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The Robot Report
Zoox raises $50 million for their stealthy Silicon Valley venture
Zoox, the secretive Silicon Valley startup working to build its own self-driving cars, has quietly raised $50 million (in October) in a Series A round led by Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong...
08 November 2016, by
Frank Tobe
October fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
October fundings for robotics-related startups totaled $291.75 million bringing the year-to-date funding figure very close to $1.5 billion. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired report...
02 November 2016, by
Frank Tobe
The delicate balance between brilliance, safety and arrogance
Silicon Valley and other technology centers have their share of brilliant minds. Some of them have similarly outstanding egos. A few of those have very short fuses. Such is the story of George Hotz....
01 November 2016, by
Frank Tobe
The changing landscape of drone funding
CB Insights Drone Quarterly Financing Trends to VC-Backed Companies shows a downward trend. The Robot Report's monthly funding reports show something different: a change in the nature of drone applic...
26 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Why DJI is succeeding in making and selling drones and 3DR didn’t
It was clear that DJI was winning the drone commoditization war by the end of 2015. Today's best sellers are mostly DJI products. Other makers (Parrot, 3D Robotics, Autel, Yuneec et al) haven't been a...
18 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
IFR’s two reports for 2015 show double-digit growth for remainder of decade
Each year the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) surveys and tabulates data from its worldwide network of robotics associations. The two 2016 annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World...
17 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Zymergen gets $130 million from SoftBank and other VCs
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate, led a group that included Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and seven others in a $130 million funding round for Zymergen to help ...
12 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Samsung acquires Viv in a quest to link all its appliances
Dag Kittlaus, founder and CEO of Siri, Inc., produced and uploaded an app into the Apple App store February 2010. The app quickly rose to 1st in the 'Lifestyle Section.' In March, Steve Jobs called Ki...
10 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
September fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
September continued the big-money spree for funding robotic startups. 10 good-sized deals and three little ones. Almost $220 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus, ano...
05 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
A look at a Danish robotics cluster
There are many robotics clusters around the world successfully providing for the needs of their respective communities and a few not really achieving their desired goals. Odense and the Danish cluster...
04 October 2016, by
Frank Tobe
GoPro unveils long-awaited Karma stabilized drone system and kit
GoPro fans and the financial world have been looking forward to GoPro's new Karma since GoPro announced last December that it was working on building its first drone. When they delayed the release ...
30 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
46 research reports analyze the robotics industry and autonomous vehicles
As autonomous cars begin to hit world markets in pilot tests and other ways, and before the International Federation of Robotics clarifies whether those vehicles are robots or not, two research firms ...
29 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
InterDrone 2016: Professionalization and business of drone industry
InterDrone concluded their 2nd annual trade show and conference in Las Vegas. The differences between the 2015 event and this one reflect the rapid changes in the industry and can be seen as a predict...
16 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Integrators are dead, long live the integrator
For many years integrators have engineered, built and installed automation machinery for their manufacturer clients. As manufacturing has begun to move from mass production to mass customization,...
15 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Top 10 technologies in precision agriculture
PrecisionAg's editor Eric Sfiligoj has prepared a list of the top 10 technologies that are shaping precision ag today. Most involve some level of robotics, navigation, sensors and variable rate dispe...
14 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Case IH displays new cab-less concept tractor
Case IH (Case New Holland International Harvester) displayed their new cab-less tractor at a farming show in Iowa. The presentation was to show off what they hope will be the future: an autonomous...
06 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
August fundings and acquisitions
August was another big month for funding robotic startups. 18 deals. Almost $430 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus, another $1 billion paid in August for four acqui...
05 September 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Two LiDAR makers each get big funding
In anticipation of the need for LiDAR devices in cars with assisted steering and other self-driving technologies, both Velodyne and Quanergy received funding. Quanergy raised $90 million and Velodyne...
26 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
News bureaus and networks setting up drone divisions
CNN just inaugurated their new drone division. So have many other news organizations. Network providers are also setting up drone operations for a variety of purposes....
22 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
As Ford sets a date, Jibo retracts theirs
Bringing a complex new product to market is an intensive process fraught with problems. Getting hardware ready for manufacturing is often the easy part; it's the software and regulatory compliance tha...
19 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Midea’s masterplan to become China’s robot powerhouse
Chinese consumer manufacturer Midea, after having spent over $4 billion to acquire 94% of German robot maker Kuka, is planning to spend an additional $1.5 billion to turn itself into China's preemin...
18 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
IDC awards 5 warehouse robotics innovators
International Data Corporation (IDC) has awarded five pioneering players in the warehouse robotics market with the 2016 IDC Innovators Award. Companies selected met the following criteria: revenue of...
17 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
What happens when a robot company sells off a division?
Spin-offs are disrupting, but often necessary. Here are two recent examples: iRobot sold off its Defense & Security Business Unit to a private equity firm, and Harvest Automation sold the IP an...
11 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
July fundings, acquisitions and failures
Despite all the high-profile billion-dollar acquisitions, eg: ARM by SoftBank, KUKA by Midea and Uber China by Didi Chuxing, M&A are down 19% this year, according to both Forbes and CB Insights. B...
03 August 2016, by
Frank Tobe
AUTOMATICA 2016: Digitalization, collaboration and service robotics
AUTOMATICA 2016, held in June in Munich at the massive Messe tradefair facility, is a gigantic show focused on automation, mechatronics, robotics and emerging technologies as they relate to the in...
26 July 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Coming very soon: robotic toys, robot-made hamburgers, mobile robot deliveries
Re-joining the ranks, Sony announced a return to robotics. Momentum is opening a robot hamburger shop. And Starship is beginning to deliver food to three cities in Europe....
12 July 2016, by
Frank Tobe
62 market research reports study robotics industry
The number of research reports studying the robotics industry is growing exponentially. To date in 2016 there have been 109 on subjects ranging from overly broad to very drilled-down views of the in...
11 July 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Logistic companies Swisslog, Dematic, Egemin and Intelligrated all acquired
First, the KION Group acquires Dematic for $2.5 billion. A week later, Honeywell acquires Intelligrated for $1.5 billion. KION acquires Retrotech and earlier still Egemin, while Kuka acquires Swisslog...
05 July 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Industrial robot sales for 2015 set new record, despite troubles in China
Worldwide sales of industrial robots set a new record: 248,000 units sold in 2015, 12% more than 2014. 66,700 units sold in China of which 20,400 were made in China.
Asia is still the strongest gr...
22 June 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Chinese investors keep buying international robotics companies
The latest acquisition is Gimatic, an Italian pneumatic and electric grippers, sensors and positioners maker, by Agic Capital. The Financial Times reported the sale price to be between $112 and $16...
13 June 2016, by
Frank Tobe
