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Toyota Research gets Kuffner, and Google gets Brondmo
Frank Tobe
18 Jan 2016
At a press conference last week at CES, Toyota, led by Gill Pratt of DARPA fame and now CEO of Toyota Research Institute (TRI), informed the world what Toyota intended to do with it's billion dollar...
Foxconn shopping for robot manufacturer to keep pace with brisk Pepper sales
Frank Tobe
05 Jan 2016
In an article about the pace of sales for the SoftBank Pepper robot, the China Post reported that Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision (AKA Foxconn) has sent a team of 30 to survey the US market for futu...
Why co-bots will be a huge driver of innovation and growth for robotics
Frank Tobe
04 Jan 2016
This article was first published on IEEE Spectrum Automaton and is republished here with permission. For the IEEE version, click here; for the unabridged version, continue reading.
Collaborative ro...
2015 robotics fundings, IPOs, acquisitions and failures
Frank Tobe
04 Jan 2016
From the 2015 archives of The Robot Report: 54 fundings of $1.267 billion, 31 acquisitions totalling over $1.97 billion, and one IPO -- all adding up to some surprisingly large figures. ...
New Sino-Israeli Robotics Institute gets $20 million initial funding
Frank Tobe
30 Dec 2015
A consortium of Chinese companies, municipalities and investors -- including Siasun, the largest robotics firm in China and the city of Guangzhou -- have inked a deal to set up a $20 million R&...
Competing market research reports agree: Expect double-digit growth for most robotics segments
Frank Tobe
30 Dec 2015
The number of research reports covering the robotics industry has grown exponentially in the last few years. Eighty-one have been previewed on The Robot Report thus far in 2015. The latest batch of 2...
“Made in China” initiative is nurturing robotics according to plan
Frank Tobe
21 Dec 2015
The IFR (International Federation of Robotics) estimates that by 2018, one-third of all the industrial robots installed worldwide will be in China and said, "China is engaged on a historically unprec...
Blue River Technology, Jibo and others get holiday funding
Frank Tobe
18 Dec 2015
Jibo got $16 million from Asian VCs to enable Jibo to speak and sell in Japan and China, while Blue River Technology got $17 million from a group of agricultural VCs to expand product development to n...
SVR Case Studies: Introduction to service robotics
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
17 Dec 2015
Robotics is finally stepping out of science fiction and into service, if not in our homes, then at least in our hotels, hospitals, restaurants, warehouses, hardware stores and other retail outlets. Th...
Free global list of robot-related business and edu/research facilities exceeds 4K entries
Frank Tobe
08 Dec 2015
The Robot Report has been compiling and vetting companies that manufacture robots or are directly involved in their making since 2008. Today that list has exceeded 4,000 manufacturers, integrators,...
Robotics fundings and acquisitions: October/November
Frank Tobe
30 Nov 2015
This October and November saw ten more fundings of robotic companies (47 so far in 2015), two more acquisitions (bringing the 2015 total to 27), and an important strategic partnership. Recaps below....
Case study shows new roles for robots in today’s economy
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
18 Nov 2015
Robots are starting to move out of the factory and into more common use as a service industry, where they work alongside people in places that range from the warehouse to the supermarket. Along the w...
6 predictions, 9 stocks, a revolution, an apocalypse, and killer robots – oh my!
Frank Tobe
11 Nov 2015
A new 300-page research report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Robot Revolution – Global Robot & AI Primer, and to a lesser extent BSG's report: Man and Machine in Industry 4.0, make for in...
Drone maker DJI and Toyota: setting up R&D centers in Silicon Valley
Frank Tobe
09 Nov 2015
No wonder rents are so high in Silicon Valley. Companies from around the world are setting up research facilities and grabbing talent from the area. The most recent announcements are that Chinese dr...
Robots in Depth: Grishin Robotics’ Valery Komissarova on getting funding
Per Sjöborg and Robots in Depth
23 Oct 2015
Robots in Depth is a new video series featuring interviews with researchers, entrepreneurs, VC investors, and policy makers in robotics, hosted by Per Sjöborg. In this interview, Valery Komissarova ...
Strategic acquisitions and long-term R&D investments abound
Frank Tobe
19 Oct 2015
We have reported 37 equity fundings and 25 acquisitions so far this year. It's not just the car companies searching for talent and innovation in their new Silicon Valley centers. Israel, Russia, China...
CyPhy Works and Righthand Robotics get funded
Frank Tobe
15 Oct 2015
[tweetquote]The varied world of robotics appears to be in favor with venture capitalists.[/tweetquote] CyPhy Works just got $22 million to scale up building UAVs for the consumer market, and Righthand...
Robots in Depth: Melonee Wise on building robots, and robot companies
Per Sjöborg and Robots in Depth
06 Oct 2015
Robots in Depth is a new video series featuring interviews with researchers, entrepreneurs, VC investors, and policy makers in robotics, hosted by Per Sjöborg. In this interview, Per talks to Melo...
IFR predicts 15% industrial robot growth through 2018
Frank Tobe
02 Oct 2015
At a press event to launch the IFR's World Robotics Industrial Robots statistical review of 2014 (with projections through 2018), the $1,350 report forecasts a 15% CAGR, thereby doubling the annual n...
August/September robotics fundings report
Frank Tobe
01 Oct 2015
August and September equity fundings, joint ventures, acquisitions and venture funds continue the momentum exhibited throughout 2015 of serious money flowing into robotics startups....
10 more robotics companies acquired. Why?
Frank Tobe
28 Sep 2015
At last week's RoboBusiness Conference and Expo in San Jose, there was much gossip, discussion and head scratching regarding the two most recent acquisitions of robot companies: Adept Technologies b...
Adept succumbs, sells to OMRON for $200M
Frank Tobe
16 Sep 2015
When Rob Cain replaced John Dulchinos as CEO of Adept Technology in February, 2013 he was charged with restructuring the company to either make it profitable to operate or make it valuable as a take-...
Big bucks and big audiences for drones
Frank Tobe
14 Sep 2015
Intel Capital invested $60m in Chinese drone startup Yuneec last month. At last week's InterDrone conference and expo, one can readily see why: lots of interest, lots of people, and products that are ...
Siemens’ Frontier Partner program provides software tools to robotics startups
Andra Keay
08 Sep 2015
Established in Berlin in 1847, and with a presence in Silicon Valley since the 1950s, Siemens invests more than $1B in the US each year for research and development. Now their Technology to Business ...
Coming of age: Clearpath’s Ryan Gariepy on growing a robotics startup
Hallie Siegel
01 Sep 2015
Launched in 2009 by a group of Waterloo engineering students, Clearpath's unmistakeable bright yellow and black robots have become synonymous with unmanned vehicle research in university research ...
Peloton Technology gets $17M for truck platooning tech
Frank Tobe
01 Sep 2015
Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley startup providing truck platooning technology, got $17 million from strategic investors after receiving $16M this April. Denso Intl. was the lead investor in both...
GreyOrange gets $30m for mobile robots
Frank Tobe
14 Aug 2015
GreyOrange, an India and Singapore-based materials handling startup, has received $30m in equity funding to ramp up production of their Butler shelves-to-picker robot system....
Money continues to flow into robotics startups
Frank Tobe
06 Aug 2015
This week saw fresh funding of $11.2m for Virtual Incision, a startup developing robotically assisted surgical devices, and another $11m for Jibo, the company founded by MIT Media Lab's Cynthia Breaze...
Ads, sales and shows make a business case for robotics
Frank Tobe
03 Aug 2015
Clever ads that emphasize ROI, presentations that show production benefits, new robot sales records, capital expenditure for warehousing systems and increased attendance at trade shows are all focusi...
Telcos vs. big data companies: Which sector will drive consumer robotics?
Hallie Siegel and Robohub Editors
30 Jul 2015
NTT’s recent entry into consumer robotics suggests that it’s not just about Google vs Amazon, or Softbank vs NTT anymore, but about telcos vs big data companies. With two major and distinct sector...
Softbank will take pre-orders for enterprise version of Pepper starting Oct 1
Hallie Siegel
30 Jul 2015
Developing Story: Softbank today announced that it will be taking preorders for the enterprise version of their Pepper robot, called "Pepper for Biz" starting October 1 this year. This comes one day a...
Robotics fundings, IPOs and acquisitions for June/July
Frank Tobe
24 Jul 2015
Below are recaps of the eleven June and July fundings, IPOs and acquisitions for robot and robotics related companies, followed by a thoughtful piece by Farhad Manjoo of the NY Times about why start-u...
Robotic flatbread maker gets $11.5 million from two venture funds
Frank Tobe
22 Jul 2015
Zimplistic, the Singapore and Silicon Valley startup behind the Rotimatic, a robotic home flatbread maker, sold over $5 million at their launch last year. Today, they have a backlog of $72M in orders...
Service robots get multiple positive forecasts
Frank Tobe
20 Jul 2015
UPDATED 7/22/15 Commercial drones will reach $4.8B by 2021. Agricultural robots will reach $16.8B by 2021 and $73.9B by 2024. And demand for healthcare robotics to show "tremendous growth" in the next...
Another robot company acquired: Vecna acquires VGo
Frank Tobe
19 Jul 2015
Vecna, a growing robotic mobility provider for hospitals and warehouses, acquired VGo, a provider of mobile telepresence devices, for an undisclosed amount....
Japan’s Haneda Airport to deploy 3 types of robots from Cyberdyne
Frank Tobe
13 Jul 2015
View image | gettyimages.com
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Cyberdyne, the inventor of the HAL exoskeleton, is expanding their product line and Japan's Haneda Airport is their first customer....
