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Israeli study on robot adoption suggests new-tech solutions
Frank Tobe
24 Aug 2013
... A study of small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMEs) in Israel concluded that new tech robots, i.e., those which are easily trainable, relatively safe to work alongside humans, and where user-ro...
25 Russian companies added to The Robot Report’s global map of robot providers
Frank Tobe
23 Aug 2013
... Susan McFarland, of robotguide, a site providing a guide to personal robots, compiled a list of Russian robotics companies which we vetted and posted to our Global Map of Robot Providers.
... 25 ...
Venture Capital in Robotics, with Diana Saraceni
Per Sjöborg
23 Aug 2013
Link to audio file (31:13)
Diana Saraceni is a Venture Capitalist at 360 Capital Partners. In this interview, she tells us about her first investment in robotics 3 years ago with Invendo Medical, and...
Remaining Willow Garage employees move to Suitable Technologies | IEEE Spectrum
Frank Tobe
22 Aug 2013
... In a surprising move, Scott Hassan, CEO of Suitable Technologies, and previous CEO of Willow Garage, has hired most of the remaining employees of Willow Garage leaving only a support staff for the...
Funding news
Frank Tobe
18 Aug 2013
... Neato Robotics - the NJ-based competitor with iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaner - raised $14 million in new funding from two VC firms. In 2012, Neato raised $12.2 from two different VC companies....
Orbotix introduces Sphero 2.0
John Payne
15 Aug 2013
http://youtu.be/5Bg88VkWGOQ
There's not much more about Sphero 2.0 on the Orbotix website other than this two-minute video, but Evan Ackerman of Automaton has a little more information. The followi...
China’s 5-Year Plan targets robotics as a growth industry
Frank Tobe
11 Aug 2013
... China's 12th 5-Year Plan (2011-15) targeted robotics as a growth industry necessary for China's development. It expects a compound growth rate of 25%, said Wang Weiming, deputy director of the Min...
Blabdroid: From Tribeca to Bolt
Andra Keay
31 Jul 2013
Alex Reben’s dissertation robot, Boxie “the needy robot” morphed into Blabdroid, the documentary film about making robots. Blabdroid were the official “robots in residence” at the Tribeca ...
After a lackluster 2nd quarter, Hansen Medical gets a $93 million equity infusion
Frank Tobe
31 Jul 2013
Although the number of procedures using Hansen Medical's Magellan and Sensei robotic systems has risen, the number of units sold has fallen slightly and the company continues to operate in the red, he...
Does crowdfunding derisk robotics?
Andra Keay
30 Jul 2013
Crowdfunding is often cited as one of the mechanisms accelerating robot startups, alongside COTS, reduced costs, rapid prototyping, digital manufacturing, smart phones, connectivity etc. The entire pr...
SUSBEXPO: The first unmanned systems business conference
Andra Keay
27 Jul 2013
SUSBEXPO is the first conference about unmanned systems to really focus on the growing commercial opportunities of this market. AUVSI put on a spectacular annual show, but it is predominantly militar...
Dmitry Grishin on evaluating robotic investment opportunities
Dmitry Grishin and Hallie Siegel
25 Jul 2013
As part of our series on high-risk, high-reward robotics, and as a follow-up to his recent Robot's Podcast interview, I asked entrepreneur and venture capitalist Dmitry Grishin to talk to us about how...
iRobot Q3 profits were good but revenue was static
Frank Tobe
25 Jul 2013
... Stock drops 13% on news that 3Q and next quarter revenues were and will be static.
... Everything else was fine.
... Go figure!...
China takes long view in funding robotics, innovation
CHEN Fei
17 Jul 2013
With the rapid economic development of the last twenty years resulting in the accumulation of great wealth, China urgently feels the need to move from a manufacturing-driven economy to an innovati...
China now largest market for robots
Frank Tobe
12 Jul 2013
The China International Robot Show CIROS was held July 2-5 in Shanghai. 30,000 people were expected to attend and 56 companies exhibited. Although most of the exhibitors were Taiwanese, Japanese, Kore...
Intuitive Surgical stock sinks
Frank Tobe
10 Jul 2013
... After months of negative news about poorly trained surgeons, class action suits claiming poor communications with shareholders, an FDA review, an article saying that procedure costs were too high,...
A dilemma of high-risk / high-reward
Frank Tobe
09 Jul 2013
Often funding sources - the groups taking the risk - are not the beneficiaries of the rewards of the venture. Intuitive Surgical is an example.
NSF, DARPA and NASA funded a project to solve a very ...
Visions of transformative research: Risk-reward, variation-selection, hot trends, exploration of the wild
Juan Rogers
08 Jul 2013
Over the last 20 years or so, a sense that science has become conservative or incrementalist has developed, and calls for change in the approaches to public funding of research have been heard from va...
Funding high risk proposals at the National Science Foundation: A brief history
Marc Rothenberg
03 Jul 2013
National Science Foundation (NSF) efforts to develop a mechanism to fund research proposals that had a high risk of failure, but which also had the potential for high return, began in 1980. In that ye...
Robotics Business Review, with Tom Green
Podcast team
28 Jun 2013
Link to audio file (38:23)
In this episode we meet with Tom Green, editor in chief of the Robotics Business Review, to discuss current trends in robotics. Robotics Business Review is a global robotic...
Boston is actually living up to the hype this year!
Robert Morris
11 Jun 2013
The definitive list of private funding in robotics--or at least the most widely cited is the Hizook VC Funding for Robotics list. The list for 2012 is out. Please help make it complete by adding...
iRobot unveils new AVA 500 mobile robot for professionals
Frank Tobe
11 Jun 2013
New iRobot AVA 500, planned for 2014 delivery, navigates autonomously and can be sent from point A to B using an iPad....
A flurry of bad publicity for Intuitive Surgical
Frank Tobe
14 May 2013
UPDATED 5-14-2013: Scroll to bottom of article to see updates.
One of robotics' biggest stars, Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG), and their da Vinci robotic surgical systems, is receiving a lot of...
A conversation with Henri Seydoux
Frank Tobe
03 May 2013
A growing business within Parrot S.A., (PARRO:EUROLIST B) is their AR.Drone line of products, parts and software. Their first quadcopter product was developed internally by (1) observing the $1 billio...
iRobot stock jumps 15% on Q1 earnings and 2013 projections
Frank Tobe
24 Apr 2013
iRobot’s stock (ISRG:NASDAQ) jumped 15% today on yesterday’s earnings report which exceeded analysts’ expectations for both the quarterly earnings and the annual projections....
Xconomy Forum’s final word about robots and jobs
Frank Tobe
12 Apr 2013
At the Xconomy Forum held in Palo Alto earlier this week, the focal topic was "Robots Remake the Workplace." It was expected that the jobs issue would permeate the event. Do robots take away jobs? Ins...
VLAB: Drones – The commercial era takes off, but breaking the law is going to blow-up in our faces
Robert Morris
26 Mar 2013
Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending VLAB: Drones – The Commercial Era Takes Off at Stanford GSB. The event was truly fantastic and the panel was amazing. The moderator was Chris Anderson,...
Foxconn Foxbot update
Frank Tobe
08 Mar 2013
Ilian Bonev, a robotics prof at the ÉTS in Quebec, blogged “The truth about Foxconns Foxbot industrial robots,” and included a 2008 Foxbot brochure which shows the specs for their entire robotics...
2013 robotic gimmicks, gadgets and toys
Frank Tobe
26 Feb 2013
Toys often precede more serious inventions. So, putting judgement aside, and withholding laughs and other "tells", here are some new robotic toys and gadgets hitting the market this year....
Management shakeup at Adept Technology
Frank Tobe
25 Feb 2013
... Rob Cain replaces John Dulchinos as CEO of Adept Technology. Cain has worked with Adept for the past few months as an advisor and representative of Hale Capital Partners and crafted a restructurin...
ExOne IPO Successful: Shareholders Contribute Random Passers-by
Robert Morris
21 Feb 2013
Before I start bashing bankers, I’d like to congratulate the ExOne Company on a successful initial public offering (IPO). I haven’t seen much about ExOne [NASDAQ:XONE] on the robotics sites, b...
Bolt closes funding round and opens applications
Andra Keay
20 Feb 2013
Bolt, Ben Einstein's hardware and robotics accelerator in Boston, today announced the close of their first funding round and the opening of the first round of applications for 2013 hardware startups. ...
Thoughts about RoboBusiness 2012
Frank Tobe
19 Feb 2013
I've read a wide range of reports and single-topic reviews about the presentations and about some of the exhibitors at last November's RoboBusiness Leadership Summit held in Pittsburgh. I didn't feel ...
Nicola Tomatis on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”
Nicola Tomatis
15 Feb 2013
I would like to start from the other side: "Why is robotics great in creating new technologies and poor in creating new businesses?". Well, someone may disagree, but I really think that robotics is gr...
Frank Tobe on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”
Frank Tobe
15 Feb 2013
Funding new robotic projects in America is mostly done two different ways:
(1) strategic funding from NASA, DARPA, DoD, NSF and other government organizations to do the pure science involved in sol...
Henrik Christensen on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”
Henrik Christensen
15 Feb 2013
The public should in most cases not subsidize companies. Tax payers should not be venture capitalists. The new wave of Lean Startup going around the world is a great model to ensure that companies are...
