Spin-offs are disrupting, but often necessary. Here are two recent examples: iRobot sold off its Defense & Security Business Unit to a private equity firm, and Harvest Automation sold the IP and work in process of its warehousing robot group to a new venture-backed startup.

iRobot sells Defense & Security Business Unit to Arlington Partners

iRobot’s Defense & Security Business Unit, according to their annual report, averaged $50 million in sales for three years in a row (2013, 2014 and 2015) while home robots rose from $428 million to $560 million during the same period. The defense unit had difficulty as the wars ended in Iraq and Afghanistan and the DoD and DARPA reduced spending. Simultaneously iRobot was being hounded by activist shareholders to rid itself of the unit so that it could focus on the consumer market. This led to a heated proxy fight about adding activist board members. iRobot won that fight but also announced that it had changed its strategy and decided not to pursue DoD funded research.

iRobot appears to be going about ridding itself of non-consumer products and services. In February 2016, iRobot reached a deal with Arlington Capital Partners, a DC-based private equity firm focused on DoD and government vendors, to sell the unit to Arlington for $45 million. The deal was concluded in April when Arlington established a new company, Endeavor Robotics, manned by the 100-person iRobot staff and Defense Unit executives, and housed in the same but separate facilities adjacent to iRobot.

Less publicized but similarly focused on getting the company 100% into the consumer market was the announcement by iRobot that they were planning to “end our remaining Remote Presence marketing and business development initiatives. As we reported on our Q4 2015 call, we had already reallocated R&D resources, from a next generation Remote Presence platform, to consumer opportunities. Going forward, 100% of the company’s resources will be exclusively focused on the consumer.” Their Remote Presence Unit consisted of the AVA line of mobile robots and their joint ventures with InTouch Health and Cisco. When I asked what this meant, iRobot responded:

“During the second quarter, iRobot made the decision to end its remaining Remote Presence marketing and business development initiatives – ending the productizing of Ava 500. While iRobot believes that there is a future in remote presence, the Ava 500 market didn’t develop fast enough to justify sustaining the ongoing investment. As iRobot previously reported on its Q4 2015 investor call in February, the company had already reallocated Remote Presence R&D resources, from a next generation Remote Presence platform, to consumer opportunities.

As iRobot’s greatest opportunities currently lie in developing robotic solutions for the home, the company must put its focus toward this effort to reach its full potential. Going forward, 100% of the company’s resources will be exclusively focused on the consumer market.”

Through its venture unit, iRobot has invested in 6 River Systems, a startup attempting to provide a warehousing solution to the problems caused by Kiva Systems and their novel goods-to-man mobile robot system taken in-house by Amazon and becoming unavailable to all others. That iRobot investment, plus their forthcoming robotic lawnmower, and their new arrangement with Amazon Cloud Services, which may enable connected home access for iRobot products, all offer new commercial opportunities for growth. Also, their new Shanghai facility and Asian e-commerce operation are coming online and they have high hopes for both of those activities.

Endeavor Robotics

“Our team is developing innovative new technology that will propel our growth, as well as actively reviewing acquisition opportunities that will continue to position Endeavor Robotics as an industry leader. The U.S. Department of Defense is planning at least three major ground robot program acquisitions in the next few years. Based on our combat-proven platforms and leading technology, Endeavor Robotics is well-positioned for all three. We anticipate substantial growth over the next several years, both domestically and with our international customers,” said Tom Frost, President of Endeavor Robotics.

“As an independent company dedicated to tactical robotics, Endeavor Robotics will have new flexibility to meet the needs and protect the lives of our customers serving on the frontline and in dangerous environments. We’ve always done our best work when we worked closely with our customers. Our new structure enables us to double down on that strategy. We believe that the future is in open architecture and collaborative solutions and we look forward to making that a reality.”

Shortly after the transfer and their opening vision statements, Endeavor announced two strategic partnerships with RE2 Robotics and Persistent Systems. Both arrangements appear to be geared toward winning the DoD’s three upcoming ground robot proposals.

1. The former deal is to integrate RE2’s manipulator with Endeavor’s robots. “The direct benefit of IOP compliant payloads is that it enables developers to concentrate on their specific areas of expertise. The state of the art manipulation technology that RE2 develops can be easily integrated on Endeavor’s robotic platforms, quickly getting the best capabilities to the warfighter,” stated Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics.
2. The latter integrates Persistent’s MPU5 radios into Endeavor’s robots. Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay MANET technology, enables operators of Endeavor robots to Increase operational range in urban areas and other radio-challenged environments, by providing operators and supporting personnel views of real-time video and telemetry feeds from all robots within the MANET, and enabling a more secure network to protect information through advanced cyber-security protocols.

Although Endeavor hasn’t announced any new contracts thus far, there was a year’s worth of existing DoD contracts transferred with the sale/spin-off plus they have Arlington Capital to help with funding.

Harvest Automation sells assets, prototypes and IP to NextShift Robotics

A plant-moving robot from Billerica-based Harvest Automation. Source: harvestai/YouTube

Throughout 2015, for a year and a half, Harvest Automation split their energies between their business in agricultural field robots that transported and positioned potted plants, and a new, flexible material handling robot, in a new and separate work division. The new robot would work in factories, warehouses and distribution centers. The results of this new division’s efforts were uncertain, optimistic, and costly. During those 18 months the ag business went dormant and key people left. Joe Jones, one of the founders and CTO, left to lead a startup developing a robotic weeding device for home gardens. Others joined Harvest to help transition the single-purpose field robot with a limited skill set into a multi-purpose, self-navigating, material handling robot in an even bigger warehousing pick-and-transport system. MaryEllen Sparrow came with a background in warehousing and distribution center software to head up the software development team.

Funding got hard because the transition was taking longer and costing more than expected and their first product demonstrations left much to be desired. Although the agricultural side of the business, headed by Charlie Grinnell, was self-sufficient, it didn’t generate enough money to fund the warehousing robot project, and the company, in order to stay afloat and preserve the ag business, decided to sell off the assets, intellectual property and prototypes for the material handling operation for an undisclosed amount a few angel investors including Sparrow.

Harvest Automation and its now-strictly ag business is attempting to recover from being inactive for so long, and is also developing new ag services such as helping pickers by moving their harvested items to the packing station and bringing them containers. Harvest Automation is hoping to expand its target audience from nurseries to vegetable and fruit growers.

NextShift Robotics

NextShift Robotics is the entity created by the angel investors that acquired the IP and prototypes. MaryEllen Sparrow became the CEO. She and a very small team are working to get their new robots to be able to take a tote and transport it from point to point as directed by an elaborate warehouse management and ordering system. This involves improving their method of navigation, their approach to getting goods onto the robot’s carrying platform, and the warehouse management and ordering system control and integration software.

NextShift expects to trial their new creation later this year at a couple of pilot warehouse locations.

iRobot Braava jet 240. Source: irobot.com

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, and investing in 6 River Systems all attest to their strategy.

Divested defense division

In a February transaction valued at $45 million, iRobot sold its Defense and Security division to Arlington Capital Partners. The divestiture ends iRobot’s dual focus on the military and consumer markets and ends a multi-year revenue slide in the defense division. The sale was a strategically planned transition as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars wound down.

Colin Angle, iRobot Chairman and CEO, said: “In the spring of 2014, we engaged Blackstone Advisory Partners LP, now known as PJT Partners, to review strategic alternatives for our Defense and Security business. After a thorough and deliberate process, we’ve concluded the sale of the business to Arlington Capital Partners will maximize shareholder value by allowing us to focus on our much larger Home segment.”

Launched new low-priced floor cleaner

Earlier this month iRobot launched the Braava Jet Mopping Robot to add to their wet floor care business and to generate a new revenue stream beyond the Roomba line of vacuum products. The new robot is small — about 6″ square and 3″ high — with a nifty carrying handle — and focused on cleaning hardwood floors and tight spaces by dry mopping, damp mopping (uses 60% of water compared to wet mode), and wet mopping. Each mode has a unique pad easily snapped onto the bottom of the robot (and snapped off over the trash bin) and identified by the robot as to which of the three functions it is to perform. The new little robot’s best feature, however, is its low price: $199.

The Braava Jet is to be marketed heavily in China where the more expensive previous version of the Braava floor cleaner did quite well in year-over-year sales. In fact, according to CEO Colin Angle in an analysts financial call, said that growth in China was more than 70% year over year in 2015, driven primarily by the successful adoption of previous Braava models given predominately hard floor surfaces in the region. Hence the new lower-priced device is expected to be ideal in both the China and American markets.

Increasing shareholder value

In a recent letter to shareholders iRobot described its shift in focus toward the high-growth home robot business and by investing in projects that show the greatest promise for outsized returns.

iRobot is doing that with its existing and new products but also through its venture arm, iRobot Ventures, which just invested in 6 River Systems, a Boston-based startup of ex-Kiva executives developing fulfillment automation for e-commerce and retail operations. iRobot Ventures previously invested in Petnet, a smart feeder for cats and dogs, and Paracosm, a 3D vision and mapping technology company.

As an aside, Red Mountain Capital Partners, a VC which owns 6.1% of iRobot shares, and that invests in undervalued small cap companies and attempts to enhance and realize shareholder value through active ownership, is attempting to add two board members to the iRobot board at the upcoming stockholders meeting.

“Throughout our nearly year-long engagement with iRobot, it has become clear that the Board will only take action in reaction to significant shareholder pressure. As such, we have nominated individuals who are highly qualified and would bring a much needed shareholder voice to the boardroom. Red Mountain has consistently called for improved Board oversight with respect to the Company’s allocation of capital, cost management, return on invested capital and corporate governance policies,” said Willem Mesdag, Managing Partner of Red Mountain.

In the letter to shareholders, iRobot does not recommend these two board members but another two of it’s picking while citing that iRobot has delivered total shareholder return of 66% over the past three years compared to 59% for peers and 50% for S&P 500 companies.

The new stand-alone privately-held company will focus entirely on the needs of defense, public safety and security. Existing iRobot management and staff will move over to the new company which will remain in Bedford, MA. Since inception, more than 6,000 of these four robots have been delivered to customers worldwide: the FirstLook, SUGV, PackBot and Kobra.

The divestiture ends iRobot's dual focus on the military and consumer markets and ends a multi-year revenue slide in this division, albeit a strategically planned transition, as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars wound down. Colin Angle, iRobot Chairman and CEO, said:

In the spring of 2014, we engaged Blackstone Advisory Partners LP, now known as PJT Partners, to review strategic alternatives for our Defense and Security business. After a thorough and deliberate process, we've concluded the sale of the business to Arlington Capital Partners will maximize shareholder value by allowing us to focus on our much larger Home segment.

iRobot, a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ Exchange, will take advantage of the momentum it has achieved in the consumer marketplace, particularly with their Roomba line of robotic vacuums, and plans to develop new technologies for the connected home. 

With 14 million robots in people's homes today and the leading market share within the robotic floor care segment, iRobot has revolutionized the way people clean. The divestiture of the Defense & Security business will allow us to focus on the Home Robots business, bring new products to market, continue our expansion in China and build upon successful new marketing campaigns. We are confident that our strategy of focusing on the home will position iRobot for continued growth and success.

Peter Manos, a Managing Partner at Arlington Capital, commented:

We look forward to further consolidating [iRobot's Defense & Security Division] preeminent position in robotics through organic investment and acquisitions. Arlington Capital is pleased to be partnering with the iRobot Defense & Security team on this divestiture to create a new and focused robotics platform.

Image: Tnarik Innael/flickr

Although robotic vacuum cleaners have been on the market for over a decade now, it is only recently that they have started to become pervasive. Innovations in technology have allowed manufacturers to add more cleaning power and convenience features, and this has been a key factor in developing highly efficient and fully automated robotic vacuum cleaners.

Robotic vacuum cleaners, colloquially known as robovacs, are primarily used in residential spaces to clean pools, gutters and floors. Robovacs usually consist of a mobile base, programming software, cleaning system, batteries, and other accessories. Robovacs are autonomous and use intelligent sensors to clean even hard-to-reach surfaces. Robotic vacuum cleaners are also equipped with laser vision, room mapping, and self-empty — features designed to offer convenience and ease of use to the users.

Robovacs still form a miniscule percentage of the global vacuum cleaner market, but their acceptance is growing at a steady pace. Today’s busy lifestyles leave little or no time for home cleaning and other chores. This, coupled with the fact that most modern robotic vacuum cleaners offer fully automatic functionalities, are the prime reasons that have led to the demand for robovacs around the world, especially in developed countries.

Most advanced robovacs are priced around US$500 and above, and the high price has been a challenge for their adoption on a massive scale. However, manufacturers are optimistic that the advanced features of robovacs will compensate for the high price and consumers will eventually see the benefits of robotic vacuum cleaners.

Global Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market: Analysis & Region-wise Outlook

The global residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is anticipated to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 15%. The growth will be supported by the factors that we discussed above — time constraints for doing household chores, ease of using the robovacs, and the advent of advanced robovacs. The market value of the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is anticipated to be worth US$ 3 billion by 2020.

The key markets are the US, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific (APAC). The residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US is anticipated to expand at a steady single-digit CAGR through 2020. Consumer awareness about robovacs and coverage of robotic products, in both print and digital media, has helped raise awareness amongst consumers, providing an impetus to the prospects of the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US.

Western Europe is another lucrative region for the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market, and it is anticipated that in France, Germany, and UK the demand for robotic vacuum cleaners will be robust in the next five years.

APAC is another lucrative region for robotic vacuum cleaners. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the regions where consumer awareness about robotic vacuum cleaners is relatively high compared to other APAC countries. Among these key regions, the Japanese residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is notable, due to the launch of innovative products in the country. Most talked-about has been the launch of the Dyson 360 Eye by Dyson Ltd., a UK. based technology firm. The Dyson 360 Eye was launched in September 2014 and is reported to have cost Dyson Ltd. a whopping US$47m in development and R&D. Although the device was launched amidst much fanfare and received positive reviews from analysts, it has its task cut out against iRobot Corp., which has around 80% share of the Japanese robotic vacuum cleaner market.

iRobot Corp., a US based advanced technology company, has maintained its dominance in the global residential robotic vacuum cleaner market. The company has been at the forefront of offering robotic vacuum cleaners with advanced features. Its range of Roomba® and Braava® vacuum cleaners have been well received in the market. Other key players in the residential robotic vacuum cleaners market include Electrolux, Hanool Robotics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Metapo, Inc., and LG Electronics, Inc.

Although still at a nascent stage, the market for residential robotic vacuum cleaners will witness steady growth in the future on account of technological advancement in the field of robotics, growing demand from tech-savvy consumers, and greater awareness.

The information presented in this article is sourced from Future Market Insights’ upcoming research report, Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 – 2020

Just last month Rod Brooks chided me that robotic vacuum cleaners were already mainstream in response to what I had written: that they had just recently moved from niche to mainstream partly because big consumer product companies were entering the market.

Dyson and Samsung had just recently announced product launches and LG and Ecovacs were already selling.

Then at RoboBusiness, Colin Angle said in a keynote speech that iRobot had sold 12 million Roombas since they began selling them, that robotic vacuums represented 18% of the global vacuum market, and the market was growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 21.8%. Further, he said that iRobot captures 83% of the North American market, 62% of the European Middle East market and 67% of the Asian Pacific marketplace.

Now comes news that on a single day – Singles Day, a made-up holiday for the Chinese singles and youth market – Ecovacs sold $24.8 million worth of robotic products, mostly their robotic vacuum cleaners. Ecovacs Deebot cleaners sell for between $200 and $500 on Alibaba; higher on Amazon. Dividing $22 million (presuming that 88% of the day’s total sales were vacuums) by $300 per unit equals 73,300 Ecovacs units sold on a single day! That is, truly, mainstream.

Alibaba has trademarked the Chinese double 11 symbol in their effort to make Singles’ Day (11/11, November 11th) an international online shopping event. According to an Ecovacs press release, 85% of Singles Day sales were sold at their online (Alibaba) store.

Robohub is an online platform that brings together leading communicators in robotics research, start-ups, business, and education from around the world. Learn more about us here. If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Rethinking iRobot, Samsung and Dyson robotic vacuum cleaners
• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?
• Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream
• Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!
• Dyson launches new robotic vacuum cleaner
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become a reality?

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

I have a bone to pick with you! Robotic vacuum cleaners didn’t just become mainstream as you said in your article. We have sold 12 million by now and are the biggest seller in Samsung’s home (Korea).

He went on to say that Dyson is a small player in the global vacuum marketplace and that Samsung has gone through many iterations of improvement yet iRobot’s Roomba’s still outsell them in their core market.

Robo Vacuums: Samsung (left) and Dyson (right)

Brooks was referring to my two articles in The Robot Report where I commented about Samsung’s and Dyson’s new robotic vacuums. He wasn’t really angry; just having fun. But I began to think about what he was referring to, considering whether I had said something incorrect or possibly hurtful. The second of my two articles had the headline: Latest robotic vacuum product launches change industry from niche to mainstream.

In those articles I said:

Should iRobot be worried? Definitely! Dyson has considerable experience in the higher-end vacuuming market – selling more than 10 million devices a year! Dyson generated nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2013 of which at least 40% is vacuum-related versus iRobot’s $487 million. Consequently, if the new Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum is as good as other Dyson vacuum cleaners, there is much reason for iRobot to worry.

iRobot, over the past 10 years, has sold 10 million Roombas, mostly through online distribution methods. With the global consumer distribution channels that both Dyson and Samsung bring, it’s conceivable that either (or both) could sell 10 million of their products in a single year!

In the two articles, I was attempting to describe the transition that often happens with unique consumer products as they switch from niche markets of early adopters to the massively larger mainstream household products market. And even though iRobot has sold 10 million Roombas over a 10-year period, that’s just a fraction of the 50+ million global vacuums sold annually for $11 billion (source: TechNavio).

Both Dyson and Samsung have upgraded the vacuuming function of their robotic cleaners to be equivalent to non-robotic cleaners. Consequently, they have endorsed what iRobot invented many years ago: a convenient robotic method of cleaning carpets and floors. But their endorsement comes at the expense of competition that is sure to happen in the years to come.

This post originally appeared on Akihabara News. 

The Dyson 360 Eye autonomous vacuum cleaner went public in Tokyo on September 4th, and it got a lot of attention – enough to make almost any product from almost any industry jealous. There are several obvious reasons: Dyson products are aesthetically pleasing, Dyson products are unique, Dyson products perform well above average across the board, and Dyson is badass at marketing. Just look at their website; a company that makes cleaning machines and fans has a slicker web presence than … actually, than most companies that make or do anything at all.

Also, there’s the new device itself. The steadily plodding iterations of iRobot’s Roomba and its legion of copycats are old hat, and we aren’t really impressed anymore. While the 360 Eye performs the same task, it stands out, and just kinda has that new robot smell. The talking points/broad strokes/things to know are:

• Dyson 360 Eye: Sixteen Years of Research; $47 million Investment
• Cyclone Suction Tech: Miniaturized and Incorporated
• Navigation & Mapping: Innovative 360-Degree Visual Mapping
• App Enabled: Remotely Activate/Schedule Cleanings from iOS or Android
• Mobility: Purple Tank Tracks for Carpet, Hard Surfaces, and Obstacle Negotiation
• Color Variations: Fuchsia; Blue
• Dimensions: Width 242 × Depth 230 × Height 120mm; 2.37kg
• Price: Initially Estimated at $1,200
• Availability: Spring 2015; Japan Only, Other Markets to Follow

… and that last point brings us to:

Q. Why Japan first? Why Japan only (for a time, anyway)?

A. Japan is first now, because Japan was first then (and the market is huge)
In design and engineering circles, James Dyson is famous for meticulous attention to both the performance and the appearance of his company’s products. Lore tells of Dyson creating over 5000 prototype designs before deciding that he’d perfected his first ‘Dual Cyclone’ dust/dirt separation tech. We’re pretty sure someone’s counting scribbles on cocktail napkins there, but the point remains.

In the early 1980s, Dyson finally had a model he believed ready for production, but no household appliance makers in his native UK or in the US were interested. Whether accurate or not, lore also speaks of a Little Guy Makes Good story, i.e., he was dismissed by Hoover and friends because the home cleaning giants were worried about monkeywrenching their comfortable hold on a hugely lucrative market.

But guess who was interested: Japanese appliance company Apex, Inc. They licensed Dyson’s technology and in 1983 produced the G-Force Cleaner. The big pink vacuum was a hit, and it was with the earnings from this licensing venture that Dyson the man created Dyson the company – and things have gone quite well since. So, in a way, bringing the 360 Eye to Japan before all other markets is a full-circle .

And it’s a good place to start 
At the nation-state level, Japan is currently the world’s largest market for puck-shaped robotic cleaners , and there are a number of homegrown and foreign models available. However, as we reported last year, the Roomba, available in Japan for 10 years now, dominates with a 75% share. And it’s important to note that it’s 75% of a fairly large pie:

…Sales in Japan are booming. According to Seed Planning (a Japanese market research and consulting firm), since 2008 the home cleaning robot market has seen a 6-fold increase in yearly sales (approx. 380,000 units sold in 2012), and they project sales of 900,000 units in 2018. In a nation of about 128 million people, if realized that’s some serious market penetration. Given that homes in Japan generally aren’t all that big and don’t have a lot of carpeting, it’s all the more impressive. Among Japan’s massive, dominant middle-class, such expenditures are a luxury but not quite as economically extravagant as one might think…

That was us a year ago, and not a whole lot has changed. The Roomba still rules, but lookout iRobot – Japan’s known the Dyson name for 20 years, and the 360 Eye is coming for you .

http://youtu.be/4y_9V7O1pac

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream
• Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become a reality?
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Recent robotic vacuum cleaner product launches by Dyson and Samsung have transformed what once was a niche market of early adopters and robot enthusiasts into a marketplace of serious consumer products for home cleaning.

Both Dyson and Samsung have upgraded the vacuuming function of their robotic cleaners to be equivalent to non-robotic cleaners. Consequently, they have endorsed what iRobot invented many years ago: a convenient robotic method of cleaning carpets and floors.

But until these two new products, particularly the Dyson one, the marketplace has been small and limited. One could characterize the buyers as early adopters of new technology, particularly those fascinated with robotics. They were fun to have and own… but they weren’t really good cleaning devices. Dyson has changed that with the introduction of their 360 Eye product and Samsung has followed suit with their new Powerbot VR9000. Both were displayed last week at the IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin. Dyson had quite large crowds surrounding their new robotic vacuum cleaner.

iRobot, over the past 10 years, has sold 10 million Roombas, mostly through online distribution methods. With the global distribution channels that both Dyson and Samsung bring, it’s conceivable that either (or both) could sell 10 million of their products next year thereby doubling 10 years of worldwide sales in a single year!

The future is ripe for automated devices in the home and over the next few years we are likely to see many of these capture the home market for floor cleaning, sanitizing of kitchen and bathroom floors, carpet cleaning, etc. iRobot pioneered the concept with their Roombas and Scoobas but now the big players (Dyson, Samsung and LG) are stepping in, bringing up the quality of the product and performance to the level needed to satisfy the general consumer market and then to manufacture, distribute, market and service the product in massive quantities, which they are very good at doing.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?
• Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become a reality?
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The public may be expecting to see robot cyborgs battle it out in distant galaxies, but back here on earth the battle of the robots is taking on a distinctively quotidian reality. The double announcements today of Dyson’s 360 Eye and Samsung’s Powerbot VR9000 come as a challenge to robot vacuum market leader iRobot’s Roomba, and hails the arrival of a new competitive era of the robot-as-appliance .

http://youtu.be/OadhuICDAjk

While Dyson is a relative giant on the appliance scene, and Samsung is an electronic powerhouse in its own right, Roomba currently boasts dominance in the more niche robot vacuum market. In a recent report, iRobot claims to have sold over 10 million robot vacuum cleaners since 2002, and counts more than 50 countries in its distribution network.

With those figures in mind, it’s no wonder that iRobot responded to today’s announcement of the 360 Eye in lock step with a video riposte that subtly pokes at Dyson for its appliance-based roots:

http://youtu.be/SYm4oLyHpCA

While the video suggests that iRobot’s advantage is that it has always been a robot company (their YouTube description says: “We’ve always believed certain tasks are better left to a robot”), it’s ironic that iRobot only started to make money once it realized that people didn’t want to buy robots as much as they wanted to buy appliances. As iRobot CEO Colin Angle has been quoted as saying:

It took me becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman to actually have some success for my company, my investors and myself.

Andra Keay from Silicon Valley Robotic comments on how tough it can be for a high-tech startup to break into the more traditional appliance market: “iRobot didn’t really start making money until they embraced online sales; the established appliance market was too tough to make a big dent in. Yet they’ve now become the most widely distributed robot in the world.”

Is there room for two more robot vacuums in what many have previously thought of as a novelty market?  Or is the “novelty” market now becoming mainstream?

Clearly Dyson and Samsung have done their homework, or they wouldn’t have launched competing products. And with Dyson investing £5m in a lab at Imperial College London, they obviously have their longterm sights set on the robotics community.

iRobot has been doing its own market research, too. In the above-mentioned report, iRobot claims that the robot vacuum business is at an explosion point, with a “huge addressable market” and a “$7 billion annual market opportunity”. With those kinds of numbers, it’s no wonder that other players are jumping into the game.

Which company is likely to emerge victorious in this battle for the consumers pocketbook? It may be too early to tell. Keay says that “Dyson is definitely upping the ante though with a smart phone connected vacuum cleaner. And with Dyson’s distribution networks and reputation, it will be interesting to see how the public adopts Housework 2.0.”

One thing is for certain, though: competition is a sure sign of growth in this space.

With contributions by Yannis Erripis, Andra Keay, John Payne, and Frank Tobe.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?
• Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become reality?
• Dyson launches new robotic vacuum cleaner
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

On February 5th iRobot reported their quarterly and annual report. 4Q revenue was up 25% from the previous year and full year 2013 revenue of $487 was up 12%.

“2013 was a great year for iRobot. Our Home Robot business increased 20 percent over 2012, driven by growth in both domestic and overseas markets,” said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO. “All three of our businesses met our expectations and made significant progress against their strategic plans, setting us up well for 2014.

Since that 2/5 announcement, iRobot’s stock has risen $10, about 23%. Pundits and financial analysts suggest the following reasons for the sudden rise in iRobot’s stock:

• Projected revenue for 2014 is $560-$570 million – about 16% higher than in 2013.
• A recent NASDAQ/Zacks report cited that among the 50 leading companies in the electronics and instruments industry, iRobot’s patent portfolio was ranked #5 in the Overall category. In the Science Strength category, the company received a #2 rank, while it was ranked #3 in the Industry Impact category. iRobot has approximently 238 patents in its name in the U.S. and more than 400 worldwide.
• Home robots are just getting started and iRobot’s new Roomba 880 is their most functionally useful floor cleaner yet and their new Scooba floor cleaner may be just as good.
• Remote presence robots, of which iRobot has two partnerships (with Cisco and InTouch Health) and their AVA mobile platform are still in their infancy but are likely to do well for the next few years.

Source: iRobot Press Release and NASDAQ/Zacks post

It’s not every day you get to ask pioneering robot startup founders about their journey. The Robolution panel at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna comprised Rodney Brooks from Rethink Robotics and previously iRobot, Steve Cousins from Savioke and previously Willow Garage, Noland Katter from Anybots, and Walter Wohlkinger and Michael Zillich of Blue Danube Robotics, a new startup from Vienna University. Between them the panelists have started or spunoff well over 15 robotics companies, started the first robotics venture fund and been hugely influential in shaping the current rapidly emerging robot startup space. ‘Fast, cheap and out of control’ was Brooks’s 1987 insight into robot exploration of the solar system, but is very apt today, as drivers like open source software, affordable COTS and crowdfunding expand possibilities.

And here’s an excerpt from a great article on Robohub.org “Is this the right time for robotic startups?” by Torsten Andre who attended the event as a startup founder.

In the end, Rodney Brooks said that the trick is to find applications where robots can do something useful and the customer is willing to pay for it. Costing over $200,000, Willow Garage’s PR2 is probably not one these robots. But, as Steve Cousins points out, robots can also be built for approximately $15,000. Assuming a lifetime of two years, robots have to generate a value of about $20 per day for an investment like this to break even – something he thinks can certainly be accomplished. He expects robots to be present in our day-to-day lives within the next few years, making this indeed the right time to found a robotic startup.

Read more from our Startup Series.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems – Predator A /B

These are probably the most widely recognizable military robots; their characteristic design frequently appears in pop culture, art and even in protests. Originated by the work of Abe Karem that later developed into DARPA’s project Amber, under the ownership of the Aeronautical division of General Atomics it evolved into a family of UAS. Based on the GNAT drone, the first RQ-1A Predators were initially used for reconnaissance in the Balkan wars during the 90s. The later MQ-1 armed version in 2002 flying over Afghanistan and operated by CIA was the first drone to shoot a missile at a car convoy. MQ-1 is similar in size to a light passenger plane (it has a 6cyl. reciprocating engine) and is still in use today by many countries while its later -C variant (with a diesel engine) recently entered service with US Army.

The similar in concept but much bigger MQ-9 (Predator B according to GAASI or Reaper as called by USAF) is the main large drone currently used by the US in almost every place there is military action. It has a turboprop engine and can carry a bigger payload. A completely new model, the turbofan stealthy Predator C is currently under development. In a similar fashion to its predecessors it is funded internally — an unusual model for the defense sector but financially very successful for the company.

https://www.ga-asi.com/products/aircraft/

Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

Another DARPA project, the RQ-4 was designed by Ryan Aeronautical (later absorbed by Northrop Grumman). It is one of the larger UAVs and it operates in high altitude / long endurance flight profiles. Although it is probably the most capable system of its kind, it is also one of the most expensive to the point that USAF is on the verge of dropping it in favor of the manned U-2 aircraft that it was supposed to replace. However newer versions with more capabilities are still being developed (and even delivered) while an armed version (MQ-4C Triton) is being developed for the US Navy.

http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/GlobalHawk/Pages/default.aspx

Samsung-Techwin SGR-A1

Military robots are still in their early days and this is a very characteristic example of a system that was developed for very specific needs. The SGR-A1 is an automated gun turret that is designed to replace an armed guard. It has an electro-optical detection system and a machine gun. It can detect a human, shout warning messages and even exchange passwords orally or understand gestures (like raising hands for surrender). Of course it can also shoot bullets, but usually (though not necessarily) a human is in the loop for that decision. It will be fielded along the borders between North and South Korea. The de-militarized zone here isn’t the biggest in the world lengthwise, but due to local tension it is guarded for its entire length.

http://www.samsungtechwin.com/product/product_01_01.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkV8E2re9U
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/rok/sgr-a1.htm

Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout

Fire Scout is one of the first VTOL UAVs. The MQ-8B is an improved and armed version of the initial RQ-8A and both are based on the manned commercial Schweizer helicopters (330 and 333 respectively). MQ-8 is already in use by the US Navy and it had been deployed to Afghanistan and Libya. The next more capable version, the MQ-8C will be based on the Bell 407, a completely different aircraft, providing a good example of the hierarchy inside an unmanned system where the aerial platform isn’t always (or usually) the primary component.

http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/FireScout/Pages/default.aspx

Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel

This is probably the first UAV designed to operate in a hostile environment where air-superiority isn’t a given. The RQ-170 was revealed from ‘paparazzi’ photos shot in the Kandahar airfield in 2009 that gave it the “beast of Kandahar” nickname. It was officially declared RQ-170 (an out of line number and a non-too accurate RQ- designation, in similar fashion to the F-117 stealth bomber) but most details were revealed when Iran captured one in late 2011. From the images and video released from Iran media, the RQ-170 appeared to be much smaller than initially estimated and not as high-tech. It has a low rcs design but it appears to be simple in construction, for example it has a mesh in the engine inlet (like the first generation stealth aircraft) instead of a serpentine duct. Even so it is probably the only large UAV that can operate undetected and it is rumored that it was used in the operation that lead to the kill of Osama bin Laden.

http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=16001

iRobot Packbot

Packbot is a very successful robot made by iRobot. It uses a patented variable geometry track system that enables it to overcome obstacles like climbing stairs while being very stable. There are many versions and it can be equipped with various accessories like manipulators and cameras. More than 2000 packbots are already in use in several roles such as disposing IEDs, reconnaissance and more.

http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/defense/packbot.aspx

Insitu Scan Eagle

ScanEagle is a military derivative of SeaScan, a small UAV designed by Insitu for the fishing industry. A patented system that uses a catapult with a slingshot for launch, and a wire-hook pole called Skyhook, enable its deployment and recovery from a small ship. This concept is the core of Insitu products and it is very useful for military use as a portable system. Insitu is now owned by Boeing, and although SeaScan wasn’t successful commercially, the Scan Eagle is widely used and it has developed into a family of UAVs that includes the larger ‘integrator’ and others.

http://www.insitu.com/systems/scaneagle

Qinetiq-NA Talon

Talon is a small tracked robot initially developed by Foster-Miller (now part of Qinetiq North America). It is a versatile platform that can carry many sensors and actuators, and it can move through difficult terrain like a small tank. An armed version called SWORDS is equipped with a machine gun, a first for a robot like this, although it is not yet in use.

https://www.qinetiq-na.com/products/unmanned-systems/talon/

Aerovironment RQ-11 Raven

The smallest system in this post, the RQ-11 looks like a small R/C plane. It is hand launched by throwing and it ‘crash’ lands with the wing detaching from the fuselage. It has many capabilities for its size, and can be easily transported. Almost 20 000 have been produced and are in use by many militaries around the world.

http://www.avinc.com/uas/small_uas/raven/

According to Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot, the Board’s authorization of a share repurchase program reflects the companies confidence in the health and long-term outlook of the company. “With a strong balance sheet and cash flows, we believe we can take advantage of current market conditions to buy back our shares while maintaining the flexibility to make strategic investments in our future, ” Angle said.

As of February 11, 2013, iRobot had 27,872,850 shares of common stock outstanding. According to Morningstar data 64.19 percent of iRobot shares are owned by institutions, 37.04 percent of shares are owned by funds and 4.23 percent by insiders.

Credit: Google Finance, IRBT share price 2006-2013

What might be the motive for iRobot to initiate a share repurchase program. One likely motive might be to increase share value for its share owners, by reducing the total number of shares outstanding. This could also protect the company from unfriendly takeover. There have been some speculations about a strategic takeover by Google to become one of the largest suppliers of robotics in the world.

Credit: iRobot, RP-VITA

RP-VITA is a joint effort between two industry leaders, iRobot and InTouch Health. The robot combines the latest in autonomous navigation and mobility technologies developed by iRobot with state-of-the-art telemedicine and electronic health record integration developed by InTouch Health. RP-VITA allows remote doctor-to-patient consults, ensuring that the physician is in the right place at the right time and has access to the necessary clinical information to take immediate action. The robot has unprecedented ease of use. It maps its own environment and uses an array of sophisticated sensors to autonomously move about a busy space without interfering with people or other objects. Using an intuitive iPad® interface, a doctor can visit a patient, and communicate with hospital staff and patients with a single click, regardless of their location.

The FDA clearance specifies that RP-VITA can be used for active patient monitoring in pre-operative, peri-operative and post-surgical settings, including cardiovascular, neurological, prenatal, psychological and critical care assessments and examinations.
RP-VITA is being sold into the healthcare market by InTouch Health as its new flagship remote presence device. iRobot will continue to explore adjacent market opportunities for robots like RP-VITA and the iRobot Ava mobile robotics platform.

The annual CES – Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, is always a great opportunity for trendspotting and innovation hunting in consumer electronics including consumer robotics. CES 2013 will be held January 8-11 and some of the hot topics discussed this year will be mobility and connectivity, the new mantra of consumer electronics, the state of tech retailing in 2013 including show rooming, battling for online supremacy, OEMs going direct, private label. Other topics are cloud computing and the implications for consumer tech and the future of auto technology.

Credit: Suitable Technologies, Beam

Telepresence robots have been identified as a promising consumer application for many years and there is a growing number of start-up companies developing new mobile platforms for video conferencing, tele-traveling and remote control.

Read more

Max Nisen of Business Insider wrote recently of a list of seven stock picks discovered in a Credit Suisse report on long term trends. One of those trends was increasing global automation (particularly in China) and the seven picks relate to companies poised to benefit from those needs.

The article and list prompted a series of quick personal opinions concerning almost all of their selections which I thought might be interesting to followers of the robotics industry.

Below are the seven Credit Suisse stock picks with a brief description of what the companies do, my best understanding of Credit Suisse’s reason for selecting the stock for the list, and my opinions as to the particular company.

1.  Siemens AG (NYSE:SI)
CS Reason: low PE

Source: Siemens Annual Report

Siemens derives 31% of its profits from factory automation in which they provide everything but the robots: control and monitoring systems, inspection and vision systems, sensor systems, power supplies, manufacturing and warehousing systems, etc. Siemens also makes consumer products and provides transportation systems and health care and hospital products.

FT Comment: Because Siemens is into so many different activities, they are a good conglomerate but not necessarily a good bet for automation and robotics. Their stock moves to a different drummer then a company that is devoted only to robotics such as, for example, FANUC. It may be a good conservative bet for a long-term hold… if you want to invest in conglomerates. Other conglomerates with some involvement in robotics include Textron (NYSE:TST) and Teledyne (NYSE:TDY) for example.

2.  Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK)
CS Reason: possible acquisition target

Source: Rockwell Automation Annual Report

Rockwell provides automation power, control and information systems. Many factory robot systems include Rockwell control boxes to drive their robots and integrate their activities into the larger factory system. Rockwell and its subsidiaries also provide servos, power systems and sensors.

FT Comment: Up until recently the computing power necessary to compute the complex math of robotic movement and control the multiple motors that drive a robot were offloaded into separate boxes for that purpose. Rockwell has been a leader in this field for a long time. But with the cost and size of CPUs dropping and the need for mobility in all the newer-tech robots, Rockwell may face an uncertain future and a diminishing share of the robotics ancillary products and control systems marketplace.

3.  FANUC Corp. (TYO:6954)
CS Reason: Has 20% of global robot market

FANUC is a Japanese company mainly engaged in factory automation equipment including CNC systems, laser products and all forms of robots and robotics. They just completed a new “black” factory for the production of robots for sale in China.

FT Comment: FANUC is predominantly a robotics company and hasn’t suffered too much from the tsunami disaster. They have been ramping up because there is great demand for their robots and systems in China as well as the rest of the world. Unless there emerges a Chinese competitor in the near term — such as Foxconn might become — FANUC has the potential for success over the next many years. Other robot manufacturers similar to FANUC include ABB (NYSE:ABB), KUKA (ETR:KU2), Yaskawa Electric (TYO:6506) and Adept (NASDAQ:ADEP).

4.  Delta Electronics (TPE:2308)
CS Reason: Competitive in Chinese market with high operating profits

Delta Electronics is a Taiwan-based supplier of power supplies, power switching devices, servo motors, and video and electromechanical products. Industrial automation products represent 8% of revenue but 20+% of profits.

FT Comment: Taiwan-based Delta Electronics’ motors are a staple in China and barring anything unforeseen, they are a good bet to continue that trend. However, industrial automation products are a small portion of their gross revenue, are considered a commodity product, and consequently may not be an important component of the value of the company. It may be an interesting company for other purposes, but not automation.

5.  Keyence (TYO:6861)
CS Reason: Will benefit from aging societies investment in automation

Source: Keyence Annual Report

Keyence designs and produces sensors, vision and laser imaging and range-finding technologies used in robot mobility and factory automation applications and vision systems.

FT Comment: Microsoft and PrimeSense blindsided many of the laser-scanner companies with their new-tech low-cost scanners and eloquent software. The marketplace now expects that low cost but, at present, cannot meet its needs for scanning with Kinect-like devices. [This is changing however with better and better software.] That, combined with a slow recovery from the twin economic and tsunami crises have hurt Keyence, a Japan-based company. Even though they are cash rich and profitable at present, they haven’t fully recovered from the economic crisis and their annual reports don’t seem to indicate research efforts that will enable lower cost technologies in the future. Currently there is sharp pressure on pricing and Keyence, Optech, V-Gen, Velodyne and other LIDAR and laser-scanning manufacturers are beginning to feel it. A few of these companies are embracing Kinect-like devices to supplement their product lines but I see the automation marketplace finding newer technologies at much lower cost from newly emerging companies to fill this very necessary vision/mobility task. Notable alternative vendors providing vision systems for robotics and automation include Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) and Raytheon (NYSE:RTN). The biggest and most known provider of laser scanners is SICK AG, a privately held company.

6.  Mitsubishi Electric (TYO:6503)
CS Reason: Market leader in computers that control automated production machines

Source: Mitsubishi Electric Annual Report

Mitsubishi Electric designs and manufactures heavy industrial electrical equipment as well as power modules, consumer electronics and robots. 20-30% of their operating profits are derived from the sale of factory automation equipment.

FT Comment: Mitsubishi has been a market leader in industrial robotics and the computers that control them. And they have a big and well-respected sales presence in China. They do not have much of a presence in the emerging service robotics sector however, and this suggests that they will do well as an industrial robotics provider but may not capture market share in either the emerging SME or service robotics markets.

7.  TECO (TPE:1504)
CS Reason: Expanding 10% market share of motors and servos

Teco AC motor drives

TECO is a Taiwanese manufacturer of all types of electrical motors and electrical control products including those used in and with robotics and factory automation. They also have a consumer products line and a big market share in China.

FT Comment: Robots and factory automation systems require all sorts of equipment and systems to do their tasks. Electrical motors and their control systems are integral to that process. But there are many providers and TECO is just one — Yaskawa Electric and ABB are names more familiar to the robotics world that provide similar servos and electrical equipment and systems. To some extent, this is a commodity business with ever-lower prices and global competition; not a particularly appealing market for the long term.

What I See:

Frank Tobe Editor/Publisher The Robot Report

The opinions expressed above are based on what I see happening in factory automation, industrial robotics and other types of robotics involved in the production, movement and handling of products over the next few years.

Industrial robotics as we know it — caged arms welding, painting and manipulating long streams of mass-produced automotive and electrical goods — will continue to grow at a healthy pace as more of the world stays competitive by automating their factories. The major players in this field are robot manufacturers KUKA, ABB, Yaskawa Motoman, Mitsubishi, FANUC and providers of ancillary systems and equipment like Rockwell Automation, Delta Electronics, Keyence, Cognex and others. Many research firms have projected steady growth for this sector at 3-5% CAGR for the rest of this decade.

Other types of factory automation may not be as visible as a robotic arm; instead it might be a process control or material handling system that is robotic in nature. This robotic-like form of automation and industrial robotics are both moving toward produce-on-demand systems which require great mechanical flexibility and complex software and systems. This is a moving target which progresses as technology does — literally changing day by day — and utilizes advanced sensors, fast computer processing, massive data manipulation and complex algorithms.

It’s not just visible robots but whole robotic-like automation systems that are enabling companies to compete with low-cost labor from off shore. This is true even in countries like China which is beginning to upgrade their product quality and worker efficiency while coping with higher wages — and they are doing this through automating as much as they can.

Far more companies are beginning to automate to stay competitive than just big factories. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are propelling the service robotics segment of the robotics industry forward to new capabilities and expectations. SMEs need robots that are plug and play, easily trainable, have vision capabilities, are super flexible and safe to work alongside — just like their iPads and apps from the App Store. Thus manufacturers of stand-alone control systems and companies that provide systems integration may not be as needed in the SME marketplace as they were (and for the time being are) for big factory robotics. New co-robot manufacturers like Rethink Robotics, Redwood Robotics and Universal Robots (Denmark), and software developers like Universal Robotics (US) and their Neocortex control system for 3D sensing of random objects and then integrating that data into user systems (e.g., into Yaskawa’s Motoman 2-armed robots) — all privately held — may become disruptive and take away market share from the bigger companies.

Up until recently, neither vision-enabled systems nor mobility in manufacturing has been economically feasible, but that is changing. Mobile robots today move things from here to there and can be summoned and instructed by iPads. Buyers expect that mobile robotic devices be self-contained and encapsulate their various systems within the device; again, no need for stand-alone control systems or systems integration except, perhaps, in the Cloud. And vision-enabled robotic systems are proliferating and making it possible to get more from existing robots.

Source: Tesla Motors

Case in point is Tesla Motors which uses multiple tools for their robots to allow them to do a quick tool changes and perform multiple functions, e.g., welding, riveting, bonding and installing a component, yet the core robots are old-style fixed-to-the-floor KUKA, Fanuc and Fronius robots and mobile SmartCarts from Motion Controls.

Almost every non-industrial robotic system (which, for lack of a better term is presently called Service Robotics) involved in making, moving or handing products, has the expectation of mobility, safety, vision, trainability without programming, and great flexibility. That is where the industry seems to be heading and the industrial players are slowly transitioning to be able to provide for that need. The companies mentioned above are beginning that transition — but not very fast because they have a healthy and profitable growing industrial market already. Perhaps newer more adventurous companies will move more quickly to capture this market segment.

There are publicly-traded exciting companies out there that will likely benefit from the trend toward automation. 3D printer companies like Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) and 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) will play a key role in this emerging market sector but privately held companies like MakerBot may register to go public and give them some competition. Kiva Systems and their innovative warehousing system was recently acquired by Amazon (the acquisition occurred in lieu of Kiva going public). This reminded me how important Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is in providing material handing in addition to being an online sales force. To quote Bruce Welty in the Huffington Post:

During the California Gold Rush, there were many fortunes made and lost but one of the more enduring successes was Levi-Strauss, a clothier to all miners. Levi’s never had to worry about which miners were going to discover gold; they all needed pants. In the New American Economy, these trends all converge around advanced fulfillment capabilities. Amazon has invested in its fulfillment capability for just that reason. The “Levi-Strauss-like” opportunity of today is in Fulfillment or, more specifically, Robotic Fulfillment.

Last week I attended the 7th Annual Remote Presence Clinical Innovations Forum hosted by InTouch Health in Santa Barbara, CA, a two-day users conference disseminating the latest information regarding a wide range of telemedicine-related topics through presentations and workshops. The keynote address, by Yulun Wang, Chairman and CEO of InTouch Health and Colin Angle, Chairman, co-founder and CEO of iRobot, Remote Presence’s Future: From Enabling Access to Coordinating Care, provided the platform to announce and display InTouch Health’s new RP-VITA telepresence robot which autonomously brought itself onstage skillfully avoiding a few obstacles.

InTouch Health has installed their remote presence robots and portable devices in hospitals all over the world, and their devices are used more frequently year by year. In his keynote speech, Wang said they were in “500 hospitals and have 60,000 high acuity consults a year now, and growing at a nice clip.” This is up from 300 hospitals and 20,000 consults two years ago.

After the address I spent a few moments with Colin and asked him about iRobot’s role with InTouch and about their goals for their new mobility platform.

I saw and played with the new RP-VITA robots and they are truly slick. But the most enlightening thing I saw was four hours of tightly-packed presentations by critical care doctors and hospital administrators, all users of InTouch Health’s remote presence robots, and all portraying different aspects of why remote presence in health care is relevant, is saving lives and is necessary today and why it will continue to be in the future.

• A Trauma Telemedicine outfit from Halifax, Canada is providing pre-natal care in a Third World South American nation. They are using InTouch Health’s portable remote presence devices with a traveling nurse to assist in taking and discussing ultra sound exams and other pre-natal treatments with health care professionals in Canada for rural pregnant women.
• Two hospital systems (one in Florida and the other in Pennsylvania) are letting their patients see their doctors by telepresence at nearby local facilities using InTouch’s robots and other telepresence technology thereby making in unnecessary to drive to a big city university hospital.
• Virtual tutoring was presented – in which an amazing feat of software was shown – superimposing the consulting surgeon’s hands over the view of the actual surgery so that it could be seen and discussed by both the consulting and on-site physicians.
• Robots were used to provide admitting and initial diagnosis — one system actually has a 7 pm to 7 am robot shift. Nurses commented that by using the robots they could quickly get nighttime help and, because of the cameras and two-way dialogue capabilities, there has been no disagreement about what is seen by each of the various people involved.
• A survey at one hospital utilizing InTouch robots showed a reduction of length-of-stay by 1+ days, the average patient census was down by 1, and there was an increase in cases by 9.
• In a couple of presentations, a mobile robot was hooked up to the ballroom speaker system when the speaker had to be in two places at the same time. One doctor was a team physician for an Olympic soccer team in London; another missed a plane and was using his laptop at the airport to operate the robot on the stage.
• There was one testimonial after another — and that was before the announcement of the new RP-VITA robot!

iRobot’s Mobility Platform

InTouch Health’s RP-VITA Mobile Robot

Over the past 10 years, InTouch Health has been modifying it’s remote presence products to adapt to what health care professionals have needed. They gradually came to the conclusion that one methodology doesn’t fit all needs. Enabling a doctor to be in two places at once involves a whole series of products and systems. Currently they have three very capable solutions to those remote presence needs: a portable Xpress device for ambulances and remote locations unfriendly to mobile robots; a portable operating room station (Vantage and Lite); and the new mobile VITA robot. The swiveling wide-angle and zoom cameras and monitor and the two-way communication are integral parts of all of their products. The general purpose of each product is to easily perform real-time consults with patients and other physicians and health care providers through the use of secure interfaces supported by a speedy and secure network infrastructure.

As a pioneer in the field of health care telepresence, InTouch Health has had the unenviable task of keeping up with technological change while offering state-of-the-art remote presence robotic products. The release of this new RP-VITA robot and the partnership with iRobot, indicate how this new venture is paying off: the integration of new iPad apps integrated with the iRobot platform and an API making further clinical apps easily available, InTouch seems to have a viable forward plan.

However, competition is just around the corner. VGo Communication, Giraff Technologies and other telepresence robot companies are working with hospitals and municipalities to find uses their products can provide:

• Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire has leased four VGo robots for a pilot program. They will be on site to supplement nurses in homes of patients in the group’s hospice to allow medical specialists in other locations to have live consultations about the case.
• Another pilot program using VGos is under way with Children’s Hospital Boston where the hospital sends VGos home with kids after their operations so that doctors can check on their young patients once they’re home and talk with parents or caregivers about their care.
• Giraffs are being placed by visiting nurses where frequent contact is desired. Giraffs can also be used by family members for communication and video conferencing.

Certainly, the joint venture with iRobot has freed InTouch to focus more on what it does best and leave the driving to iRobot.

InTouch Health has installed their remote presence robots and portable devices in hospitals all over the world, and their devices are used more frequently year by year. In his keynote speech, Wang said they were in “500 hospitals and have 60,000 high acuity consults a year now, and growing at a nice clip.” This is up from 300 hospitals and 20,000 consults two years ago.

After the address I spent a few moments with Colin and asked him about iRobot’s role with InTouch and about their goals for their new mobility platform.

I saw and played with the new RP-VITA robots and they are truly slick. But the most enlightening thing I saw was four hours of tightly-packed presentations by critical care doctors and hospital administrators, all users of InTouch Health’s remote presence robots, and all portraying different aspects of why remote presence in health care is relevant, is saving lives and is necessary today and why it will continue to be in the future.

• A Trauma Telemedicine outfit from Halifax, Canada is providing pre-natal care in a Third World South American nation. They are using InTouch Health’s portable remote presence devices with a traveling nurse to assist in taking and discussing ultra sound exams and other pre-natal treatments with health care professionals in Canada for rural pregnant women.
• Two hospital systems (one in Florida and the other in Pennsylvania) are letting their patients see their doctors by telepresence at nearby local facilities using InTouch’s robots and other telepresence technology thereby making in unnecessary to drive to a big city university hospital.
• Virtual tutoring was presented – in which an amazing feat of software was shown – superimposing the consulting surgeon’s hands over the view of the actual surgery so that it could be seen and discussed by both the consulting and on-site physicians.
• Robots were used to provide admitting and initial diagnosis — one system actually has a 7 pm to 7 am robot shift. Nurses commented that by using the robots they could quickly get nighttime help and, because of the cameras and two-way dialogue capabilities, there has been no disagreement about what is seen by each of the various people involved.
• A survey at one hospital utilizing InTouch robots showed a reduction of length-of-stay by 1+ days, the average patient census was down by 1, and there was an increase in cases by 9.
• In a couple of presentations, a mobile robot was hooked up to the ballroom speaker system when the speaker had to be in two places at the same time. One doctor was a team physician for an Olympic soccer team in London; another missed a plane and was using his laptop at the airport to operate the robot on the stage.
• There was one testimonial after another — and that was before the announcement of the new RP-VITA robot!

iRobot’s Mobility Platform

InTouch Health’s RP-VITA Mobile Robot

Over the past 10 years, InTouch Health has been modifying it’s remote presence products to adapt to what health care professionals have needed. They gradually came to the conclusion that one methodology doesn’t fit all needs. Enabling a doctor to be in two places at once involves a whole series of products and systems. Currently they have three very capable solutions to those remote presence needs: a portable Xpress device for ambulances and remote locations unfriendly to mobile robots; a portable operating room station (Vantage and Lite); and the new mobile VITA robot. The swiveling wide-angle and zoom cameras and monitor and the two-way communication are integral parts of all of their products. The general purpose of each product is to easily perform real-time consults with patients and other physicians and health care providers through the use of secure interfaces supported by a speedy and secure network infrastructure.

As a pioneer in the field of health care telepresence, InTouch Health has had the unenviable task of keeping up with technological change while offering state-of-the-art remote presence robotic products. The release of this new RP-VITA robot and the partnership with iRobot, indicate how this new venture is paying off: the integration of new iPad apps integrated with the iRobot platform and an API making further clinical apps easily available, InTouch seems to have a viable forward plan.

However, competition is just around the corner. VGo Communication, Giraff Technologies and other telepresence robot companies are working with hospitals and municipalities to find uses their products can provide:

• Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire has leased four VGo robots for a pilot program. They will be on site to supplement nurses in homes of patients in the group’s hospice to allow medical specialists in other locations to have live consultations about the case.
• Another pilot program using VGos is under way with Children’s Hospital Boston where the hospital sends VGos home with kids after their operations so that doctors can check on their young patients once they’re home and talk with parents or caregivers about their care.
• Giraffs are being placed by visiting nurses where frequent contact is desired. Giraffs can also be used by family members for communication and video conferencing.

Certainly, the joint venture with iRobot has freed InTouch to focus more on what it does best and leave the driving to iRobot.

In a joint press release, US companies InTouch Health and iRobot have announced a new telepresence robot for hospitals. The robot called “RP-VITA” builds on iRobot’s AVA platform introduced at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Similar to the AVA, the RP-VITA uses a tablet as the user interface and has autonomous mapping and navigation capabilities. The RP-VITA can also connect with diagnostic devices, such as otoscopes and ultrasound, and comes equipped with the latest electronic stethoscope. The robot is currently pending clearance by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), with results expected in the last quarter of 2012.

A positive indicator for robotics startups is the improving financial climate. There are signs that the US housing market is stabilizing. Fannie Mae, the government backed mortgage company, has posted a profit for the first time since 2007 without needing a government bailout. The decline in home prices is slowing, as are mortgage delinquency rates and the rate of American home purchasing is on the rise again.

“We expect our financial results for 2012 to be significantly better than 2011,” Susan R. McFarland, Fannie Mae’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “As our serious delinquency rate declines and home prices stabilize, we expect to reduce our reserves, which combined with revenue from our high-quality new book of business will drive our future results.” [1]

While not everyone is getting rich yet, the overall financial indicators show that the U.S. economy has rebounded faster than predicted. The stock market has doubled since 2009, corporate profits are surging and the U.S. economy is growing at 3% pa. As financial journalist Daniel Gross puts it:

“Like the world’s first bionic man, the U.S. economy has come back—better, stronger, and faster than most analysts expected, and than most of its peers.” [2]

While this is a U.S. centric view and some of Europe is still in financial crisis, nonetheless China and S.E.Asia are surging and many African economies are showing very promising proportional growth rates. There are other sources that describe the current world economic status but it’s no longer a bad time for a capital intensive industry like robotics to grow. Particularly if business models lower the risk by utilizing lease models or the rapid cheap trial and error methods of startups.

Where Defense budgets are tightening on traditional robotics, like unmanned systems, the Whitehouse is committing spending towards other newer robotics growth areas. All this indicates that robotics is ready to support itself as an industry, rather than be supported as a research project. Legislation is being passed allowing the introduction of driverless cars and by 2015 we may see changes permitting the commercial use of small drones in U.S. airspace.

3. Maturity of Robotics Technology

Rodney Brooks, founder of iRobot and current CEO of Heartland Robotics, is one of many expressing the view that robotics has progressed beyond a cool new research area and into the world of robot products. While making new discoveries is exciting, there isn’t enough effort going in to using those same exciting new technologies in everyday applications.

 ”Users just want to get a task done. They don’t care if it’s a cool robot. You may, but they may not care if it’s a robot at all,” [3]

So, the question now isn’t what robots can we build, it’s what can we do with the ones we’ve built already. The robots that are successful products seem simple and boring, eg. industrial arms, vacuum cleaners, cars. But when applied to the right problem, even simple robots are transformative. The first successful consumer robot was of course iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaner with more than 7 million sold worldwide. But the biggest acquisition of a robotics company was Amazon buying Kiva in March 2012 for $775 million.

Kiva’s system relies on small orange turtle like robots that move shelves around in warehouses. The brains are largely on servers. The robots aren’t ‘cool or exciting’. They are barely even robots. But they solve the problem that sank WebVan, one of the most spectacular e-commerce failures. You can only do half your e-commerce in the cloud. Somewhere real products have to be shipped to real places.

Kiva founder Mick Mountz is an MIT engineer who worked at WebVan. “We decided products that could walk and talk on their own would be the best way to solve the problem,” he laughs. [4]

Think of Kiva bots as the hands and feet of the Cloud.  They are not autonomous Star-Trek-like agents, but are wirelessly connected to and controlled by the Cloud in real-time. [5]

Amazon, like WebVan, has to ship product. Reportedly, phsyical order fulfilment cost nearly 9 percent of Amazon’s $40 billion global revenues. This is a big enough pain point for some companies to be willing to trial the Kiva System in a few locations, especially smaller retailers, like Staples in 2004, who faced increasing competition in cloud commerce.

Kiva’s robots today are processing millions of orders a year in retailers’ warehouses across the United States, the UK, and Europe, quietly driving Kiva’s startling 80 percent annual growth. On the distant horizon is a plan to bring Kiva’s approach to the manufacturing sector. [6]

Jeff Bezos from Amazon is also investing heavily in Heartland Robotics. Brooks has a vision of transforming the workplace by making robots that can be safely worked with, shifting robots out of sterile, safe factory environments and bringing them alongside people. His analogy is with mainframe computer systems in the 1960s to the personal computer of the 1980s.

“Originally ordinary people couldn’t touch computers. Now they can. What if ordinary people could touch robots?” [7]

The future of robotics is exciting, but we’ve barely begun to fully explore the potential of the simple robots we already have.

next post: Increasing modularity & commonality plus decreasing component costs

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/business/fannie-mae-profit-signals-a-stabilizing-housing-market.html
2. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/29/myth-of-decline-u-s-is-stronger-and-faster-than-anywhere-else.html
3. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57391570-76/robots-still-lack-the-human-touch/
4. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markpmills/2012/03/23/amazons-kiva-robot-acquisition-is-bullish-for-both-amazon-and-american-jobs/
5. http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2012/march/innovation-mountz.html
6. http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2012/march/innovation-mountz.html
7. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2012/05/heartland_robotics_will_unveil.html

What’s the best approach to building commercially successful robotics companies? Here are two arguments from two prominent people in the robotics industry:

1. Identify a need that can be filled with a robotic solution in a large marketplace and build a practical and specialized robotic product to satisfy that need.
2. Make it free and easy to design, program, simulate and test robotic applications and share your progress, problems and results with others all over the world using a common platform and the applications will come.

These two points of view were presented in a spirited cocktail party debate the other evening in Lyon, France at InnoRobo 2012, an innovation forum and trade show for service robotics. Here’s how it happened, who they were, and what they said.

Left: Robert Bauer, Executive Director, Commercialization, Willow Garage, a privately held corporation. Right: Colin Angle, Chairman of the Board, co-founder and CEO, iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT).

I interviewed Colin Angle shortly after he gave a presentation about the need for robotic solutions in health care and asked him, amongst other questions, what he thought about Willow Garage’s ROS open source software concept. He said he thought it was dangerous to the industry and was fearful that it was also detrimental to the monetizing of the service robotics sector in particular.

Later I was meeting with Tim Field from Willow Garage when Robert Bauer joined the conversation. Bauer was a substitute Willow Garage speaker because Steve Cousins had to alter his travel plans. In his presentation, Bauer made the point that hardware was farther along than AI software and that AI, 3D and application software were where the robotics industry needed help.

Out of fun I told Bauer what Angle said and he became feisty and said he’d love to debate Angle as to which method contributed more to product development and commercialization.

Coincidentally, at a cocktail party for speakers, exhibitors and hosts that same evening, I was casually talking with Bauer when Angle came by to say hello to me and I introduced him to Bauer — and the fun began.

Angle suggested that freely providing such a key and critical component as the robotic operating and simulation system – and the extensive libraries that go with ROS – as Willow Garage does with their open source and unprotected robotic operating system (ROS) – was tantamount to letting the biggest consumer giant(s) gobble up any mass market applications and re-market them globally at low cost because they already have (or could easily reverse-engineer) the hardware, could produce it cheaply, the operating system was free courtesy of ROS, and the only real cost was the acquisition of the application(s).

Cover of 3/19/2012 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine

Angle thought that it was dangerous and led to losing a potentially American/European market to offshore commodity conglomerates and said:

Robotics innovation represents a tremendous opportunity for economic growth akin to automobiles, aerospace and information technology. If we are to freely share our ‘intellectual capital’ on the open market we risk losing the economic engine that will advance our economies and send growth and jobs overseas.

The issue of losing trade secrets to foreign conglomerates was the subject of this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Here’s a particularly relevant quote from the cover story – and keep in mind that the operating system mentioned was protected but hacked; nevertheless the story is relevant to this discussion:

In November, 14 U.S. intelligence agencies issued a report describing a far-reaching industrial espionage campaign by Chinese spy agencies. This campaign has been in the works for years and targets a swath of industries: biotechnology, telecommunications, and nanotechnology, as well as clean energy.

As the toll adds up, political leaders and intelligence officials in the U.S. and Europe are coming to a disturbing conclusion. “It’s the greatest transfer of wealth in history,” General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said at a security conference at New York’s Fordham University in January.

[The article went on to describe the plight of AMSC, an American wind turbine developer, as they discovered that not only had their software been stolen, but Chinese companies had duplicated most of their component parts as well.] 

AMSC technicians tapped into the turbine’s computer to get to the bottom of the glitch. The problem wasn’t immediately clear, so the technicians made a copy of the control system’s software and sent it to the company’s research center which produced some startling findings. The Sinovel turbine appeared to be running a stolen version of AMSC’s software. Worse, the software revealed that Sinovel had complete access to AMSC’s proprietary source code. In short, Sinovel didn’t really need AMSC anymore.

… On April 5, AMSC had no choice but to announce that Sinovel—its biggest customer, accounting for more than two-thirds of the company’s $315 million in revenue in 2010—had stopped making purchases. Investors fled, erasing 40 percent of AMSC’s value in a single day and 84 percent of it by September. The company’s stock chart looks like the EKG of a person rushing toward white light.

Colin Angle has consistently held that we are going about developing the robotics industry wrong: “The idea that a humanoid robot with arms would push a vacuum cleaner is an image that has set many expectations and, in some ways, has set back the industry,” when, by just rethinking what needs to be done, we can build a product that satisfies a specific need (vacuuming), as iRobot did with their Roomba line of robotic vacuums. “I used to think that I was a self-respecting high-tech entrepreneur, but it took me becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman to actually have some success for my company, my investors and myself.”

Bauer said that Willow Garage’s objectives were to stimulate the industry by enabling participants to not have to reinvent the many cross-science elements of robotics ventures; to reuse software under the premise that by so doing it saves developer time and allows researchers to focus on research. By giving them free access to the tools, libraries and simulation capabilities of ROS, its many libraries, and access to the PR2s that are available for testing and experimentation, Willow Garage hopes to advance the state-of-the-art in autonomous robotics technologies. Says Steve Cousins, CEO, “We want everyone to work together. We’re happy having a smaller piece of the pie, but having the pie be much bigger.”

Bauer also said that, once a successful app was developed, then the new endeavor would likely lock down the operating system and application software in order to protect their invention.

Kiva Systems shelf-moving robots. They slip under the shelves, screw themselves tight, and then bring the shelves to the picker/packers.

Supporting Angle’s position to find a problem and develop a unique robotic solution is today’s news that Amazon has acquired Kiva Systems (for $775 million!). Kiva Systems is the company that turned warehousing upside down by using robots to bring shelves to the pickers and packers instead of vice versa.

To Bauer, Angle suggested that ROS itself could be locked down, protected, and commercialized now – and that it should be done right away – and that what the robotic industry needs for inspiration is winning robotics companies – profitable companies with millionaire employees selling in-demand products, as would happen if ROS privatized; not more notches on the oversized belts of big offshore conglomerates. But he also said that unless ROS is protected and made stable and secure, it could never be used for sensitive (defense, space, security) solutions, and until it became rugged, secure and stable, it could never be used in factories that cannot afford down time from their robots or software.

He said it would make him happy if all the people that displayed their robots at Innorobo were successful and wealthy, but that the opposite was more likely because the right big-market robotic applications hadn’t happened just yet.

The discussion went on and ended with Bauer inviting Angle to continue the discussion onsite at Willow Garage and Angle agreeing to do it.

I hope I have presented the two positions fairly because I think that both sides have merit. Using the analogy that developing apps for smartphones and tablets is similar to developing applications for service robots in the open source community of shared libraries, imagine how much talent is being squandered in the whimsy of making a fun app? Do we have to sift through the chaos and diversity of thousands of apps to find the few – if any – that are suitable for real business tasks? Or would we be better served to rethink how we satisfy real needs by building specific products to satisfy those needs?

What do you think?

1. Identify a need that can be filled with a robotic solution in a large marketplace and build a practical and specialized robotic product to satisfy that need.
2. Make it free and easy to design, program, simulate and test robotic applications and share your progress, problems and results with others all over the world using a common platform and the applications will come.

These two points of view were presented in a spirited cocktail party debate the other evening in Lyon, France at InnoRobo 2012, an innovation forum and trade show for service robotics. Here’s how it happened, who they were, and what they said.

Left: Robert Bauer, Executive Director, Commercialization, Willow Garage, a privately held corporation. Right: Colin Angle, Chairman of the Board, co-founder and CEO, iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT).

I interviewed Colin Angle shortly after he gave a presentation about the need for robotic solutions in health care and asked him, amongst other questions, what he thought about Willow Garage’s ROS open source software concept. He said he thought it was dangerous to the industry and was fearful that it was also detrimental to the monetizing of the service robotics sector in particular.

Later I was meeting with Tim Field from Willow Garage when Robert Bauer joined the conversation. Bauer was a substitute Willow Garage speaker because Steve Cousins had to alter his travel plans. In his presentation, Bauer made the point that hardware was farther along than AI software and that AI, 3D and application software were where the robotics industry needed help.

Out of fun I told Bauer what Angle said and he became feisty and said he’d love to debate Angle as to which method contributed more to product development and commercialization.

Coincidentally, at a cocktail party for speakers, exhibitors and hosts that same evening, I was casually talking with Bauer when Angle came by to say hello to me and I introduced him to Bauer — and the fun began.

Angle suggested that freely providing such a key and critical component as the robotic operating and simulation system – and the extensive libraries that go with ROS – as Willow Garage does with their open source and unprotected robotic operating system (ROS) – was tantamount to letting the biggest consumer giant(s) gobble up any mass market applications and re-market them globally at low cost because they already have (or could easily reverse-engineer) the hardware, could produce it cheaply, the operating system was free courtesy of ROS, and the only real cost was the acquisition of the application(s).

Cover of 3/19/2012 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine

Angle thought that it was dangerous and led to losing a potentially American/European market to offshore commodity conglomerates and said:

Robotics innovation represents a tremendous opportunity for economic growth akin to automobiles, aerospace and information technology. If we are to freely share our ‘intellectual capital’ on the open market we risk losing the economic engine that will advance our economies and send growth and jobs overseas.

The issue of losing trade secrets to foreign conglomerates was the subject of this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Here’s a particularly relevant quote from the cover story – and keep in mind that the operating system mentioned was protected but hacked; nevertheless the story is relevant to this discussion:

In November, 14 U.S. intelligence agencies issued a report describing a far-reaching industrial espionage campaign by Chinese spy agencies. This campaign has been in the works for years and targets a swath of industries: biotechnology, telecommunications, and nanotechnology, as well as clean energy.

As the toll adds up, political leaders and intelligence officials in the U.S. and Europe are coming to a disturbing conclusion. “It’s the greatest transfer of wealth in history,” General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said at a security conference at New York’s Fordham University in January.

[The article went on to describe the plight of AMSC, an American wind turbine developer, as they discovered that not only had their software been stolen, but Chinese companies had duplicated most of their component parts as well.]

AMSC technicians tapped into the turbine’s computer to get to the bottom of the glitch. The problem wasn’t immediately clear, so the technicians made a copy of the control system’s software and sent it to the company’s research center which produced some startling findings. The Sinovel turbine appeared to be running a stolen version of AMSC’s software. Worse, the software revealed that Sinovel had complete access to AMSC’s proprietary source code. In short, Sinovel didn’t really need AMSC anymore.

… On April 5, AMSC had no choice but to announce that Sinovel—its biggest customer, accounting for more than two-thirds of the company’s $315 million in revenue in 2010—had stopped making purchases. Investors fled, erasing 40 percent of AMSC’s value in a single day and 84 percent of it by September. The company’s stock chart looks like the EKG of a person rushing toward white light.

Colin Angle has consistently held that we are going about developing the robotics industry wrong: “The idea that a humanoid robot with arms would push a vacuum cleaner is an image that has set many expectations and, in some ways, has set back the industry,” when, by just rethinking what needs to be done, we can build a product that satisfies a specific need (vacuuming), as iRobot did with their Roomba line of robotic vacuums. “I used to think that I was a self-respecting high-tech entrepreneur, but it took me becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman to actually have some success for my company, my investors and myself.”

Bauer said that Willow Garage’s objectives were to stimulate the industry by enabling participants to not have to reinvent the many cross-science elements of robotics ventures; to reuse software under the premise that by so doing it saves developer time and allows researchers to focus on research. By giving them free access to the tools, libraries and simulation capabilities of ROS, its many libraries, and access to the PR2s that are available for testing and experimentation, Willow Garage hopes to advance the state-of-the-art in autonomous robotics technologies. Says Steve Cousins, CEO, “We want everyone to work together. We’re happy having a smaller piece of the pie, but having the pie be much bigger.”

Bauer also said that, once a successful app was developed, then the new endeavor would likely lock down the operating system and application software in order to protect their invention.

A version of this post originally appeared on Automaton, IEEE Spectrum’s robotics blog.

Harvest Automation didn’t start out with the idea of building robots for greenhouse operations, instead they looked around for a market where their initial efforts, to develop what was essentially a larger, more powerful version of the Roomba (without the vacuum), would be applicable outside of the initial context, instead of their having to start from a blank slate for each application.

They settled on agriculture, beginning with a machine to move potted plants around, operating alongside human workers. It isn’t hard to imagine how this platform might develop in various directions to perform other horticultural tasks, eventually evolving into a scalable system capable of applying intensive methods to large land areas. That’s not the stated goal of Harvest Automation, but the profit motive may very well lead them in that direction.