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Drone maker DJI and Toyota: setting up R&D centers in Silicon Valley
Frank Tobe
09 Nov 2015
No wonder rents are so high in Silicon Valley. Companies from around the world are setting up research facilities and grabbing talent from the area. The most recent announcements are that Chinese dr...
Blue Belt Technologies acquired by Smith & Nephew for $275 million
Frank Tobe
03 Nov 2015
Smith & Nephew, a global medical tech conglomerate that is expanding into robotics-assisted surgeries, announced that they are paying $275 million to acquire Pittsburgh startup Blue Belt Technolog...
While Amazon doubles its number of warehouse robots to 30K, competing systems emerge
Frank Tobe
02 Nov 2015
Amazon announced that at the end of September they had 30,000 Kiva robots at work in 13 fulfillment centers, effectively doubling the number of Kiva bots that it had in 2014. "Our intent is to use...
Robots in Depth: Grishin Robotics’ Valery Komissarova on getting funding
Per Sjöborg and Robots in Depth
23 Oct 2015
Robots in Depth is a new video series featuring interviews with researchers, entrepreneurs, VC investors, and policy makers in robotics, hosted by Per Sjöborg. In this interview, Valery Komissarova ...
Dyson releases 360 Eye in Japan for ~$1200, files legal proceedings against Bosch for VW-like cheating
Hallie Siegel
22 Oct 2015
News Brief: Dyson released its 360-Eye in Japan today -- for about $1200 USD -- and has also filed legal proceedings against Bosch, alleging that their longstanding rival is cheating EU energy eff...
Strategic acquisitions and long-term R&D investments abound
Frank Tobe
19 Oct 2015
We have reported 37 equity fundings and 25 acquisitions so far this year. It's not just the car companies searching for talent and innovation in their new Silicon Valley centers. Israel, Russia, China...
CyPhy Works and Righthand Robotics get funded
Frank Tobe
15 Oct 2015
[tweetquote]The varied world of robotics appears to be in favor with venture capitalists.[/tweetquote] CyPhy Works just got $22 million to scale up building UAVs for the consumer market, and Righthand...
Designing Jibo’s automatic speech recognition, with Roberto Pieraccini
Jibo
14 Oct 2015
Finding the right approach to automatic speech recognition (ASR) has been a critical step in Jibo’s design: get it right and the experience will be great; get it wrong, and it could really take awa...
Robots in Depth: Melonee Wise on building robots, and robot companies
Per Sjöborg and Robots in Depth
06 Oct 2015
Robots in Depth is a new video series featuring interviews with researchers, entrepreneurs, VC investors, and policy makers in robotics, hosted by Per Sjöborg. In this interview, Per talks to Melo...
IFR predicts double digit growth for service robots through 2018
Frank Tobe
05 Oct 2015
The service robotics industry is relatively new, diverse and picking up steam daily. Service robotics covers every activity except those described as industrial. These are robots that perform useful t...
IFR predicts 15% industrial robot growth through 2018
Frank Tobe
02 Oct 2015
At a press event to launch the IFR's World Robotics Industrial Robots statistical review of 2014 (with projections through 2018), the $1,350 report forecasts a 15% CAGR, thereby doubling the annual n...
August/September robotics fundings report
Frank Tobe
01 Oct 2015
August and September equity fundings, joint ventures, acquisitions and venture funds continue the momentum exhibited throughout 2015 of serious money flowing into robotics startups....
10 more robotics companies acquired. Why?
Frank Tobe
28 Sep 2015
At last week's RoboBusiness Conference and Expo in San Jose, there was much gossip, discussion and head scratching regarding the two most recent acquisitions of robot companies: Adept Technologies b...
#RoboBusiness Day 1: Computing to change from transaction processing to cognition processing
Frank Tobe
24 Sep 2015
"Cognitive computing will be to computing what transaction processing is today.” So said IBM's Robert High in his keynote talk at RoboBusiness yesterday. In less than 10 years the volume of our bu...
1,407 FAA exemptions for UAS
Frank Tobe
21 Sep 2015
In May 2014, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began accepting petitions for exemptions to operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) commercially in civilian airspace. As of 1 September 2015,...
Adept succumbs, sells to OMRON for $200M
Frank Tobe
16 Sep 2015
When Rob Cain replaced John Dulchinos as CEO of Adept Technology in February, 2013 he was charged with restructuring the company to either make it profitable to operate or make it valuable as a take-...
Big bucks and big audiences for drones
Frank Tobe
14 Sep 2015
Intel Capital invested $60m in Chinese drone startup Yuneec last month. At last week's InterDrone conference and expo, one can readily see why: lots of interest, lots of people, and products that are ...
Video: Qualcomm demos Snapdragon Flight for smaller, lighter camera drones
Hallie Siegel
10 Sep 2015
The Snapdragon Flight developer platform had its first public demo today at Qualcomm's Robotics Accelerator event, Techstars Demo Day. Designed specifically for the consumer drone market, Snapdragon F...
Siemens’ Frontier Partner program provides software tools to robotics startups
Andra Keay
08 Sep 2015
Established in Berlin in 1847, and with a presence in Silicon Valley since the 1950s, Siemens invests more than $1B in the US each year for research and development. Now their Technology to Business ...
Former DARPA Program Manager Gill Pratt to direct Toyota’s new $50M robotics investment
Ioannis K. Erripis
04 Sep 2015
In a surprise move today, Toyota held a press conference (see video below) announcing a substantial investment in robotics and AI research to develop "advanced driving support" technology, with forme...
BUDDY goes into final hours of crowdfunding at +500% of goal; announces new US offices
Blue Frog Robotics
04 Sep 2015
BUDDY, the world's first affordable companion robot, has reached a crowdfunding milestone. With just hours to go on the BUDDY crowdfunding project on Indiegogo, backers have contributed over $501,63...
Price wars: Counting the cost of drones, planes and satellites
Edd Gent
03 Sep 2015
One of the main advantages of drone-based imaging touted by both manufacturers and service providers is its low cost compared to competing technologies like airplanes and satellites. But a simple Inte...
Coming of age: Clearpath’s Ryan Gariepy on growing a robotics startup
Hallie Siegel
01 Sep 2015
Launched in 2009 by a group of Waterloo engineering students, Clearpath's unmistakeable bright yellow and black robots have become synonymous with unmanned vehicle research in university research ...
Peloton Technology gets $17M for truck platooning tech
Frank Tobe
01 Sep 2015
Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley startup providing truck platooning technology, got $17 million from strategic investors after receiving $16M this April. Denso Intl. was the lead investor in both...
Robot Launch 2015 – Robohub Readers’ Pick round two
Andra Keay
19 Aug 2015
This month, Robohub readers can vote for the "Readers' Pick" startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we're publishing 10 videos from our Top 30. Our ultimate Robohub Readers’ Favorite...
194 Chinese robot companies
Frank Tobe
18 Aug 2015
In China, the robotics industry is booming. Companies are deploying thousands of robots in all types of factories, particularly in the auto industry. Chinese companies that manufacture robots and the...
GreyOrange gets $30m for mobile robots
Frank Tobe
14 Aug 2015
GreyOrange, an India and Singapore-based materials handling startup, has received $30m in equity funding to ramp up production of their Butler shelves-to-picker robot system....
Google Alphabet: Is it good for robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Aug 2015
Everybody has heard about Google’s restructuring. In the new setup, Google X, which includes the self-driving car division, will be a subsidiary of the new Alphabet holding company, and no longer pa...
Money continues to flow into robotics startups
Frank Tobe
06 Aug 2015
This week saw fresh funding of $11.2m for Virtual Incision, a startup developing robotically assisted surgical devices, and another $11m for Jibo, the company founded by MIT Media Lab's Cynthia Breaze...
Ads, sales and shows make a business case for robotics
Frank Tobe
03 Aug 2015
Clever ads that emphasize ROI, presentations that show production benefits, new robot sales records, capital expenditure for warehousing systems and increased attendance at trade shows are all focusi...
Telcos vs. big data companies: Which sector will drive consumer robotics?
Hallie Siegel and Robohub Editors
30 Jul 2015
NTT’s recent entry into consumer robotics suggests that it’s not just about Google vs Amazon, or Softbank vs NTT anymore, but about telcos vs big data companies. With two major and distinct sector...
Softbank will take pre-orders for enterprise version of Pepper starting Oct 1
Hallie Siegel
30 Jul 2015
Developing Story: Softbank today announced that it will be taking preorders for the enterprise version of their Pepper robot, called "Pepper for Biz" starting October 1 this year. This comes one day a...
Japanese telcos vie for share in consumer robot-as-a-service business
Hallie Siegel
29 Jul 2015
View image | gettyimages.com
Yesterday a second Japanese telecommunication firm entered the consumer robot-as-a-service market when the state-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NT...
Is all the hype about drone commercialization clouding our judgement?
Robert Morris
28 Jul 2015
The hype around the consumer drone industry is so thick that it clouds our judgement. It is as if our biggest boosters have forgotten what our technology stack really does, what it doesn’t do, and ...
Robotics fundings, IPOs and acquisitions for June/July
Frank Tobe
24 Jul 2015
Below are recaps of the eleven June and July fundings, IPOs and acquisitions for robot and robotics related companies, followed by a thoughtful piece by Farhad Manjoo of the NY Times about why start-u...
Robot as marketing strategy: Bosch takes a bet on Rotimatic’s consumer flatbread maker
Andra Keay
22 Jul 2015
First it was robot vacuum cleaners; now it's robot kitchen appliances. Robots are back in the popular imagination as household helpers, and industry seems to be taking a bet on leveraging that int...
