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Sewing a mechanical future
Oliver Mitchell
23 Jan 2018
The Financial Times reported earlier this year that one of the largest clothing manufacturers, Hong Kong-based Crystal Group, proclaimed robotics could not compete with the cost and quality of manual...
Best practices in designing effective roadmaps for robotics innovation
Hallie Siegel and Lenka Pitonakova
22 Jan 2018
In the past decade, countries and regions around the globe have developed strategic roadmaps to guide investment and development of robotic technology. Roadmaps from the US, South Korea, Japan and EU ...
CES 2018: Robots, AI, massive data and prodigious plans
Frank Tobe
22 Jan 2018
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 f...
The GM/Cruise robocar interior is refreshingly spartan
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
22 Jan 2018
GM revealed photos of what they say is the production form of their self-driving car based on the Chevy Bolt and Cruise software. They say it will be released next year, making it almost surely the fi...
Tons of LIDARs at CES 2018
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
17 Jan 2018
When it comes to robocars, new LIDAR products were the story of CES 2018. Far more companies showed off LIDAR products than can succeed, with a surprising variety of approaches. CES is now the 5th lar...
CES 2018 recap: Out of the dark ages
Oliver Mitchell
15 Jan 2018
As close to a quarter million people descended on a city of six hundred thousand, CES 2018 became the perfect metaphor for the current state of modern society. Unfazed by floods, blackouts, and trans...
Point-to-point mobile robots hot sellers
Frank Tobe
15 Jan 2018
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 fo...
A round up of robotics and AI ethics: part 1 principles
Alan Winfield
09 Jan 2018
This blogpost is a round up of the various sets of ethical principles of robotics and AI that have been proposed to date, ordered by date of first publication. The principles are presented here (in fu...
Top Robocar news of 2017
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Jan 2018
Here are the biggest Robocar stories of 2017....
December 2017 fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
Frank Tobe
02 Jan 2018
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...
Drones, volcanoes and the ‘computerisation’ of the Earth
The Conversation
29 Dec 2017
By Adam Fish
The eruption of the Agung volcano in Bali, Indonesia has been devastating, particularly for the 55,000 local people who have had to leave their homes and move into shelters. It has als...
An emotional year for machines
Oliver Mitchell
29 Dec 2017
Two thousand seventeen certainly has been an emotional year for mankind. While homo sapiens continue to yell at Alexa and Siri, the actuality of people’s willingness to pursue virtual relationsh...
So where are the jobs?
Oliver Mitchell
07 Dec 2017
Dan Burstein, reporter, novelist and successful venture capitalist, declared Wednesday night at RobotLab‘s winter forum on Autonomous Transportation & SmartCities that within one hundred yea...
Warner Brothers and Intel experiment with in-robocar entertainment. Is that a good idea?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
07 Dec 2017
Intel and Warner made a splash at the LA Auto Show announcing how Warner will develop entertainment for viewing while riding in robotaxis. It's not just movies to watch, their hope is to produce somet...
November fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
Frank Tobe
06 Dec 2017
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 Tu...
DARPA challenge mystery solved and how to handle Robocar failures
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
01 Dec 2017
A small mystery from Robocar history was resolved recently, and revealed at the DARPA grand challenge reunion at CMU....
Robots and the two-edged blade of new technology
Frank Tobe
29 Nov 2017
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 ...
Uber buys 24,000 Volvos, trolley problems get scarier, and liability
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
29 Nov 2017
Uber and Volvo announced an agreement where Uber will buy, in time, up to 24,000 specially built Volvo XC90s which will run Uber's self-driving software and, presumably, offer rides to Uber customers....
30+2 research reports forecast significant growth for robot industry
Frank Tobe
24 Nov 2017
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....
Locus Robotics raises $25 million for warehouse RaaS
Frank Tobe
24 Nov 2017
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 plan...
Jibo personal robot tops Time’s Best Innovations of 2017
Frank Tobe
19 Nov 2017
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 mo...
Another Chinese acquisition of a European robotics manufacturer
Frank Tobe
19 Nov 2017
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 AB...
Bossa Nova raises $17.5 million for shelf-scanning mobile robots
Frank Tobe
19 Nov 2017
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 p...
Robocar/LIDAR news and video of the Apple car
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
13 Nov 2017
Robocar news is fast and furious these days. I certainly don't cover it all, but will point to stories that have some significance. Plus, to tease you, here's a clip from my 4K video of the new Apple ...
Robots’ two-pronged role in Alibaba’s $25.3 billion Singles’ Day sale
Frank Tobe
13 Nov 2017
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 ...
Waymo deploys with no human safety driver oversight
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
09 Nov 2017
In a major milestone for robocars, Waymo has announced they will deploy in Phoenix with no human safety drivers behind the wheel. Until now, almost all robocars out there have only gone out on public ...
Funding trends: self-driving dreams coming true
Frank Tobe
06 Nov 2017
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 ...
Three concerns about granting citizenship to robot Sophia
Hussein Abbass and The Conversation
02 Nov 2017
I was surprised to hear that a robot named Sophia was granted citizenship by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia....
October 2017 fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
Frank Tobe
02 Nov 2017
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-drivi...
Brain surgery: The robot efficacy test?
Oliver Mitchell
02 Nov 2017
The internet hummed last week with reports that “Humans Still Make Better Surgeons Than Robots.” Stanford University Medical Center set off the tweetstorm with its seemingly scathing repo...
The senate’s automated driving bill could squash state authority
Bryant Walker Smith
31 Oct 2017
My previous post on the House and Senate automated driving bills (HB 3388 and SB 1885) concluded by noting that, in addition to the federal government, states and the municipalities within them also p...
Robocars will make traffic worse before it gets better
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
25 Oct 2017
Many websites paint a very positive picture of the robocar future. And it is positive, but far from perfect. One problem I worry about in the short term is the way robocars are going to make traffic w...
The five senses of robotics
Oliver Mitchell
24 Oct 2017
Healthy humans take for granted their five senses. In order to mold metal into perceiving machines, it requires a significant amount of engineers and capital. Already, we have handed over many of our ...
Stifled ambitions: a review of Google robotics
Frank Tobe
24 Oct 2017
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....
Robots on the Rise
Frank Tobe
20 Oct 2017
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 t...
Could we build a Blade Runner-style ‘replicant’?
The new Blade Runner sequel will return us to a world where sophisticated androids made with organic body parts can match the strength and emotions of their human creators. As someone who builds biolo...
