill. Funds will be used to develop a novel transformer-like underwater device called Aquanaut.

Vicarious Surgical, a Cambridge, Mass-based robotic surgery startup, raised $16.75 million in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures and Innovation Endeavors led the round the round, and were joined by Gates Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and Marc Benioff.

Efy-Tech, a Chinese UAS control systems startup, raised $15.8 million in a Series A funding from Aviation Industry Corporation, a Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense company.

DeepScale, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle AI perception startup, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Point72 and next47.

Ready Robotics, a Baltimore-based provider of collaborative robots as a service (RaaS), raised $15 million in funding. Drive Capital led the round, and was joined by Eniac Ventures and RRE Ventures.

Symbio Robotics, a Berkeley, CA robotics control software startup, raised $15 million from undisclosed sources.

Marble, a San Francisco-based developer of a fleet of intelligent courier robots, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Investors include Tencent, Lemnos, Crunchfund, and Maven.

Regulus Cyber, an Israeli startup developing and making security devices for drones and autonomous vehicles, raised $6.3 million in a Series A round led by Sierra Ventures and Canaan Partners Israel.

Comma.ai, the San Francisco startup led by superstar hacker George Hotz, raised $5 million in a Series A round although it’s unclear who invested in the round which was reported in an SEC filing.

Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley mobile robot startup for the food industry, raised $3 million in a Seed round (in January) of which $2 million came from Korean food-tech firm Woowa Brothers.

Segway Robotics raised $1.1 million from 952 backers in an IndieGoGo campaign for their Loomo mobil robotic mini personal transporter which they are selling for $1,499 and begin shipping in May.

Robotics Fundings: amounts undisclosed

DroneSense, a Texas UAS platform for drone users and OEMs, raised an undisclosed amount from FLIR Systems. “This alliance with DroneSense will help bring to market a truly mission-critical solution needed by first responders to effectively deploy a complete UAS program across their organizations. We believe this platform is scalable geographically, across multiple markets, and across multiple FLIR Business Units,” said James Cannon, President and CEO of FLIR.

BBS Automation, a Germany-based global integrator of automated testing and inspection systems, raised an undisclosed amount from equity fund EQT Mid-Market which intends to assist BBS Automation’s growth ambitions both organically and through add-on acquisitions in new end markets.

Plug-and-play Panda robot

Franka Emika, a German startup producing the Panda co-bot, raised an undisclosed amount from their new joint venture partner, German conglomerate Voith. The new joint venture has launched Voith Robotics which will develop the Panda co-bot business while Franka will focus on the research and selling to academia and the research community.

Franklin Robotics, the Lowell MA startup that created a garden weeding robot named Tertill, sold 25% of the company to Husqvarna Group for an undisclosed amount. “With almost 1,500,000 environmentally friendly robotic mowers sold all over the world, Husqvarna Group has vast experience and insight that will be invaluable to us as we bring Tertill to market, and continue to develop robotic weeding solutions for the garden and beyond”, says Rory MacKean, CEO Franklin Robotics.

Intuition Robotics, an Israeli startup developing an eldercare social robot, raised an undisclosed amount (in January) from SamsungNEXT Ventures.

Acquisitions

UPDATE to the acquisition of Energid by Teradyne in February for an undisclosed amount. The amount is now known to be $25 million.

Beijing Aresbots Technology (Ares Robot), a Beijing startup developing Kiva-like warehousing robots, was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Face++, a Beijing facial recognition and ID company also known as Megvii.

Genesis Advanced Technology, the Canadian startup developing LiveDrive, a direct-drive actuator with torque-to-weight that can meet or beat motor-gearbox actuators, has been acquired by Koch Industries for an undisclosed amount. Koch will form a new company Genesis Robotics & Motion Technologies (Genesis Robotics) – to commercialize LiveDrive and related technologies. Details here.

Genmark Automation, a Fremont, CA maker of automation tools and wafer handling robots for the semiconductor industry, was acquired by Nidec Sankyo, a Japanese maker of motors, clean-room robots and robot components, for an undisclosed amount.

JR Automation, a Michigan industrial robot integrator, acquired Setpoint Systems, a Littleton, CO, an integrator of building automation solutions, and Setpoint, an Ogden, Utah amusement and theme parks ride designer. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

MiR (Mobile Industrial Robots), the Danish startup with 300% sales growth in 2017, was acquired by Teradyne (NYSE:TER) for $148 million with an additional $124 million predicated on very achievable milestones between now and 2020. Details here.

Van Hoecke Automation, a Belgian-based industrial robot integrator, was acquired by Michigan-based Burke Porter Group for an undisclosed amount. BPG is a multi-subsidiary conglomerate providing testing and clean room equipment to the auto industry.

Wind River, a control systems software provider acquired by Intel, has been acquired by private equity firm TPG Capital for an undisclosed amount. “This acquisition will establish Wind River as a leading independent software provider uniquely positioned to advance digital transformation within critical infrastructure segments with our comprehensive edge to cloud portfolio,” said Jim Douglas, Wind River President. “At the same time, TPG will provide Wind River with the flexibility and financial resources to fuel our many growth opportunities as a standalone software company that enables the deployment of safe, secure, and reliable intelligent systems.”

IPOs

None

Failures

Revolve Robotics (developer of the KUBI tabletop remote presence device) has folded and turned over remaining sales, service and support to their Northern California manufacturer Xandex.

You may also like:

• 
  Robotics Fundings, Acquisitions and IPOs: March 2018
• 
  Robotics Fundings, Acquisitions, IPOs and Failures: February 2018
• 
  Robotics Industry Fundings, Acquisitions & IPOs: January 2018

]]> https://robohub.org/teradyne-acquires-mir-for-272m-continues-robotics-spree/ Thu, 26 Apr 2018 22:27:50 +0000 http://robohub.org/teradyne-acquires-mir-for-272m-continues-robotics-spree/ In a surprise but smart move, Teradyne (NYSE:TER), the American test solutions provider that acquired Universal Robots in 2015 and Energid Technologies earlier in 2018, acquired Danish MiR (Mobile Industrial Robots) for $148 million with an additional $124 million predicated on very achievable milestones between now and 2020.

MiR was just returning from celebrating its 300% growth in 2017 at a company get-together in Barcelona with 70 MiR employees from all over the world when the announcement was made. It tripled its revenue from autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in 2017. MiR co-founder and CEO Thomas Visti said that growth in 2017 was primarily due to multinational companies that returned with orders for larger fleets of mobile robots after it tested and analyzed the results of its initial MiR robot orders.

Another factor in MiR’s 2017 growth was the launch of the MiR200 which can lift 440 pounds, pull 1,100 pounds, is ESD approved and cleanroom certified. “The MiR200 has been very well received and represents a large part of our sales. The product meets clear needs in the market and increases potential applications for autonomous mobile robots. Combined with our new and extremely user-friendly interface – which even employees without programming experience can use – it makes it even simpler for our customers to implement and use our robots,” Visti said.

Another reason for MiRs rapid growth has been its initial strategic decision to develop and market solely to a growing network of integrator/distributors originally developed by Visti when he was VP of Sales at Universal Robots. MiR presently has 132 distributors in 40 countries with regional offices in New York, San Diego, Singapore, Dortmund, Barcelona and Shanghai – and the lists are growing.

Teradyne, by this acquisition, is hoping to capitalize on the synergies between MiR and UR as shown in the chart above. Both offer end users fast ROI and low cost of entry and provide Teradyne with attractive gross margins and rapid growth.

“We are excited to have MiR join Teradyne’s widening portfolio of advanced, intelligent, automation products,” said Mark Jagiela, President and CEO of Teradyne. “MiR is the market leader in the nascent, but fast growing market for collaborative autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Like Universal Robots’ collaborative robots, MiR collaborative AMRs lower the barrier for both large and small enterprises to incrementally automate their operations without the need for specialty staff or a re-layout of their existing workflow. This, combined with a fast return on investment, opens a vast new automation market. Following the path proven with Universal Robots, we expect to leverage Teradyne’s global capabilities to expand MiR’s reach.”

Earlier this year, Teradyne acquired Energid for $25 million in a talent and intellectual property acquisition. Energid, which is exhibiting and speaking at the Robotics Summit & Showcase, developed the robot control and tasking framework Actin which is used in industrial, commercial, collaborative, medical and space-based robotic systems and is a UR partner. Teradyne sees Actin as an enabling technology for advanced motion control and collision avoidance.

MiR founder and CSO Niels Jul Jacobsen, Visti, and investors Esben Østergaard, Torben Frigaard Rasmussen, and Søren Michael Juul Jørgensen should all be proud of their achievement thus far. Congratulations to all!

]]> https://robohub.org/modex-2018-old-and-new-have-never-been-so-far-apart/ Tue, 24 Apr 2018 22:06:58 +0000 http://robohub.org/modex-2018-old-and-new-have-never-been-so-far-apart/

MODEX, ProMat and CeMAT are the biggest global material handling and logistics supply chain tech trade shows. But as I walked the corridors of this year’s MODEX in Atlanta, I was particularly aware of the widening disparity between the old and new.

Stats: Material Handling and Logistics

The 2018 MHI Annual Industry Report found that the 2018 adoption rate for driverless vehicles in material handling was only 10% and the adoption rate for AI was just 5% while the rate for robotics and automation was 35%.

The report indicated the top technologies expected to be a source of either disruption or competitive advantage within the next 3-5 years to be: (shown in order of importance)

1. Robotics and Automation – picking, packing, sorting orders; loading, unloading, stacking; receiving and put-away; assembly operations; QC and inspection processing
2. Predictive Analytics – manage lead times; synchronize links; avoid missteps
3. Internet-of-Things (IoT) – enable real-time info flow; predictive analytics; and QC
4. Artificial Intelligence – faster deliveries; reduced redundancies; improved analytics
5. Driverless Vehicles – autonomous vehicles (and conversion kits for existing AGVs, tows and lifts); SLAM and point-to-point navigation; some with manipulators

The report also listed the key barriers to adoption of driverless vehicles and AI: (shown in order of importance)

1. lack of a clear business case
2. lack of adequate talent
3. lack of understanding of the technology landscape
4. lack of access to capital to make investments
5. cybersecurity

Other research reports were more optimistic in their forecasts:

• A $3,500 report from QY Research made rosy forecasts for global parcel sorting robots and last mile delivery robots
• A $10,000 report from Interact Analysis forecast five years of double-digit growth for AMRs and AGVs converted to AMRs
• A $4,450 report from Grand View Research forecasts significant growth through 2024 driven by increasing demand for autonomous and safe point-to-point material handling equipment

Transforming lifts, tows, carts and AGVs to AMRs and VGVs

Human-operated AGVs, tows, lifts and other warehouse and factory vehicles have been a staple in material movement for decades. Now, with low-cost cameras, sensors and advanced vision systems, they are slowly transitioning to more flexible autonomous mobile robots that can tow, lift and carry. AMRs are Automated Mobile Robots which can be human operated or autonomous or a combination of both.

• Vendors providing conversion systems for existing lifts and carts to Vision Guided Vehicles (AMRs) for line-side replenishment, pallet movement, etc. include:
  • RoboCV
  • Balyo
  • Seegrid
  • Plus all the forklift OEMs that partner with these kit providers
  • Vendors providing grasping capabilities in addition to autonomous mobility include:
    • InVia Robotics
    • Iam Robotics
    • Magazino
    • Dorabot
  • Vendors providing high speed random grasping from moving conveyors or bins:
    • RightHand Robotics
    • Universal Logic
    • Kinema SystemsVendors providing AMRs, VGVs and AIVs (Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles) for goods-to-person, load transfer, restocking, etc. include:
      • 6 River Systems
      • Aethon
      • Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+)
      • Clearpath’s OTTO robots
      • Fetch Robotics
      • Grenzebach
      • Kuka
      • Locus Robotics
      • Mobile Industrial Robots
      • STILL
      • Swisslog
      • Toyota’s Autopilot
      • Vecna Robotics
      • and others

Navigation systems have changed as well and often don’t require floor grid markings, barcodes or extensive indoor localization and segregation systems such as those used by Kiva Systems (and subsequently Amazon). SLAM and combinations of floor grids, SLAM, path planning, and collision avoidance systems are adding flexibility to swarms of point-to-point mobile robots.

Kiva look-alikes emerge

In March 2012, in an effort to make their fulfillment centers as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house, leaving a disgruntled set of Kiva customers who couldn’t expand and a larger group of prospective clients who were left with a technological gap and no solutions. I wrote about this gap and about the whole community of new providers that had sprung up to fill the void and were beginning to offer and demonstrate their solutions. Many of those new providers are listed above.

Recently, another set of competitors has emerged in this space:

• Companies started in China who copied the Kiva Systems formula to provide Kiva-like goods-to-person robot services and dynamic free-form warehousing to the major Chinese e-commerce vendors such as:
  • Alibaba
  • JD (JingDong)
  • VIPShop
  • Tencent
• Now some of those companies are expanding outside of China and SE Asia to Europe and America:
  • Grey Orange Robotics
  • Beijing Geekplus Technology
  • Xinyi Logistics Science & Technology (Alog)
  • Shanghai Express Warehouse (Quicktron)
  • Hanzhou Hikrobot Technology (HIK)

Bottom Line

There are many forms of warehousing. But the area where NextGen tools are needed the most are in high-turn distribution and fulfillment centers.

The rate of acceptance of e-commerce is changing warehousing forever, particularly distribution and fulfillment centers. Total e-commerce sales for 2017 were $453.5 billion, an increase of 16.0% from 2016. E-commerce sales in 2017 accounted for 8.9% of total sales versus 8.0% of total sales in 2016  according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Consequently flexibility and an ability to handle an ever-increasing number of parcels is paramount and fixed costs for conveyors, elevators and old style AS/RS systems has become anathema to warehouse executives worldwide. Hence the need to invest in NextGen Supply Chain methods as shown at shows like MODEX.

Although 31,000 people went to this year’s MODEX, I wonder how many share my view about the disparity between the old and new shown at the show. Certainly there were enough new tech vendors offering “a mixed fleet of intelligent, collaborative mobile robots and fully-autonomous, zero-infrastructure AGVs designed specifically for safe and flexible material flows in dynamic, human-centric environments.” Yet the emphasis on the show – and the favorable booth space placement – was to the old-line vendors rather than the NextGen companies listed above.

Go figure!

]]> https://robohub.org/whats-all-the-fuss-about-ai-robotics-and-china/ Wed, 11 Apr 2018 16:59:32 +0000 http://robohub.org/whats-all-the-fuss-about-ai-robotics-and-china/

In the constantly changing landscape of today’s global digital workspace, AI’s presence grows in almost every industry. Retail giants like Amazon and Alibaba are using algorithms written by machine learning software to add value to the customer experience. Machine learning is also prevalent in the new Service Robotics world as robots transition from blind, dumb and caged to mobile and perceptive.

Competition is particularly focused between the US and China even though other countries and global corporations have large AI programs as well. The competition is real, fierce and dramatic. Talent is hard to find and costly. It’s a complex field that few fully understand, consequently the talent pool is limited. Grabs of key players and companies headline the news every few days. “Apple hires away Google’s chief of search and AI.” “Amazon acquires AI cybersecurity startup.” “IBM invests millions into MIT AI research lab.” “Oracle acquires Zenedge.” “Ford acquires auto tech startup Argo AI.” “Baidu hires three world-renowned artificial intelligence scientists.”

Media, partly from the complexity of the subject, and partly from lack of knowledge, frighten people with scare headlines about misuse and autonomous weaponry. They exaggerate the competition into a hotly contested war for mastery of the field. It’s not really a “war” but it is dramatic and it’s playing out right now on many levels: immigration law, intellectual property transgressions, trade war fears, labor cost and availability challenges, and unfair competitive practices as well as technological breakthroughs and lower costs enabling experimentation and testing.

Two recent trends have sparked widespread use of machine learning: the availability of massive amounts of training data, and powerful and efficient parallel computing.  GPUs are parallel processors and are used to train these deep neural networks. GPUs do so in less time, using far less datacenter infrastructure than non-parallel-processing super-computers.

Service and mobile robots often need to have all their computing power onboard as compared to stationary robots with control systems in separate nearby boxes. Sometimes onboard computing involves multiple processors; other times it necessitates super-computing power such as offered by chip makers that offer parallel processing and super-computer speeds. Nvidia’s Jetson chip, Isaac lab, and toolset are an example.

Nvidia

The recent Nvidia GPU Developers Conference held in San Jose last month highlighted Nvidia’s goal to capture the robotics AI market. They’ve set up an SDK and lab to help robotics companies capture and learn from the amount of data they are processing as they go about their tasks in mobility and vision processing.

Nvidia’s Jetson GPU, SDK, toolset and simulation platform are designed to help roboticists build and test robotics applications and simultaneously manage all the various onboard processes such as perception, navigation and manipulation. As a demonstration of the breath of capabilities in their toolset, Nvidia had a delivery robot to cart around objects at the show.

Nvidia is offering libraries, SDK, APIs, an open source deep learning accelerator, and other tools to encourage the use by robot makers for them to incorporate Nvidia chips into their products. Nvidia sees this as a future source of revenue. Right now it is mostly all research and experimentation.

Examples of deep learning in robotics

In a recent CBInsights graphic categorizing the 2018 AI 100, 12 companies were highlighted in the robotics and auto technology sectors. Note from the Venn Diagram that not all AI companies are involved with robotics (in fact, most aren’t – there were 2,000+ startups in the pool of companies from which the 100 were chosen). The same is true for robotics.

• Robotics:
  1. Vicarious
  2. Kindred (CA)
  3. Anki
  4. UBTech (CN)
  5. Brain Corp
  6. Neurala
  7. CloudMinds (CN)
• Auto Tech:
  1. MightyAI
  2. Drive.ai
  3. Zoox
  4. Nauto
  5. AEye

Here are four use cases of robot companies using AI chips in their products:

1. Cobalt Robotics – Says CEO and Co-founder Travis Deyle, “Cobalt uses a high-end NVidia GPU (a 1080 variant) directly on the robot.  We do a lot of processing locally (e.g. anomaly detection, person detection, etc) using a host of libraries: CUDA, TensorFlow, and various computer vision libraries. The algorithms running on the robot are just the tip of the iceberg. The on-robot detectors and classifiers are tuned to be very sensitive; upon detection, data is transmitted to the internet and runs through an extensive cloud-based machine learning pipeline and ultimately flags a remote human specialist for additional input and high-level decision making.  The cloud-based pipeline also makes use of deep-learning processing power, which is likely powered by NVidia as well.”
2. Bossa Nova Robotics – Walmart is partnering with San Francisco-based robotics Bossa Nova on robots that roam the grocery and health products aisles of Walmart stores, auditing shelves and then sending data back to employees to ensure that missing items are restocked, as well as locating incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels. Bossa Nova’s Walmart robots house three Nvidia GPUs: one for navigation and mapping; another for perception and image stitching (it’s viewing 6′ of shelving at 2 mph); and for computing and analyzing what it’s seeing and turning that info into actionable restocking reports.
3. Fetch Robotics – Fetch Robotics’ automated material transports and Fetch’s new data survey line of AMRs, all, in addition to navigation, collision avoidance and mapping, collect data continuously and consistently. When the robots recharge themselves, all the stored collected data is uploaded to the cloud for post-processing and analytics.
4. TUSimple (CN) – Beijing-based TuSimple’s truck driving technology is focused on the middle mile, ie, the need for transporting container boxes from one hub to another. Along the way TUSimple trucks are able to detect and track objects at distances of greater than 300 meters through advanced sensor fusion that combines data from multiple cameras using decimeter-level localization technology. Simultaneously, the truck’s decision-making system dynamically adapts to road conditions including changing lanes and adjusting driving speeds. TuSimple uses NVIDIA GPUs, NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2, Jetson TX2, CUDA, TensorRT and cuDNN in its autonomous driving solution.

The China factor

Twelve years ago, as a national long-term strategic goal, China crafted 5-year plans with specific goals to encourage the use of robots in manufacturing to enhance quality and reduce the need for unskilled labor, and to establish the manufacture of robots in-country to reduce the reliance on foreign suppliers. After three successive well funded and fully incentivized 5-year robotics plans, one can easily see the transformation: robot and component manufacturers have grown from fewer than 10 to more than 700 while companies using robots in their manufacturing and material handling process have grown similarly.

[NOTE: During the same period, America implemented various manufacturing initiatives involving robotics, however none were comparably funded or, more importantly, continuously funded over time.]

Recently China turned its focus to artificial intelligence. Specifically, they’ve set out a three-pronged plan to catch up by 2020, achieve mid-term parity in autonomous vehicles, image recognition and, perhaps, simultaneous translation by 2025, and lead the world in AI and machine learning by 2030.

Western companies doing business in China have been plagued by intellectual property thievery, copying and reverse engineering, and heavy-handed partnerships and joint ventures where IP must be given to the Chinese venture. Steve Dickinson, a lawyer with Harris | Bricken, a Seattle law firm whose slogan is “Tough Markets; Bold Lawyers,”  wrote:

“With respect to appropriating the technology and then selling it back into the developed market from which it came: that is of course the Chinese strategy. It is the strategy of businesses in every developing country. The U.S. followed this approach during the entire 19th and early 20th centuries. Japan and Korea and Taiwan did it with great success in the post WWII era. That is how technical progress is made.”

“It is clear that appropriating foreign AI technology is the goal of every Chinese company operating in this sector [robotics, e-commerce, logistics and manufacturing]. For that reason, all foreign entities that work with Chinese companies in any way must be aware of the significant risk and must take the steps required to protect themselves.”

What is really clear is that where data in large quantity is available, as in China, and where speed is normal and privacy is nil, as in China, AI techniques such as machine and deep learning can thrive and achieve remarkable results at breakneck speed. That’s what is happening right now in China.

Bottom line:

Growth in the service robotics sector is still a promise more than a reality and there is a pressing need to deliver on those promises. We have seen tremendous progress on processors, sensors, cameras and communications but so far the integration is lacking. One roboticist characterized the integration of all that data as a need for a “reality sensor”, i.e., a higher-level indicator of what is being seen or processed. If the sensors pick up a series of pixels that are interpreted to be a person, and the processing determines its motion to be intersecting with your robot, it would be helpful to know whether it’s a pedestrian, a policeman, a fireman, a sanitation worker, a construction worker, a surveyor, etc. That information would help refine the prediction and your actions. It would add reality to image processing and visual perception.

Even as the ratio of development in hardware to software shifts more toward software, there are still many challenges to overcome. Henrik Christensen, the director of the Institute for Contextual Robotics at the University of California San Diego, cited a few of those challenges:

• Better end-effectors / hands. We still only have very limited capability hands and they are WAY too expensive
• The user interfaces for most robots are still very limited, eg, different robots have different chargers
• The cost of integrating systems is very high. We need much better plug-n-play systems
• We see lots of use of AI / deep learning but in most cases without performance guarantees; not a viable long-term solution until things improve

One often forgets the science involved in robotics, embedded AI, and the many challenges remaining until we have a functional fully-capable, fully-interactive service robot.

]]> https://robohub.org/robotics-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos-march-2018/ Wed, 04 Apr 2018 15:18:39 +0000 http://robohub.org/robotics-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos-march-2018/

Twenty-four startups were funded in March 2018 raising a combined total of $350 million. That brings the 3-month total to $1.5 billion!

Sorting robots at JD’s smart automated warehouse in Shanghai

There was an additional funding of $2.5 billion to JD Logistics, an 81.4%-owned spin-off that is the logistics arm of JD, China’s 2nd largest online retailer. Funding came from Hillhouse, Sequoia, China Merchants, Tencent, China Life, China Development Bank, China Structural Reform and ICBC International.

JD Logistics has 14 smart warehouses serving a network of ~500 warehouses occupying over 130 million sq ft of warehouse space. The 14 smart warehouses are using robotic shuttles, AS/RS systems, parallel robots and AGVs and JD Logistics is experimenting with autonomous delivery vehicles. Consequently, some of that funding will be used to research, develop and increase the number of smart warehouses with robotic logistics solutions.

Also in March there were three acquisitions and an IPO.

Fundings

1. Desktop Metal, a Burlington, Mass.-based company making metal 3d printing system for mass production raised $65 million in funding. Ford Motor Company led the round, and was joined by other investors including Future Fund. Desktop Metal has raised $277 million to date, has over 225 employees and has sold products into more than 40 countries.
2. Mythic, an Austin, Texas-based AI chip company, raised $40 million in Series B funding. SoftBank Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including DFJ, Lux Capital, Data Collective, AME Cloud Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures and Andy Bechtolsheim. Mythic’s low-power lightweight chips are used for onboard processing in drones.
3. Corindus Vascular Robotics
   

   CorPath GRX System.

   , a Waltham, MA-based robotic-assisted surgical platform and the developer of the FDA-approved CorPath GRX system, raised another $25 million in a post-IPO equity private placement to existing investors including Hudson Executive Capital and BioStar Ventures, and new investors. Corrindus has raised $118 million and installed 33 systems to date.

4. ReWalk Robotics, an Israeli exoskeleton provider, in another post-IPO equity private placement, exchanged 16 million shares of its stock RWLK for $20 million in a private placement with Hong Kong Timwell Garment, a wholesale distributor of men’s and boy’s apparel. Timwell and ReWalk are joint venturing in China with RealCan Ambrum, a Shenzhen VC for healthcare products, to develop, manufacture and market ReWalk’s new soft-suit exoskeleton. ReWalk will provide the technology; Timwell and RealCan will provide additional funding and do the rest.
5. Airspace Systems Inc, a San Leandro, Calif.-based manufacturer of comprehensive drone defense systems, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Singtel Innov8 led the round, and was joined by investors including s28 Capital, Shasta Ventures and Granite Hill Capital Partners.
6. Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, a Bozeman, Montana-based developer of frequency-modulated continuous wave LiDAR for the auto industry, raised $18 million in Series B funding. BMW i Ventures led the round and was joined by Toyota AI Ventures, Millennium Technology Value Partners and Next Frontier Capital.
7. Starsky Robotics, a San Francisco-based self-driving truck startup, raised $16.5 million in funding. Investors include Shasta Ventures, Y Combinator, Trucks.vc, 50 Years, and 9Point Ventures.
8. Fortem Technologies, a Utah developer and provider of ultra small C-SWAP radar for beyond line of sight UAS operations, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Data Collective with participation by New Ground Ventures, Mubadala Investment Co, New Ground Ventures, Signia Venture Partiers and The Boeing Company.
9. Laifual Drive, a Chinese harmonic drive gearbox manufacturer and robot reducer supplier, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Northern Light VC with participation from Rushan Investment.
10. Transphorm, a CA chipmaker using gallium nitride semiconductors, has raised $15 million from Yaskawa Electric who uses Transphorm products in the servo motors for robots.
11. Blue Vision Labs, a Los Angeles machine perception startup, raised $14.5 million in a Series A round led by GV with participation by Accel Partners, Horizons Ventures and SV Angel.
12. Cobalt Robotics
    

    Cobalt mobile security robot.

    , a Silicon Valley mobile security robot startup, raised $13 million in a Series A financing led by Sequoia Capital with participation by Founders Fund, Storm Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Promus Ventures and others.

13. Bestmile, a Swiss autonomous driving fleet management platform startup, raised $11 million in a Series A round let by Road Ventures with participation from Serena Capital, Partech, Airbus Ventures, Mobility.fund and Aéroport de Paris.
14. Robotic Vision Technologies, an Illinois developer and integrator of vision systems, raised $10.5 million from unknown sources. RVT has a 3D vision guidance system for guided vehicles and the collaborative robot market.
15. Ascent Robotics, a Tokyo-based AI startup focusing on self-driving vehicles and autonomous robotic systems, raised $10.3 million in a Series A round led by SBI Investment with participation from Bart Joseph Broadman.
16. OpenTrons, a Brooklyn, NY lab liquid-handling pipetting robot maker, raised $10 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures with participation by Y Combinator, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Jeffrey Kindler.
17. Arraiy, a Silicon Valley vision systems and machine learning startup, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Softbank Ventures Korea and Lux Capital with participation by IDG Capital Partners, Dentsu Ventures, Cherry Tree Investments and CRCM Ventures.
18. Agility Robotics
    

    Agility bipedal mobile robots.

    , an Oregon startup developing legged robots into products that need rugged mobility and must fit into human spaces, closed a $8 million Series A round. Playground Global led the round, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund and existing investor Robotics Hub. Agility’s two-legged Cassie robot is already deployed in 6 research institutes. Agility is planning on using Cassie for everything from deliveries to facility inspections to hazardous search-and-rescue operations.

19. Scotty Labs, a tele-operations company working on technology for remote control-enabled self-driving cars, raised $6 million in seed funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Horizon Ventures and Hemi Ventures.
20. Hummingbird Technologies, a UK drone, aerial and satellite imagery and remote sensing ag startup, raised $4.1 million in a Series A round led by Sir James Dyson, the European Space Agency, Newable Private Investing and Velcourt.
21. Circular Wave Drive, an Ohio startup developing a long-life speed reducer gear for robots, raised $2 million in a Seed round led by Ikove Venture Partners.
22. Skycision,  a Pittsburgh-based ag drone analytics startup, raised $1.1 million in a seed round from Innova Memphis, AgLaunch Accelerator, Scurich Berry Farms and individual investors.
23. Mojio Inc, a Vancouver-based connected car platform, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include Iris Capital and Telus Ventures.
24. Oxford Robotics (Dynium), an Oxford, UK autonomous farm tractor startup, raised an unknown amount in seed investment from unknown sources.

Acquisitions

1. Energid, a Cambridge, MA-based integrator, engineering firm and developer of robot control, simulation and machine vision software, was acquired by Teradyne (NYSE:TER), the company that acquired Universal Robots back in 2015.
2. Syngenta (NYSE:SYT), an ag conglomerate which was acquired by ChemChina in 2017, has acquired NC ag analytics startup FarmShots, for an undisclosed amount. FarmShots will be integrated into Syngenta’s AgriEdge Excelsior whole-farm management system and be available to growers worldwide.
3. Tarena Intl, a Chinese educational services company, acquired Wuhan Haoxiaozi Robot Technology, also known as Rtec, a K-12 robotics programming education service. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IPOs

Mobile Octopus robot aerates chicken litter.

1. Octopus Robots (FP:MLOCT), a French developer of mobile robots for the ag industry, raised $32.8 million from selling 1.765M shares of stock on the Paris Stock Exchange.

]]> https://robohub.org/thousands-jam-to-see-jen-hsun-huangs-keynote-at-gpu-developers-conference/ Fri, 30 Mar 2018 16:54:03 +0000 http://robohub.org/thousands-jam-to-see-jen-hsun-huangs-keynote-at-gpu-developers-conference/ In a 2+ hour talk that filled the Keynote Hall and spillover rooms at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center and had thousands of people in line for hours before, Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, in characteristic jeans, leather jacket, and humble humor, described the world of graphics processing units (GPUs) with brilliant images and memorable one-liners:

• “Data is the new source code”
• “Simulation is the key to learning”
• “AI is the turbocharger of software and deep learning is the catalyst for AI”
• “Everything that moves will be autonomous”
• “Robotics boosts every industry”

Most of Nvidia’s revenue comes from GPUs for gaming, super-capable ray-tracing professional graphics, and extraordinarily powerful super computers for data centers. Most of their current research and development is involved with AI-ready chips that enable clients to develop machine and deep learning models and apps. Nvidia is banking on these new development chips to be the chips of the future.

In AI-focused healthcare, this covers CLARA, a deep learning engine that uses present-day black and white sonogram, PET and MRI 2D scans and enhances the data to 3D and then color rendering. In the example on the right, a black and white ultrasound sonogram on the left is enhanced into the fully rendered baby picture on the right.

In the area of robotics this covers cramming AI, deep learning and real-time control and simulation into chips for autonomous vehicles of all types (cars, trucks, mobile robots).

Nvidia boasts 370 partners developing cars, trucks, mobility services, mapping, LiDAR, camera/radar and startups and suppliers for the autonomous vehicles market — all using various Nvidia GPUs.

Ever the salesman, Huang introduced Isaac SDK for robotics to accelerate creating autonomous machines using the Nvidia Jetson embedded platform for autonomous vehicles and simulation.

Finally, in a very convincing demonstration, Huang showed a virtual reality car on the screen. He then showed a very real human near the screen at a control console. Then that very real human placed his virtual avatar behind the wheel and proceeded to remotely drive a very real car outside the convention center around an obstacle and over to a parking lot where he parked it. Very impressive.

$1 million in awards

Nvidia encouraged 200 startups to participate in a three-segment contest to share $1 million in awards. All received hardware grants, training with deep learning experts, and marketing support. Two finalists were picked from each of three categories: healthcare, enterprise and autonomous systems. Kinema Systems, the Silicon Valley material handling company that can depalletize a mixed case pallet at full speed, won the autonomous systems award and received $333,333.

]]> https://robohub.org/quiet-inroads-in-robotics-the-vecna-story/ Mon, 26 Mar 2018 16:25:23 +0000 http://robohub.org/quiet-inroads-in-robotics-the-vecna-story/

Robotics is undergoing fundamental change in three core areas: collaboration, autonomous mobility and increasing intelligence.

Autonomous mobility technology is entering the industrial vehicle marketplace of AGVs, forklifts and tugs with new products, better navigation technologies and lower costs.

Forecasters Grandview Research and IDTechEx suggest that autonomous forklifts and tugs will emerge as the standard from 2022/2023 onwards, ultimately growing to represent 70% of annual mobile material handling equipment by 2037. The key to this transformation is unmanned mobile autonomy. These new mobile autonomous robots can achieve higher productivity and cost efficiencies because the technology largely reduces the driver labor costs, increases safety, and lowers insurance rates and spoilage.

The Vecna Story

Cambridge, MA-based Vecna Technologies, founded in 1998 by a group of MIT scientists on a $5,000 shoe-string investment from the founders, has self-funded itself into a profitable ongoing manufacturer, researcher and software firm serving the healthcare, logistics and remote presence marketplaces. They have amassed more than a hundred issued and pending patents and employ more than 200.

Earlier this year Vecna Technologies spun off 60 employees and the robotics business to found and operate Vecna Robotics working with a large number of partners and contractors. The new entity’s primary applications are to provide mixed fleets of mobile robotic solutions for:

• Goods to person
• Receiving to warehouse
• Production cell to cell
• Point to point gofering
• Zone picking transport
• Tote and case picking transport

Vecna already has a broad range of products serving these applications: from tuggers like at FedEx (see video below) to RC20s which are the lowest cost per performance mobile robot on the market and several models in between. Thousands of Vecna robots are deployed worldwide in (1) major manufacturing facilities doing line-side replenishment; (2) in major shipping companies moving non-conveyables and automating indoor and outdoor tuggers and lifts; and (3) in major 3PLs and retailers doing order fulfillment transport both for store replenishment and for e-commerce.

A recent NY Times story exemplifies how these new Vecna Robotics autonomous mobile robots are impacting the world of material handling. In this case, Vecna robots are used by FedEx to handle large items that don’t fit on conveyor belts.

“When a truck filled with packages arrives, workers load the bulky items onto trailers hitched to a robot. Once these trailers are full, they press a button that sends the vehicle on its way. Equipped with laser-based sensors, cameras and other navigation tools, the robots stop when people or other vehicles get in the way. In some cases, they even figure out a new way to go.”

Vecna robots have vision systems that allow them to navigate safely around humans so that they can share common paths. And they have Autonomy Kit, a general purpose robot brain that can turn any piece of equipment into a safe and efficient mobile robot. Everything from large earth moving and construction equipment to forklifts, tuggers, floor cleaners, and even small order fulfillment and each picking systems can easily be automated and operate in collaborative human-filled environments. Further, all Vecna systems are directed by a smart centralized controller for optimization, traffic control and service. Because Vecna Robotics is finding so much demand (and success) in this sector, it is considering bringing in outside money to fund a more rapid expansion into the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Vecna Technologies, sans the robotics group, remains a leader in healthcare information technology providing patient portals, payment solutions, kiosks, mobile apps, telepresence and medical logistics, and “will continue to innovate and accelerate cutting edge solutions to our customers in the commercial and government healthcare markets,” says Vecna CTO Daniel Theobald.

Marketplace full of competitors, many from China

Source: Styleintelligence G2P Robotics, Feb 2018

As competitors sense the growing demand from distribution and fulfillment center executives in need of solutions to pick, pack and ship more parcels quickly, there are many startups and companies inventing or modifying their products to solve those problems and take advantage of the demand.

There is also increasing demand from factory managers who need flexibility to move goods within their facilities that cannot be handled economically by human workers or fixed conveyor systems.

Both markets are growing exponentially and, as can be seen by the two charts above, there are many players competing in the field. Further, the market is also fueled by approved investment priorities in capital purchases that were put off during and after the financial crisis of 2008-9. This can be seen in the VDC Research graphic on the right which surveyed manufacturing executives about their capital purchasing plans for 2018-2020.

Vecna responded to those demands years ago when it began developing and expanding its line of robots and accompanying software. The refocusing that went into spinning off Vecna Robotics will help enable Vecna to continue to be a big, innovative and progressive player in the mobile robotics market.

]]> https://robohub.org/10-tech-savvy-companies-on-the-hunt-for-ai-robotics-talent-and-ip/ Tue, 20 Mar 2018 21:00:26 +0000 http://robohub.org/10-tech-savvy-companies-on-the-hunt-for-ai-robotics-talent-and-ip/ Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com from China are in a global competition with Google/Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Walmart and Amazon from the USA and SoftBank from Japan. All are agressively searching for talent, intellectual property, market share, logistics and supply chain technology, and presence all around the world.

These leading tech-savvy companies have many things in common. Foremost, they are all in pursuit of global growth and the funding, technology and talent to propel that growth. And they all are investing in voice assistance and other forms of AI and robotics.

Although Amazon is leading the way with its ecosystem surrounding its AI assistant Alexa, each of the others either has or are developing competing systems of equal or greater capability… think OK Google, Siri and Apple’s new Homepod and Cortana or, in China, Alibaba’s Tmall Genie, Baidu’s Little Fish and JD’s DingDong.

Also, they are all moving toward providing AI as a service.

• Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is China’s primary search source and also provides Internet-related services and products as well as targeted advertising, transaction services and a video platform. Baidu is heavily investing in researching deep learning, computer vision, speech recognition and synthesis, natural language understanding, data mining and knowledge discovery, business intelligence, artificial general intelligence, high performance computing, robotics and autonomous driving (at their new self-driving lab in Silicon Valley).
• Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is a multi-national China-based e-commerce retailer, payment and technology conglomerate, cloud provider, whose two shopping malls (Tmall and Taobao) have over 1 billion combined active users and are supported by a budding logistics network. Alibaba’s AI-powered platform (which it uses internally for its shopping malls and logistics processing) was recently rolled out in Kuala Lumpur to support smart cities in their digital transformation. It analyzes large data volumes extracted from various sources in an urban environment, through video, image, and speech recognition. The system then uses machine learning to provide insights for city administrators to improve operational efficiencies and monitor security risks.
• Tencent (HKG:0700) is a Chinese provider of Internet and cloud-related services and products, entertainment, music services, AI, real estate and social media including WeChat (which recently hit 1 billion users). More than 35% of WeChat users spend over four hours a day on the service compared to the little more than an hour a day spent on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter combined. Tencent has set up AI labs in Shenzhen and Seattle and is researching voice and image recognition systems and transforming what they’ve learned into apps and algorithms to keep their users informed and attentive.

NOTE: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent make up B A T, the acronym given to the trio of main competitors in China’s quantum computer and machine learning research. In addition to labs in China, each has a Silicon Valley research center. Funding and incentives are provided by the Chinese government. The three BAT companies already collect and analyze huge amounts of data from their e-commerce transactions, mobile gaming, online search and payments to social media, video streaming and on-demand services such as ride-sharing and food deliveries. With quantum computing, they will be able to sift through massive data streams faster and better than with existing supercomputers.

• JD.Com (NASDAQ:JD) is a Chinese e-commerce competitor with about half the user base of Alibaba yet with very progressive logistics and infrastructure programs. JD (Jingdong) is testing robotic delivery services, operating driverless delivery trucks and building drone delivery ports. JD operates 7 fulfillment centers and 405 warehouses in China. Last month it raised $2.5 billion for its JD Logistics subsidiary to build out and expand their logistics network.
• SoftBank (TYO:9984) is a Japanese telecom conglomerate. Softbank is also the instigator of the SoftBank Vision Fund which is investing massive amounts ($98 bn) in technologies and entrepreneurs pioneering the future through a wide range of sectors: IoT, AI, robotics, mobile applications and computing, and infrastructure, cloud technologies and software. SoftBank, with it’s funding partners Apple, Qualcomm and various sovereign wealth funds, wants to invest another $900 billion in 1,000 AI and robotics companies in the next decade. SoftBank is also a partner with Alibaba and Foxconn to produce and market Pepper and Nao robots.
• Google/Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a Silicon Valley search engine and Internet products company with a stable of forthcoming AI ventures such as Waymo, Verb Surgical and Nest along with consumer products like Google Home, Android phones and Chromebook computers. Google is leveraging their data, processing power, and talent into an array of AI-based apps, processes and products. Their foray into robotics hardware has resulted in much valuable research but all of the units have either been sold off or closed (except for Boston Dynamics and Shaft which are held up from sale by government regulators). Although still a leader in machine learning, Google is finding much competition from their Chinese competitors.
• Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Apple, a Silicon Valley designer, manufacturer and marketer of phones, media and hardware devices and provider of software, services and digital content. Apple is the world’s largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung with annual revenue of $229 billion. Building out Siri from the virtual world into the consumer product world with their new Homepod is off to a late start.
• Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is also a Silicon Valley-based Internet phenomena with products that include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus. Facebook has over 2.2 billion active users. Their investments in AI appear to be focused on developing a virtual (or physical) assistant. Their acquisition of Ozlo to help Messenger build out a more elaborate virtual assistant for users is an example.
• Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is a global retailer with wholesale facilities, logistics and distribution centers all around the world. Walmart operates over 11,000 stores under 59 names in 28 countries and e-commerce sites in 11 countries. It grosses over $480 billion annually and employs over 2.3 million workers. As Walmart increases its online e-commerce market share while simultaneously changing practices to provide better product transparency (particularly in and faster material handling at its stores and distribution centers, it too is on a talent hunt for roboticists and AI/machine learning people and providers.
• Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon is the leading e-commerce seller of products, supply chain services, AI, and cloud services that is copied and competed with around the world. Amazon accounts for ~4% of all retail and ~44% of all e-commerce spending in the US. Amazon’s supply chain and logistics facilities use more than 60,000 robots in its various warehouses and distribution centers, and its cloud services, which not only services Amazon, provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to companies and governments on a subscription basis. Amazon’s Echo/Alexa home assistant has started to include capabilities like a display, camera and alarm clock, security cameras, and even a fashion advisor. It is combining all these different incremental parts to build a smart home robot as they become viable and front-ended by the Alexa voice assistant.

Amazon is the company to watch in terms of early innovation. Others follow and emulate; Amazon quietly goes forward and China is on its horizon. CBInsights had two interesting comments on the subject as can be seen in these two charts:

CBInsights looked at which peers companies were talked about in financial reports and calls and found that Amazon doesn’t mention competitors. But Amazon mentions of China are up 57% over 2016.

NOTE: There are no Europeans in this list nor in the Top 15 Alexa Sites. Large robotics firms in Germany and Italy have been sold to China. ARM, the British chip-maker, was sold to SoftBank and DeepMind, the UK AI wonder, was picked up by Google. Many fear that Europe may excel at manufacturing but don’t have protectionist impulses to fend off (and keep up with) America or China and to know that smart manufacturing and smart cars – in fact smart everything – is the new game. Recently European leadership has shown fear in the use of and connection to cloud and analytics platforms in the age of IoT – even though Europeans pioneered the term Industry 4.0.

A major talent-hunting event is the big NVIDIA GPU tech conference being held in San Jose March 26-29. Over 8,000 industry professionals of all types are planning to attend this job fair and place to learn about AI, machine learning and deep learning.

Infrastructure

Common to all is e-commerce and the systems that pick, pack, ship and deliver all the goods. Thus, in addition to investments and interest in cloud platforms, super computing and AI, there is a global explosion in warehouse construction and reconfiguration for automation. According to Cushman & Wakefield, U.S. developers added almost 1 billion square feet of warehouse space from 2013 to 2017, a 2X increase over the previous 5 years. It’s harder to get information for China but news stories indicate similar if not greater growth, new forms of automation and labor shortages.

The constant lament heard in the U.S. is captured (and presumed to be relevant worldwide) is this quote from a fulfillment executive:

“A big part of our strategy is how do we make the current employees we have more productive and to reduce the requirement for more labor at peak times.”

Providing warehouse labor is a big business because workers are hard to find and turnover is more than 10% per month. Hence the simultaneous investment in robotics and smart warehousing systems to maximize human effort and reduce costly errors and turnover.

Warehousing has always been as automated as possible, particularly in pallet and box handling, but as labor has become more scarce and costly, as robotic systems have improved and costs been reduced, and as the number of shipments has increased exponentially due to e-commerce, the nature of material handling and fulfillment has radically changed. Hence the need for mechanical assistance.

But this is fodder for another article to follow shortly on the global inroads being made in fulfillment and material handling. Stay tuned.

]]> https://robohub.org/power-transmission-line-inspection-robots/ Thu, 08 Mar 2018 22:29:48 +0000 http://robohub.org/power-transmission-line-inspection-robots/

In 2010 I wrote that there were three sponsored research projects to solve the problem of safely inspecting and maintaining high voltage transmission lines using robotics. Existing 2010 methods ranged from humans crawling the lines, to helicopters flying close-by and scanning, to cars and jeeps with people and binoculars attempting to scan with the human eye. (2010 article)

In 2014 I described the progress from 2010 including the Japanese start-up HiBot and their inspection robot Expliner which seemed promising. This project got derailed by the Fukushima disaster which took away the funding and attention from Tepco which was forced to refocus all its resources on the disaster. HiBot later sold their IP to Hitachi High-Tech which, thus far, hasn’t reported any progress or offered any products. (2014 article)

Also in 2014 Canada’s Hydro-Québec Research Institute was working on their transmission line robot, LineScout and in America, the EPRI (American Electric Power Research Institute) was researching robots and drones for line inspection.

Now, in 2018, Canada’s MIR Innovations (the product arm of Hydro Québec) is promoting their new LineRanger inspection robot and their LineDrone flying corrosion sensor as finished products while both Hitachi High Tech and the EPRI have been silent about their research progress thus far.

https://youtu.be/z3Hh_AlYJ3o

The progress of these three electrical power research projects to solve a very real need shows how deep pockets are needed to solve real problems with robotic solutions and how slowly that research process often takes. This is not atypical. I observed the same kind of delays in two recent visits I made to robot startups where original concepts have morphed into totally different ones that now – after many development iterations – seem close to acceptably solving the original problems yet with no scale-up production plans in sight — again after years of funding and research.

$

]]> https://robohub.org/robotics-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-failures-february-2018/ Fri, 02 Mar 2018 21:47:08 +0000 http://robohub.org/robotics-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-failures-february-2018/
Nineteen different startups were funded in February, raising $377 million; a substantial two-month start for the new year. Five acquisitions were reported during the month, while the IPO front had no activity whatsoever.

CB Insights said that China dominated the funding of AI-related startups during 2017. So far in 2018, the China funding percentage appears to be less than the 48% of 2017.

Robotics Fundings

1. PROCEPT BioRobotics, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based surgical robotics company, raised $118 million in financing. Viking Global Investors LP led the round, and was joined by investors including Perceptive Advisors and CPMG Inc. More Coverage on The Robot Report

2. Aurora Innovation, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle startup, raised $90 million in funding. Investors include Greylock Partners and Index Ventures.

3. Rani Therapeutics, a Silicon Valley medical device startup, raised $53 million raising their total funding to $142 million. The round included Chinese GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, Shire, Bossa Ventures, and Cathay Venture, GV, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Ping An Ventures, Virtus Ventures and others. More Coverage on The Robot Report

4. DecaWave, a Dublin, Ireland-based fabless semiconductor company specializing in precise location and connectivity applications, raised $30 million in funding. Atlantic Bridge Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Enterprise Ireland, China Ireland Growth Technology Fund, ACT Venture Capital and ZZ Ventures.

5. Magazino, a Munich startup providing mobile picking robots for small and medium-sized boxes, cases and pods, raised $24.8 million in a round led by the Körber Group with participation by Cellcom Resources, Zalando and Fiege Logistics.

6. CommonSense Robotics, an Israeli startup integrating robotics with online grocery fulfilment, raised $20 million in a Series A funding led by Playground Global, with participation from Aleph VC and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. CommonSense employs robots to power custom warehouses or micro-fulfilment centers that are small enough to be placed in urban areas. The robots are designed to store products and bring the right ones to humans who then pack a customer’s order. More robots are then used to get the packaged order out to dispatch.

7. Prophesee SA, a Paris-based creator of a bio-inspired vision system, raised $19 million in funding. Investors include 360 Capital Partners, Supernova Invest, iBionext, Intel Capital, Renault Group and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.

8. Citadel Defense Company, a San Diego-based drone system developer, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners.

9. Drone Base, a Los Angeles startup that connects drone users with commercial tasks, raised $12 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Upfront Ventures and Union Square Ventures. DJI, Hearst Ventures and Pritzker Group also participated in the round.

10. May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based startup developing self-driving shuttles for large campuss and central business districts, raised $11.5 million in seed funding from Toyota AI Ventures and BMW i Ventures. More Coverage on The Robot Report

11. Miso Robotics, a Pasadena, CA food handling robot startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Acacia Research Corporation, with participation from Levy Restaurants, OpenTable CTO Joseph Essas, and Cali Group, owner of CaliBurger. Miso Robotics is one of a number of companies trying to use robots to replace or augment fast food workers.

12. inVia Robotics, a Westlake Village, Calif.-based provider of robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce fulfillment centers, raised $9 million in funding. Upfront Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Embark Ventures.

13. EdgyBees, a CA startup providing augmented reality for drones and other moving platforms, raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by OurCrowd with participation from 8VC, Verizon Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Motorola Solutions Ventures and NFX.

14. Fourier Intelligence, a Chinese startup providing exoskeletons for rehab and prosthetics, raised $4.7 million in a Series A round let by Prosperico Venture with participation from Volcanics Venture, IDG Capital Partners and Qianhai Fund of Funds.

15. Invert Robotics, a NZ RaaS (robotics as a service) startup providing inspection of industrial equipment across a range of applications, raised $4.6 million (6.4 NZ$) from Powerhouse Ventures, NZ Venture Investment Fund and Allan Moss.

16. American Robotics, a Boston-based startup developing a drone system for farmers, has raised $2 million in a second seed round (they raised $1.1 million last year). Investors included BRC Innovation and Brain Robot Capital.

17. Dash Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup developing futuristic, app-controlled toy robots, raised $2.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Ironfire Ventures.

18. Planys Technologies, an Indian marine robotics startup, raised $1 million  from Kris Gopalakrishnan along with Pratithi Investment Trust and MEMG (Manipal Education and Medical Group).

19. Solinftec, a Brazilian ag tech startup, raised an undisclosed Series B funding from AgFunder and TPG ART.

Acquisitions

1. KBR, a large engineering and construction company formerly owned by Halliburton, acquired Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, an integrator of space and defense systems, from the government for $355 million.

2. Fanuc acquired Japanese co-bot maker Life Robotics for an undisclosed amount.

3. Humatics, a Cambridge, MA startup developing a localization platform, has acquired 5D Robotics, a Carlsbad, CA provider of mobility products using radio waves for distancing, and 5D’s subsidiary, Time Domain, an Alabama provider of ultra-wide-band chips, for an undisclosed amount. More Coverage on The Robot Report

4. Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices acquired Orthotaxy, a French developer of software-enabled surgery technologies, including a differentiated robotic-assisted surgery solution for total and partial knee replacement. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. More Coverage on The Robot Report

5. FarmShots, a NC startup providing imagery and analytics for farmers, was acquired by Syngenta for an undisclosed amount. FarmShots collects data for 8 million acres.

IPOs

Nada. Zip. Zero!

Failures

1. New Matter, a Pasadena-based maker of 3D printers is closing down after running out of the $6.5 million funding it had raised. It will continue to maintain printers it has sold to consumers and schools through the summer of 2018.

2. RoboBusiness Europe, a trade conference and expo scheduled to be held in February by the same group that produces RoboBusiness in America, cancelled due to lack of funding.

3. Innorobo, a service robotics expo and conference to be held in June has also been cancelled due to a lack of funding.

]]> https://robohub.org/research-arrows-are-up-with-one-common-thread-digital-data/ Thu, 15 Feb 2018 22:20:06 +0000 http://robohub.org/research-arrows-are-up-with-one-common-thread-digital-data/

MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said that “data is the new oil.” Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, says that artificial intelligence combined with data gathered by billions of sensors is bringing on an information revolution.

Manufacturers everywhere are changing – some, with government assistance – because of new technologies, new competitors, new ecosystems, and new ways of doing business. Companies that adopt these new digital-based capabilities are creating value in their businesses and becoming leaders of their industries.

The following 18 recent research reports, grouped into five categories, cover the robotics industry. All indicate double-digit compound annual growth rates (CAGR) and each makes the connection of digitalization and data to growth and economic efficiencies.

1. Industrial & collaborative robots
2. Service & surgical robotics
3. Agricultural & food handling robotics
4. Surveillance robots, drones & ROVs
5. Autonomous vehicles

Industrial & collaborative robots

1. Global industrial robot market
   Feb 2018, 123 pages, QY Research, $3,600
   QY doesn’t provide forecasts in their promotional materials.
2. Collaborative robotics market
   Dec 2017, 23 pages, ABI Research, $3,500
   To 2025, global revenue of collaborative robotics shipments is forecast to grow at a 49.8% CAGR compared to 12.1% for Industrial robots and 23.2% per cent for service robotics.
3. Global robotic injection molding machine robots
   Dec 2017, 95 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
   The global robotic injection molding machine market to grow at a CAGR of 4.94% during the period 2017-2021.
4. Global robot handling, grinding and sanding market
   Dec 2017, 93 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
   The global handling, degating, and deflashing robots market is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 11% from 2017-2021.

Service & surgical robots

1. Robotics for enterprise markets
   Dec 2017, 127 pages, Tractica, $4,200
   Tractica forecasts that worldwide shipments of enterprise robots (ag, construction, warehousing and logistics, remote presence, customer service) will grow from 83,000 units in 2016 to 1.2 million units in 2022, at a CAGR of 57% during that period.  Revenue will increase from $5.9 billion in 2016 to $67.9 billion in 2022.
2. Global surgical robots market
   Feb 2018, BIS Research, $4,599
   Analyzes progress of Intuitive Surgical Inc., Stryker, Mazor Robotics, Hansen Medical, MedRobotics, TransEnterix, Accuray, Renishaw, Think Surgical, Synaptive Medical, Titan Medical and Smith & Nephew.
3. Global service report market
   Jan 2018, 124 pages, QY Research, $3,600
   No forecasts available.

Agricultural & food handling robotics

1. Agricultural robots market
   Dec 2017, Progressive Markets, $3,619
   The agricultural robots market is likely to garner $15.3 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 20.95% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2025.
2. Agricultural robotic harvesting solutions
   Dec 2017, AlphaBrown, $2,975
   Early adopters (500+ acres and greenhouse growers) of harvesting robotics to reach $5.5bn according to study of 1,300 growers whose principle reason is to off-set the cost of labor.
3. Food robotics market
   Nov 2017, 90 pages, Grand View Research, $4,950
   The global food robotics market is anticipated to reach USD 3.35 billion by 2025.
4. Agricultural robots and drones
   Jan 2018, 213 pages, IDTechEx, $4,995
   Forecasts based on technology roadmaps, suggest that the market will grow to $35Bn by 2038 with the potential to reach higher levels- around $45Bn- in a highly accelerated technology progression and market adoption scenario. The infection point will arrive in 2024 onwards. At this point, sales will rapidly grow.
5. Global intelligent agricultural robot market
   Dec 2017, 104 pages, QY Research, $2,900
   No forecasts available.
6. China intelligent ag robot market
   Dec 2017, 99 pages, QY Research, $3,400
   No forecasts available.

Surveillance robots, drones, mobile robots & ROVs

1. Global surveillance robots market
   Sep 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
   Forecasts the global surveillance robots market to grow at a CAGR of 12.31% during the period 2017-2021.
2. Global market for autonomous underwater vehicles
   Oct 2017, 170 pages, Persistence Market Research, $4,900
   Focuses on maritime security coupled with greater offshore oil & gas production are the key drivers of the autonomous underwater vehicle market that is anticipated to push past $445 million by end 2022 at a CAGR of 6.1%.
3. Global autonomous mobile robots market
   Dec 2017, 193 pages, QY Research, $2,900
   The Autonomous Mobile Robots industry was $158 million in 2016 and is projected to reach $390 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 16.26% between 2016 and 2022.
4. Drone market sector report
   Sep 2017, 88 pages, Skylogic Research, $1,450
   An analysis of 2,600 drone buyers, providers and business users but no forecasts available.

5G autonomous bus at 2018 Olympics.

Autonomous vehicles

1. Autonomous trucks and buses
   Feb 2018, 93 pages, Tractica, $4,500
   Tractica forecasts that annual unit shipments will increase from approximately 343 vehicles in 2017 to 188,000 units in 2022.

]]> https://robohub.org/robotics-industry-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-january-2018/ Fri, 02 Feb 2018 21:09:04 +0000 http://robohub.org/robotics-industry-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-january-2018/
Twenty-five different startups were funded in January cumulatively raising $784 million; a great start for the new year. Four acquisitions were reported during the month while the IPO front lay waiting for something to happen.

According to Silicon Valley Bank’s annual survey of 1,000+ executives, startup founders are confident 2018 will be a good year for funding and for business conditions – except hiring and retaining foreign talent.

More than half of startups surveyed (51%) reported that at least one of their founders is an immigrant. One-third of startups said laws and regulations prompted them to locate facilities (or move non-sales operations) offshore. U.S. immigration policy was cited as being the biggest driver, followed by tax policies and the regulatory environment.

An interesting aside in the bank’s Chinese version of the survey is that about 2/3 of Chinese startups have at least one woman in a senior role, a considerably higher percentage than in the US where 71% of startups have no women on their board of directors and only 43% have women in executive positions.

Fundings

1. Carbon 3D, a 2013 Silicon Valley 3D manufacturing startup using elastomers and carbon steel, raised $200 million for a Series D funding led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Other funders included Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company ARCHINA Capital, Hydra Ventures (the corporate venturing arm of Adidas), GE Ventures, JSR Corporation, and Emerson Elemental. The funding is also supported by current investors including BMW Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, and Reinet Investments and others.

2. Pony.ai, a Fremont, Calif. and China-based self-driving startup, raised $112 million in Series A funding. Morningside Venture Capital and Legend Capital led the round, and were joined by investors including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Hongtai Capital, Legend Star, Puhua Capital, Polaris Capital, DCM Ventures, Comcast Ventures and Silicon Valley Future Capital.

3. Rokid, a Chinese and Silicon Valley developer of award-winning consumer products rivaling Amazon’s Echo (in China), raised $100 million in a Series C round from Temasek Holdings with participation from Credit Suisse, IDG Capital Partners and CDIB Capital.

4. Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup developing a self-driving delivery vehicle, raised $92 million in a Series A funding led by Banyan Capital and Greylock Partners plus individual investor Simon Rothman.

5. Precision Hawk, a Raleigh, NC provider of drone technology and analytics, raised $75 million in funding. Third Point Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Comcast Ventures, Senator Investor Group, Constellation Technology Ventures andSyngenta Ventures. Existing investors Intel Capital, Millennium Technology Value Partners, DuPont, Verizon Ventures, and Indiana University’s Innovate Indiana Fund participated.

6. AImotive, a Hungarian startup offering full-stack autonomous vehicle technology, raised $38 million in Series C funding. B Capital Group and Prime Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Cisco Investments, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and Series A and B investors Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Inventure, Draper Associates and Day One Capital.

7. Knightscope, a Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of security robots, raised more than $25 million in funding. Investors include Konica Minolta and Bright Success Capital.

8. EasyMile, a French self-driving systems startup with tests running in Finland, Greece, France and Switzerland, raised around $17.4 million in a Series A round funded by Alstom.

9. Occipital, a Boulder, Colo.-based developer of mobile computer vision applications, raised $15 million in Series C funding, according to TechCrunch. Foundry Group led the round. With this round, Occipital is looking to expand its tracking platform into what it calls its “Perception Engine,” which will require it making some deeper moves into machine learning, pushing into technologies that reside outside of simply defining the geometry of a space. The startup wants its tracking tech to recognize people and identify objects.

10. Voyage, a Silicon Valley autonomous taxi service, raised $15 million from led by InMotion Ventures with additional funds from SV Angel, Khosla Ventures, Initialized Capital, CRV and Amino Capital. Voyage recently announced plans to deploy a fleet of AV taxis in a 125k resident retirement community in Florida.

11. Huazhi IMT, a Chinese industrial robot integrator, received $15 million in early stage funding from Ying Capital and Banyan Capital.

Canvas Technology is building mobile robots for warehouses. (Credit: Canvas Technology)

12. Canvas Technology, a Boulder, CO startup building mobile robots for warehouses, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Playground Global, with previous investors Xplorer Capital, AME Cloud Ventures and Morado Ventures.

13. Mall Parking, a Shenzhen mobile parking system developer, raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from the Holdfound Group.

14. Robotis Dynamixel, a Korean maker of actuators, parts and educational robot kits, raised $8.5 million from LG Electronics for a 10.12% share of the company.

15. Beijing Aqiu Technology (Aqrose), a Chinese start-up that applies machine vision and machine learning technology into industrial automation, raised $8 million in a series A round led by Baidu Ventures and DCM China with participation by Long Capital, Powercloud Venture Capital and Innoangel Fund.

16. Iris Automation, a San Francisco-based provider of collision avoidance for commercial drones, raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and including Bee Partners.

17. SkySpecs, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based automated infrastructure inspection company, raised $8 million in Series B funding. Investors include Statkraft Ventures, UL Ventures, Capital Midwest, Venture Investors, and Huron River Ventures.

18. CalmCar Vehicle Vision, a Chinese driving vision system provider, raised $4.6 million from Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital Management.

19. Doxel, a Silicon Valley construction productivity startup using AI and vision systems, raised $4.5 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation by Alchemist Accelerator, Pear Ventures, SV Angel and Steelhead Ventures participating. Doxel uses autonomous devices to monitor a site every day, with LIDAR and HD cameras. Their AI then processes this visual data, inspects installation quality, and quantifies how much material has been installed correctly and then provide real-time feedback on productivity.

20. Altitude Angel, a UK startup providing a drone traffic management platform and airspace integration system, raised $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Seraphim Space Fund with participation from ADV and Frequentis AG.

21. Iron Ox, a San Francisco, Calif.-based developer of robots for crop harvesting, raised $3 million in seed funding. Eniac Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Amplify Partners.

22. Understand.ai, a machine-learning startup for training and validation data in autonomous vehicles, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. LEA Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Frontline Ventures, Synapse Partners and Agile Partners.

23. Converge Industries, a San Francisco-based startup providing AI powered software for commercial drones for insurance adjusters, raised $750k in a seed round led by Samsung’s NEXT Ventures, Techstars and Kima Ventures with participation from Right Side Capital Management.

24. Maidbot, an Austin, TX industrial cleaning robot startup, received an undisclosed amount in an A round led by Bissell with participation from existing and new investors including 1517 Fund, Comet Labs, and Rough Draft Ventures, along with strategic hospitality and industrial cleaning organizations.

25. Connexient, a New York City-based provider of indoor mapping, navigation and location-based services for companies with large, complex buildings and campuses raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Riverside Acceleration Capital.

Acquisitions

1. Uber sold a 15% stake to SoftBank for $7.75 billion. $6.5 billion of the SoftBank investment was at a 30% discount against Uber’s private valuation of $69 billion. The additional $1.25 billion was at Uber’s current/higher valuation. That’s a major deal at a significant discount for SoftBank.

2. Key Technology, a Walla Walla, WA-based industrial robots integrator, was acquired by Duravant, a food processing equipment solutions provider, for $175 million. Duravent issued a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Key common stock at $26.75 per share ($175 million).

3. PaR Systems, a Minnesota-based integrator of industrial robotics and also engineering services for mission-critical special situations, was acquired by the Pohlad family (which also owns the Minnesota Twins baseball team. PaR has 380 employees. Financial details were not disclosed. Pohlad bought PaR from MML Capital Partners, an equity fund.

4. Visual Components, a Finnish software and AI company providing 3D simulation software to manufacturers including Kuka, Foxconn and Samsung, was acquired by Kuka.

IPOs

Nada. Zip. Nothing. In the SV Bank survey referenced above, executives were asked what their realistic long-term goal and/or exit plan was and 57% responded they thought that acquisition was the most common path for them. Only 18% said they would go public.

]]> https://robohub.org/ces-2018-robots-ai-massive-data-and-prodigious-plans/ Mon, 22 Jan 2018 23:02:08 +0000 http://robohub.org/ces-2018-robots-ai-massive-data-and-prodigious-plans/ This year’s CES was a great show for robots. “From the latest in self-driving vehicles, smart cities, AI, sports tech, robotics, health and fitness tech and more, the innovation at CES 2018 will further global business and spur new jobs and new markets around the world,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA.

But with that breath of coverage and an estimated 200,000 visitors, 7,000 media, 3,000 exhibitors, 900 startups, 2.75 million sq ft of floorspace at two convention centers, hospitality suites in almost every major hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, over 20,000 product announcements and 900 speakers in 200 conference sessions, comes massive traffic (humans, cars, taxis and buses), power outages, product launch snafus and humor:

AI, big data, Amazon, Google, Alibaba and Baidu

“It’s the year of A.I. and conversational interfaces,” said J. P. Gownder, an analyst for Forrester Research, “particularly advancing those interfaces from basic conversations to relationships.” Voice control of almost everything from robots to refrigerators was de rigueur. The growing amount of artificial intelligence software and the race between Amazon, Google and their Chinese counterparts Alibaba and Baidu to be the go-to service for integration was on full display. Signs advertised that products worked with Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa or both, or with Duer-OS (Baidu’s conversational operating system) but, by the sheer number of products that worked with the Alexa voice assistant, Amazon appeared to dominate.

“It’s the year when data is no long static and post processed” said Brian Krzanich, Intel’s CEO.  He also said: “The rise of autonomous cars will be the most ambitious data project of our lifetime.” In his keynote presentation he demonstrated the massive volume of data involved in the real-time processing needs of autonomous cars, sports events, smart robotics, mapping data collection and a myriad other sources of data-driven technology on the horizon.

Many companies were promoting their graphics, gaming, and other types of processors. IBM had a large invite-only room to show their Quantum Computer. Their 50-qubit chip is housed in that silver canister at the bottom of the thing/computer. Not shown is the housing which keeps the device super cool. IBM is making the computer available via the cloud to 60,000 users working on 1.7 million experiments as well as commercial partners in finance, materials, automotive and chemistry. (Intel showed their 49-qubit chip code-named Tangle Lake in a segment in Krzanich’s keynote.)

Robots, robotics and startups

Robots were everywhere ranging from ag bots, tennis bots, drones, robot arms, robot prosthetics and robot wheelchairs, to smart home companions, security robots and air, land and sea drones. In this short promotional video produced by CES, one can see the range of products on display. Note the quantity of Japanese, Chinese and Korean manufacturers.

One of the remarkable features of CES is what they call Eureka Park. It’s a whole floor of over 900 startup booths with entrepreneurs eager to explain their wares and plans. The area was supported by the NSF, Techstars and a host of others. It’s a bit overwhelming but absolutely fascinating.

Because it’s such a spread-out show, locations tend to blur. But I visited all the robotics and related vendors I could find in my 28,000-step two-day exploration and the following are ones that stuck out from the pack:

• LiDAR and camera vision systems providers for self-driving vehicles, robots, and automation such as Velodyne, Quanergy and Luminar were everywhere showing near and far detection ranges, wide, narrow and 360° fields of view, and solid state or other conventional as well as software to consolidate all that data and make it meaningful.
  • Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli startup that has already raised $82 million, showed their solid state device (Pro) available now and their low-cost automotive grade product (One) available in 2019.
  • Bosch-supported Chinese startup Roadstar.ai is developing Level 4 multi-sensor fusion solutions (cameras, LiDARs, radars, GPS and others).
  • Beijing Visum Technology, another Chinese vision system startup, but this one uses what they called ‘Natural Learning’ to continually improve what is seen by their ViEye, stereoscopic, real-time vision detection system for logistics and industrial automation.
  • Korean startup EyeDea displayed both a robot vision system and a smart vision module (camera and chip) for deep learning and obstacle avoidance for the auto industry.
  • Occipital, a Colorado startup developing depth sensing tech using twin infrared shutter cameras for indoor and outdoor for scanning and tracking.
  • Aeolus Robotics, a Chinese/American startup working on a $10,000 home robot with functional arms and hands and comms and interactivity that are similar to what IBM’s Watson offers, appeared to be focused toward selling their system components: object recognition, facial/pedestrian recognition, deep learning perception systems and auto safety cameras which interpret human expressions and actions such as fatigue.
• SuitX, a Bay Area exoskeleton spin-off from Ekso Bionics, focused on providing modular therapeutic help for people with limited mobility rather than industrial uses of assistive devices. Ekso, which wasn’t at CES, is providing assistive systems that people strap into to make walking, lifting and stretching easier for employees and the military.
• There were a few marine robots for photography, research and hull inspection:
  • Sublue Underwater AI, a Chinese startup, had a tank with an intelligent ROV capable of diving down to 240′ while sending back full HD camera and sensor data. They also make water tows.
  • RoboSea, also a Chinese startup, was showing land and sea drones for entertainment, research and rescue and photography.
  • QYSea, a Chinese startup making a 4k HD underwater camera robot which can go to a depth of 325′.
  • CCROV, a brand of the Vxfly incubater of China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University, demonstrated a 10-pound tethered camera box with thrusters that can dive more than 300′. The compact device is designed for narrow underwater areas and dangerous environments for people.
  • All were well-designed and packaged as consumer products.
• UBTech, a Chinese startup that is doing quite well making small humanoid toy robots including their $300 StarWars StormTrooper showed that their line of robots are growing from toys to service robots. They were demonstrating the first video-enabled humanoid robot with an Amazon Alexa communication system touting its surveillance capabilities and Avatar modes for this little (17″ tall) walking robot. It not only works with Alexa but can also get apps and skills and accept controls from iOS and Android. Still, like many of the other home robots, they can’t grasp objects, consequently they can’t perform services beyond remote presence and Alexa-like skills.
• My Special Aflac Duck won the CES Best Unexpected Product Award for a social robot designed to look like the white Aflac duck but also designed to help children coping with cancer. This is the second healthcare-related robotic device for kids from Sproutel, the maker of the duck. Their first product was Jerry the Bear for diabetic kids.
• YYD Robo, another Chinese startup, was demonstrating a line of family companion, medical care robots (although the robot’s hands could not grasp), which also served as child care and teaching robots. This Shenzhen-based robot company says they are fully-staffed and have a million sq ft of manufacturing space, yet the robots weren’t working and their website doesn’t come up.
• Hease Robotics, a French mobile kiosk startup, showed their Heasy robotic kiosk as a guide for retail stores, office facilities and public areas. At CES, there were many vending machine companies showing how they are transitioning to smart machines – and in some cases, smart and robotic as the Heasy robotic kiosk.
• Haapie SAS, also a French startup, was showing their tiny interactive, social and cognitive robots – consumer entertainment and Alexa-like capabilities. Haapie also integrates their voice recognition, speech synthesis and content management into smartphone clients.
• LG, the Korean consumer products conglomerate, showed an ambitious line of robot products they called CLOi. One is an industrial floor cleaner for public spaces which can also serve as a kiosk/guide; another has a build-in tray for food and drink delivery in hotels; and a third can carry luggage and will follow customers around stores, airports and hotels. During a press conference, one of the robots tipped over and another wouldn’t hear instructions. Nevertheless all three were well-designed and purposed and the floor cleaner and porter robots are going to help out at the airport for next month’s Winter Olympics.
• Two Chinese companies showed follow-me luggage: 90FUN and their Puppy suitcase and ForwardX and their smart suitcases. 90FUN is using Ninebot/Segway follow-me technology for their Puppy.
• Twinswheel, a French startup, was showing a prototype of their parcel delivery land drone for factories, offices and last-mile deliveries.
• Dobot is a Chinese inventor/developer of a transformable robot and 3D printer for educational purposes and a multi-functional industrial robot arm. They also make a variety of vision and stabilizing systems which are incorporated into their printers and robots. It’s very clever science. They even have a laser add-on for laser cutting and/or engraving. Dobot had a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017.
• Evolver Robots is a Chinese developer of mobile domestic service robots specifically designed for children between the ages of 4-12 offering child education, video chat, games, mobile projection and remote control via smartphone.
• Although drones had their own separate area at the show, there were many locations where I found them. From the agricultural spraying drones by Yamaha, DJI and Taiwanese Geosat Aerospace to the little deck-of-cards-sized ElanSelfie or the fold-into-a-5″ X 1/2″ high AEE Aviation selfie drone from Shenzhen, nothing stood out amongst the other 40+ drone vendors to compete with the might of DJI (which had two good-sized booths in different locations).
• Segway (remember Dean Kamen?) is now fully owned by Ninebot, a Beijing provider of all types of robotic-assisted self-balancing scooters and devices. They are now focused on lifestyle and recreational riders in the consumer market including the Loomo which you ride like a hoverboard and then load it up with cargo and have it follow you home or to another place in the facility. At their booth they were pushing the Loomo for logistics operations however it can’t carry much and has balance problems. They would do better having it tow a cart.
• Yujin Robot, a large Korean maker of robotic vacuums, educational robots, industrial robots, mobility platforms for research and a variety of consumer products, was showing their new logistics transport system GoCart with three different configurations of autonomous point-to-point robots.
• The Buddy robot from Blue Frog Robotics won CES’s Robotics and Drones Innovation Award along with Soft Robotics and their grippers and control system that can pick items of varying size, shape and weight with a single device. Jibo, the Dobot (mentioned above) and 14 others also received the Robotics and Drones Innovation Award.

[The old adage in robotics that for every service robot there is a highly-skilled engineer by its side is still true… most of the social and home robots frequently didn’t work at the show and were either idle or being repaired.]

Silly things

• • A local strip club promoted their robotic pole dancers (free limo).
  • At a hospitality suite across from the convention center, the head of Harmony, the sex robot by San Diego area Abyss Creations (RealDoll), was available for demos and interviews. It will begin shipping this quarter at $8-$10,000.

  • Crowd-drawing events were everywhere but this one drew the largest audiences: Omron’s ping-pong playing robot.
  • FoldiMate, a laundry folding robot, requires a human to feed the robot one article at a time for it to work (for just $980 in late 2019). Who’s the robot?
  • And Intel’s drones flew over the Bellagio hotel fountains in sync with the water and light musical show. Very cool.

  • ABC’s Shark Tank, the hit business-themed funding TV show, was searching for entrepreneurs with interesting products at an open call audition area.

Bottom Line

Each time I return from a CES (I’ve been to at least six) I swear I’ll never go again. It’s exhausting as well as overwhelming. It’s impossible to get to all the places one needs to go — and it’s cold. Plus, once I get there, the products are often so new and untested, that they fail or are over-presented with too much hype. (LG’s new CLOi products failed repeatedly at their press conference; Sony’s Aibo ignored commands at the Sony press event.)

I end up asking myself “Is this technology really ready for prime time? Will it be ready by their promised delivery dates? Or was it all just a hope-fest? A search for funding?” I still have no answer… perhaps all are true; perhaps that’s why I keep going. It’s as if my mind sifted through all the hype and chaff and ended up with what’s important. There’s no doubt this show was great for robotics and that Asian (particularly Chinese) vendors are the new power players. Maybe that’s why I copied down the dates for CES 2018.

]]> https://robohub.org/point-to-point-mobile-robots-hot-sellers/ Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:32:40 +0000 http://robohub.org/point-to-point-mobile-robots-hot-sellers/

Today’s e-commerce spurs demand for reduced response times in fulfillment centers; generally has fewer products per order; and is constantly changing — increasing system complexity and the need for flexibility in automation. Today’s warehouses and distribution centers are far more complex than they were 10 years ago and employee turnover remains high; with complexity comes higher wages yet labor is increasingly hard to find — all adding to the equation.

Businesses are making investments in a variety of technologies to improve their inventory control, order processing methods, labor situation and to enhance their pick and pack operations to be faster, less rigid, requiring less physical exertion, and achieve more accurate results. “These factors are contributing to the need to convert warehouses and distribution centers into assets for competitive differentiation. Mobility will be front and center in this shift, says VDC Research in their recent ‘Taking Advantage of Apps and App Modernization in Warehousing‘ report.

[NOTE: Mobile robotic platforms can be “autonomous” (AMRs) also called self-driving or vision guided vehicles (SDVs or VGVs), which means they can navigate an uncontrolled environment without the need for physical or electromechanical guidance. Alternatively, mobile robots like automated guided vehicles (AGVs) rely on guidance devices that allow them to travel a pre-defined navigation route in relatively controlled spaces.]

Point-to-point mobile robots

Businesses of all types — from auto manufacturers to hospitals, from job shops to hotels — want to use point-to-point mobile devices instead of human messengering or towing for a variety of cost-saving reasons but mainly because it’s now achievable, cost-effective, and proven — plus there’s a real need to replace older people-dependent mobility tasks with more automated methods. Warehouse executives know that picking (grasping) still eludes robotics so they can’t buy cost-efficient robots that can pick and pack. But they also know that sensors and communication have improved to the point that navigation, collision avoidance, and low-cost mobile robots (and kits for forklifts and AGVs) can equip a warehouse with safe mobile devices that can carry or tow items from place to place thereby reducing costs and increasing productivity. Pallets, boxes and totes can be ported from point A to point B with economy and efficiency using a networked swarm of small, medium and large AMRs. Thus managers can effect economic efficiencies by cutting out wasted steps and reducing injuries and lost time through the use of point-to-point mobile robots.

Research and forecasts

1. In a recent 193-page report by QY Research, the new autonomous mobile robots market was reported to have grossed $158 million in 2016 and is projected to reach $390 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 16.26% between 2016 and 2022. This is the most conservative of the many research reports on the subject.
2. Tractica, a Colorado research firm with more optimistic projections and including a more expanded view of robot applications in the warehouse, recently published their Warehousing and Logistics Robots report which forecasts worldwide shipments of warehousing and logistics robots to grow from approximately 40,000 units in 2016 to 620,000 units in 2021 with estimated revenue of $22.4 billion in 2021.
3. IDTechEx is forecasting that AGVs/carts, autonomous industrial material handling vehicles, autonomous mobile carts, autonomous mobile picking robots, autonomous trucks, and last mile delivery drones and droids will become a $75bn market by 2027 and more than double by 2038. The report also discusses how mature technologies such as AGVs are evolving to be vision and software navigated to perform their various material handling tasks; it forecasts how navigational autonomy will “induce a colossal transfer of value from wages paid for human-provided driving services towards autonomous industrial vehicles which in turn will fuel the growth in this newer material handling vehicle industry.” [NOTE: Much of this revenue will be for last-mile delivery from startups like Marble, Marathon Technologies, Piaggio and Starship.]

Tractica researched a wider audience of vendors than those cited by QY Research for their research, but neither was up-to-date with the Korean and Chinese vendors and many new startups in this space, Noticeably missing from both research reports were Asian vendors Geek+, Yujin, Quicktron and GreyOrange, startup Canvas Technology, and the nav/vision conversion kit providers Seegrid, Balyo and RoboCV. The IDTechEx report includes all of these and more.

Point-to-point robot vendors

There has been much media attention – and a good lot of hype – about autonomous mobile picking robots, autonomous trucking, and last mile delivery (by land or air), yet few are delivering products in quantity or beyond the trial and error stage which is one reason why the point-to-point vendors are doing so well. There’s also news about converting AGVs, forklifts and tugs to become vision enabled and autonomous and although these adaptions are being made, those conversions are at a slower pace than those of the vendors shown below.

Here are profiles for a select few of the most interesting vendors serving the point-to-point mobile logistics robots market:

• MiR (Mobile Industrial Robots), a 2015 Danish startup, is the first mover in flexible point-to-point mobility. Their product line is spot on what other mobile robot manufacturers are beginning to find out from their customers: they want a bare-bones, simply-instructed, low-cost, mobile platform that can carry or tow anything anywhere. MiR’s products meet those criteria perfectly. Their towing system enables automatic pick-up and drop-off of carts carrying payloads of up to 1,100 lbs. They also provide fleet software to optimize control, coordinate orders to multiple robots, enable switch-outs when a robot must recharge itself, and provides ease of programming and integration to manufacturing and warehousing systems.
  • In a recent press release, MiR announced that 2017 sales had tripled over 2016; 2017 unit sales exceeded 1,000 robots; employees grew to 60 and are expected to double in 2018; that MiR robots were now at work in Honeywell, Argon Medical, Kamstrup, Airbus, Flex and many other facilities all over the world; and that MiR anticipates 2018 sales to increase similarly.
  • MiR’s rapid rise parallels the trend of businesses using point-to-point mobile devices instead of human messengering or towing. It isn’t MiR alone that is finding significant growth – other suppliers are also selling well above expectations.
  • MiR’s rise is also being propelled by MiR CEO Thomas Visti’s use of a tried-and-true global network of distributors/integrators which he developed for the very successful co-bot manufacturer Universal Robots. MiR’s 120 distributor/reseller network covers 40 countries and has helped MiR jump-start its global sales.
• Swisslog, a Kuka/Midea subsidiary, has a wide and varied product line covering healthcare, warehouse and distribution centers. Their TransCar AGVs for hospitals are used as tugs and tow vehicles; their Carry Robots are used in factories and warehouses for point-to-point deliveries and to move shelves to and from pickers. Swisslog also offers extensive automated warehouse devices such as the CarryPick System and miniload cranes, pallet stacker robots, conveyor systems, and the elaborate storage system AutoStore, a top-down small parts storage and item picking system.
• Seegrid, co-founded in 2003 by Hans Moravec of the Robotics Institute of CMU, and funded by Giant Eagle, the big East Coast grocery chain, began with the goal to help distribution centers like Giant Eagles transform their AGVs into vision guided vehicles (VGVs). They built their own line of lifts and tugs but more recently have joint-ventured with lift manufacturers to enable them to offer Seegrid vision systems which navigate without wires, lasers, magnets, or tapes, as add-on equipment. Seegrid systems focus on the movement of full pallet loads to and from storage racks and in and out of trucks.
• Fetch Robotics has a catchy description for their mobile robots: VirtualConveyor robots — and they’ve partnered with DHL who helped Fetch produce a glowing video of how they are being used in a major parts resupply warehouse. Fetch, which started out as a pick and delivery system, has been quick to reorganize to take advantage of the demand for point-to-point robots including adding robots that can handle a variety of heavy payloads.
• Clearpath Robotics, a maker of research UGVs, and their new OTTO line of mobile transporters, have followed a similar path as Fetch: quickly adapting to market demand by producing autonomous transporters that handle heavy and light load material. They offer two stylish and well-lighted transporters for 100kg payloads and 1500kg ones plus fleet management software. Their 360° lighting system displays familiar turn signals, brake lights status lights and audible tones so it is clearly evident where the device is going.
• Vecna Robotics, a developer and provider of robotics and telepresence solutions for healthcare, has recently expanded into logistics with a line of general purpose mobile robots. They offer platforms, lifters, tuggers, and conversion kits so that their product line offers solution robots for the transport of pallets, cases and individual items or totes.
• Aethon, a developer and manufacturer of tug and autonomous robots for hospitals and warehouses, was recently acquired by ST Engineering, a Singapore conglomerate with 50 years of engineering experience, a presence in over 100 countries and a focus on the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors. Aethon has made over 30 million robotic deliveries and pioneered their patented command (communication) center to maintain their robots. They offer two versions of their tug: one that can carry or pull 450kg and the other 645kg. [NOTE: Similar communication centers have since become de rigueur for maintaining operational up-time for mobile robot fleets.]
• Omron Adept, in addition to a wide range of one-armed and Delta robots, has a line of mobile platforms and transporters, plus fleet and navigation software. Adept Technologies acquired mobile robotics pioneer MobileRobots in 2010 and was itself acquired by Omron in 2015. MobileRobots sold their mobile robots to Swisslog and many others who rebranded them. Adept’s autonomous mobile robots were unlike traditional autonomously guided vehicles (AGVs). They didn’t require any facility modifications (such as floor magnets or navigational beacons) thereby saving users up to 15% in deployment costs.
• Amazon Robotics, Geek+, Quicktron and Grey Orange are all providers of very similar shelf-lifting robotic systems which bring those shelves to pick stations where items are selected and packed and the shelves are then returned to a dynamic free-form warehouse. Amazon has gotten the lion’s share of news because they acquired the inventor of this type of goods-to-man system from Kiva Systems and now have over 40,000 of those robots at work in Amazon fulfillment centers. But GreyOrange, Geek+ and Quicktron also have thousands of these robots deployed with many thousand more coming online all over Asia and India. They are included here because they represent an important use of mobility in fulfillment applications that as yet cannot be fully completed by picking robots.

Other vendors offering various types of mobile robotics included in the research reports by IDTechEx, QY Research and Tractica include:

• Aviation Industry Corp of China
• Cimcorp Automation
• Daifuku
• Dematic
• Denso Wave
• FANUC
• Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz
• Kawasaki Heavy Industries
• KION Group
• Knapp
• Krones
• Locus Robotics
• Meidensha Corporation
• Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR)
• Murata Machinery
• SMP Robotics
• SSI SCHAEFER
• Tata Motors (BRABO)
• Toyota Industries Corporation (Material Handling Group TMHG)
• Vanderlande
• Yaskawa Electric Corporation

Bottom Line

There are thousands of point-to-point operations being conducted by humans towing or pushing rolling carts in all types of businesses for all manner of purposes. Point-to-point mobile robots are popular now because they can replace those humans with simple, easy to operate devices that do the same job for less cost, hence a fast ROI. With labor costs rising, robot costs coming down, and so many gofor applications, these types of robots are no-brainers for businesses everywhere and for a long time to come.

]]> https://robohub.org/december-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Tue, 02 Jan 2018 19:18:31 +0000 http://robohub.org/december-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Twenty-one different startups were funded in December cumulatively raising $430 million, down from the $782 million in November. Three didn’t report the amount of their funding. Only three were over $50 million of which one was a Chinese startup. Three acquisitions were reported during the month including two takeovers of Western robotics companies by Chinese ones. Nothing new on the IPO front.

Fundings:

1. Farmers Business Network, a San Carlos, Calif.-based farmer-to-farmer network raised $110 million in Series D funding. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc and Temasek led the round, and were joined by investors includingAcre Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GV and DBL Partners.
2. Ripcord, a Hayward, CA robotic digitization company, raised $59.5 million this year in a March Series A and Aug/Dec Series B equity funding led by GV and Icon Ventures with Lux Capital, Telstra Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Kleiner Perkins, Google and Baidu Ventures. Ripcord has developed and is providing as a service a digitization service using AI, scanning and robotics to go from cardboard storage boxes full of tagged manila folders, to scanable pdf files available through ERP and other office systems.
3. JingChi, a Chinese-funded Beijing and Silicon Valley self-driving AI systems startup, raised $52 million (in September) in a seed round led by Qiming Venture Partners. China Growth Capital, Nvidia GPU Ventures and other unnamed investors also participated in the round. Baidu is suing former Baidu employee Wang Jing for using Baidu IP for his new startup.
4. Groove X, a Tokyo startup developing a humanoid robot Lovot, raised $38.7 million in a Series A round by Mirai Creation Fund, government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Shenzhen Capital Group, Line Ventures, Dai-ichi Seiko, Global Catalyst Partners Japan (GCPJ), Taiwan’s Amtran Technology, OSG and SMBC Venture Capital. Groove X has raised $71.1 million thus far.
5. Kespry, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based aerial intelligence solution provider, raised $33 million in Series C funding led by G2VP, and was joined by investors including Shell Technology Ventures, Cisco Investments, and ABB Ventures.
6. Ouster, a San Francisco startup developing a $12,000 LiDAR, raised $27 million in a Series A funding round led by Cox Enterprises with participation from Fontinalis, Amity Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and Carthona Capital.
7. Fetch Robotics, a Silicon Valley logistics co-bot maker, raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Sway Ventures in San Francisco and included existing investors O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Shasta Ventures and SoftBank’s SB Group US. The round brings total funding to $48 million. Fetch, in addition to warehousing customers, is selling to “Tier 1” automakers, which like the ability of Fetch’s robots to detect and track the location of parts “to avoid losing transmissions.
8. Virtual Incision, a spinout from the U of Nebraska, is a medical device company developing miniaturized robotically assisted general surgery device, raised $18 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Chinese Sinopharm Capita and existing investor Bluestem Capital, with participation from PrairieGold Venture Partners and others.
9. Wuhan Cobot Technology, a Chinese co-bot startup, raised $15.4 million in a Series B round led by Lan Fund with participation by Matrix Partners and GGV Capital.
10. PerceptIn, a Silicon Valley vision systems startup, raised $11 million in Angel and A round funding, from Samsung Ventures, Matrix Partners and Walden Intl. Perceptin also announced their new $399 Ironsides product, a full robotics vision system combining both hardware and software for realtime tracking, mapping and path planning.
11. Upstream Security, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity platform provider for connected cars and self-driving vehicles, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Charles River Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Glilot Capital Partners and Maniv Mobility.
12. Robocath, a French medical robotics device developer, raised $8.6 million in two funding rounds from from Crédit Agricole Innovations et Territoires (CAIT), an innovation fund managed by Supernova Invest. Cardio Participation also invested. Robocath raised $5.6 million in May led by Normandie Participation, M Capital Partners with participation by NCI Gestion and GO Capital and $3 million in December.
13. FarmWise, a San Francisco agricultural robotics and IoT startup developing a weeding robot, raised $5.7 million in a seed round led by hardware-focused VC Playground Global with Felicis Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, and Valley Oak Investments also participating.
14. Guardian Optical Technologies, an Israeli sensor maker, raised $5.1 million in Series A funding from Maniv Mobility and Mirai Creation Fund.
15. Aeronyde, a Melbourne, Fla,-based drone infrastructure firm, raised $4.7 million led by JASTech Co. Ltd.
16. Elroy Air, a San Francisco startup building autonomous aircraft systems to deliver goods to the world’s most remote places, raised $4.6 million in a seed round led by Levitate Capital with participation by Shasta Ventures, Lemnos Labs and Homebrew.
17. Tortuga AgTech, a Denver-based robotics startup targeting controlled-environment fruit and vegetable growers has raised a $2.4 million Seed round led by early-stage hardware VC Root Ventures and closed in September. Also participating in the round were Silicon Valley tech VCs Susa Ventures and Haystack, AME Cloud Ventures, Grit Labs, the Stanford-StartX Fund and SVG Partners. Tortuga is developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments, from indoor hydroponics to greenhouses, starting with strawberries.
18. FluroSat, an Australian crop health startup, has raised $770k in a seed round by  Main Sequence Ventures, manager of the Australian government’s $100 million CSIRO Innovation Fund, Airtree Ventures and Australia’s Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC).
19. Blue Frog Robotics, a Paris-based robotics startup, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Fenox Venture Capital led the round with Gilles Benhamou and Benoit de Maulmin participating.
20. SkyX, an Israeli agtech developing variable aerial spraying software methods, raised an undisclosed seed funding round by Rimonim Fund.
21. TetraVue, a Vista, Calif.-based 3D technology provider, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include KLA Tencor, Lam Research, Tsing Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Nautilus Ventures.

Acquisitions:

1. Chinese medtech investment firm Great Belief International has acquired the IP and assets of the SurgiBot surgical robot developed by TransEnterix for $29 million. TransEnterix retains distribution rights outside of China. SurgiBot failed an FDA application whereupon TransEnterix acquired an Italian competitor with a less advanced product. TransEnterix will continue to develop and market that Senhance robotic assisted surgery platform – which has both CE and FDA approvals. “The relationship with GBIL will allow us to advance the SurgiBot System toward global commercialization while significantly reducing our required investment and simultaneously leveraging ‘in-country’ manufacturing in the world’s most populous country,” TransEnterix president & CEO Todd Pope said.
2. Estun Automation, a Chinese industrial robot and CNC manufacturer, acquired 50.01% (with the right to acquire the remainder of the shares) of Germany-based M.A.i GmbH, a 270 person integrator with facilities in the US, Italy, Romania and Germany, for around $10.5 million.
3. Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) acquires Odos Imaging for an undisclosed amount. Odos develops 3D imaging technologies for manufacturing systems.

]]> https://robohub.org/november-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Wed, 06 Dec 2017 01:16:44 +0000 http://robohub.org/november-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/
Twenty-two different startups were funded in November cumulatively raising $782 million, down a bit from the $862 million in October. The big $400 million funding for UBTech and the $55 million for TuSimple were the only two fundings over $50 million and they were both for Chinese startups with funding from Chinese VC firms.

Six acquisitions were reported during the month including another takeover of a European robotics company by a Chinese one.

On the IPO front, three existing publicly-traded stocks announced additional shares to raise additional funds.

Fundings:

1. Ubtech, a Shenzhen-based humanoid robots maker startup, raised $400 million in a Series C round led by Tencent Holdings (which invested $40 million in the round). Ubtech (Union Brothers Technology) builds and sells toy robots. Their most recent is a $300 Star Wars Stormtrooper robot which will ship just before the movie debuts mid-December.
2. TuSimple, a Chinese startup providing autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, raised $55 million in a Series C round led by Fuhe Capital with Zhiping Capital and SINA Corp. Note that TuSimple raised $20 million in August in a Series B round.
3. Markforged, a Watertown, MA maker of carbon fiber and metal 3D printing devices, raised $30 million in a Series C round led by Siemens’ next47 venture firm. Microsoft Ventures and Porsche SE also participated along with existing investors Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Trinity Ventures.
4. Kindred Systems, a Toronto warehousing AI startup, raised $27.5 million in a Series B round led by First Round Capital with participation by Tencent Holdings and Eclipse. Kindred is building human-like intelligence in machines. It’s first commercial offering is Kindred Sort, a put wall integration of arm, gripper and software to pick and sort random objects.
5. Locus Robotics, an Andover, MA-based provider of mobile robots for e-commerce fulfillment warehouses, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners with participation by existing investors.
6. Optimus Ride, a MIT spinoff company developing self-driving technology, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Greycroft Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Emerson Collective, Fraser McCombs Capital and Joi Ito.
7. Bossa Nova, a San Francisco-based developer of autonomous service robots for the global retail industry, raised $17.5 million in Series B funding. Paxion led the round, and was joined by investors including Intel Capital, WRV Capital, Lucas Venture Group, and Cota Capital.
8. Riverfield Surgical Robot Lab, a Japanese startup and spin-off from the Tokyo Inst of Technology, raised $10 million in a Series B round from Toray Engineering, SBI Investment and JAFCO Japan.
9. Arbe Robotics, an Israeli radar collision avoidance platform, raised $9 million in a Series A round. O.G. Tech Ventures and OurCrowd led the round, with previous investors Canaan Partners, iAngels, and Taya Ventures also participating. Arbe is also developing radar for autonomous vehicles that facilitates real-time mapping at distances up to 300 meters.
10. AUBO Robotics (prev named Smokie), a Chinese co-bot manufacturer, raised $9 million in a Series A round by Fosun RZ Capital. “When we decided to manufacture in China we had to be incorporated in China to get the incentives. They had to have a name change because the laws in China state that the name be a Chinese name. AUBO or AU BO loosely translated means ‘New Technology’. The AUBO-i5 production is in Changzhou and we also have R&D in Beijing and Knoxville TN,” said Aubo’s VP of Sales Peter Farkas.
11. Beijing TechX Aviation Innovation, a Chinese drone startup for military and high-end industrial users, raised $7.5 million in a Series A round from Fosun RZ Capital.
12. Leju Robotics, a Shenzhen startup developing humanoid robots for the service industry, raised $7.4 million (in August) from Green Pine Capital Partners and Tencent.
13. Embodied Intelligence, an Emeryville, CA startup developing teaching AI for existing robots, raised $7 million in a seed round led by Amplify Partners with participation from Lux Capital, SV Angels, FreeS, 11.2 Capital and A.Capital.
14. Apis Cor, a Moscow startup using a massive robotic 3D device for printing concrete, raised $6 million (in September) in a seed round from Rusnano Sistema Sicar venture fund.
15. Rokae, a Chinese startup making lightweight/lightload industrial robot arms, raised $6 million in a Series A round from THG Ventures, the venture arm of Tsinghua Holdings, and Delin Capital.
16. AerDrone Intl, a startup of Irelandia Aviation Drones, both of Dublin, raised $5 million in seed funding from Irelandia to provide leasing funding for drone users.
17. GJS Robot, a Shenzhen startup making personalized fighting robots known as Ganker robots, raised an undisclosed Series A investment estimated to be $5 million, from Tencent Holdings.
18. Catalia Health, a San Francisco-based healthcare startup providing an AI-powered patient engagement platform, raised $4 million in pre-Series A funding. Ion Pacific led the round.
19. TortugaAgTech, a Colorado ag robotics startup, raised $2.6 million (in September) from SVG Partners and Thrive AgTech Ventures. Tortuga is developing robotics for indoor farming operations.
20. Ceres Imaging, the Oakland, CA aerial imagery and analytics company, raised an additional $2.5 million for their May, 2017 Series A round (which raised $5M). Romulus Capital was the sole investor.
21. Wink Robotics, a startup focused on using robotics, AI and machine vision for the beauty industry, raised $1.73 million (in August) in seed funding from undisclosed sources.
22. Natilus, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of large aircraft drones to haul freight, raised seed funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors included Starburst Ventures, Seraph Group, Gelt VC, Outpost Capital and Draper Associates.

Acquisitions:

• Dash Robotics, a Hayward, CA connected toys developer, acquired Austin, TX-based Bots Alive, a robotics and AI hobby kit and toy developer, for an undisclosed amount.
• Huachangda Intelligent Equipment, a Chinese industrial robot integrator servicing primarily the auto industry, has acquired Swedish Robot System Products (RSP), for an undisclosed amount. RSP manufacturers grippers, welding systems, tool changers and other peripheral products for robots.
• Atronix Engineering, a GA-based industrial robot system integrator, was acquired by MHS (Material Handling Systems), a KY-based integrator of material handling systems, for an undisclosed amount. In April, 2017, MHS was itself acquired by Thomas H. Lee Partners, a Boston-based equity fund.
• Mapbox, a DC and SF nav systems provider for car companies, acquired a 4-person Minsk, Belarus mapping startup, MapData, for an undisclosed amount. Just last month Mapbox raised $164 million in a round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. The deal spearheads the hiring of more engineers to help build its next big product, an SDK that will let developers build augmented reality-based maps into their apps that will work by way of the front-facing cameras on people’s devices.
• Argo AI, a Pittsburgh autonomous vehicles and AI startup, using some of the $1 billion it raised from Ford, acquired Princeton Lightwave for an undisclosed amount. Princeton is a New Jersey manufacturer of real-time Geiger-mode LiDAR technology.
• Tesla acquired Perbix, a Minnesota integrator of automated machines and industrial robotics that had been a contract supplier to Tesla for many years, for around $10.5 million.

IPOs:

• Titan Medical (TSE:TMD), a Canadian single-port surgical robot device maker, announced an offering of shares for a minimum of $14,000,000 and a maximum $18,000,000. Titan will issue shares at a price of CDN $0.50 per Unit and each Unit is comprised of one common share and one warrant, exercisable for one Common Share at a price of CDN $0.60, for a period of 5 years following the closing of the Offering.
• Myomo (NYSEMKT:MYO), a Cambridge, MA-based exoskeleton provider, announced an offering of 1.5 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase an additional 750,000 shares at a price of $6.25 per share for 1/2 a warrant. Myomo hopes to raise $8.5 on the initial offering with an additional $1.4 million from an underwriter’s option.
• Fastbrick Robotics (ASX:FBR), an Australian brick-laying startup, raised $26.5 million by offering 184 million shares in a private placement. This is in addition to the $2 million investment in July by Caterpillar who will be manufacturing, selling and servicing Fastbrick’s technology mounted on Caterpillar equipment.

]]> https://robohub.org/robots-and-the-two-edged-blade-of-new-technology/ Wed, 29 Nov 2017 16:41:01 +0000 http://robohub.org/robots-and-the-two-edged-blade-of-new-technology/ There’s a scare-tactic video going around on social media, and I wanted to weigh in on it—this particular video has gone from 500,000 views to almost 2 million in the past 10 days. As a matter of principle, I will not link to it. It presents a scary future in which killer robotic drones—controlled by any terrorist organization or government—run rampant.

The twin issues of killer robots and robots taking our jobs are the result of the two-edged blade of new technology, i.e., technologies that can be used for both good and evil. Should these new technologies be stopped entirely or regulated? Can they be regulated? Once you see a video like this one, one doubts whether they can ever be controlled. It’s fearful media that doesn’t say it is fake until far beyond the irresponsible level.

Videos like this one—and there are many—are produced for multiple purposes. The issues often get lost to the drama of the message. They are the result of, or fueled by, headline-hungry news sources, social media types and commercial and political strategists. This particular shock video—fake as it is—is promoting a longer, more balanced documentary and non-profit organization on the subject of stopping autonomous killing machines. Yet there are other factual videos of the U.S. military’s Perdix drones swarming just like in the shock video. Worse still, the same technologists that teach future roboticists at MIT are also developing those Perdix drones and their swarming capabilities.

My earlier career was in political strategy and I know something about the tactics of fear and manipulation—of raising doubts for manipulative purposes, as well as the real need for technologies to equalize the playing field. Again, the two-edged sword.

At the present time, we are under very real threat militarily and from the cyber world. We must invest in countering those threats and inventing new preventative weaponry. Non-militarily, jobs ARE under threat—particularly the dull, dirty and dangerous (DDD) ones easily replaced by robots and automation. In today’s global and competitive world, DDD jobs are being replaced because they are costly and inefficient. But they are also being replaced without too much consideration for those displaced.

It’s hard for me as an investor and observer (and in the past as a hands-on participant) to reconcile what I know about the state of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence today with the future use of those very same technologies.

I see the speed of change, e.g.: for many years, Google has had thousands of coders coding their self-driving system and compiling the relevant and necessary databases and models. But along comes George Hotz and other super-coders who single-handedly write code that writes code to accomplish the same thing. Code that writes code is what Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking fear, yet it is inevitable and soon will be commonplace. Ray Kurzweil named this phenomenon and claims that the ‘singularity’ will happen by 2045 with an interim milestone in 2029 when AI will achieve human levels of intelligence. Kurzweil’s forecasts, predicated on exponential technological growth, is clearly evident in the Google/Hotz example.

Pundits and experts suggest that when machines become smarter than human beings, they’ll take over the world. Kurzweil doesn’t think so. He envisions the same technology that will make AIs more intelligent giving humans a boost as well. It’s back to the two-edged sword of good and evil.

In my case, as a responsible writer and editor covering robotics, automation and artificial intelligence, I think it’s important to stay on topic, not fan the flames of fear, and to present the positive side of the sword.

]]> https://robohub.org/302-research-reports-forecast-significant-growth-for-robot-industry/ Fri, 24 Nov 2017 17:08:13 +0000 http://robohub.org/302-research-reports-forecast-significant-growth-for-robot-industry/

Press releases for this batch of 30 research reports all agree that most segments of the robotics industry are expected to grow at a double-digit pace at least through 2022.

Although these reports vary widely in their forecasts – often on the same topic, they all seem to agree that the global robotics industry is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the teens or greater.

Unmanned mobile air, land and sea vehicles (commercial and military)

• Commercial UAV Report
  Aug 2017, Interact Analysis, free
  Industry revenues for commercial-use drones are forecast to reach $15 billion by 2022, up from just $1.3 billion in 2016. This includes revenues from hardware, software/analytics and drone services. Rapidly increasing penetration rates into a huge number of commercial applications are driving a six-fold increase in drone shipments, surpassing 620,000 units in 2022. Only the trend of using drone service providers rather than purchasing hardware will temper this growth.
• Global driverless tractors market
  Nov 2017, 109 pages, QY Research, $3,500
  Describes offerings from John Deere, Autonomous Tractor, AGCO/Fendt and CNH/Cash IH.
• Robotics for ag, construction, warehousing & logistics, telepresence and customer service
  Nov 2017, 127 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Tractica forecasts that worldwide shipments of enterprise robots will grow from approximately 83,000 units in 2016 to 1.2 million units in 2022, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57% during that period.  Worldwide revenue for the enterprise robotics market will increase from $5.9 billion in 2016 to $67.9 billion in 2022.
• Global indoor robots market
  Oct 2017, 223 pages, BIS Research, $4,499
  The global indoor robots market, which consists of cleaning, medical, security & surveillance, public relations, education, entertainment, and personal assistant robots, generated $3.7 billion in 2016 and has exhibited a high growth rate.
• Global defense counter-UAS technologies
  Oct 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $1,500
  Over 50 global defense companies now offer some sort of counter unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS).
• Military robots market
  Sep 2017, 186 pages, Reports n Reports, $5,650
  The military robots market is expected to grow from an estimated $16.79 billion in 2017 to $30.83 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 12.92%. Drivers for military robots include rising number of terrorist activities, increasing need of systems that can conduct remote operations for a longer time, and technological developments in unmanned systems. Mine clearance is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period.
• Global EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Robot Market
  Sep 2017, 101 pages, Absolute Reports, $4,000
  The Global Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Robot market is valued at $5.98 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $8 billion by the end of 2022, growing at an annual CAGR of 4.6%.
• Autonomous underwater vehicle market
  Aug 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
  The market for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is expected to grow from $362.5 million in 2017 to $1,206.9 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 22.20% between 2017 and 2023.

Industrial, collaborative and sensors

• Worldwide spending on robotics
  July 2017, IDC, subscription service
  IDC forecasts worldwide purchases of robotics, including drones and robotics-related hardware, software and services, will total $97.2 billion in 2017, an increase of 17.9% over 2016. IDC expects robotics spending to accelerate over the next five years reaching $230.7 billion in 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8%.
• Global collaborative robots market
  Nov 2017, Energias Market Research, $4,895
  The Global Collaborative Robots market is expected to increase from $177.2 million in 2016, to $4,238.3 million in 2023, at a significant CAGR of 57.4% from 2017 to 2023. Increasing investments in automation by industries to support industry 4.0 revolution (smart production), low price of collaborative robots and high return on investment (ROI) rates are the factors attributing towards the growth of the global collaborative market during the forecast period.
• Global industrial robots market and trends
  Dec 2017, 350 pages, Data Bridge Market Research, $4,200
  The Global Industrial Robots Market accounted to $38.20 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 9.54% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.
• Global industrial and service robots market
  Nov 2017, 125 pages, QY Research, $3,560
  No forecasts available for this report.
• Global robot programming services market
  Oct 2017, 87 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the market will grow steadily at a CAGR of around 12% through 2021.
• Global industrial robotics rental market
  Jul 2017, 81 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts the global industrial robotics rental market to grow at a CAGR of 13.58% during the period 2017-2021.
• Industrial robotics market
  Oct 2017, 114 pages, Variant Market Research, $3,746
  Variant forecasts this market to reach $77.7 billion by 2024 growing at an annual CAGR of 9.3% from 2017 to 2024.
• Global industrial robot positioners market
  Mar 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
  For blind robots to pick an object those objects must be properly positioned – a niche industry that is forecast to grow at a 7% CAGR.
• US Co-bot market
  Nov 2017, 104 pages, QY Research, $3,500
  No forecasts available for this report.
• Global collaborative robots market
  2017, Inkwood Research, $2,500
  Global Collaborative Robots market is expected to grow at 49.14% CAGR during the forecast period 2017-2025; North America collaborative robots market was valued at $74 million in 2016 and is estimated to generate a net revenue of approximately $1592 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 40.93%.
• Packaging robot market
  Oct 2017, 120 pages, ReportLinker, $4,795
  Forecasts the global packaging robot market to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2017 to 2023.
• Global collaborative robots market
  Oct 2017, GMI Research, $4,786
  The market for collaborative robots is expected to grow at a CAGR of 56.6% from 2017 to 2023. Drivers are towards automation as well as growing demand for compact, lightweight and dexterous robots along with low average selling price and higher returns by investing on collaborative robots.
• Global industrial robot reducer sales market
  Sep 2017, 108 pages, QY Research, $4,000
  The report reviews the major drive providers (Nabtesco, Harmonic Drive, Sumitomo) and four new Chinese providers as well (an important factor since there is a major backlog in harmonic drive production and much of the demand is for robots in China).
• Innovations in sensor space
  Oct 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950

  Low power, smaller, lighter sensors with enhanced performance attributes and minimal false alarms is driving innovations in the sensors space for safety systems, wearables, drones, radar and intrusion detection.

Professional, agricultural, commercial and consumer service robots

• Global Agriculture robot market
  Sep 2017, Energias Market Research, $4,895
  The global Agriculture Robot market is expected to increase from $1.03 billion in 2016, to $4.7 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 24.31% from 2017 to 2023. The overall Agriculture Robots market is mainly driven by the focus on technological innovations such as precision farming to enhance the yield of crops.
• Global Robot Lawn Mowers Market
  Sep 2017, 127 pages, Market Insights Reports, $2,900
  Europe was the largest production market with a market share of 48.63% in 2016, it is also the biggest consumption market with a market share of 59.44% in 2016. North America ranked the second markets with the production market share of 33.28% in 2016 and with the consumption share of 32.52% in 2016.
• Commercial robotics market
  Oct 2017, Transparency Market Research, $5,950
  The global commercial robotics market is set to rise to $17.6 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 24.4% beginning at $5.9 billion by the end of 2017, 40% of which is medical robotics.
• Agricultural robots market
  Sep 2017, 205 pages, Allied Market Research, $3,840
  The global agricultural robots market is estimated to account for a market revenue of $2,927 million in 2016 and is expected to reach to $11,050 million in 2023.
• Food robotics market
  Oct 2017, 203 pages, Meticulous Market Research, $4,175
  Global Food Robotics Market is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2022 supported by a CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. Drivers include lack of skilled workforce, increasing food safety regulations, rising demand for advanced food packaging and growing demand to improve productivity.
• Global service robotics market
  Oct 2017, 241 pages, Berg Insight AB, $1,890
  Ten major segments hold great market potential for next decade: floor cleaning robots, robot lawn mowers, milking robots, telepresence robots, surgical robots, automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, unmanned aerial vehicles and humanoid, assistant and social companion robots. The installed base of service robots in these segments reached 29.6 million worldwide at the end of 2016.
• Humanoid Robot Market
  Oct 2017, 133 pages, ReportsnReports, $5,650
  The humanoid robot market is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2023 from $320.3 million in 2017, at a CAGR of 52.1% between 2017 and 2023. This growth can be attributed to the introduction of advanced features in humanoid robots, the increasing use of humanoids as educational robots, and growing demand from the retail industry for personal assistance.
• Anthropomorphic robot sales
  Nov 2017, 126 pages, QY Research, $4,000
  Covers top manufacturers Softbank, Robotis, Hanson, Ubtech, Hasbro, Wowwee, Qihan and basic uses for this type of robot in education, entertainment, space, R&D, personal assistance, caregiving, search & rescue and PR.

Two International Federation of Robotics Annual Reports

The fact-based backbone for many of the research reports shown above are the International Federation of Robotics’ (IFR) annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World Robotics Service Robots reports. These two books represent the official tabulation and analysis from all the robot associations around the world and cover all aspects of industrial and service robotics.The 2017 reports cover 2016 activity.

Industrial Robots: By 2020 the IFR estimates that more than 1.7 million new industrial robots will be installed in factories worldwide. In 2017 robot installations are estimated to increase by 21% in the Asia-Australia region. Robot supplies in the Americas will surge by 16% and in Europe by 8%.

Service Robots: The IFR estimated that sales of all types of robots for domestic tasks – e.g. vacuum cleaning, lawnmowing, window cleaning – could reach almost 32 million units in the period 2018-2020, with an estimated value of about $11.7 billion. At the same time total unit sales of professional service robots are estimated to reach a total of almost $18.8 billion – about 400,000 units will be sold.

The two reports can be purchased from the IFR for $2,100 (€1800 + VAT where applicable). The reports can also be purchased separately: the industrial report in pdf format costs $1,400 (€1200)​ and the service report $700 (€600).

]]> https://robohub.org/locus-robotics-raises-25-million-for-warehouse-raas/ Fri, 24 Nov 2017 17:06:53 +0000 http://robohub.org/locus-robotics-raises-25-million-for-warehouse-raas/ Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, MA-based startup, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Silicon Valley Scale Venture Partners, with additional participation from existing investors. Locus plans to use the funds to expand into international markets and build up its growing subscription-based robot fleet. Locus business model uses Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) which allows customers to use Locus’ solutions without a large-scale capital investment.

The story of how Locus came to be is almost as interesting as why their mobile robots and RaaS business mode are getting so much attention and acceptance.

In March 2012, in an effort to make their distribution centers (DCs) as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house. There was a year of confusion after the acquisition whether Kiva would continue providing DCs with Kiva robots. It became clear that Amazon was taking all Kiva’s production and that, at some future date, Kiva would stop supporting their existing client base and focus entirely on Amazon – which happened in April 2015 when Amazon renamed Kiva to Amazon Robotics and encouraged prospective users of Kiva technology to let Amazon Robotics and Amazon Services provide fulfillment within Amazon warehouses using Amazon robots.

Locus Robotics came to be because its founders were early adopters of Kiva Systems robotics technology. When they couldn’t expand with Kiva because Kiva had been taken off the market by Amazon, they were inspired to engineer a system they thought better and which empowered human pickers with mobile robots. The Locus mobile robot and related software are their solution.

]]> https://robohub.org/jibo-personal-robot-tops-times-best-innovations-of-2017/ Sun, 19 Nov 2017 11:02:52 +0000 http://robohub.org/jibo-personal-robot-tops-times-best-innovations-of-2017/

Credit: Photograph by Sebastian Mader for TIME

Jibo is a personal robot with a difference. It is unlike the stationary Amazon Alexa or Google Home. It attempts to offer the same repertoire of features while adding its physical presence and mobility to the mix.

Quoting Time Magazine, “Jibo looks like something straight out of a Pixar movie, with a big, round head and a face that uses animated icons to convey emotion. It’s not just that his body swivels and swerves while he speaks, as if he’s talking with his nonexistent hands. It’s not just that he can giggle and dance and turn to face you, wherever you are, as soon as you say, “Hey, Jibo.” It’s that, because of all this, Jibo seems downright human in a way that his predecessors do not. Jibo could fundamentally reshape how we interact with machines.”

Jibo can recognize up to six faces and voices yet it still has a lot to learn. Although he can help users in basic ways, like by summarizing news stories and taking photos, he can’t yet play music or work with third-party apps like Domino’s and Uber.

As an original IndieGoGo backer back in 2014, it’s been a long wait. Three years! Yes, this version of Jibo still has a lot to learn. But those skills are coming in 2018 as Jibo’s SDK becomes available to developers.

]]> https://robohub.org/another-chinese-acquisition-of-a-european-robotics-manufacturer/ Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:53:24 +0000 http://robohub.org/another-chinese-acquisition-of-a-european-robotics-manufacturer/ Huachangda Intelligent Equipment, a Chinese industrial robot integrator primarily servicing China’s auto industry, has acquired Swedish Robot System Products (RSP), a 2003 spin-off from ABB with 70 employees in Sweden, Germany and China, for an undisclosed amount. RSP manufactures grippers, welding equipment, tool changers and other peripheral products for robots.

Last month HTI Cybernetics, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator and contract manufacturer, was acquired by Chongqing Nanshang Investment Group for around $50 million. HTI provides robotic welding systems to the auto industry and also has a contract welding services facility in Mexico.

China is in the midst of a national program to develop or acquire its own technology to rival similar technologies in the West, particularly in futuristic industries such as robotics, electric cars, self-driving vehicles and artificial intelligence. China’s Made in China 2025 program will “support state capital in becoming stronger, doing better, and growing bigger, turning Chinese enterprises into world-class, globally competitive firms,” said President Xi at the recent party congress meeting in Beijing.

Made in China 2025 has specific targets and quotas. It envisions China domestically supplying 3/4 of its own industrial robots and more than 1/3 of its demand for smartphone chips by 2025, for example. These goals are backed with money: $45 billion in low-cost loans, $3 billion for advanced manufacturing efforts and billions more in other types of financial incentives and support.

Over the last two years there have been many targeted acquisitions by Chinese companies, of robotic companies in the EU and US. Following are the major ones:

• Midea Group, for around $4.5 billion, last year acquired the world’s 4th largest robot manufacturer, Germany-based Kuka AG.
• The Kion Group, a predominately Chinese-funded warehousing systems and equipment conglomerate, acquired Dematic, a large European AGV and material handling systems company. Kion also acquired Egemin Automation, Retrotech and Linde Material Handling.
• KraussMaffei, a big German industrial robots integrator, was acquired by ChemChina.
• Paslin, a US-based industrial robot integrator, was acquired by Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology, a Chinese industrial robot integrator.
• Baidu acquired Silicon Valley vision systems startup Xperception  for an undisclosed amount.
• Servotronix, an Israeli motion control and automation systems company, was acquired by Midea Group for $170 million. Servotronix, founded in 1987, develops and manufactures comprehensive and high performance motion control solutions.
• Shenyang Blue Silver Group (SBS Group), China, acquired 85% of the Ecoclean Group within the Dürr Group for around $134 million.
• RoboRobo, a Korean educational robotics kit and course provider startup, was acquired by Shengtong Printing for $62 million in cash and stock.
• Hocoma, a Swiss provider of robotic and sensor-based rehabilitation solutions, merged with Chinese DIH International to provide comprehensive rehab solutions.

Bottom line:

The consequences of China’s relentless quest for technology acquisitions may upset global trade. Their efforts have many American and European officials and business leaders pushing for tougher rules on technology purchases. Jeremie Waterman, President of the China Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the following to the NY Times.

“If Made in China 2025 achieves its goals, the U.S. and other countries would likely become just commodity exporters to China — selling oil, gas, beef and soybeans.”

]]> https://robohub.org/bossa-nova-raises-17-5-million-for-shelf-scanning-mobile-robots/ Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:46:37 +0000 http://robohub.org/bossa-nova-raises-17-5-million-for-shelf-scanning-mobile-robots/ Bossa Nova Robotics, a Silicon Valley developer of autonomous service robots for the retail industry, announced the close of a $17.5 million Series B funding round led by Paxion Capital Partners and participation by Intel Capital, WRV Capital, Lucas Venture Group (LVG), and Cota Capital. This round brings Bossa Nova’s total funding to date to $41.7 million.

Bossa Nova helps large scale stores automate the collection and analysis of on-shelf inventory data by driving their sensor-laden mobile robots autonomously through aisles, navigating safely among customers and store associates. The robots capture images of store shelves and use AI to analyze the data and calculate the status of each product including location, price, and out-of-stocks which is then aggregated and delivered to management in the form of a restock action plan.

They recently began testing their robots and analytic services in 50 Walmart stores across the US. They first deployed their autonomous robots in retail stores in 2013 and have since registered more than 710 miles and 2,350 hours of autonomous inventory scanning, capturing more than 80 million product images.

“We have worked closely with Bossa Nova to help ensure this technology, which is designed to capture and share in-store data with our associates in near real time, works in our unique store environment,” said John Crecelius, vice president of central operations at Walmart. “This is meant to be a tool that helps our associates quickly identify where they can make the biggest difference for our customers.”

CMU grads launched Bossa Nova Robotics in Pittsburgh as a designer of robotic toys. In 2009 they launched two new products: Penbo, a fuzzy penguin-like robot that sang, danced, cuddled and communicated with her baby in their own Penbo language; and Prime-8, a gorilla-like loud fast-moving robot for boys. In 2011 and 2012 they changed direction: they sold off the toy business and focused on developing a mobile robot based on CMU’s ballbot technology. Later they converted to normal casters and mobility methods and spent their energies on developing camera, vision and AI analytics software to produce their latest round of shelf-scanning mobile robots.

]]> https://robohub.org/robots-two-pronged-role-in-alibabas-25-3-billion-singles-day-sale/ Mon, 13 Nov 2017 22:58:01 +0000 http://robohub.org/robots-two-pronged-role-in-alibabas-25-3-billion-singles-day-sale/

The Singles’ Day Shopping Festival held each year on November 11th is just like Black Friday, Mothers’ Day or any other sales-oriented psuedo-holiday, but bigger and more extravagant. Starting in 2009 in China as a university campus event, Singles Day has now reached all over China and to more than 180 countries.

After 24 hours of non-stop online marketing, including a star-studded Gala with film star Nicole Kidman and American rapper Pharrell Williams, the day (also known as Bachelors Day or 11/11 because the number “1” is symbolic of an individual that is alone) concluded with a sales total of ¥168 billion ($25.3 billion) on the Tmall and Taobao e-commerce networks (both belong to the Alibaba Group (NASDAQ:BABA)). Other e-commerce platforms including Amazon’s Chinese site Amazon.cn, JD.com, VIP.com and Netease’s shopping site you.163.com also participated in the 11/11 holiday with additional sales.

• Singles Day sales reported by Alibaba were $5.8 billion in 2013, $9.3 billion in 2014, $14.3 billion in 2015, $17.8 billion in 2016, and $25.3 billion for 2017.
• In a story reported by DealStreetAsia, JD.com said that their sales for Singles’ Day – and its 10-day run-up – reached ¥127.1 billion ($19.1 billion), a 50% jump from a year ago. JD started its sales event on Nov. 1st to reduce delivery bottlenecks and to give users more time to make their purchasing decisions.

Muyuan Li, a researcher for The Robot Report, said: “Chinese people love shopping on e-commerce websites because sellers offer merchandise 20% – 60% cheaper than in the stores, particularly on 11/11. Sites and consumer items are marketed as a game and people love to play. For example, if you deposit or purchase coupons in advance, you can get a better deal. Customers compare prices on manmanbuy.com or smzdm.com and paste product page urls into xitie.com to see the historical prices for those products. There are lotteries to win Red Envelope “cash” which are really credits that can be applied to your Singles Day shopping carts, and contests to beat other shoppers to the check out.”

Robotics-related products sold in great quantities on Singles Day. ECOVACS and other brands of robot vacuum cleaners were big sellers as were DJI and other camera drones and all sorts of robotic toys and home assistants.

The process:

Although 11/11 was a great day for people buying robotic products, it was also a significant day for the new technologies of handling those products: 1.5 billion Alibaba parcels will transverse China over the next week delivering those purchases to Chinese consumers while all those packed and shipped items will have been manufactured, boxed, cased, temporarily stored and then unskidded, unboxed, picked and packed, sorted for shipment and shipped in all manner of ways.

New technology is part of how this phenomenal day is possible: robots, automation, vision systems, navigation systems, transportation systems and 100,000 upgraded smart stores (where people viewed items but then bought online) – all were part of the mechanical underside of this day – and foretell how this is going to play forward. There were also hundreds of thousands of human workers involved in the process.

Material handling:

Here are a few of the robotics-related Chinese warehousing systems vendors that are helping move the massive volume of 11/11’s 1.5 billion packages:

• Shanghai Express Warehouse (Quicktron) (Flashhold)
• Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+)
• Xinyi Logistics Sci & Tech (Alog)
• Hanzhou Hikrobot Technology (HikVision)
• Siasun Robot & Automation — Siasun, China’s largest robot manufacturer, posted an article about how their robots are used in logistics centers around China to handle 11/11 and the steadily growing consumer e-commerce volume.

Alibaba and Jack Ma:

Jack Ma, is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group and one of Asia’s richest men, with a net worth of $47.8 billion, as of November 2017 according to Forbes. His story is a rags to riches one with an ‘Aha’ moment, where, on a trip to the US, he tried to search for general information about China and found none. So he and his friend created a website with a rudimentary linkage system to other websites. They named their company “China Yellow Pages.”

Quoting from Wikipedia: “In 1999 he founded Alibaba, a China-based business-to-business marketplace site in his apartment with a group of 18 friends. In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba twice won a total of a $25 million foreign venture capital investment. Ma wanted to improve the global e-commerce system and from 2003 he founded Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama and Lynx. After the rapid rise of Taobao, eBay offered to purchase the company. Ma rejected their offer, instead garnering support from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang with a $1 billion investment. In September 2014 Alibaba became one of the most valuable tech companies in the world after raising $25 billion, the largest initial public offering in US financial history. Ma now serves as executive chairman of Alibaba Group, which is a holding company with nine major subsidiaries: Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com and Alipay.”

Ma was recently quoted at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum as saying that people should stop looking to manufacturing to drive economic growth. That message ties into his and Alibaba’s overall business plan to be involved in all aspects of the online e-commerce world.

]]> https://robohub.org/funding-trends-self-driving-dreams-coming-true/ Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:00:32 +0000 http://robohub.org/funding-trends-self-driving-dreams-coming-true/
Participants and startups in the emerging self-driving vehicles industry (components, systems, trucks, cars and buses) have been at it for over almost 60 years. The pace accelerated in 2004, 2005 and 2007 when DARPA sponsored long-distance competitions for driverless cars, and then again in 2009 when Uber began its ride-hailing system.

As the prospects that self-driving ride-hailing fleets, vehicles, systems and associated AI would soon be a reality, startups, fundings, mergers and acquisitions have followed reaching a peak in 2017. Thus far in 2017 more than 55 companies and startups offering everything from solid state distancing sensors to ride-share fleets and mapping systems – plus five strategic acquisitions – raised over $28.2 billion!

2017 Investments Trends: Self-driving

Listed below are month-by-month recaps of self-driving-related fundings and acquisitions as reported by The Robot Report. The two massive fundings by the SoftBank Vision Fund in May, the Intel acquisition of Movidius in March and Ford’s acquisition of Argo in February are extraordinary. Nevertheless, pulling out those billion dollar transactions still shows that $2.4 billion found its way to more than 55 companies. [The trend continues in November with Optimus Ride and Ceres Imaging both raising Series A money.]

Click on the month for funding details, links and profiles for each of the companies.

• October – $957.24 million:
  • Mapbox-$164M, Element AI-$105M, Horizon Robotics-$100M, Innoviz Technologies-$8, Momenta AI-$46, Built Robotics-$15, Blickfeld-$4.25, nuTonomy was acquired by Delphi Automotive-$450M, and Strobe was acquired by General Motors-unknown amount.
• September – $275 million:
  • LeddarTech-$101M, Innoviz Technologies-$65M, JingChi-$52M, Five AI-$35M, Drive AI-$15M, Ushr Inc-$10M and Metawave-$7M.
• August – $70 million:
  • Oryx Vision-$50M and TuSimple-$20M.
• July – $413 million:
  • Nauto-$159M, Brain Corp-$114M, Momenta AI-$46, Autotalk-$40M, Slamtec-$22M, Embark-$15M, Xometry-$15M and Metamoto-$2M.
• June – $112.5 million:
  • Drive AI-$50M, Swift Navigation-$34M, AEye-$16M, Carmera-$6.4M, Cognata-$5 and Optimus Ride-$1.1.
• May – $9.676 billion:
  • Didi Chuxing-$5.5 billion, Nvidia-$4 billion, ClearMotion-$100M, Echodyne-$29M, DeepMap-$15M, Hesai Photonics Technology-$16M, TriLumina-$9M, AIRY 3D-$3.5M and Vivacity Labs-$3.3M.
• April – $306.6 million:
  • Mobvoi-$180M, Peloton Technology-$60M, Luminar Technology-$36M, Renovo Auto-$10M, Aurora Innovation-$6.1M, VIST Group-$6M, DeepScale-$3M, Arbe Robotics-$2.5M, BestMile-$2M, Compound Eye-$1M.
• March – $15.343 billion:
  • Wayray-$18M, EasyMile-$15M, SB Drive-$4.6M, Starsky Robotics-$3.75M and CrowdAI-$2M. Intel acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion.
• February – $1.024 billion: 
  • ZongMu Technology-$14.5M andTetraVue-$10M. Ford Motor Co acquired Argo AI-$1 billion.
• January – $??? million: 
  • Autonomos was acquired by TomTom-unknown amount.

The SoftBank Vision Fund Effect

Plentiful money and sky high valuations are causing more companies to delay IPOs. The SoftBank Vision Fund is a key enabler of this recent phenomena. Founded in 2017 with a goal of $100 billion (they closed with $93 billion) with principle investors including SoftBank, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi’s national wealth fund, Apple, Foxconn, Qualcomm and Sharp, the Fund has been disbursing at a rapid pace. According to recode, the Fund, through August, had invested over $30 billion in Uber, ARM, Nvidia, WeWork, OneWeb, Flipkart, OSIsoft, Roivant, SoFi, Fanatics, Improbable, OYO, Slack, Plenty, Nauto and Brain Corp. Many on that list are involved in the self-driving industry.

The NY Times, in an article describing Masayoshi Son’s grand plan for the Fund, wrote that all these companies “have something in common: They are involved in collecting enormous amounts of data, which are crucial to creating the brains for the machines that, in the future, will do more of our jobs and creating tools that allow people to better coexist.”

Further, Son said he believed robots would inexorably change the work force and machines would become more intelligent than people, an event referred to as the “Singularity.” Mr. Son [said he] is on a mission to own pieces of all the companies that may underpin the global shifts brought on by artificial intelligence to transportation, food, work, medicine and finance. His vision is not just about predictions like the Singularity. He understands that we’ll need a massive amount of data to get us to a future that’s more dependent on machines and robotics.

Bottom Line

Companies involved in the emerging self-driving industry accounted for most of the dollars invested thus far in 2017. SoftBank’s fund and Masayoshi Son’s grand plan, combined with auto companies grabbing talent through strategic acquisitions, partnerships and investments, are leading the way. Robotics-related agricultural and healthcare-related investments were a distant second and third. Fourth went to underwater drones, systems and components.

]]> https://robohub.org/october-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:25:09 +0000 http://robohub.org/october-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Twenty-eight different startups were funded in October cumulatively raising $862 million, up from $507 million in September. Three of the top four fundings were for startups involved in the self-driving process. An additional five lower-amount startups were also funded for self-driving applications or components along with two of the six acquisitions.

Six acquisitions were reported during the month including Delphi Automotive’s buying nuTonomy for $450 million and Boeing’s acquisition of 550-employee Aurora Flight Sciences.

On the IPO front, Altair Engineering raised $156 million and Restoration Robotics raised $25 million when both went live on the NASDAQ stock exchange this month.

Fundings

• Mapbox, a Washington, DC and San Francisco provider of nav systems for car companies and others involved in autonomous vehicles, raised $164 million in a Series C round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from existing investors including Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, DBL Partners, and Thrive Capital. “Location data is central and mission critical to the development of the world’s most exciting technologies,” said Rajeev Misra, who helps oversee SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
• Element AI, a Canadian startup providing learning platform solutions for self-driving and advanced manufacturing, raised $135 CAD million (around $105 million) in a Series A round (in June) led by Data Collective, a SV-based venture capital firm, and included participation by Fidelity Investments Canada, National Bank of Canada, Intel Capital, and Real Ventures.
• Ninebot, the Chinese consumer products company that bought out Segway and raised $80 million in 2015, raised another $100 million in a Series C round  from the SDIC Fund Management Co. and the China Mobile Fund.
• Horizon Robotics, another Chinese startup, raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Intel Capital with participation by Wu Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Linear Venture, Hillhouse Capital and Harvest Investments. Horizon is developing self-driving vehicle autopilot and self-navigating consumer and neural network chips. Wendell Brooks, Intel SVP and President of Intel Capital which invested in Horizon said, “By 2020, every autonomous vehicle on the road will create 4 TB of data per day. A million self-driving cars will create the same amount of data every day as 3 billion people. As Intel transitions to a data company, Intel Capital is actively investing in startups across the technology spectrum that can help expand the data ecosystem and pathfind important new technologies.”
• Innoviz Technologies, an Israel-based developer of LiDAR sensing technology for autonomous vehicles, raised $73 million in Series B funding. Investors include Samsung Catalyst and SoftBank Ventures Korea.
• Zume Pizza, the Silicon Valley robotic pizza making startup, raised $48 million in a Series B funding. Investors in the round were not detailed. Zume is already delivering pizzas in Silicon Valley. It uses an assembly line of robots to flatten dough into circles, spread sauce and cheese, and slide the pies into and out of an 800 degree oven. Pizzas finish cooking in ovens inside delivery trucks.
• Momenta AI, a Beijing autonomous driving tech startup using machine vision (rather than LiDAR), raised $46 in a Series B round led by NIO Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital and Cathay Innovation Fund.
• Wonder Workshop, previously named Play-i, a Silicon Valley and Chinese educational robot startup, raised $41 million in a Series C round from a series of investors including Tencent, TAL Education Group, MindWorks Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank Korea, VTRON Group, TCL Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bright Success, WI Harper, and CRV. Wonder Workshop’s Dot and Dash robots are in use by thousands of student groups and schools around the world. “We founded Wonder Workshop to provide all children — girls and boys of all ages — with the skills needed to succeed in the future economy. This round of financing will allow us to continue on our mission to inspire the inventors of tomorrow,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO.
• FogHorn Systems, a Silicon Valley smart manufacturing software startup, raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Intel Capital and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures with new investor Honeywell Ventures and all previous investors participating, including Series A investors March Capital Partners, GE, Dell Technologies Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Darling Ventures and seed investor The Hive.
• Nanotronic Imaging, an Ohio testing solutions provider, raised $30 million in a Series D funding led by Investment Corp of Dubai and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
• Wandercraft, a French rehabilitation exoskeleton startup, raised $17.8 million in a Series B round from XAnge, Innovation Capital, Idinvest Partners, Cemag Invest and BPIFrance.
• Ever AI, a San Francisco startup developing facial recognition, announced that they had raised $16 million in a Series B funding led by Icon Ventures with participation from Felicis Ventures and Khosla Ventures. On the same day SoftBank announced their intention to use Ever AI’s facial recognition platform as a new feature for their Pepper robot.
• Built Robotics, a San Francisco startup developing a self-driving kit for construction equipment – a self-driving excavator – raised $15 million in a Series A round led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates) with participation by Founders Fund, Lemnos and angel investors including Eric Stromberg, Maria Thomas, Carl Bass, Edward Lando and Justin Kan.
• Veo Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based vision systems startup, raised $12 million in a Series A funding. Lux Capital and GV led the round, and were joined by unnamed investors including Next47.
• Riverfield Surgical Robot Lab, a Japanese startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Toray Engineering and included SBI Investment, Jafco and Beyond Next Ventures.
• Beijing Beehive Agriculture Technology Co. raised $9.4 million in an A funding round led by Tendence Capital and other unnamed sources.  The funding marks the company’s second financing round after it raised around $5 million from e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. and others in its pre-A funding.
• Titan Medical, a Canadian robotic single-port surgery device developer, raised $9.1 million: $2.6 million by floating 13.4 million common shares in a private placement to more than a dozen robotic surgeons in the US and Canada and an additional $6.5 million from the early exercise of purchase warrants for 42.6 million common shares.
• Robart, an Austria-based developer of AI and navigation intelligence for autonomous consumer robots, raised $7.2 million in a Series B funding. CM-CIC Innovation led the round, and was joined by Innovacom, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and SEB Alliance.
• Nileworks,  a Japanese drone crop spraying startup, raised $7.1 million from a group of Japanese investors including public-private partnership the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, agricultural chemical maker Kumiai Chemical Industry Co., Sumitomo Corporation and its subsidiary  Sumitomo Chemical Co., the Japanese National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, and The Norinchukin Bank. When the product goes on sale in 2019 the company will target rice farmers in Japan.
• Impossible Objects, an Illinois provider of 3D printing tech, raised $6.4 million in a Series A funding led by OCA Ventures and joined by IDEA Fund Partners, Mason Avenue Investments, Huizenga Capital Management and Inflection Equity Partners.
• AeroFarms, the indoor vertical farming startup which raised $34 million reported earlier this year, rounded out their $40 million Series D funding with $6 million from Ikea Group and chef David Chang of the Momofuku Group. AeroFarms just built its 9th indoor farm in Newark, NJ.
• Blickfeld, a Munich-based LiDAR maker for autonomous driving, raised $4.25 million in seed funding. Investors include Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, High-Tech Gruenderfonds, Fluxunit – OSRAM Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures.
• Realtime Robotics, a Boston motion planning and control startup, raised $2 million in seed funding from SPARX Group, Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures.
• Vitae Industries, a Rhode Island pharma dispensing robot maker, raised $1.8 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Slater Technology Fund. Other investors in the round included Techstars, BoxGroup, Compound and Founder Collective.
• Acutronic Robotics, a Swiss startup that last year acquired Spanish component maker Erle Robotics, raised an undisclosed amount from Sony in a Series A funding round. Sony will also adopt Acutronic’s Hardware Robot Operating System (H-ROS), for use in its own robotics division. Sony’s strategic use of the H-ROS platform in its own operations, and DARPA’s prior investment, suggest there’s a lot of interest in H-ROS for unifying legacy robotic systems from old-line robot providers.
• Bharati Robotic Systems, a Pune, India-based industrial robotic cleaning startup, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from its existing investors – Society For Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE, IITB Incubator), and other angel investors.
• IUVO, an Italian exoskeleton and wearable prosthetics spin-off from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, has received a joint investment from robot manufacturer Comau and Össur, a global provider of non-invasive orthopedics. No financial amounts were provided however Comau and Össur will now hold a majority share of IUVO. “This joint venture represents a key step toward the creation of wearable robotic exoskeletons that can enhance human mobility and quality of life,” emphasized Mauro Fenzi, CEO of Comau. “By uniting the know-how and enabling technologies of the various partners, we are in a unique position to extend the use of robotics beyond manufacturing and toward a truly progressive global reality. I believe the differentiating factor of a project like IUVO is the combination of Comau’s automation skills and Össur’s extensive experience in bionics and bracing to enable the production of products, such as the exoskeletons, and to be able to demonstrate the benefits of robotics”.
• Ultimaker, a manufacturer of professional desktop 3D printers and employer of over 300, raised an undisclosed amount from NPM Capital, a Benelux investment company.

Acquisitions

• Delphi Automotive, a UK Tier 1 automotive supplier, acquired nuTonomy, a Boston self-driving ride sharing startup, for $450 million. nuTonomy, a spin-off from MIT and Singapore and with funding from Ford, has grown to 100 employees including 70 engineers and scientists. The acquisition will double Delphi’s autonomous driving applications team.
• HTI Cybernetics, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator and contract manufacturer, has been acquired by Chongqing Nanshang Investment Group for around $50 million. HTI provides robotic welding systems to the auto industry and also has a contract welding services facility in Mexico.
• Ridecell, a San Francisco mobility platform provider of car sharing, ride sharing and autonomous vehicles software, has acquired Auro Robotics, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle startup with shuttles operating on the Santa Clara University campus, for an undisclosed amount but which TheInformation estimates to be around $20 million.
• Applied Automation, a UK components manufacturer of automation and control equipment, is changing and upgrading their status to include becoming an integrator of industrial and collaborative robots and, through the acquisition of PTG Precision Engineers, has gained talented engineering manpower to augment their sales/integration efforts. PTG is located across the street from Applied. No financial details about the acquisition were provided by either party.
• General Motors acquired Pasadena-based Strobe, a vision systems startup developing an optical micro-oscillator for LiDAR timing, navigation and sensing applications, for an undisclosed amount. Strobe will join the Cruise Automation self-driving group.
• Boeing is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences, a 550 employee Virginia-based UAS provider, for an undisclosed amount. “Since its inception, Aurora has been focused on the development of innovative aircraft that leverage autonomy to make aircraft smarter,” said John Langford, Aurora Flight Sciences founder and chief executive officer. “As an integral part of Boeing, our pioneered technologies of long-endurance aircraft, robotic co-pilots, and autonomous electric VTOLs will be transitioned into world-class products for the global infrastructure.”

IPOs

• Restoration Robotics, a San Jose, Calif.-based company focused on robotics that assist doctors in hair transplant procedures, raised $25 million in an upsized offering of 3.6 million shares priced at $7. In 2016, the company posted revenue of $15.6 million and a loss of $21.8 million. HAIR is now listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
• Altair Engineering, a Troy, Mich.-based engineering software maker, raised $156 million in an IPO of 12 million shares at $13. The stock (ALTR) is now trading on Nasdaq. Altair develops simulation and design software for industrial applications, automobiles, consumer goods and all types of robotics.
• Nilfisk Holdings, a Danish manufacturer of industrial cleaning machines including a new line of autonomous cleaners, was spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate, and went public on the NASDAQ Copenhagen exchange as NLFSK. Financial details were not disclosed.

]]> https://robohub.org/stifled-ambitions-a-review-of-google-robotics/ Tue, 24 Oct 2017 07:08:45 +0000 http://robohub.org/stifled-ambitions-a-review-of-google-robotics/

Despite recent attempts to tease the robotics projects incubating at its Google X skunkworks, industry observers say that Google has done more to stifle than advance innovation in robotics.

A bit of history

On December 4th, 2013, John Markoff, a technology reporter for The New York Times, broke the story that Google had acquired seven robotic companies and that Andy Rubin, of Android fame, would be heading the group. Schaft, a Japanese start-up developing a humanoid robot; Industrial Perception, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed a computer vision system for loading and unloading trucks; Meka Robotics, a robot developer for academia; Redwood Robotics, a start-up intended to compete with the Baxter robot (and others) entering the small and medium-sized shop and factory marketplace; Bot & Dolly, a maker of robotic camera systems used for special effects such as in the movie “Gravity;” Autofuss, a design and marketing firm and a partner in Bot & Dolly; and Holomni, a maker of powered caster modules for omnidirectional vehicles.

On December 14th, 2013, Markoff followed up with the news that Google had added to its new stable of robotic companies by acquiring Boston Dynamics, a 20-year old developer of mobile and off-road robotics and human simulation technology mostly for DARPA and the Department of Defense.

Thus some of the leading startups in the industry and the whole 80+ talent pool from Boston Dynamics became part of Google. According to Markoff quoting Rubin,

“The company’s initial market will be in manufacturing, e.g., electronics assembly which is mostly done by hand. Manufacturing and logistics markets not being served by today’s robotic technologies are clear opportunity markets and the new Google robots will be able to automate any or all of the processes from the supply chain to the distribution channels to the consumer’s front door thereby creating a massive opportunity.”

The eight acquisitions were the talk of the business news but one piece from SFGate Tech Chronicles quoting Brian Gerkey described the positive sentiment best:

“Google’s move into robotics is likely to draw renewed attention and money into the space. It’s a pretty exciting day for robotics when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.”

Sales, vesting, transfers and departures

From 2014 to 2016 there were rumors and some media attention to the difficulties Google was having coordinating the talents within their robotic acquisitions, particularly after Rubin left and Google let it be known that they wanted to sell off Boston Dynamics because “their two- and four-legged robots were too far from being marketable.” Commercial projects were discussed but none came to fruition. People started to leave or move over to other parts of Google and GoogleX. Of the people that came from the 2013 acquisitions, some have left saying that the lack of direction and management had thwarted their desire to stay and contribute. Others have stayed but let it be known they’ll be available after their four-year sign-on stock options vest which will happen later this year.

In 2015 and 2016 the news of dissent continued as the name and group managers changed. No products emerged. James Kuffner led the robotics group until he left in January, 2016 to become the CTO of the Toyota Research Institute. Aaron Edsinger followed, but then he too left.

In June of 2017 Google finally found a buyer for Boston Dynamics – SoftBank. SoftBank also bought Schaft, a Japan-based startup whose walking robots never integrated into Google and, like Boston Dynamics, operated separately from the rest of Google’s robotics acquisitions.

For SoftBank, which acquired Aldebaran in 2012 and helped them make the humanoid robot Pepper, the two acquisitions offer mobility and robotics talent as SoftBank grows its SoftBank Robotics joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn.

Google made a mess

In a blistering recap of Google’s involvement in robotics from 2013 until now, Mark Bergen and Joshua Brustein wrote in BloombergBusinessweek Magazine:

“None of the acquired companies have robots in use beyond the offices of Google’s now-parent company, Alphabet Inc. At least three key robotics chiefs who joined in that 2013 wave left the company in the last few months, and, because four years is the typical vesting period for Google stock options, they probably won’t be the last. At this point, the exodus counts as a win for robotics, since many of the brightest minds in the field have essentially spent the past few years trapped in a time capsule. Ultimately, Google’s run on roboticists held the industry back more than moving it forward.”

Google today

Google hasn’t entirely receded from robotics. There is Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-car division, and Titan (renamed Project Loon), Google’s drone development project. In fact, Project Loon balloons are being used today in Puerto Rico to provide stationary platforms from which emergency Internet and web services are available. Additionally, GoogleX has operated their “arm farm,” a room full of robotic arms that are learning to grasp and manipulate random objects and teach the other robots in the room how to do the same. In a recent GoogleX blog, Hans Peter Brondmo, who now heads up Google’s remaining robotics team, said:

We’re working with the Google Brain team to explore how to teach robots new skills by learning from their shared experience, and we’re even simulating robots in the cloud so they can train fast, and then we’re transferring this learning onto real robots. By having virtual robots we can gather lots of data for training in the cloud. Then we transfer what the virtual robots learn to the real-world robots so they can quickly learn to perform new tasks. This is all critical research that will pave the (long) path toward building machines that can learn new skills quickly and operate safely and cost effectively in the world we live in.”

Bottom line

Rumors abound about the value of Google’s ant farm (the room where a dozen or more robot arms are using machine learning and swarm control to pick and place random objects which Brondmo described in his blog). But so far, except for those that have left or moved over to Waymo, nothing but research has come from the 3-1/2 years Google has had a robotics group. Unless you count the years of anxiety, secrecy and disappointment for all those super-smart entrepreneurs that initially had hoped for so much of their new association with Google.

But as Brian Gerkey said, “…when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.” That has happened in spades! 2015, 2016 and 2017 have all shown exponential growth in investments and strategic acquisitions for the robotics industry.

]]> https://robohub.org/robots-on-the-rise/ Fri, 20 Oct 2017 18:23:08 +0000 http://robohub.org/robots-on-the-rise/
NEDO, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, is a regular funder of robotic technology, has an office in Silicon Valley, and participates in various regional events to promote its work and future programs. One such event was Robots on the Rise: The Future of Robotics in Japan and the US held October 16th in Mountain View, CA and jointly sponsored by Silicon Valley Forum.

Over 400 people attended the all-day series of panels with well-known speakers and relevant subject matter. Panels covered mobility, agricultural robotics, search and rescue, and the retail and manufacturing revolutions. Henrick Christensen from UC San Diego gave an overview of robotics in Japan and the US as a keynote. He described the key drivers propelling the robotics industry forward and the digitization of manufacturing: mass customization, unmanned vehicles, the aging society (particularly in Japan), and the continuing need for application-specific integrators.

He was followed by Atsushi Yasuda from METI, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (the agency that funds NEDO) who emphasized Japan’s need to focus on technologies that can safely assist their aging population. Manufacturing, agriculture, nursing and medical care, plus disaster relief were points he detailed.

I was the moderator of a panel on The Manufacturing Revolution: Automated Factories with speakers from Yaskawa (Chetan Kapoor), Yamaha (Hiro Sauou), OMRON/Adept (Edwardo De Robbio), GE (Steve Taub) and VEO Robotics (Patrick Sobalvarro). Trends in this arena are being driven by the global movement toward mass customization and the need for flexibility in automation and robotics. For the next while that flexibility will use humans in the loop to collaborate with their robot counterparts.

There was also an exhibition with around 25 companies and agencies participating in a pop-up type of trade show. It was noisy, fun and informative.

Best line from the investment panel: “Invest in missionaries; not mercenaries.” 

Second best line came from Henrik Christensen regarding measuring the successfulness of home robots by their “time to boredom.”

Most interesting question and answer about the future came from James Kuffner, the CTO of Toyota Research Institute who said that Toyota asked the Institute what the company should to do after self-driving reduces the size of the car industry. Kuffner said that Toyota decided to “pivot to robotics and particularly to assistance robots for health, elder and home care.”

In the panel on unmanned vehicles, the consensus was that mapping, proprietary driving data, regulation and weather were all holdups thwarting fully autonomous vehicles (Level 5 vehicles (without pedals or a steering wheel)). Because of those problems, it was their opinion that only Level 4 would be achieved in the next decade.

NEDO’s 2017 fundings total $1.17 billion and include $99.1 million for robot technology seed and mid-term fundings for practical robotic solutions. Current projects include infrastructure inspection and maintenance, disaster response robots, elder care robots, and next-generation technologies in industrial and service robots and AI.

]]> https://robohub.org/5g-fast-and-ultra-low-latency-robot-control-demonstrated/ Fri, 13 Oct 2017 16:28:02 +0000 http://robohub.org/5g-fast-and-ultra-low-latency-robot-control-demonstrated/ SoftBank and Huawei jointly demonstrated various use cases for their forthcoming 5G network. 5G commercial services, which will provide ultra-high throughput of over 800 Mbps with ultra-low latency transmission of less than 2ms, will begin being rolled out in 2020 in Japan and Korea and 2021-2023 in China, Europe and the U.S. 5G will (we…

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SoftBank and Huawei jointly demonstrated various use cases for their forthcoming 5G network. 5G commercial services, which will provide ultra-high throughput of over 800 Mbps with ultra-low latency transmission of less than 2ms, will begin being rolled out in 2020 in Japan and Korea and 2021-2023 in China, Europe and the U.S.

5G will (we hope) be able to handle the massive growth of IoT devices and their streaming data. With 5G technology, getting and staying connected will get easier. You’ll still need a robust network provider but your devices will learn to do things like sync or pair automatically.

When 5G comes online, around 50 billion “things” will be connected and that number will be growing exponentially. Think of self-driving cars that have capabilities to communicate with traffic lights, smart city sensor systems, savvy home appliances, industrial automation systems, connected health innovations, personal drones, robots and more.

“5G will make the internet of things more effective, more efficient from a spectral efficiency standpoint,” said an Intel spokesperson. “Each IOT device and network will use exactly and only what it needs and when it needs it, as opposed to just what’s available.”

In the SoftBank and Huawei robot demonstration, a robotic arm played an air hockey game against a human. A camera installed on top of the air hockey table detected the puck’s position to calculate its trajectory. That data was streamed to the cloud and the calculated result was then forwarded to the robotic arm control server to control the robotic arm. In the demonstration, the robotic arm was able to strike back the puck shot by the human player on various trajectories at competition speed, i.e., with no noticeable latency from camera to cloud to controller to robot arm.

Other demonstrations by SoftBank and Huawei included real-time ultra-high definition camera data compressed, streamed and the then displayed on a UHD monitor; an immersive video scenery capture from 180-degree 4-lense cameras uploaded and the downloaded to smartphones and tablets; remote rendering by a cloud GPU server; and the robot demo. Each demo was oriented to various industries, eg: tele-health, tele-education, VR, AR, CAD overlays at a remote (construction) site and the robot example which can apply to factory automation and vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

Other vendors have also demonstrated 5G use cases. Ericsson and BMW tracked a connected car at 105 mph and Verizon used 5G wireless to livestream the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in VR and hi-res 4k 360° video.

5G is coming!

]]> https://robohub.org/industrial-cleaning-equipment-maker-nilfisk-goes-public/ Thu, 12 Oct 2017 22:19:39 +0000 http://robohub.org/industrial-cleaning-equipment-maker-nilfisk-goes-public/ Danish Nilfisk Holding A/S began being listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under symbol NLFSK after being spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate. Nilfisk is one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional cleaning equipment with a strong brand and a vision for growth in robotics. Nilfisk expects that 10% of their revenue will…

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Copyright: Nilfisk

Danish Nilfisk Holding A/S began being listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under symbol NLFSK after being spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate. Nilfisk is one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional cleaning equipment with a strong brand and a vision for growth in robotics.

Nilfisk expects that 10% of their revenue will come from autonomous machines within the next 5-7 years. In that pursuit, Blue Ocean Robotics and Nilfisk recently announced a strategic partnership to develop a portfolio of intelligent cleaning machines and robots to add to the Nilfisk line of industrial cleaners.

According to Hans Henrik Lund, CEO of Nilfisk,

“We estimate that approximately 70 percent of the cost of professional cleaning goes to labor. At the same time, the cleaning industry is one of the industries with the highest employee turnover. We therefore experience a significant need among our customers to introduce autonomous machines that can solve standardized cleaning tasks so that cleaning operators can be used for other assignments. We have a clear strategy to develop our product portfolio in partnership with highly-specialized technology companies that are the best in their field. We already have good experiences with this, and we are looking forward to starting this partnership with Blue Ocean Robotics, which complements our other partnerships very well.”

Preliminary Q3 2017 financial results reports revenue of approx. EUR 253m ($300 million) which represents a gain of approx. 3.4% over Q3 2016. EBITDA was approx. 11.7% in the first nine months of 2017.

Nilfisk competitors include Tennant, Karcher, Vector Technologies, Sumitomo, Discovery Robotics, ICE / Brain Corp, and Taski Intellibot to name just a few.

]]> https://robohub.org/everythings-bigger-in-texas-china/ Mon, 09 Oct 2017 23:14:50 +0000 http://robohub.org/everythings-bigger-in-texas-china/ Recent news about growth of Chinese robotics and related AI indicate just how massive their investments are and how well they are paying off. For example, 90% of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show held in Berlin in September were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies.  Further, Preqin reported…

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Recent news about growth of Chinese robotics and related AI indicate just how massive their investments are and how well they are paying off. For example, 90% of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show held in Berlin in September were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies. 

Further, Preqin reported that Q3 venture-backed deals totaled $49 billion. Included in the top 10 deals were Uber-competitor Grab’s raising $2 billion from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing and Alibaba’s $1.1 bn investment in eBay-like Tokopedia and $.8 bn to Cainiao (see below). Half of the top 10 were in Asia; only three were for US-based companies.

Three Chinese companies stand out with Texas-size robotics-related activity: Midea/Kuka is planning to sell 50-55% of its annual $3 bn output in China by 2020; Siasun’s robots are exported to 30+ countries; and Alibaba is investing $15 billion over five years in internal logistics for their growing e-commerce business.

Alibaba (BABA:NYSE)

Amazon take note: China’s largest smart warehouse is manned by mobile robots moving shelves to picking and packing stations — and they look amazingly similar to Amazon’s Kiva robots.

Alibaba is emulating Amazon in putting robots into the logistics warehouses it operates for sorting, picking and moving applications. Through its investment in logistics company Cainiao, and similar investments in local startups Geek+ and Quicktron, both of which make Kiva-like mobile robots and provide extensive network and traffic management software for e-commerce distribution centers. Cainiao currently executes 57 million deliveries a day. Alibaba, which had owned 47% of Cainiao, has invested a further $807 million to increase its stake to 51%. Alibaba’s goal for Cainiao is to delivery anywhere in China within 24 hours and anywhere in the world within 72.

Warehousing robots aren’t Alibaba’s only play. They are also investing in service robots through their joint venture with SoftBank Robotics and Foxconn and also augmented reality big-data-driven logistics navigation and picking solutions as well as other types of AGVs for towing, moving and sorting pallets, boxed goods and shelves.

In addition to the Cainiao investment, Alibaba also invested $1.1 billion in PT Tokopedia, a large e-Bay-like service covering Indonesia. Overall, Alibaba has committed $15 billion over the next five years to build out a global logistics network.

Midea Group (000333:SHE)

Midea, China’s 4th largest consumer products manufacturer, and the country’s biggest maker of air conditioners, refrigerators and appliances, has a masterplan to revamp itself into China’s leading robot manufacturer.

• Last year, for around $4.5 billion, they acquired the world’s 4th largest robot manufacturer, Germany-based Kuka AG.
• At their air conditioner plant, Midea has deployed 800 robots and replaced 24,000 workers in their quest to improve quality and reduce costs.
• In another factory, Midea engineers have made it so six robots produce and assemble remote control devices every seven seconds with 100% quality.
• Early this year they set up an alliance with Israel-based advanced motion control and automation systems company Servotronix.
• Then they invested another $1.5 billion in a new factory in southern China to manufacturer and assemble service and industrial robots (7,000 and 2,000 per year respectively).
• These robots will be for sale as well as for internal use and the goal is that by 2025, 17,000 industrial robots will be produced at that factory in addition to Kuka’s goals at Kuka’s separate facilities.
• Kuka plans to sell 50-55% of its annual output ($3 bn+) in China by 2020.
• Midea is doubling the number of research engineers working on product development and AI. Research projects include robotic bartenders, consumer food processors and industrial-grade food production robots.

Midea’s investments and strategic alliances underscore their ambition to lead in automation and robotics within China and, later, globally.

Siasun Robot & Automation (300024:SHE)

According to The Wall Street Journal, Siasun’s 2016 revenue was $2.02 bn which was 20.47% greater than FY 2015. Forbes rates Siasun as #20 on the Innovative Growth Companies list with a market cap of $5.1 bn and 2,500 employes.

Siasun focuses on four verticals: advanced manufacturing equipment, rail transit automation, autonomous energy equipment and advanced robotics (across all divisions). In addition to fixed and mobile industrial robots, Siasun has a line of clean room robots and a new collaborative robot. They also have an extensive line of mobile robots for material handling, warehouses, restaurants, public spaces and indoor cleaning and security. Online retailer JD.com has teamed up with Siasun to automate JD’s logistic network and JD says that it also plans to develop delivery drones and driverless vehicles.

Qu Daokui, president of Siasun, said the company is looking to invest in robot technology in Europe and the United States, with acquisitions starting from at least $1 billion. “We are interested in companies that have state-of-the-art technologies or have a key presence in the industry chain,” Qu said recently at the 2017 World Robot Conference in Beijing.

Currently, the Shenyang-based company’s industrial robots and other products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions. Moreover, two-thirds of Siasun’s customers are foreign companies. According to China Daily, Siasun robots are at work in Ford and General Motors auto plants in the U.S.

Last year, Siasun teamed up with Israeli companies and universities in a China-Israel robot research institute in Guangzhou where they are jointly working on artificial intelligence which Qu billed as of great importance to robots by giving them “wings”.

Bottom Line

Many critics and pundits warn that the free-flowing incentives China has been giving to effect its 5-year plans and Made in China 2025 program has produced fraud, false figures and unknown results. They worry about overcapacity and that many of the new companies involved in robotics are just in it to get the subsidies and tax breaks.

Nevertheless, the three companies profiled above attest to the fact that China’s overall goal to become a high-tech maker and user of robotics and AI is working… and working BIG. Texas BIG.

]]> https://robohub.org/september-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ Thu, 05 Oct 2017 21:39:47 +0000 http://robohub.org/september-2017-fundings-acquisitions-and-ipos/ 26 different startups were funded to the tune of $485 million in September, up from $369 million in August. Six acquisitions were reported during the month including Deere’s acquisition of California Blue River Technology for $305 million. And Restoration Robotics’ IPO will start being listed on NASDAQ early in October. Fundings LeddarTech, the Canadian developer of…

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26 different startups were funded to the tune of $507 million in September, up from $369 million in August. Six acquisitions were reported during the month including Deere’s acquisition of California Blue River Technology for $305 million. And Restoration Robotics’ IPO will start being listed on NASDAQ early in October.

Fundings

• LeddarTech, the Canadian developer of sensors and LiDAR distancing systems for ADAS and other mobile systems, raised $101 million in a Series C funding led by Osram with participation by Delphi, Magneti Marelli, Integrated Device Technology, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital and GO Capital. This round of funding will allow LeddarTech to enhance its ASIC development efforts, expand its R&D team, and accelerate ongoing LiDAR development programs with select Tier-1 automotive customers for rapid market deployment.
• Innoviz Technologies, the Israeli solid-state LiDAR startup, raised $65 million in a Series B funding. Delphi Automotive PLC and Magna International participated in the round, along with additional new investors including 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures, Naver and others. All Series A investors also participated in the round.
• Roobo, the Chinese startup and manufacturer of the Domgy consumer robot, raised $53 million in a Series B round led by Seven Seas Partners and IFlyTek, a Chinese developer of self-driving technologies, speech recognition for human-machine and human-human communication and related software and chips.
• JingChi, a Sunnyvale self-driving car vision systems startup, raised $52 million in a seed round. Although the lead investor was Qiming Venture Partners, the company did not disclose the identity of any additional investors in the round.
• Five AI, a Bristol, UK self-driving technology and ride-sharing startup, raised $35 million  in a Series A funding round led by Lakestar Capital, with Amadeus Capital Partners, Notion Capital and Kindred (which all previously invested in its seed round) also participating.
• Airobotics, the Israeli autonomous drone platform for the mining, utilities and gas industry, raised $32.5 million in a series C funding round led by BlueRun Ventures. With the funding, Airobotics is starting a new Homeland Security and Defense division, as well as the “Airobotics Safe Cities” initiative, which uses fully automated drones to perform emergency operations in cities.
• Cambridge Medical Robotics, a UK startup developing a next-generation robotic surgical system closed a Series A funding round of $26 million from Watrium and existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, LGT Global Invest, Escala Capital and ABB Technology Ventures.
• Kinova Robotics,  a Canadian provider of robotics for the disabled, has raised $20 million to transition into three new areas of service robotics: collaborative robots for inspection and pick and place operations, manipulators for mobile platforms, and medical robots for research and therapies. Funding came from four major contributors, including lead investor Fonds Manufacturier Québécois; and KTB Network (South Korea), Foxconn (Taiwan); and BDC Capital (Canada).
• Humatics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of sensors, software, and control systems that enable robots to work within human environments, raised $18 million in a Series A funding. Fontinalis Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Airbus Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Intact Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Blue Ivy Ventures, Ray Stata, and Andy Youmans.
• Lighthouse AI, a Silicon Valley startup developing a deep learning, 3D sensing, interactive home assistant, raised $17 million (in May) led by Eclipse, Felicis Ventures, Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures, SignalFire and StartX. Their new home security device can accurately distinguish between adults, children, pets and objects, known and unknown faces, and actions and report upon and play back based on what it finds.
• Tonbo Imaging, an Indian defense vision systems startup, raised $17 million in a Series B funding round led by Walden Riverwood Ventures with Artiman Ventures, Edelweiss, and Qualcomm Ventures.
• Drive.AI, a Silicon Valley self-driving startup, raised another $15 million (after their $50 million Series B round earlier this year) from Grab, an Uber rival Asian on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform, and unnamed others. Drive CEO Sameep Tandon said: “We look at Singapore as a technological juggernaut. When innovations happen in the region, basically they start in Singapore and then move out to other places within the region, whether it’s Indonesia, Vietnam or China. What’s also really interesting to us about Singapore is they have this sort of existential problem here – for them autonomous driving is not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when.’”
• Ushr Inc., a Livonia, Mich.-based startup developing high-definition mapping technology and software for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Forte Ventures and including EnerTech Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, and GM Ventures.
• Agrible, an Illinois startup offering a suite of software tools for connected farmers, raised $9.7 million of a $15.7 million Series B round of funding led by Maumee Ventures, iSelect Fund, and existing investors Flyover Capital, Archer Daniels Midland, and Serra Ventures.
• Bonsai AI, a Berkeley, CA AI startup, raised $7.6 million (in May) in a Series A round led by Microsoft Ventures and NEA, with participation from Samsung, Siemens, and ABB Technology Ventures.
• Metawave, a Palo Alto self-driving perception spin-off from PARC, raised $7 million in seed funding. Backers included Khosla Ventures, Motus Ventures, and Thyra Global Management.
• Ori Systems, a Boston startup with a novel interior space robotic furniture system, raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Khosla Ventures.
• Specim Spectral Imaging, the Finnish company providing imaging systems to Zen Robotics for waste sorting and management, raised $4.2 million from Bocap SME Achievers Fund II Ky.
• OpenSpace, a San Francisco machine vision startup, raised $3 million in seed funding. Lux Capital led the round, and was joined by investors includingFoundation Capital, National Science Foundation, the Box Group, AngelList, Goldcrest, Sterling Capital and Comet Labs.
• Furhat Robotics, the Swedish startup developing social robots, raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round from Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe. The company is currently working with Swedish public services as well as companies like Honda, Intel, Merck, Toyota, and KPMG to develop apps on the platform, eg: A Swedish employment agency is using the conversational robot to prepare people for job interviews and to train teachers; Honda is using Furhat to develop a conversational tool for the elderly in a smart home setting; KPMG is designing a Furhat-enabled financial advisor interface. A recent Forbes article reports that both Disney and Intel are customers of this 50-person startup. Watch this fascinating Bloomberg video:

• Reactive Robotics, a Munich startup developing rehab robotics for hospitals with ICUs for mechanically ventilated, neurological or trauma patients, raised an amount estimated to be around $2.5 million led by MTIP MedTech Innovation Partners AG, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Bayern Kapital, TQ-Group, and Dr. Doll Holding GmbH. Reactive Robotics said it expects to deliver its 1st clinical test product by the 1st quarter of 2018.
• Betterview, a San Francisco-based software startup that can analyze detailed aerial footage captured by drones, raised $2 million.  Compound Venture Capital led the round, and was joined by investors Maiden Re, 645 Ventures, Arab Angel, Winklevoss Capital, Chestnut Street Ventures, Pierre Valade, Haystackand MetaProp.
• Sea Machines Robotics, a Boston startup developing unmanned marine systems, raised $1.5 million (in May) in a round led by Connecticut-based LaunchCapital with participation from Cambridge-based venture capital firm Accomplice, Techstars, LDV Capital, and the Geekdom Fund. Sea Machines provides software and hardware to turn existing boats into autonomous vehicles.

Fundings (amount unknown)

• SharkNinja, a home products distributor, raised an undisclosed sum from CDH investments, a large private equity fund, who said they purchased “a significant equity interest.” No amounts were disclosed. SharkNinja launched a Roomba-like robot vacuum to their line of products — at half the price of iRobot’s Roomba. Analysts are saying that SharkNinja “is a credible threat to iRobot” given its knack for marketing, as well as engineering high-quality products at value price points — two strengths that helped it successfully take market share from Dyson in recent years in the upright-vacuum market.
• Acutronic Robotics, a Swiss company providing multi-axis motion simulators, has received Series A funding from the Sony Innovation Fund. No financial details were given. Funds will be used to enable Acutronic to accelerate the development of their Hardware Robot Operating System (H-ROS), to compete with ROS-I and legacy software from robot manufacturers. “H-ROS aims to change the landscape of robotics by creating an ecosystem where hardware components can be reused among different robots, regardless of the original manufacturer. We strongly believe that the future of robotics will be about modular robots that can be easily repaired and reconfigured. H-ROS aims to shape this future.”
• Ocean Aero, a San Diego unmanned marine systems startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Lockheed Martin Ventures. “Ocean Aero represents the next generation of environmentally powered, autonomous ocean systems. Our investment will allow us to better respond to customers’ maritime needs with technology solutions for a diverse set of missions,” said Chris Moran, ED and GM of Lockheed Martin Ventures.

Acquisitions

• John Deere, the farm equipment manufacturer, acquired Blue River Technology, a Silicon Valley AI and farm equipment startup for $305 million. Blue River has honed their See & Spray and Sense & Decide devices to analyze every plant in a field and apply herbicides only to weeds and overly crowded plants needing thinning thereby dramatically reducing the amount of chemicals used. Their robots are towed behind a tractor similar to conventional spraying equipment but Blue River’s towed implements have onboard cameras that use machine-learning software to distinguish between crops and weeds, and automated sprayers to target and spray the unwanted plants. Further, Blue River devices have a second set of cameras to automatically check its work as it operates and to gather data on the tens of thousands of plants in each field so that its analytics software can continue improving the devices and the process. Daniel Theobald, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Vecna, a Cambridge, MA provider of mobile robots, said:“It’s a smart move by Deere. They realize the time window in which ag industry execs will continue to buy dumb equipment is rapidly coming to a close. The race to automate is on and traditional equipment manufacturers who don’t embrace automation will face extinction. Agriculture is ripe for the benefits that robotics has to offer. Automation allows farmers to decrease water use, reduce the use of pesticides and other methods that are no longer sustainable, and helps solve ever worsening labor shortages.”
• OMRON, the Japanese company that acquired robot maker Adept Technology last year, has just acquired Microscan Systems, the Renton, WA-based barcode reading and machine vision systems company, for $157 million. Microscan was a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based Spectris Plc.
• Neato Robotics, the California maker of home robot vacuums, was acquired by German appliance maker Vorwerk. Financial terms were not disclosed. Vorwerk invested in Neato back in 2010 but now has completely acquired Neato outright and fully owns its business and technology, which could help the international operation expand into the growing robotic vacuum industry.
• Siemens, the German conglomerate, acquired Tass International for an undisclosed amount. Tass develops software that simulates traffic scenarios, validates autonomous driving and replicates ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) in crash testing. It has 200 employees and annual revenue of around $32 million.
• Precision Planting, a developer and reseller of mechanical, monitoring and control systems for precision ag applications, was acquired by AGCO, a global manufacturer and distributor of ag equipment, for an undisclosed amount. Precision Planting was a subsidiary of The Climate Corporation (a subsidiary of Monsanto).
• Nabors Industries, an oil and gas drilling company, has acquired Robotic Drilling Systems, a Norwegian provider of a system for unmanned drill-floor operations. No figures were disclosed regarding the transaction.

IPOs

• Restoration Robotics, a Silicon Valley FDA-approved robotic hair transplant startup, has filed to be listed on NASDAQ under the symbol HAIR. They plan to offer 3.125 million shares priced at around $8 per share — a $25 million IPO. It is expected to price during the week of October 9, 2017. If that price holds, it would establish a market value of $225 million for the company.

]]> https://robohub.org/global-robot-growth-causing-shortages-in-critical-components/ Tue, 03 Oct 2017 22:35:56 +0000 http://robohub.org/global-robot-growth-causing-shortages-in-critical-components/ At a cocktail party hosted by Harmonic Drive at the annual RoboBusiness conference and expo held September 27-28 in Santa Clara, CA, CEOs from Harmonic Drive US and Japan gave short speeches about Harmonic and their 4X expansion program to handle increasing global demand for harmonic drives and other critical components involved in the manufacture of robots.…

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Two reputable research resources are reporting that the robotics industry is growing more rapidly than expected. BCG (Boston Consulting Group) is conservatively projecting that the market will reach $87 billion by 2025; Tractica, incorporating the robotic and AI elements of the emerging self-driving industry, is forecasting the market will reach $237 billion by 2022.

Both research firms acknowledge that yesterday’s robots — which were blind, big, dangerous and difficult to program and maintain — are being replaced and supplemented with newer, more capable ones. Today’s new – and future robots will – have voice and language recognition, access to super-fast communications, data and libraries of algorithms, learning capability, mobility, portability and dexterity. These new precision robots can sort and fill prescriptions, pick and pack warehouse orders, sort, inspect, process and handle fruits and vegetables, plus a myriad of other industrial and non-industrial tasks, most faster than humans, yet all the while working safely along side them.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Gaining Robotic Advantage, June 2017, 13 pages, free

BCG suggests that business executives be aware of ways robots are changing the global business landscape and think and act now. They see robotics-fueled changes coming in retail, logistics, transportation healthcare, food processing, mining and agriculture.

BCG cites the following drivers:

• Private investment in the robotic space has continued to amaze with exponential year-over-year funding curves and sensational billion dollar acquisitions.
• Prices continue to fall on robots, sensors, CPUs and communications while capabilities continue to increase.
• Robot programming is being transformed by easier interfaces, GUIs and ROS.
• The prospect of a self-driving vehicles industry disrupting transportation is propelling a talent grab and strategic acquisitions by competing international players with deep pockets.
• 40% of robotic startups have been in the consumer sector and will soon augment humans in high-touch fields such as health and elder care.

 BCG also cites the following example as an example of paying close attention to gain advantage:

“Amazon gained a first-mover advantage in 2012 when it bought Kiva Systems, which makes robots for warehouses. Once a Kiva customer, Amazon acquired the robot maker to improve the productivity and margins of its network of warehouses and fulfillment centers. The move helped Amazon maintain its low costs and expand its rapid delivery capabilities. It took five years for a Kiva alternative to hit the market. By then, Amazon had a jump on its rivals and had developed an experienced robotics team, giving the company a sustainable edge.”

Tractica

Robotics Market Forecast – June 2017, 26 pages, $4,200
Drones for Commercial Applications – June 2017, 196 pages, $4,200
AI for Automotive Applications – May 2017, 63 pages, $4,200
Consumer Robotics – May 2017, 130 pages, $4,200

The key story is that industrial robotics, the traditional pillar of the robotics market, dominated by Japanese and European robotics manufacturers, has given way to non-industrial robot categories like personal assistant robots, UAVs, and autonomous vehicles, with the epicenter shifting toward Silicon Valley, which is now becoming a hotbed for artificial intelligence (AI), a set of technologies that are, in turn, driving a lot of the most significant advancements in robotics. Consequently, Tractica forecasts that the global robotics market will grow rapidly between 2016 and 2022, with revenue from unit sales of industrial and non-industrial robots rising from $31 billion in 2016 to $237.3 billion by 2022.  The market intelligence firm anticipates that most of this growth will be driven by non-industrial robots.

Tractica is headquartered in Boulder and analyzes global market trends and applications for robotics and related automation technologies within consumer, enterprise, and industrial marketplaces and related industries.

General Research Reports

• Global autonomous mobile robots market, June 2017, 95 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global autonomous mobile robots market will grow at a CAGR of more than 14% through 2021.
• Global underwater exploration robots, June 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global underwater exploration robots market will grow at a CAGR of 13.92 % during the period 2017-2021.
• Household vacuum cleaners market, March 2017, 134 pages, Global Market Insights, $4,500
  Global Market Insights forecasts that household vacuum cleaners market size will surpass $17.5 billion by 2024 and global shipments are estimated to exceed 130 million units by 2024, albeit at a low 3.0% CAGR. Robotic vacuums show a slightly higher growth CAGR.
• Global unmanned surface vehicle market, June 2017, Value Market Research, $3,950
  Value Market Research analyzed drivers (security and mapping) versus restraints such as AUVs and ROVs and made their forecasts for the period 2017-2023.
• Innovations in Robotics, Sensor Platforms, Block Chain, and Artificial Intelligence for Homeland Security, May 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report covers recent developments such as co-bots for surveillance applications, airborne sensor platforms for border security, blockchain tech, AI as first responder, and tech for detecting nuclear threats.
• Top technologies in advanced manufacturing and automation, April 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $4,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report focuses on exoskeletons, metal and nano 3D printing, co-bots and agile robots – all of which are in the top 10 technologies covered.
• Mobile robotics market, December 2016, 110 pages, Zion Market Research, $4,199
  Global mobile robotics market will reach $18.8 billion by end of 2021, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 13.0% between 2017 and 2021.
• Unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market, May 2017, MarketsandMarkets, $5,650
  MarketsandMarkets forecasts the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market to grow from $470.1 Million in 2017 to $938.5 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.83%.
• Military/Civil UAS markets, May 2017, 608 pages, Teal Group
  The Teal Group’s 2016 world military market study estimates that UAV production will soar from current worldwide UAV production of $2.8 billion annually in 2016 to $9.4 billion in 2025, a 15.4% CAGR and that civil UAS production will soar from $2.6 billion worldwide in 2016 to $10.9 billion in 2025, a 15.4% CAGR.

Agricultural Research Reports

• Global agricultural robots market, May 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global agricultural robots market will grow steadily at a CAGR of close to 18% through 2021.
• Agriculture robots market, June 2017, TMR Research, $3,716
  Robots are poised to replace agricultural hands. They can pluck fruits, sow and reap crops, and milk cows. They carry out the tasks much faster and with a great degree of accuracy. This coupled with mandates on higher minimum pay being levied in most countries, have spelt good news for the global market for agriculture robots.
• Agricultural Robots, December 2016, 225 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Forecasts that shipments of agricultural robots will increase from 32,000 units in 2016 to 594,000 units annually in 2024 and that the market is expected to reach $74.1 billion in annual revenue by 2024. Report, done in conjunction with The Robot Report, profiles over 165 companies involved in developing robotics for the industry.

Bottom Line

The disparity between the projections of these research reports is wide but the CAGRs are mostly all double digit. It is easy to conclude as BCG did – that the robotics industry is growing faster than expected

]]> https://robohub.org/irobot-on-the-defensive/ Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:47:58 +0000 http://robohub.org/irobot-on-the-defensive/ SharkNinja, a marketer of home consumer products, has entered the American robotic vacuum market with a product that is priced to compete against iRobot’s Roomba line of floor cleaners. Their new ION Robot navigates floors and carpets and docks and recharges automatically. It sells at a very favorable price point to iRobot’s. SharkNinja has partnered…

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SharkNinja, a well-known marketer of home consumer products, has entered the American robotic vacuum market with a product that is priced to compete against iRobot’s Roomba line of floor cleaners. Their new ION Robot navigates floors and carpets and docks and recharges automatically. It sells at a very favorable price point to iRobot’s.

SharkNinja has partnered with ECOVACS, a Chinese manufacturer of many robotic products including robotic vacuums and floor cleaners, to custom manufacture the new Shark ION Robot – thus SharkNinja isn’t starting from scratch. [ECOVACS is a big seller in China. On Singles Day (11/11/2016), online via the e-commerce giant Alibaba, ECOVACS sold $60.2 million of robotic products, up from $47.6 million in 2015. The star performer was a DEEBOT robotic vacuum which sold 135,000 units. The ECOVACS window-cleaning robot was another standout product, with more than 10,000 units sold.]

iRobot’s stock took an 18% negative hit – perhaps on the news of the product launch by SharkNinja, or perhaps because some prominent analysts downgraded their ratings of the company saying that iRobot is susceptible to a lower-cost similarly capable well-regarded branded product. The SharkNinja robotic vacuums fits those criteria.

SharkNinja is a fast-growing vendor of blenders, vacuums and other household products. They displaced Dyson in vacuums by engineering a superior product at a value price point (the Dyson robot vacuum sold for $1,000). SharkNinja, by using disruptive pricing and infomercial marketing, has garnered around 20% of the U.S. market for vacuums in just 10 years. SharkNinja’s non-robotic vacuums and blenders command significant shelf space and are very popular with customers and sellers alike. Thus they are a formidable competitor.

Also this month, SharkNinja raised an undisclosed sum from CDH Investments, a private equity fund with $20 billion of assets under management. CDH said they purchased “a significant equity interest” in SharkNinja.

iRobot’s Defensive Moves

iRobot has been making defensive moves recently. It acquired its two main distributors: Robopolis in Europe and Sales on Demand in Japan. It has used up much of its cash reserve to buy back shares of the company. And it sued what it considered to be patent violations by Hoover, Black & Decker, Bobsweep, Bissell Homecare, and Micro-Star International (MSI) (which manufacturers the Hoover and Black & Decker vacuums).

According to Zacks Equity Research, iRobot just favorably settled with MSI in an agreement where MSI will exit the global robotic cleaning industry and also provide a undisclosed compensation fee to iRobot.

“This settlement represents the first successful milestone on the enforcement effort iRobot initiated earlier this year,” said Glen Weinstein, executive vice president and chief legal officer at iRobot. “The agreement by MSI to exit the robotic cleaning industry signifies the value of iRobot’s intellectual property and the company’s efforts to protect it.”

Nevertheless, iRobot may be vulnerable to an international consumer products company with a full range of consumer products who competes with similar products at lower prices.

]]> https://robohub.org/united-technologies-acquires-rockwell-collins-for-30-billion/ Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:30:32 +0000 http://robohub.org/united-technologies-acquires-rockwell-collins-for-30-billion/ Aerospace conglomerate United Technologies is paying $30 billion to acquire Rockwell Collins in a deal that creates one of the world’s largest makers of civilian and defense aircraft components. Rockwell Collins and United’s Aerospace Systems segment will combine to create a new business unit named Collins Aerospace Systems. United Technologies will pay $140 per share for…

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Aerospace conglomerate United Technologies is paying $30 billion to acquire Rockwell Collins in a deal that creates one of the world’s largest makers of civilian and defense aircraft components. Rockwell Collins and United’s Aerospace Systems segment will combine to create a new business unit named Collins Aerospace Systems.

United Technologies will pay $140 per share for Rockwell Collins shares; $93.33 in cash and $46.67 in stock. The $140 price represents a 17.6% premium for Rockwell shareholders.

“This acquisition adds tremendous capabilities to our aerospace businesses and strengthens our complementary offerings of technologically advanced aerospace systems,” said UTC’s chairman and CEO, Greg Hayes.

Both companies have subsidiaries involved in robotics, drones and marine systems but both derive most of their revenue from civilian and defense aerospace.

• United Technologies includes Otis elevators, escalators and moving walkways; Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures military and commercial engines, power units and turbojet products; Carrier heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration products; Chubb security and fire-safety solutions; Kidde smoke alarms and fire safety technology; and UTC aerospace systems which provide aircraft interiors, space and ISR systems, landing gear and sensors and sensor-based systems for everything from ice detection to guidance and navigation. Their Aerospace Systems unit has a wide range of products for multiple unmanned platforms including unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
• Rockwell Collins (not to be confused with (or involved in this acquisition) Rockwell Automation* which is highly involved in robotics) designs and produces electronic communications, avionics and in-flight entertainment systems for commercial, military and government customers and includes navigation and display systems for unmanned commercial and military vehicles. Their electronics are installed in nearly every airline cockpit in the world. Their helmet mounted display systems and in-car head-up displays are also big revenue producers.

According to Reuters, “The deal also follows a wave of consolidation among smaller aerospace manufacturers in recent years that was caused in part by the need to invest in new technologies such as metal 3-D printing and connected factories to stay competitive. A combined United Technologies and Rockwell Collins could similarly invest, and their broad portfolios have little overlap.”

________________

• Rockwell Automation is one of 83 members of the ROBO-Global Robotics & Automation Index of which I am a co-founder. The index is designed to leverage advances in technology and macro economic drivers to capture growth opportunity from robotics and automation.

]]> https://robohub.org/isaac-asimovs-3-laws-of-ai-updated/ Tue, 05 Sep 2017 22:03:59 +0000 http://robohub.org/isaac-asimovs-3-laws-of-ai-updated/ In an OpEd piece in the NY Times, and in a TED Talk late last year, Oren Etzioni, PhD, author, and CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, suggested an update for Isaac Asimov’s three laws of Artificial Intelligence. Given the widespread media attention emanating from Elon Musk’s (and others) warnings, these updates might be worth…

The post Isaac Asimov’s 3 laws of A.I. – updated appeared first on The Robot Report.

]]> In an OpEd piece in the NY Times, and in a TED Talk late last year, Oren Etzioni, PhD, author, and CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, suggested an update for Isaac Asimov’s three laws of Artificial Intelligence. Given the widespread media attention emanating from Elon Musk’s (and others) warnings, these updates might be worth reviewing.

The Warnings

In an open letter to the U.N., a group of specialists from 26 nations and led by Elon Musk called for the United Nations to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. The signatories included Musk and DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, as well as 100+ other leaders in robotics and artificial-intelligence companies. They write that AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems in the form of autonomous weapons is feasible within years, not decades, and many in the defense industry are saying that autonomous weapons will be the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

Another more political warning was recently broadcast on VoA: Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to a group of Russian students, called artificial intelligence “not only Russia’s future but the future of the whole of mankind… The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world. There are colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now.”

Asimov’s Three Rules

Isaac Asimov wrote “Runaround” in 1942 in which there was a government Handbook of Robotics (in 2058) which included the following three rules: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Etzioni’s Updated Rules

Etzioni has updated those three rules in his NY Times op-ed piece to:

1. An A.I. system must be subject to the full gamut of laws that apply to its human operator.
2. An A.I. system must clearly disclose that it is not human.
3. An A.I. system cannot retain or disclose confidential information without explicit approval from the source of that information.

Etzioni offered these updates to begin a discussion that would lead to a non-fictional Handbook of Robotics by the United Nations — and sooner than the 2058 sci-fi date. One that would regulate but not thwart the already growing global AI business.

And growing it is!

China’s Artificial Intelligence Manifesto

China has recently announced their long-term goal to become #1 in A.I. by 2030. They plan to grow their A.I. industry to over $22 billion by 2020, $59 billion by 2025 and $150 billion by 2030. They did this same type of long-term strategic planning for robotics – to make it an in-country industry and to transform the country from a low-cost labor source to a high-tech manufacturing resource… and it’s working.

With this major strategic long-term AI push, China is looking to rival U.S. market leaders such as Alphabet/Google, Apple, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. China is keen not to be left behind in a technology that is increasingly pivotal — from online commerce to self-driving vehicles to energy to consumer products. China aims to catch up by solving issues including a lack of high-end computer chips, software that writes software, and trained personnel. Beijing will play a big role in policy support and regulation as well as providing and funding research, incentives and tax credits.

Premature or not, the time is now

Many in AI and robotics feel that the present state of development in AI, including improvements in machine and deep learning methods, is primitive and decades away from independent thinking. Siri and Alexa, as fun and capable as they are, are still programmed by humans and cannot even initiate a conversation or truly understand its content. Nevertheless, there is a reason why people have expressed that they sense what may be possible in the future when artificial intelligence decides what ‘it’ thinks is best for us. Consequently, global regulation can’t hurt.

]]> https://robohub.org/august-2017-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-and-failures/ Sat, 02 Sep 2017 12:45:06 +0000 http://robohub.org/august-2017-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-and-failures/ August fundings totaled $369 million but the number of August transactions, seven, was down from previous months, eg: both July and June had 19 fundings each. Acquisitions, on the other hand, remained steady with a big one pending: Snap has been negotiating all month to acquire Chinese drone startup Zero Zero Robotics for around $150M. Fundings Auris…

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August fundings totaled $369 million but the number of August transactions, seven, was down from previous months, eg: both July and June had 19 fundings each. Acquisitions, on the other hand, remained steady with a big one pending: Snap has been negotiating all month to acquire Chinese drone startup Zero Zero Robotics for around $150M.

Fundings

1. Auris Medical Robotics, the Silicon Valley startup headed by Dr. Frederic H. Moll who previously co-founded Hansen Medical and Intuitive Surgical, raised $280 million in a Series D round led by Coatue Management and included earlier investors Mithril Capital Management, Lux Capital, and Highland Capital. Auris has raised a total of $530 million and is developing targeted, minimally invasive robotic-assisted therapies that treat only the diseased cells in order to prevent the progression of a patient’s illness. Lung cancer is the first disease they are targeting.
2. Oryx Vision, an Israeli startup, raised $50 million in a round led by Third Point Ventures and WRV with participation by Union Tech Ventures. They all join existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Maniv Mobility, and Trucks VC, a VC firm focused on the future of transportation. The company has raised a total of $67 million to date. Oryx is developing a LiDAR for self-driving automobiles using microscopic antennas to detect the light frequencies. The tiny antennas are made of silicon which allows them to put thousands in one sensor thereby lowering the cost of LiDAR distancing. The advantage is increased range and sensitivity for an autonomous vehicle that needs to know exactly what is surrounding it and what those things are doing and can see through fog and not get blinded by bright sunlight.
3. TuSimple, a Chinese startup developing driverless technologies for the trucking industry, raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Nvidia with participation by Sina. Nvidia will own a 3% stake in TuSimple while the startup will support the development of the Nvidia’s artificial intelligence computing platform for self-driving vehicles, Drive PX2.
4. Atlas Dynamics, a Latvian/Israeli drone startup, raised $8 million from investment groups in Israel and in Asia. The 3-rotor Atlas Pro drone operates autonomously with interchangeable payloads and offers 55 minutes of flight time.
5. Common Sense Robotics, an Israeli warehouse fulfillment robotics startup, raised $6 million from Aleph VC and Innovation Endeavors. CommonSense is developing small urban, automated spaces that combine the benefits of local distribution with the economics of automated fulfillment. In big cities these ‘micro-centers’ would receive, stock, and package merchandise of participating vendors based on predictive algorithms. Vendors would then arrange last-mile delivery solutions.
6. Sky-Futures, a London-based industrial inspection services with drones startup, raised $4 million in funding from Japanese giant Mitsui & Co. The announcement came as part of Theresa May’s just-concluded trip to Japan. Sky Futures and Mitsui plan to provide inspections and other services to Mitsui’s clients across a range of sectors. Mitsui, a trading, investment and service company, has 139 offices in 66 countries.
7. Ambient Intelligence Technology, a Japanese underwater drone manufacturer spin-off from the University of Tsukuba, raised $1.93 million from Beyond Next Ventures and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Freebit Investment. Ambient’s ROVs can operate for prolonged periods of autonomous operation at depths of 300 meters.

Acquisitions

1. Dupont Pioneer has acquired farm management software platform startup Granular for $300 million. San Francisco-based Granular’s farm management software helps farmers run more profitable businesses by enabling them to manage their operations and analyze their financials for each of their fields in real time and to create reports for third parties like landowners and banks. Last year they partnered with the American Farm Bureau Insurance Services to streamline crop insurance data collection and reporting and also have a cross-marketing arrangement with Deere.
2. L3 Technologies acquired Massachusetts-based OceanServer Technology for an undisclosed amount. “OceanServer Technology positions L3 to support the U.S. Navy’s vision for the tactical employment of UUVs. This acquisition also enhances our technological capabilities and strengthens our position in growth areas where we see compelling opportunity,” said Michael T. Strianese, L3’s Chairman and CEO. “As a leading innovator and developer of UUVs, OceanServer Technology provides L3 with a new growth platform that is aligned with the U.S. Navy’s priorities.”
3. KB Medical, SA, a Swiss medical robotics startup, was acquired by Globus Medical, a musculoskeletal solutions manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount. This is the 2nd acquisition of a robotics startup by Globus. They acquired Excelsius Robotics in 2014. “The addition of KB Medical will enable Globus Medical to accelerate, enhance and expand our product portfolio in imaging, navigation and robotics. KB Medical’s experienced team of technology development professionals, its strong IP portfolio, and shared philosophy for robotic solutions in medicine strengthen Globus Medical’s position in this strategic area,” said Dave Demski of Emerging Technologies.
4. Jenoptik, a Germany-based laser components manufacturer of vision systems for automation and robotics, acquired Michigan-based Five Lakes Automation, an integrator and manufacturer of robotic material handling systems, for an undisclosed amount.
5. Honeybee Robotics, the Brooklyn-based robotic space systems provider, was acquired by Ensign-Bickford for an undisclosed amount. Ensign-Bickford is a privately held 181-year-old contractor and supplier of space launch vehicles and systems. “The timing is great,” said Kiel Davis, President of Honeybee Robotics. “Honeybee has a range of new spacecraft motion control and robotics products coming to market. And EBI has the experience and resources to help us scale up and optimize our production operations so that we can meet the needs of our customers today and in the near future.”

IPOs

1. Duke Robotics, a Florida and Israeli developer of advanced robotic systems that provide troops with aerial support and other technologies developed in Israel, has filed and been qualified for a stock offering of up to $15 million under SEC Tier II Reg A+ which allows anyone, not just wealthy investors, to be able to purchase stock from approved equity crowdfunding offers.

Failures

1. C&R Robotics (KR)
2. EZ-Robotics (CN)

]]> https://robohub.org/industrial-robots-in-china-up-up-and-away/ Wed, 30 Aug 2017 21:47:38 +0000 http://robohub.org/industrial-robots-in-china-up-up-and-away/ China has rapidly become a global leader in robotics and automation. 2016 annual sales of industrial robots reached the highest level ever for any single country: 87,000 units (up 27% from 2015) and China’s stock of industrial robots is now, at 340,000 units, also the highest total in the world. while Chinese robot manufacturers increased…

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China has rapidly become a global leader in robotics and automation. 2016 annual sales of industrial robots reached the highest level ever for any single country: 87,000 units (up 27% from 2015) and China’s stock of industrial robots is now, at 340,000 units, also the highest total in the world. while Chinese robot manufacturers increased their market share to 31% (up 120% from 2015).

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), which provided these figures, is forecasting that “from 2018 to 2020, a sales increase between 15 and 20 percent on average per year is possible for industrial robots.” And these projections don’t include service robots for professional and B2B use, and personal use such as toys, drones, mobile gofers, guides, home assistants, and consumer products like robotic vacuums and floor and window cleaners.

Outlook for 2017

According to a report released by China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA) at the big World Robot Conference in August in Beijing and reported by China Daily, China’s industrial robot market is expected to reach $4.22 billion in 2017 representing more than 110,000 new industrial robots.

At the same press conference, CRIA also reported that China’s service robot market will reach $1.32 billion this year, up 28% percent from 2015.

Outlook to 2020

The main drivers for the growth of the use of industrial robots in China are the electrical and electronics industry followed by general handling, welding and the auto industry. This broad and expanding demand is expected to continue as major contract manufacturers start and/or continue to automate their production. A further driving factor is China’s growing consumer market for all kinds of consumer goods.

According to the ten-year national plan “Made in China 2025,” the Chinese government wants to transform China from a low-cost labor-intensive manufacturing giant into a technology-based world manufacturing power. The plan includes strengthening Chinese robot suppliers and further increasing their market shares in China and abroad.

Shanzhai

Shenzhen is the Silicon Valley of technology and hardware for China. Things get made FAST. All kinds of ‘things.’ The can-make attitude in Shenzhen is being duplicated around China thus it is important to know what goes on, why it happens in Shenzhen, why it happens so fast, and what they think about patents, intellectual property and Western companies.

Another factor (driver) in China’s relentless push toward automation and robotics is this factoid: In 2016, China’s mobile payments hit $5.5 trillion, roughly 50 times the size of America’s $112 billion market, according to consulting firm iResearch. Chinese are adopting cashless and e-commerce methods at a rate significantly faster than the rest of the world.

WIRED Video produced an hour-long documentary describing the process, the people, and ‘Shanzhai,’ the evolving philosophy of copycat manufacturing, and attempts to put a positive spin on patent avoidance and what many Westerners call stealing, plus the speed of production for adequate profits (as opposed to massive profits). It is a worthwhile and very informative investment of an hour of your time.

]]> https://robohub.org/us-army-and-navy-ordered-to-halt-use-of-dji-drones/ Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:13:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/us-army-and-navy-ordered-to-halt-use-of-dji-drones/

The U.S. Army has ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology because of "cyber vulnerabilities." The directive applies to all DJI drones and systems that use DJI components or software. It requires service members to "cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries and storage media and secure equipment for follow-on direction."

DJI has about 70% of the global commercial and consumer drone market according to Goldman Sachs analysts. The market, including military, is expected to be worth more than $100 billion over the next five years.

The Army's move appears to follow studies conducted by the Army Research Laboratory and the Navy which said there were risks and vulnerabilities in DJI products. The directive cites a classified Army Research Laboratory report and a Navy memo, as references for the order to cease use of DJI drones and related equipment.

DJI responded with the following statement on their website:

Some recent news stories have claimed DJI routinely shares customer information and drone video with authorities in China, where DJI is headquartered. This is false. A junior DJI staffer misspoke during an impromptu interview with reporters who were touring the DJI headquarters; we have attempted to correct the facts since then, but inaccurate stories are still posted online.   

We want to emphasize that DJI does not routinely share customer information or drone video with Chinese authorities — or any authorities... Any claims to the contrary are false.

In other DJI-related news, 3D Robotics (3DR), a previous camera drone competitor, announced a product partnership with DJI so that its 'Site Scan' aerial data analytics software platform now works with DJI drones purposed for large construction and engineering companies using drones. 

DJI director of strategic partnerships Michael Perry stated: “This integration is a significant milestone for the AEC industry. We’re excited that 3DR Site Scan users can now use DJI drones to convert images into actionable data that helps project stakeholders save time and manage costs.”

Read more

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DJI Phantom 4 Pro

The U.S. Army has ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology because of “cyber vulnerabilities.” The directive applies to all DJI drones and systems that use DJI components or software. It requires service members to “cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries and storage media and secure equipment for follow-on direction.”

DJI has about 70% of the global commercial and consumer drone market according to Goldman Sachs analysts. The market, including military, is expected to be worth more than $100 billion over the next five years.

The Army's move appears to follow studies conducted by the Army Research Laboratory and the Navy which said there were risks and vulnerabilities in DJI products. The directive cites a classified Army Research Laboratory report and a Navy memo, as references for the order to cease use of DJI drones and related equipment.

DJI responded with the following statement on their website:

Some recent news stories have claimed DJI routinely shares customer information and drone video with authorities in China, where DJI is headquartered. This is false. A junior DJI staffer misspoke during an impromptu interview with reporters who were touring the DJI headquarters; we have attempted to correct the facts since then, but inaccurate stories are still posted online.   

We want to emphasize that DJI does not routinely share customer information or drone video with Chinese authorities — or any authorities… Any claims to the contrary are false.

In other DJI-related news, 3D Robotics (3DR), a previous camera drone competitor, announced a product partnership with DJI. Its 'Site Scan' aerial data analytics software platform now works with DJI drones, and is aimed at large construction and engineering companies using drones. 

DJI director of strategic partnerships Michael Perry stated: “This integration is a significant milestone for the AEC industry. We’re excited that 3DR Site Scan users can now use DJI drones to convert images into actionable data that helps project stakeholders save time and manage costs.”

]]> https://robohub.org/the-agricultural-labor-conundrum/ Wed, 09 Aug 2017 04:27:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/the-agricultural-labor-conundrum/

Instead of worrying so much about robots taking away jobs, maybe we should worry more about wages being too low for robots to even get a chance. Seasonal labor for harvesting agricultural products, particularly fruits and vegetables, is dependent on human labor from a diminishing universe of willing workers.

Robots that can supplement or replace human workers in the harvesting process are being developed and tested in startups and academia, but almost all are not yet ready for prime time.

In a NY Times article written by Neil Irwin entitled Rethinking Low Productivity, productivity growth has been on a downward path since the Financial Crisis. Irwin, who writes about economic trends, asks whether the downward trend is the cause of low growth, or the result, a troubling question in the dynamics of the agriculture industry.

"Inventors and business innovators are always developing better ways to do things, but it takes a labor shortage and high wages to coax firms to deploy the investment it takes to actually put those innovations into widespread use." 

Those two phenomena are happening today in the U.S. agricultural industry. Labor rates are rising while willing laborers are diminishing — yet farmers are not yet investing in robotics. In fact, they are accommodating to the labor crisis by planting less and changing the crops they grow to be less labor intensive.

J.W. Mason, the author of a paper by the Roosevelt Institute cited as the basis for the thesis of Irwin’s article, says:

"If the labor market tightens and wages rise, that will be the impetus to get companies to consider more big-ticket innovations that generate productivity growth so that we don’t perpetuate the present conundrum in which both arguments cannot be true:

“On Mondays and Wednesdays, economists argue that wages are low because robots are taking people’s jobs. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s that we can’t have wages rise because productivity growth is low.”

This situation cannot continue without radical changes else we will become buyers of foreign fruits and vegetables paying prices set by foreign providers and dependent on them for availability and quality.

A number of factors are causing a reset in the ag industry in addition to the declining availability of farm workers: the challenges and complexities of employing and retaining farm labor; the rising cost of farm workers; changing farmlands; climate change; the growth of indoor farming; and the broader automation of the agriculture industry. All are propelling farmers to make changes in how they farm (or change downward the product mix they farm (which is often a path toward failure)). Market challenges for the sector include unclear value propositions, limited awareness of robotic systems among growers, insufficient robotic solutions, the difficulty of matching human-like dexterity with machines, fragmented technology development, and weak support.

Tractica, in their report on agricultural robotics, forecast an optimistic resolution to this temporary conundrum in the very near term and that that shipments of agricultural robots will increase significantly in the years ahead, rising from 32,000 units in 2016 to 594,000 units annually by 2024, by which time the market is expected to reach $74 billion in annual revenue. Certainly the time is ripe and, like Mason said, "Both arguments can't be true."

Read more

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Instead of worrying so much about robots taking away jobs, maybe we should worry more about wages being too low for robots to even get a chance. Seasonal labor for harvesting agricultural products, particularly fruits and vegetables, is dependent on human labor from a diminishing universe of willing workers.

Robots that can supplement or replace human workers in the harvesting process are being developed and tested in startups and academia, but almost all are not yet ready for prime time.

In a NY Times article written by Neil Irwin entitled Rethinking Low Productivity, productivity growth has been on a downward path since the Financial Crisis. Irwin, who writes about economic trends, asks whether the downward trend is the cause of low growth, or the result, a troubling question in the dynamics of the agriculture industry.

“Inventors and business innovators are always developing better ways to do things, but it takes a labor shortage and high wages to coax firms to deploy the investment it takes to actually put those innovations into widespread use.”

Those two phenomena are happening today in the U.S. agricultural industry. Labor rates are rising while willing laborers are diminishing — yet farmers are not yet investing in robotics. In fact, they are accommodating to the labor crisis by planting less and changing the crops they grow to be less labor intensive.

J.W. Mason, the author of a paper by the Roosevelt Institute cited as the basis for the thesis of Irwin’s article, says:

“If the labor market tightens and wages rise, that will be the impetus to get companies to consider more big-ticket innovations that generate productivity growth so that we don’t perpetuate the present conundrum in which both arguments cannot be true:

“On Mondays and Wednesdays, economists argue that wages are low because robots are taking people’s jobs.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s that we can’t have wages rise because productivity growth is low.”

This situation cannot continue without radical changes else we will become buyers of foreign fruits and vegetables paying prices set by foreign providers and dependent on them for availability and quality.

A number of factors are causing a reset in the ag industry in addition to the declining availability of farm workers: the challenges and complexities of employing and retaining farm labor; the rising cost of farm workers; changing farmlands; climate change; the growth of indoor farming; and the broader automation of the agriculture industry. All are propelling farmers to make changes in how they farm (or change downward the product mix they farm (which is often a path toward failure)). Market challenges for the sector include unclear value propositions, limited awareness of robotic systems among growers, insufficient robotic solutions, the difficulty of matching human-like dexterity with machines, fragmented technology development, and weak support.

Tractica, in their report on agricultural robotics, forecast an optimistic resolution to this temporary conundrum in the very near term and that that shipments of agricultural robots will increase significantly in the years ahead, rising from 32,000 units in 2016 to 594,000 units annually by 2024, by which time the market is expected to reach $74 billion in annual revenue. Certainly the time is ripe and, like Mason said, “Both arguments can’t be true.”

]]> https://robohub.org/auris-surgical-robotics-raises-another-280-million/ Mon, 07 Aug 2017 04:17:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/auris-surgical-robotics-raises-another-280-million/

Credit: Auris Surgical Robotics.

Auris Surgical Robotics, the Silicon Valley startup headed by Frederic Moll who previously co-founded Hansen Medical and Intuitive Surgical, raised $280 million in a Series D round led by Coatue Management and including earlier investors Mithril Capital Management, Lux Capital, Highland Capital and 24 others.

An Auris spokesman said that the company has raised a total of $530 million and is developing targeted, minimally invasive therapies that treat only the diseased cells in order to prevent the progression of a patient’s illness. Lung cancer is the first disease they are targeting.

There are 1 billion smokers worldwide creating an epidemic of 6 million deaths per year. More patients die every year from lung cancer than from prostate, breast and colon cancer combined. 

The reason lung cancer is so deadly is that the diagnostic and treatment processes are ineffective. The majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed in late stage, when the cancer has already spread beyond its primary location. With our technology, physicians will be able to access early stage lung cancer without incisions, allowing accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment.

]]> https://robohub.org/july-2017-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-and-failures/ Tue, 01 Aug 2017 21:47:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/july-2017-fundings-acquisitions-ipos-and-failures/

July, 2017 was a big month for robotics-related company funding. Four raised $588 million and 19 others raised $370.6 million for a monthly total of $958.6 million. Acquisitions also continued to be significant with ST Engineering acquiring Aethon for $36 million, iRobot buying its European distributor for $141 million while SoftBank purchased 5% of iRobot shares for around $120 million

FUNDINGS

1. Plenty, a San Francisco vertical farm startup, raised $200 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank and included Bezos Expeditions, Data Collective, DCM Ventures, Finistere Ventures, Innovation Endeavors and Louis Bacon. Plenty plans to use the funds to expand to Japan and add strawberries and cucumbers to the leafy greens they already produce. Plenty makes an internet-connected system which delivers specific types of light, air composition, humidity and nutrition, depending on which crop is being grown, and is designing and adding robotics and automation as it can, particularly with their recent acquisition of Bright Agrotech (see below). Plenty says it can yield up to 350 times more produce in a given area than conventional farms -- with 1 percent of the water.

   Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures said: “This investment shows the potential of the sector. Indoor agriculture is a real toolkit for the produce industry. There is no winner takes all potential here. I could even see some traditional, outdoor growers do indoor ag as a way to manage some of the fundamental issues of the produce industry: agronomy, logistics costs, shrinkage, freshness, seasonality and manage inventory cycles better. There are many different models that could work and we are excited about the platforms being built in the market."

2. Nauto, a Silicon Valley self-driving device and AI startup, raised $159 million in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank and Greylock Partners and also included previous investors BMW iVentures, General Motors Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Allianz Group, Playground Global and Draper Nexus

   SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “While building an increasingly intelligent telematics business, Nauto is also generating a highly valuable dataset for autonomous driving, at massive scale. This data will help accelerate the development and adoption of safe, effective self-driving technology.”

3. Desktop Metal, the MIT spin-off and Massachusetts-based 3D metal printing technology startup, raised another $115 million in a Series D round which included New Enterprise Associates, GV (Google Ventures), GE Ventures, Future Fund and Techtronic Industries which owns Hoover U.S. and Dirt Devil.

   According to CEO Ric Fulop, “You don’t need tooling. You can make short runs of production with basically no tooling costs. You can change your design and iterate very fast. You can make shapes you couldn’t make any other way, so now you can lightweight a part and work with alloys that are very, very hard, with very extreme properties. One of the benefits for this technology for robotics is that you’re able to do lots of turns. Unless you’re iRobot with the Roomba, you’re making a lot of one-off changes to your product.”

4. Brain Corp, a San Diego AI company developing self-driving technology, got $114 million in a Series C funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Qualcomm Ventures was the only other investor. The funds will be used to develop technology that enables robots to navigate in complex physical spaces. Last October, Brain Corp. rolled out its first commercial product —a self-driving commercial floor scrubber for use in grocery stores and big box retailers.
5. Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+), a Chinese startup developing a goods-to-man warehousing system of robots and software very similar to Kiva System’s products, raised $60 million in a B round led by Warburg Pincus and joined by existing shareholders and Volcanics Venture. The company claims to have delivered the largest numbers of logistics robots among its peers in China, delivering nearly 1,000 units of robots in warehouses for over 20 customers that include Tmall, VIPShop and Suning.

   Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said, “This round of financing will help us upgrade our business in three aspects. Firstly, we will accelerate the upgrading of our logistics robotics products and expand product offerings to cover more applications.” “Secondly, we will accelerate our geographical expansion and industry coverage to provide our one-stop intelligent logistics system and operation solutions to more customers. Thirdly, we will start exploring overseas markets through multiple channels.”

6. Vicarious, a Union City, Calif.-based artificial intelligence company using computational neuroscience to build better machine learning models that help robots quickly address a wide variety of tasks, raised $50 million funding led by Khosla Ventures.
7. Momenta.ai, a Beijing autonomous driving startup that is developing digital maps, driving decision solutions and machine vision technology to detect traffic signs, pedestrians and track other cars, raised $46 million in a Series B funding round led by NIO Capital. Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse Capital along with Daimler AG, Shunwei Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Unity Ventures also participated.
8. Autotalk, an Israeli chip maker of vehicle to vehicle communications, raised $40 million from Toyota, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and other investors. The funding will allow Autotalks to prepare and expand its operations for the upcoming start of mass productions as well as continue to develop communication solutions for both connected and autonomous cars.
9. Flashhold (also named Shanghai Express Warehouse Intelligent Technology and Quicktron) raised $29 million in a Series B round led by Alibaba Group's Cainiao Network and SB China Venture Capital (SBCVC). Flashhold is a Shanghai-based logistic robotics company with robotic products, shelving and software very similar to Amazon's Kiva Systems.
10. Slamtec,  a Chinese company developing a solid state LiDAR laser sensor for robots in auto localization and navigation, raised $22 million from Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, ChinaEquity Group Inc. and Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital Management Co.
11. 6 River Systems, the Boston, MA startup providing alternative fulfillment solutions for e-commerce distribution centers, raised $15 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from  Eclipse Ventures and other existing investors.
12. Prospera, an Israeli ag startup, raised $15 million in a Series B round for its end-to-end internet of things platform for indoor and outdoor farms. The round was led Qualcomm Ventures  and fellow telecom heavyweight Cisco. Propsera uses computer vision, machine learning, and data science to detect and identify diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and other types of crop stress on farms with the hope of improving crop yields and saving farmer costs.

    “Receiving funding from these major tech companies is a clear signal that tech industry heavy-hitters understand that agriculture is ripe for digitalization. It means that such companies, which are already involved in digitizing other traditional industries, see a significant opportunity in agtech,” said Prospera CEO Daniel Koppel.

13. Embark, a Belmont, Calif.-based self-driving trucking startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Data Collective and was joined by YC Continuity, Maven Ventures and SV Angel. Embark has teamed up with Peterbilt and plans to hire for their engineering team and add more trucks to expand their test fleet across the U.S.
14. Xometry, a Maryland startup with an Uber-like system for parts manufacture, raised $15 million in funding led by BMW Groups’ VC arm and GE.
15. Intuition Robotics, an Israeli startup developing social companion technologies for seniors, raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Toyota Research Institute plus OurCrowd and iRobot as well as existing seed investors Maniv Mobility, Terra Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta and private investors.

    Dr. Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute said: “We are impressed with Intuition Robotics’ thought leadership of a multi-disciplinary approach towards a compelling product offering for older adults including: Human-Robot-Interaction, cloud robotics, machine learning, and design. Specifically, we believe Intuition Robotics’ technology, in the field of cognitive computing, has strong potential to positively impact the world’s aging population with a proactive, truly autonomous agent that’s deployed in their social robot, ElliQ.”

16. SkySafe, a San Diego, Calif.-based radio-wave anti-drone device manufacturer, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. SkySafe recently secured DoD contracts to provide counter-drone tech for Navy Seals.
17. Kuaile Zhihui, a Beijing educational robot startup, has raised around $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners and included GGV Capital and China Capital.
18. Atlas Dynamics, a Latvian UAS startup, raised $8 million from unnamed institutional and individual investors. Funds will be used to advance the development of its Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone-based data solutions, and to build its presence in key markets, including North America.
19. Reach Robotics, a gaming robots developer, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Korea Investment Partners and IGlobe. Reach has produced and sold an initial run of 500 of its four-legged, crab-like, MekaMon bots. MekaMon fits into an emerging category of smartphone-enabled augmented reality toys like Anki.
20. UVeye, a New York-based startup that develops automatic vehicle inspection systems, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Ahaka Capital. Israeli angel investors group SeedIL Investment Club also participated. Funds will be used to launch its products and expand to international markets, including China.
21. Miso Robotics, the Pasadena-based developer of a burger-flipping robot, raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by Acacia Research. Interestingly, Acacia is an agency that licenses patents and also enforces patented technologies.
22. Metamoto, the Redwood City autonomous driving simulation startup, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Motus Ventures and UL, a strategic investor.
23. Fastbrick, an Australian brick-laying startup, raised $2 million from Caterpillar with an option to invest a further $8 million subject to shareholder approval. Both companies signed an agreement to collaborate on the development, manufacture, selling and servicing of Fastbrick’s technology mounted on Caterpillar equipment.

ACQUISITIONS

1. Robopolis SAS, the France-based distributor of iRobot products in Europe, is being acquired by iRobot for $141 million. Last year iRobot, in a similar move to bring their distribution network inhouse, acquired Demand Corp, their distributor for Japan.
2. Bright Agrotech, a Wyoming provider of vertical farming products, technology and systems, was acquired by Plenty, a vertical farm startup in San Francisco. No financial terms were disclosed. Bright has partnered with small farmers fto start and grow indoor farms, providing high-tech growing systems and controls, workflow design, education and software.
3. Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) has acquired robotics firm Aethon Inc through Vision Technologies Land Systems, Inc. (VTLS), and its wholly- owned subsidiary, VT Robotics, Inc for $36 million. This acquisition will be carried out by way of a merger with VT Robotics, a special purpose vehicle newly incorporated for the proposed transaction. The merger will see Aethon as the surviving entity that will operate as a subsidiary of VTLS, and will be part of the Group’s Land Systems sector.
4. On the Move Systems, a Canadian penny stock trucking systems provider, is merging with California-based RAD (Robotic Assistance Devices), an integrator of mobile robots for security applications. The merger involves RAD receiving 3.5 million shares of OMVS (around $250k).

IPOs and stock transactions

• iRobot, the 27-year-old Massachusetts-based maker of the Roomba, has seen its stock soar from news of a purchase of an undisclosed amount of iRobot stock by SoftBank (or the SoftBank Vision Fund). The purchase is reported to be over $100 million and less than $120 million (5% of the market value).

FAILURES

• Pearl Automation

Read more

]]>

July 2017 was a big month for robotics-related company funding. Four raised $588 million and 19 others raised $370.6 million for a monthly total of $958.6 million. Acquisitions also continued to be significant with ST Engineering acquiring Aethon for $36 million, iRobot buying its European distributor for $141 million, and SoftBank purchasing 5% of iRobot shares for around $120 million.

Fundings

1. Plenty, a San Francisco vertical farm startup, raised $200 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank and included Bezos Expeditions, Data Collective, DCM Ventures, Finistere Ventures, Innovation Endeavors and Louis Bacon. Plenty plans to use the funds to expand to Japan and add strawberries and cucumbers to the leafy greens they already produce. Plenty makes an internet-connected system which delivers specific types of light, air composition, humidity and nutrition, depending on which crop is being grown, and is designing and adding robotics and automation as it can, particularly with their recent acquisition of Bright Agrotech (see below). Plenty says it can yield up to 350 times more produce in a given area than conventional farms — with 1 percent of the water.
   

   Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures said: “This investment shows the potential of the sector. Indoor agriculture is a real toolkit for the produce industry. There is no winner takes all potential here. I could even see some traditional, outdoor growers do indoor ag as a way to manage some of the fundamental issues of the produce industry: agronomy, logistics costs, shrinkage, freshness, seasonality and manage inventory cycles better. There are many different models that could work and we are excited about the platforms being built in the market.”

2. Nauto, a Silicon Valley self-driving device and AI startup, raised $159 million in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank and Greylock Partners and also included previous investors BMW iVentures, General Motors Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Allianz Group, Playground Global and Draper Nexus.
   

   SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “While building an increasingly intelligent telematics business, Nauto is also generating a highly valuable dataset for autonomous driving, at massive scale. This data will help accelerate the development and adoption of safe, effective self-driving technology.”

3. Desktop Metal, the MIT spin-off and Massachusetts-based 3D metal printing technology startup, raised another $115 million in a Series D round which included New Enterprise Associates, GV (Google Ventures), GE Ventures, Future Fund and Techtronic Industries which owns Hoover U.S. and Dirt Devil.
   

   According to CEO Ric Fulop, “You don’t need tooling. You can make short runs of production with basically no tooling costs. You can change your design and iterate very fast. You can make shapes you couldn’t make any other way, so now you can lightweight a part and work with alloys that are very, very hard, with very extreme properties. One of the benefits for this technology for robotics is that you’re able to do lots of turns. Unless you’re iRobot with the Roomba, you’re making a lot of one-off changes to your product.”

4. Brain Corp, a San Diego AI company developing self-driving technology, got $114 million in a Series C funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Qualcomm Ventures was the only other investor. The funds will be used to develop technology that enables robots to navigate in complex physical spaces. Last October, Brain Corp. rolled out its first commercial product —a self-driving commercial floor scrubber for use in grocery stores and big box retailers.
5. Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+), a Chinese startup developing a goods-to-man warehousing system of robots and software very similar to Kiva System’s products, raised $60 million in a B round led by Warburg Pincus and joined by existing shareholders and Volcanics Venture. The company claims to have delivered the largest numbers of logistics robots among its peers in China, delivering nearly 1,000 units of robots in warehouses for over 20 customers that include Tmall, VIPShop and Suning.
   

   Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said, “This round of financing will help us upgrade our business in three aspects. Firstly, we will accelerate the upgrading of our logistics robotics products and expand product offerings to cover more applications.” “Secondly, we will accelerate our geographical expansion and industry coverage to provide our one-stop intelligent logistics system and operation solutions to more customers. Thirdly, we will start exploring overseas markets through multiple channels.”

6. Vicarious, a Union City, California-based artificial intelligence company using computational neuroscience to build better machine learning models that help robots quickly address a wide variety of tasks, raised $50 million funding led by Khosla Ventures.
7. Momenta.ai, a Beijing autonomous driving startup that is developing digital maps, driving decision solutions and machine vision technology to detect traffic signs, pedestrians and track other cars, raised $46 million in a Series B funding round led by NIO Capital. Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse Capital along with Daimler AG, Shunwei Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Unity Ventures also participated.
8. Autotalk, an Israeli chip maker of vehicle to vehicle communications, raised $40 million from Toyota, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and other investors. The funding will allow Autotalks to prepare and expand its operations for the upcoming start of mass productions as well as continue to develop communication solutions for both connected and autonomous cars.
9. Flashhold (also named Shanghai Express Warehouse Intelligent Technology and Quicktron) raised $29 million in a Series B round led by Alibaba Group's Cainiao Network and SB China Venture Capital (SBCVC). Flashhold is a Shanghai-based logistic robotics company with robotic products, shelving and software very similar to Amazon's Kiva Systems.
10. Slamtec,  a Chinese company developing a solid state LiDAR laser sensor for robots in auto localization and navigation, raised $22 million from Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, ChinaEquity Group Inc. and Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital Management Co.
11. 6 River Systems, the Boston, MA startup providing alternative fulfillment solutions for e-commerce distribution centers, raised $15 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from  Eclipse Ventures and other existing investors.
12. Prospera, an Israeli ag startup, raised $15 million in a Series B round for its end-to-end internet of things platform for indoor and outdoor farms. The round was led Qualcomm Ventures  and fellow telecom heavyweight Cisco. Propsera uses computer vision, machine learning, and data science to detect and identify diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and other types of crop stress on farms with the hope of improving crop yields and saving farmer costs.
    

    “Receiving funding from these major tech companies is a clear signal that tech industry heavy-hitters understand that agriculture is ripe for digitalization. It means that such companies, which are already involved in digitizing other traditional industries, see a significant opportunity in agtech,” said Prospera CEO Daniel Koppel.

13. Embark, a Belmont, California-based self-driving trucking startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Data Collective and was joined by YC Continuity, Maven Ventures and SV Angel. Embark has teamed up with Peterbilt and plans to hire for their engineering team and add more trucks to expand their test fleet across the U.S.
14. Xometry, a Maryland startup with an Uber-like system for parts manufacture, raised $15 million in funding led by BMW Groups’ VC arm and GE.
15. Intuition Robotics, an Israeli startup developing social companion technologies for seniors, raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Toyota Research Institute plus OurCrowd and iRobot as well as existing seed investors Maniv Mobility, Terra Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta and private investors.
    

    Dr. Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute said: “We are impressed with Intuition Robotics’ thought leadership of a multi-disciplinary approach towards a compelling product offering for older adults including: Human-Robot-Interaction, cloud robotics, machine learning, and design. Specifically, we believe Intuition Robotics’ technology, in the field of cognitive computing, has strong potential to positively impact the world’s aging population with a proactive, truly autonomous agent that’s deployed in their social robot, ElliQ.”

16. SkySafe, a San Diego, California-based radio-wave anti-drone device manufacturer, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. SkySafe recently secured DoD contracts to provide counter-drone tech for Navy Seals.
17. Kuaile Zhihui, a Beijing educational robot startup, has raised around $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners and included GGV Capital and China Capital.
18. Atlas Dynamics, a Latvian UAS startup, raised $8 million from unnamed institutional and individual investors. Funds will be used to advance the development of its Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone-based data solutions, and to build its presence in key markets, including North America.
19. Reach Robotics, a gaming robots developer, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Korea Investment Partners and IGlobe. Reach has produced and sold an initial run of 500 of its four-legged, crab-like, MekaMon bots. MekaMon fits into an emerging category of smartphone-enabled augmented reality toys like Anki.
20. UVeye, a New York-based startup that develops automatic vehicle inspection systems, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Ahaka Capital. Israeli angel investors group SeedIL Investment Club also participated. Funds will be used to launch its products and expand to international markets, including China.
21. Miso Robotics, the Pasadena-based developer of a burger-flipping robot, raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by Acacia Research. Interestingly, Acacia is an agency that licenses patents and also enforces patented technologies.
22. Metamoto, the Redwood City autonomous driving simulation startup, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Motus Ventures and UL, a strategic investor.
23. Fastbrick, an Australian brick-laying startup, raised $2 million from Caterpillar with an option to invest a further $8 million subject to shareholder approval. Both companies signed an agreement to collaborate on the development, manufacture, selling and servicing of Fastbrick’s technology mounted on Caterpillar equipment.

Acquisitions

1. Robopolis SAS, the France-based distributor of iRobot products in Europe, is being acquired by iRobot for $141 million. Last year iRobot, in a similar move to bring their distribution network inhouse, acquired Demand Corp, their distributor for Japan.
2. Bright Agrotech, a Wyoming provider of vertical farming products, technology and systems, was acquired by Plenty, a vertical farm startup in San Francisco. No financial terms were disclosed. Bright has partnered with small farmers to start and grow indoor farms, providing high-tech growing systems and controls, workflow design, education and software.
3. Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) has acquired robotics firm Aethon Inc through Vision Technologies Land Systems, Inc. (VTLS), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, VT Robotics, Inc for $36 million. This acquisition will be carried out by way of a merger with VT Robotics, a special purpose vehicle newly incorporated for the proposed transaction. The merger will see Aethon as the surviving entity that will operate as a subsidiary of VTLS, and will be part of the Group’s Land Systems sector.
4. On the Move Systems, a Canadian penny stock trucking systems provider, is merging with California-based RAD (Robotic Assistance Devices), an integrator of mobile robots for security applications. The merger involves RAD receiving 3.5 million shares of OMVS (around $250k).

IPOs and stock transactions

• iRobot, the 27-year-old Massachusetts-based maker of the Roomba, has seen its stock soar from news of a purchase of an undisclosed amount of iRobot stock by SoftBank (or the SoftBank Vision Fund). The purchase is reported to be over $100 million and less than $120 million (5% of the market value).

Failures

• Pearl Automation

]]> https://robohub.org/chinas-appetite-now-focused-on-artificial-intelligence/ Thu, 27 Jul 2017 19:59:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/chinas-appetite-now-focused-on-artificial-intelligence/

China has recently announced their long-term goal to become #1 in A.I. by 2030. They plan to grow their A.I. industry to over $22 billion by 2020, $59 billion by 2025 and $150 billion by 2030. They did this same type of long-term strategic planning for robotics - to make it an in-country industry and to transform the country from a low-cost labor source to a high-tech manufacturing resource... and it’s working.

China's Artificial Intelligence Manifesto

With this major strategic long-term push into A.I., China is looking to rival U.S. market leaders such as Alphabet/Google, Apple, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. China is keen not to be left behind in a technology that is increasingly pivotal -- from online commerce to self-driving vehicles to energy to consumer products. China aims to catch up by solving issues including a lack of high-end computer chips, software that writes software, and trained personnel. Beijing will play a big role in policy support and regulation as well as providing and funding research, incentives and tax credits.

“The local and central government are supporting this AI effort,” said Rui Yong, chief technology officer at PC maker Lenovo Group. “They see this trend coming and they want to invest more.”

Many cited the defeat of the world's top Go players from China and South Korea by the Google-owned A.I. company DeepMind and their AlphaGo game-playing software as the event that caused China's State Council to enact and launch its A.I. plan which it announced on July 20th. The NY Times called it "a sort of Sputnik moment for China."

Included in the announcement:

China will be investing heavily to ensure its companies, government and military leap to the front of the pack in a technology many think will one day form the basis of computing.

The plan covers almost every field: from using the technology  for voice recognition to dispatching robots for deep-sea and Arctic exploration, as well as using AI in military security. The Council said the country must “firmly grasp this new stage of AI development.”

China said it plans to build “special-force” AI robots for ocean and Arctic exploration, use the technology for gathering evidence and reading court documents, and also use machines for “emotional interaction functions.”

In the final stage, by 2030, China will “become the world’s premier artificial intelligence innovation center,” which in turn will “foster a new national leadership and establish the key fundamentals for an economic great power.”

Chinese Investments in A.I.

The DoD regularly warns that Chinese money has been flowing into American A.I. companies — some of the same companies it says are likely to help the United States military develop future weapons systems. The NY Times cites the following example:

When the United States Air Force wanted help making military robots more perceptive, it turned to a Boston-based artificial intelligence start-up called Neurala. But when Neurala needed money, it got little response from the American military.

So Neurala turned to China, landing an undisclosed sum from an investment firm backed by a state-run Chinese company.

Chinese firms have become significant investors in American start-ups working on cutting-edge technologies with potential military applications. The start-ups include companies that make rocket engines for spacecraft, sensors for autonomous navy ships, and printers that make flexible screens that could be used in fighter-plane cockpits. Many of the Chinese firms are owned by state-owned companies or have connections to Chinese leaders.

Chinese venture firms have offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and other areas where A.I. startups are happening and many Chinese companies -- such as Baidu -- have American-based research centers to take advantage of local talent. 

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which reviews U.S. acquisitions by foreign entities for national security risks, appears to be blind to all of this.

China's Robot Manifesto Has Been Quite Successful

Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated “a robot revolution” and launched the "Made in China 2025" program. More than 1,000 firms and a new robotics association, CRIA (Chinese Robotics Industry Alliance) have emerged (or begun to transition) into robotics to take advantage of the program. By contrast, the sector was virtually non-existent a decade ago.

Under “Made in China 2025,” and the five-year robot plan launched last April, Beijing is focusing on automating key sectors of the economy including car manufacturing, electronics, home appliances, logistics, and food production. At the same time, the government wants to increase the share of in-country-produced robots to more than 50% by 2020; up from 31% last year and to be able to make 150,000 industrial robots in 2020; 260,000 in 2025; and 400,000 by 2030. China's stated goal in both their 5-year plan and Made in China 2025 program is to overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States in terms of manufacturing sophistication by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To make that happen, the government needs Chinese manufacturers to adopt robots by the millions. It also wants Chinese companies to start producing more of those robots and has encouraged strategic acquisitions.

Four of the top 15 acquisitions in 2016 were of robotic-related companies by Chinese acquirers:

1. Midea, a Chinese consumer products manufacturer, acquired KUKA, one of the Big 4 global robot manufacturers
2. The Kion Group, a predominately Chinese-funded warehousing systems and equipment conglomerate, acquired Dematic, a large European AGV and material handling systems company
3. KraussMaffei, a big German industrial robots integrator, was acquired by ChemChina
4. Paslin, a US-based industrial robot integrator, was acquired by Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology, a Chinese industrial robot integrator

The Robot Report wrote an extensive review of robot growth in China and recapped 500 of them by type and sub-category. For fundings and acquisitions in 2017, read the following monthly posts on the subject:

• June 2017 fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
• May 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
• April 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
• March 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
• February 2017 fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
• January 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures

Read more

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Android textured with flag of china. Technology concept. Isolated

China has recently announced their long-term goal to become #1 in A.I. by 2030. They plan to grow their A.I. industry to over $22 billion by 2020, $59 billion by 2025 and $150 billion by 2030. They did this same type of long-term strategic planning for robotics – to make it an in-country industry and to transform the country from a low-cost labor source to a high-tech manufacturing resource, and it’s working.

China's Artificial Intelligence Manifesto

With this major strategic long-term push into A.I., China is looking to rival U.S. market leaders such as Alphabet/Google, Apple, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. China is keen not to be left behind in a technology that is increasingly pivotal — from online commerce to self-driving vehicles, energy, and consumer products. China aims to catch up by solving issues including a lack of high-end computer chips, software that writes software, and trained personnel. Beijing will play a big role in policy support and regulation as well as providing and funding research, incentives and tax credits.

The local and central government are supporting this AI effort,” said Rui Yong, chief technology officer at PC maker Lenovo Group. “They see this trend coming and they want to invest more.

Many cited the defeat of the world's top Go players from China and South Korea by the Google-owned A.I. company DeepMind and their AlphaGo game-playing software as the event that caused China's State Council to enact and launch its A.I. plan which it announced on July 20th. The NY Times called it “a sort of Sputnik moment for China.”

Included in the announcement:

China will be investing heavily to ensure its companies, government and military leap to the front of the pack in a technology many think will one day form the basis of computing.

The plan covers almost every field: from using the technology  for voice recognition to dispatching robots for deep-sea and Arctic exploration, as well as using AI in military security. The Council said the country must “firmly grasp this new stage of AI development.”

China said it plans to build “special-force” AI robots for ocean and Arctic exploration, use the technology for gathering evidence and reading court documents, and also use machines for “emotional interaction functions.”

In the final stage, by 2030, China will “become the world’s premier artificial intelligence innovation center,” which in turn will “foster a new national leadership and establish the key fundamentals for an economic great power.”

Chinese Investments in A.I.

The DoD regularly warns that Chinese money has been flowing into American A.I. companies — some of the same companies it says are likely to help the United States military develop future weapons systems. The NY Times cites the following example:

When the United States Air Force wanted help making military robots more perceptive, it turned to a Boston-based artificial intelligence start-up called Neurala. But when Neurala needed money, it got little response from the American military.

So Neurala turned to China, landing an undisclosed sum from an investment firm backed by a state-run Chinese company.

Chinese firms have become significant investors in American start-ups working on cutting-edge technologies with potential military applications. The start-ups include companies that make rocket engines for spacecraft, sensors for autonomous navy ships, and printers that make flexible screens that could be used in fighter-plane cockpits. Many of the Chinese firms are owned by state-owned companies or have connections to Chinese leaders.

Chinese venture firms have offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and other areas where A.I. startups are happening. Many Chinese companies — such as Baidu — have American-based research centers to take advantage of local talent. 

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews U.S. acquisitions by foreign entities for national security risks, appears to be blind to all of this.

China's Robot Manifesto Has Been Quite Successful

Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated “a robot revolution” and launched the “Made in China 2025” program. More than 1,000 firms and a new robotics association, CRIA (Chinese Robotics Industry Alliance) have emerged (or begun to transition) into robotics to take advantage of the program. By contrast, the sector was virtually non-existent a decade ago.

Under “Made in China 2025,” and the five-year robot plan launched last April, Beijing is focusing on automating key sectors of the economy including car manufacturing, electronics, home appliances, logistics, and food production. At the same time, the government wants to increase the share of in-country-produced robots to more than 50% by 2020; up from 31% last year and to be able to make 150,000 industrial robots in 2020; 260,000 in 2025; and 400,000 by 2030. China's stated goal in both their 5-year plan and Made in China 2025 program is to overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States in terms of manufacturing sophistication by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To make that happen, the government needs Chinese manufacturers to adopt robots by the millions. It also wants Chinese companies to start producing more of those robots and has encouraged strategic acquisitions.

Four of the top 15 acquisitions in 2016 were of robotic-related companies by Chinese acquirers:

1. Midea, a Chinese consumer products manufacturer, acquired KUKA, one of the Big 4 global robot manufacturers
2. The Kion Group, a predominately Chinese-funded warehousing systems and equipment conglomerate, acquired Dematic, a large European AGV and material handling systems company
3. KraussMaffei, a big German industrial robots integrator, was acquired by ChemChina
4. Paslin, a US-based industrial robot integrator, was acquired by Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology, a Chinese industrial robot integrator

The Robot Report wrote an extensive review of robot growth in China and recapped 500 of them by type and sub-category. For fundings and acquisitions in 2017, read the monthly posts on the subject.

Savioke Relay Dash delivery robot. Source: Savioke

Recent events demonstrate the growing presence of indoor mobile robots: (1) Savioke’s hotel butler robot won the 2017 IERA inventors award; (2) Knightscope’s security robot mistook a reflecting pond for a solid floor and dove in face-first to the delight of Twitterdom and the media; and (3) the sale of robotic hospital delivery provider Aethon to a Singaporean conglomerate.

Are we beginning to enter an era of multi-functional robots? Certainly that is the vision of each of the vendors listed below. They see their robots greet, assist and run errands during business hours and then, after hours, prowl and tally inventory and fixed assets, and all the while – 24/7 – check for anomalies and things that are suspicious. SuperRobot? Or one of the many new mobile service robots that offer each of these services as separate tasks? For example, Savioke, the hotel butler robot, is now using their Relay robots with FedEx in the warehousing and logistics sector.

The indoor robot marketplace

Travis Deyle, CEO of Silicon Valley startup Cobalt Robotics which is developing indoor robots for security purposes, in an article in IEEE Spectrum, posited that commercial spaces are the next big marketplace for robotics and that there’s a massive, untapped market in each of the commercial spaces shown in his chart below:

“Commercial spaces could serve as a great stepping stone on the path toward general-purpose home robots by driving scale, volume, and capabilities. So… while billions are being spent on R&D for autonomous vehicles, indoor robots for commercial and public spaces reap the technology and cost benefits on sensors, computing, machine learning, and open-source software.”

Although the chart above focuses on the many applications within the commercial space, there is also much activity in various forms of indoor material handling using mobile robots in warehouses and distribution centers. The list of companies in that marketplace is quite large and will be detailed in a future article.

Hospital mobile robot firm sells to Singaporean conglomerate

ST Engineering acquired Pittsburgh, PA-based hospital robotics firm Aethon for $36 million. Aethon provides intralogistics in hospital environments by delivering goods and supplies using its TUG autonomous mobile robots. ST Engineering's strategic reasoning for the acquisition can be understood by this statement about the purchase:

“We evaluated the autonomous mobile robotics market thoroughly. Our evaluation led us to conclude that Aethon was the best company in this space having the right technology along with proven success in the commercialization and installation of autonomous mobile robots,” said Khee Loon Foo, General Manager, Kinetics Advanced Robotics of ST Kinetics.

Hotel robot wins 2017 IERA Inventors Award

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) jointly sponsor an annual IERA (Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation) Award which this year was presented to the Relay butler robot made by Savioke, a Silicon Valley startup.

Savioke's Relay robot makes deliveries all on its own in hotels, hospitals or logistics centers. Thanks to artificial intelligence and sensor technology, the robot can move safely through public spaces and navigate around people and obstacles dynamically.

The robots, which have already completed over 100,000 deliveries, can be seen in selected hotels in California and New York, Asia and the Middle East.

Indoor Robot Companies

Listed below are a few of the companies in the emerging mobile robot indoor commercial marketplaces described in Deyle's chart above. The list is not comprehensive but intended to give you an overview of who those new companies are, how far along they are, and how global they are.

Indoor Security Robots:

Recent research reports covering the security robots marketplace forecast that the market will reach $2.4 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 9% from now til then. These forecasts include indoor and outdoor robots. 

• Knightscope is a Silicon Valley security robot startup with robots in shopping malls, exhibition halls, parking lots and office complexes. It was Knightscope's robot that took the face dive in the Washington, DC pond. [Graphic of Knightscope robot from Twitter.]
• Cobalt Robotics, also a Silicon Valley security robotics startup, but, as described by co-founder Travis Deyle, “Security is just one entrée to the whole emerging world of indoor robotics.”
• Gamma Two Robotics, a Colorado patrol robot maker, whose new Ramsee mobile robots have sensors for heat, toxic gas, motion detection and acoustic listening.
• NxT Robotics is a San Diego mobile robot startup offering both an indoor (Iris) and outdoor (Scorpion) security patrol solution.
• SMP Robotics is a San Francisco maker of mobile security robots for outdoor and indoor facilities.
• Anbot (Hunan Wanwei Intelligent Robot Technology Co.) is a Chinese security robot with a robot very similar looking to Knightscope's. It can be seen prowling airport and museum public spaces in China.
• Robot Security Systems is a Netherlands-based startup indoor mobile security robot provider.
• China Security & Surveillance Technology also offers both indoor and outdoor security mobile robots.

Indoor Guides, Assistants, Greeters, Food Handlers and Gofor Robots:

This list could be much larger – particularly the gofor robots in the material handling field – but has been limited to those startups delivering product or with working prototypes focused on one or all of the commercial indoor market sectors. 

• MetraLabs is a German provider of fully autonomous mobile inventory, public space guide and retail robots for stores, malls and museums.
• PAL Robotics is a Spanish maker of humanoid robots used as guides, entertainers, information providers and presenters – in multiple languages.
• Pangolin Robot is a Chinese maker of restaurant server/waiter/busing robots and which also has a line of greeting and delivery robots.
• Simbe Robotics is a San Francisco provider of a retail space inventory robot auditing shelves for out-of-stock items, low stock items, misplaced items, and pricing errors. Simbe's Tally robot can perform during normal store hours alongside shoppers and employees or autonomously after hours.
• Bossa Nova Robotics is a Pittsburgh developer of a store robot that scans products on the shelves, makes store maps and helps employees keep track of where items are located.
• BlueBotics is a Swiss provider of mobile robots, robotic platforms and products for mobile guides, marketing assistants and industrial cleaning.
• Pepper, the mobile emotion-detecting robot jointly produced by Foxconn, Alibaba and SoftBank, is serving as the first point of contact in coffee stores, banks, corporate offices and other public spaces.
• Yujin Robot is a Korean consumer products maker with a line of hotel and restaurant delivery robots.
• Fellow Robots is a Silicon Valley developer of the NAVii robot which is used as a greeter but also maps and performs inventory scans. 

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) has acquired Pittsburgh, PA-based robotics firm Aethon Inc through Vision Technologies Land Systems, Inc. (VTLS), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, VT Robotics, Inc, for $36 million.

The acquisition will be carried out by way of a merger with VT Robotics, a special newly incorporated entity established for the transaction. The merger will see Aethon as the surviving entity that will operate as a subsidiary of VTLS, and will be part of the the ST Group’s Land Systems sector. Aethon’s leadership team and employees will remain in place and the company will continue to operate out of its Pittsburgh, PA location.

ST Engineering, S63 on the Singapore Stock Exchange, is a Singapore-based integrated defense and engineering group focused in aerospace, electronics, and land, sea and air unmanned systems for the battlefield. It employs over 21,000 people and has annual revenues of around $5 billion.

“We evaluated the autonomous mobile robotics market thoroughly. Our evaluation led us to conclude that Aethon was the best company in this space having the right technology along with proven success in the commercialization and installation of autonomous mobile robots. We look forward to working with the Pittsburgh, PA team to grow the company,” says Khee Loon Foo, General Manager, Kinetics Advanced Robotics of ST Kinetics.

Aethon provides intralogistics in manufacturing and hospital environments by delivering goods and supplies using its TUG autonomous mobile robots. TUGs are self-driving autonomous robots capable of hauling or towing up to 1,400 lbs as it dynamically and safely navigates around people and the corridors of client facilities.

“This acquisition is a terrific event for our company, employees and our customers since it provides Aethon with the resources and corporate backing to grow and develop new innovative robotic technology and more aggressively pursue new markets. We will now be able to expand our development capabilities to enhance our current technology and bring exciting logistics solutions to new vertical and global markets,” says Aldo Zini, CEO of Aethon.

After much uproar, media attention, and political pressure, Pres. Trump intervened and enabled all the teams headed to Washington, DC for the F.I.R.S.T Global Robotics Championship, whose visas had been held up or denied, to get their visas. Some visas were received as late as two days before the event. Although the Afghan team got all the press, the team from Gambia was also denied when they first applied.

The three-day event which started Sunday evening in Washington, DC with opening ceremonies, has teams from 157 countries (including the Afghanistan and Gambia teams) — and some multinational teams representing continents. FIRST has organized competitions for many years but this is the first year it is hosting an international competition.

FIRST Global founder Dean Kamen, the inventor who created the Segway, said: “The competition’s objective is not just to teach children to build robots and explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math; it drives home the lesson of the importance of cooperation — across languages, cultures and borders. FIRST Global is getting them [teams from around the world] at a young age to learn how to communicate with each other, cooperate with each other and recognize that we’re all going to succeed together or we’re all going down together.” 

Ivanka Trump met with the Afghan girls team and also put in an appearance at the competition. She Tweeted: “It is a game everyone can play and where everyone can turn pro!”

The Washington Post described another set of problems that got resolved in an unusual way regarding the team from Iran:

Because of sanctions, FIRST Global was unable to ship a robotics kit to Iran, where a group of teenagers awaited the parts to build a robot. That might have spelled the end of the team’s shot of going to the world championships. But the organization introduced the Iranian team to a group of teenage robotics enthusiasts at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., calling themselves Team Gryphon. The team in Iran sketched out blueprints on the computer and sent the designs to their counterparts across the ocean and then corresponded over Skype.

Sunday, the team flew the Iranian flag at their station next to the flag of Team Gryphon — a black flag with a purple silhouette of the gryphon — as a sign of their unlikely partnership.

For Mohammadreza Karami, the team’s mentor, it was an inspiring example of cooperation. “It’s possible to solve all of the world’s problems if we put aside our politics and focus on peace,” Karami said.

Kirsten Springer, a 16-year-old rising junior at Marshall High, said she didn’t want the Iranian team to be locked out of the competition just because of the sanctions. “Everybody should be able to compete … and to learn and to use that experience for other aspects of their life,” she said.

Now that all the teams are present and the competition has begun, we wish them all the best, hope they have a lot of fun, particularly hope they meet and befriend a lot of fellow robot enthusiasts, and thank them all for participating and their team mentors and supporters for helping make this all happen.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) cites that between 2010 and 2016, 136,748 robots were shipped to the US —the most in any seven-year period in the US robotics industry. At the same time, US manufacturing employment increased by 894,000 and the unemployment rate fell from 9.8% to 4.7%.

Yet manufacturers, robotics associations, ethicists and media pundits are still fighting the robotics and jobs issue. Brett Brune, Editor in Chief of Smart Manufacturing magazine, argues that “the hand-wringing around robotics and jobs in the US really needs to stop.” 

Manufacturers around the world, including in China, are busy figuring out how quickly to acquire robots. In Mexico, automation is thriving. So much so that the country is now the sixth-biggest auto producer globally. At the same time, the number of manufacturing workers is starting to swell.

A record-high 5.15 million Mexicans worked in manufacturing as of May, nearly a quarter of all workers registered with the country’s social security institute. Around 202,000 Mexicans joined the ranks of manufacturing workers during the first five months of this year alone.

California, which abuts Mexico, has America's largest Hispanic population (14.4 million in 2011), and has had a continuous supply of migrant farm workers since before statehood, has been an agricultural mainstay in the US for close to 100 years and currently produces about 60% of the nation's fresh produce. But as the state's minimum wage approaches $15 and competition from the growing Mexican manufacturing economy mounts, farm managers are having to cope with a workforce that has dropped and immigration policies that threaten to depress the labor supply further.

Since the late 1990s, the number of agricultural workers who move around the US working seasonal farming jobs fell by 60%. According to a study done by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (UC Berkeley), half of that labor transformation appears to be due to changes in the demographic makeup of the workforce while government and institutional changes in the market impacted the remaining 50%.

“This reduction in the number of migrant farmworkers increases the risk that fruits and vegetables will not be harvested before they spoil. To avoid this problem, farmers will switch crops, automate planting and harvesting, or take other actions to reduce the need for seasonal agricultural workers. Only a major change in our immigration and guest worker policies is likely to increase migration within the country and postpone automation.”

Interestingly, the trend line for documented workers, although going steadily down, outnumbers undocumented workers as governmental and economic changes in the US and Mexico make immigration less attractive plus demographic changes make farm workers less willing to migrate.

The case for robotics in the ag industry has never been stronger as agricultural migration rates within the United States plummet. Recent research reports suggest that growth in ag technology will be exponential but not necessarily in across-the-board robotics; rather, it will first attack three areas: (1) converting farms to become connected digital systems through the use of precision ag methods, (2) then, with sensor-laden ground-based and airborne drones, planes and satellites gathering and accumulating data, analyzing that data to produce actionable prescriptions, and (3) provide equipment that can vary its procedures (seeding, thinning, weeding, spraying, etc.) based on the actionable prescriptions from #2, and automate post-harvest processing (sorting, inspecting, handling, packaging, boxing, etc.). 

Resources and references

• Story idea from Robotiq weekly What's New blog
• Article: Where did all the migrant farm workers go?
• Article: With farm labor getting scarcer, big U.S. farms are preparing to turn to robots
• Article: What’s slowing the use of robots in the ag industry?
• Research report: Global agricultural robots market, May 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio
• Research report: Agriculture robots market, June 2017, TMR Research
• Research report: Agricultural Robots, December 2016, 225 pages, Tractica

Read more

Source: Getty Images

SoftBank’s Pepper humanoid robot operation (a joint venture with Foxconn, Alibaba and SoftBank) has incurred a big $274 million loss while Asia more than doubled the amount of funding for tech startups thus far in 2017. No one ever said VC funding was for the faint of heart.

The Ups

According to PwC and CB Insights, venture capital investments in Asia in the first six months of 2017 totaled $28.8 billion. VC investments in North America for the same period totaled $18.4 billion.

Source: PwC | CB Insights MoneyTree Report Q2 2017
Read more at: https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/asia-overtakes-us-for-the-first-time-in-vc-funding-cbinsights-77547/

CB Insights reports that 45% of all dollars invested in tech in 2017 went to Asian firms. 

Largest deals in Asia so far this year included Didi Chuxing raising $5.5 billion, One97 Communications ($1.4 billion), GO-JEK ($1.2 billion), Bytedance ($1 billion) and Ele.me ($1 billion).

Largest deals in North America in the quarter included San Francisco-based Lyft – which raised $600 million, Outcome Health ($500 million), Group Nine Media ($485 million), Houzz ($400 million), and Guardant Health ($360 million).

The number of deals around the world, as shown in the chart above, remains heavily in the West. Almost every day the news reports another fund being set up to invest in one area of tech or another. For example, Toyota Motor Corp today announced a $100 million fund (Toyota AI Ventures) for AI and robotics startups and have already made some initial investments. The first three are for a maker of cameras that monitor drivers and roads, a creator of autonomous car-mapping algorithms, and a developer of robotic companions for the elderly.

The Downs

Nikkei Asian Review reports on SoftBank Robotics’ $274 million loss which they attribute to the Pepper humanoid robot joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn. The subsidiary was established in 2014 and began consumer sales of Pepper in June 2015 and business sales that October.

“Although the company does not release earnings, it recorded sales of 2.2 billion yen and a net loss of 11.7 billion yen in fiscal 2015, according to Tokyo Shoko Research. That is markedly worse than the 2.3 billion yen net loss from fiscal 2014. 'Pepper is unprofitable because of its relatively low price for a humanoid robot, costing just 198,000 yen ($1,750), which cannot cover development costs.'”

A SoftBank PR statement said that they will increase corporate sales and improve earnings through related businesses such as apps and content and that sales are good.

Two reputable research resources are reporting that the robotics industry is growing more rapidly than expected. BCG (Boston Consulting Group) is conservatively projecting that the market will reach $87 billion by 2025; Tractica, incorporating the robotic and AI elements of the emerging self-driving industry, is forecasting the market will reach $237 billion by 2022.

Both research firms acknowledge that yesterday’s robots — which were blind, big, dangerous and difficult to program and maintain — are being replaced and supplemented with newer, more capable ones. Today's new, and future robots, will have voice and language recognition, access to super-fast communications, data and libraries of algorithms, learning capability, mobility, portability and dexterity. These new precision robots can sort and fill prescriptions, pick and pack warehouse orders, sort, inspect, process and handle fruits and vegetables, plus a myriad of other industrial and non-industrial tasks, most faster than humans, yet all the while working safely along side them.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Gaining Robotic Advantage, June 2017, 13 pages, free

BCG suggests that business executives be aware of ways robots are changing the global business landscape and think and act now. They see robotics-fueled changes coming in retail, logistics, transportation, healthcare, food processing, mining and agriculture.

BCG cites the following drivers:

• Private investment in the robotic space has continued to amaze with exponential year-over-year funding curves and sensational billion dollar acquisitions.
• Prices continue to fall on robots, sensors, CPUs and communications while capabilities continue to increase.
• Robot programming is being transformed by easier interfaces, GUIs and ROS.
• The prospect of a self-driving vehicles industry disrupting transportation is propelling a talent grab and strategic acquisitions by competing international players with deep pockets.
• 40% of robotic startups have been in the consumer sector and will soon augment humans in high-touch fields such as health and elder care.

 BCG also cites the following example of paying close attention to gain advantage:

“Amazon gained a first-mover advantage in 2012 when it bought Kiva Systems, which makes robots for warehouses. Once a Kiva customer, Amazon acquired the robot maker to improve the productivity and margins of its network of warehouses and fulfillment centers. The move helped Amazon maintain its low costs and expand its rapid delivery capabilities. It took five years for a Kiva alternative to hit the market. By then, Amazon had a jump on its rivals and had developed an experienced robotics team, giving the company a sustainable edge.”

Tractica

Robotics Market Forecast – June 2017, 26 pages, $4,200
Drones for Commercial Applications – June 2017, 196 pages, $4,200
AI for Automotive Applications – May 2017, 63 pages, $4,200
Consumer Robotics – May 2017, 130 pages, $4,200

The key story is that industrial robotics, the traditional pillar of the robotics market, dominated by Japanese and European robotics manufacturers, has given way to non-industrial robot categories like personal assistant robots, UAVs, and autonomous vehicles, with the epicenter shifting toward Silicon Valley, which is now becoming a hotbed for artificial intelligence (AI), a set of technologies that are, in turn, driving a lot of the most significant advancements in robotics. Consequently, Tractica forecasts that the global robotics market will grow rapidly between 2016 and 2022, with revenue from unit sales of industrial and non-industrial robots rising from $31 billion in 2016 to $237.3 billion by 2022.  The market intelligence firm anticipates that most of this growth will be driven by non-industrial robots.

Tractica is headquartered in Boulder and analyzes global market trends and applications for robotics and related automation technologies within consumer, enterprise, and industrial marketplaces and related industries.

General Research Reports

• Global autonomous mobile robots market, June 2017, 95 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global autonomous mobile robots market will grow at a CAGR of more than 14% through 2021.
• Global underwater exploration robots, June 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global underwater exploration robots market will grow at a CAGR of 13.92 % during the period 2017-2021.
• Household vacuum cleaners market, March 2017, 134 pages, Global Market Insights, $4,500
  Global Market Insights forecasts that household vacuum cleaners market size will surpass $17.5 billion by 2024 and global shipments are estimated to exceed 130 million units by 2024, albeit at a low 3.0% CAGR. Robotic vacuums show a slightly higher growth CAGR.
• Global unmanned surface vehicle market, June 2017, Value Market Research, $3,950
  Value Market Research analyzed drivers (security and mapping) versus restraints such as AUVs and ROVs and made their forecasts for the period 2017-2023.
• Innovations in Robotics, Sensor Platforms, Block Chain, and Artificial Intelligence for Homeland Security, May 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report covers recent developments such as co-bots for surveillance applications, airborne sensor platforms for border security, blockchain tech, AI as first responder, and tech for detecting nuclear threats.
• Top technologies in advanced manufacturing and automation, April 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $4,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report focuses on exoskeletons, metal and nano 3D printing, co-bots and agile robots – all of which are in the top 10 technologies covered.
• Mobile robotics market, December 2016, 110 pages, Zion Market Research, $4,199
  Global mobile robotics market will reach $18.8 billion by end of 2021, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 13.0% between 2017 and 2021.
• Unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market, May 2017, MarketsandMarkets, $5,650
  MarketsandMarkets forecasts the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market to grow from $470.1 Million in 2017 to $938.5 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.83%.

Agricultural Research Reports

• Global agricultural robots market, May 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global agricultural robots market will grow steadily at a CAGR of close to 18% through 2021.
• Agriculture robots market, June 2017, TMR Research, $3,716
  Robots are poised to replace agricultural hands. They can pluck fruits, sow and reap crops, and milk cows. They carry out the tasks much faster and with a great degree of accuracy. This coupled with mandates on higher minimum pay being levied in most countries, have spelt good news for the global market for agriculture robots.
• Agricultural Robots, December 2016, 225 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Forecasts that shipments of agricultural robots will increase from 32,000 units in 2016 to 594,000 units annually in 2024 and that the market is expected to reach $74.1 billion in annual revenue by 2024. Report, done in conjunction with The Robot Report, profiles over 165 companies involved in developing robotics for the industry.

In the race to develop self-driving technology, Chinese Internet giant Baidu unveiled its 50+ partners in an open source development program, revised its timeline for introducing autonomous driving capabilities on open city roads, described the Project Apollo consortium and its goals, and declared Apollo to be the ‘Android of the autonomous driving industry’.

At a developer's conference last week in Beijing, Baidu described its plans and timetable for its self-driving car technology. It will start test-driving in restricted environments immediately, before gradually introducing fully autonomous driving capabilities on highways and open city roads by 2020. Baidu's goal is to get those vehicles on the roads in China, the world's biggest auto market, with the hope that the same technology, embedded in exported Chinese vehicles, can then conquer the United States. To do so, Baidu has compiled a list of cooperative partners, a consortium of 50+ public and private entities, and named it Apollo, after NASA's massive Apollo moon-landing program. 

Project Apollo

The program is making its autonomous car software open source in the same way that Google released its Android operating system for smartphones. By encouraging companies to build upon the system and share their results, it hopes to overtake rivals such as Google/Waymo, Tencent, Alibaba and others researching self-driving technology. 

MIT Technology Review provided a description of the open source Apollo project:

The Apollo platform consists of a core software stack, a number of cloud services, and self-driving vehicle hardware such as GPS, cameras, lidar, and radar.

The software currently available to outside developers is relatively simple: it can record the behavior of a car being driven by a person and then play that back in autonomous mode. This November, the company plans to release perception capabilities that will allow Apollo cars to identify objects in their vicinity. This will be followed by planning and localization capabilities, and a driver interface.

The cloud services being developed by Baidu include mapping services, a simulation platform, a security framework, and Baidu’s DuerOS voice-interface technology.

Members of the project include Chinese automakers Chery, Dongfeng Motor, Foton, Nio, Yiqi and FAW Group. Tier 1 members include Continental, Bosch, Intel, Nvidia, Microsoft and Velodyne. Other partners include Chinese universities, governmental agencies, Autonomous Stuff, TomTom, Grab and Ford. The full list of members can be seen here.

Quoting from Bloomberg News regarding the business aspect of Project Apollo:

China has set a goal for 10 to 20 percent of vehicles to be highly autonomous by 2025, and for 10 percent of cars to be fully self-driving in 2030. Didi Chuxing, the ride-sharing app that beat Uber in China, is working on its own product, as are several local automakers. It’s too early to tell which will ultimately succeed though Baidu’s partnership approach is sound, said Marie Sun, an analyst with Morningstar Investment Service.

“This type of technology needs cooperation between software and hardware from auto-manufacturers so it’s not just Baidu that can lead this,” she said. If Baidu spins off the car unit, “in the longer term, Baidu should maintain a major shareholder position so they can lead the growth of the business.”

Baidu and Apollo have a significant advantage over Google's Waymo: Baidu has a presence in the United States, whereas Alphabet has none in China because Google closed down its search site in 2010 rather than give in to China's internet censorship.

Strategic Issue

According to the Financial Times, “autonomous vehicles pose an existential threat [to global car manufacturers]. Instead of owning cars, consumers in the driverless age will simply summon a robotic transportation service to their door. One venture capitalist says auto executives have come to him saying they know they are “screwed”, but just want to know when it will happen.” 

This desperation has prompted a string of big acquisitions and joint ventures amongst competing providers including those in China. Citing just a few:

• Last year GM paid $1bn for Cruise, a self-driving car start-up.
• Uber paid $680m for Otto, an autonomous trucking company that was less than a year old.
• In March, Intel spent $15bn to buy Israel’s Mobileye, which makes self-driving sensors and software.
• Baidu acquired Raven Tech, an Amazon Echo competitor; 8i, an augmented reality hologram startup; Kitt, a conversational language engine; and XPerception, a vision systems developer.
• Tencent invested in mapping provider Here and acquired 5% of Tesla.
• Alibaba announced that it is partnering with Chinese Big 4 carmaker SAIC in their self-driving effort.

China Network

Baidu’s research team in Silicon Valley is pivotal to their goals. Baidu was one of the first of the Chinese companies to set up in Silicon Valley, initially to tap into SV's talent pool. Today it is the center of a “China network” of almost three dozen firms, through investments, acquisitions and partnerships. 

Baidu is rapidly moving forward from the SV center: 

• It formed a self-driving car sub-unit in April which now employs more than 100 researchers and engineers. 
• It partnered with chipmaker Nvidia.
• It acquired vision systems startup XPerception.
• It has begun testing its autonomous vehicles in China and California. 

Regarding XPerception, Gartner research analyst Michael Ramsey said in a CNBC interview:

“XPerception has expertise in processing and identifying images, an important part of the sensing for autonomous vehicles. The purchase may help push Baidu closer to the leaders, but it is just one piece.”

XPerception is just one of many Baidu puzzle pieces intended to bring talent and intellectual property to the Apollo project. It acquired Raven Tech and Kitt AI to gain conversational transaction processing. It acquired 8i, an augmented reality hologram startup, to add AR — which many expect to be crucial in future cars — to the project. And it suggested that the acquisition spree will continue as needed.

Bottom Line

China has set a goal for 10 to 20 percent of vehicles to be highly autonomous by 2025, and for 10 percent of cars to be fully self-driving in 2030 and Baidu wants to provide the technology to get those vehicles on the roads in China with the hope that the same technology, embedded in exported Chinese vehicles, can then conquer the United States. It seems well poised to do so.

China’s second-biggest e-commerce company, JD.com (Alibaba is first), is testing mobile robots to make deliveries to its customers, and imagining a future with fully unmanned logistics systems.

 Story idea and images courtesy of RoboticsToday.com.au.

On the last day of a two-week-long shopping bonanza that recorded sales of around $13 billion, some deliveries were made using mobile robots designed by JD. It’s the first time that the company has used delivery robots in the field. The bots delivered packages to multiple Beijing university campuses such as Tsinghua University and Renmin University. 

JD has been testing delivery robots since November last year. At that time, the cost of a single robot was almost $88,000.

They have been working on lowering the cost and increasing the capabilities since then. The white, four-wheeled UGVs can carry five packages at once and travel 13 miles on a charge. They can climb up a 25° incline and find the shortest route from warehouse to destination.

Once it reaches its destination, the robot sends a text message to notify the recipient of the delivery. Users can accept the delivery through face-recognition technology or by using a code.

The UGVs now cost $7,300 per robotic unit which JD figures can reduce delivery costs from less than $1 for a human delivery to about 20 cents for a robot delivery.

JD is also testing the world’s largest drone-delivery network, including flying drones carrying products weighing as much as 2,000 pounds.

“Our logistics systems can be unmanned and 100% automated in 5 to 8 years,” said Liu Qiangdong, JD’s chairman.

UPDATED 7/4/2017: Added acquisition of OC Robotics by GE Aviation.

June, 2017 saw two robotics-related companies get $50 million each and 17 others raised $248 million for a monthly total of $348 million. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with SoftBank's acquisition of Google's robotic properties Boston Dynamics and Schaft plus two others acquisitions.

Fundings

• Drive.ai raised $50 million in a Series B funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) with participation from GGV Capital and existing investors including Northern Light Venture Capital. Andrew Ng who led AI projects at Baidu and Google (and is husband to Drive.ai’s co-founder and president Carol Reiley) joined the board of directors and said: 
  

  “The cutting-edge of autonomous driving has shifted squarely to deep learning. Even traditional autonomous driving teams have 'sprinkled on' some deep learning, but Drive.ai is at the forefront of leveraging deep learning to build a truly modern autonomous driving software stack.

• Aera Technology, renamed from FusionOps, a Silicon Valley software and AI provider, raised $50 million from New Enterprise Associates. Aera seems to be the first RPA to actuate in the physical world. Merck uses Aera to predict demand, determine product routing and interact with warehouse management systems to enact what’s needed.
  

  “The leap from transactional automation to cognitive automation is imminent and it will forever transform the way we work,” says Frederic Laluyaux, President and CEO of Aera. “At Aera, we deliver the technology that enables the Self-Driving Enterprise: a cognitive operating system that connects you with your business and autonomously orchestrates your operations.”

• Swift Navigation, the San Francisco tech firm building centimeter-accurate GPS technology to power a world of autonomous vehicles, raised $34 million in a Series B financing round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from existing investors Eclipse and First Round Capital. Swift provides solutions to over 2,000 customers-including autonomous vehicles, precision agriculture, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robotics, maritime, transportation/logistics and outdoor industrial applications. By moving GPS positioning from custom hardware to a flexible software-based receiver, Swift Navigation delivers Real Time Kinematics (RTK) GPS (100 times more accurate than traditional GPS) at a fraction of the cost ($2k) of alternative RTK systems.
• AeroFarms raised over $34 million of a $40 million Series D. The New Jersey-based indoor vertical farming startup has raised over $130 million since 2014 and now has 9 operating indoor farms. AeroFarms grows leafy greens using aeroponics –- growing them in a misting environment without soil using LED lights, and growth algorithms. The round brings AeroFarms’ total fundraising to over $130 million since 2014 including a $40 million note from Goldman Sachs and Prudential.
• Seven Dreamers Labs, a Tokyo startup commercializing the Laundroid robot, raised $22.8 million KKR’s co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts, Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, and others. Laundroid is being developed with Panasonic and Daiwa House.
• Bowery Farming, which raised $7.5 million earlier this year, raised an additional $20 million from General Catalyst, GGV Capital and GV (formerly Google Ventures). Bowery’s first indoor farm in Kearny, NJ, uses proprietary computer software, LED lighting and robotics to grow leafy greens without pesticides and with 95% less water than traditional agriculture.
• Drone Racing League raised $20 million in a Series B investment round led by Sky, Liberty Media and Lux Capital, and new investors Allianz and World Wrestling Entertainment, plus existing investors Hearst Ventures, RSE Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Courtside Ventures.
• Momentum Machines, the SF-based startup developing a hamburger-making robot, raised $18.4 million in an equity offering of $21.8 million, from existing investors Lemnos Labs, GV, K5 Ventures and Khosla Ventures. The company has been working on its first retail location since at least June of last year. There is still no scheduled opening date for the flagship, though it's expected to be located in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.
• AEye, a startup developing a solid state LiDAR and other vision systems for self-driving cars, raised $16 million in a Series A round led by  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Airbus Ventures, Intel Capital, Tyche Partners and others.
  

  Said Luis Dussan, CEO of AEye. “The biggest bottleneck to the rollout of robotic vision solutions has been the industry’s inability to deliver a world-class perception layer. Quick, accurate, intelligent interpretation of the environment that leverages and extends the human experience is the Holy Grail, and that’s exactly what AEye intends to deliver.”

• Snips,  an NYC voice recognition AI startup, raised $13 million in a Series A round led by MAIF Avenir with PSIM Fund managed by Bpifrance, as well as previous investor Eniac Ventures and K-Fund 1 and Korelya Capital, joining the round.  Snip makes an on-device system that parses and understands better than Amazon's Alexa.
• Misty Robotics, a spin-out from Orbotix/Sphero, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding from Venrock, Foundry Group and others. Ian Bernstein, former Sphero co-founder and CTO, will be taking the role of Head of Product and is joined by five other autonomous robotics division team members. Misty Robotics will use its new capital to build out the team and accelerate product development. Sphero and Misty Robotics will have a close partnership and have signed co-marketing and co-development agreements.
• Superflex, a spin-off from SRI, has raised $10.2 million in equity financing from 10 unnamed investors. Superflex is developing a powered suit designed for individuals experiencing mobility difficulties and working in challenging environments to support the wearer’s torso, hips and legs.
• Nongtian Guanjia (FarmFriend), a Chinese drone/ag industry software startup, raised $7.36 million led by Gobi Partners and existing investors GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital, the Zhen Fund and Yunqi Partners.
• Carmera, a NYC-based auto tech startup, unstealthed this week with $6.4M in funding led by Matrix Partners. The two-year-old company has been quietly collecting data for its 3D mapping solution, partnering with delivery fleets to install its sensor and data collection platform.
• Cognata, an Israeli deep learning simulation startup, raised $5 million from Emerge, Maniv Mobility, and Airbus Ventures. Cognata recently launched a self-driving vehicle road-testing simulation package
  

  “Every autonomous vehicle developer faces the same challenge—it is really hard to generate the numerous edge cases and the wide variety of real-world environments. Our simulation platform rapidly pumps out large volumes of rich training data to fuel these algorithms,” said Cognata’s Danny Atsmon

• SoftWear Automation, the GA Tech and DARPA sponsored startup developing sewing robots for apparel manufacturing, raised $4.5 million in a Series A round from CTW Venture Partners.
• Knightscope, a startup developing robotic security technologies, raised $3 million from Konica Minolta. The capital is to be invested in Knightscope’s current Reg A+ “mini-IPO” offering of Series M Preferred Stock.
• Multi Tower Co, a Danish medical device startup, raised around $1.12 million through a network of private and public investors most notable of which were Syddansk Innovation, Rikkesege Invest, M. Blæsbjerg Holding and Dahl Gruppen Holding. The Multi Tower Robot used to lift and move hospital patients, is developed through Blue Ocean Robotics’ partnership program, RoBi-X, in a public-private partnership (PPP) between University Hospital Køge, Multi Tower Company and Blue Ocean Robotics.
• Optimus Ride, a MIT spinoff developing self-driving tech, raised $1.1 million in financing from an undisclosed investor.

Acquisitions

• SoftBank acquired Boston Dynamics and Schaft from Google Alphabet for an undisclosed amount.
  • Boston Dynamics, a DARPA and DoD-funded 25 year old company, designs two and four-legged robots for the military. Videos of BD’s robots WildCat, Big Dog, Cheetah and most recently Handle, continue to be YouTube hits. Handle is a two-wheeled, four-legged hybrid robot that can stand, walk, run and roll at up to 9 MPH.
  • Schaft, a Japanese participant in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, recently unveiled an updated version of a two-legged robot that climbed stairs, can carry 125 pounds of payload, move in tight spaces and keep its balance throughout. 
• IPG Photonics, a laser component manufacturer/integrator of welding and laser-cutting systems, including robotic ones, acquired Innovative Laser Technologies, a Minnesota laser systems maker, for $40 million. 
• Motivo Engineering, an engineering product developer, has acquired Robodondo, an ag tech integrator focused on food processing, for an undisclosed amount.
• GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE, acquired OC Robotics for an undisclosed amount. OC Robotics is a British provider of robotic solutions for confined and hazardous environments including developing and producing a snake-like robot which makes repairs in difficult to reach places on wings easier.
  

  OC Robotics Technical Director Andy Graham said, “For 15 years, OC Robotics invested heavily to develop snake-arm robot technologies, and the aviation industry has always been a target area for this technology. This acquisition represents a significant opportunity for the OC Robotics team to deploy our technology through a world-leading organization.”

IPOs

• None. Nada. Zip.

Credit: Aurora Flight Sciences.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is researching autonomous co-piloting so they can fly without a human pilot on board. The robotic system — called the Common Aircraft Retrofit for Novel Autonomous Control (CARNAC) (not to be confused with the old Johnny Carson Carnac routine) — has the potential to reduce costs, enable new missions, and improve performance.

CARNAC, the Johnny Carson version.

Unmanned aircraft are generally built from scratch with robotic systems integrated from the earliest design stages. Existing aircraft require extensive modification to add robotic systems.

RE2, the CMU spin-off located in Pittsburgh, makes mobile manipulators for defense and space. They just received an SBIR loan backed by a US Air Force development contract to develop a retrofit kit that would provide a robotic piloting solution for legacy aircraft.

“Our team is excited to incorporate the Company’s robotic manipulation expertise with proven technologies in applique systems, vision processing algorithms, and decision making to create a customized application that will allow a wide variety of existing aircraft to be outfitted with a robotic pilot,” stated Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics. “By creating a drop-in robotic pilot, we have the ability to insert autonomy into and expand the capabilities of not only traditionally manned air vehicles, but ground and underwater vehicles as well. This application will open up a whole new market for our mobile robotic manipulator systems.”

Aurora Flight Sciences, a Manassas, VA developer of advanced unmanned systems and aerospace vehicles, is working on another similar DARPA project, Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), and is designed as a drop-in avionics and mechanics package that can be quickly and cheaply fitted to a wide variety of fixed and rotor aircraft, from a Cessna to a B-52. Once installed, ALIAS is able to analyze the aircraft and adapt itself to the job of the second pilot.

Credit: Aurora Flight Sciences

Conferences and trade shows, held in interesting locations around the world, can be entertaining, informative and an opportunity to explore new places, meet new people and renew acquaintances. Three recent examples: Xponential, the mostly defense-related unmanned land, sea and air show, held in Dallas; Innorobo, focused on service robotics, in Paris; and ICRA, the IEEE’s premier robotics conference, in Singapore.

ICRA

The 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), the IEEE’s principle forum for robotics researchers to present their work, was held this year at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Convention Center in Singapore. ICRA continues to have the highest number of cited research papers in the robotics field of all the various global conferences (including IROS).

In an IEEE/Spectrum review of that portion of the conference that was biomedical-related, a swallowable capsule robot capable of needle aspiration, guided by magnets, and an autonomous snake-like colonoscopy robot were two of the hits. Another reviewer found the rehab exoskeletons, haptic interfaces, modular robot components and many of the ROS-enabled solutions of merit. Overall, almost 3,000 robotics researchers attended ICRA 2017 and most found many things of interest (including Singapore and the Marina Sands Hotel).

Xponential – all things unmanned

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Internation, AUVSI, annual trade show and conference, Xponential, held this year in Dallas, Texas, showed the changing nature of the industry and offered suggestions (guesses) as to where they were going. 170,000 visitors attended while 100 speakers and over 650 exhibitors put on this choreographed show of military weaponry, defense and security systems and equipment, and commercial unmanned air, land and sea systems.

AUVSI’s membership fees are discounted for members of the military and first responders and the exhibitor list continues to favor military/defense-related companies, but most of those companies now have a growing commercial component.

Autonomous vehicles have always been the constituency of AUVSI but with all the money flowing into autonomous car startups, and the talent search to corral people to make this new industry happen, a small portion of this Xponential show was devoted to the prospect of that future (see chart above).

The folks at The National Robotics Education Foundation (NREF) produced a gallery of over 300 interesting photos from Xponential. They also produced a special set of pictures of UAS engines from the show. Unmanned vehicles used by the military, for search and rescue, in support of agriculture and mining, for infrastructure inspection, and in a variety of other circumstances must stay aloft for long periods, hence the interest in engines that can support that amount of air time.

Innorobo

I visited Innorobo. It is a necessary show in a rapidly changing arena. Over 7,000 visitors perused an eclectic group of 170 startups, integrators, component manufacturers and service robot providers exhibiting a wide range of products and services at a site on the outskirts of Paris. Over the 3-day show, 50 speakers explored topics from robotics-related AI to philosophical discussions about law and ethics to the latest innovations in personal and professional service robotics.

The IFR (International Federation of Robotics) says that robot installations in France increased by 22% to 1,400 units in 2016 (compared to 700 units in the UK), particularly within the car industry. France ranks 2nd within the EU for robot density (the UK is 10th). Innorobo started as a show to promote France’s robotics industry (there are 225+ French companies in The Robot Report’s Directories and on our Global Map). Held in Lyon, the show grew to its present size through the hard work and willpower of a small group of inventive women entrepreneurs. It grew and relocated to Paris where it’s been for the last two years. As the focus expanded from promoting in-country robotics to displaying global innovations in robotics of the startup companies, research labs and service robot companies beginning to make inroads aroud the world – the show has become a valuable mainstay for the European press, investors, business executives, students, and roboticists alike.

Events, Directories and The Robot Report’s Global Map

From time to time it becomes relevant to toot the horn of the free resources available on The Robot Report. Our events calendar, directory of companies and educational institutions involved in the robotics industry, and the global map for job seekers and researchers alike are free and always updated.

There are still 28 robotics-related events remaining in 2017. Check them out:

• Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, June 25-28, London, UK
• Autonomous Systems World, June 26-27, Berlin, Germany
• Conf on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM), June 27-30, Modena, Italy
• Automation and Robotics Conference, June 28-29, San Diego, CA
• Industrial Automation Shenzhen (IAS), June 28-30, Shenzhen, China
• Forbes AgTech Forum, June 28-29, Salinas, CA
• RoboUniverse Seoul, June 28-30, Seoul, Korea
• Intl Symposium on Automation & Robotics in Construction (ISARC), June 28-July 1, Taipei, Taiwan
• China Intl Robot Show (CIROS), July 5-8, Shanghai, China
• Toward Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS), July 19-21, Guildford, UK
• RoboCup, July 25-31, Nagoya, Japan
• World Robotic Conference, August 23-27, Beijing, China
• Farm Progress Show, August 29-31, Decatur, IL
• InterDrone, September 6-8, Las Vegas, NV
• European Conf on Mobile Robotics, September 6-8, Paris, France
• Conf on Field and Service Robotics, September 12-15, Zurich, Switzerland
• RobotWorld, September 13-16, Seoul, Korea
• IEEE AFRICON 2017 and Robotics and AI, September 18-20, Cape Town, South Africa
• ROSCon, September 21-22, Vancouver, Canada
• IEEE Intl Conf on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), September 24-28, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• RoboBusiness, September 27-28, Santa Clara, CA
• Drone World Expo, October 3-4, San Jose, CA
• China Industrial Automation and Robotics Show, November 7-11, Shanghai, China
• AgriTechnica, November 12-18, Hanover, Germany
• Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2017), November 13-15, Mountain View, CA
• Collaborative Robots & Advanced Vision Conf, November 15-16, San Jose, CA
• Asian Robotics Exhibition AREX, November 23-24, Singapore
• iREX 2017, November 29-December 2, Tokyo, Japan

Source: Uber

Uber, the global ride-sharing transportation company, has named two replacements to recover from the recent firing of Anthony Levandowski who headed their Advanced Technologies Group, their OTTO trucking unit, and their self-driving team. Levandowski was fired May 30th.

Eric Meyhofer

Meyhofer, who before coming to Uber was the co-founder of Carnegie Robotics and a CMU robotics professor, was also part of the group that came to Uber from CMU (see below). He has now been named to head Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) self-driving group and will report directly to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

The ATG group is charged with developing the self-driving technologies of mapping, perception, safety, data collection and learning, and self-driving for cars and trucks.

Sensors that determine distances are integral to the process. Elon Musk said recently that LiDAR isn’t needed because cameras, sensors, software and high-speed GPUs can do the same tricks at a fraction of the cost. Levandowski favored LiDARs, particularly newly developed solid state LiDAR technologies.

Anthony Levandowski

Levandowski, the previous head of the ATG, joined Google to work with Sebastian Thrun on Google Street View, started a mobile mapping company that experimented with LiDAR technology and another to build a self-driving LiDAR-using car (a Prius). Google acquired both companies including their IP. In 2016 Levandowski left Google to found Otto, a company making self-driving kits to retrofit semi-trailer trucks. Just as the kit was launched, Uber acquired Otto and Levandowski became the head of Uber’s driverless car operation in addition to continuing his work at Otto.

The Levandowski case, which caused Uber to fire him, revolves around the intellectual property and particularly the LiDAR-related technologies that Google’s and Uber’s self-driving plans revolve around. Getting the cost of perception down to a reasonable level has been part of the bigger challenge of self-driving technology and LiDAR technology is integral to that plan.

Google’s Waymo self-driving unit is implying in their suit that in return for bringing Google’s IP to Uber, Uber gave Levandowski $250 million in stock grants. Uber has called Waymo’s claims baseless and an attempt to slow down a competitor.

Waymo also claims that Uber has a history of “stealing” technology and includes the time in 2015 when Uber hired away 50+ of the Carnegie Mellon University robotics team – a move that cost Uber a reported $5 billion and created havoc at CMU and the National Robotics Engineering Centre (NREC) which lost 1/3 of their staff to Uber. The move was preceded by establishing a strategic partnership with CMU to work together on self-driving technologies. Four months later, Uber hired the 50.

The Daily Mail headlines said:

Carnegie Mellon left decimated after Uber poaches 40 top-rated robotic researchers to help them develop self-driving cars

• Carnegie Mellon ‘in crisis’ after mass defection of scientists to Uber
• Uber hope their fleet of taxis will not require drivers in the future
• Used $5 billion from investors to poach at least 40 from the National Robotics Engineering Center
• Uber took six principal investigators and 34 engineers

Brian Zajac

Zajac has been on Uber’s self-driving team since 2015 after stints with Shell and the U.S. Army. Now he becomes the new chief of hardware development and reports to Meyhofer.

David Morris, writing for Fortune, wrote:

“Zajac will now bear a great deal of responsibility for cracking the driverless car problem, which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has described as “existential” to the company. Uber loses huge amounts of money, and many observers think eliminating the cost of drivers is its only realistic path to profitability.”

Bottom line:

Uber has research teams in Silicon Valley, Toronto and Pittsburgh all working to perfect Level 5 autonomous driving capabilities before any of their competitors are able to duplicate the process. Google, Baidu, Yandex, Didi Chuxing, a few of the Tier 1 component makers, and many others including all the major car companies are racing forward with the same intentions. Levandowski’s firing caused a big gap in Uber’s self-driving project management and fear amongst their investors. Uber hopes that these two changes, Meyhofer as overall head and Zajac as hardware chief, will quell the fears that Uber is losing their momentum.

Spotmini by Boston Dynamics. Source: Boston Dynamics/YouTube

In a long-awaited transaction, The New York Times Dealbook announced that SoftBank was buying Boston Dynamics from Alphabet (Google). Also included in the deal is the Japanese startup Schaft. Acquisition details were not disclosed.

Both Boston Dynamics and Schaft were acquired by Google when Andy Rubin was developing Google’s robot group through a series of acquisitions. Both companies have continued to develop innovative mobile robots. And both have been on Google’s for sale list.

Boston Dynamics, a DARPA and DoD-funded 25 year old company, designed two and four-legged robots for the military. Videos of BD’s robots WildCat, Big Dog, Cheetah, SpotMini (shown above getting into an elevator) and Handle, have been YouTube hits for years. Handle, BD’s most recent is a two-wheeled, four-legged hybrid robot that can stand, walk, hop, run and roll at up to 9 MPH.

Schaft, a Japanese startup/participant in the DARPA Robotic Challenge, recently unveiled a two-legged robot that climbed stairs, can carry 125 pounds of payload, move in tight spaces and keep its balance throughout.

SoftBank, through another acquisition (of French Aldabaran, the maker of the Nao and Romeo robots), and in a joint venture with Foxconn and Alibaba, has developed and marketed thousands of Pepper robots. Pepper is a cute, humanoid, mobile robot being marketed and used as a guide and sales assistant. The addition of Boston Dynamics and Schaft to the SoftBank stable add talent and technology to their growing robotics efforts, particularly the Tokyo-based Schaft.

Today, there are many issues we still cannot solve by ourselves with human capabilities. Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the information revolution,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x8Bc0z3Ixw

In 2015, after much research, I wrote about China having 194 robot companies and used screen shots of The Robot Report’s Global Map to show where they were and a chart to show their makeup. We’ve just concluded another research project and have added hundreds of new Chinese companies to the database and global map.

Why is China so focused on robots?

China installed 90,000 robots in 2016, 1/3 of the world’s total and a 30% increase over 2015. Why?

Simply said, China has three drivers helping them move toward country-wide adoption of robotics: scale, growth momentum, and money. Startup companies can achieve scale quickly because the domestic market is so large. Further, companies are under pressure to automate thereby causing double-digit demand for industrial robots (according to the International Federation of Robotics). Third, the government is strongly behind the move.

Made in China 2025 and 5-Year Plans

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for “a robot revolution” and initiated the “Made in China 2025” program. More than 1,000 firms and a new robotics association, CRIA (Chinese Robotics Industry Alliance) have emerged (or begun to transition) into robotics to take advantage of the program, according to a 2016 report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. By contrast, according to the same report, the sector was virtually non-existent a decade ago.

Under “Made in China 2025,” and the five-year robot plan launched last April, Beijing is focusing on automating key sectors of the economy including car manufacturing, electronics, home appliances, logistics, and food production. At the same time, the government wants to increase the share of in-country-produced robots to more than 50% by 2020; up from 31% last year.

Robot makers, and companies that automate, are both eligible for subsidies, low-interest loans, tax waivers, rent-free land and other incentives. One such program lured back Chinese engineers working overseas; another oversaw billions of dollars poured into technology parks dedicated to robotics production and related businesses; another encouraged local governments to help regional companies deploy robots in their production processes; and despite its ongoing crackdown on capital outflows, green lights have been given to Chinese companies acquiring Western robotics technology companies.

Many of those acquisitions were reported by The Robot Report during 2016 and are reflected (with little red flags) in the chart reporting the top 15 acquisitions of robotic-related companies:

1. Midea, a Chinese consumer products manufacturer, acquired KUKA, one of the Big 4 global robot manufacturers
2. The Kion Group, a predominately Chinese-funded warehousing systems and equipment conglomerate, acquired Dematic, a large European AGV and material handling systems company
3. KraussMaffei, a big German industrial robots integrator, was acquired by ChemChina
4. Paslin, a US-based industrial robot integrator, was acquired by Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology, a Chinese industrial robot integrator

China has set goals to be able to make 150,000 industrial robots in 2020; 260,000 in 2025; and 400,000 by 2030. If achieved, the plan should help generate $88 billion over the next decade. China’s stated goal in both their 5-year plan and Made in China 2025 program is to overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States in terms of manufacturing sophistication by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To make that happen, the government needs Chinese manufacturers to adopt robots by the millions. It also wants Chinese companies to start producing more of those robots.​

Analysts and Critics

Various research reports are predicting that more than 250,000 industrial pick and place, painting and welding robots will be purchased and deployed in China by 2019. That figure represents more than the total global sales of all types of industrial robots in 2014!

Research firms predicting dramatic growth for the domestic Chinese robotics industry are also predicting very low-cost devices. Their reports are contradicted by academics, roboticists and others who point out that there are so many new robot manufacturing companies in China that none will be able to manufacture many thousand robots per year and thus benefit from scale. Further, many of the components that comprise a robot are intricate and costly, e.g., speed reducers, servo motors and control panels. Consequently these are purchased from Nabtesco, Harmonic Drive, Sumitomo and other Japanese, German and US companies. Although a few of the startups are attempting to make reduction gears and other similar devices, the lack of these component manufacturers in China may put a cap on how low costs can go and on how much can be done in-country for the time being.

“We aim to increase the market share of homegrown servomotors, speed reducers and control panels in China to over 30 percent by 2018 or 2019,” said Qu Xianming, an expert with the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, which advises the government on plans to upgrade the manufacturing sector. “By then, these indigenous components could be of high enough quality to be exported to foreign countries,” Qu said in an interview with China Daily. “Once the target is met, it will lay down a strong foundation for Chinese parts makers to expand their presence.”

Regardless, China, with governmental directives and incentives, has become both the world’s biggest buyer of robots and also is growing a very large in-country industry to make and sell robots of all types.

The Robot Report now has over 500 Chinese companies in its online directories and on its Global Map

The Robot Report and its research team have been able to identify over 500 companies that make or are directly involved in making robots in China. The CRIA (China Robot Industry Alliance), and other sources, proffer the number to be closer to 800. The Robot Report is limited by our own research capabilities, language translation limitations, and scarcity of information about robotics companies and their websites and contact people in China.

These companies are combined with other global companies – now totaling over 5,300 – in our online directories and plotted on our global map so that you can research by area. You can explore online and filter in a variety of ways.

Use Google’s directional and +/- markers to navigate, enlarge, and hone in on a geographical area of interest (or double click near where you want to enlarge). Click on one of the colored markers to get a pop-up window with the name, type, focus, location and a link to the company’s website.

[NOTE: the map shows a single entry for the company headquarters regardless how many branches, subsidiaries and factory locations that company might have, consequently international companies with factories and service centers in China won’t appear. Further note that The Robot Report’s database doesn’t contain companies that just use robots; it focuses on those involved in making robots.]

The Filter pull-down menu lets you choose any one of the seven major categories:

1. Industrial robot makers
2. Service robots used by corporations and governments
3. Service robots for personal and private use
4. Integrators
5. Robotics-related start-up companies
6. Universities and research labs with special emphasis on robotics
7. Ancillary businesses providing engineering, software, components, sensors and other products and services to the industry.

In the chart below, 500 Chinese companies are tabulated by their business type and area of focus. Please note that your help would be greatly appreciated by adding to the map and making it as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Please send robotics-related companies that we have missed (or are new) to info@therobotreport.com.

May 2017 had two robotics-related companies get $9.5 billion in funding and 22 others raised $249 million. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with Toyota Motor’s $260 million acquisition of Bastian Solutions plus three others (where the amounts weren’t disclosed).

Fundings

1. Didi Chuxing, the Uber of China, raised $5.5 billion in a round led by SoftBank with new investors Silver Lake Kraftwerk joining previous investors SoftBank, China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications. According to TechCrunch, this latest round brings the total raised by DiDi to about $13 billion. Uber, by comparison, has raised $8.81 billion.
2. Nvidia Corp, a Santa Clara, CA-based speciality GPU maker, raised $4 billion (representing a 4.9% stake in the company) according to Bloomberg. Nvidia’s newest chips are focused on providing power for deep learning for self-driving vehicles.
3. ClearMotion, a Woburn, MA automotive technology startup that’s building shock absorbers with robotic, software-driven adaptive actuators for car stability, has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by a group of JP Morgan clients and NEA, Qualcomm Ventures and more.
4. Echodyne, a Bellevue, WA developer of radar vision technology used in drones and self-driving cars, has raised $29 million in a Series B round led by New Enterprise Associates and joined by Bill Gates, Madrona Venture Group, and others.
5. DeepMap, a Silicon Valley mapping startup, raised $25 million in a round led by Accel and included GSR Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
   

   “Autonomous vehicles are tempting us with a radically new future. However, this level of autonomy requires a highly sophisticated mapping and localization infrastructure that can handle massive amounts of data. I’m very excited to work with the DeepMap team, who have the requisite expertise in mapping, vision, and large scale operations, as they build the core technology that will fuel the next generation of transportation,” said Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

6. Hesai Photonics Technology, a transplanted Silicon Valley-to-Shanghai sensor startup, raised $16 million in a Series A round led by Pagoda Investment with participation from Grains Valley Venture Capital, Jiangmen Venture Capital and LightHouse Capital Management. Hesai is developing a hybrid LiDAR device for self-driving cars. Hesai has already partnered with a number of autonomous driving technology and car companies including Baidu’s Chinese electric vehicle start-up NIO and self-driving tech firm UiSee.
7. Abundant Robotics, a Menlo Park, CA-based automated fruit-picking tech developer, raised $10 million in venture funding. GV (Google Ventures) led the round, and was joined by BayWa AG and Tellus Partners. Existing partners Yamaha Motor Company, KPCB Edge, and Comet Labs also participated.
8. TriLumina Corp., an Albuquerque, NM-based developer of solid-state automotive LiDAR illumination for ADAS and autonomous driving, closed a $9 million equity and debt financing. Backers included new investors Kickstart Seed Fund and existing stakeholders Stage 1 Ventures, Cottonwood Technology Fund, DENSO Ventures and Sun Mountain Capital.
9. Bowery Farming, a NYC indoor vertical farm startup, raised $7.5 million (in February) in a seed round led by First Round Capital and including Box Group, Homebrew, Flybridge, Red Swan, RRE, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Tom Colicchio – a restauranteur and judge on reality cooking show, Top Chef.
10. Taranis, an Israel-based precision agriculture intelligence platform raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Finistere Ventures led the round, and was joined by Vertex Ventures. Existing investors Eshbol Investments, Mindset Ventures, OurCrowd, and Eyal Gura participated.
11. Ceres Imaging, the Oakland, CA aerial imagery and analytics company, raised a $5 million Series A round of funding led by Romulus Capital.
12. Stanley Robotics, a Paris-based automated valet parking service developer, raised $4 million in funding. Investors included Elaia Partners, Idinvest Partners and Ville de Demain. Stanley’s new parking robot is a mobile car-carrying lift that moves and tightly parks cars in outdoor locations.
13. AIRY3D Inc, a Canadian start-up in 3D computer vision, raised $3.5 million in a seed round co-led by CRCM Ventures and R7 Partners. Other investors include WI Harper Group, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners and several angel investors that are affiliates of TandemLaunch, the Montreal-based incubator that spun out AIRY3D.
14. SkyX Systems, a Canada-based unmanned aircraft system developer, raised around $3 million in funding from Kuang-Chi Group.
15. Catalia Health, a San Francisco-based patient care management company applying robotics to improve personal health, raised $2.5 million in funding. Khosla Ventures led the round.
16. vHive, an Israeli startup developing software to operate autonomous drone fleets, raised $2 million (in April) in an A round led by StageOne VC and several additional private investors.
17. Vivacity Labs, a London AI tech and sensor startup, raised $2 million from Tracsis, Downing Ventures and the London Co-Investment Fund and was also granted an additional $1.3 million from Innovate UK to create sensors with built-in machine learning to identify individual road users and manage traffic accordingly.
18. Bluewrist, a Canadian integrator of vision systems, raised around $1.5 million (in February) from Istuary Toronto Capital.
19. American Robotics, a Boston-based commercial farming drone system and analytics developer, raised $1.1 million in seed funding. Investors included Brain Robotics Capital.
20. Kubo, a Danish educational robot startup, raised around $1 million from the Danish Growth Fund. Kubo is an educational robot that helps kids learn coding, math, language and music in a screenless, tangible environment.
21. Zeals, a Japanese startup which produces interaction software for robots such as Palmi and Sota, has closed a $720k investment from Japanese adtech firm FreakOut Holdings.
22. Kitty Hawk, a San Francisco drone platform startup, raised $600k in seed money in March from The Flying Object VC.
23. Kraken Sonar, a Newfoundland marine tech startup, raised around $500k from RDC, a provincial Crown corporation responsible for improving Newfoundland and Labrador’s research and development. The funding will be used to develop the ThunderFish program which will combine smart sonar, laser and optical sensors, advanced pressure tolerant battery and thruster technologies and cutting edge artificial intelligence algorithms integrated onboard a cost effective AUV capable of 20,000 foot depths.
24. Motörleaf, a Canadian ag sensor, communications and software startup, raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round (in March).

Acquisitions

1. Toyota Motor Corp paid $260 million to acquire Bastian Solutions, a U.S.-based materials handling systems integrator. Toyota is the world’s No. 1 forklift truck manufacturer in terms of global market share. With this acqisition Toyota is making a “full-scale entry” into the North American logistics technology sector and will also use Bastian’s systems to make its own global supply chain more efficient.
2. Ctrl.Me Robotics, a Hollywood, CA drone startup, was acquired by Snap, Inc. for “an amount less than $1 million.” Ctrl Me developed a system for capturing movie-quality aerial video but was recently winding down its operations. Snap acquired its assets and technology as well as talent. Snap was already using one of Ctrl.me’s products: Spectacles, which captures video for Snap’s mobile app.
3. Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), an employee-owned scientific research and engineering company, acquired Neya Systems LLC on April 28, 2017. Neya Systems LLC is known for their development of unmanned systems for defense, homeland security, and commercial users. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
4. Trimble has acquired Müller-Elektronik and all its subsidiary companies, for an undisclosed amount. Müller is a German manufacturer and integrator of farm implement controls, steering kits and precision farming solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the Q3 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed. Müller was key in the development of the ISOBUS communication protocol found in most tractors and towed implements, which allows one terminal to control several implements and machines, regardless of manufacturer.

IPOs

1. Gamma 2 Robotics, a security robot maker, launched a $6 million private offering to accredited investors.
2. Aquabotix, a Fall River, MA-headquartered company, raised $5.5 million from their IPO of UUV (ASX:UUV) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Aquabotix manufactures commercial and industrial underwater drone/camera systems and has shipped over 350 units worldwide.

Failures

1. FarmLink LLC
2. EZ Robotics (CN)

Levandowski (right) at MCE 2016. Source: Wikipedia Commons

Andy Rubin, who developed the Android operating system at Google then went on to lead Google through multiple acquisitions into robotics, has launched a new consumer products company. Anthony Levandowski, who, after many years with Google and their autonomous driving project, launched Otto which Uber acquired, was sued by Google, and just got fired by Uber.

People involved in robotics – from the multi-disciplined scientists turned entrepreneurs to all the specialists and other engineers involved in any aspect of the industry of making things robotic – are a relatively small community. Most people know (or know of) most of the others, and get-togethers like ICRA, the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, being held this week in Singapore, are an opportunity to meet new up-and-coming talent as they present their papers and product ideas and mingle with older, more established players. Two of those players made headline news this week: Rubin, launching Essential, and Levandowski, getting fired.

Andy Rubin

Rubin came to Google in 2005 when they acquired Android and left in 2014 to found an incubator for hardware startups, Playground Global. While at Google Rubin became an SVP of Mobile and Digital content including the open-source smartphone operating system Android and then started Google’s robotics group through a series of acquisitions. Android can be found in more than 2 billion phones, TVs, cars and watches.

2008 Google Developer Day in Japan – Press Conference: Andy Rubin

In 2007, Rubin was developing his own version of a smartphone at Google, also named Android, when Apple launched their iPhone, a much more capable and stylish device. Google’s product was scrapped but their software was marketed to HTC and their phone became Google’s first Android-based phone. The software was similar enough to Apple’s that Steve Jobs was furious and, as reported in Fred Vogelstein’s ‘Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution,’ called Rubin a “big, arrogant f–k” and “everything [he’s doing] is a f–king rip-off of what we’re doing.”

Jobs had trusted Google’s cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt who was on Apple’s board. All three had been telling Jobs about Android, but they kept telling him it would be different from the iPhone. He believed them until he actually saw the phone and its software and how similar it was to the iPhone’s, whereupon he insisted Google make a lot of changes and removed Schmidt from Apple’s board. Rubin was miffed and had a sign on his office white board that said “STEVE JOBS STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY.”

Quietly, stealthily, Rubin went about creating “a new kind of company using 21st-century methods to build products for the way people want to live in the 21st century.” That company is Essential and Essential just launched and is taking orders for its new $699 phone and a still-stealthy home assistant to compete with Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home devices.

Wired calls the new Essential Phone “the anti-iPhone.” The first Phones will ship in June.

Anthony Levandowski

In 2004, Levandowski and a team from UC Berkeley built and entered an autonomous motorcycle into the DARPA Grand Challenge. In 2007 he joined Google to work with Sebastian Thrun on Google Street View. Outside of Google he started a mobile mapping company that experimented with LiDAR technology and another to build a self-driving LiDAR-using a Prius. Google acquired both companies including their IP.

In 2016 Levandowski left Google to found Otto, a company making self-driving kits to retrofit semi-trailer trucks. Just as the kit was launched, Uber acquired Otto and Levandowski became the head of Uber’s driverless car operation in addition to continuing his work at Otto.

Quoting Wikipedia,

According to a February 2017 lawsuit filed by Waymo, the autonomous vehicle research subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, Levandowski allegedly “downloaded 9.7 GB of Waymo’s highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation” before resigning to found Otto.

In March 2017, United States District Judge William Haskell Alsup, referred the case to federal prosecutors after Levandowski exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In May 2017, Judge Alsup ordered Levandowski to refrain from working on Otto’s LiDAR and required Uber to disclose its discussions on the technology. Levandowski was later fired by Uber for failing to cooperate in an internal investigation.

The Wolf: The Hunt Continues Starring Christian Slater Presented by HP Studios | HP Source: HP Studios/YouTube

Here’s a video you will want to watch. “The Wolf: The Hunt Continues” is really an ad showing how a hacker can enter a network through an unprotected printer (or robot). Christian Slater stars as the evil hacker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqibWHfn_Yc

“There are hundreds of millions of business printers in the world and less than 2% are secure,” said Vikrant Batra, Global Head of Marketing for Printing & Imaging, HP. “Everyone knows that a PC can be hacked, but not a printer.” [Hence the need to inform about how easily a printer can be hacked and the consequences of that.]

Although not related to the recent WannaCry hack which held hundreds of thousands of companies ransom and downloaded millions of personal records before destroying billions more, HP,  this 7-minute terrifying advertisement for securing inconsequential devices dramatizes what can happen if we don’t stay a step ahead of the threats that are out there waiting to happen. As companies attempt to stream and analyze data from their Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and software and from varied pieces of equipment and sensors throughout their facilities, opportunities such as the one described in the HP video will certainly happen.

One that comes to mind is FANUC’s plan to network all its CNCs, robots and peripheral devices and sensors used in automation systems with the goal of optimizing up-time, maintenance schedules and manufacturing profitability. FANUC is collaborating with Cisco, Rockwell and Preferred Networks to craft a secure system which they’ve named FIELD. Let’s hope it works.

Fortune Magazine recently reported about consumer products that spy on their users by companies attempting to learn new business models based on data:

What do a doll, a popular set of headphones, and a sex toy have in common? All three items allegedly spied on consumers, creating legal trouble for their manufacturers.

In the case of We-Vibe, which sells remote-control vibrators, the company agreed to pay $3.75 million in March to settle a class-action suit alleging that it used its app to secretly collect information about how customers used its products. The audio company Bose, meanwhile, is being sued for surreptitiously compiling data—including users’ music-listening histories—from headphones.

For consumers, such incidents can be unnerving. Almost any Internet-connected device—not just phones and computers—can collect data. It’s one thing to know that Google is tracking your queries, but quite another to know that mundane personal possessions may be surveilling you too.

So what’s driving the spate of spying? The development of ever-smaller microchips and wireless radios certainly makes it easy for companies. As the margins on consumer electronics grow ever thinner, you can’t blame companies for investigating new business models based on data, not just on devices.

Aargh!

SoftBank, the giant telecom company, is venturing out into the world of robotics and transportation services. DealStreet Asia said that SoftBank is trying to transform itself into the ‘Berkshire Hathaway of the tech industry’ with the recent launch of a $100 billion technology fund.

UPDATED 5/24/17: SoftBank’s acquisition of 4.9% of the outstanding shares of Nvidia Corp.

First SoftBank bought Aldebaran, the maker of the Nao and Romeo robots, and redirected them to produce the Pepper robot which has been sold in the thousands to businesses as a guide, information source and order taker, then bigger partnerships with Foxconn and Alibaba to manufacture and market Pepper and other consumer products, and most recently to establishing the $100 billion technology fund.

Recognizing that the telecom services market has matured, SoftBank is putting their money where they can to participate in the new worlds of robotics and transportation as a service. $5 billion in Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-sharing company, is a perfect example.

Didi Chuxing

Didi, which already serves more than 400 million users across China, provides services including taxi hailing, private car-hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive, DiDi Car Rental and DiDi Enterprise Solutions to users in China via a smartphone application.

Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba are big investors — even Apple invested $1 billion.

The transformation of the auto industry into one focused on providing transportation services is a moving target with much news, talent movement, investment and widely-varying forecasts. But all signs show that it is booming and growing.

For more information on this subject, read the views of Chris Urmson, previous CTO of Google’s self-driving car group, in my article entitled: Transportation as a Service: a look ahead.

SoftBank Group Corp. acquired a $4 billion stake in Nvidia Corp. making it the fourth-largest shareholder of the graphics chipmaker.

Nvidia

Nvidia, a gaming chipmaker, has been receiving a lot of media attention for their GPU deep learning AI which they call ‘the next era of computing’ — with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world around their sensors.

Nvidia recently introduced the NVIDIA Isaac robot simulator, which utilizes sophisticated video-game and graphics technologies to train intelligent machines in simulated real-world conditions before they get deployed. The company also introduced a set of robot reference-design platforms that make it faster to build such machines using the NVIDIA Jetson platform.

“Robots based on artificial intelligence hold enormous promise for improving our lives, but building and training them has posed significant challenges. NVIDIA is now revolutionizing the robotics industry by applying our deep expertise in simulating the real world so that robots can be trained more precisely, more safely and more rapidly.”

One taxi cab with quite a few self-driving cars in the city.

SoftBank Group just invested $5 billion in China’s Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-sharing service. Last year Uber sold their China business to Didi resolving (by giving up) all the legal and antitrust investigations it was undergoing in China. In other news, Chris Urmson, CTO of Google’s self-driving car program, left to start a new company and Waymo and Lyft just agreed on a partnership to develop projects and products toward adoption of autonomous vehicle technology. 

In a recent lecture at CMU, Chris Urmson (who got his PhD from and taught at CMU), co-founder and CEO of self-driving car startup Aurora and part of the DARPA Urban and Grand Challenge teams, described three major transitions involving self-driving cars and said that “It’s a wonderful time to be a roboticist.” Urmson’s new startup, Aurora, will develop software, hardware, and data, to sell to automakers who want to build their own autonomous cars.

Chris predicts an inevitable shift to EVs, a change in the ownership concept to transportation services, and dramatic changes in manufacturing and jobs in what used to be the auto industry and soon be the ‘transportation services industry.’

Urmson attributes the shift in thought from gradually adding more self-driving features until it becomes time to remove the pedals and steering wheel – the stated posture of most of the auto industry – to using deep learning and simulation training to be able to directly go to self-driving cars – the position taken by Google, Ford, and many of the new startups – as a particularly important contribution made by Google. Later in his lecture, when answering a question about the state of the robotics industry versus the state of the art being developed in universities and research labs such as CMU, he lauded the deep pockets that business – and especially Google – brings to research in general and self-driving cars in particular.

I’ve set this video of his presentation entitled ‘Perspectives on Self-Driving Cars’ to begin at a particularly interesting spot where Urmson describes the transition to transportation as a service. You may want to watch the whole video — it’s very informative:

Chris Urmson: Perspectives on Self-Driving Cars

The traditional transportation model, where a person owns and drives his or her own car, is in flux. The shift to Transportation as a Service (TaaS) radically changes ownership from individual owners to fleet owners and negates the need for so much space devoted to parking and repair facilities. I’ve written about the many other stakeholders going to be affected by this transformation but here’s one very large group that opens up a whole new world of opportunity: what’s going to happen to home garages and carports in the age of TaaS? Who are the stakeholders that are going to benefit just in that little world (think Home Depot)?

Urmson lays out a timeframe for these transformations: fully autonomous cars begin hitting the road within 5 years and become widely accepted within 20 years. PriceWaterhouseCoopers confirms those forecasts and projects nearly 20% of auto industry revenues and 36% of profits will shift from auto sales to services by 2030. Yet, The New York Times just did a story about how China is ramping up their auto industry to become competitive so that they can begin exporting their cars as well as domestically outsell the international automakers producing and selling their cars in China. Is this a big bubble waiting to burst?

Autonomous driving will certainly encounter speed bumps and take longer to implement than many may predict. Regulatory issues seem the most important potential holdups and have to be resolved before any real momentum can begin. Right now states regulate drivers while the federal government regulates manufacturers. How is that going to change? And how quickly? What other unforeseen delays can we expect?

This story is just beginning. As one who has seen, admired, and looked inside Mercedes’ concept self-driving car, I can’t wait to ask Alexa to have one outside my place in 10 minutes so I can go to dinner.

Source: Nesta.org, Precision Agriculture

Why are so many farm equipment manufacturers so heavily involved in the ag industry yet things are going so slowly in relation to robotics? Perhaps farmers need to first incorporate the digital era — and the concepts and practices of precision agriculture — before taking the next step toward the use of robots.

Two traditional qualifiers for farmers buying new equipment are flexibility and return on investment. Precision agriculture isn’t just rhetoric; it’s real-time intelligence flowing into analytics software that transforms that flow into meaningful, practical information that farm managers can react to quickly. That data — and that process — have costs and, for the last few years, farmers have been stretched because commodity prices are down. But changes effecting labor, water, commodity prices and politics are speeding up the need for significant automation in the already heavily automated agriculture industry while technological improvements are speeding up, particularly in the areas of vision systems, perception and grasping.

Consider these four key providers:

John Deere Corporation (NYSE:DE)

Deere is a global provider of tractors and farm implements, has a small line of autonomous “mules” and other robotic vehicles mostly for the military, as well as robotic lawnmowers for the consumer market. Deere has built an autonomous cab-less tractor, but it hasn’t been accepted by farmers who prefer their air-conditioned cabs and mobile control consoles. Nevertheless, 60% of Deere tractors come equipped with self-steering kits. Deere’s recent marketing push is in variable-rate towed or pulled farm implements.

Deere saw 2016 sales drop 8% from 2015 (which was also a down year). They attribute the slump to lower equipment sales resulting from difficult conditions in the farm (90%) and construction equipment (10%) markets. As a result, Deere sales of large ag equipment have dropped over 50% in the last 3 years.

From Deere’s Annual Report:

Equipment continues to get larger and more powerful, but its value is increasingly being determined by its technology and advanced capabilities. That’s why Deere is committed to becoming the industry’s undisputed leader in precision agriculture.

Today, customers can monitor and measure crop yield, moisture content, or seeding population in real time as their machinery moves along in the field. This data can be used to generate prescriptions for planting seeds and applying fertilizer or pesticide with more accuracy. That helps farmers manage costs and increase their revenue through improved productivity and higher yields. The results can be pretty impressive.

Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB)

Trimble is a large provider of GPS technology for field and mobile workers in all disciplines. Their ag division integrates, provides, and sells a wide range of driverless-steering kits, prescription mapping systems, in-field guidance software and devices, and also sells various types of drones, GPS/RTK services and communication equipment, spot spray systems, a wide range of sensors and their Connected Farm Management System.

Trimble’s 2016 sales grew only 3% year-over-year. Ag revenue can’t be separately identified because of the way they report their income, however, Trimble’s navigational guidance products for all brands of ag equipment are their primary revenue along with their new, consolidated, precision ag software platform called their Connected Farm Management System, and their drone data collection system.

Trimble resells through CNH dealers as well as their own staff and has multiple ag-related products in addition to those mentioned above including speciality software and sensors for leveling and variable-rate watering applications.

Raven Industries (NASDAQ:RAVN)

Raven is a provider of engineered films such as those used in agriculture as plastic sheeting and silage covers, and components and software for RTK communication, steering and guidance. Raven also makes components for variable-rate dispensing devices such as nozzles for sprayers and controllers for multiple nozzles on a sprayer arm.

Raven’s 2016 sales grew 7.8% over 2015 revenue which was down -34% from 2014. Agricultural products represent approximately 38% of Raven’s revenues.

CNH (Case New Holland Industrial) (NYSE:CNH)

CNH Industrial is a global conglomerate of construction, lift, truck, power-train and agricultural tractors and equipment. CNH is a recent combination of multiple brands (Case, New Holland, Intl Harvester, Steyr, Iveco and many more) under a single umbrella. CNH has more than 100 product lines and over 400 models of tractors, harvesters, material handling, seeding and other ag equipment. CNH regularly equips tractors with AccuGuide communication software and systems with section and rate control to enable variable-rate fertilizing, seeding and navigational guidance for repeatable accuracy at sub-inch levels. CNH also offers self-driving kits for their tractors and approximately 60% of tractors sold include that feature. CNH is a funding and consortium member in a variety of sensing and manipulation projects under the EU’s Clever Robots for Crops program. These include a sweet-pepper harvesting robot, an apple harvesting robot, precision and canopy optimized spraying robots and other AI-based ag systems, none of which are currently available commercially.

CNH’s 2016 overall revenues were unchanged from 2015. Ag equipment represents 40% of CNH sales and those were down 11% from 2015. Quoting from the Chairman’s statement in the annual report: “We are projecting that the industry demand in the NAFTA and EMEA regions will remain challenging until we see higher agricultural commodity prices, the effect of this should be partially moderated by expected improved demand conditions in the LATAM region as those economies recover.”

Bottom Line

All of the equipment makers — John Deere, AGCO (including the Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Valtra and Challenger brands), Claas, the Argo Group (including the Landini, McCormick and Valpadana brands), the Same Deutz Fahr Group (including the Same, Lamborghini, Hurlimann and Deutz brands), CNH Industrial and Kubota — plus Trimble, Raven and all the other support businesses, are projecting a slow but steady progression toward the acceptance of precision ag products, software, equipment and practices. Only then will they push to add robots to the process.

All of these companies are fighting to retain profitability while current demand is slow. Nevertheless, they are providing incremental solutions that help farmers become digital precision farmers, i.e, connected farmers with streaming data flows from all over the farm and aggregating that data into software applications and platforms from which localized farming decisions can be made. Once farmers begin to use their data to make those decisions, they will need variable-rate machines to execute them, at which time they will want and need to use robotic devices.

At present, there is an upsurge in post processing robotics, i.e., in sorting, inspecting, deleafing, packaging, boxing and palletizing performed at packing houses and co-ops. Newer robotics such as seeding, weeding, variable-rate spraying and harvesting are still being field tested and are presently too expensive and untried for general deployment.

Deere, Raven and Trimble are members of the 80+ stocks included in the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, a leading indicator of the robotics and automation market. CNH and many others are, for the time being, less robotically-involved. For more information about the index or the 80+ member companies, go to ROBO Global’s website.

After reading the press releases for this batch of 24 research reports, although they vary widely in their forecasts, they almost all agree that most segments of the robotics industry are expected to grow at a double-digit pace at least through 2022.

Service, mobile & aerial robots

Global and China Camera Drones Market
March 2017, 110 pages, S&P Consulting, $2,700
Provides a description of the value chain and its distributor analysis for this troubled DJI-dominated segment of the drones industry.

Drone Identification System Market
April 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The drone identification market is estimated to grow from $801.8 Million in 2016 to $16 billion by 2022, at a CAGR 64.64% during the forecast period.

Automated Guided Vehicle Market
April 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The automated guided vehicle market is expected to reach $2.68 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 9.34% between 2017 and 2022. The growth of this market is propelled by advancements in automation, emphasis on workplace safety, and the growing need to cut down operational cost and increase productivity.

Global smart robots market
January 2017, 84 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
Forecasts the global smart robots market to grow at a CAGR of 20.65% during the period 2016-2020.

Electric UAV Drones
February 2017, 160 pages, IDTechEx, $4,995
Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) will be a business of over $6 by 2027. IDTechEx forecasts the next advances in hardware and software revolve around autonomy and energy independence while swarming theory will transform security and other applications.

Innovations in UAVs
February 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950
Recent innovations in UAVs include digital IDs, their use by utility companies, their use underwater, payloads of thermal and other sensors.

Service robots & drones
October 2016, 302 pages, IHS Markit, $14,000
The global service robotics market will increase from $3.7 billion in 2015 to around $15 billion in 2020 at a CAGR of greater than 20%.

Service Robotics Market by air, land and sea
January 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The service robotics market is estimated to reach $23.90 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 15.18% between 2016 and 2022.

Service robotics market in China
November 2016, 20 pages, China Research & Intelligence, $2,000
Chinese government issued a series of supporting policies for the development of the service robot industry. In May 2015, the State Council issued specific plan of Made in China 2025, in which service robots play a significant role.

World cleaning robot market
January 2017, Allied Analytics, $4,740
the cleaning robot market is expected to reach $2.50 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 15.3%.

Global cleaning robot market
April 2017, Persistence Market Research, $4,900
The emergence of futuristic robotics is supporting the innovation of low cost, smaller size and technologically advanced cleaning robots. However, the low battery life and durability issues are some of the factors hindering the growth of cleaning robotics market.

Healthcare robotics

Global CyberKnife Market
January 2017, 116 pages, ReportsnReports, $2,800
A market analysis of the commercially available Accuray cyberknife and very few others.

Healthcare assistive robot market
January 2017, 200 pages, Global Market Insights, $4,500
Market size was over $200 million in 2015, with 18.9% CAGR estimated from 2016 to 2024.

Ancillary & components

Position sensor market
April 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The position sensor market is expected to reach $5.98 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 6.27% between 2017 and 2022.

Sensors for Robotics: technologies, markets and forecasts to 2027
December 2017, IDTechEx, $4,995
The market for robotic sensing will reach over $16.1 billion by 2027.

Defense & space robots

Global defense robotics market
January 2017, Persistence Market Research, $4,900
Border patrol needs are creating an increasing demand for UAVs and UGVs in countries such as Israel, South Korea, China and United States.

Aerospace Robotics
January 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The aerospace robotics market is projected to grow from $1.81 billion in 2016 to $4.54 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 16.55% during the forecast period.

Aerospace and Defense Tech with UAVs
February 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950
Describes unmanned supply aircraft to supply troops under fire, VTOL UAVs, and drone-capturing UAVs. Report includes a section on sensors: “The need for low power, smaller, lighter sensors with enhanced performance attributes and minimal false alarms is driving innovations in the sensors space.”

Agricultural robots

Agricultural robots and drones technologies market
March 2017, 163 pages, Research and Markets, $5,760
A complex ten-year segmented market forecasts for 14 categories including static milking robotics, mobile dairy farm robots, autosteer tractors, autonomous tractors, unmanned spraying drones, autonomous data mapping drones, robotic implements for de-weeding, autonomous de-weeding mobile robots, robotic fresh fruit harvesting, robotic strawberry harvesting, manned and unmanned robotic lettuce/vegetable thinning/harvesting which is forecast to reach $10 billion as early as 2022.

Agricultural robots and drones
March 2017, IDTechEx, $4,995
Forecasts robotics in dairy farms will reach $8 billion by 2023; more than 660,000 tractors will come equipped with autosteer by 2027; drone-provided analytics will reach over $480 million by 2027; slower progress in harvesting and agrochemicals.

Industrial, warehousing & collaborative robots

Collaborative Robot Market
January 2017, 147 pages, Transparency Market Research, $5,795
The report states that the global collaborative robot market is expected to be worth $95 billion by the end of 2024 as compared to $10.3 billion in 2015 and expand at a CAGR of 30.0%.

Warehousing and logistics robots
February 2017, 104 pages, Tractica, $4,200
Sales of warehousing and logistics robots reached $1.9 billion in 2016 and Tractica expects that the market will continue to grow rapidly reaching a market value of $22.4 billion by the end of 2021.

Global industrial robot market 
December 2016, 104 pages, Marketsize Forecasters, $2,800
The report discusses the competitive landscape of the industrial robot market, particularly with mergers, acquisitions, new product launches and expansions.

Global industrial robotics services
January 2017, 66 pages, Infiniti Research, $3,500
Forecasts the global industrial robotics services market to grow at a CAGR of 10.16% during the period 2017-2021.

Robotics Industry Reports from the International Federation of Robotics

The fact-based backbone for many of these research reports is the International Federation of Robotics‘ (IFR) annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World Robotics Service Robots reports. These two books represent the official tabulation and analysis from all the robot associations around the world.

The two 2016 reports cover 2015 activity and can be purchased for around $2,200.

The 2017 reports covering 2016 activity will be published and available for purchase around September 30, 2017.

iRobot (IRBT on the NASDAQ stock exchange) jumped from $70 to $80 per share on news that iRobot’s quarterly earnings were so good that the company raised their forecast for 2017 to new highs. KUKA also had good Q1/17 earnings as did Intuitive Surgical.

iRobot (IRBT:NASDAQ)

iRobot‘s stock jumped 15.75% on news that it’s Q1/17 earnings exceeded analyst expections and had jumped 28.8% from Q1/16. As a result, iRobot adjusted upward their 2017 revenue forecast. iRobot now expects full-year 2017 revenue of $780 million to $790 million, which should result in earnings per share of $1.45 to $1.70 (up from EPS guidance of $1.35 to $1.65 previously).

Total Q1/17 units shipped of iRobot’s household cleaning robots was 704,000, a 28% rise from 550,000 shipped in Q1/16. According to CEO Colin Angle, iRobot has shipped over 15 million robotic home floor cleaners through 2016.

Last year iRobot divested its Defense and Security Division for $45 million to a VC which shortly thereafter launched Endeavor Robotics. Thus iRobot is now exclusively a commercial robotics provider. Year-to-date, iRobot’s stock has risen 38% from $58 to $80.

KUKA AG (KU2:ETR) / Midea Group (000333:SHE)

KUKA AG reported Q1/17 sales revenues of $862 million which was up 25.6% compared to Q1/16 revenue. Order backlog for the same period was up 30.6%. KUKA’s outlook for 2017 is around $3.4 billion, up 7.5% over 2016 ($3.16 billion). KUKA’s listed shares – only 5.4% remain with institutions and private investors, the rest, 94.6%, is held by Midea – remain listed but lightly traded as part of the agreement with Midea and will continue to be traded for at least 3 years.

Midea Group, a consumer products manufacturer, is one of the top 50 Chinese publicly-traded companies with revenues of $22 billion. It reported 2016 profits up by 15.6% year-over-year. In addition to its 2016 acquisition of KUKA for approximately $3.9 billion (according to Bloomberg), it just recently acquired Israeli Servotronix for $170 million. Servotronix adds to Midea’s industrial automation acquisitions by being a motion control provider for robotics, printing, machine tools and electronics industries.

Midea chairman and CEO Paul Fang said, “This strategic alliance represents another milestone of Midea’s expansion in industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing. We believe that Servotronix’ technological leadership and innovation in motion control will generate significant synergies with Midea in terms of value chain integration and new market development. By leveraging each other’s complementary capabilities and resources, the two companies will join forces to develop exciting new products and explore growth opportunities going forward.”

Midea Group press releases regarding their acquisition of KUKA said almost the same thing: “By leveraging each other’s complementary capabilities and resources….”

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG:NASDAQ)

Intuitive Surgical, a medical equipment provider and inventor of the da Vinci surgical robot system, reported $5.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.97. Intuitive Surgical had a net margin of 27.21% and a return on equity of 14.24% with revenue of $674.20 million for the quarter, compared to the estimate of $664.72 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.42 EPS. Intuitive’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. ISRG has climbed over 30% so far this year, from $642 to $837.

ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index

iRobot and Intuitive Surgical are members, and KUKA used to be a member, of the 80+ stocks included in the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, a leading indicator of the robotics and automation market. KUKA was dropped when it was acquired by Midea. Even though KUKA has revenues of around $3.4 billion, when combined with Midea’s $22 billion, the percentage of robotics-related revenue is only 13% which is too little to qualify Midea for membership in the index. Also, Midea only trades on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange which, at the present time, ROBO Global doesn’t cover.

For more information about the index or the 80+ member companies, go to ROBO Global’s website.

DJI Phantom 4 Pro

According to AgFunder’s 2016 AgTech Investing Report (supported by The Robot Report’s own research), 2016 drone funding fell 64% from 2015 levels. Also, the type of companies getting funded were sensor, payload and analytics-based add-ons or service-providing companies rather than drone makers.

In 2015, according to AgFunder, the largest drone deal was DJI’s $75 million followed by 3D Robotics’ $64 million. In 2016, the largest deal was 3D Robotics’ $27 million and the majority of drone tech deals closed during the year were seed stage (15 out of 25), whereas there was an even split between late and seed stage deals in 2015.

The Robot Report’s year-end article: 2016 best year ever for funding robotics startup companies included 27 UAS deals. The largest was for $43.8 million to a meds drone delivery service, Zipline International. The 2nd largest was $30 million to Airware, to fund their acquisition of Redbird (a French drone-powered analytics provider) and development of a set of technology systems to plan, fly, and analyze aerial data – particularly valuable for insurance adjusters and contractors. Then came 3D Robotics’ $27 million which helped them wind down and reconfigure themselves from a drone maker to a drone services provider.

The mix of companies receiving funding in 2016 was different than in 2015 where the big money went to drone makers: DJI ($75M) 3D Robotics ($64M), Yuneec Electric Aviation ($60M), Ehang ($44M), and CyPhy Works ($25.4M).

2017 fundings continue the 2016 pattern: Drone Delivery raised $8.1M to further their depot to depot delivery system, Flytrex raised $3M to manufacture drone components, Flirty, a medicine and food delivery drone startup got $16M, Measure got $15M for their drones-as-a-service company for insurers, AirMap got $26M for a real-time air traffic management system, Dedrone got $15M for a drone tracking system, Airware raised an additional but undisclosed sum and Arbe Robotics got $2.5M for a real-time drone mapping system. No drone makers in the lot!

Shenzhen DJI Innovations

DJI is by far the leading quadcopter maker in the world. At a recent drone trade show, most of the booths that displayed multi-rotor drones doing specialized tasks used DJI drones to demonstrate their products. As drones are becomming less of a flying camera and hobby and more to provide commercial and industrial services, DJI is still leading the pack.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, DJI is valued at $10 billion and makes 60-65% of all non-military drones. DJI designs, prototypes and manufacturers all their products in their own factories in Shenzhen and all their sub-contractors are in Shenzhen as well. Thus they control the supply chain and can produce new drones every 6 months thereby whipping the competition. Very Apple-like (after which they pattern themselves).

Nevertheless, even DJI has seen the change from drone-making to providing meaningful services with drones. It’s tough to maintain momentum with just hardware no matter how good it is.

DJI, while continuing to develop new products and upgraded versions of their drones, has suffered the same limitations as other makers and service providers: limited battery life, regulations regarding line of sight and autonomy, connectivity issues, image processing and analysis, limited payload capacity and the commoditization of drones themselves. But, as Paul Turner, CEO of AgDNA wrote recently on Medium:

“Once drones are able to take off autonomously, scan a field [or object], upload data, recharge and continue operation without human intervention — this will be a game changer.”

We’re almost there.

April 2017 had 16 robotics-related fundings totaling over $337 million – a fourth solid month for 2017 – $995 million year-to-date. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with ABB’s $2 billion acquisition of Bernecker & Rainer, plus Baidu, iRobot and Cognex each making strategic acquistions. And there was some IPO activity (but no new stocks).

Fundings

1. Mobvoi, a Chinese voice recognition startup, signed a strategic partnership to build a 50/50 joint venture targeting the automotive market with Volkswagen. The deal involved VW investing $180 million in a Mobvoi series D funding. Modvoi has developed an advanced Chinese speech recognition system, Chinese/English translation, semantic analysis and integrated vertical and proactive search, all adapted for and connected with a smart rear-view mirror that provides navigation, messaging and information through voice input. Prof. Dr. Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China said:
   “This partnership is a particular example of Volkswagen’s determination to work with groundbreaking Chinese tech companies like Mobvoi to create new forms of people-oriented mobility technology. We are impressed by Mobvoi’s innovative approach of AI technologies, and we are pleased to form this joint venture to explore the next generation of smart mobility.”
2. Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley-based developer of technology for trucks to avoid collisions, cut fuel use and travel in closer proximity, raised a $60 million round of funding led by Omnitracs, and additional investments from existing investors Intel Capital, DENSO International America, BP Ventures, Lockheed Martin, Nokia Growth Partners, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Volvo Group, Sand Hill Angels, Band of Angels and Birchmere Ventures along with new investors B37 Ventures, Mitsui USA, Okaya, Schlumberger, US Venture and Breakthrough Fuel.
3. Luminar Technology, a Silicon Valley vision systems startup, is developing a new LiDAR-like high-resolution sensor that will help autonomous vehicles read signs, see traffic lights and avoid obstacles. Peter Thiel’s 1517 Fund, which invests in startups led by young founders, participated in the $36 million seed round. GVA capital and Canvas Ventures also participated.
4. Shield AI, a San Diego developer of artificially intelligent systems, raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round.
5. Synchron, a San Francisco-based company developing a medical device that records neuron signals as a way to control advanced prosthetics, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Neurotechnology Investors led the round and was joined by the U.S. Department of Defense.
6. Renovo Auto, a Campbell, CA startup creating platforms for autonomous, connected, and electric vehicles, raised $10 million in a funding round led by True Ventures (Verizon’s venture arm).
7. Aurora Innovation, a Silicon Valley startup headed by Chris Urmson, former CTO of Google’s self-driving car project, has raised $6.1 from Allen & Company, Chris Urmson, Drew Bagnell and Sterling Anderson (who previously oversaw Tesla’s Autopilot software and who was involved in a lawsuit by Tesla which was settled/dropped by Tesla just the other day).
8. VIST Group, a 25-year-old Russian IT company, raised $6 million from I2BF Global Ventures and VTB Capital Asset Management to develop robotizing and autonomous equipment for the mining industry. Said Vladimir Sakovich of the Skolkovo Foundation:
   “VIST is an example of those Russian companies, not numerous yet, that are showing good financial performance with a huge potential for international markets and also constantly developing innovative high-tech solutions.”
9. The Yield Technology Solutions, an Austrailian ag analytics and sensors startup, raised $4.9 million from lead investor Bosch, as well as from KPMG and AgFunder in a Series A funding round. The startup will use the funds to expand beyond aquaculture (oyster farming), its first target market in Australia, and into the US where it will focus on customers on the West Coast growing intensive, irrigated crops.
10. DeepScale, a Silicon Valley autonomous vehicle vision systems startup, raised $3 million in a seed round.  Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock, Auto Tech Ventures, Andy Bechtolsheim (who was the first investor in Google) and Jerry Yang.
11. Arbe Robotics, an Israeli drone radar collision avoidance platform, raised $2.5 million from unknown sources. Arbe is also developing radar for autonomous vehicles that facilitates real-time mapping at distances up to 300 meters.
12. WiBotic, a Seattle startup developing a wireless power and battery solution for mobile air, land and sea robots, raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Tsing Capital, and including investments from Comet Labs and Digi Labs as well as follow-on investments from W Fund, WRF Capital and Wisemont Capital.
13. COSY (Cognitive Operational Systems), a spin-off from the GRASP Labs at U Penn, raised $2.3 million (in February) in a Series A round from Safeguard Scienfitics, a growth-stage VC. COSY has developed a vision, perception and AI system for mobile robots to collect and evaluate inventory data.
14. BestMile, a Swiss startup developing a cloud platform for the operation and optimization of autonomous vehicle fleets, raised $2 million from Airbus Venture, Partech Venture, and Serena Capital.
15. Compound Eye, a San Francisco 3D vision for autonomous machines startup, raised $1 million from unknown sources.
16. Ecoation Innovative Solutions, a Vancouver, CA ag sensor and analytics startup, raised $750k in a seed round with funds to be used to launch commercial sales to greenhouse growers in North America.

Acquisitions

When asked about the few IPOs but many acquisitions in the digital, tech and robotics industries, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said in an interview in Fortune Magazine:

When Steve and I started Apple we were so naïve and young. We didn’t know anything about business. We didn’t know that it’s often the case that you start a company and then you get bought out as an exit strategy. We thought that you start at home, you make a product, and become profitable so you have your company forever. As long as it makes a profit, it never goes away. That’s how I thought companies worked. Boy, it’s a different story now in Silicon Valley.

I think there are an awful lot of people who have a quick exit plan like selling the business to another big company to get enough money to buy a house in San Francisco. Then they move on to the next one. There are many companies that are started by business people and not engineers. Engineers say, “What would be a cool product? What would make the world greater and better?” That’s where I come from.

1. ABB has acquired Austrian industrial automation company Bernecker & Rainer, a move that fits in with its strategy of expanding its products to better challenge German rival Siemens on the factory floor. The Swiss company said the acquisition would increase its sales in industrial automation to around $15 billion by adding B&R’s annual sales of more than $600 million. ABB gave no purchase price but a person familiar with the matter said it was nearly $2 billion.
2. iRobot has acquired the Japanese iRobot-related distribution business of Sales on Demand Corp, a Tokyo integrator/reseller for around $15 million. The acquisition is expected to contribute incremental revenue of approximately $20-$25 million in 2017 and to expand gross margin.
3. Cognex, the large vision systems provider, acquired Boulder, CO 3D sensor camera maker Chiaro Technologies for $3.5 million plus $1.25 million based upon reaching certain milestone revenue levels.
4. Cognex also acquired ViDi Systems SA, a Swiss maker of deep learning machine vision software for an undisclosed amount.
5. MHI Holdings, a Norfolk, Va. provider of marine repair services backed by Stellex Capital Management, acquired Seaward Marine Services, a provider of robotic underwater hull cleaning and ship husbandry services, and Accurate Marine Environmental, a provider of marine and industrial tank and bilge cleaning services, environmental remediation, and disposal services. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
6. Schmalz, a global Germany-based manufacturer of vacuum technology for the robotics industry, acquired GPS GmbH (GPS Production Systems), a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute IPA, for an undisclosed amount. GPS develops products, tools and methods – including a plug-and-play interface for connection – to interface actuators and sensors to MES and ERP systems.
7. Baidu acquired Silicon Valley vision systems startup Xperception  for an undisclosed amount. xPerception co-founders Dr. Bao Yingze and Dr. Chen Mingyu, were early key engineers at AR start-up Magic Leap. Following the acquisition, the core xPerception team will join Baidu Research and continue developing xPerception’s core technology, visual inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Baidu hopes to harness the potential of xPerception’s visual perception camera in its bid to develop autonomous cars. The camera’s features include sophisticated tracking technology, three-dimensional obstacle detection, and object recognition. Michael Ramsey, transportation and mobility analyst for Gartner Research, explained that the acquisition could “help push Baidu closer to the leaders” but that it has a long way to go.
   

   “Right now, the largest tech players are scrambling to catch Uber, which has a big head start on virtually everyone. That means that if you don’t have the capability in-house, you have to acquire it. XPerception has expertise in processing and identifying images, an important part of the sensing for autonomous vehicles. The purchase may help push Baidu closer to the leaders, but it is just one piece… it has a long way to go.”

IPOs

Lots of activity, but no new stocks just yet.

• San Jose, CA-based Mota Group, a maker of fingertip-sized drone toys and a line of more professional drones for commercial users, filed for an IPO of up to $23 million last year, pulled that and has recently lowered that figure to just $6 million and refiled. No indication of when the actual launch will occur.
• Myomo, a Cambridge, MA upper limbs exoskeleton startup, filed for a Reg A+ IPO of $15 million in February and Banq, the issuer and service provider, says the final papers will be submitted mid-May.
• Knightscope, a Silicon Valley security systems and robotics startup, also filed for a $20 million Reg A+ IPO in February and, according to SeedInvest, the issuer and service provider, is close to completing the transaction. Knightscope was evasive but sent over this picture of their company on NASDAQ’s massive NYC signboard. A 1/4 page ad for Knightscope’s offering also appeared in the WSJ and USA Today.

Failures

• Nav on Time (FR)
• Wany Robotics (FR)

Most of us are familiar with the podcasts about robotics from the Robots Podcast group. For different perspectives, from the funder’s point of view, here’s a list of podcasts from the VC’s that fund robotics and technology ventures — funders like Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Greylock Partners and Y Combinator.

Venture Capitalist POVs

Erin Griffith said: “It’s starting to seem like every firm wants to be in the literal ears of entrepreneurs.” She compiled this list for her Fortune Term Sheet column. After listening to a few different podcasts, I found it an entertaining, informative and fascinating way to get insight into VC thinking.

• a16z podcast by Andreessen Horowitz
• The Riff by Box Group‘s David Tisch and Union Square Ventures‘ Andy Wiessman
• Traction by NextView Ventures
• Collective Wisdom for Tech Startups by Founder Collective
• Startup School Radio by Y Combinator
• Ventured by Kleiner Perkins
• The Balderton Podcast by Balderton Capital
• Notion Capital, by Notion Capital
• Venture Perspectives by Scale Venture Partners
• Origins by Notation Capital
• Lead by Menlo Ventures
• Greymatter by Greylock Partners
• Bothsides TV by Upfront Ventures
• The Full Rachet by Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures
• The Bootstrapped VC by Backstage Capital
• Human Proof of Concept by Janelle Anderson of CTI Life Sciences
• Acquired by David Rosenthal of Madrona Ventures
• Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman

Robotics Focused Podcasts

The Robots podcast is run by Robohub and creates bi-weekly interviews with leaders in the field. Robohub is a non-profit independent organization run by volunteers. To date, the podcast team has produced 232 podcasts. Robots is available via Soundcloud, Apple iTunes and all other major podcast servers.

Whether for research, purchasing, education or in conjuncation with a family vacation, going to and attending robotics-related conferences and trade shows can provide real personal and business benefits, particularly when the venue is in a foreign location. Here are the 35 remaining events for 2017:

1. Hannover Messe Trade Fair, April 24-28, Hannover, Germany
2. Intl Conf on Autonomous Robot Systems (ICARSC), April 26-30, Coimbra, Portugal
3. Intl Trade Fair for the Manufacturing Industry, May 3-5, Turin, Italy
4. AUVSI’s Xponential, May 8-11, Dallas, TX
5. Innorobo, May 16-18, Paris, France
6. IEEE Intl Conf on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 29-June 3, Singapore
7. AUVSI Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition, June 2-5, Rochester, MI
8. CES Asia, June 7-9, Shanghai, China
9. Unmanned Cargo Innovation Conference, June 13-14, Maaspoort, The Netherlands
10. ICAPS Robotic Track, June 18-23, Pittsburgh, PA
11. Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, June 25-28, London, UK
12. Autonomous Systems World, June 26-27, Berlin, Germany
13. Conf on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM), June 27-30, Modena, Italy
14. Automation and Robotics Conf, June 28-29, San Diego, CA
15. Industrial Automation Shenzhen, June 28-30, Shenzhen, China
16. Forbes AgTech Forum, June 28-29, Salinas, CA
17. RoboUniverse Seoul, June 28-30, Seoul, Korea
18. Intl Symposium on Automation & Robotics in Construction (ISARC), June 28-July 1, Taipei, Taiwan
19. China Intl Robot Show (CIROS), July 5-8, Shanghai, China
20. RoboCup, July 25-31, Nagoya, Japan
21. Farm Progress Show, August 29-31, Decatur, IL
22. InterDrone, September 6-8, Las Vegas, NV
23. European Conf on Mobile Robotics, September 6-8, Paris, France
24. Conf on Field and Service Robotics, September 12-15, Zurich, Switzerland
25. RobotWorld, September 13-16, Seoul, Korea
26. IEEE AFRICON 2017 and Robotics and AI, September 18-20, Cape Town, South Africa
27. ROSCon, September 21-22, Vancouver, Canada
28. IEEE Intl Conf on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), September 24-28, Vancouver, BC, Canada
29. RoboBusiness, September 27-28, Santa Clara, CA
30. Drone World Expo, October 3-4, San Jose, CA
31. China Industrial Automation and Robotics Show, November 7-11, Shanghai, China
32. AgriTechnica, November 12-18, Hanover, Germany
33. Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2017), November 13-15, Mountain View, CA
34. Asian Robotics Exhibition AREX, November 23-24, Singapore
35. iREX 2017, November 29-December 2, Tokyo, Japan