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KUKA buys 51% of Reis Robotics with option to buy remainder
Frank Tobe
20 Dec 2013
In a surprise move, KUKA, one of the global big four robot manufacturers, signed a letter of intent to acquire 51% of the shares of Reis Robotics, a 57-year old family-owned Germany-based robotics ...
Foxconn plans factory in PA and funds robotics research at CMU
Frank Tobe
16 Dec 2013
Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai Precision will fund $10 million for robotics and advanced manufacturing research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. No further details about the 2-year str...
KUKA opens Shanghai factory and announces orders
Frank Tobe
15 Dec 2013
... KUKA cut the ribbon at their new factory outside of Shanghai. The factory will begin employing 350 and produce the QUANTEC line of robots and controllers and will be able to produce 3,000 robots a...
Apple, Amazon and now Google: It’s a pretty exciting day for robotics!
Frank Tobe
14 Dec 2013
There is serious momentum in robotics these days, evidenced by recent news from Apple, Amazon and Google:
Apple announced that they were investing $10.5 billion in supply chain robots and automati...
Rethink Robotics downsizing: 23% laid off
Frank Tobe
13 Dec 2013
... The Boston Globe reported that Rethink Robotics, maker of the $22,000 Baxter 2-armed robot, has cut 21 jobs from their staff of approximately 90.
... CEO Scott Eckert said, “The layoffs are the...
Frank Tobe on “What were the top stories in robotics from 2013?”
Frank Tobe
11 Dec 2013
As Editor and Publisher of the Robot Report, I follow robotics news closely, especially in business and finance. Here are my top picks for 2013:...
Forget the octocopter, let’s talk about Kiva
Shawn Milne and Michael Carroll
10 Dec 2013
Given all the chatter on drones and automation, we thought it would be a good time to dive deeper into the Kiva opportunity and potential impact on leverage/margins. For the sake of our analysis, we t...
Amazon isn’t the only delivery service testing flying robots
Frank Tobe
10 Dec 2013
... Amazon isn’t the only delivery service testing flying robots. DHL and microdrones are testing drones that could be used to deliver urgently needed goods to hard-to-reach places, eg, medicines to...
Google makes big robotics investment
Frank Tobe
06 Dec 2013
... In a revealing NY Times interview with Google’s Andy Rubin, some heretofor unknown things came to light. Google is now in the robotics business. They’ve made seven acquisitions in the last six...
Jeff Bezos reaches for tip of UAS iceberg
Frank Tobe
05 Dec 2013
On Sunday, Charlie Rose from CBS News 60 Minutes, interviewed Jeff Bezos about what is next for Amazon, the world's largest online retailer with more than 225 million customers.
Volume can reach 30...
Google buys up robotics companies from DRC
Andra Keay
04 Dec 2013
If you've recently wondered where all the roboticists were going, the answer is to an unassuming complex in Palo Alto. Google has backed Android developer Andy Rubin to acquire at least 7 major roboti...
Amazon Prime Air: 5 Predictions About the Retailer’s Delivery Drones | TIME
Hallie Siegel
02 Dec 2013
Assuming Amazon Prime Air eventually launches … there are a handful of predictions about the system itself and delivery-by-drone systems in general…
Read more by Doug Aamoth on TIME.com...
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos looks to the future | 60 Minutes
Hallie Siegel
02 Dec 2013
There has never been a company quite like Amazon. Conceived as an online book seller, Amazon has reinvented itself time and again, changing the way the world shops, reads and computes. Amazon has 225 ...
Amazon Promises Package Delivery By Drone: Is It for Real? | Automaton
Hallie Siegel
02 Dec 2013
Once you get past the wow factor [of Amazon's drone delivery announcement] and start thinking critically about what it would take to make something like this work in practice, it starts to look a lot...
Amazon announces plans for drone delivery service, says safety will be key priority
Hallie Siegel
02 Dec 2013
Amazon announced yesterday that it is developing a drone delivery service called Prime Air that will aim to get packages into customer's hands within 30 minutes. They are planning to launch as soon a...
Apple buys Israel’s PrimeSense for $350 million
Frank Tobe
29 Nov 2013
Famous from being the synchronized depth perception system inside the Microsoft Kinnect, PrimeSense, a venture-funded company based in Tel Aviv, was just acquired by Apple for $350 million.
Bloomb...
Global Machine Vision market to grow at 9.4% CAGR
Frank Tobe
26 Nov 2013
New report by Research and Markets, Global Machine Vision Market 2012-2016, a $2,500 report, forcasts global machine vision market to grow at a CAGR of 9.4% to 2016....
Mazor Robotics on a roll
Frank Tobe
25 Nov 2013
Mazor Robotics’ stock (NASDAQ:MZOR and TASE:MZOR) has steadily rolled up 260% year-to-date....
How I helped create Robo-Stox, a new stock index for the robotics community
Frank Tobe
18 Nov 2013
Photo: Nasdaq
On Tuesday, a sleek robotic arm rang the closing bell of the Nasdaq stock exchange. It was the first time a robot performed the task.
The event celebrated the launch of Robo-Stox, a...
Is this the right time for robotic startups?
Torsten Andre
14 Nov 2013
Last month the Pioneers Festival took place in the Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria. According to its website, the festival is Europe's premium event for entrepreneurship and future technologies. Star...
New ETF (NASDAQ:ROBO) focuses on robotics industry
Frank Tobe
13 Nov 2013
... UPDATE 11/12/13: NASDAQ’s 10-story tall sign was all about Robo-stox LLC, ROBO the ETF, and a Universal Robot with a Schunk hand ringing the NASDAQ closing bell. Quite a spectacle. The arm/hand ...
Down on the farm with drones
Patrick Egan
29 Oct 2013
Photo credit: Patrick Egan.
There are bushels of folks out there now spending money and putting time in finding niches for unmanned systems that already exist. You may be saying, isn’t that what we...
RoboBusiness: Day Two
Robert Morris
26 Oct 2013
On a rare overcast day in San Jose, RoboBusiness got down to business with keynotes and the general exhibition in full swing. The morning held keynote speakers, breakouts in the afternoon, and then ...
Lay of the land: Unmanned systems coming to commercial agriculture
Rich Tuttle
25 Oct 2013
Yamaha is testing spraying vineyards in Napa Valley through a COA with the FAA. Photo courtesy Yamaha Corp.
With the global market for unmanned systems in agriculture on the rise, companies that ma...
Matching technology to value creation: Drones in agriculture
Robert Morris
24 Oct 2013
‘Drones in agriculture’ has been a topic hot lately, but is it a real business?
As a former Army UAV platoon leader and a current founder of an aerial data collection start-up, I believe so, bu...
RoboBusiness: Day one in the heart of Silicon Valley
Robert Morris
24 Oct 2013
RoboBusiness started Wednesday, with mostly panels, although Robohub's very own Andra Keay spiced things up quite a bit with a "Pitchfire" event showcasing robotics start-ups. Two themes were very m...
Robo-Stox: A dream come true
Frank Tobe
23 Oct 2013
Throughout my 35-year career in the computer business, I always read and thought about what disruptive technology was ahead. When I had an IBM mainframe, I was looking at the DEC mini-computers and ev...
Soon Internet crowdfunding sites will let investors buy stock
Frank Tobe
23 Oct 2013
... Last year Congress passed Title III of the JOBS Act to allow smaller companies to get an exemption from the strict and costly rules controlling the sale of securities to individuals.
... The SEC ...
UBR-1 robot from Unbounded Robotics revolutionizes affordable mobile manipulation | Automaton
Hallie Siegel
21 Oct 2013
Why Affordable Mobile Manipulation Matters
Why could UBR-1 be so revolutionary for robotics right now? Really, it's the general area of mobile manipulation that has a huge amount of potential for t...
Unbounded Robotics launch affordable, all-purpose UBR-1
Andra Keay
21 Oct 2013
Unbounded Robotics today launched UBR-1, a robot that has many of us very excited. UBR is the first robot with intelligence, manipulation and mobility for below $50k. While UBR definitely resembles a ...
Start-up profile: Knightscope
Frank Tobe
19 Oct 2013
What happens when you mix big data analytics, a policeman, homeland security, some funding from an insurance company and robotics?
You get Knightscope, a Santa Clara, California start-up developin...
Pioneers kickstarts the start-up scene with a hands-on celebration of innovation
Hallie Siegel
17 Oct 2013
Andreas Tschas (far left) and Juergen Furian (far right) present a cheque to the 2012 Startup Challenge winner Poikos (centre). Photo credit: Heisenberg Media.
When founders Andreas Tschas and Juerge...
Is open source a good business model for robotics?
RBI Editors
09 Oct 2013
Open source vs. proprietary software is an age old question. Since the advent of robotics, we also have the question of open source hardware.
In academia, where robotics researchers look to open so...
Robert Morris on “Is open source a good business model for robotics?”
Robert Morris
09 Oct 2013
The premise of this question is that robotics companies are manufacturers and that there is choice between an open source and closed source business model. Robotics companies are best thought of as ...
Brian Gerkey on “Is open source a good business model for robotics?”
Brian Gerkey
09 Oct 2013
The IT economy has powerfully demonstrated what happens when companies can leverage open source infrastructure when they build new products and services. A company like Google would never have come ...
Frank Tobe on “Is open source a good business model for robotics?”
Frank Tobe
09 Oct 2013
To be able to choose between proprietary software packages is to be able to choose your master. Freedom means not having a master. Freedom means not using proprietary software.
- Richard Stallman, o...
