February fundings for 16 robotics-related startups totaled over $313 million – another solid month for the new year. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with Ford’s acquisition of Argo and Midea Group’s purchase of Servotronix. Plus there were two IPOs.

Fundings

1. CloudMinds, a Chinese startup developing cloud-intelligence-based services for robotics and other application areas, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Although no funder information was provided, seed financing was provided by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden International and Keytone Ventures.
2. Desktop Metal, a 3D metal printing startup based in Burlington, Mass., is gearing up to take its first product into production and raised $45 million from GV, BMW I Ventures and Lowe’s Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $97 million. Other investors include NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco, and Stratasys.
3. Xenex Disinfection Services, a San Antonio maker of mobile robots for the healthcare industry, raised $38 million in funding. Essex Woodlands led the round, and was joined by Piper Jaffray Merchant Banking, Malin Corporation, and Tectonic Ventures.
4. Makeblock, a Chinese platform for making DIY robotics kits, raised around $29 million in Series B funding according to Bloomberg. Funders include Sequoia Capital and Hax. Makeblock products are used by more than 600,000 people, with more than 60 percent of its revenue generated from overseas.
5. AirMap, a Los Angeles startup developing a traffic management platform for drones, raised $26 million from Microsoft Ventures, Airbus, Qualcomm, Rakuten, Sony and Yuneec. AirMap provides real-time traffic management software for 80% of the world’s drones, from all sorts of manufacturers, allowing drones and their controllers to share data needed to fly safely at low altitudes.
6. Dedrone, a Germany-based provider of DroneTracker, a software hardware scanner which, in combination with an RF sensor, is able to detect drones and remote controls by their radio frequency (RF) signatures, secured $15 million in a Series B funding led by John Chambers, Executive Chairman of Cisco and Felicis Ventures. Dedrone can set up around cities where major events are scheduled, so the company often works with federal and city governments to monitor airspace. Its technology was used to detect drones, for example, over Davos, and two presidential debates.
7. ZongMu Technology, a Shanghai self-driving car control systems startup, got $14.5 million in a Series B funding led by Legend Capital with additional funding from another Xiamen-based VC.
8. TerrAvion, a San Leandro, Calif.-based provider of aerial imagery services for farmers, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Merus Capital led the round, and was joined by Promus Ventures, Initialized Capital, and 10x Group. TerrAvion offers farmers images from 12 flights over their land per growing season for as little as $4 an acre. These images provide a low-cost alternative to drone imagery and a higher resolution than satellite imagery.
9. TetraVue, a San Diego, CA-based LiDAR and 3D camera technology company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Nautilus Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Samsung Catalyst Fund and Foxconn. The funding will enable TetraVue to bring its Ultra High Definition, Solid State Flash LIDAR to the autonomous car industry, and to be one of the first in the new Vision for Things (VfT) marketplace.
10. Synapticon, a Germany-based provider of control systems for mobile, service and industrial robots, raised around $9 million in scale-up funding led by 7 Industries Holdings (NL) and also HTGF High-Tech and MBG.
    “Demand has exploded over the past two years. We benefit from the trend towards automation and robotics, especially in Asia. We succeeded in gaining important key customers around the world,” says Nikolai Ensslen, founder and CEO of Synapticon. “Many manufacturers of robots and similar machines have developed products based on our control and drive systems. These are now gradually going into series production, which means that we now have to increase our resources sustainably.”
11. Intuition Robotics, an Israeli developer of social-companion robots, raised $6 million from iRobot and OurCrowd. With the funding, the Jerusalem-based company plans to open an office in the Bay Area and begin testing ElliQ with senior citizens in San Francisco. ElliQ is made up of an interactive robot attached to a tablet and was built to help older adults age in place, while keeping them engaged, active, and connected to the outside world.
12. Exyn Technologies, a spin-out from the U of Penn, raised around $3.4 million in seed financing from IP Group, a VC specializing in tech transfer opportunities from major universities. Exyn develops fully autonomous aerial robot systems with multi-modal sensing capabilities and was founded by Dr. Vijay Kumar, the former Director of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the U of Penn.
13. Evollve Ozobot, a Southern California educational robot kit toy startup, raised $3 million in Series A venture funding to ramp up production of the Ozobot, and to develop new features and content to reach even more kids in the U.S., France and South Korea. Tribeca Venture Partners led and was joined by unnamed venture firms and angel investors, including ZICO coconut water founder Mark Rampolla. Another helper is a licensing tie-in with Disney’s Marvel Avengers. The company sells toppers kids can affix to their robots, changing the way the Ozobot sounds and moves when attached.
    Rampolla said about his investment in Ozobot: “[They’ve] got Ozobot built and into more than 3,000 schools with limited resources from some friends and family funding. They’ve had a really amazing response from teachers around the country already. And this funding just helps expand on that early success.”
14. PerceptIn, a Silicon Valley A.I. startup, raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A round led by Matrix Partners China. Walden International and TEEC Angel Fund also participated in the round. According to an announcement by Matrix Partners, the funding is worth $2 to $3 million.
15. BluHaptics, a Seattle telerobotics startup, got $1.36 million in Series A funding led by Seattle Angel Fund with additional funds from Seattle’s Alliance of Angels. BluHaptics software enables operators to interact with and control remote robots in dangerous and unpredictable environments.
16. Airware, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based platform for developing and operating drones, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Caterpillar Ventures and eight others.

Acquisitions

1. Argo AI, a Pittsburgh startup, has sold a majority share of their company to Ford Motor Co. which has agreed to invest $1 billion over 5 years. Bryan Salesky, previously with Google’s self-driving team, and Peter Rander, previously with Uber’s, will head up the new company. Argo AI plans to develop a software platform backbone for Ford’s fully autonomous vehicle and are planning on making that platform a working reality by 2021. They are working with the City of Pittsburgh to establish a work facility, finding office space, and hiring up to 200 engineers and CS professionals. Until this transaction, Ford’s investments in future transportation technology have been relatively modest, eg, $75 million last year to buy a minority stake in Velodyne, a manufacturer of laser-based LiDAR sensing systems and $6.6 million in Civil Maps, also last year, a Berkeley, CA startup working on AI-powered mapping for self-driving cars.
   

   “The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile, and autonomous vehicles will have as significant an impact on society as Ford’s moving assembly line did 100 years ago,” Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. “As Ford expands to be an auto and a mobility company, we believe that investing in Argo AI will create significant value for our shareholders by strengthening Ford’s leadership in bringing self-driving vehicles to market in the near term and by creating technology that could be licensed to others in the future.”

2. ABB, one of the Big Four of robot makers, acquired NUB3D, a Spanish startup making digital 3D inspection and QC components using white-light scanning sensor technologies. Financial details were not disclosed. ABB and NUB3D already partnered to introduce two fully robotized inspection solutions for off- and in-line inspection.
3. Verizon bought Skyward, a Portland, OR startup which has developed fleet management software for drones, for an undisclosed amount. Verizon Ventures was an investor in the company’s seed round. The company will operate under Verizon’s IoT portfolio.
   

   “Last quarter we announced our strategy to drive innovation and widespread adoption for in-flight wireless connectivity through our Airborne LTE Operations initiative, a new service to simplify certification and connectivity of wireless drones. This acquisition is a natural progression of our core focus on operating in innovative, high-growth markets, leveraging our network, scale, fleet management, device management, data analytics and security enablement capabilities and services to simplify the drone industry and help support the adoption of IoT,” said Mike Lanman, Verizon SVP Enterprise Products and IoT.

4. Servotronix, an Israeli motion control and automation systems company, was acquired by Midea Group of China (the same company that bought KUKA last year) for $170 million. Servotronix, founded in 1987, develops and manufactures comprehensive and high performance motion control solutions, ranging from advanced encoders, servo drives, and multi-axis motion controllers, for a wide variety of industries including industrial robots, electronics assembly, semiconductor, machine tools and medical equipment.
   

   “This alliance will provide Servotronix with significant leverage for our global operations and put Servotronix in a leadership position in the field of robotics, control and automation, with China being a major market in this field,” said Dr. Ilan Cohen, president, CEO and founder of Servotronix.

IPOs

Two crowdfunded IPOs under Reg A+ of the SEC – the new rules under the JOBS Act allowing private companies to raise up to $50 million via crowdfunding technology:

1. Myomo, a Cambridge, MA upper limbs exoskeleton startup, has filed for a Reg A+ IPO of $15 million. Banq is the issuer and service provider.
2. Knightscope, a Silicon Valley security systems and robotics startup, also filed for a $20 million Reg A+ IPO and, according to SeedInvest, the issuer and service provider, is 2/3 of the way there with pledges.

If you attended CES 2017 last week you may have seen more than 70 HAX powered startups in Eureka Park, the ‘playground of innovation’. As service robotics steals the spotlight, we wanted to showcase some of the ways that accelerators and programs like HAX help grow hardware and robotics startups, including taking them to market.

Here’s an interview with Cyril Ebersweiler, Founder and Managing Director of HAX, excerpted from the new “Service Robotics Case Studies 2” report by Silicon Valley Robotics, the industry association.

Interview with Cyril Ebersweiler, Founder & Managing Director of HAX (edited for clarity)

You say HAX is the world’s first hardware accelerator. Can you tell us how it evolved?

We started the venture back in 2011 in a garage in Shenzhen. We had Eric Migicovsky from Pebble, who had just launched their first campaign, Ian Bernstein from Sphero, and there was also Zach Smith from Makerbot, who would later join us at HAX … a lot of people and technology were converging back then in Shenzhen.

One thing we discovered while leveraging the supply chain for these startups was that Shenzhen was a good place to prototype — and not just consumer electronics hardware (which was the modus operandi back then), but also extremely complex hardware for the health, robotics, and fabrication spaces. The robotics and fabrication spaces were particularly interesting. There are five thousand — maybe fifteen thousand — individual parts inside a robot, and it takes a lot of time, money and resources to build a prototype. By being in Shenzhen, where we had access to prototyping machines, we could accomplish this in record speed.

As more and more startups joined the ranks, we started to develop a better understanding of what it would take to bring those companies to market. Early on we created themes around our first incubation programs, and this has since become part of our philosophy at HAX. Four years and 145 companies later (as of mid 2016), we have HAX Lifestyle, HAX Health, HAX Robotics, HAX Infra, and HAX Fab, with dedicated resources, expertise, processes, curricula, and distribution channels that can help push those products to market as fast as possible.

HAX is still running, and has been scaling up — we have about fifteen people on staff — and we have changed offices almost every year. This year we are moving into a 30,000 sq foot office in the middle of the Huaqiangbei electronics market because we have a lot of lines that are continuously manufacturing and creating new products over there. Some of them are really big, like Makeblock, for example, which has 170 employees already.

After operating for a few years — we’ve done 69 Kickstarter campaigns with HAX Lifestyle alone — I started to receive a lot of requests from our network that our startups needed help to improve their marketing and sales. So eighteen months ago I moved to San Francisco in order to set up a follow-up to our accelerator program, called Hax Boost, which is run by a former Target executive, and which focused on sales funnels and marketing for each of our different themes. If you are a HAX Lifestyle company, for example, we’ll focus on getting you into retail and teach you how to build everything you need to talk to a buyer and test your products in store… test your pricing, point of sale, and packaging, etc. We also help with networking, and will travel to meet buyers and scale up the sales process. At HAX Health, on the other hand, the distribution channels are hospitals, doctors, and gyms — so we take a very different angle there.

Since we started HAX Boost, we’ve had three cohorts with thirty-two companies going through, not all of which have been through our accelerator program. We also have external companies joining us for a sales and marketing bootcamp, which is a lot shorter — just 42 days. The goal is to get these companies from zero to $5 million in revenue (which is extremely ambitious in the world of entrepreneurship and venture capital), so that they know they have a market for their product before they manufacture it. Then they can go back to Shenzhen, and if they’ve done their job well, their DFM (design for manufacture) will be less painful and they will get to market faster because they have already grown out the distribution on the other side. Essentially, we make them ‘kiss’ the other side a little earlier than usual, and we foster those relationships at scale so that instead of taking twelve months to grow to their store, it will take only three months.

How big are your cohorts at HAX Boost?

We do ten startups at a time. While the accelerator programs are fifteen weeks long (because you actually have to build a product in that time), HAX Boost is just forty-two days long because companies already have their product ready. Forty-two days is an ideal length of time to focus on marketing.

TechCrunch called you “the most active investor in crowdfunded hardware” — but that’s only one aspect of what you do, isn’t it?

Yes. We’ve had 145 companies go through our programs now, as of mid 2016 … 115 through our accelerator and 30 through Boost. These have included 65 Kickstarter campaigns, mostly lifestyle products, where we have raised an average of about $450,000 per campaign. If you consider that to raise $100,000 puts you in the top 1% of Kickstarter campaigns, that puts us in the top 0.01% every single time we launch a campaign. We represent 8% of all the $1M-plus campaigns on Kickstarter as well. So it sounds like crowdfunding investment is our focus, but it’s only half (or less) of what we do. Lifestyle companies represent only roughly 40% of what we do. The rest is divided between health, infrastructure, robotics and fabrication. These kinds of companies are B2B for the most part and require a different level of attention when it comes down to technology, obviously, but also business models — which are the most interesting aspect of this work, particularly in the robotics and fab space.

Many of the companies we feature in this report are B2B2C, where the customer is not the final interaction point. I think we’ll be seeing more and more robotics companies in this space … what are the challenges they face, and how have you been able to smooth the way for them?

There are three very obvious challenges on the robotics side.

One is the definition of a robot. We may define this as a machine that makes autonomous decisions and autonomous movements, but there is public confusion around this definition. What is a robot, and why does that matter? It’s important because the public’s vision of what a robot is is going to influence the success of these companies, whether they are making robots in the formal sense or not.

Another challenge is that roboticists deal with extremely complex environments, and the obvious trap for any startup is to become too enamored with the technology, or to become too busy with making it work and not getting to the specific application.

A third challenge is trying to do everything, or wanting to become a platform, because that seems to be the Holy Grail. But we’ve already seen many approaches to building robot platforms and they don’t always work immediately. Take the PR2, the Personal Robot platform, from Willow Garage. It was supposed to be something that could be shared and open sourced to create different kinds of robotics applications… only a few places ever had a PR2, it only worked as a platform if you consider Savioke and all the other startups that came out of Willow Garage.

Another important challenge is the business model. We’ve been pushing to find ways for robots to be more than a box and software being sold to a client. I’m referring to “Robotics as a Service” of course, ie. getting a monthly payment at scale. Why does this matter? It’s easier to be profitable and to attract investors if it’s not about paying for the device.

Historically, extremely high-tech robots designed for a single task were sold for $100,000 – $200,000 apiece. The industry knew this model well, and recurring revenue came mainly from maintenance contracts. But the obvious trend is that robots are getting less and less expensive as time goes on … they are following the path of consumer electronics, which are getting both more powerful and less expensive at the same time. Some of the robots we are seeing today cost just a few thousand dollars, which on the one hand could mean that you can sell a lot of them, but on the other hand, you are trying to sell the value at the moment as well. Lots to figure out.

One of the challenges of Robots as a Service is that robots are still physical and they still require a lot of maintenance, which pushes the price point up even though the cost of the hardware is coming down. This seems inherently less scalable. Do you think these obstacles have been overcome?

Not entirely. Most startups are in the phase of trying. I don’t know the perfect definition of RaaS, because simply making the robot isn’t enough. It has to be tied to an actual value being created by the robot itself. Take the RaaS model that Simbe is using: their clients are billed per item scanned, so the more items the robot scans, the more revenue they generate. Or in the case of Avidbots, the more square feet that the robot cleans, the more Avidbot earns. But it’s not the end user paying for it. It’s really the corporation behind all this infrastructure that is paying for it, and it’s still too early to know whether they will be willing to scale up.

That said, I think that hardware reliability is in some ways the bigger question, as these robots are just getting to market at scale and we don’t yet know how long they will last out there. Few robots have run more than a thousand miles today, so all this is up in the air.

Are there other areas in the retail and consumer goods chain that you would encourage startups to look at?

Robot arms are getting better, cheaper, more accurate and less dangerous, so I think they
will start to pop up in all sorts of places and will come in many forms. At first they will probably be used in commercial environments, for example in restaurant kitchens. In the retail space, robot arms could fill shelves and stock inventory, or they could also be used to deliver goods from the store. Today we are a little constrained in our thinking of how a robot arm can be used, but as they become more application-specific they will just become better at what they are supposed to do.

It’s a little more complex if you’re thinking about the consumer market. People tend think of consumer robots as companions — robot pets, for example. But consumer robots will no doubt differentiate as well. There is a HAX company called Trainerbot that launched this year on Kickstarter. They are building a ping pong robot that teaches you how to play and trains you — and you can imagine that could be done with many sports. When you add computer vision and sophisticated movement, some people might think of these robots as even better companions.

Obviously there is a period of land grab before the field becomes specialized. Right now we are in a phase where most companies want to be a platform, or want to have the killer app. I think it’s slowly becoming more competition-specific, but it will continue to specialize.

Being based for such a long time in China where there has been such growth in recent years, what do you see ahead?

One thing that isn’t well acknowledged is that China is starting to come up with their own robots. They now have a pretty good technical base and they are catching up on know-how. It’s an obvious market for China to serve its need for robots domestically – so that is something to watch for.

Also, we have seen a commoditization of manufacturing machines, from laser cutters and 3D printers, to production machines, CNC machines, and furnaces — anything that makes a product come alive, as it were. Being in the manufacturing center of the world, it is phenomenal the level of automation that has been achieved already. Smartphones are produced with barely any human touching them; even the touch screen is tested by robot fingers. Though it’s easier to create a fully automated robot factory if you have only one product to build, there are increasingly fewer people in factories here: there’s nobody in the injection molding department, for example, but you have robot arms and conveyor belts (which at some point will be replaced by mobile robots), so that trend will continue. Robot arms are going to replace a lot of jobs.

But I think the tipping point for robotics is going to happen when robots start creating jobs. One can imagine that some robotics companies might reappropriate themselves, with the value of the robot essentially coming from the production that comes out of it. Dispatch is a great example of a company that has to figure out whether or not it is better to create its own network and rent it — the same is true with most robot companies. Avidbots could become a cleaning company if it wanted to, and it would be a better one, for example. Or Rational Robotics could rent their industrial painting machines to someone who wants to build their own garage. We haven’t seen that yet, but I’m expecting to see it pretty soon.

What is most exciting to me about robotics is that the business model is all down to what you want to do with the future of robots: Do you want them to replace human workers? Or do you want robots to be creators of value in the very first place?

HAX

HAX is an accelerator for hardware companies founded in 2011 in Shenzhen by Cyril Ebersweiler and Sean O’Sullivan. The HAX accelerator program selects 30 startups a year for seed investment in a cohort program and, as of 2016, the HAX Boost program provides an additional marketing bootcamp. Although HAX is well known for backing successfully crowdfunded consumer hardware, a significant number of startups now moving through HAX are enterprise robotics startups. HAX is investing in five technology themes; lifestyle, health, robotics, infrastructure and fabrication/prototyping. HAX is funded by SOSV, the accelerator venture fund founded by Sean O’Sullivan.

SILICON VALLEY ROBOTICS

Silicon Valley Robotics is the industry group for robotics and AI companies in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, and is a not- for-profit (501c6) that supports innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies. We host the Silicon Valley Robot Block Party, networking events, investor forums, a directory, and a jobs board, and we provide additional services and information for members, such as these reports.

WE’LL BE RELEASING ADDITIONAL ESSAYS FROM THE REPORTS EVERY WEEK OR SO. OR YOU CAN READ FULL REPORTS AT: https://svrobo.org/reports

I was reading Steve Blank’s blog on machine learning start-ups yesterday, where he described how technical infrastructure innovations follow a Hype Cycle with characteristics defined by the Gartner Group.

The Hype Cycle follows the life cycle of emerging technologies and will be applicable to the new generation of robotic vision technologies currently being developed by the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. Robotic vision, as the name suggests, encompasses both robotics and computer vision, each has been moving through new hype cycles, despite such technologies first appearing more than 50 years ago.

As described by Gartner Group, hype cycles progress as follows:

Phase 1 – Technology Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

Phase 2 – Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories — often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.

Phase 3 – Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

Phase 4 – Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallise and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

Phase 5 – Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

The new wave of robotic and computer vision technologies are in Phase 2 of the hype cycle, the peak of inflated expectations. Each year scores of robotics and computer vision start-ups are acquired, often for huge amounts of money. My sister, Andra Keay, is the managing director of Silicon Valley Robotics, which supports innovation and commercialisation of robotic technologies. At one stage it was common for new robotics start-ups to exit the start-up scene before even finding their feet, acquired by larger players. See this great timeline of robotics acquisitions put together by CB Insights:

The story is similar for computer vision start-ups. Index lists just some of the recently acquired CV companies. Some are acquired with little fanfare, such as the speculated acquisition of ZurichEye by Facebook. Computer vision sometimes applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the subject of Steve Blank’s blog, and all technologies seem to be hitting the peak of inflated expectations. Phase 2 is a great place to be if you’re a start-up but not necessarily a great place to be for the acquirer, who gains technology, teams and tools but not necessarily much additional revenue and profit.

Robotic vision is the gateway to a whole new set of technologies, developed by bringing robotics and computer vision together. While robotics is about machines that perceive and interact with the physical work, computer vision involves methods for acquiring, processing, analysing and understanding images using a computer. Combining the two produces the key technologies that will allow robotics to transform the way we live and work by giving robots visual perception. So, where is robotic vision on the hype cycle?

Robotic Vision is in Phase 1, just kicking off, with research groups like the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision developing a few proof-of-concepts like the crown-of-thorns starfish robot, COTSbot and the agricultural robots AgBotII and Harvey. It will soon be heading into Phase 2, which is a great time for new start-ups looking for a big early exit — but will the window of opportunity for robotic vision companies be narrow?

Given the high level of current interest in fields related to robotic vision, start-ups developed around these new technologies will need to enter the market soon. Companies based on the interlinked fields of robotics, machine learning, AI and computer vision have been acquired by corporate giants such as Google, IBM, Yahoo, Intel, Apple and Salesforce, at increasing rates since 2011 (see CB Insights). How long can the hype continue before we enter into Phase 3, the trough of disillusionment?

The risk for robotic vision is that by the time start-ups have formed around newly created technologies, the hype cycle for related technologies will change. If robotic vision doesn’t get a foot in the door, RV technologies will skip the peak of inflated expectations altogether. On the plus side, robotic vision technologies will also enjoy an accelerated path towards the slope of enlightenment on the heels of related technologies. Good news for the application of robotic vision to solve real world challenges but bad news for robotic vision start-ups – unless they form soon.

Watch the live stream from the 2014 Robot Launch Finals, starting today May 20 at 10AM Pacific. From over 60 entries from all around the world, our judges have narrowed it down to six finalists: DoBots, Duct Inspection Robot from Robosoft Systems, Leka, Odd I/O, Robotic Technologies of Tennessee and Tandemech Engineering. These startups will make an expanded 5 minute pitch and do a live Q&A session with our judges, who will decide the ultimate winner. Follow on Twitter #RobotLaunch. Don’t forget that you can still vote for your Crowd Favorite until 10AM Pacific!

Twitter

Tweets about “@RobotLaunch OR #RobotLaunch”

Awards

Schedule

(All times Pacific. Live stream begins at 10AM.)

The Judges

It’s just a few days until the RobotLaunch Finals on May 20, where our remaining six teams will battle it out in front of a live panel of judges. So we thought we’d recap some of the expert advice we gleaned from the speakers at the Robots2014 event at MIT last month to help our startups prepare. Co-organized with Swissnex Boston, the event brought researchers, startups and VCs together under one roof. Here are some of our favourite sound bites from the ‘Imagination to Market’ event:

On filling a need

“One question people don’t ask enough is: why do I need a robot to solve this problem?”

-Chris Moehle, National Robotics Engineering Center – CMU

“Business doesn’t get excited about complex things – they get excited about simple things that solve problems.”

– Daniel Theobald, Vecna @Vecna_Tech

On attracting investors

“Four things matter to every VC:
1) World Class Team
2) Big Problem
3) Great Traction
4) Bold Vision.”

– Ben Einstein, Bolt @BenEinstein, @BoltBoston

“People often have a hard time talking about the benefits to the customer instead of talking about the technology.”

– Elaine Chen, Martin Trust Center, MIT @chenelaine, @EshipMIT

“You want to avoid taking VC investment as long as you can. The further you get on your own, the more you will retain.”

– Daniel Theobald, Vecna @Vecna_Tech

“A disagreement with your VCs can set you back a year. Make sure you are on the same page.”

– Miriam Bekouche, Indiegogo @miriam_leia, @Indiegogo

On pathways market

“Going out and talking to people is what tells you whether you have a product that can get to market. Think of commercialization while you’re doing your research. And do it early.”

– Chris Moehle, National Robotics Engineering Center, CMU

“Successful commercialization hinges on thinking of robots as a new media platform through which companies will place recognized brands into the home.”

– Cynthia Breazeal, MIT Media Lab @medialab

On patents

“Your first problem isn’t that someone is going to steal your idea, it’s getting people to use your idea at all.”

– Kate Darling, MIT Media Lab @grok_

“Patents are expensive and hard.”

“The actual value of a patent is incredibly difficult to pinpoint, but the perceived value of a patent can be important.”

-Ben Einstein, Bolt @BenEinstein, @BoltBoston

On liability

“One of the major concerns that startups should have is liability. That’s the big issue.”

 – Kate Darling,  MIT Media Lab @grok_

On crowdfunding

“There are so many different points at which crowdfunding can be helpful. It’s  not just a great way to get dollars, it’s a great way to get feedback on your product. ”

“A good time to crowdfund is about 6 months before you’re ready to go into production.”

– Miriam Bekouche, Indiegogo @miriam_leia, @Indiegogo

“One use of crowdfunding is as a vehicle to test acceptance and interest. With crowdfunding you are testing a prototype, not selling a product, so it’s a great way to get around regulatory issues.”

– Elaine Chen, Martin Trust Center, MIT @chenelaine, @EshipMIT

On manufacturing

“They call it HARDware for a reason.”

-Ben Einstein, Bolt @BenEinstein, @BoltBoston

See video footage and tweets from the Robot14 event.

Today we announce the six finalists from Robot Launch who will be presenting their pitches online live to a panel of expert judges on Tuesday May 20 at 10am PDT. Join us then to see who takes home the ultimate champion crown! The six highest scoring startups from our Top 30 are (alphabetically): DoBots, Duct Inspection Robot, Leka, Odd I/O, Robotic Technologies of Tennessee and Tandemech Engineering. In the meantime, Robohub readers can also vote right here for the “People’s Choice” startup from the Robot Launch competition.

Here are the most popular videos from the preceding three weeks of reader polls. This is your chance to vote on the startup you think is best! The online poll will run until 10am [PDT] May 20, when the live finals judging commences. The startup winning the People’s Choice award will receive $500 from Robohub. All awards will be announced during the live finals. The most popular videos are (alphabetically):

3DOF Robotics | australia

3DOF Robotics have a VTOL aerial vehicle capable of shared autonomy for inspection of vertical structures difficult or dangerous for human inspection.

Axon Robotics | usa

Individuals and business owners are in constant need of ways to increase their productivity. We are addressing these demands with a capable robotic tool.

https://vimeo.com/92486548

Aisoy | spain

Aisoy makes technology feel. We create smart social robots for making our lives easier and more fun.

http://youtu.be/bqcxlF00yI8

Cubotix | usa

Cubotix builds service robots for everybody and targets domestic and professional use cases. Our goal is to squeeze years of autonomous robot research into affordable consumer platforms – first as an educational platform for advanced robotics, then for dedicated tasks in homes and in the field. We take the complexity out of robotics software and enable everybody to use our robots.

http://youtu.be/5sh-fm1HKNc

DoBots | the netherlands

DoBots builds services for groups of robots. Our software allows the robots to coordinate and cooperate and report their progress to human supervisors. The first service that will be commercially deployed is a coordination service for robots that are cleaning a supermarket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2QYfEPpGa8

Duct Inspection Robot | india

DuctBot is rugged toy-car-sized robot used for cleaning and inspecting air duct in central air conditioned environment like ships, submarines, operation theaters, clean rooms, home and offices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86aYpZLIC1c&feature=youtu.be

GimBall | switzerland

We are developing Gimball, a game-changing flying robot that can be flown indoors and in complex environments: it can stay stable after collisions with obstacles and can thus go where other robots can’t. Furthermore, it is safe to fly close to humans. This innovation turns robots into real partners for humans and truly unleashes the potential of flying robots by enabling countless new applications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOLy4070Xa8

Jammster | usa

In the US alone, over 140,000 quadriplegics require the constant attention of expensive in-home caregivers. Our mission is to create an affordable mobile robotic assistant that will provide these people with greater independence and an improved quality of life. We have a prototype, called Jammster, that consists of a dual-arm human friendly robot that has been mounted on a mobile base.

Jessiko Robot Fish by Robotswim | france

Robotswim is a start-up whose objective is to put artificial life in aquariums and pools around the world. The flagship product, Jessiko, is 22 cm long and can swim in a school of 10 or more robots, to create entertaining aquatic choreography and light effects.

Inf Robotics | usa

We have developed an affordable home health care robot for seniors that can provide telecommunications to doctors from the safety and security of their home, assistive features such as medication reminders and safety features in the event of an emergency.

Leka | france

Leka is a young startup that develops smart and innovative toys for children with communication and social disabilities.

Sproutel | usa

At Sproutel we use emotional robots to make patient education friendly for children diagnosed with a chronic illness. Our first product Jerry the Bear, is a completely interactive teddy bear that enables kids with Type 1 diabetes to master their medical procedures, ultimately resulting in smiling faces and improved outcomes.

RoboTar | usa

RoboTar is the first Portable robotic chord hand for guitar. It is a device paired with software running in a laptop or Android device to play guitar using only a one hand to strum or pick and a foot pedal or single push button to change chords.

Tandemech Engineering | usa

Tandemech Engineering is a California-based robotics startup, focusing on wall-climbing robotic platforms. The technology we have developed has allowed our proof-of-concept to outperform any wall-climber ever developed. We hope to continue to adapt our technology into vehicles to deploy testing, inspection, and potentially even manufacturing equipment into places that have previously been prohibitive to access.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLmMCTVpFqk

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE”

VOTING CLOSES ON TUESDAY MAY 20 AT 10AM [PDT]

For the next three weeks, Robohub readers can vote for the “People’s Choice” startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we’re going to publish 10 videos from our Top 30 and during our live final on May 20, you can vote for the ultimate “People’s Choice” winner. This week’s videos (in alphabetic order) are:

3DOF Robotics | australia

3DOF Robotics have a VTOL aerial vehicle capable of shared autonomy for inspection of vertical structures difficult or dangerous for human inspection.

Avidbots | canada

Avidbots is automating the most labor and time-intensive portion of commercial floor cleaning. This automation will make commercial floor cleaning more efficient and cost-effective than ever before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv7KWr01NTo

Cloudy Robotics | canada

Cloudy Robotics aims to build a cloud platform for consumer robotics. Much like cloud platform solutions are becoming available for the Internet of Things (i.e. Xively, Thingworx and Carriots) robotics needs an open platform for its specific needs like real-time telepresence control, offloaded processing and code updates.

DoBots | the netherlands

DoBots builds services for groups of robots. Our software allows the robots to coordinate and cooperate and report their progress to human supervisors. The first service that will be commercially deployed is a coordination service for robots that are cleaning a supermarket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2QYfEPpGa8

Erle Robotics | spain

At Erle Robotics we are designing the first open, low cost Personal Drone, the next generation of flying computers that will be used to teach, learn and research about flying robots.

Jammster | usa

In the US alone, over 140,000 quadriplegics require the constant attention of expensive in-home caregivers. Our mission is to create an affordable mobile robotic assistant that will provide these people with greater independence and an improved quality of life. We have a prototype, called Jammster, that consists of a dual-arm human friendly robot that has been mounted on a mobile base.

Mighty Mount | usa

Although technology has allowed advances in video recording devices, the technology enabling more advanced camera mounts has been lagging. The solution is an automated camera mount that records moving objects for you, be it yourself or your friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaz003F6Jrs

Odd I/O (Wigl) | usa

Wigl is an educational interactive robot with a musical ear (developed right here in Portland). The idea is that Wigl can “hear” notes and responds with different movements (and dances). My goal is to have children enjoy the positive physical feedback that they receive while playing an instrument (e.g. a recorder) and make a connection with a toy that fully appreciates their musical talents!

RoboTar | usa

RoboTar is the first Portable robotic chord hand for guitar. It is a device paired with software running in a laptop or Android device to play guitar using only a one hand to strum or pick and a foot pedal or single push button to change chords.

Tandemech Engineering | usa

Tandemech Engineering is a California-based robotics startup, focusing on wall-climbing robotic platforms. The technology we have developed has allowed our proof-of-concept to outperform any wall-climber ever developed. We hope to continue to adapt our technology into vehicles to deploy testing, inspection, and potentially even manufacturing equipment into places that have previously been prohibitive to access.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLmMCTVpFqk

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE”

(ok, voting is getting a little crazy so this is a new more robust poll – old votes still count and we’re also going to give favorable weight to positive comments for startups left in the comments section below the poll)

VOTING CLOSES ON TUESDAY APRIL 29 AT 6PM [PDT]

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

• Robot Launch 2014: Announcing the top 30
• Loving your #startup to death
• Introducing the Cybathlon
• Flying Donkey Challenge announces 33 entrants for first subchallenge
• € 7M EuRoC competition opens call to ignite EU manufacturing industry
• Minesweepers: Towards a landmine-free world

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