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What’s happening in robotics? Five trends to watch
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...
29 June 2016, by
Frank Tobe
New partnership looks to strengthen European robot industry
A new EU-funded, robot technology transfer partnership is looking to help manufacturing and robotics companies with robot consultancy, networking, and funding....
22 June 2016, by
Samuel Brøgger
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
Going the last mile with robots
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 ...
14 June 2016, by
Peter Feuilherade
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
Big data, the cloud — FANUC and Kuka?
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...
07 June 2016, by
Frank Tobe
What is a CRO and will your business soon need one?
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...
02 June 2016, by
Jeffrey Walker
May fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
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...
01 June 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Institute in planning for USA
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...
31 May 2016, by
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
How is Pepper, SoftBank’s emotional robot, doing?
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...
30 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Why businesses must get ready for the era of robotic things
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 ...
27 May 2016, by
Jeffrey Walker
EU’s Horizon 2020 has funded $179 million in robotics PPPs
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....
25 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Bringing robots to retail: Interview with Fellow Robots CEO and co-founder, Marco Mascorro
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...
19 May 2016, by
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
Chinese Midea makes $2.5 billion bid for up to 49% of KUKA
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...
19 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
MIT, Lockheed Martin launch long-term research collaboration
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...
17 May 2016, by
MIT News
Paradigm shift: from Siri to Viv
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...
12 May 2016, by
Frank Tobe
SVR Case Studies: OATV investing in early stage service robotics
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...
05 May 2016, by
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
Stakeholders likely to be disrupted by the changeover to self-driving vehicles
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...
26 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Global and iRobot floor cleaning market
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...
25 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
China’s growing robot industry turns to acquisitions
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...
25 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Big day for robotics: 3 fundings and a merger acquisition
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 ...
21 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Grishin Robotics launches new $100M hardware fund
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...
15 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Autonomous truck platoons travel across Europe
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....
14 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Filling the void left by Kiva Systems’ 2012 acquisition by Amazon
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...
14 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
47 reports dissect and examine the robot industry
The robotics industry has graduated to be big business -- at least for research firms. 47 different reports on subjects ranging from broad to very drilled-down views of the industry are analyzed and...
04 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
March fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Funding for robotics startup companies rose dramatically in 2015 reaching record highs in deals and dollars. CB Insights, a VC database provider, reported similar findings as seen in their quarterly f...
04 April 2016, by
Frank Tobe
iRobot’s $199 floor mopper designed for Chinese markets
iRobot has been streamlining its operations to focus on consumer products and enhancing shareholder value. Recent moves to divest their defense division, launch a low-cost Braava Jet floor cleaner...
31 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
3D Robotics undergoing layoffs and other challenges
3D Robotics unveiled sweeping changes by closing its San Diego facility, reducing staff at its Berkeley headquarters and in Austin, TX, and acknowledging that co-founder and president Jordi Muñoz ...
29 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Google puts Boston Dynamics up for sale
The maker of advanced humanoid and 4-legged robots (BigDog and Atlas), Boston Dynamics, is up for sale. According to the Financial Times, "this is one of those discordant moments that makes you questi...
22 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
Harvest Automation stumbles with warehouse robot
In a Boston Globe story by Scott Kirsner, it was revealed that Harvest Automation's CEO has departed, as have 3/4 of the 30 employees that worked there in 2015. The company is attempting to sell it...
19 March 2016, by
Frank Tobe
