Most of us are familiar with the podcasts about robotics from the Robots Podcast group. For different perspectives, from the funder’s point of view, here’s a list of podcasts from the VC’s that fund robotics and technology ventures — funders like Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Greylock Partners and Y Combinator.

Venture Capitalist POVs

Erin Griffith said: “It’s starting to seem like every firm wants to be in the literal ears of entrepreneurs.” She compiled this list for her Fortune Term Sheet column. After listening to a few different podcasts, I found it an entertaining, informative and fascinating way to get insight into VC thinking.

• a16z podcast by Andreessen Horowitz
• The Riff by Box Group‘s David Tisch and Union Square Ventures‘ Andy Wiessman
• Traction by NextView Ventures
• Collective Wisdom for Tech Startups by Founder Collective
• Startup School Radio by Y Combinator
• Ventured by Kleiner Perkins
• The Balderton Podcast by Balderton Capital
• Notion Capital, by Notion Capital
• Venture Perspectives by Scale Venture Partners
• Origins by Notation Capital
• Lead by Menlo Ventures
• Greymatter by Greylock Partners
• Bothsides TV by Upfront Ventures
• The Full Rachet by Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures
• The Bootstrapped VC by Backstage Capital
• Human Proof of Concept by Janelle Anderson of CTI Life Sciences
• Acquired by David Rosenthal of Madrona Ventures
• Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman

Robotics Focused Podcasts

The Robots podcast is run by Robohub and creates bi-weekly interviews with leaders in the field. Robohub is a non-profit independent organization run by volunteers. To date, the podcast team has produced 232 podcasts. Robots is available via Soundcloud, Apple iTunes and all other major podcast servers.

Although the original articles (2016 was best year ever for funding robotics startup companies) and (Over $19 billion paid to acquire 50 robotic companies) have been updated to reflect the omissions of 2016 fundings and acquisitions, listed below is a recap of those updated transactions.

Fundings:

• $100 million for China-based RooBo – A China-based service robot maker for home and personal use, raised $100 million from iFlyTek, a Chinese software firm with which it formed a strategic partnership that will see ROOBO integrate iFlyTek’s intelligent speech and language recognition technology into ROOBO’s robots. ROOBO also manufactures an intelligent drone, a VR headset and smart bone conduction headphones. ROOBO’s team has 300 employees and 7 offices worldwide.
• $50 million for Israeli Roboteam – An Israeli manufacturer of unmanned ground vehicles for the military secured a $50 million Series B funding from Calcalist and The Marker, both Singaporean investment funds.
• $9.5 million for Matternet – A startup providing load-carrying unmanned aerial systems for on-demand aerial logistics, raised $9.48 million in a seed round by Daimler and the Wei Fund.
• $2 million for area17 – A SRI spin-off located in Silicon Valley, raised $2 million in seed funding from Morado Venture Partners and Red Dog Capital. Area17 is developing a collision avoidance autonomous navigation system for mobile and aerial robots.
• $1.8 million for xCraft – An Idaho-based UAV startup with a VTOL capable of vertical takeoff and landing, raised $1.8 million seed round from angel investors including Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John and Lori Greiner.
• $1.5 million for ReActive Robotics GmbH – A German rehab robotics startup, closed a Series A round of “seven digits” (in Euros) from which we approximated $1.5 million. Investors included MTIP MedTech Innovation Partners, Bayern Kapital, High-Tech Gruenderfonds and The TQ Group.
• $800k for Ascent Robotics – A Tokyo startup developing multi-task AI agents for robotic systems, raised $800k in seed funding.
  ​
• Also Cafe X Technologies, Fellow Robots and Simbe Robotics received undisclosed amounts.

Acquisitions:

• Regarding the acquisition of Liquid Robotics by Boeing, at the time it didn’t have any financial details, but a flurry of leaks and rumors suggest that Boeing paid $300 million for LR. Both companies won’t comment.
• Redbird, a French drone-powered analytics provider for construction and mining companies, sold to American Airware for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition allows Airware to concentrate on the insurance vertical where it helps State Farm and other customers with inspecting roofs, residential claims management, and commercial underwriting.
• Erle Robotics, a Spanish startup making components for robots and drones, was acquired by Swiss Acutronic Group, a maker of multiple axes motion simulators, for an undisclosed amount.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) has announced a call for startup companies in robotics, machine vision and motion control for its Automate Launch Pad Competition. The competition will be held at the Automate 2017 Show and Conference in Chicago, Illinois on April 5, 2017. The presenting sponsor of the competition is GE. The event is co-produced with Silicon Valley Robotics.

Automation applications in robotics, vision, motion and motors are impacting many industries today. Recently, there has been a groundswell of startup companies introducing new products in the sector. The Automate Launch Pad Startup Competition seeks out these startups to generate awareness of their technology and help them find new funding.

Eight (8) semi-finalist companies will be invited to participate in the competition that features a grand prize of $10,000. Companies will have three minutes to pitch their technology to a panel of investors and automation experts. Eligible companies include those in the automation space (robotics, vision, motion control, etc.) who were founded in the last 5 years; raised less than US $2 million since creation; and are not affiliated with a larger group. All semi-finalists will be provided booth space on the Automate show floor, putting them in front of an expected audience of over 20,000 people interested in automation. The exhibit space must be staffed during Automate show hours.

“We recognize the critical role of startup companies in driving innovation and bringing forth new technologies to foster continued growth,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of A3. “We encourage startups to take advantage of this opportunity to spread awareness and take their company to the next level.”

To apply for the Automate Launch Pad Competition, fill out the form here. Deadline for applications is February 17, 2017.

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

Launched last week on Indiegogo, the Nailbot prints instant custom art onto your fingernails from your phone. Behind the concept is a new kind of company — a movement to inspire confidence in girls and women, and to provide them with the opportunity to engage with technology that is relevant to their lifestyle. Preemadonna teaches them how to start a business, how to build prototypes of their ideas, and how to code.

A main outreach avenue for Preemadonna is our Ambassador program. Perks include VIP access to exclusive Nailbot & Preemadonna events where we test upcoming prototypes of our product. Girls joining the program are also taught to create art using various computer programs. This is then uploaded to our app and printed using a Nailbot. Ambassadors also have first access to our Maker Kit, which teaches them how to build their own touchscreen printer.

More than just a company with a product, Preemadonna is devoted to being socially conscious: we work with a variety of community partners to empower girls and young women to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. We want every girl to embrace her dynamic nature and realise that having multiple skills and interests is not a problem. Each girl should know that she can be a Preemadonna: a smart and beautiful girl.

One of our first partners was Alexa Cafe, a week-long summer camp for girls focused on teaching them about technology and leadership. We gave presentations to introduce the girls to the Nailbot and explain the prototyping process. It was easy to tell that Alexa had opened the girls’ minds because the questions they asked were insightful and detailed. It’s an inspiring place to visit. We also recently visited MakerGirl, a program for young girls run by students at the University of Illinois. Our presentation there focused on the prototyping process and how we use 3D printing, and the girls had a chance to use our latest prototype.

Preemadonna Ambassadors, January 2015.

We’ve found that we are able to produce a more desirable and engaging product by working directly with our customers. Specifically, our prototypes have evolved with customer feedback from our pre-teen and teen supporters. Some voiced the need to have diverse galleries of art that can be modified and consumed easily, with applications beyond fingernail printing. Girls want stickers and temporary tattoos from Preemadonna! Others wanted more diversity in color choice; teal, mint and rainbow were very popular. Many loved the ingenuity in our first Nailbot prototype — which is a clever swipe-to-print concept that is not motorized — but they voiced concern that the early prototype would not reach the level of accuracy they wanted (you can check out our Nailbot Journey in our Indiegogo campaign).

Fundamentally, these girls helped validate our concepts and business model. The digital art marketplace is one of the Nailbot’s biggest draws, and the ability to contribute back to the community and having access to Preemadonna founders is what will keep them engaged.

Join us on our journey and involve the creative and dynamic girls in your life!

Casey Schulz and Pree Walia, co- founders of Preemadonna.

Robots in Depth is a new video series featuring interviews with researchers, entrepreneurs, VC investors, and policy makers in robotics, hosted by Per Sjöborg. In this interview, Andra Keay, director of Silicon Valley Robotics, talks about opportunities and challenges for robotics startups and how developments in the agricultural sector can aid consumer robots.

Andra explains how Silicon Valley Robotics formed and what they do, including organising networking events such as the annual Robot Block Party.

She also shares her views on the areas of robotics where we will see significant developments in the near future, including progress in agricultural robotics that could feed into improvements in other industries, such as home robots.

You can support Robots in Depth on Patreon. Check out all the Robots in Depth videos here.

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

• Five women robotics experts from Silicon Valley share their stories
• Money continues to flow into robotics startups
• Coming of age: Clearpath’s Ryan Gariepy on growing a robotics startup
• Meet the winners of #RobotLaunch2015

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

Melonee shares how she first got into building things at a young age and how that led to studying mechanical engineering and leaving her PhD project behind to become the second employee of Willow Garage. She shares some personal anecdotes from the first few years at Willow Garage, including both successes like the PR2 and some less successful moments.

Melonee also gives her perspective on the development phase robotics is in now and what the remaining challenges are. Related to that, she discusses what is feasible to deliver in the next five years vs. what her dream robot would be.

You can support Robots in Depth on Patreon. Check out all the Robots in Depth videos here.

Almost one year ago, Leka won the Grand Prize at the 2014 Robot Launch competition for Moti, a robotic toy that helps autistic children learn to regulate their own emotions through play. Leka cofounder and CEO Ladislas de Toldi writes about where Leka is now.

At Leka, our mission is to help exceptional children live exceptional lives. Our first product, Moti, a small spherical autonomous a smart toy to help take care of children with special needs.

Being a robot, Moti is both predictable and stable in its interactions, which is very important for the child’s sense of safety and serenity. Moti caters to the specific needs of the kids and focuses on sensory and motor stimulations such as music, colors, mouvements and vibrations. Moti will really help parents, carers and doctors, take care of the children in a smarter and more connected way.

Almost exactly a year ago we won the Grand Prize of the Robot Launch Competition. 

ENTRIES OPEN UNTIL JULY 12 FOR ROBOT LAUNCH 2015!

I remember this day pretty well as it felt unreal. We were all sitting in my living room in Paris, waiting to pitch the project to the impressive jury. The connection, the sound and the video were not so good, and it felt like time was over before we even began pitching.

Then we had to wait for the others to pitch and for the jury to deliberate. We were joking, hoping to win at least the European Startup Prize so we could get an appointment with Robolution Capital. But the jury came back, and we did not win the European Startup Prize.

Maybe the Crowdfunding Prize? Nope… I said to my team mate “it was fun, but I think it’s over…”.

The jury left once again to vote for the Grand Prize and came back. We were about to hang up but then it was announced: “The Grand Winner is Leka!”

What?! — We could not believe it! We had just won an international robotics startup competition!

It might sound a little goofy but that was exactly what we needed at the time. The fact that robotics experts said we were worth winning an international robotics competition was a real moral and business boost for us!

The prize helped us win a €60k grant in July 2014 to work on the prototypes and run more tests, which began in October 2014 and lasted until January 2015 in several special education schools near Paris.

For four months, more than 70 children, ranging in age from 4-17 years, played with Moti. Some had autism spectrum disorders, some had Down Syndrome, and others had multiple disabilities. But regardless of their disabilities, they all loved playing with Moti!

We used Moti in several situations, sometimes as a reinforcer and motivator to tell the kids how great they did, sometimes to help them reduce anxiety with soothing sensory stimulations such as colors, vibrations and sounds. We taught kids how to play “hide and go seek the robot” and after three weeks they were able to play autonomously without us intervening at all. It looks simple but this game has some complicated concepts for exceptional children. By using Moti, they were able to learn concepts like temporality, turn-taking and complex social interactions. And we are really proud! All those tests were run with a cognitive neuroscience researcher.

In January 2015 we moved to Agoranov, a well-known tech incubator in Paris. The team then started to get bigger. First to join was Ilona, a brilliant mechanical engineer who is working on control and trajectory algorithms for Moti. She also helps me develop the different applications and behaviours.

Two months ago Charlélie and Julien were brought in to work on business development and on the crowdfunding campaign we will launch soon! They’re sharp, they’re proactive and we love working with them.

Last but not least is Ethel, a wonderful electronic engineer who is helping us moving from our Arduino platform to something more robust.

Moti has also evolved a lot during the past few months. We’ve worked with a great design firm to get this real cute little companion for the kids and they love it!

We also won several other competitions such as l’Echappée Volée, which allows us to pitch our project at TEDxParis in November, and the Silica IoT Competition with a €80k in services from their partners in electronics, product design and manufacturing.

If it all seems – and is – great, we also have our ups and downs. Starting your own company is a constant challenge, with a lot of stress, disappointments, great joys and incredible encounters. There is not a single day during which we have not doubted. And when life feels overwhelming, we spend time with the kids. Then we know why we are here and it gives us strength to continue and pursue our mission!

Robot Launch 2015 is bringing together a great pool of prizes and services for robot startups. All startups in the semis or finals are eligible for awards as we search for offers such as “Crowd Pleaser” or “Best European Startup”. And for the first time, we’ll be offering a grand prize of $5,000 to the winner, in cash or travel. Deadline to enter: July 12! Register now!

According to feedback from startups in last year’s Robot Launch competition, startup services such as legal services, and interviews and business coaching with VC firms are even more valuable than money. We are pleased that this competition will be bringing together some amazing judges with experience in commercializing a wide range of robotics.

Once again, WilmerHale will be providing free startup services to US companies, now joined by LaBarge Weinstein offering legal services to Canadian startups. Robolution Capital will provide business model coaching to a European startup, as will QUT bluebox in Australia.

We’re also able to provide some hardware/software for select startups, including a ROS consulting package from Clearpath Robotics, custom fasteners from Olander and robot development boards from KRTKL. KRTKL’s snickerdoodle is a small and affordable board for powering the next generation of connected robots. With an ARM processor, FPGA, and wireless, snickerdoodle brings new high-end capabilities to open platforms like Linux, ROS, and ArduPilot. If you’re building a robot, you need snickerdoodle. KRTKL will be launching snickerdoodle on Kickstarter soon but Robot Launch semifinalists will be first in line.

Sponsors this year include: Amazon, CSIRO, Clearpath Robotics, SMBC, Robolution Capital, The Olander Company, KRTKL, iRobot, LaBarge Weinstein, WilmerHale, QUT bluebox, Silicon Valley Robotics and Robohub.

We hope to add new prizes throughout the competition, which will take place online over 3 rounds of judging from June to August. The deadline for entry is July 12th.

The competition registration site is here: http://robot2015.istart.org

Innorobo 2014.

Innorobo’s call for start-ups has just closed and 25 semi-finalists from around the world will now be reviewed by a jury of experts to select the five winners. The winners will pitch to investors at a plenary conference and exhibit free of charge at Innorobo, the international robotics summit. Why does Innoecho – the consulting company specialized in driving disruptive technologies to market, and organizer of Innorobo – hold such a call?

The Call for Start-ups initiative came up three years ago in order to meet robotics entrepreneurs’ need to connect with a broader ecosystem. Professional and personal service robotics is an emerging, thriving field thanks to an ever-growing wealth of entrepreneurial projects. Entrepreneurs in this arena need connections with an extensive international network to develop and reach their market as swiftly as possible.

A few years back, most investors set their sights on Internet entrepreneurial initiatives and hardware projects (with high investment needs, a long, complex prototyping / beta test process and lower gross margin forecasts), and had a tough time finding any kind of seed or development funding. Today, Innorobo brings together an audience of 10,000 decision-makers in robotics and related technologies, as well as from industry, service companies, research laboratories, the academic sphere, public institutions, the investment/finance world and the media. In this way, Innorobo’s “Call for Start-ups” connects entrepreneurial ventures with a broad, meaningful ecosystem.

Since the tech boom, many organizations have been set up to support entrepreneurship, and robotics has become a hot topic in mature economies. In addition to love money, start-ups can now benefit from crowdfunding platforms, business angels, industrial partners and investors specializing in hardware ventures. This is illustrated in Europe, which has a healthy early-stage startup scene.

The number of European accelerators and incubators has increased dramatically since the start of the financial crisis. Between 2007 and 2013, the number rose by nearly 400%. In 2013, a study by Telefonica identified 260 organizations in 10 European countries. This dizzying growth in funding providers does nevertheless make it harder for start-ups to pinpoint the one that best meets their needs. One size doesn’t fit all, and entrepreneurs sometimes get lost in the maze of huge groups or multiple supporting institutions (clusters, incubators, investors network, etc.) in various “vertical” technological fields (mechanical engineering, electronics, software, mechatronics, etc.). Innorobo can put entrepreneurs in contact with the right key stakeholders for their project.

In addition, these structures are mainly regional – only 15% of the incubators/accelerators in Europe are “international” – and the Telefonica survey recommends European leaders take decisive steps to make country borders meaningless for entrepreneurs. Finally, while some countries have laid out roadmaps, built institutions and seen private organizations sprouting up to support robotics entrepreneurs, others are lacking a structured business ecosystem. Hence, Innorobo provides both a dynamic international marketplace and a structure that nurtures the amazing entrepreneurial spirit of robotics. Though we “physically” bring people together around projects, we also provide services that go beyond the confines of a physical location. Start-ups need international exposure from the very start in order to move from the prototype phase to the production stage and find their first customers. We work hard to promote innovation, competitiveness, technology transfer and other key public policy aims of and across all participating countries.

More importantly, over the years, Innorobo’s team has built lasting connections with many people and projects in the diverse fields of robotics. It is not just about a database of more than 3,000 robotics companies, it is about real interactions with passionate people who are truly working to make the world a better place. There are some entrepreneurs who know how to communicate and capitalize on their network as part of their strategy, and others who don’t. We believe all energy and efforts would be better focused on principles that help push innovation forward, on substance versus style. The Call for Start-ups jury is handpicked to reflect these values.

Innoecho believes in open innovation, in international partnerships and in a globalized world with social responsibility. To help meet the challenges our world is facing today, we believe we must go beyond the typical national or continental business visions and create a global network that will generate a host of opportunities for every entrepreneurial venture to find its fair share of business and truly impact society for the better.

Come visit our hall dedicated to start-ups and discover the innovations that are going to make the world a better place.

Nuclear decommissioning

Decommissioning nuclear sites may not at first glance have a great deal to do with dirty dishes, but add a robot called Boris – which started life perfecting its dexterity through loading dishwashers, and is now to begin trialling at Sellafield – and it all begins to make sense.

Decommissioning of a nuclear plant, the containment is shown in the picture and is half deconstructed. Source: National Regulatory Commission.

A product of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at the UK University of Birmingham, Boris is one of the first robots in the world capable of intelligently manipulating unfamiliar objects with a humanlike grasp.  His skills were first demonstrated in a dishwasher loading task that hit headlines worldwide.

Team member Krzysztof Walas explained that Boris’s new Sellafield role is less of a promotion and more of a progression.

“The first project was on grasping, the follow up was on dishwasher loading – those projects were FP7 [EU Funding Programme Seven}. Now [we’re working on] a Horizon 2020 project on nuclear waste decommissioning, which is in collaboration with nuclear waste companies and laboratories across Europe.”

Collaborations such as the one between the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory and nuclear waste companies are a major source of growth for robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), according to RAS Special Interest Group Chair, David Lane.

“RAS has a role to play in decommissioning, re-commissioning and long-term waste management, with positive implications for both safety and cost,” he beleives. “The total cost of nuclear decommissioning in the UK alone, mostly at Sellafield, is currently estimated at £60 billion. Owing to the high levels of radiation, all stages of the nuclear fission and fusion life cycle will require the use of advanced RAS tools and techniques.”

Sellafield is working with a number of small businesses – including snake robot arm developers, OC Robotics – to develop these tools. Sellafiled is investing over £70m per annum on R&D to deploy new technologies that reduce the risks and costs associated with nuclear waste. It’s an investment likely to increase year on year as the decommissioning objective becomes an imperative.

Find out more about collaboration opportunities in nuclear decommissioning via the NDA website.

Transporting London

Providing smooth and reliable transport for London’s burgeoning population is already a challenge, but what will happen when another million people enter the equation? This is the challenge faced by John Downes, Head of Engineering Governance & Services at London Underground. Transport for London (TfL), which oversees the Underground, is on the hunt for innovative proposals to help solve the capital transport conundrums.

“The challenge is moving towards London,” Downes told delegates at last month’s RAS in Horizon 2020 event. “London will have one million additional inhabitants by 2030, it’s as if the current population of Birmingham moved to the capital.” To deal with this population surge, the city has to have a very efficient network in palace and we must lever off the technology, he stressed.

To encourage companies to work with TfL, the organisation has established a Technology Innovation Portal allowing users to speedily input ideas and solutions that meet key challenges. These are grouped into six categories:

• Customer
• Value and sustainability
• People
• Delivery
• Reliability and dependability
• Safety

Each category has specific challenges such as: to deliver faster, more frequent services, improve energy efficiency and sustainability, increase workforce flexibility, improve safety and asset condition monitoring.

For a flavour of the improvements already in hand, earlier this year TFL released digitally simulated video of improvements to tube lines that are expected over the next decade.

Designed by PriestmanGoode, The “New Tube for London” features a futuristic design that abandons the traditional multi-carriage layout for a walk-through car that will provide passengers with air-cooling and onboard Wi-Fi for the first time. TfL plans to deploy 250 of these next-generation tube trains on the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City Lines over the next decade.

Although the new trains will be driver enabled, they are also designed to run automatically and intended to last for 30 years, running 24 hours a day. The new trains would boost capacity on the Piccadilly line alone by around 60%. That sounds a lot, but when 10 million extra people are factored in, it becomes obvious that simply improving train efficiency is not enough. That’s why your ideas are vital.

TfL’s Technology Innovation Portal is designed to act as a premier resource but you can also email Innovation.Office@tfl.gov.uk with your query.

Robotics in healthcare

Developed by US company Rethink Robotics as a highly adaptable tool in manufacturing, Baxter is not the first automaton that comes to mind when considering the needs of the healthcare industry. But the news last week of Rapid Response Research awards for researchers working with Baxter on a human-robot system for removing the necessary protective clothing that workers caring for patients with Ebola require, shows how varied the opportunities in this space can be.

“The challenges in the field are so varied, you need to think laterally,” counselled Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Director Karen Livingstone, who is also Head of Partnerships and Industry at the Eastern Academic Health Science Network. She was speaking to delegates at an event centred on the latest Horizon 2020 funding call at the end of last year, and wished to draw attention to the myriad possibilities available in healthcare.“ The fact that it may not be a natural space for robotics doesn’t mean it’s not a good opportunity,” she said.

Researchers are trying to prove Baxter could be used to dispose of contaminated clothes. Source: BBC News

An NHS England initiative, SBRI healthcare is championed by the UK’s Academic Health Science Networks. The aim is to promote economic growth whilst addressing unmet health needs. SBRI gives SMEs an opportunity to connect with public sector procurement by inviting them to present innovative solutions to specific problems in a competition format. Winning proposals can result in 100 percent funded government development contracts.

So what is the healthcare industry looking for from robotic and autonomous technologies? Challenges highlighted by Livingstone in her presentation include self care, management of care, remote monitoring, data management, wound management and diagnosing on the spot. Outlining the support that SBRI healthcare can offer business initiatives she said:

“Clinicians working together with entrepreneurs and technology specialists gives us an exciting mix that leads to real innovation.”

“The NHS has many challenges to tackle. Through the SBRI healthcare programme, we are building long-term partnerships with industry to create new products that will save lives and deliver economic value to the UK economy.”

Traditionally, robots have played a key role in the manufacturing sector, but with advances in what’s known as social robotics they could also play a fundamental part in improving quality of life, particularly in the home and non-industrial environments. And healthcare is one area where there is a lot of interest. The technology can greatly help surgical procedures, as seen with the Da Vinci Robot, and there have been moves into the bionics space with prosthetics and rebuilding damaged limbs.

A big attraction is socially assistive robots in healthcare and Baxter’s new role is a good example. Others include Aldebaran’s Nao, which has been successful with autistic children in helping to develop communication and social skills and the Japanese-invented PARO-Seal robot is being used with NHS dementia patients.

In fact, the realm of the healthbot could include anything from monitoring patients’ movements to assisting with care tasks, although that’s not tot say that there aren’t substantial challenges specific to this sector.

Focusing on technological innovation but with a strong emphasis on clinical translation and direct patient benefit, the UK’s Hamlyn Centre is at the forefront of research in imaging, sensing and robotics for addressing global health challenges.

The centre hosts outreach activities, and is active in its support for the healthcare business and the training of surgeons and engineers in robotic technologies, It also aims to overcome global health challenges by harnessing Imperial’s interdisciplinary research strengths and its expertise in safe, effective and accessible technologies. At the Horizon 2020 event, a demonstration of the centre’s research by its Director, Professor Yang, (pictured above with Minister of State for Universities, Science and Cities, Greg Clark) provoked much interest.

Markets and Markets research predict that the medical robotics market will grow to $3,764m by 2018. With the necessity of major changes in the way healthcare is delivered, there’s never been a better time for developers working in robotics and automation to present solutions.

This article was originally published on RAS SIG – the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group, part of Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network.

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

• Dmitry Grishin on evaluating robotic investment opportunities
• Loving your #startup to death
• Guiding technology through uncertain valleys: SRI’s Rich Mahoney on risks, rewards, and the future of robotics
• Why fostering high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship matters to the economy, and what universities can do about it

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

Exhibiting at big events takes both time and money. Is it worth it for a robotics startup to invest in big expos like CES?  We asked Bill Culley of Empire Robotics – the company behind the VERSABALL soft ball gripper – to share his perspective. 

Why is Empire Robotics at CES?

We are at CES to show people that industrial robots are entering a new age – an age where it is safe to interact with them, they are easy to use, and they have capabilities beyond the old hard coded, do the same thing a million times with no error tolerance. Our robot gripper is soft, safe to work around, easy to program, and highly adaptable to a changing environment.

What is exciting at CES this year?

Well, there are certainly some very innovative technologies and product unveilings at the show this year. Plenty of connected and wearable devices, and of course the new Tesla Model X. And believe it or not, our little 10’x10’ booth has managed to garner coverage on par with some of these other high profile releases. People seem to be interested in robots, so we created a demo for people to come challenge a robot to a game of beer pong, and it’s gained attention beyond our expectations.

What’s the value for you given that CES is consumer facing and your product falls more into the industrial use category? 

This is not our target market (electronics consumers vs. industrial manufacturing engineers), so we don’t expect to meet customers at this show. But, we have found that a lot of our customers find us by reading an article on a tech blog, or seeing a posting on facebook in a engineering gadgets group. So we figure if we create a demo of our technology that can grab attention, the story will make its way to our target audience through second and third degree sharing from one interested engineer to the next.

Was it worth it?  

Yes. We have participated in trade shows, large and small, in the past and they always end up being worth it. Making one good connection often pays for the cost of the event, and we learn a lot by talking about our technology and answering hundreds of questions that reveal patterns in customer mindset. CES in particular … we have gotten great exposure in articles around the web already, and our video of the demo just hit 250,000 views. We’ve already had a few new customers contact us after they saw the beer pong demo, so it seems to be working.

What other conferences does a startup go to? 

Industrial trade shows are the best for us. We get to learn about our partners in the market, our competition, and our customers in a very focused place. It’s a great place to build relationships with other industry players by seeing the same people at different shows. And it seems to build customer confidence in our company when they see us at a few different trade shows – we start to blend in with the established names in the industry.

What advice can you offer other startups that are thinking of exhibiting at an expo?

Have a demo that grabs attention from a distance. Many of our customers cruise through an expo in half a day to see if there is anything new, then head back to their office. If they can’t see our grippers doing something they’ve never seen before from ten feet away, they’ll pass right by us.

Empire Robotics specializes in flexible robotic end-effectors that leverage the jamming phase transition of granular materials. You can learn more about the technology behind their VERSABALL gripper here. 

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

• Loving your #startup to death
• Does crowdfunding derisk robotics?
• RobotLaunch startups take note! Sage advice from the experts at Robots2014
• New-tech grippers hit the market
• Robots14 brings it all together

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

1) Don’t think it’s all about the money

You approach a crowd-funding platform because you need money to realise your dream. But, what you receive from a campaign is so much more than financial backing. The Open Hand Project campaign created this amazing community of people who are still supporting the project a year on. We were backed by over 1,000 people and that is an incredibly important validation of what we’re trying to do. Your backers are the people who set you up for so many opportunities in the future. They’re invaluable.

– Open Bionics founder, Joel Gibbard

Open Bionics was born out of The Open Hand Project, Bristol’s most successful Indiegogo campaign. The campaign raised over £40,000 to fund the development of 3D printed robotic hands.

2) Don’t wait for the shares

The key to a successful campaign is in the back campaign (prep). Kickstarter will help with letting people know about your campaign but don’t rely on it. Use social media to find your market across their various hangouts and bring them onto your project page. This should be carried out online in the form of forums, blogs and news sites and in the physical world at local shows or community spaces.

Don’t Lie, too. Kickstarter backers come from a variety of places but a key market they attract is early adopters. They have backed projects before and know what to look for, they know the technology and can identify weak points. Use this to your advantage by pulling from them their experiences. They will love to help, and respond well to good communicators.

– Omnidynamics co-founder, David Graves

Omnidymanics used Kickstarter to fund their first product called Strooder. The Strooder campaign asked for $20,000 and was funded in 11 hours. They raised over $60,000 by the end of their campaign.

3) Don’t assume anything!

Don’t rush the preparation and make sure the project has been planned and costed in detail beforehand. Risk assess and think through consequences of problems and things not going to plan as this will be inevitable!

– Agilic founder, Harry Gee

Agilic successfully funded it’s first product, Tiddlybot, through Kickstarter and raised over $10,000 more than their goal. View the campaign page here.

4) Don’t hit that ‘go live’ button just yet

Timing and preparation is key: Make sure you know everything about your manufacturing costs, timeline and margins before you launch. Once you take crowd money, you owe them the product you promised.

– Reach Robotics founder, Silas Adekunle

Reach Robotics is making the world’s first gaming robots. The company was set to launch an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign this month but delayed it.

5) Don’t wait for the publicity to roll in

If you’re new to social media, pick at least one platform and master it. This could be Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or YouTube. Communication is key for a successful campaign so post regularly, stay positive, and stay away from online arguments or controversy. Expand your reach by getting involved with established online communities whether that’s through RoboHub, IEEE Automaton blog, or another outlet.

– Robohub president, Dr. Sabine Hauert.

Robohub has helped to promote many successful robotics campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and has recently launched an Indiegogo Partner Page for robotics startups.

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

• Loving your #startup to death
• Startup Series #5: Rodney Brooks, Steve Cousins & Pioneers Festival
• RobotLaunch startups take note! Sage advice from the experts at Robots2014
• Does crowdfunding derisk robotics?
• Robohub launches Indiegogo partner page for crowdfunding robot startups
• FounderDating hardware edition
• This robotic prosthetic hand can be made for just $1000

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

Fellow Robots, in partnership with Lowes Hardware, today launched the OSHbot as a customer assistant robot at the Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose. Although the robot can only give information, this trial will help determine what sort of benefit a robot assistant can provide, both to customers and to store associates.The International Federation of Robotics or IFR predicts that ‘public relations robots’ is a strong and growing sector that will see more than 400 robots deployed in the next three years. These robots are increasingly used in supermarkets, at exhibitions, in museums, and other venues as guides or information providers. The IFR figures will prove conservative if the first public relations or kiosk robots like Oshbot, Pepper and Furo, prove to be popular.

OSHbot is a tall white column mobile robot with two large screens. People can interact with the tablets to search for items or more information about products, and ask the robot directly where to find things. OSHbot speaks both English and Spanish. OSHbot will also help store employees with inventory management and communicating with employees in other locations.

Customers can also bring a part into the store and have OSHbot scan it, using scanning technology first developed for Lowe’s Holoroom home improvement simulator. After scanning and identifying the object, OSHbot will provide product information to the customer and help guide them to its location on store shelves.

The OSHbot was developed through a partnership between Lowe’s Innovation Labs and Fellow Robots, a Silicon Valley technology company specializing in the design and development of autonomous service robots. The partnership was initiated through SU Labs, a Singularity University program that connects corporate innovation teams with startups and other organizations to explore exponentially accelerating technologies and create new sustainable business solutions.

“The last decade was one of rapid technological advancement and prototyping, especially in robotics,” said Marco Mascorro, chief executive officer of Fellow Robots. “With OSHbot, we’ve worked closely with Lowe’s Innovation Labs to take autonomous retail service robot technology out of the sandbox and into the consumer market – enhancing the in-store consumer experience and creating smarter shoppers.”

Fellow Robots have quite a vision and have clearly been busy developing a much more sophisticated robot than the telepresence robot with a coat hanger that was their first robot concept at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013.

http://youtu.be/Sp9176vm7Co

RE.WORK’s Future Robotics Forum – which took place in London on Tuesday – was an opportunity to hear the stories of the developers of these and other transformative robotic services and devices, a melting pot of key influencers in this most versatile of technologies, and an opportunity to gather a great many take-home points on the challenges involved in commercialisation.

Perhaps the most important of these, it emerged, is the necessity of putting the emphasis on what you can do with the technology, rather than selling the robot itself.

This was certainly the philosophy of Matthew Holloway, managing director of Q-Bot, which supplies robots to the construction industry. While other developers looked on enviously, Holloway related how the company had achieved six figure orders in just 12 months, the majority from local authorities.

Task focussed

q-bot helps to insulate hard to reach areas with minimal disruption.

Holloway’s company is currently focussed on robots that can squeeze through a brick-sized vent to apply insulation under floorboards and map what they see in the process.

For Camden Council, faced with the difficulty of insulating homes that are often in conservation areas and have limited access points, this technology is particularly attractive. According to Holloway, some 20% of heat loss occurs through the floor and their bot-installed insulation can reduce drafts by 45% and save around £200 per annum per dwelling.

Holloway spoke of the importance of challenging people’s perceptions, in his company’s case proffering a solution with “intelligent devices that turn dirty jobs into clean cost effective tasks.”

This task-specific mantra was echoed by VC Ilian Iliev, CEO of the EcoMachines Incubator, who counselled developers to “focus on areas where payback is measurable.”

In his presentation, he also pointed out that hardware startups take a lot more money and time to develop than those focussing on software, so it’s important to demonstrate and validate return on investment (ROI) to clients as well as the scalability of business models across existing industrial infrastructure. He also advocated transferring “template” business models and emphasised the importance of precisely defined needs as opposed to hyping the technology.

Not just hype

Drones are one area of robotics that has been the subject of much hype recently. In fact, according to Mirko Kovac, Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at London’s Imperial College, the market for drones will be worth $90bn in the coming years. Rather than focussing on money-making possibilities, Kovac pointed out the huge potential drone networks hold for parts of the world that lack a developed infrastructure, such as large parts of Africa.

But he also highlighted the challenges that need to be overcome for the technology to progress: drones still have problems with landing in a city or in forests, and there are issues with moving in complex cluttered environments, close to water and in adapting to different media.

Kovac was followed onto the podium by drone developer Glenn Smith of Maplebird. The challenges that still need to be overcome mean that the technology won’t bear fruit tomorrow, he said, but it will happen within the next 5-10 years.

And it’s largely companies such as Amazon that are doing the groundwork to prepare people for drone deliveries. Their ambition, he stressed, is a real one. Underlining how seriously the mega-corporations, such as Amazon, Google and – most recently – DHL are taking drone delivery, he joked: “You know it’s serious when the Germans get involved!”

MapleBird says it has “benefited from the rapid advances in electronics driven by the smart phone industry, as both have common requirements for high processing power of data and images coupled with the need for very low power consumption, size and weight.”

So, just how is Maplebird planning to make products that stand out in the face of such competition? The company’s principle, outlined Smith, is the smaller the better. Miniature drones have many advantages, he stressed, including reducing regulatory hurdles. They’re also safer for cities in tasks such as monitoring buildings or traffic, and they’re fast and easy to deploy.

The company has been using biomimetic principles in the development of its technology. One of the most fascinating is a practical engine, designed to power flapping wing flight at the insect scale. In order to mimic this to the highest degree, they’ve even used the wings of real bees.

No insects were killed in the process of carrying out their experiments, Smith assured the audience; the bees concerned died of natural causes.

A world of opportunities 

Altruistic applications, smart city opportunities and a game of table tennis with a robot were features of other presentations. With so much to impart, coordinator Phil Williams from the Knowledge Transfer Network’s Robotics & Autonomous Systems Group was forced to keep question and answers sessions brief.

Leka’s Moti was the winner of Robohub’s 2014 Robot Launch competition.

Trevor Dowling of Greenwich City Council spoke of the need for robotics in the cities of the future; Nikos Pronios, Lead Technologist at Innovate UK, outlined funding opportunities; Ladislas de Toldi, CEO of Leka, impressed with his desire to help autistic children achieve their potential with the aid of robotics; and Jan Peters, a Professor working with Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, showed the audience his team’s progress with artificial intelligence in the learning of complex tasks such as table tennis.

“A key bottleneck in manufacturing is the high cost of robot programming and slow implementation,” he said.  However, “motor skill learning is a promising way to avoid programming all possible scenarios and continuously adapt to the environment.”

He made reference to research from Bosch, which has established that: “If a product costs less than 50 euros or is produced less than 10,000 times, it’s not competitive with manual labour” and pointed out that the robotics market in manufacturing is still at a relatively early stage. “Industry,” he emphasised, “is just starting to profit from this work!”<

Game changing collaboration

A major focus of the forum was that collaboration between industry and academia is vital to fully exploit the opportunities on offer. Two presentations in particular demonstrated how their potentially game-changing collaboration threatens to give Dyson and Apple a run for their money.

The partnership between Sheffield University academic Tony Prescott, Director of the University’s Centre for Robotics, and established designer Sebastian Conran is possibly unique to the field, with Prescott bringing the power of decades of research into human-robot-interaction and Conran brand-conscious design know-how.

Prescott was keen to point out that robots, although they have powerful applications to assist the elderly and infirm, should never be viewed as people substitutes. Instead he likened them to facilitators. One example of this, he said, is in encouraging social interaction among people. To illustrate his point, he indicated a furry bundle on the table: Paro, a Japanese robot resembling a baby seal, which has long been used in care homes and has proved very popular among residents.

In reference to studies that have highlighted the fears and preconceptions people have about robots’ involvement with the elderly and young, he pointed out that the way the questions had been phrased was an important factor. Turning to philosophy and psychology, his intrinsic message was that there are a number of different selves, robots haven’t yet mastered many – if any of them – yet and certainly won’t be taking over the world anytime soon.

But he maintained that in order to satisfy humanity, it is important that robots develop human-like traits. “Empathy,” he said ‘is very useful, to enable them to see the human perspective’.

Although Prescott is currently involved in a number of projects – including WYSIWYD a major EU-funded study to create a new transparency in human robot interaction – his collaboration with Conran took centre stage here. The duo are in the process of forming a startup to commercialise their work.

MiRo is an intelligent biomimetic robot that you can assemble yourself.

From here, Conran took up the baton, outlining products the team have been working on, such as MiRo – a mimetic robotic companion, which is a teachable ‘digital pet’. The device sells for around £400, with costs kept low by self assembly. It was important, says Conran, that HRI design principles were considered and he gives the example of blinking, which has been shown to have great impact on user experience.

Delving into the design process behind other products in the pipeline, such as iHelp or MIA (Mobile Intelligent Appliance), Conran explained that he had tried to think in terms of “what if Steve Jobs designed a robot?”

But perhaps the most original of the pair’s designs is the intelliTable. Part funded by an Innovate UK grant, it’s not so much a robot as a gesture- or voice-activated, self-navigating and self-adjusting platform that sees through optical navigation, not dissimilar to Dyson’s vacuum cleaning robot.

Conran believes its applications are diverse: the device can deliver things, act as a shopping trolley or work table. A telepresence screen gives additional functionality and there’s the possibility that, in future, it may also feature a mechanical arm.

The device has had a very good reception, says Conran. There’s been plenty of interest from hotels, for instance, and it’s easy to imagine it being used in hospitals.

Production of the intelliTable is imminent and the team have sourced an ex Ford/Nissan factory for the mechanical development. With the material costs estimated at £1300, the product is expected to retail at around £2500.

Enthusiasm and edutainment

Reach Robotics dubs its Mecha Monsters as the “world’s first gaming robots.”

Aiming at a different market sector and retailing for considerably less, was another product nearing its commercial goal. Silas Adekunle and his team at Reach Robotics believe they have designed the world’s first robotic game system. Dubbed Mecha Monster, the device launches on IndieGogo in November and Adekunle believes it’s truly unique as a programmable toy which you can learn with while creating and having fun through play.

To date, his product had won funding from 11 different sources,  “Money,” he said, “creates money. Getting over that first  hurdle, so that you can start prototyping, is the hardest part.”

By 2016, he predicts there will be a massive surge in edutainment robotics, with “robot this, robot that – everyone will slap a label on it.”

But Adenkunle is planning to be in the vanguard. A young developer working out of the University of the West of England’s (UWE) Bristol Robotics Laboratory Incubator, his enthusiasm for robotics was palpable. “It’s a very exciting time,” he said, finishing his presentation. Many in the room would certainly agree with him.

This article was originally published on RAS SIG – the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group – part of Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network.

I’m at Breakout Labs 3rd ‘unboxing’ today at the Terra Gallery in San Francisco. Founded by the Thiel Foundation in 2011, Breakout Labs provides seed stage funding of up to $350,000 to early stage companies who want to change the world. While the majority of the first startups are in biotech, there are one or two hardware companies. Breakout Labs portfolio manager Michelle Kim-Danely is on a mission to find more startups that are developing robots that can change the world.

The companies presenting today exemplify the hard problems/real stuff ethos of Breakout Labs. Modern Meadows is a NY based startup growing meat and leather with the latest tissue engineering technologies. The cofounders, Gabor and Andras Forgacs previously founded Organovo, a startup that pioneered 3D bioprinting. Positron Dynamics, from Pasadena, is planning on getting us to the stars using antimatter, or in the shorter term using positrons for applications like medical imaging. (Super cool fun fact: Positron Dynamics have been experimenting on antimatter in the same space as my hackerspace, Robot Garden.)

Atoms are harder than bits, but the people at the Breakout Labs’ companies are bold and dedicated to a definite view of the future.  We believe they’ll prove that new science addressing hard problems can create great businesses that make our lives better. [Breakout Labs]

I usually tell startups to focus on ‘boring’ robotics, because you won’t get funded if the return on investment is further than 5 years out. But just occasionally, you have the opportunity to secure philanthropic or long term funding that is interested in the really big ideas.

Breakout Labs accept applications on a rolling basis. Beyond the investment, Breakout also have a network of catalysts, financial, corporate, strategic and tech transfer partners who help portfolio companies grow. Financial partners include: Formation 8, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, OATV, Khosla Ventures and more. See the Breakout-Labs-Flyer-updated-August-2014 for more information.

Today, there are many scientists with bold ideas that could have tremendous value for society. Too often, they don’t receive the support they need to launch from the lab and into our economy. We want to give those radical ideas a chance to thrive. We want to jailbreak them from existing research institutions and set them free.  We want to champion technology that has the potential to change the world and take our civilization to the next level. [Breakout Labs]

As we’ve made more of a name for ourselves within various startup communities, we’re commonly asked how we moved from our beginnings with little resources and no connections to a worldwide concern in robotics, especially with the field exploding as it has. In truth, there is a great deal to be said for “being in the right place at the right time”, but there are a few key simple lessons we’ve learned along the way that others with good ideas might be able to benefit from.

Some relevant background first. McKinsey & Company popularized the “3 Horizons” concept, where an existing company should be doing three things:

• It should be looking for new opportunities and markets (Horizon 3)
• It should build businesses from these new opportunities and markets when they become viable (Horizon 2)
• It should sustain and extend its core businesses (Horizon 1)

One way to frame the goal of a startup is to get a business model from Horizon 3 to Horizon 1 before the money runs out. The big difference between a startup and an established company is that an established company tends to have time and resources on its side. A group of four of us working from a combination of school labs, living rooms, and basements doesn’t.

However, the concept still holds. How does one get from having an Idea to being a Company, where the latter hopefully implies things like having vacation time and salaries?

I’m not going to go into detail here about how one should or should not define or develop a product best, because there are innumerable ways and opinions put forth on that topic in particular, but we’ve found there are three basic stages you’ll probably go through while building out your team and company that correspond very closely to the 3 Horizons. Ideally, you’ll make it through these stages as fast as you can, because making it to the end means you can start all over again…but bigger! First, there’s the Idea.

Phase 1: The Idea

This is why I’m usually asked about this. I run into a person or six at a conference and they have an Idea. Since this is probably a robotics conference of some kind, this Idea has a Prototype already, which is probably good enough for putting up on a crowdfunding site. And, because startup communities in tech hubs the world over are doing their jobs, these people probably have a Market in mind. Our initial work is done. Unfortunately, they’re wanting to know what they need next, and the answer is usually “everything”. Or, at least, a “Startup”.

Phase 2: The Everything

The idea is still important, but now getting it into shape for customers is important. Of equal importance is defining or creating your market, supporting your customers, making sure there’s cash in the bank, determining which features are releasing when, and it goes on. Here lies the difficulty; every new idea needs a startup built with a slightly different recipe.

The common theme I’d like to get across is that once you’ve decided to move past that first idea, you’re on the path of having to build the rest of the Startup, and you’re going to be learning a lot along the way. You’ll have a lot of different things to start caring about all of a sudden over and above your idea, and you’ll also be taking on more financial and personal risk. So, it’s best that you stop being a Startup as soon as possible and become a Company. This is one of the key reasons behind the “Lean Startup” approach – startups are risky and unstable, so get from Idea to Company as fast as possible .

Phase 3: Sustainability

Now, you’ve not only incorporated the idea into a sustainable business (Horizon 1), you’re building a team and structure that help you get your other ideas into the world, whether by applying your ideas into similar products and markets (Horizon 2), or by going all the way back to formula with new ideas based on the experience and team you’ve built so far (Horizon 3).

For those of you with ideas, don’t be discouraged by how small the idea might appear in the end once it’s examined as part of the greater whole. It is necessary. However, it’s not sufficient by far, and it’s best to go into starting an endeavour like this with at least a bit of awareness of what’s waiting on the other side.

—

About the Author

Ryan Gariepy is Co-Founder and CTO of Clearpath Robotics. He drives the development of Clearpath’s autonomous control software modules while guiding the continued expansion of Clearpath’s research platform lines, environmental surveying technology, and custom industrial automation solutions.

The IROS 2014 Industry Forum brought together entrepreneurs, researchers, venture capitalists and funding agencies from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia to shed perspective on the above questions and engage in open dialogue about some of the pitfalls of commercializing robotics technology. Here are the 10 best quotes from the event …

1. “Testing nothing and testing everything are equally lazy.”
– Ryan Gariepy, Clearpath Robotics

Gariepy refers to the extremes some startups take before launching a new product. He instead suggests evaluating the technologies, processes and people that can be reused efficiently, then taking a decisive step to engage your customer.

2. “Competition is not other companies or technologies, it’s the status quo.”
– Ryan Gariepy, Clearpath Robotics

Academics, consumed with dissecting the research of predecessors, colleagues and other institutions, then publishing novel work, naturally look to see what others of doing in the field to gauge their own progress. To academics looking to commercialize research, Gariepy says it’s important to know what’s out there but also to run your own race. When launching a new product, you need to focus on market first, then technology.

3. “Cheaply eliminate bad business models fast.” 
– Lee Redden, Blue River Technology

Before building their first product, Redden and team hired five part-time interns to talk with potential customers, and eliminated five poor business models in less than a month.  CarrotBot, a weeder for carrot farms, came about after talking with an IT procurement manager at a carrot farm who had struggled with finding the right technology for their particular problem. Redden also notes that if you want honest feedback from potential customers, make them feel comfortable by sharing the flaws of your product upfront and don’t show up with a perfect prototype – most people are hard-wired to protect the feelings of those they interact with, so you have to disarm them to get honest answers. “Cheaply eliminate bad business models fast.” – Lee Redden, Blue River Technology 

4. “Sometimes what the company wants and what the community wants are not perfectly aligned.”  
– Brandon Basso, 3D Robotics

Balancing of the vision of the company with the wants of an open-source community can be tricky. The 3D Robotics (3DR) community wants breadth – more hardware, sensor and platform support – whereas the company wants depth to support the community while developing native system apps and more hardware solutions. Challenges arise when a growing company has to execute on set product and revenue objectives defined by management (and in 3DR’s case, venture capital stakeholders) while integrating the community’s feedback into their product suite. Long-term, this relationship creates a virtuous cycle. The community provides 3DR with an on-demand workforce, tech support via developer list, rapid exploration of new opportunities and a huge beta test group. 3DR gives back to the community through cheaper and faster hardware, expertise, capital, support and worldwide distribution.

5. “The robot revolution will be an evolution.”
– Christopher Parlitz, SCHUNK

According to Parlitz, the integration of components is the new challenge in robotics. Without standards in place for mechanical and electrical components or transfer of data, creating intelligent systems will take time. He talks of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and ROS as two solutions for integrating hardware components, each with its list of pros and cons. As new integrated intelligent solutions start working robustly, they will no longer be considered “robots”, making the progression much more of an evolution than a revolution. “The robot revolution will be an evolution.” – Christopher Parlitz, @SCHUNKInc 

6. “If I lose control of my startup, my invention won’t wind up at a fire sale.” 
– Michael Peshkin, Northwestern University

IP. IP. IP. Intellectual property dominated this year’s industry discussion. Each university’s tech transfer office has its own rules – some grant both faculty and student inventors full ownership, others to students but not to faculty, and then there are jointly-owned inventions between university and industry (Renaud Champion, a venture capital partner at Robolution warns researchers against these). Emotions and the perceived value of owning intellectual property can often outweigh its real monetary and practical benefits. Peshkin speaks to this point and outlines six key reasons why he prefers Northwestern University’s technology transfer office to own his patents:

• They pay the expenses, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars
• If they don’t want to pay, they unambiguously turn the rights over
• Future investors shouldn’t worry about IP ownership
• They take a reasonable percent of royalties and/or equity
• They won’t ever sell a patent
• “If I lose control of my startup, my invention won’t end up at a fire sale” – Michael Peshkin, Northwestern University 

7. “If there are people with pitchforks at your door, you’re probably doing something right.” 
– Shahin Farshchi, Lux Capital

In addition to IP, regulations (or lack thereof) of certain robotics products create an uncertain environment for commercializing technology. Farshchi says focus on building a company with a clear value proposition that customers want. If regulatory bodies want to speak with you, it’s probably because you’ve taken enough market share to draw attention. And as a first mover, you’ll more likely have the opportunity to shape regulation which will put you in a favorable position going forward.

8. “Good research doesn’t necessarily mean a good product.”
– Ayanna Howard, Zyrobotics

People buy things that are useful to them and shifting focus from product specs to selling a value proposition can stumble some researchers. That’s why Howard says it’s important to be self-aware and know when it’s time to bring in outside expertise. She sees the quality of management as being just as important – if not more important – than the technology itself.

9. “If I have competition, there’s a market, if there’s a market, there’s an industry, and if there’s an industry, there’s liquidity.”
– Renaud Champion, Robolution Capital

Competition is not always a good thing, but in a nascent market for robotics products, it can be great. Competition means there’s enough market demand for several products to compete with one another and from a venture capitalist’s point of view that means there’s room for growth and potential exit opportunities.

10. “I have a dream. I have a vision. Why not me?” 
– Renaud Champion, Robolution Capital

At some point, starting a new business takes a leap of faith. Dreams can take a long time to manifest. Finding the right (or sometimes good-enough) answers to build a solid vision, a product, a team, a brand and convince customer and investors that your product can bring value to the community is tedious and was compared to a rollercoaster ride by many of entrepreneurs at the forum.  But this process, which almost always transforms the entrepreneur (and if they’re lucky, an entire industry), often starts with a simple question: “Why not me?” “I have a dream. I have a vision. Why not me?” – Renaud Champion, Robolution Capital 

Follow all of our IROS 2014 coverage here.

Cynthia Breazeal’s Jibo launched today and coming on the heels of Pepper, Aldebaran and Softbank’s new social robot, and Jimmy from Intel. It seems like we’re seeing a second wave of social robots. Jibo is less of a humanoid than the others though and more of a human mirror, being able to be a telepresence device or a social robot. Jibo will be an open platform and is currently taking preorders via Indiegogo, with an expected shipping date of Sept 2015 for the developer edition.

Jibo raised several million dollars in early seed stage funding from CRV (Charles River Ventures) in January 2013 and have been stealthily hiring and developing ever since. More recently, Cynthia Breazeal took a leave of absence from the Personal Robots Group at MIT Media Lab and Jibo brought on board additional seed investors Osage University Partners and Cambridge-based Fairhaven Capital Partners.

In BetaBoston, John Lee of Osage is quoted as saying that his firm is “excited about the potential of emotional computing, where consumers can have two-way interaction with their devices through natural forms of communication: speaking, eye contact, body language, and intonation. The nature of this interaction opens up significant opportunities in various fields that require deeper insights into a consumer’s emotional state. Given the team’s exceptional backgrounds, they are the right people to deliver on such a vision.”

Breazeal’s vision is to create robots that can provide parents with a high quality partner in education, provide a life coach for people with chronic health issues, and provide a watchful companion for the elderly that behaves like a friend and not a surveillance system or monitor.

Jibo features two hi-res cameras to recognize and track faces, capture photos and enable immersive video calling. 360° microphones and natural language processing let you talk to JIBO from anywhere in the room. Hands-free reminders and messages, so you’ll never forget and can always be in touch. Artificial Intelligence algorithms learn your preferences to adapt and fit into your life. Like a personal assistant, JIBO proactively helps you, to make everyday tasks simpler and easier. Communicates and expresses using natural social and emotive cues so you understand each other better. [Jibo website]

The first wave of social robots occurred between 1998 and 2009, and their primary characteristic is their ‘pet’ nature. The Tamagotchi (1996 onwards) could be considered a primitive precursor. Social ‘pet’ robots included; Furby 1998 -2007 (reintroduced 2012), AIBO 1999-2006, Keepon 2003-now, Paro 2004-now, iDog, 2005-2009 and Pleo 2006-2009. Some of these were intended for therapeutic settings, like the original Keepon and Paro, but all were intended to create an emotional relationship with people, and not simply to perform functions.

It’s important to specify that social robots have existed in labs and research for some time, so I’m really talking about products that cross the chasm and become consumer products. Robosapien (2004-now) by Mark Tilden at WowWee is one of the few humanoids to come out during this time, but due to the small size and limited interactions, Robosapien seems closer to a pet or smart toy, than to a social robot.

The second wave of social robots is building both on general advances in robotics and specifically on improvements in NLP, natural language processing, leveraging the massive deployment and rapid improvements of voice recognition/response agents like those used by Google, Apple and Amazon.

Computing has gone through several waves, each resulting in billion dollar industries and impacting millions if not billions of people’s lives on global scale. We’ve benefitted from the wave of information, the wave of mobility, the wave of social media. We’re seeing more and more wearable computing and the Internet of Things that combines these three.

Now, we are on the threshold of the next wave of computing: emotion.  And social robotics is a particularly powerful expression of this next wave. [Cynthia Breazeal – Why social robots will change your life]

http://on.ted.com/Breazeal

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:

• Building Social Robots: The Journey of Pleo
• The next era of conversational technology
• On Pepper, Aldebaran and emotional robotics: Interview with Bruno Maisonnier
• Why social robots will change your life
• Robots Podcast: A Code of Ethics for HRI Practitioners
• Robot helps 94-year-old Italian grandmother live independently at home
• What should a robot do? Designing robots that know right from wrong

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

The 10th annual Robotics Science and Systems conference (RSS14) is on at the University of California, Berkeley, July 12 to 16, and we are picking up where we left off yesterday on our coverage of the ‘Academia, Startups and Industry’ workshop. Opening with a plenary from Vijay Kumar, U Penn, the morning session asked industry experts from different domains including automation, manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, healthcare to talk about the next-generation of problems for robotics to address.

The other workshop speakers were; Erik Nieves (Yaskawa); Rainer Bischoff (KUKA Laboratories GmBH); Phil Freeman (Boeing); Murad Kurwa (Flextronics); and Paul Millman (Intuitive Surgical). They talked about the need for new types of robots and capabilities, the research directions that academia could take, and the potential for greater industry-academic collaboration.

Kumar described the approaching challenge for robotics as the need to find alternative funding when pure research funding dries up. Kumar believes that robotics is better able to weather this defunding trend than many other disciplines due to the applied nature of robotics. However, he doesn’t want the field of robotics to stop doing fundamental research. Kumar suggests that researchers focus on Pasteur’s quadrant, avoiding Edison and Bohr, as defined by Donald Stokes in his 1997 book, “Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation“.

Erik Nieves, Yaskawa “Robotics is changing. Are the industrial guys listening?”

Erik Nieves opened by saying that commercial robotics companies have an obligation to their shareholders to pay attention to the changes in robotics because the big four robotics companies are currently overly dependent on the automotive industry. The SAR of vehicle sales controls the overall company performance. 1/3 of Yaskawa’s total business is effectively one customer and this doesn’t make for long term viability.

“We may have billion dollar sectors, but we need to think like startups.” [Erik Nieves]

The best definition of the advanced manufacturing changes that have occurred in last decades comes from Paul Fowler, from NACFAM, the National Association of Advanced Manufacturing.

“The Advanced Manufacturing entity makes extensive use of computer, high precision, and information technologies integrated with a high performance workforce in a production system capable of furnishing a heterogeneous mix of products in small or large volumes with both the efficiency of mass production and the flexibility of custom manufacturing in order to respond quickly to customer demands.”  [Paul Fowler]

“Robotics companies are good at the efficiency of mass production but not at the flexibility of custom production. We need to be more agile.” says Nieve. “In the next 6 years, we will transition from robots where ROI require large lot sizes, repeatable tasks and expert programming, to robots that can do one-off tasks, that require much lower investment and are easily programmed and integrated. They are able to share space with humans and are mobile or freely deployable.”

These collaborative robots look a lot more like labor than machines. They respond to demand and move to the work. The only thing that is similar with today’s robots is high performance, speed and precision. By 2020, ‘production partner’ robots will be a significant part of the industrial robot landscape.

An issue slowing the roll out of robots in the US is a lack of systems integrators with developer skills. ROS is great because of the wide adoption and it will be useful for developing for the new two armed robots. 80% of work in some factories is automated, but only on one side of the factory. Final assembly is usually all done by people. Those are jobs that require two arms, working on flimsy, floppy materials, jobs easily done by people. Dextrous manipulation is hard to program for, and we need better tools from the community.

The robot industry is looking for adjacent markets, and it has to be manufacturing-like and look a manufacturing as a process, not as an industry. For example, tasks that require similar work, ie. lab work with pipettes, or putting things in boxes – activities that require logistics. Staying with the single arm paradigm puts additional stress on the end effector; stress that’s shared with two effectors become far more dextrous. Kitting is a big part of the future where every large manufacturer is it’s own distribution center.

Yaskawa is excited about automatically generated programs, said Nieve. “CAD/CAM has just shifted paradigm from tool to computer. We want to generate it on the fly. Mobility is a force multiplier for robots. When we can send a mobile autonomous robot to another machine to do a job, and that robot can register its position and work appropriately. Robots become labor. They move from place to place.”

Nieve said that robotics will continue to advance in lock step with developments in adjacent fields, particularly consumer electronics, and that the application space will continue to widen as robots acquire more human-like form and skill. And yet we still need better wrists and more coding skills. Combining the precision and strength of robots with the perception and decision making of humans is the future of collaborative work.

Nieve also pointed out that right now, the seeds of the greatest generation of technicians, engineers, and roboticists are being laid and will bear fruit. “We coined the term mechatronics in 1969 to capture the electronic control of mechanisms. That was a generation ago. But now roboticists come from everywhere, we are makers, we are robot competition teams. RSS had only a few hundred people a few years ago and is now almost a thousand.”

Nieves closed his talk with a mention of the upcoming RIA International Collaborative Robots Workshop, which will be held in Silicon Valley on September 30, 2014.

Rainer Bischoff – Kuka “Innovation through collaboration”

KUKA is the pure play robotics company. In other words: they only make robots, unlike the other major robotics companies, which also make drives or motors. KUKA labs was founded 3 years ago to help find and build new markets because 90% of KUKA’s line is automotive.

Bischoff sees 3 different robotics revolutions:

• PC bringing flexibility into industrial robotics world
• compliant-safe robotics
• combined mobility and manipulation

Why KUKA is doing collaborative research projects:

• new contacts to industrial and academic partners
• technology scouting
• know-how and competence buildup
• preparation of technology transfers
• working on long term r&D
• reduced financial risk – funding from govt for coprojects

While Bischoff said that work is still needed to overcome mental barriers at KUKA and with customers, he pointed to several successful collaboration examples: 

• RealSim 2000-02 – where KUKA collaborated with competitors in a research pre development stage.
• PAPAS 2003-6 – development of RobotWorker and DLR Robot Controller, which has now become a real product – last Automatica. The robot will not extend from virtual walls that you set, there is collision avoidance, work cells can be set up without fences. But it can still bring to bear the forces that are needed to assemble a gear box.
• TAPAS 2010-14 – mobile manipulation with use cases in industrial environments using a mobile platform and lightweight arm. Navigation on shop floor is basically solved barring the lifelong mapping. Paths are far from optimal at the moment. So far it is much too slow to compete with ordinary workers.

Bischoff says that work is still needed on mobile manipulation for industry. KUKA is trying to speed up this process by making research robots that scale easily to the real industrial models but are much more affordable.

“KUKA is supplying academic researchers with platforms so they can focus on research and not reinvent robots.” [Rainer Bischoff]

Bischoff also pointed to initiatives like the inaugural KUKA Innovation Award, which was first awarded this year to a team from the University of Zurich that used a drone to guide a Youbot through a disaster relief scenario.

Another project is RoCKIn, an EU project that will be run over the next three years, consisting of robot competitions, symposiums, educational RoCKIn camps and technology transfer workshops. Their mission is to act as a catalyst for smarter, more dependable robots, and they are doing this by building upon the principles of challenge-driven innovation laid down by RoboCup, facilitating cognitive and networked robot systems’ testing, and streamlining research and development through standardized testbeds and benchmarks.

Also, since 2012, Bischoff has been Vice-president industry of euRobotics aisbl – the European Robotics Association. In these capacities he has been setting the Strategic Research Agenda for European robotics until 2020, successfully establishing closer links between robotics academia and industry, and promoting European robotics as a whole.

The 10th annual Robotics Science and Systems conference is on at the University of California, Berkeley, July 12 to 16. From a small start, the conference now has over 800 attendees, with 28 different weekend workshops this year, and a single track 3 day conference. As well as the latest robotics science, RSS 2014 showcased social, ethical and economic issues in robotics, and highlighted robotics startup stories in some very well attended sessions.

One of the most crowded workshops was the “Next-Generation Robotics: Academia, Start-ups and Industry” session organized by Sachin Chitta (SRI International), Ioan Sucan (Google), and Torsten Kroeger (Google). Opening with a plenary from Vijay Kumar, U Penn, the morning session asked industry experts from different domains including automation, manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, healthcare to talk about the next generation of problems for robotics to address. They talked about the need for new types of robots and capabilities, the research directions that academia could take, and the potential for greater industry-academic collaboration.

In the afternoon session, founders and other members from startups in Robotics talked about their experience in creating startups and bringing new technology to the market, the opportunities for new companies to emerge in the field, and the lessons learned. Workshop speakers were; Erik Nieves (Yaskawa), Rainer Bischoff (KUKA Laboratories GmBH), Phil Freeman (Boeing), Murad Kurwa (Flextronics), Paul Millman (Intuitive Surgical), Hanns Tappeiner (Anki), Jim Ostrowski (Blue River Technologies), Matt Williamson (Rethink Robotics), Chris Anderson (3D Robotics), Steve Lavalle (Oculus), and Joe Romano (Kiva Systems). I’ll cover the industry perspective in a follow-up post.

Lessons learned by startups

Hanns Tappeiner of Anki says that “every day is demo day”. The last two years have been a process of working out the difference between a lab project and making a consumer product: consumer products have to work every day, all day and you have to be able to make thousands and thousands of them.

Anki launched in October 23 2013 with a hard launch. With a product in every Apple Store in the US, their production lines were making thousands a day. Since then, more than 83 million laps have been driven, meaning that Anki cars have travelled 10x round the world or beyond the moon. The company has crossed the trillion planner states mark.

Tappeiner says, “The scary thing about a robotics product is releasing it into the wild.” Other consumer products are less dependent on the tight integration of hardware and software, whereas a robotic product, like an Anki drive car, is very intolerant to variation: one gm of weight in the wrong place and it won’t drive well.

It’s also very important to have a fast build/test/iterate cycle. If you take more than a couple of years, then the hardware/software environment has changed too much. For example, Anki were using BLE before it became wide spread and incorporated Zigbee into their design in response to Apple adopting it. The 7 main lessons Anki learned were:

• Find a hungry hardware manufacturer who cares about your business and will try harder for you. Get their A-Team. There’s variation within every company.
• EE, ME and SE are not subsets of robotics. Get experts (not all roboticists).
• Don’t outsource core technology development. You can’t fix later issues.
• Agile everything. Do everything in short cycles no longer than 3 weeks. Anki built 70 or 80 prototypes pre production.
• Volume, not complexity, drives cost. Leverage cell phone and automotive technology rather than custom built.
• Testing is a science. Test everything. Do it in-house so you know everything works. Make the factory test.
• Build an amazing team. Set the hiring bar high. It takes longer but that’s how Anki have been able to do what they’ve done.

Jim Ostrowski of Blue River Technologies agreed with the need to test everything, early and often. Blue River Technologies went through three iterations in response to customer discovery. Starting as a lawn mowing idea, they moved into agriculture with carrot weeding and have settled for now on lettuce thinning.

Successful iterations of their lettuce thinning robot also have applications beyond lettuce and beyond thinning. For example, to improve thinning they added a second camera for redundancy and this opens the door to applications like fertilizing and irrigation. Blue River focused primarily on building a computer vision system with a little bit of manipulation attached, avoiding autonomous mobility altogether. Their latest system can do 18 rows of lettuce in one pass, moving faster than a person walks.

Blue River are also using a service model to ‘defer the pain of commercialization’ and allow them to ‘keep tweaking their product’ and to ‘stay in really close contact with the customer’. It also provides a reasonable revenue stream to support operations, bringing them closer to their goal of ‘making plant by plant care possible’.

Matthew Williamson, from Rethink Robotics, talked about the opportunities of building collaborative robots and how their properties unlock a lot of other activities, beyond working beside people. The “cocktail of safe, cheap and smart enable a different set of applications” with low capital cost, low integration cost, low maintenance and programming cost. New applications can be low value and variable/small batch.

Also to design for manufacture you have to have very aggressive cost targets. Baxter uses series elastic actuators, as an inexpensive way to get good force control. They can use very inexpensive gear boxes and turn a force control problem into a position control problem.

The other lesson learnt with Baxter is to decouple hardware and software so that the robot can be continuously improved. Software iterations are much shorter than hardware iterations. Baxter now works 5x faster than it did when released in 2013; same hardware, improved software.

Chris Anderson, from 3D Robotics, also uses software to improve the hardware they sell. He says “sell the atoms, give away the bits”. Atoms are physical things with understood costs and people are ok with paying for them. At the same time, they give away all the software, enabling competitors. Anderson believes that competitors actually support the original product, providing faster R&D and broader adoption.

3D Robotics optimizes for an architecture of participation. Most of their employees have come out of the community. They listened to Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and Automattic who said, “If you have to choose between company and community, choose community.”

“Think platform, not just product – but don’t forget to make a kick ass product. We modelled on Willow Garage a bit, and what Android did too.” [Chris Anderson]

Steve LaValle, from Oculus, describes the importance of recognizing when the time is ripe for an idea. VR was completely overhyped in the 90s but undeliverable, whereas smart phone technology has been the tipping point. It’s useful to leverage previous experience in this space.

LaValle is the old man at Oculus, as a successful professor who had explored the original VR wave. But because he’d made some of his research freely available online, his name came up when Jack Macauley was searching for someone who understood Euler angles and quaternions.

“As roboticists we’re always reaching into other disciplines all the time because we don’t have all the expertise we need to solve problems.” [Steve LaValle]

Joe Romano, from Kiva Systems, says that the problems you get when you have more than one robot surprised him when he made the transition from academia to industry, but he now sees it as a common theme. “More robots = more problems.”

But rather than take Anki’s approach of rigorous testing to weed out any non-compliance with very strict parameters, Kiva Systems has chosen to do more with algorithmic corrections. Where Anki’s cars drive on a standard mat, the fiducial markers that Kiva pods use to navigate are laid down by humans and they don’t comply very well with the intended grid layout.

However, the calibration that pods use to learn to navigate with imprecise position markers is also related to the calibration that each pod has to do to adjust to variation in pod tolerances and characteristics.

“Turns out there’s a bit of variety over time in manufacturing. We’re not really making the same robot over and over again.” [Joe Romano]

..see my next post for some perspectives from the established robotics industry..

The VLAB Collaborative Robots forum on Thursday May 29 was a masterclass for robot startups. For 90 minutes at the Knight Management Center at Stanford, we heard all about the business of robotics from industry veterans, VCs and startups. The panel consisted of Melonee Wise (CEO of Unbounded Robotics), Milan Shah (VP of Rethink Robotics), John Dulcinos (VP of Automation at Jabil), and Peter Hebert (cofounder of Lux Capital). The panel was moderated by myself, Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics.

The MIT Enterprise Forum Bay Area (VLAB) was formed in 1990 and is one of 30 chapters around the world. VLAB helps startups and entrepreneurs find the best practices for developing viable business models for technology-oriented markets. The VLAB events are sponsored by the Stanford University Office of Technology Licensing, and the Alumni Association of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. The caliber of presenting companies and panelists at our events has earned VLAB the reputation as one of the premier high-tech forums in Silicon Valley.

The VLAB committee conducted quite a rigorous audition process for panelists (and moderators) looking for the most successful examples of companies in the industrial/service collaborative robotics space. VLAB panels usually consist of two startups, an incumbent company whose business model is under threat from the startups, and an investor. This was a really successful balance of opinions, although it’s humbling to realize that a company like Rethink Robotics is still considered a startup.

The panel opens with a 10 minute overview of the economics of robotics and then an in-depth look at Unbounded Robotics. Then the panel discussion really gets going with both John Dulchinos and Peter Hebert schooling us in the opportunities and challenges for robotics startups. I came away with a much better appreciation of the huge potential for industrial and logistical robotics. Not all successful robotics businesses are venture fundable, and understanding the customer/market space is still the biggest challenge for startups. According to VLAB’s promotional material:

“Yet another ‘follow me’ drone” says Chris Anderson – after three projects launched this weekend, including his own 3DRobotics’ open source ‘follow me’ feature for android. Extreme sports photography is the most popular application of consumer drones and at first glance it seems like a no-brainer given the success of GoPro, the rise of the sports ‘robot’ camera tripods and the obvious extension of these trends into aerial photography. And really, just what are drones good for aside from extreme sports tracking? Neither the economics nor the regulations favor package delivery and most other inspection operations can’t be commercialized in the US.

GoPro is a classic 10 year overnight success story. GoPro founder Nick Woodman spent years selling cameras out of his van, hustling and hacking, but his product came at a time when the smart phone was disrupting the low end camera market and both the interest and the technologies were there for a waterproof portable sports video camera. Fast forward to 2014 and GoPro’s annual revenues were almost $1 billion just before filing for their IPO in May.

So it’s no surprise that the sports market is where most of the ‘robot tripods’ have headed for, startups like SoloShot and MovenSee. And it’s a logical extension to put a GoPro on a gimbal onto a drone, or something similar and do ‘follow me’ sports action. As well as Hexo, Airdog, and 3D Robotics, there’s also Pocket Drone with a ‘follow me’ mode. Most of these devices are using beacons to achieve tracking, either separate wristbands or the GPS on a phone or tablet. But Parrot may be releasing something later this year that utilizes image tracking instead.

Now here’s where this whole thing doesn’t fly. The more popular drone sports photography or ‘dronies’ get, the less profitable the business is going to become. You can have lots of cameras on the side of the ski field, or on the beach or in the bleachers at your kid’s soccer game. You can even have cameras at your kid’s dance concert, or graduation or at Yosemite or in the back country. At worst it’s an annoyance.

One drone on a ski field is a distraction. Ten drones is a disaster. Imagine ten drones above your kid’s soccer game? How about their dance concert? What about visiting wilderness areas and watching people standing on the edge of a 200′ waterfall watching the drones above and not the drop below.

The big problem is that in the layer between the ground and the clouds, between people’s heads and small aircraft, objects the size and weight of large birds ARE dangerous. Anyone who’s ever been swooped by magpies (Australia) understands the danger of birds! And it’s well documented that bird strike can be deadly to small aircraft.

I predict that the extreme sports photography market for drones is actually a very small shortlived market. It’s almost inherently unable to be regulated as consumer drones are just too cheap and popular to police, which means it’s likely that we’ll see complete bans on drones in any public, government or commercially controlled space. Not just bans on commercial use of drones. I think ski fields and organized sports events will be the first to crumble as litigation and insurance liability issues arise.

While Chris Anderson predicts that the fastest way for drones to become safe is for them to become so small and soft that they pose no physical threat, that’s still a few years off. And as long as drones are larger than dragonflies and cheap enough to be under everyone’s christmas tree, we face the prospect of global regulatory shutdowns and no fly zones rather than regulated uses.

Is this a startup area I recommend? Not unless you’ve got a layer of lawyers a mile high.

*less than two days after posting this the NPS announced blanket ban on drones in all US National Parks

In this episode, Sabine speaks with Andrew Gryaznov, co-founder of Cubic Robotics and Roman Luchin, CEO of CyberTech Labs, about robotics in Russia. They provide us with an inside view on robotics education, innovations and startups in their country. The interview was done live at RoboForum in Moscow earlier this month. Roboforum is a cross-disciplinary conference designed to unite the best minds in robotics, including scientists and designers, business people and governors as well as artists, engineers and popular science speakers worldwide.

Speakers at the conference included creator of Hubo, Jun-Ho Oh, iCub’s Giorgio Metta, creator of the Blind Robot Louis-Philippe Demer, Vladimir Konyshev of Neurobotics, Skolkovo’s Albert Yefimov, NanoSatisfi’s Chris Wake, Unbounded’s Melonee Wise, Valery Komissarova of Grishin, and many more.

Roman Luchin
Roman Luchin is Founder of TRIK and CEO of CyberTech Labs in Russia. He started as a researcher in a laboratory of theoretical cybernetics in Saint Petersburg State University, where he developed multi-agent control systems. Faced with two challenges in Russian robotics, young professionals and outdated approaches, he decided to devote himself to the improvement of STEM education through robotics and the creation of new educational tools. As a result, he developed a unified cybernetic platform for education, research, and robotics projects called TRIK. There is continuously growing community around TRIK, including universities, researchers, prototyping labs, and creative teams working to provide everyone with the opportunity to create modern intelligent robots that can “see”, “hear” and collaborate.

Andrew Gryaznov
Andrew Gryaznov is Partner and Co-founder of Cubic Robotics in Russia. Cubic Robotics is developing a personal robot assistant for the home. The first prototype of the robot was completed in October 2012. It was a cardboard box connected to a smartphone based on an Android platform, with specialized software and a speaker. The robot was able turn a fan on and off, and adjust the lighting in a room. Andrew Gryaznov met the idea’s author, Yuri Burov, in Moscow in the summer of 2011. He was part of a team working on the creation of a telepresence robot, when Yuri Burov suggested that they create a home-helper robot, or robot butler, that could communicate, know the answers to thousands of questions and remotely control household objects.

Links:

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The grand winner for Robot Launch was Leka, a developer of intuitive and intelligent toys for children with autism. Their product, Moti, is a robotic ball that is sensitive to its environment, moves on its own and changes colours to emote feelings; autistic children learn to regulate their own emotions by playing with Moti. Robot Launch judges said they picked Leka as the Robot Launch Grand Winner because they were ready for market and could have an immediate impact on autistic children if their product were widely available.

“As Ultimate Champion, we won mentoring from experts,” said Leka CEO and Co-founder Ladislas de Toldi, who is hoping the prize will help bring Moti to market soon. “Thanks to the tests we have been running with children parents and caregivers [of autistic children], we have shown the relevance and usefulness of our robot. But we hadn’t crash tested our product. RobotLaunch [was] the perfect opportunity for us to challenge our robot and get feedback from real experts. The judges’ feedback really helped us to formalize our project.”

The competition’s global reach gave startups from around the world a unique opportunity to network on level footing with investors and experts located in faraway technology hubs.

“[Robot Launch] was a platform to showcase our robots in Silicon valley – something nearly impossible for a startup based in India,” said Fahad Azad of Robosoft Systems, a startup that makes duct cleaning robots. Robosoft was a finalist in the competition, and took home one of the three Lean Startup Awards, alongside Odd I/O of Portland Oregon, and Tandemech Engineering of San Francisco. The Best European Startup Award went to DoBots, from the Netherlands, and the Grand Prize winner Leka is based in France.

“The global competition elevated my own robot’s exposure and allowed me to learn more about what others are doing around the world,” said Odd I/O‘s Vivek Mano, who won the Indiegogo Crowdpleaser Award in addition to the Lean Startup Award. “It’s great to know that there are so many others out there with an earnest passion for robotic electronics to make the world a better place.”

“Robot Launch 2014 is opening up a very important outlet to help identify and showcase some groundbreaking business and technology ideas, not only in the Silicon Valley but throughout the world,” said Glenn Luinenburg, a Partner at WilmerHale, a Silicon Valley law firm that works with robotics companies, and which awarded a legal startup package worth more than $25,000 USD to Tandemech Engineering, maker of wall-climbing robots.

“Our goal with Robot Launch is to grow the robotics ecosystem, and the awards we’re offering are exactly what a robot startup needs to accelerate their growth,” says Andra Keay who, as Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, spearheaded the competition.

Robot Launch prizes included money, mentoring, meetings and free legal and startup services from Robohub, Silicon Valley Robotics, Indiegogo, WilmerHale, Grishin Robotics, Bosch Ventures, Lemnos Labs, Robolution Capital, and Luxr. And since exposure is so crucial for any startup that is trying to get noticed, three of the Robot Launch competitors were selected to showcase at O’Reilly’s SOLID conference last week.

“SOLID was a who’s who of the maker movement, robotics and connected devices,” said Steve Glovsky, EVP of Robotic Technologies of Tennessee, one of the three startups that got to showcase at the event. “We made amazing contacts, discussed possible collaborations and were serendipitously asked to participate in ‘once in a lifetime’ projects. We even made the 11 o’clock news! Robot Launch 2014 allowed us to connect with people imagining and solving similar challenges in ways we might have missed without participating in the contest and SOLID.”

“It’s now easier, cheaper and faster to develop robots, which in turn means that more robots will see the light of the day,” says Cyril Ebersweiler, founder of HAXLR8R and one of the Robot Launch 2014 judges. “Putting the spotlight on those who are spear-heading the robolution is essential for supporting and encouraging entrepreneurs to go robotics. I was looking for entrepreneurs who will use robots to make a better tomorrow. Needless to say we have a beautiful winner.”

See all our Robot Launch news here: Robot Launch 2014
Follow Robot Launch on Twitter and stay tuned for next year’s event: #RobotLaunch

Winners by Category 

• Leka (@WeAreLeka), developer of Moti, a social robot for children with autism; France

• Robotics Technologies of Tennessee (@mobile_robots), maker of welding robots; USA

• Tandemech Engineering (@Tandemech), maker of wall-climbing robots; USA

• Odd I/O (@wiglbot), developer of Wigl, a musical educational toy robot geared towards young children; USA

• DoBots (@BotsDo), developer of an add-on autopilot software that enables mobile machines to navigate autonomously; Netherlands

• Jessiko (@jessiko), maker of robot fish; France

• Robosoft Systems (@azad2fm), maker of duct-cleaning robots; India
• Odd I/O (@wiglbot), developer of Wigl, a musical educational toy robot geared towards young children; USA
• Tandemech Engineering (@Tandemech), maker of wall-climbing robots; USA

• Robotics Technologies of Tennessee (@mobile_robots), maker of welding robots; USA
• RoboTar (@robotarkevin), maker of a robotic chord hand for guitar; USA
• Tandemech Engineering (@Tandemech), maker of wall-climbing robots; USA

• DoBots (@BotsDo), developer of an add-on autopilot software that enables mobile machines to navigate autonomously; Netherlands
• Leka (@WeAreLeka), developer of Moti, a social robot for children with autism; France
• Odd I/O (@wiglbot), developer of Wigl, a musical educational toy robot geared towards young children; USA
• Robosoft Systems (@azad2fm), maker of duct-cleaning robots; India
• Robotics Technologies of Tennessee (@mobile_robots), maker of welding robots; USA
• Tandemech Engineering (@Tandemech), maker of wall-climbing robots; USA

• 3DOF Robotics, developer of a vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle capable of shared autonomy; Australia
• Avidbots (@Avidbots), maker of next generation smart commercial cleaning robots; Canada
• Cloudy Robotics, developer of a cloud robotics platform for consumer robotics; Canada
• Gimball (@fly_ability), maker of a flying robot with a protective cage that lets it remain stable after collisions; Switzerland
• Jammster, maker of a dual-arm human-friendly robot assistant for quadriplegics; USA
• Jessiko (@jessiko), maker of robot fish; France
• Mighty Mount, developer of an autonomous mobile robotic camera mount for filming dynamic video in action sports; USA
• Plug and Wear (@plugandwear), maker of textile strain and pressure sensors for robotics applications; Italy
• RoboTar (@robotarkevin), maker of a robotic chord hand for guitar; USA
• Sproutel (@sproutel); maker of Jerry the Bear, a robotic bear that helps kids manage their diabetes; USA

And of course we’d like to thank the award sponsors and all our judges:

• Indiegogo
• WilmerHale
• Luxr
• Lemnos Labs
• Robolution Capital
• Bosch Ventures
• Khosla Ventures
• Haxlr8r
• OATV
• Lux Capital
• Grishin Robotics

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

•  Minesweepers: Towards a landmine-free world
•  Introducing the Cybathlon
•  Flying Donkey Challenge announces 33 entrants for first subchallenge
•  Loving your #startup to death

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

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, we’ll announce the ultimate “People’s Choice” winner. Four startups are moving through from last week’s round; Jessiko Robot Fish, Axon Robotics, GimBall and Duct Inspection Robot. Only 4 spots left! This week’s videos (in alphabetic order) are:

Aisoy | spain

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

http://youtu.be/bqcxlF00yI8

Caspian Robotics | germany

Guardians of tomorrow.

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

E2U Robotics | germany

E2U will offer an easy to use robot product family for research institutes, universities and R&D departments working on robot technologies. The individual members of the product family, starting from a simple omnidirectional mobile base equipped with a sensing unit up to a complex mobile manipulating robot with over 25 degrees of freedom, can be combined flexibly. Modularity, agility and safety are key aspects for the design of the robots to ensure their applicability in real world environments.

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 which develops smart and innovative toys for children with communication and social disabilities.

Octopus Robotics | usa

We build torque sensing compliant smart actuators that are research grade and ship within a week.

Plug and Wear | italy

Textile pressure sensors have proven to be very accurate for robotics. Our idea is to produce strain and pressure textile sensors for robotic applications. Soft sensors will be used as a sefety device or a a soft interface, similar to human skin.

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 impr

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE”

VOTING CLOSES ON TUESDAY MAY 13 AT 6PM [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, we’ll announce the ultimate “People’s Choice” winner. Four startups moving through from last week’s round are; 3DOF Robotics, Jammster, RoboTar and Tandemech Engineering. Only 6 spots left! This week’s videos (in alphabetic order) are:

Abracadabra Robotics | israel

The company develops Personal Social Assistive Robots for stroke rehabilitation.

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

Connected Robotics | australia

Connected Robotics develops light, powerful and precise robots by using our SmartCord retractable tether system that provides both power and position.

http://youtu.be/zBcKnsYNVKU

Duct Inspection Robot | india

DuctBot is rugged toy car size 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 robot 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

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.

Mimic Robotics | hong kong

We focus on teach programmable automation robots. Program a robot in seconds without learning complex software.

Origami Robotics | usa

Makers of Romibo, an engaging little robot used in autism therapy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TM64bLzyuY

Robotics Technologies of Tennessee | usa

Developer of mobile robotic manufacturing platforms supporting field fabrication and inspection. Our systems enable fabrication applications like welding, cutting, gouging and other surface preparation applications.

The Educated Robot | usa

The Educated Robot is dedicated to providing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) opportunities to students by providing hands-on learning with robotics. We design fun and educational robotics oriented kits and the corresponding curriculum that make learning science and math fun.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE”

VOTING CLOSES ON TUESDAY MAY 6 AT 6PM [PDT]

Networking and follow-up are paramount in almost all new ventures. Sproutel is a perfect example.

Up until very recently, funders often shied away from robotic start-up ventures for fear that a lot of money would be at risk for many years before any chance of ROI would occur. Those fears are often true but, in many instances, not for the reasons frequently described: time involved in concept development, prototype building, hardware development, product engineering to get to a reasonable price point, etc.

Less often, the reasons are to enhance the product – and particularly in relation to robotics start-ups, their AI – by responding to in-the-field reactions, needs and observations. Jerry the bear, by start-up Sproutel,  is a case in point.

Aaron Horowitz, a presenter at the Robot Demo Lunch portion of a one-day event at MIT recently, eloquently described the plight of children diagnosed with life-long diseases. He and his team established Sproutel, a start-up focused on using technology to help children manage those diseases starting with diabetes. Sproutel uses a robot teddy bear, Jerry, plus games, stories and devices, to allow children to learn the skills needed to take care of themselves for the rest of their lives. Sproutel’s Jerry-bot lets the child teach it how to cope with all the complications of diabetes: carb counting, identifying symptoms, responding to hypoglycemic events, etc.

Horowitz and Chung, through initial funding and contacts from those people, were able to attend a 3,000 families-with-diabetes event where they gained insight into their needs and improved Sproutel’s product with that information. “The biggest thing we learned was that a story and personality were key to prolonged engagement with Jerry. This drove us to craft the narrative of Jerry training for the All Stars Games. Children are now tasked with helping Jerry train, learning how to master their diabetes in the process,” said Horowitz.

Of the resulting $300 diabetes product now for sale, author, lecturer and child mental health specialist Joyce Catlett said:

The interaction between a young child and the robotic bear – particularly as the child educates the bear about how to handle diabetes – not only builds independence in the child, it empowers them to assume more responsibilities for self-care. I also see it facilitating a more positive relationship between the child and the parent or primary care-giver. Additionally, I was impressed with the “bear’s” use of many of the principles of good child psychotherapy — learning through modeling and imitation.

“We have been working on the venture for 4 years; 2 years were spent at Northwestern University as a school project. It wasn’t until 2 years ago that we incorporated with the broader vision of Sproutel – creating radically new interfaces that provide emotional context to the way we interact with the technology around us.” Sproutel recently gained endorsements and strategic partnerships that are propelling it forward with Jerry for diabetes and onward to providing a similar strategy and product for asthma.

Only in a city rich with foreign consulates, tech publications (such as MIT Technology Review), alumni and networking groups, and a significant technology cluster of successful tech business executives, technology transfer agencies, extraordinary universities (MIT, U of Boston, Harvard) and hundreds of high-tech companies, entrepreneurs and VCs, could you have a 1-day event like “Robots: From Imagination to Market.”

Sponsored by Robohub, the Swissnex and the Boston Consulate of Switzerland, and SwissLinkBoston (a networking platform of young professionals), the 1-day conference covered research, demonstrated start-up products, heard their pitches and success stories and had talks and panels about launching robotics start-ups.

Roboticists presenting, mingling and networking with the crowd at the event included Cynthia Breazeal from the MIT Media Lab, Miriam Bekkouche, from Indiegogo, Ben Einstein, from Bolt, Zivthan Dubrovsky, from Harvard’s Wyss Institute and Dario Floreano, the director of the Swiss National Center for Robotics.

We had a some amazing entries in Robot Launch 2014 across a wide range of fields, and not all of our favorites made it through to the Top 30. So we’d like to share some highlights of the First Round robot startups.

Seeburger Robotics and Design have created a humanoid robot with 3D printed parts that integrates with smartphones and has many applications. Their robot will be selling this summer in Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X5W31SWBKUw

Qoltics is a Mexican startup focussed on improving quality of life for people with disabilities. Qoltics’ first product is a robot named HelloSpoon – an affordable robot that looks like a baby elephant, and which helps to make meal times happy and fun for kids with upper limb difficulties and special needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lMZe0Vdpng

Quadplane is a Silicon Valley based startup that is developing a hybrid multirotor/fixed wing airframe to be used as a VTOL UAV. The end result will be a platform that is as mechanically simple as a quadrotor, while providing many of the benefits of a fixed wing aircraft such as speed, range and endurance. Their design requires no control surfaces, and is much more resistant to crosswinds than tail sitters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpoySoRj7qw

Robocoding is a German startup that aims to bring a robot to every school and university around the world. “Computer programming has become so essential that we want everyone to have access to learn it in the most fun and interactive way. Institutions who can’t simply afford the platform, we will provide with a online service, where the students can program the robots in our lab.” [robocoding.com]

Runfun is a German startup that has developed a robotic running coach called RUFUS, which helps runners to optimize their training, improve their performance, and avoid overstraining. RUFUS is an automatically guided outdoor vehicle that drives ahead of the runner like a pacesetter. It measures the runner’s heart rate, and sets its own velocity such that the runner’s heart rate stays within a healthy interval.

Domedica is a young mechatronic development company from the Netherlands that has developed a low-cost, high functionality two-fingered robotic gripper. This development was driven by the need for low-cost service and personal care robots, which require low-cost manipulators.

FuVeX is a Spanish startup developing a new concept of helicopter, HeliKar. The process will involved two unmanned vehicles and will be finished with the third manned one, HeliKar, with capacity for 4 people.

NBE (or Non Biological Entity) is a team from Pakistan that is building an open source, low-cost, feature packed Robotics and Vision Lab on Wheels.

Rapid Robot Prototyping (R2P) is an open source hardware and software framework aiming at reducing time and effort needed to develop real robotic systems.

The development of complex robotic systems requires multiple skills and quite a high initial investment; with R2P, robots can be implemented by assembling low-cost, open source, off-the-shelf components, easily programming their interaction without the need for domain-specific knowledge in electronics and low-level control. R2P combines a simple programming model and high performance hardware modules, enabling companies, research labs, students, and enthusiasts, to easily develop novel robotic applications.

Wearable Robotics, a university spin-off in Pisa, Italy, commercializes wearable exoskeletons for human power assistance, like rehabilitation material handling purposes. Key factors are our lab’s 20+years experience in exoskeletons, simplicity, lightness and low-cost of our devices, and an hybrid actuation system recently patented with benefits in terms of energy consumptions, simplified control and safety for the users.

Project Omega is a Swiss startup that makes fast unmanned ground vehicles that can transport heavy stuff in very rough terrain and places dangerous for humans.

Gleipnir Robotics’ unique and innovative grasp planner operates on polygon soup meshes and is able to synthesize human-like power grasps. As the grasp planner does not require complex preprocessing such as shape segmentation and medial axis computation, it is particularly suitable for the fast computation of grasps in the context of human-robot interaction and interactive synthetic characters.

TREx (Teleoperated Robotic Exomorph) is currently being prototyped in Canada. An all electric, tetherless quadruped robot weighing approximately 4kg, 35cm high at the shoulder, and can run at 7km/h. A common robotic skeleton can be overlaid with different exterior soft shells to make different small animals such as teddy bear, cat or rabbit. Software behaviours can be loaded to mimic each of the exterior looks. Completed assemblies can be sold as high end toys for various ages, or skeleton with basic locomotion software can be made available to academic institutions to develop advanced software algorithms.

Next week, we’ll start voting for Robohub Reader favourites – stay tuned!

We were really excited to see so many entries in the first days of Robot Launch 2014. What most people don’t realize is that you can enter the startup competition immediately but still keep updating your answers until the March 30 deadline. The only part of your entry that is public is your abstract and team bio. And that’s where the early birds will catch the ‘worm’ – getting extra attention for their startups and maybe also getting a head start for the ‘most popular’ startup award. We’ll be announcing more information about awards and judging over the next few weeks.

There is already a strong range in our entries, both in terms of robotics verticals and the geographic location of teams, which range from Australia, India, Mexico, the USA and France. Service robotics is well represented and also hobby and industrial robotics. Stay posted for interviews with our amazing judges and mentors about what they are looking for in a robotics startup, like today’s full interview with Valery Kommissarova from Grishin Robotics. Grishin Robotics guarantees priority consideration to the finalists and one hour of personal mentoring with a selected startup.

“As one of the few focused investors in the robotics field, we are always looking for opportunities to partner with organizations and projects, aimed on fostering the hardware entrepreneurship. This robotics startup competition is a great idea, which should help many promising startups to get much needed additional exposure as well as, hopefully, establish plenty of useful connections. We look forward to learn more about the contestants and help winners to build strong business out of their ideas,” says Kommissarova.

Plus, we are still adding mentors and awards to what’s on offer for robot startups. Top quality mentoring from investors and leaders in the field is an incredible advantage for an early stage startup – so get your entry in… early!

[AK] With investments in two accelerators now (Bolt in US and Navigator Campus in Russia), as in well as a range of robotics companies, Grishin Robotics has a bird’s eye view of robot startups. What do you think about the recent high profile announcements about robotics investments … how will this impact the start-up scene? 

[VK] It’s definitely great news. Amazon, for example, announced in a very significant way their interest in robotics a few years ago when they bought Kiva for $775 million. So this isn’t the first time that big corporations not traditionally involved in robotics are starting to pay attention to the field. It really  begun at least in 2012, when Grishin started to invest into robotics startups as well.

However, this time it’s even more about perception. These high profile media announcements are getting picked up by the general public, investors, and entrepreneurs – they attract attention to the industry. No doubts, it is important from an entrepreneurial perspective – there should be more success stories for them, more ‘benchmarks’.

These days many talented mechanical and electrical engineering students and professionals (particularly in the Bay Area) are attracted by the large salaries being offered by big internet companies like Facebook and therefore decide to switch into software and postpone their startup, hardware and robotics dreams indefinitely.

But when they hear these big announcements about new products or M&As, they realize the market is actually happening and they begin to believe that they can start their own company … they don’t have to go work for a big corporation. They can continue to work in a profession that they like and have expertise in. So from that perspective, these announcements are very important.

From the investors’ perspective, it’s largely the same. They need inspiration, they need proof, they need exits, and they need public companies. Of course there are already public companies like iRobot , but still we don’t hear about robotics acquisitions or IPOs every day – not yet. The announcements of the Amazon drones and the Google acquisitions of Nest and other companies really attracted the attention of the venture and finance communities and reminded them that something big is happening. It forced them to pay attention … it forced them to think that maybe another one or two years is too long to wait to make their bet on this space. And that’s really great news.

Google have invested in quite an assortment of robot startups, particularly if you include their investments and resources in AI and NLP. What do you think their plans are?

Interesting question to speculate on. Google itself said that their primary interest at this point lies in the area of manufacturing. But the acquisition of Nest is definitely a consumer play. Frankly, at this point, I think, it may be not so much about any coherent behind-the-scenes grand strategy as much as that they are starting to feel like something big is going to happen to follow the revolutions that came with the personal computer, the internet and the smart phone. Many people are seeing signs that the next big revolution may be robotics.

For Google, Amazon etc. this may be more about announcing some kind of interest in this space and to jump into the game as early as possible. I think there’s a lot of R&D going on internally to figure out where and how exactly to go and approach it.

So while it’s definitely exciting times and more and more startups are launching with interesting ideas, there are still some unknown variables. It’s important for big corporations like Google to figure out the unknowns in this multi-billion dollar market as early as possible, and to do this before the competition does.

Do you see any down side to large companies getting involved in robotics?

Despite all these announcements the market is still at an early stage of development, so the really fierce competition is ahead. It’s not that the market is divided between big companies, after all these news – far from that. Just as a comparison … it’s difficult to launch another smart phone in the market today because the market is fairly mature and is divided between the big companies. But in the robotics market, and in the consumer robotics market specifically, it’s the opposite.

The barrier of entry for robotics startups has been getting lower and lower the last few years. And all these announcements lead to increased investor interest, which means more money for robotics and hardware startups … more investors ready to consider these kinds of companies in addition to the traditional Internet and mobile companies. I just can’t think of any significant downside – at least not at this point and not for the next two or three years.

Possible problems could include losing top talent, or losing access to components or research, or support for community and open source projects, which all have impact on research and startups …

All good points and let’s consider them one by one.

Regarding top talent, all these companies that were bought are fairly small. I deeply respect all these people and I know many of them, but I hope these acquisitions will inspire more robot students or engineers to go out there and start their robotics companies, or it will inspire younger students to select robotics when they pick their majors at universities. I think that the cumulative positive impact will be so much greater than the loss of these people to big corporations.

I also agree that it’s startups that are primarily innovating in new markets rather than the big companies … but it’s not like these people won’t continue to do research. And Google has a lot of money and resources and these people will continue their work with other talents they meet there. It’s very possible that these talented people will be able to accomplish more given the vast resources they’ll have access to inside these big companies. So I urge you consider not just the negative side of this, but the  positive sides as well – word ‘loss’ has too much of a negative connotation, in my opinion.

The second concern you mention is lack of access to components …

Yes, to components, ROS, research findings…

Not necessarily. When big company is buying component technology, of course, it often ceases to be open-source. Discussion of open-source ideals are wholly different topic, but my point is that it is not necessarily means decreased access – may be quite the opposite. Often there is an interest of a big company to make certain technology a dominant platform, therefore, great investments are made to attract more developers to it, improve it, explain benefits etc. And if it will turn out not to be the best platform – competitors or same open-source community will be quick to offer alternatives, especially, again, at this stage of market development, when barriers to entry are quite low.

If you could ask Andy Rubin any question what would it be?

One of the main challenges for consumer robotics market – whether we are talking about connected devices and the Internet of Things or more traditional consumer robotics like Roomba – it pretty much comes down to applications and business models. We can imagine some of the interesting applications or verticals where robotics could make a significant impact, but we can’t always imagine all the possible  areas and ways where robotics can be applied to make our lives better – there are just so many of them, and many are far from being obvious. So I would be interested to know how he thinks robotics can make our lives better in a significant fashion, beyond the usual suspects we already know about, like agriculture, drones etc.

And the same question about business models can be asked from a different perspective: at the moment hardware companies are selling hardware, but it’s getting commoditized … and you have to think about software and data and the cloud connectivity of the hardware components you are making. So, how can business models that are familiar to Google (like advertising, subscriptions, internet) be applied to robotics and consumer hardware companies? And of course, what kinds of new business models will emerge as a result?

We’ve talked about Google and Amazon. Who are the other big new players in the robotics space that are known for things other than robotics but are starting to have an impact in the field …

There may be many more than we are aware of. Like Tesla – of course it’s an automobile company but more and more its top management is starting to say that they are essentially an IT company, considering how connected the car is and how advanced the driving functions and so on. And the same goes with the other automobile companies that are working on self-driving cars.

And the problems they are solving, whether they are BMW or someone else, are very related to the problems the robotics industry in general is facing right now. The advancement of computer vision is basically what the whole robotics industry is reliant on in terms of future growth and potential. Also autonomous capabilities … We’re not talking about the holy grail of full autonomy any time in the foreseeable future, but the algorithms and the decision-making processes needed for these new (semi) autonomous cars may spill over into the startup world tomorrow. Eventually it will impact the whole market in a very significant and positive way.

Many of the big corporations today may essentially be involved in robotics already. For example Foxconn and other manufacturing companies are starting to use robots. And more and more companies in agriculture and mining are beginning to use unmanned vehicles. They are starting to understand that adopting these technologies earlier than their competitors is a necessity if they are going to survive. Robotic capabilities are becoming the basis of their long-term competitive advantage.

To make a comparison, almost everyone involved in physical commerce today is finding that their internet capabilities are getting closer and closer to the heart of their business. I think we will find the same thing happening with robotics. It’s not so much about the specific companies’ names we can come up with today … because in the future it will be almost everybody, just like how almost everybody these days is involved in the internet or is using software or computers.

What do you think are the most interesting recent robotics acquisitions?

It depends on how you define robotics. Is Nest as a robotics company? I for one define it as a consumer robotics company but I can imagine that many people will not agree with me. I believe everybody will eventually agree with this definition but not maybe today. I think the Deep Mind announcement is also very interesting. AI and related software is a very important enablers of robotics.

What do you think about Dyson’s announcement of the $8million (5 million pound) UK research facility specifically into home robots?

It’s an awesome announcement. Dyson himself is an iconic figure, as well as his company. They have been making products that we are used to seeing both in the home and the office, and they’ve been able to make them differently, both in terms of design and in terms of capability. And it’s great when such a company pays significant attention to robotics.

The thing is – it’s not enough to make a good-looking coffee maker or washing machine anymore because people are getting more and more used to smart devices in their homes and cars. Increasingly they are expecting smart capabilities for the same amount of money. And it is possible now to deliver a much smarter device – with Internet connectivity – for almost the same price as a so-called ‘dumb device’.

All this attention is just another confirmation that very soon the fact that you are making smart devices with robotic capabilities will stop to be the competitive advantage and will start becoming the threshold capability. I think Dyson is foreseeing this (probably somewhat ahead of their competitors) – but  eventually everyone will follow.

Grishin Robotics is investing in consumer robotics… Do the recent announcements change any of your plans? 

No. There are a lot of very interesting application areas and verticals in the robotics market, whether it’s health care, agriculture, or manufacturing, but Grishin focuses on consumer robotics simply because we see huge potential, both from the market perspective and from the perspective of having a positive impact on people’s lives. This potential is much greater when we’re talking about robotic products that the average person can buy for $100-$200, and when there are so many prospective customers out there. It’s really all about impact. Big corporations and governments have been benefiting from robotics for so long, but average people have yet to benefit. We think it’s time to change that.

You could say, then, that the recent announcements have validated Grishin Robotics’ interests …

Exactly. In June 2012, when Dmitry Grishin launched the firm, a fair number of people told us that we were absolutely crazy. When so many smart people are telling you that you’re crazy, you have to think that you may not necessarily be right, but at least you’re probably doing something interesting. But when in the end it turns out that you are even may be right … it does feel good.

 [Edited by Hallie Siegel]

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

• Robot Launch 2014: The first global startup competition for robotics is here!
• Doggone it, there are no exciting consumer robots
• Dmitry Grishin on evaluating robotic investment opportunities
• Accelerators and opportunities for robotics startups
• Robots Podcast: Grishin Robotics

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

10. Focus Focus Focus. 

9. Market First – What Does It Do? Willow Garage produced the PR2 robot, a $400K two-armed, mobile manipulator that was capable of doing all kinds of things. We programmed it to play pool, to deliver a beer from the fridge, and delivered it to researchers who made it do tons more. But that question “what does it do” was always hard to answer. The real answer was that it enabled researchers to advance robotics, but that’s not the answer someone asking “what does it do” was looking for.

8. “Research Market” is an Oxymoron. Lots of startups have focused their marketing efforts on the academic research market. It’s attractive, because the customers are just like us. They have a little money, so you get paying early adopters. But it’s very difficult for companies to jump to a “real market” after starting this way.

7. Home vs. Factory is a false dichotomy. There is more to the world than just homes and factories. There is a whole service industry in the middle, with hospitals, restaurants, hotels, elder care facilities, offices, that is virtually untouched by robotic hands – hundreds of billions of dollars of market opportunity, virtually untapped.

6. $400K is too much for a service robot. Not always too much for a robot – “too much” depends on use, and certainly there are space robots or special-purpose robots that would be worth much more. But the robot has to provide more value than it costs, and $400K is a lot of cost.

5. The Press Loves Robots. Robots capture our imagination, and this cuts both ways. It’s easier to get attention for a humanoid robot than it is for much other technology, but the history of robots in movies and stories sometimes raises unrealistic expectations.

4. Less is More. The statement “build the minimum viable product (MVP)” is very true – any extra features add cost, complexity, and risk. This is well known, but so tempting that it’s worth repeating, as a mantra, about once every couple of days in a startup.

3. Perfect autonomy is not necessary. A service robot is part of a system that is designed to do some work, and it is fair game to augment the environment or have a human in the loop as long as the overall cost is acceptable.

2. $15M is too big for a Series A funding round. Period.

1. Simple is Hard… and worth it. A successful venture will try to simplify everything: the use of the product, the adoption curve, the sales process, etc. Nest is a beautiful example of taking common technology and making it easy on the outside in spite of the complexity on the inside.

This post was originally published at Savioke, and presented at the Silicon Valley Robotics Investor Forum in Palo Alto, with an obvious homage to David Letterman.

Link to audio file (25:51)

In today’s episode Per Sjöborg speaks with Jan Westerhues, Investment Partner with Robert Bosch Venture Capital, about how they fund robotics companies. As a stepping stone towards their long-term goal of building autonomous cars, they are currently investing in a wide range of robotics technologies with real world applications. Westerhues talks about when in a project’s life they can help, and what to expect throughout their involvement. He also promises exciting news in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Jan Westerhues
Jan Westerhues is Investment Partner with Robert Bosch Venture Capital in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is responsible for robotic investments. He is also a board member/observer at Aethon (USA), as well as at a soon-to-be-disclosed low cost autonomous navigation company in the EU. RBVC is the corporate venture arm of Robert Bosch GmbH, one of the largest private conglomerates with over 50 billion Euros sales. The VC fund invests in start-up companies  worldwide either directly or via Venture Capital Funds. Investment focus is technology companies that fit Bosch’s current and future business. RBVC provides capital for minority stakes in start-ups from early to expansion stage. Prior to this position, Jan was responsible for Bosch Corporate Strategy in the Asia Pacific region, based in Shanghai, China. He gathered extensive experience in strategy consulting before joining the Bosch Group. Jan holds a degree in engineering and business administration (Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing.) from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany and is a CFA charter holder. He speaks German, English, and Spanish fluently and has a basic knowledge of Mandarin.

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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.

Three years after their successful Cubelets, Modular Robotics launched a new kickstarter today for Moss. It’s like Cubelets just got clever and maybe a little bit more fashionable too. Moss is a dynamic robot construction kit and by the time you read this, the kickstarter will be well over the target of $100,000.  This is a loyalty and publicity kickstarter, not a plea for funding to get a prototype off the ground!Moss blocks have magnetic ball joints to connect to each other – with one connection you have a universal joint, with two a hinge and with four you have a rigid construction. All the power and data pass through a single central button. No wires, no coding and very fast construction with a range of additional shapes to play with. Like cubelets, different colored cubes will have different features, like motor blocks, sensing and communication modules. There’s a bluetooth block so that you can control your creations from your phone.

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/703495/video-308396-h264_high.mp4

“It’s just a very different model of thinking about the world. On the one hand, you could say Cubelets are more advanced because they have a microcontroller inside every single piece and they talk to their neighbors digitally. MOSS doesn’t have a microcontroller in each piece, and it uses really simple analog communication,” Schweikardt said. “On the other hand… [with MOSS] you can have a lot more pieces working together in sync.”

Boulder based Modular Robotics started off as Roblocks with NSF seed funding for educational robotics and small business development. Since then, they’ve picked up a decent Series A round of $3 million from Foundry Group (Brad Feld). And, since shipping for Cubelets started in 2011, the Modular Robotics team have been working on new things. An unexpected bonus of their NSF SBIR grant was a post-doc scholarship. This allowed Eric Schweikardt to hire Jon Hiller.

“When I was a post-doc at the Cornell Computational Synthesis lab (now called the Cornell Creative Machines Lab), Jon was a PhD student. Even in a world-class lab filled with the smartest people you’ve met, Jon stood out. He was working on discrete 3D printing, figuring out how to deposit tiny beads of material in dense grids to create forms with variable material properties. He built apparatus, wrote code, ran 3D simulations, and finished some super cool research. “

“Under normal circumstances, there’d be no way that a little, underfunded startup like Modular Robotics in 2010 could embark on the design of a second, totally unique robot project. But when Jon came out to join us, much of the work on commercializing Cubelets was complete. Since Jon was basically “free” to Modular Robotics, we decided that we should make the most of this bonus: we’d put him to work on a brand new something. Here we are, a couple of years later.”

Modular Robotics have also teamed up with SF based artist Huck Gee to create a Shogun Tank, a samurai-inspired robot tank complete with missile turret. “MOSS in its early prototypes was just an abstract building kit,” Schweikardt says. “It probably wouldn’t have appealed to me as a kid because I liked enacting these big battles and narratives with my toys.” Modular Robotics teamed up with Paul Budnitz, founder of KidRobot, to find artists who’d be interested in designing exclusive MOSS models. Schweikardt says Huck Gee is the first of many to come.

The design brief for the tank was to shoot a NERF type missile 3 feet with sufficient accuracy “to hit a cat sized target. Meow.” No real cats were harmed in the making of this product, as far as I’m aware. And how clever is this? Prepackaged image with all the products and prices! If you want to have a successful kickstarter, study successful campaigns. Like this one.

After receiving a $1million seed fund round from investors like Google Ventures, many of us have been waiting for Play-i to come out of stealth and show us their stuff. Play-i are a Silicon Valley based startup with a founding team from Amazon, Google, frog design and Apple; Vikas Gupta, Mikal Greaves, Saurabh Gupta and Imran Khan. Play-i aim to make programming simple and affordable for every child.

Today Play-i launched a $1/4 million crowdfunding campaign, already half subscribed, for their cute robot toys, Bo and Yana. Bo is a mobile multi ball robot whereas Yana is designed to be a storyteller. Both robots come with different skins and accessories or attachments allowing them to work together or play with different objects.

“As a father, I know that a child’s world is about play” said Vikas Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Play-i. “Every design choice we’ve made for our robots was to deliver play and programming as a priority, while also keeping our price down.”

The Play-i robots utilize Scratch and Blockly and can be programmed wirelessly from a device like an iPad. The robots are designed to be programmed by early readers, and also to provide a rewarding environment for learning to code. The Play-i team are parents who want to address the shortfall of computer scientists in an increasingly digital world.

“What makes Play-i’s robots so unique and special is that they really connect with younger kids on an emotional level and make programming such a seamless and playful experience,” said Mike Dooley, the original Product Manager for LEGO Mindstorms and now a VP of Product and Business Development at iRobot and adviser for Play-i.

“They are leveraging a legacy of ideas from research on computing, robotics and children’s cognitive development, but have created something new and so accessible that even kids in the 1st or 2nd grade can easily play with programming, and in the process, construct rich models for understanding the world.”

“Play-i gets how a developmentally appropriate introduction to programming can pave the way towards a lifelong interest and aptitude in computer science,” said Vibha Sazawal, Lecturer and Visiting Research Scientist at the University of Maryland and adviser for Play-i.

Play-i have a lot of design skills in their team already, but have also utilized long time robot design expert Ted Larson from Ologic and a serious advisor lineup including; Mike Dooley, the original product lead for Lego Mindstorm Robotics, Steve Cooper, Professor of CS & Ed at Stanford University, Chairman of CSTA, Andrea Thomaz, Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, Kiki Prottsman, Educator and Executive Director of Thinkersmith, Vibha Sazawal, Scientist at the University of Maryland, and Prashant Kanhere, who led led development of the iPod at Apple.

Play-i robots will be available in the Summer of 2014 and are priced at $149 and $99. Of course, Play-i are not the only ones in this space, with Thymio and Linkbot doing very good affordable educational robotics, just to name a couple. And of course, Lego and Vex. However, Play-i may be the best funded company with a focus on programming robots at the moment.

Australian startup Zookal is making news today with their claims to be the world’s first drone delivery company.  It’s an exciting headline and I wish them well. But while you can quibble over who is really the first commercial drone delivery company, I think it’s more interesting that we’re hitting an inflection point where you have to ask, “is a company that uses robots a robot company”? Zookal is a textbook and student services startup. They use drones for delivery and marketing. They are not a drone or robot company. And that’s good!

Zookal is a textbook rental startup that also provides a digital note platform and internships for international students. Zookal are using drones developed by the University of Sydney engineering students and technically Flirtey is the actual drone startup. Or possibly Vimbra who are managing the logistics partnerships, ie between Zookal and Flirtey. However they all have cofounder Ahmed Haider in common.

Haider hopes to close the gap between the rapid developments in ecommerce and logistics which has remained largely unchanged. Textbooks are a great test bed for drone logistics as they are robust, reasonably expensive and in demand, unlike tacos, which may be in demand but are fragile and offer little margin for a startup.

“Textbooks are an excellent way to test the market as they allow for varying weights,” he says. “With the concentration of students in universities in Australia, we will have proof of concept that shows if you can deliver a textbook, then things such as urgent medical deliveries, clothes, shoes, fast food and other e-commerce will be much more viable.”

Drones are the first robots to become an off the shelf technology that is wide open for diverse uses, with drone delivery and aerial photography leading the way as consumer and small business verticals. What next? Drones are the gateway for consumer robotics where the robot is a tool that anyone can use. Increasingly, there will be more and more separation between companies that simply use robots and companies that make or deploy or augment robots. This inflexion point has occurred many times in various industries, most notably the automotive industry in the 70s and 80s.

While Australia is friendlier towards commercial UAV operation than the US, this is still a fledgeling industry with many standards and regulations still to be worked out. Flirtey are working in partnership with The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering, a non-profit research institute, to develop a set of guidelines for the use of commercial drones.

“We hope to use this guide as a way to work through safety, privacy and community concerns locally which will hopefully set a benchmark for the rest of the world as to how to interact with this new technology,” says Haider. “I think this is going to be absolutely huge in terms of logistics,” he says.

So let’s keep Zookal with Flirtey on the list of robot startups for a while longer because they are creating interest and expanding awareness of potential business models which will increase the funding opportunities for more robot startups.

Link to audio file (24:09)

In this episode Matthew Schroyer speaks with Nick Kohut, CEO of Dash Robotics, about their foldable hexapod robot and the ongoing crowdfunding campaign to get them into the hands of budding engineers, kids and hobbyists.

Dash is the result of years of research in fast prototyping of bioinspired robots at Ron Fearing’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab at UC Berkeley (see Fearing Podcast or Hoover Podcast). The palm-sized origami robot is now available for the general public to build and program. The robot takes inspiration from insect locomotion by using compliant and light weight hardware to drive over difficult terrain without using any complex controllers (see Bob Full podcast). You can check out their Dragon crowdfunding campaign for a chance to get one of the first 1000 robots. The campaign ends on October 2nd.

Nick Kohut
Nick Kohut is the co-founder and CEO of Dash Robotics. He is also a postdoc at Stanford University in Mark Cutkosky’s Biomimetics and Dextrous Manipulation Laboratory, working on a variable stiffness suspension element for humanoid robotics. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in Ron Fearing’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab, developing small legged robots. His research focused on the development of an active tail to enable high speed turning. In the past, he also did research on centimeter scale robots, and using GPS and traffic information to improve fuel economy.

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First crowdfunding, now startup services – hardware is eating the software world. FounderDating launched a hardware vertical on Wednesday, after seeing increasing demand from hardware entrepreneurs who were bringing a whole new set of discussions to the FounderDating website. This isn’t the first new direction for FounderDating; they recently started an education vertical as well as expanding into more cities across the world.

When Jessica Alter launched FounderDating in 2009, she simply wanted to connect local San Francisco entrepreneurs. In true startup fashion, as the site has grown more popular, they have adjusted to meet demand. As well as expanding to 24 new cities in 4 countries, and introducing more specialized verticals, like education and now hardware, the site has added a Quora-like discussion section. After all, not everyone can access an accelerator or seed funding, but with the right filtering, we can all leverage the power of crowds on internet.

FounderDating works like a dating site or your own private Linked In for entrepreneurs. It’s invitation only, although you can apply or be recommended by members. There is a $50 one time fee, which basically covers an introductory face-to-face network event. Most of the networking happens online and founding teams can form long distance.

Half the network’s membership is engineers, a proportion FounderDating says it intentionally maintains to ensure balance. So far the ideal balance seems to be 50% engineers and 50% business development, design and other skills. Priority is given to entrepreneurs ready to get started immediately, not those with a full time day job. But having your own idea is by no means a prerequisite, it’s about forming a team. Unsurprisingly, the Bay Area has many engineers, second only to Israel, whereas New York has many more business development types. It will be interesting seeing how adding hardware to the mix affects the balance.

What’s often overlooked [amid the hardware revolution] is how many pieces have to come together for a hardware company’s founding team – industrial design, mechanical, electrical and often software engineering plus a hustler who can make manufacturing and distribution a reality. It’s tremendously difficult and rarely do these people just happen upon each other day-to-day. We give them a platform to connect with right people together to get hardware companies started the right way. [Alter quoted in PandoDaily]

There are other players in the startup connection space, from Collabfinder carving out a niche in universities, and CoFoundersLab buying up competitors like FounderMatchup and Techcofounder. Where CoFoundersLab has partnerships with organizations like The Founder Institute, Startup America and TechStars, FounderDating has partners like TechShop, and Highway1, PCH International’s new hardware accelerator. FounderDating raised its first outside capital in January of this year from investors including Crosslink Capital, 500 Startups,  Greylock Discovery Fund, and SoftTech VC.

Interested? Upcoming Deadline: 9/27/13
Apply Now -> http://members.founderdating.com/hardware

Dash is the first product to launch today on Dragon Innovation‘s new hardware crowdfunding site. Dragon Innovation was founded in 2009 by Scott Miller and Herman Pang, ex iRobot and Hasbro. Dragon are partnering with GE, Qualcomm and freescale to bring us this new hardware crowdfunding site, which seems to be nicely positioned to accelerate startups somewhere in between Quirky, IndieGogo and the nuts and bolts of real world accelerators. Of course, Dragon are also behind Bolt, Boston’s new hardware accelerator.

The first 5 products on the crowdfund site include: Dash, the cockroach inspired robot; Mimo, a smart baby body monitor; Ollie, a slim flat multipurpose tool; LIMBERboard, a flexible wearable microcontroller board; and RunNRead, making reading while exercizing easy. It’s not clear whether the Dragon site plans to be more than just a shopfront for Dragon products but Dash is a cool little robot.

The Dash team from Berkeley Biomimetics Millisystems Lab have turned their research into an affordable, educational arduino based cockroach inspired robot kit. The manufacturing process is even more interesting. Dash is made using smart composite microstructures, or SCM, a technique allowing flexible joints or moving components to be made from the same sheet of material as more rigid body or limbs.

The SCM material is a sandwich of cardboard, plastic, and adhesive. We laser cut windows in the cardboard, leaving only the flexible polymer behind. This allows the windows to flex like a hinge. By cutting these hinges in certain locations and patterns, we can build up complex folded mechanisms such as hips, joints, and transmissions. As a result, Dash is very quick to fabricate, and design changes are easy. [Dash Robotics]

Of course, any product from the Berkeley Biomimetics Millisystems Lab is leveraging years of research into things like gecko adhesion, cockroach running and dragon fly flight. The springiness of natural animal locomotion has been incorporated into the mechanics of Dash’s design, enabling Dash to move and turn quickly without needing heavy, expensive servos or powerful processors.

Alex Reben’s dissertation robot, Boxie “the needy robot” morphed into Blabdroid, the documentary film about making robots. Blabdroid were the official “robots in residence” at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April, and are now touring the world’s film festivals before taking up a somewhat different role in Bolt, a Boston based hardware accelerator.

Bolt has just announced their first hardware startup intake and I’ve been looking forward to seeing how many other robots have made the cut. Ben Einstein and his team had to sift through hundreds of applications for Bolt’s first group of startups. Each startup will receive enough funding to complete the 6 month program including access to a full machine shop and manufacturing mentors.

The selection process was extremely competitive. Response to our call for applications over the past three months surpassed even our most optimistic expectations with more than 850 entries. Of those, we have selected seven companies as part of our first enrollment of the inaugural 2013 class. They represent sectors ranging from consumer electronics to robotics to medical devices. Five are B2B. There are three companies that have already raised capital and two that are on track to hit $1M of revenue in 2013. [Bolt 7/31/2013]

Bolt itself recently received funding from Grishin Robotics, Autodesk and Logitech and is on track to give budding hardware startups all the right stuff. Founders Ben Einstein, Axel Bichara and Scott Miller have backgrounds in running companies, in product design, venture capital and manufacturing. Some of their previous products include Roomba, Pebbl, Sphero and Solidworks. Here are the seven companies in Bolt’s first enrolment:

• Subsidence generates real-time, localized, atmospheric data, powered by its dense grids of next-generation weather stations

• Petnet creates a line of intelligent pet products and leverages the data they capture so that pets, their owners, and caregivers can all be digitally connected

• Behavioral Technologies builds wearable technology that seeks to influence habits, rather than simply measure movement

• Loci Controls helps landfills optimize methane collection and energy generation

• Padloc designs and manufactures innovative tablet hardware and technology solutions for national retailers, hotels and banks

• BeTH creates prosthetic and orthotic devices that provide custom fit comfort without custom fabrication

• BlabDroid builds social robots paired with dynamic content to create unique relationships with technology

The full Bolt team is pumped to settle into our brand-new space in downtown Boston. It’s a mix of open, light office space and a workshop full of cutting-edge prototyping equipment. With the facility we’ve built, Bolt provides a one-stop-shop to hardware startups seeking to build, manufacture and sell their first product. [Bolt 7/31/2013]

Bolt also host the Boston Hardware Startup Meetup every 6 weeks. Bolt is building a great ecosystem for robot startups and we’re hoping that Blabdroid, or the next iteration of Alex’s robotics, will be the star of the Bolt stable.

Blabdroid video from Tribeca Film Festival 2013

What does it look like to an entrepreneur bootstrapping themselves through the early stages? I talk to Saurabh Palan, Founder and CEO of Mighty Carma, about the process. Firstly, Saurabh has just come through a few months of intense iteration (worth a whole nother blog post or two) in which he’s talked to potential customers, changed his design, talked to potential investors, changed his design, talked to more potential customers etc.

Crowdfunding was not Saurabh’s first choice. Saurabh’s first choice was to find a channel partner, who would then invest in him directly, or make investing in him appealing to investors due to the large market potential. Makes sense on paper but takes a lot of time that rarely pays off. Paul Graham from Y Combinator has written a great post “Do things that don’t scale” touching on that issue.

Along the way, Saurabh’s company changed its focus from robotics product to consumer automotive product. In technical terms, Mighty Carma is working on a Smartphone-based Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). Steve Blank has also just written a great post on how robotics companies find their MVP and prove their business model by moving away from the robots.

It wasn’t Saurabh’s second choice to go to a crowdfunding campaign either. His preferred route is still to get direct investment or perhaps to get into a hardware accelerator like Lemnos Labs, Bolt, Haxlr8r, AlphaLabs or Highway1, the new PCH International accelerator.

50% of crowdfunding campaigns fail. While there are a lot of great hardware success stories like Ouya and Pebble, it is risky for the startup/entrepreneur. There are a lot of #fails. As an entrepreneur, you have to ask: how many times are you willing to take the risk? How will this impact on investor confidence? See my blog posts; “Crowdfunding Robots“, “New Funding Sources for Robotics“, “3 Reasons to Crowdfund a Robot” and “A Botiful Story“.

I asked Saurabh why he’s considering crowdfunding. “The cost and MVP fundamentals for the hardware are very different from the software company. It is easier to build an app, ship it and then fix what’s broken. You can easily do user testing as well as get feedback from customers who may want different things from what you have. For hardware, on the other hand, it’s very difficult to do consumer testing as we may just have a couple of 3D printed, hand-made prototypes.”

“Even though it’s open-source and cheap, building hardware comes at a cost. Crowd-funding allows us to show that prototype to a larger audience, get feedback, and test if this is something people will buy, if we manufactured it. Also with crowdfunding, it is easier to test ideas, and if it fails, you have lost a few months of work and some small cash, and if it worked, you can be the next big thing.”

How will you choose a crowdfunding platform?

“Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great platforms. However, after the changes made to rules on Kickstarter, it is difficult to get projects approved on Kickstarter, especially if it’s a hardware project. Kickstarter fails to understand how hardware works. They expect you to show a real product, not a 3D rendering of what it would be like. It is OK to show 3D printed product as long as they also allow the renderings for what users will get. This matters a lot as without 3D, the projects lack color, design details and also in some cases functionality.”

“Indiegogo on the other hand, lives and breathes hardware. They are based in San Francisco, right in the middle of the most innovative place on earth. They understand that it is very expensive to make hardware, also the chances of success is high when consumers are able to see the final product, even if it is in rendering.”

“Though Kickstarter has an advantage of wider audience and million dollar success, it is difficult to repeat the same on Kickstarter, due to their new rules. Indiegogo on the other hand is very open. You can not only show 3D, but also sell multiple units of the same product. (Approx 10,000 users bought more than 1 Pebbles.)”

Currently Saurabh is finalizing product design and looking for creatives to help him with marketing materials, pictures and videos for a crowdfund campaign. Many successful campaigns these days also employ marketing companies or professionals to grow customer base and create media interest. Saurabh will be searching Angel.co, LinkedIn and Craigslist for people with the skills he needs and hopes that tapping his existing networks will be sufficient for his crowdfund campaign. He expects to be going to meetups all that month, talking up his campaign, as well as approaching groups in the same space. He’s found that interest groups have been useful in giving him good feedback.

What are the benefits, outside of pre-orders, in crowdfunding?

“For innovative product, crowd-funding helps build a brand name. For example if Pebbles was not crowd-funded, Apple or Sony would have made their product irrelevant. However, due to the brand name, Pebbles is identified as the 1st on many that followed. Also it helps a great deal in raising money. (At least that’s what I have heard. One example is Romotive which did not get a single investor on demoday at Techstars, but were able to raise $5MM after $100k kickstarted campaign.)”

What are the risks to you?

“The risk are enormous. If crowdfunding is successful: 1. Meeting deadline to deliver product 2. Sorting supply chain. 3. Certifications (FCC, CE etc) 4. Setting up scalable manufacturing.”

“If it is not successful: 1. Now the idea has become public, so competitors know what we have and how they can better it.  2. Raising money becomes even more difficult.”

What the rewards are?

“Most rewarding thing is that you get to know from the customers directly if they want this or not. Also its a great marketing tool.”

We’ll follow up Saurabh’s progress with a Mighty Carma crowdfunding campaign as it happens. It’s easy to be wise in hindsight but it’s very hard to navigate the risks and rewards in real time.

While I love getting robots in the mail, crowdfunding sites are also good for supporting a whole range of robot related activities. The 3rd annual Robot Film Festival just launched a Kickstarter campaign to complement ticket sales on Eventbrite. This year, the Robot Film Festival is at Bot&Dolly studios in San Francisco on July 20-21, after very successful previous events in New York.

The Robot Film Festival was founded by Heather Knight and Marek Michalowski as a way of showcasing a diverse range of robotic visions, both real and fictional, in a thought provoking and entertaining fashion. The festival also serves to create a cultural snapshot of the current state of robotics.

Most crowdfunding sites are vehicles for cultural or charitable projects rather than shopfronts for physical goods, so this is a robot project likely to reach it’s very reasonable target. And while ticket sales are only going to be of interest to those in the Bay Area in July, the Kickstarter campaign has rewards for interested people anywhere.

Robot Adam Z1 from David Hanson

Some of the other robots on crowdfunding sites at the moment include both projects and products, hardware and software, complete robots and controller boards/shields. Projects include;

• Neko (an oil painting robot)  $1008 / $3000 funded with 18 days to go
• Superbolt Theater (taking their play The Uncanny Valley, about love between man and robot, to the Edinburgh Film Festival) $4307 / $7000 funded with 4 days to go
• RiPPLe (a high schooler prototyping a low cost humanoid robot) $1515 / $5500 funded with 11 days to go
• Hex (a humanoid platform out of Baltimore Hackerspace)$772 / $35,000 funded with 33 days to go
• Robot Adam Z1 (David Hanson’s project to get more smarts into a cute robot ) $3408 / $300,000 funded with 35 days to go
• Coralbots (nonprofit science team using swarm robotics to save coral reefs) $10,830 / $30,000 with 30 days left

Nessie 4 from Coralbots

Products include;

• mOwayduino (an affordable small wheeled platform with range of programming languages) $8452 / $50,000 funded with 33 days to go
• Rapiro (humonoid robot kit for Raspberry Pi) $35,170 / $20,000 with 55 days to go
• Bugzy (a wireless remote controlled robot bug) $0 / $5000 funded with 57 days to go
• Bot-Logic (a full hexapod kit or just the arduino logic shield) $3509 / $10,000 funded with 13 days to go
• Foldimate (industrial laundry folding machine) $7018 / $250,000 funded with 10 days to go
• Sunnybot (smart moving solar reflector) $6138 / $200,000 funded with 18 days to go
• RK-1 (wifi mobile arduino robot) $2674 / $5000 funded with 10 days to go
• Fiona (smart AI interface from Adele Robots) $17,462 / $100,000 funded with 30 days to go

mOwayduino from Spanish company MiniRobots

Components include;

•  TiltyIMU (open source robotics controller for self balancing robots) $170 / $5000 funded with 29 days to go
• Motor PiTX (motor controller for Raspberry Pi robots) $2535 / $1500 funded with 11 days to go

Successful recently finished campaigns include;

• Linkbots from Barobo $45,792 / $40,000
• Sparki from Arcbotics $188,786 / $60,000

Sparki from Arcbotics

Food drone delivery ideas are taking off all over the place. But is it a business or just an advertizing stunt? Tacocopter was one of the first although still more of a theory than a practice. Stanford Robotics Club is carrying on the mission and delivering subs to students. Joining the ranks are an African beer drone, a UK pizza delivery copter and an aerial sushi tray. The OppiKoppi beer drone will be parachuting beverages to music festival attendees.

The aerial sushi tray at YO! Sushi is also handguided. It’s based on a Parrot AR.drone and as the tray sits on top of the rotors getting your food is a dicey proposition. That’s ok though, the aerial sushi tray is all about creating buzz for a new product line, not replacing wait staff. And most likely, the DomiCopter is an advertizing stunt not a serious logistics play. One of the project partners with Dominos Pizza is a creative agency, T + Biscuits.

Face it, drones are not ideal for payload delivery under most business conditions. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some serious waves taking shape under the froth. Matternet are making a bolder claim. Creating a large net of drone transport for small and critical supplies in areas where there isn’t other infrastructure. Matternet did field trials in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in late 2012. Matternet aim to create “the next paradigm for transportation using a network of unmanned aerial vehicles”.

This sort of disruptive platform play thinking saw Google launch Project Loon in Christchurch a few days ago. Stratospheric balloon arrays bounce internet signals to places previously inaccessible or disaster affected.  Two thirds of the world’s population is still without internet access and Christchurch is a symbolic place to role out the first stages of what is a global plan.

The 2011 earthquake in New Zealand’s 2nd largest city killed 185, destroyed half the city center and 80-90% of the area’s infrastructure. 2 years on many residents remain without permanent housing and the city’s central shopping mall has only just reopened – in a shipping container structure. It’s now estimated that it will take the New Zealand economy 50-100 years to recover from the 40$B repair bill. This makes Christchurch is a good test site for a blue ocean play as residents were used to all the mod cons but are also pragmatic about making do.

Which comes back to the original question, are food delivery drones a good business proposition or just an advertizing stunt? Where the general public love frothy interest pieces about tacocopters, real robotics companies are looking for more serious business plans. But without generating the public interest and acceptance of drone delivery, then more ambitious projects like creating infrastructure in Africa and internet in the stratosphere are unlikely to get off the ground.

Without TacoCopter, Matternet might not be getting investors. Even though Forbes magazine thinks that a ‘moon shot’ like Project Loon is far closer to the real business plan for Google than the far more tangible Google Glass. But then, Google Glass is just opening the doors for next year’s uber generation of really augmented devices. Froth travels on waves.

New accelerators are opening and existing programs are expanding. It’s an exciting time to be a robotics or hardware startup. In my next post I’ll talk about some of the sorts of startups that investors are showing interest in, but briefly, unless you are in the industrial space: Don’t call it a robot. Call it a connected device.

AlphaLab Gear has just opened applications for their first intake in October. Based in Pittsburgh, it’s the hardware and robotics extension of Innovation Works program. They are interested in your ‘crazy’ ideas and also in sensor or component technology. But then, who isn’t!

Applications for Bolt‘s first intake close in 6 days. They’re looking for teams with world changing ideas, less than 2 years development time, a technically leaning team of founders, connected devices and robotics. Bolt hopes you’ve raised money already.. but not too much. With their partnership with Dragon Innovation and a top class team of mentors, Bolt is in a good position to get you to market.

Just announced is PCH International‘s accelerator. Based in San Francisco but also offering a Shenzhen experience, PCH International will be drawing on their experience bringing many of the world’s major brand products to market.

Haxlr8r is another accelerator with a good track record and they are expanding their program to a twice yearly. Haxlr8r offers seed funding ($25,000), office space, mentorship and selects startups to work with twice a year and has a dual location (San Francisco and Shenzhen). Its first batch ran from March to June 2012 and has been well received.

Lemnos Labs is another accelerator with a well developed and expanding program. Lemnos is now taking applications all year round, although you will also have to be able to work in San Francisco. They’re looking for technically minded founders and aren’t afraid of industrial robotics.

If you’re in New York, the Zahn Center is the place to be. It’s a well funded new hardware accelerator, fab lab and cowork space run by medical roboticist Hatham Elhawary.

Silicon Valley Robotics will be also be announcing something soon. And of course there are now several robotics focussed funds, Grishin Robotics, newer kids on the block Genesis Angels, and European focussed Robolution Capital. There may be some more funds announced soon. But what is also a great opportunity are the corporate accelerators, funds and competitions.

I’ve mentioned Samsung’s accelerator and seed/venture fund before and now GE have partnered with Quirky to take a ‘hack a connected device’ tour around the country. And my current favorite competition is the International Hardware Startup Competition in conjunction with the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on June 3rd. (Basically you sign up to demo at the International Hardware Startup Meetup at AWE2013 and are in the running for prizes from PCH International and Upverter.)

Link to audio file (31:43)

In this episode we hear how the Spanish robotic startup Adele is creating a marketplace for robotics software. Through their platform, robot developers can buy software components for their robots, and software developers can sell their code, in a practical way. Examples of the software components, Adele calls them sparks, are speech recognition, synthetic speech, vision systems and user interface components. Their flagship project FIONA (Framework for Interactive-services Over Natural-conversational Agents) allows users to create intelligent and interactive virtual avatars.

Celestino Alvarez Martinez
Celestino Alvarez Martinez is an Industrial Engineer, specialized in Electronics and Automation from the University of Oviedo and with a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence from Polytechnic University of Madrid. In 2002 he began his PhD in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, under the supervision of Professor Antonio Barrientos (DISAM, UPM) in the field of human-robot interaction.

Lucia Fernandez Cossio
Lucia Fernandez Cossio is a Computer Science Engineer from the University of Oviedo. She is specialized in artificial intelligence and social robotics and currently holds the position of Project Manager at Adele Robots. She has experience in management and direction of R & D related to different topics within the field of Information Technology and Communication.

Links:

• Download mp3 (20.2MB)
• Subscribe to Robots using iTunes
• Subscribe to Robots using RSS
• Fiona website
• Adele’s website

Link to audio file (41:13)

In this episode Per talks to robotics enthusiast and investment fund manager Renaud Champion. Champion is co-founder of the professional investment fund Robolution Capital, that focuses on investing in service robotics in the European market.

Champion believes that service robotics has great growth potential, both in the professional and the domestic market. With a target of 60 million euros in funding, he is actively trying to promote development by building an effective ecosystem for robotics, including entrepreneurs, investors, advisers and users. In this interview he shares some thoughts on what he looks for in a potential investment, as well as his views on the European robotics market, vs. that in the US and Asia.

Renaud Champion
Renaud Champion is co-founder and partner of Robolution Capital, the first investment fund dedicated to Service Robotics in Europe and the first worldwide fund in this sector. He is also an executive director of Syrobo, the French Federation of Service Robotics.

Since 2005, he works closely with the entrepreneur Bruno Bonnell (Infogrames, Atari, Robopolis) to identify future growth centers in the high tech sector. In 2010 he created Primnext, a consulting firm specialized in valuation, risk management, modelling and returns optimization of companies operating in disruptive technologies and services. Primnext’s major fields of expertise are Robotics, Cognitive Systems and Artificial Intelligence.

In 1997, Renaud Champion joined the quantitative financial engineering department of BNP Paribas CIB where he was in charge of modelling structured derivatives products on interest rates and equity. From 2001 to 2009, he was the head of equity derivatives trading desks in New York and Paris at BNP Paribas. He managed derivatives portfolios on indices, stocks and hedge funds.

Renaud Champion holds an MS degree in electrical engineering with emphasis on mathematics and signal processing (SUPELEC, University of Michigan).

Links:

• Download mp3 (25MB)
• Subscribe to Robots using iTunes
• Subscribe to Robots using RSS
• Robolution Capital Website

Read more from our Startup Series.

Link to audio file (25:10)

In today’s episode, Per Sjoborg speaks with Ian Bernstein about the hugely successful Sphero robot and the company he co-founded, Orbotix.

Ian Bernstein
Ian Bernstein is cofounder of Orbotix which produces Sphero, a small ball-like robot which can be controlled from your smartphone. Launched one year ago, the robot has been hugely successful and is now available in the Apple store, Brookstone and Target to only cite a few. Key to their success has been a growing community of users writings apps for and making videos of their robots. Demonstrations include swarm control using the kinect or swimming Spheros augmented with “fish tails”.

Bernstein has been a hardware tinkerer and robot enthusiasts since age 12 when he attended the International BEAM Robotics Games (see Mark Tilden ROBOTS interviews from 2008 and 2012). He then studied at New Mexico Tech and Colorado State University, all while working at Road Narrows Robotics and running his own web-development company.

In 2010, Bernstein and Adam Wilson (also co-founder) joined a 3-month program at a startup accelerator called Techstars that led to their new company. Bernstein tells us about finding funding for hardware companies, setting up a production line and certifications needed to launch a product.

Links:

• Download mp3 (15.6MB)
• Subscribe to Robots using iTunes
• Subscribe to Robots using RSS
• Sphero website

I interviewed Elad Inbar, CEO of the RobotAppStore, just before the announcement that Grishin Robotics was investing $250,000 in this cloud robotics market play.

For Grishin Robotics, the future is in the clouds. Grishin Robotics are investing $250,000 into RobotAppStore, an online marketplace for robotics applications. It seems that Grishin is betting on the robotics industry following the same patterns as the smartphone or personal computing industry. But can robotics be compared to either personal computing or smartphones, given the lack of a unified robotic platform or even a common robotic function?

Elad Inbar, the founder of RobotAppStore believes that we are seeing the same sort of convergence in robotics as happened in the mobile phone industry. In the early days of the phone industry, developers used to have to build a different ring tone for every single model of phone, even phones from the same company. This convergence in robotics owes a lot to the development of ROS and the increasing use of COTS or common technologies.

RobotAppStore and Grishin Robotics also have infographics on robot apps and cloud robotics.

Read more from our Startup Series.

For Grishin Robotics, the future is in the clouds.

Grishin Robotics are investing $250,000 into RobotAppStore, an online marketplace for robotics applications. It seems that Grishin is betting on the robotics industry following the same patterns as the smartphone or personal computing industry. But can robotics be compared to either personal computing or smartphones, given the lack of a unified robotic platform or even a common robotic function?

Elad Inbar, the founder of RobotAppStore believes that we are seeing the same sort of convergence in robotics as happened in the mobile phone industry. In the early days of the phone industry, developers used to have to build a different ring tone for every single model of phone, even phones from the same company. This convergence in robotics owes a lot to the development of ROS and the increasing use of COTS or common technologies.

Since opening in 2011 in San Francisco, Elad and RobotAppStore have built up an inventory of hundreds of apps for dozens of different robots, from the Roomba vacuum cleaners, to Spheros, AR Drone quadcopters and humanoids like the Aldebaran Nao robots. The apps range from the entertaining, like a Roomba delivering a birthday cake and singing “Happy Birthday”, to the eminently practical, like an app giving an early overheating warning for the Nao.

The market feedback is that consumers who purchase one robot app, go on to purchase all the available apps for their robot. Inbar also finds that many people who contact the RobotAppStore don’t have a robot yet, but see the AppStore as a gateway to learning more about robots, so he’s launched Robopedia, a ‘wikipedia for robots’. Another way that Inbar is building the ecosystem of cloud robotics is by providing support for robot app developers, creating documentation to help developers make a career out of writing software for robots.

The personal robotics market is a rapidly growing industry – estimated by ABI research to hit the $18 billion mark in 2015. According to RobotAppStore estimates, based on figures provided by UNECE, IFR, ABI Research and BCC Research, more than 30 million programmable robots have been sold to date.

“Robotics is a combination of good hardware and software – thus, the important role of a project like the RobotAppStore in the market ecosystem is unquestionable. The concept of ‘Cloud robotics’, which implies ability of all robots to connect to the internet, share a common knowledge database and seamlessly upgrade their functions in real-time, is a soon-to-be future; one reminiscent of the of personal computer industry. We believe that the strong team behind RobotAppStore coupled with their ability to leverage the advantages of having strong community already built around the product, can make this future closer”, said Dmitry Grishin, founder of Grishin Robotics, Co-Founder & CEO of Mail.Ru Group.

“The support provided by Grishin Robotics is a great vote of confidence in our plans for the company,” said Elad Inbar, Founder & CEO of RobotAppStore. “It shows their belief in our vision and the importance of the marketplace for robotics applications. The robotics industry has reached its tipping-point with broad market acceptance, usability of robots, and the ability to extend the robots’ capabilities. Being a part of Grishin Robotics’ portfolio provides high synergy with other robotics companies and better resource utilization. We are excited to use this funding to secure our place as THE market-leader of the consumer and educational robot-apps industry. I would like to thank our community of developers, and invite awesome and creative developers to join us!”

I interviewed Elad Inbar, founder of RobotAp Store, for the Robot Startup Series, where he speaks in more depth about Grishin’s investment in RobotAppStore and the synergy of their vision of cloud robotics.

Complementing Robohub is new app “IEEE Spectrum ROBOTS,” which provides some news but has an extensive detailed section for current-day robots of all types: from exoskeletons to remote presence; from military transport to Google self-driving car; from Keepon and Paro to Asimo. For each there are specs, factoids, builder name and cost and interesting graphics and videos. There is also a substantial LEARN section with videos and text by notable and inspirational roboticists.

The news section is analogous to the NY Times: thorough and in-depth reporting on a wide range of topics—in this case the multiple sciences of robotics—by technical authorities in the field or on the IEEE Spectrum staff. The news section joins many other magazine tablet-style news apps such as ScoopIt, Zite and Trapit and news portal sites such as Robohub and The Robot Report.

All in all – and particularly for the non-news sections – the new app it is a worthy addition to the field of robotics.

An even newer site of interest is “Robot Radar” – which provides critical analysis on robotics technology articles published and distributed by the popular press.

Robot Radar‘s list of contributors is a who’s who of robotics in the US and UK and includes Alan Winfield, UWE, Henrik Christensen, GA Tech, Kerstin Dautenhahn, U of Hertfordshire, Benjamin Kuipers, U of MI, Illah Nourbakhsh, CMU, Maja Mataric, USC, Matt Mason, CMU, and Noel Sharkey, U of Sheffield.