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Two LiDAR makers each get big funding
Source: Ford Velodyne LiDAR/YouTube In anticipation of the need for LiDAR devices in cars with assisted steering and other self-driving technologies, both Velodyne and Quanergy received funding....
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August fundings and acquisitions
August was another big month for funding robotic startups. 18 deals. Almost $430 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus another $1 billion paid in August for four...
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Case IH displays new cab-less concept tractor
Case IH autonomous concept vehicle. Source: cnhindustrial Case IH (Case New Holland International Harvester) displayed their new cab-less tractor at a farming show in Iowa. The presentation was to show...
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Top 10 technologies in precision agriculture
PrecisionAg’s editor Eric Sfiligoj has prepared a list of the top 10 technologies that are shaping precision ag today. Most involve some level of robotics, navigation, sensors and variable rate...
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Integrators are dead, long live the integrator
FANUC_R2000iB at work. Source: Wikipedia Commons For many years integrators have engineered, built and installed automation machinery for their manufacturer clients. As manufacturing has begun to move...
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InterDrone 2016: Professionalization and business of drone industry
InterDrone concluded their 2nd annual trade show and conference in Las Vegas. The differences between the 2015 event and this one reflect the rapid changes in the industry and can be seen as a...
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46 research reports analyze the robotics industry and autonomous vehicles
Source: Uber As autonomous cars begin to hit world markets in pilot tests and other ways, and before the International Federation of Robotics clarifies whether those vehicles are robots or not, two...
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GoPro unveils long-awaited Karma stabilized drone system and kit
Source: GoPro GoPro fans and the financial world have been looking forward to GoPro’s new Karma since GoPro announced last December that it was working on building its first drone. When they delayed...
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A look at a Danish robotics cluster
There are many robotics clusters around the world successfully providing for the needs of their respective communities and a few not really achieving their desired goals. Odense and the Danish...
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September fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
September continued the big-money spree for funding robotic startups. 10 good-sized deals and three little ones. Almost $220 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus...
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Samsung acquires Viv in a quest to link all its appliances
Source: Viv Labs Dag Kittlaus, founder and CEO of Siri, Inc., produced and uploaded an app into the Apple App store February 2010. The app quickly rose to 1st in the ‘Lifestyle Section.’ In March,...
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Zymergen gets $130 million from SoftBank and other VCs
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate, led a group that included Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and seven others in a $130 million funding round for Zymergen to help the...
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IFR’s two reports for 2015 show double-digit growth for remainder of decade
Each year the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) surveys and tabulates data from its worldwide network of robotics associations. The two 2016 annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World...
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The changing landscape of drone funding
CB Insights Drone Quarterly Financing Trends to VC-Backed Companies shows a downward trend. The Robot Report’s monthly funding reports show something different: a change in the nature of drone...
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The delicate balance between brilliance, safety and arrogance
George “Geohot” Hotz Presents the Comma One at Disrupt SF. Source: TechCrunch/YouTube Silicon Valley and other technology centers have their share of brilliant minds. Some of them have similarly...
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October fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
October fundings for robotics-related startups totaled $291.75 million bringing the year-to-date funding figure very close to $1.5 billion. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired...
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Zoox raises $50 million for their stealthy Silicon Valley venture
Illustration: Zoox Zoox, the secretive Silicon Valley startup working to build its own self-driving cars, has quietly raised $50 million (in October) in a Series A round led by Composite Capital...
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Digital farms are already a reality
Source: Nesta.org, Precision Agriculture Farmers, ranchers and growers the world over are transitioning to precision agricultural methods, i.e., subdividing their acreage into many unique sub-plots —...
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Lofty goals crash land while B2B drones prosper
Credit: Aeryon labs inc. Key executives leaving (or were requested to leave) Goggle’s drone delivery Project Wing; GoPro recalls all of its newly launched Karma drones and doesn’t offer a replacement;...
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Two robotic stock IPOs coming to market
For the last few years, there have been very few stock IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). Promising companies have been acquired instead, eg: Kiva Systems and Universal Robots. But two robotics-related...
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Let’s hope Trump does what he says regarding robots and robotics
In President-elect Trump's interview with the NY Times yesterday, when discussing jobs, closed factories and factories that may leave the country, he was asked: "Are you worried that those companies...
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US auto industry installed 135,000 robots and added 230,000 jobs
Source: IFR.org In the last six years, (2010–2015), according to the IFR (International Federation of Robotics), US industry has installed around 135,000 new industrial robots. The principal driver is...
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November fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Seventeen robotics-related companies got funded for a combined total of over $225 million. Four more got acquired. Three went public to raise funds. And one failed. Fundings: Seven Dreamers Labs...
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Self-driving cars, networks, and the companies and people that are...
Source: Intel Intel is establishing an autonomous driving division; hacker George Hotz is open-sourcing his self-driving software in a bid to become a network company; LiDAR and distancing devices are...
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Beijing World Robot Conference drew big crowds and notable speakers
The Beijing World Robot Conference (WRC), sponsored by Beijing City, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the China Association of Science and Technology, was held October 21-25....
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Liquid Robotics acquired by Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Source: Liquid Robotics In a move consistent with many other recent acquisitions of stars within the robotics industry, Liquid Robotics announced that they sold their company to Boeing’s Autonomous...
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Robots may save the global economy
A recent article in The Washington Post by Morgan Stanley strategist and author of “The Rise and Fall of Nations” Ruchir Sharma, provides a nuanced overview of the issues of jobs, robots, productivity...
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Teledyne Technologies acquires British imaging sensor maker E2V Technologies
Teledyne Technologies, which specializes in deepwater gas and oil exploration and production, oceanographic research, air and water quality environmental monitoring, electronics design and...
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Rethink Robotics raises another $18 million
Sawyer. Image: Rethink Robotics Rethink Robotics, the Boston-based maker of the Baxter and Sawyer robots founded by iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, raised an additional $18 million in an unfinished...
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Parrot struggling, Lily fails and Google closes Titan Project as drone...
Toy and entertainment drones, camera drones for professional and business use, moon-shot drones and military drones are all becoming more and more distinct as much of the drone industry gets...
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21 research reports forecast double-digit growth for robotics industry
Source: swarmfarm After reading all the press releases for this batch of 21 research reports, one can see that although they vary widely in their forecasts they almost all agree that the robotics...
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$250 million awarded to new Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Innovation Hub
Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, the new institute is made up of governments, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations from across the country. Combined they have contributed $173 million that...
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Factory move to U.S. creates jobs with help from robot workforce
Source: CBS Evening News By investing $6 million in robots, Bicycle Corporation of America (BCA) was able to take back 10% of their manufacturing from China and place it into a new factory in Manning,...
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Views and forecasts about robotics for the ag industry
At RoboUniverse in San Diego, agricultural robots and the labor shortage were quickly identified as the biggest issues facing the industry today. Water scarcity and field health were other key issues...
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January fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
January fundings for robotics-related startups totaled over $123 million - a reasonable start for the new year. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired reported that $390.5 million...
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Lady Gaga, 300 Intel drones, and the Super Bowl
Lady Gaga performing at Super bowl LI Source: NFL/YouTube Three hundred drones flashed their colored lights and created a flying American flag as Lady Gaga sang a blend of “God Bless America” and “This...
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Robotic cleaning market growing exponentially
iRobot Braava jet 240. Source: irobot.com The International Federation of Robotics forecast that the global market for vacuum cleaning robots, lawn-mowing robots and other household cleaning robots...
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Ford Motor to invest $1 billion in Pittsburgh startup Argo AI
Photo: Ford Motor’s next-generation Fusion Hybrid autonomous development vehicle. (Courtesy of Ford Motor) Argo AI, a Pittsburgh startup, has sold a majority share of their company to Ford Motor Co....
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Recap: 2016 funding and acquisition updates
Although the original articles (2016 was best year ever for funding robotics startup companies) and (Over $19 billion paid to acquire 50 robotic companies) have been updated to reflect the omissions...
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February 2017 fundings, acquisitions and IPOs
February fundings for 16 robotics-related startups totaled over $313 million - another solid month for the new year. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with Ford's acquisition of Argo and...
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March 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
March 2017 had 29 robotics-related startups get funding totaling over $222 million - another solid month for 2017 and $658 million year-to-date. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with...
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CBS News outlines jobs and robotics debate; IFR fills in gaps
FANUC_R2000iB at work. Source: Wikipedia Commons CBS News, and reporter David Pogue, displayed some new technologies threatening jobs, while the International Federation of Robotics suggested that...
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April 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
April 2017 had 16 robotics-related fundings totaling over $337 million - a fourth solid month for 2017 - $995 million year-to-date. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with ABB's $2 billion...
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24 research reports that dissect the robotics industry
After reading the press releases for this batch of 24 research reports, although they vary widely in their forecasts, they almost all agree that most segments of the robotics industry are expected to...
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What’s slowing the use of robots in the ag industry?
Source: Nesta.org, Precision Agriculture Why are so many farm equipment manufacturers so heavily involved in the ag industry yet things are going so slowly in relation to robotics? Perhaps farmers need...
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SoftBank invests $5 billion into Didi Chuxing and $4 billion more in Nvidia
SoftBank, the giant telecom company, is venturing out into the world of robotics and transportation services. DealStreet Asia said that SoftBank is trying to transform itself into the ‘Berkshire...
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The Wolf: The Hunt Continues shows calculated precision for hacking into an...
The Wolf: The Hunt Continues Starring Christian Slater Presented by HP Studios | HP Source: HP Studios/YouTube Here’s a video you will want to watch. “The Wolf: The Hunt Continues” is really an ad...
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Two stars, different fates
Levandowski (right) at MCE 2016. Source: Wikipedia Commons Andy Rubin, who developed the Android operating system at Google then went on to lead Google through multiple acquisitions into robotics, has...
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May 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
May 2017 had two robotics-related companies get $9.5 billion in funding and 22 others raised $249 million. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with Toyota Motor's $260 million acquisition of...
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Uber regrouping after Levandowski firing
Uber, the global ride-sharing transportation company, has named two replacements to recover from the recent firing of Anthony Levandowski who headed their Advanced Technologies Group, their OTTO...
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