Robohub.org
c-Business-Finance
IDC awards 5 warehouse robotics innovators
Frank Tobe
17 Aug 2016
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...
Robohub roundtable: Why do robotics crowdfunding projects fail?
Kassie Perlongo
16 Aug 2016
In this Robohub roundtable edition, we are joined by Sabine Hauert, Kassie Perlongo, John Payne, Audrow Nash, Yannis Erripis, with commentary by Andra Keay and Travis Deyle, to discuss the viabilit...
What coachmen from the 1920s can tell us about robots and jobs
Vincenzo Spiezia
16 Aug 2016
To many workers, the words “digital technologies” may evoke one simple, dismaying image: a human-like robot sitting at their desk, doing the work that they used to do! This anxiety is not differen...
What happens when a robot company sells off a division?
Frank Tobe
11 Aug 2016
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...
July fundings, acquisitions and failures
Frank Tobe
03 Aug 2016
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...
Where are the previous Robot Launch winners now?
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
21 Jul 2016
Catch up with past winners: CleverPet (2015), Preemadonna/Nailbot (2015 runner-up), and Leka (2014).
Will you be our next Robot Launch winner? There's 25 days left to register! You can register by...
Midea now owns 85.69% of KUKA’s shares
Frank Tobe
21 Jul 2016
Since the announcement of the month-long tender offer by Midea to buy 49% of the shares of German robot maker KUKA AG - and private negotiations - Midea now has 85.69% of the shares....
Coming very soon: robotic toys, robot-made hamburgers, mobile robot deliveries
Frank Tobe
12 Jul 2016
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....
62 market research reports study robotics industry
Frank Tobe
11 Jul 2016
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...
Robolliance focuses on autonomous robotics for security and survelliance
Kassie Perlongo
08 Jul 2016
Robolliance is a new forum for technology partners and industry experts. Sponsored by Sharp Electronics Corporation, the program is a place for partners and experts in "robotics, surveillance and sec...
Starship delivery robots getting ready to deliver in London, Germany, Bern
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
07 Jul 2016
At Starship, we announced our first pilot projects for robotic delivery which will begin operating this summer. We’ll be working with a London food delivery startup Pronto as well as German parcel c...
Logistic companies Swisslog, Dematic, Egemin and Intelligrated all acquired
Frank Tobe
05 Jul 2016
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...
What’s happening in robotics? Five trends to watch
Frank Tobe
29 Jun 2016
Industrial robots used to be dumb, somewhat inflexible, and mostly blind - but also fast, precise and very efficient. As the cost of components, sensors and vision systems has been dro...
New partnership looks to strengthen European robot industry
Samuel Brøgger
22 Jun 2016
A new EU-funded, robot technology transfer partnership is looking to help manufacturing and robotics companies with robot consultancy, networking, and funding....
Industrial robot sales for 2015 set new record, despite troubles in China
Frank Tobe
22 Jun 2016
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...
Going the last mile with robots
Peter Feuilherade
14 Jun 2016
This article was first published on the IEC e‑tech website.
From robots delivering small packages in cities, to driverless trucks transporting bulk loads over long distances, advances in robotic ...
Chinese investors keep buying international robotics companies
Frank Tobe
13 Jun 2016
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...
Big data, the cloud — FANUC and Kuka?
Frank Tobe
07 Jun 2016
FANUC, the world’s largest maker of industrial robots, plans to start connecting 400,000 of their installed systems by the end of this year. The goal is to collect data about their operations and...
What is a CRO and will your business soon need one?
Jeffrey Walker
02 Jun 2016
The times are changing! What seemed like science fiction a few years ago is now on the front page of the news. Augmented reality, wearables, virtual assistants, robots, and other smart devices are beg...
May fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
Frank Tobe
01 Jun 2016
UPDATE: June 1, 2016: Forbes wrote today that Toyota is in discussions with Google not only for Boston Dynamics but also for Schaft, the Japanese startup that won the DARPA Robotics Challenge — a...
Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Institute in planning for USA
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
31 May 2016
The US just moved a step closer to building an advanced robotics institute modeled on the hugely successful Fraunhofer Institutes. The proposed ARM or Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Institute is one...
How is Pepper, SoftBank’s emotional robot, doing?
Frank Tobe
30 May 2016
Pepper is a child-height human-shaped robot described as having been designed to be a genuine companion that perceives and acts upon a range of human emotions.
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom gia...
Why businesses must get ready for the era of robotic things
Jeffrey Walker
27 May 2016
We’ve entered a period of epic technological transformation that is impacting society in ways that are leaving even veteran tech observers speechless. In some ways, it might seem like 1998 all over ...
EU’s Horizon 2020 has funded $179 million in robotics PPPs
Frank Tobe
25 May 2016
Over the past two years, research in 5G and robotics PPP projects have received the highest funding awards within Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation program....
Bringing robots to retail: Interview with Fellow Robots CEO and co-founder, Marco Mascorro
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
19 May 2016
Robotics today is a fast growing industry with applications in myriad markets, including retail, transportation, manufacturing, and even as personal assistants. Fellow Robots is at the forefront of re...
Chinese Midea makes $2.5 billion bid for up to 49% of KUKA
Frank Tobe
19 May 2016
In China’s relentless state-stimulated quest to grow their robotics industry, Midea Group, a Chinese appliance manufacturer which already owns 13.5% of KUKA’s shares, has offered to buy up to 49...
MIT, Lockheed Martin launch long-term research collaboration
MIT News
17 May 2016
In a new collaborative initiative in autonomy and robotics, MIT and Lockheed Martin scientists will focus on innovations needed to enable generation-after-next autonomous systems. Improvements in huma...
Paradigm shift: from Siri to Viv
Frank Tobe
12 May 2016
Artificial intelligence that programs itself on the fly - from the team that developed Siri at SRI and Apple - was demonstrated this week in New York and it quickly performed complex spoken tasks, liv...
SVR Case Studies: OATV investing in early stage service robotics
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
05 May 2016
OATV, or O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, is a seed stage investment firm based in San Francisco with a track record of backing robotics startups in emerging areas. As well as investing in Fetch Robotic...
Stakeholders likely to be disrupted by the changeover to self-driving vehicles
Frank Tobe
26 Apr 2016
Volumes have been written about the possible beneficial (and negative) effects of self-driving cars and systems. But few have studied what industries will be disrupted by the transformations as self-d...
Global and iRobot floor cleaning market
Frank Tobe
25 Apr 2016
iRobot recently divested its defense division so that it could focus on consumer and mobility products. Red Mountain Capital, a hedge fund that owns ~6% of iRobot stock wants to place two pe...
China’s growing robot industry turns to acquisitions
Frank Tobe
25 Apr 2016
Paslin, a Michigan integrator of welding robots, automation systems, and tooling, was acquired by Wanfeng Technology Group for an undisclosed amount (but reported as $302 million i...
Big day for robotics: 3 fundings and a merger acquisition
Frank Tobe
21 Apr 2016
Auris Surgical Robotics will acquire Hansen Medical for $80M+, PrecisionHawk raised $18M to help bring commercial drones safely into US airspace, and SkySafe raised $3M to disable badly behaving ...
Grishin Robotics launches new $100M hardware fund
Frank Tobe
15 Apr 2016
In 2012, Dmitry Grishin, co-founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group, the largest Internet and social networking company in the Russian-speaking world, seeded a fund with $25 million of his own money to f...
Autonomous truck platoons travel across Europe
Frank Tobe
14 Apr 2016
A dozen trucks arrived in Rotterdam after traveling across Europe in the European Truck Platooning Challenge. Six different truck makers participated: Scania, Daimler, Volvo, IVECO, MAN and DAF....
Filling the void left by Kiva Systems’ 2012 acquisition by Amazon
Frank Tobe
14 Apr 2016
In March 2012, in an effort to make their distribution centers (DCs) as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in house.
There was c...
