One of the features of the GM/NASA co-development of Robonaut 2, the robotic assistant now residing in the space station, was the grasping capabilities of its hands. GM has now translated those robotic features to help factory workers reduce gripping and squeezing muscle tension with the use of a robotic glove called Robo-Glove. Says GM's…
‘Robots Ate My Job’ airs all week on PBS
American Public Media’s ‘Marketplace’ has produced a 5-part audio series entitled ‘Robots Ate My Job.’ The issue of jobs being displaced by automation is very topical. Many reputable sources are providing research or opinion: NY Times, Harvard Business Review, Metra Martech, and the International Federation of Robotics to name a few. The recent acquisition of…
Military Ground Robotics Displayed in San Diego
Robots of all types were displayed at the Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference and Exhibition held in San Diego and sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association and the DoD. Hits were Recon Robotics‘ Scout XT, iRobot‘s FirstLook throwable robot, and HDT‘s MK2 robotic arm. In recent weeks Recon Robotics received Marine and Army orders for…
Military Still Doling Out Orders and Getting Attention for Drones and Robots
AeroVironment gets $11.1 million order for hand-launched 4-pound Raven UAV. Same company makes the kamikaze drone (Switchblade) which explodes on impact and the hummingbird drone (Nano Air Vehicle) which was one of Time Magazine’s 50 New Inventions of 2011. Navy opens cutting-edge lab for robotics and autonomous systems in Washington DC. This is where the…
Aging Equipment, New Opportunity
Machinery manufacturing is unique in the fact that the product makes another product. Making machines that make semiconductors, for example, is a very complex endeavor. It is all about pushing the limits of technology at every level. There are some interesting features of the machinery market to consider. The semiconductor machinery industry has […]
Closed vs. Open Source for Robotics?
Impromptu debate at cocktail party in Lyon, France at Innorobo 2012 between Colin Angle of iRobot and Robert Bauer of Willow Garage and their opposing views on how to nurture profitable robotics businesses. Spirited and well-presented. Short version via IEEE Spectrum here; unabridged version on Everything-Robotic here.
iRobot and Willow Garage Debate Closed vs. Open Source Robotics at Cocktail Party
A version of this post originally appeared on Automaton, IEEE Spectrum’s robotics blog. By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report What’s the best approach to building commercially successful robotics companies? Here are two arguments from two prominent people in the robotics industry: Identify a need that can be filled with a robotic solution in a large…
Turkish Start-up for Paraplegics
$15,000 device enables paraplegics to be vertical and mobile. Click image to enlarge. Turkish start-up company AMS Mekatronik begins selling devices this week in Turkey; US and EU later this year.
Another big robot acquisition: Amazon buys Kiva Systems
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will acquire privately-held Kiva Systems for approximately $775 million! Kiva’s novel warehousing system uses robots to bring the shelves to the picker and packer instead of vice versa. The acquisition is expected to close next quarter.
Cars and Computers
60 years ago the phrase “What’s good for General Motors is good for America” was coined by the head of GM and later carried on by president Eisenhower and the media of the day. General Motors was one of, if not, the largest employers in the US economy. Trickle through analysis shows that the […]
Softbank Acquires Aldebaran… Maybe
UPDATE 3-25-2012: Translated from an Aldebaran post on their user forum: “Hello everyone. Information originally issued by the Financial Times is false. The reporter called us several times. We have denied, said that its source is not reliable. But the article came out anyway. We are surprised that the FT can leave this type of…
Korean company to produce 20,000 window-cleaning robots
Korean manufacturer Ilshim Global is working on orders for $4 million (20,000 window-cleaning robots) for resellers Euroboats of Germany and Ezicom of France. The iWindoro version of this window washer requires you to affix the outside half of the device to the inside half using magnets through the glass. Consequently the current version won’t work…
FAA told to integrate UAVs into airspace by 2015
President Obama signed into law a bill which gives the FAA three years to integrate UAVs into the national air space. The DoD has hundreds of camera-carrying drones from Iraq and Afghanistan that need recycling for training, natural disaster response and homeland security missions. And local police and firefighters want their own drones for their…
The Future of Motion Control
I read comments from other authors in motion control with considerable interest. There are some upcoming webcasts on the”the future of motion control”. Predicting the future is always a problem. There are so many things to consider. Short term economic trends for manufacturers are pretty easy. Costs are going up. Outsourcing continues. What else […]
$160 million for VC-Funded Robotic Projects in 2011
One roboticist’s opinion why VC funding for robotics is a tough nut to crack: projects have large capital requirements, few potential acquirers and little “Google-scale” IPO prospects. $160 million is a far cry from the $6.9 billion that went into 997 VC funded deals in web and Internet startup companies in 2011. Most money went…
3 Robotics Companies Included in 50 Most Innovative List
Kiva Systems – for their disruptive warehousing robots, Liquid Robots – for their versatile wave gliders, and Siemens AG – for their extensive R&D in energy, transportation and healthcare, were included in FastCompany’s The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. One might not think of Siemens as a robotics vendor but Siemens owns many subsidiaries which…
The wacky (and not so wacky) robots of Innorobo 2012
Innorobo 2012 is a trade show and conference to be held March 14-16 in Lyon, France, where companies display their latest and also participate in three days of conferences on technological breakthroughs, transitions, problems and market analysis. Focus is on service robots, ie, every type of robot that isn’t involved in manufacturing, and meeting and…
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Operating in a Vacuum
Semiconductor machinery poses some of the biggest challenges in the entire field of motion control. Typical requirements in semiconductor machinery applications start with nanometer accuracy which is daunting for most forms of motion controls and actuators. Add to that, operation at 10 to the -9 torr hard vacuum, and you have some of the […]
$160 million for 14 VC-funded robotic companies in 2011
By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report Travis Deyle, is a postdoc researcher at Duke and a recent PhD from GA Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering where he was a member of the Healthcare Robotics Lab and a frequent blogger at Hizook.com. Fortunate for us, he kept a file of 2011 venture funded robotic…