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Zoox raises $50 million for their stealthy Silicon Valley venture
Frank Tobe
08 Nov 2016
Zoox, the secretive Silicon Valley startup working to build its own self-driving cars, has quietly raised $50 million (in October) in a Series A round led by Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong...
October fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Frank Tobe
02 Nov 2016
October fundings for robotics-related startups totaled $291.75 million bringing the year-to-date funding figure very close to $1.5 billion. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired report...
The delicate balance between brilliance, safety and arrogance
Frank Tobe
01 Nov 2016
Silicon Valley and other technology centers have their share of brilliant minds. Some of them have similarly outstanding egos. A few of those have very short fuses. Such is the story of George Hotz....
Comma.ai cancels comma-one add-on box after threats from NHTSA
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
31 Oct 2016
Comma.ai, the brash startup attempting to make a self-driving system entirely from a neural network has announced it will cancel the “comma one” add-on box it has planned to sell to owners of cert...
The changing landscape of drone funding
Frank Tobe
26 Oct 2016
CB Insights Drone Quarterly Financing Trends to VC-Backed Companies shows a downward trend. The Robot Report's monthly funding reports show something different: a change in the nature of drone applic...
Why watching Westworld’s robots should make us question ourselves
Tony Prescott
21 Oct 2016
For a sci-fi fan like me, fascinated by the nature of human intelligence and the possibility of building life-like robots, it’s always interesting to find a new angle on these questions. As a re-ima...
RoboBusiness 2016: Our takeaways
Samuel Bouchard and Robotiq Inc.
20 Oct 2016
We’re back from our yearly sync with the robotics industry happening at RoboBusiness. As usual, there were great talks and great people to meet. To be honest, I felt less frenzy this year than in th...
Automation should complement professional expertise, not replace it
Frank Pasquale
19 Oct 2016
Will your next doctor be an app? A cost-cutting NHS wants more patients to act as “self-carers,” with some technologized assistance. A series of flowcharts and phone trees might tell parents whose...
Why DJI is succeeding in making and selling drones and 3DR didn’t
Frank Tobe
18 Oct 2016
It was clear that DJI was winning the drone commoditization war by the end of 2015. Today's best sellers are mostly DJI products. Other makers (Parrot, 3D Robotics, Autel, Yuneec et al) haven't been a...
The new Westworld: Humanizing the un-human, or dehumanizing humankind?
Michael Szollosy
18 Oct 2016
HBO’s latest offering (on SkyAtlantic here in the UK) is an update of Michael Crichton‘s 1973 film Westworld; this time brought to us as a ten-part television series by sci-fi re-booter extraordin...
IFR’s two reports for 2015 show double-digit growth for remainder of decade
Frank Tobe
17 Oct 2016
Each year the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) surveys and tabulates data from its worldwide network of robotics associations. The two 2016 annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World...
25 women in robotics you need to know about – 2016
Editor's note:
In celebration of International Women's Day, we're reposting our latest '25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About' list. Over the last four years, Robohub has featured 100 inspir...
Zymergen gets $130 million from SoftBank and other VCs
Frank Tobe
12 Oct 2016
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate, led a group that included Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and seven others in a $130 million funding round for Zymergen to help ...
Samsung acquires Viv in a quest to link all its appliances
Frank Tobe
10 Oct 2016
Dag Kittlaus, founder and CEO of Siri, Inc., produced and uploaded an app into the Apple App store February 2010. The app quickly rose to 1st in the 'Lifestyle Section.' In March, Steve Jobs called Ki...
The Robot Economy: Interview with MEP Mady Delvaux
SPARC
08 Oct 2016
In our final interview in The Robot Economy series, we speak with Mady Delvaux, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Chair of the Working Group on robotics. Mady has written an extensive draft ...
The four coolest NASA robots
Jibo
06 Oct 2016
NASA may be known for sending men to the moon, establishing the International Space Station, and planning for a base on Mars—but apart from astronauts, its best-known spokesmen aren’t men at all...
September fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Frank Tobe
05 Oct 2016
September continued the big-money spree for funding robotic startups. 10 good-sized deals and three little ones. Almost $220 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus, ano...
A look at a Danish robotics cluster
Frank Tobe
04 Oct 2016
There are many 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...
GoPro unveils long-awaited Karma stabilized drone system and kit
Frank Tobe
30 Sep 2016
GoPro fans and the financial world have been looking forward to GoPro's new Karma since GoPro announced last December that it was working on building its first drone. When they delayed the release ...
46 research reports analyze the robotics industry and autonomous vehicles
Frank Tobe
29 Sep 2016
As autonomous cars begin to hit world markets in pilot tests and other ways, and before the International Federation of Robotics clarifies whether those vehicles are robots or not, two research firms ...
The Robot Economy: Interview with Alan Manning
SPARC
27 Sep 2016
In today’s interview, we sat down with Alan Manning, Professor of Labour Economics at the London School of Economics. He is a leading author in his field, particularly in understanding the imperfect...
Robocar parking is incredibly cheap
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
27 Sep 2016
Some people have wondered about my forecast in the spreadsheet on robotaxi economics about the very low parking costs I have predicted. I wrote about most of the reasons for this in my 2007 essay on R...
Critique of NHTSA’s newly released regulations
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
22 Sep 2016
The long awaited list of recommendations and potential regulations for robocars has just been released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency that regulates ...
Robocar recap: Tesla radar, MobilEye fight, and the Comma One $1,000 add-on-box
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
20 Sep 2016
Tesla’s spat with MobilEye reached a new pitch this week with Tesla announcing a new release of their autopilot and plans. As reported earlier, MobilEye announced during the summer that they would n...
Pittsburgh and Singapore are now pilot sites for self-driving car services
Frank Tobe
19 Sep 2016
Two self-driving car events of note: Uber just began operating a fleet of Volvo self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, and nuTonomy launched the first autonomous pilot taxi program last month in Singapore. ...
What artificial intelligence will look like in 2030
Leah Burrows and Harvard SEAS
16 Sep 2016
Artificial intelligence (AI) has already transformed our lives — from the autonomous cars on the roads to the robotic vacuums and smart thermostats in our homes. Over the next 15 years, AI technolog...
InterDrone 2016: Professionalization and business of drone industry
Frank Tobe
16 Sep 2016
InterDrone concluded their 2nd annual trade show and conference in Las Vegas. The differences between the 2015 event and this one reflect the rapid changes in the industry and can be seen as a predict...
Integrators are dead, long live the integrator
Frank Tobe
15 Sep 2016
For many years integrators have engineered, built and installed automation machinery for their manufacturer clients. As manufacturing has begun to move from mass production to mass customization,...
Breaking down robotaxi economics
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Sep 2016
The vision of many of us for robocars is a world of less private car ownership and more use of robotaxis — on-demand ride service in a robocar. That’s what companies like Uber clearly are pushing ...
Top 10 technologies in precision agriculture
Frank Tobe
14 Sep 2016
PrecisionAg's editor Eric Sfiligoj has prepared a list of the top 10 technologies that are shaping precision ag today. Most involve some level of robotics, navigation, sensors and variable rate dispe...
Robohub roundtable: Cybathlon and advancements in prosthetics
Kassie Perlongo
13 Sep 2016
The Olympics in Rio may be over, but athletes around the world are gearing up for a new type of competition. Cybathlon, known as the cyborg Olympics, coming up on 8 October in the SWISS Arena in Klote...
Cybathlon: A bionics competition for people with disabilities
Robert Riener
06 Sep 2016
Millions of people worldwide rely on orthotics, prosthetics, wheelchairs and other assistive devices to improve their quality of life. In the United States alone, there are more than 1.6 million peopl...
Case IH displays new cab-less concept tractor
Frank Tobe
06 Sep 2016
Case IH (Case New Holland International Harvester) displayed their new cab-less tractor at a farming show in Iowa. The presentation was to show off what they hope will be the future: an autonomous...
August fundings and acquisitions
Frank Tobe
05 Sep 2016
August was another big month for funding robotic startups. 18 deals. Almost $430 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus, another $1 billion paid in August for four acqui...
From flying shuttles to rolling robots, automated supply chains are almost here
Wolfgang Lehmacher
02 Sep 2016
From Amazon’s delivery drones to self-driving cars, autonomous factory equipment to Elon Musk’s 760 mph vacuum tubes – automated vehicles are on the rise.
Even beyond the grounds of pri...
Taking measure of artificial intelligence and the Turing Test
Jibo
31 Aug 2016
As far as party games go, the Imitation Game is a pretty clever and fairly entertaining one. A man and a women answer questions as if they were the other, trying to fool party guests into guessing the...
