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ABB, Nike and a Silicon Valley VC invest $3 million in Grabit
Frank Tobe
08 Oct 2013
... Grabit, a 2012 SRI International spin-off, secures $3 million in Series A funding from ABB Technology Ventures, Nike and Formation 8, a tech VC in Silicon Valley....
Robot startup resources: Pitching
Andra Keay
07 Oct 2013
You have a robot prototype or an idea. At some stage you want funding. Here are the two most useful resources for robot startups. Even if you are bootstrapping, using crowdfunding or friendly angels, ...
Co-robots really ARE a BIG thing
Frank Tobe
05 Oct 2013
UPDATED: October 6, 2013
Small and medium shops and factories (SMEs) are an untapped marketplace for robotics but direly in need of automation to remain competitive in this global economy. Two ne...
Ship hull cleaning & inspection – ideal for robots
Frank Tobe
30 Sep 2013
... Harvest Automation launched their business after reviewing the top 10 areas where low-cost and often hard-to-find labor was most needed. They chose the ag business.
... Boating and shipping are...
3D Robotics gets $30 million to mainstream aerial robotics
Frank Tobe
27 Sep 2013
... 3D Robotics, the open source unmanned aerial vehicle company headed by Chris Anderson, just got a $30 million infusion of venture funding to enable the company to “mainstream aerial robotics and...
A glimpse at our robotic future: 235 start-ups reviewed
Frank Tobe
27 Sep 2013
Robotic start-up companies range from the whimsical to the amazing, from futuristic to topical, and from hubs of robotic activity in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City (a new hub) and Switzerland t...
There are mobile robots and then there’s KUKA’s MOBILE robot
Frank Tobe
26 Sep 2013
... At the recent Hannover Messe trade fair, KUKA displayed their concept mobile robot showing how it could work a huge turbine blade.
... The device consisted of a KUKA omnimove mobile platform, a K...
MAKO Surgical sells to Stryker for $1.65 billion
Frank Tobe
25 Sep 2013
... Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) to acquire MAKO Surgical Corp (NASDAQ:MAKO) for $1.65 billion - an action which brought MAKO’s stock from $16 to $29 in one fell swoop.
... Stryker is a medical t...
IFR Reports show bright future for robotics industry
Frank Tobe
18 Sep 2013
... Two new Intl. Federation of Robotics (IFR) world robotics statistical reports covering 2012 with projections to 2016 were released today by the IFR and can be purchased separately or combined at p...
Medical robotic systems market to reach $13.6 billion by 2018
Frank Tobe
13 Sep 2013
... The global medical robotic systems market was worth $5.48 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $13.6 billion in 2018, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.6% from 2012. Surgical ro...
Adept Technologies: Ready to be acquired?
Frank Tobe
11 Sep 2013
Adept Technologies (NASDAQ:ADEP) has been in the financial news for months. First because of poor financial showings; then because of a management shakeup; and recently because the "turnaround plan" ...
Adept’s restructuring is paying off: earnings better and stock higher
Frank Tobe
09 Sep 2013
... It was just last February that Rob Cain replaced John Dulchinos as CEO of Adept Technology. Cain had worked with Adept for a few months as advisor and representative of Hale Capital Partners and c...
FounderDating hardware edition
Andra Keay
28 Aug 2013
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 ...
Israeli study on robot adoption suggests new-tech solutions
Frank Tobe
24 Aug 2013
... A study of small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMEs) in Israel concluded that new tech robots, i.e., those which are easily trainable, relatively safe to work alongside humans, and where user-ro...
25 Russian companies added to The Robot Report’s global map of robot providers
Frank Tobe
23 Aug 2013
... Susan McFarland, of robotguide, a site providing a guide to personal robots, compiled a list of Russian robotics companies which we vetted and posted to our Global Map of Robot Providers.
... 25 ...
Venture Capital in Robotics, with Diana Saraceni
Per Sjöborg
23 Aug 2013
Link to audio file (31:13)
Diana Saraceni is a Venture Capitalist at 360 Capital Partners. In this interview, she tells us about her first investment in robotics 3 years ago with Invendo Medical, and...
Remaining Willow Garage employees move to Suitable Technologies | IEEE Spectrum
Frank Tobe
22 Aug 2013
... In a surprising move, Scott Hassan, CEO of Suitable Technologies, and previous CEO of Willow Garage, has hired most of the remaining employees of Willow Garage leaving only a support staff for the...
Funding news
Frank Tobe
18 Aug 2013
... Neato Robotics - the NJ-based competitor with iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaner - raised $14 million in new funding from two VC firms. In 2012, Neato raised $12.2 from two different VC companies....
China’s 5-Year Plan targets robotics as a growth industry
Frank Tobe
11 Aug 2013
... China's 12th 5-Year Plan (2011-15) targeted robotics as a growth industry necessary for China's development. It expects a compound growth rate of 25%, said Wang Weiming, deputy director of the Min...
Dash launching Dragon hardware crowdfunding platform
Andra Keay
08 Aug 2013
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 a...
Blabdroid: From Tribeca to Bolt
Andra Keay
31 Jul 2013
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 ...
After a lackluster 2nd quarter, Hansen Medical gets a $93 million equity infusion
Frank Tobe
31 Jul 2013
Although the number of procedures using Hansen Medical's Magellan and Sensei robotic systems has risen, the number of units sold has fallen slightly and the company continues to operate in the red, he...
Does crowdfunding derisk robotics?
Andra Keay
30 Jul 2013
Crowdfunding is often cited as one of the mechanisms accelerating robot startups, alongside COTS, reduced costs, rapid prototyping, digital manufacturing, smart phones, connectivity etc. The entire pr...
SUSBEXPO: The first unmanned systems business conference
Andra Keay
27 Jul 2013
SUSBEXPO is the first conference about unmanned systems to really focus on the growing commercial opportunities of this market. AUVSI put on a spectacular annual show, but it is predominantly militar...
Dmitry Grishin on evaluating robotic investment opportunities
Dmitry Grishin and Hallie Siegel
25 Jul 2013
As part of our series on high-risk, high-reward robotics, and as a follow-up to his recent Robot's Podcast interview, I asked entrepreneur and venture capitalist Dmitry Grishin to talk to us about how...
iRobot Q3 profits were good but revenue was static
Frank Tobe
25 Jul 2013
... Stock drops 13% on news that 3Q and next quarter revenues were and will be static.
... Everything else was fine.
... Go figure!...
Intuitive Surgical stock takes another big hit
Frank Tobe
20 Jul 2013
... After months of negative news about poorly trained surgeons, class action suits claiming misleading communications with shareholders, an FDA review, a product recall, an article saying that proced...
China takes long view in funding robotics, innovation
CHEN Fei
17 Jul 2013
With the rapid economic development of the last twenty years resulting in the accumulation of great wealth, China urgently feels the need to move from a manufacturing-driven economy to an innovati...
3,400 healthcare jobs in the US required robotics experience and skills
Frank Tobe
16 Jul 2013
... More than 3,400 healthcare jobs in the US required robotics experience and skills - a 32% gain year-over-year, according to WANTED Analytics....
Long view required to keep economic policy in step with developments in robotics
Frank Tobe
16 Jul 2013
Policy is really about long-term thinking — a process we should do but don't do for various reasons. Though China is a notable exception, very few governments make long-term planning a priority.
...
What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic development in robotics?
RBI Editors
15 Jul 2013
Economic policy may not jump to mind as a hot topic for roboticists, but it is a fundamental and influential driver behind the failure or success of the robotics community as a whole. After all, econo...
China now largest market for robots
Frank Tobe
12 Jul 2013
The China International Robot Show CIROS was held July 2-5 in Shanghai. 30,000 people were expected to attend and 56 companies exhibited. Although most of the exhibitors were Taiwanese, Japanese, Kore...
Why fostering high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship matters to the economy, and what universities can do about it
Peter Seitz and Roland Siegwart
11 Jul 2013
For many people, the term “innovation” implies having a great idea, and hoping that somehow it will take off. According to H. Chesbrough, this is clearly insufficient, and in his definition, he is...
More space robots as Grishin funds NanoSatisfi
Andra Keay
11 Jul 2013
NanoSatisfi, a Silicon Valley based cubesat startup, today received $300,000 investment from Grishin Robotics bringing their total seed funding to $1,750,000, not including their initial successful Ki...
Intuitive Surgical stock sinks
Frank Tobe
10 Jul 2013
... After months of negative news about poorly trained surgeons, class action suits claiming poor communications with shareholders, an FDA review, an article saying that procedure costs were too high,...
A dilemma of high-risk / high-reward
Frank Tobe
09 Jul 2013
Often funding sources - the groups taking the risk - are not the beneficiaries of the rewards of the venture. Intuitive Surgical is an example.
NSF, DARPA and NASA funded a project to solve a very ...
