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Bringing robots to retail: Interview with Fellow Robots CEO and co-founder, Marco Mascorro
Robotics today is a fast growing industry with applications in myriad markets, including retail, transportation, manufacturing, and even as personal assistants. Fellow Robots is at the forefront of re...
19 May 2016, by
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
Chinese Midea makes $2.5 billion bid for up to 49% of KUKA
In China’s relentless state-stimulated quest to grow their robotics industry, Midea Group, a Chinese appliance manufacturer which already owns 13.5% of KUKA’s shares, has offered to buy up to 49...
19 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
MIT, Lockheed Martin launch long-term research collaboration
In a new collaborative initiative in autonomy and robotics, MIT and Lockheed Martin scientists will focus on innovations needed to enable generation-after-next autonomous systems. Improvements in huma...
17 May 2016, by
MIT News
Paradigm shift: from Siri to Viv
Artificial intelligence that programs itself on the fly - from the team that developed Siri at SRI and Apple - was demonstrated this week in New York and it quickly performed complex spoken tasks, liv...
12 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
SVR Case Studies: OATV investing in early stage service robotics
OATV, or O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, is a seed stage investment firm based in San Francisco with a track record of backing robotics startups in emerging areas. As well as investing in Fetch Robotic...
05 May 2016, by
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
Stakeholders likely to be disrupted by the changeover to self-driving vehicles
Volumes have been written about the possible beneficial (and negative) effects of self-driving cars and systems. But few have studied what industries will be disrupted by the transformations as self-d...
26 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
China’s growing robot industry turns to acquisitions
Paslin, a Michigan integrator of welding robots, automation systems, and tooling, was acquired by Wanfeng Technology Group for an undisclosed amount (but reported as $302 million i...
25 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Big day for robotics: 3 fundings and a merger acquisition
Auris Surgical Robotics will acquire Hansen Medical for $80M+, PrecisionHawk raised $18M to help bring commercial drones safely into US airspace, and SkySafe raised $3M to disable badly behaving ...
21 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Grishin Robotics launches new $100M hardware fund
In 2012, Dmitry Grishin, co-founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group, the largest Internet and social networking company in the Russian-speaking world, seeded a fund with $25 million of his own money to f...
15 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Filling the void left by Kiva Systems’ 2012 acquisition by Amazon
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 c...
14 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
47 reports dissect and examine the robot industry
The robotics industry has graduated to be big business -- at least for research firms. 47 different reports on subjects ranging from broad to very drilled-down views of the industry are analyzed and...
04 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
March fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Funding for robotics startup companies rose dramatically in 2015 reaching record highs in deals and dollars. CB Insights, a VC database provider, reported similar findings as seen in their quarterly f...
04 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
iRobot’s $199 floor mopper designed for Chinese markets
iRobot has been streamlining its operations to focus on consumer products and enhancing shareholder value. Recent moves to divest their defense division, launch a low-cost Braava Jet floor cleaner...
31 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
3D Robotics undergoing layoffs and other challenges
3D Robotics unveiled sweeping changes by closing its San Diego facility, reducing staff at its Berkeley headquarters and in Austin, TX, and acknowledging that co-founder and president Jordi Muñoz ...
29 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Google puts Boston Dynamics up for sale
The maker of advanced humanoid and 4-legged robots (BigDog and Atlas), Boston Dynamics, is up for sale. According to the Financial Times, "this is one of those discordant moments that makes you questi...
22 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Harvest Automation stumbles with warehouse robot
In a Boston Globe story by Scott Kirsner, it was revealed that Harvest Automation's CEO has departed, as have 3/4 of the 30 employees that worked there in 2015. The company is attempting to sell it...
19 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
SVR Case Studies: Hardware may be hard, but strategic investing can make it smart
by Ekta Sahasi, Vice President at Konica Minolta Business Innovation Center
and Greg Lok, Business Strategy Lead at Konica Minolta Business Innovation Center
After years of flying under the ventur...
15 March 2016, by
Silicon Valley Robotics
European Robotics: Creating new markets for SMEs
In this original ten-part series, we're putting the spotlight on European Robotics. You'll be hearing from experts about the latest robotics technology with the power to change the way we work, live, ...
09 March 2016, by
SPARC
Collaborative robots are broadening their marketplaces
Universal Robots, the Danish manufacturer of a line of collaborative robots (also called "co-bots"), recently published financial statements which provide valuable insights into the growth potential ...
08 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
SVR Case Studies: Lessons for robotics from enterprise computing
Many advances in our technologies occur through borrowing capabilities from one field to progress another. Our technological universe is built from a web of interrelated advances that push one another...
03 March 2016, by
Michael Harries and Silicon Valley Robotics
February fundings and acquisitions
It's too early to tell whether the record-breaking pace of 2015 fundings for robotic startups and the number of acquisitions will carry over into 2016, nevertheless, here are the transactions that hap...
02 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
2016 funding and acquisition spree continues
2015 was a phenomenal year for funding and acquiring robotic companies. Over $1.32 billion in seed, crowd, series A,B,C,D and VC fundings and more than $2.27 billion in acquisitions. And they've begu...
03 February 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Robotics, AI and automation in “Forbes 30 under 30”
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Forbes has once again expanded their "30 under 30" list this year to celebrate the achievements of the up and coming; the main list now covers 20 different sectors, and an inaugural E...
26 January 2016, by
Hallie Siegel
Rising Media acquires RoboUniverse and Inside 3D Printing shows
MecklerMedia's RoboUniverse trade shows and conferences and Inside 3D Printing shows have been acquired by Rising Media, a Germany-based global events producer focusing on Internet and technology-r...
25 January 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Toyota Research gets Kuffner, and Google gets Brondmo
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...
18 January 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Foxconn shopping for robot manufacturer to keep pace with brisk Pepper sales
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...
05 January 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Why co-bots will be a huge driver of innovation and growth for robotics
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...
04 January 2016, by
Frank Tobe
2015 robotics fundings, IPOs, acquisitions and failures
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. ...
04 January 2016, by
Frank Tobe
New Sino-Israeli Robotics Institute gets $20 million initial funding
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&...
30 December 2015, by
Frank Tobe
Competing market research reports agree: Expect double-digit growth for most robotics segments
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...
30 December 2015, by
Frank Tobe
