By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Click to explore the map. Well… actually 1,070. Presented on this map are 1,050 robot manufacturers and the top 20 robotics universities and research facilities. Every type of company; every facet of the industry; most industrialized countries of the world are represented. From big companies like…
Interactive Map of Global Robot Providers
200+ industrial robot makers (red markers); 600+ service robot providers (blue markers) and 170+ start-up companies (green markers) covering 37 countries around the world. Clusters can be seen surrounding the top 20 robotics universities and research labs (shown in yellow). Details here. Map here.
Electric Motors
Electric motors are central to the industrial age. They are literally the replacement technology for the “work horse” of the 19th century. Which is probably where the term “work horse” came from in the first place. And when it comes to units of measure, we think about the electric motor in terms of horsepower. […]
Recent funding for robotics companies
MAKO Surgical gets $43 million from the sale of common stock. MAKO produces a robotic orthopedic surgical platform for implant placement. MAKO’s stock (NASDAQ:MAKO) has had a dramatic downward ride from a high of $45 to it’s present $14 because of missed revenue and earnings projections. Revolve Robotics, a San Francisco start-up with a remote…
VGo Gets Funding to Scale Up for Healthcare
VGo Communications received $900,000 debt financing to help the company scale up and focus on providing remote presence for the healthcare industry. They’ve changed their website to present the various ways that VGo robots can be useful in hospitals, with visiting nurses, as a post-op communication device and for medically home-bound students. VGo has taken…
Furby translator now available with an iPhone application
Hasbro has enhanced their successful Furby toy from years past with a combination of interactive programming and robotic engineering. The updated Furby includes a free Furby app to virtually feed Furby and translate Furbish into English. Watch the video.
Iceland’s Össur wins PopSci Best of What’s New award for Symbionic Leg
Iceland’s Össur, a company which develops, manufactures and sells non-invasive orthopaedic and bionic prosthetics, received a Popular Science Magazine’s 2012 “Best of What’s New” award for Össur’s new Symbionic Leg. The world’s first complete bionic leg, Össur’s Symbionic Leg combines a bionic microprocessor knee and a powered bionic ankle with proactive powered ankle flexion into…
New Era Manufacturing
We stand at a cross roads that many people may be unaware of. The world of manufacturing as we know it is about to change. This claim has been made by others in The misperception is partly due to the fact that the rate of change in industry is very slow. In a global economic […]
Westwood Group
Lockheed Martin Acquires UAV Maker Chandler/May
Lockheed Martin acquires ChandlerMay for an undisclosed amount. The new acquisition will join Lockheed’s Mission Systems & Sensors (MS2) business. ChandlerMay, with facilities in Huntsville, AL and San Luis Obispo, CA, has produced over 2,500 UAVs for the military, mostly as a subcontractor to Lockheed. ChandlerMay also produces UAS ground control stations and tactical systems…
Next Generation of Control
The thing that programmable controllers don’t typically do well is manage data. This is primarily because the memory is organized to serve the control programming environment and not designed for data applications. Separate memory must be allocated and the transactions necessary to interact with memory must be coded. This means a lot of overhead and […]
OmniGuide in the news
Cambridge, MA-based OmniGuide recently got $35 million non-dilutive financing from OrbiMed Advisors enabling company to grow toward profitability over the next several years. OmniGuide’s new BeamPath laser system used in novel robot-assisted minimally invasive laser surgery for fibroids at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. Operation was broadcast live to an international audience of over 1,000…
Chris Anderson, Wired editor-in-chief, resigns to run 3D Robotics
Anderson has held the editor-in-chief position for 11 years during which time, in addition to his work at Wired, he authored three books and founded DIY Drones and co-founded 3D Robotics. He also grew Wired’s circulation and won eight magazine awards. In 2010, Adweek named Wired its magazine of the decade. Now he is leaving…
More on Robotics
There are several aspects of the mechatronics challenge in robotics. In the previous post, I hinted at some, but on reflection the list is significant and all the issues should be considered. Managing the trajectory is a challenge on computing level just to crunch the numbers and resolve the mechanical organization of the robot into […]
Eldercare Robots
Games, sensors and robots are among the tools beginning to come to market to help aging people live in their homes as long as possible. By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Source: BusinessWeek Magazine In December, 2003, BusinessWeek Magazine interviewed Joseph Engelberger, the robotics pioneer. The article was entitled “How Robots Lost Their…
New Russian entrant into creepiest robot face contest
Neurobotics, a Russian brain research organization, has just released videos of their new human-like woman robotic head. Click to see their video. Hanson Robotics, whose Einstein head is shown above, Kokoro, a Japanese robot manufacturer, and Japanese professor Hiroshi Ishiguro are all known for their realistic android heads – all of which have given the…
Wave Glider transmits real time weather data during Hurricane Sandy
One of Liquid Robotics‘ Wave Gliders successfully piloted itself through Hurricane Sandy winds and transmitted weather data in real time. The Wave Glider was in the region 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. It’s sensors reported a plunge in barometric pressure to a low of 946 as it battled 70 knot winds. It…
Fly and film in HD
Parrot (PARRO on the Euronext Paris exchange), a French company famous for its audio and wireless devices for phones and cars, unveiled their first AR.Drone at CES in 2010 to huge crowds (I was there). The updated AR.Drone 2 was previewed at CES 2012 and is now available for sale. The big difference is the…
Hansen Medical stock (HNSN:NASDAQ) jumps 22%
Intuitive Surgical updated their co-exclusive rights to certain of Hansen Medical‘s patent portfolio for a fee of $20 million. Intuitive also purchased $10 million of Hansen Medical’s stock. The deal extends a 2005 agreement and adds Hansen patents filed subsequent to that date. Hansen Medical provides a line of intravascular robotics products; Intuitive Surgical produces…
Accuray launches new TomoHDA and gets FDA okay for CyberKnife M6
New TomoTherapy System enables faster planning and more focused delivery often resulting in half beam-on time than previously. CyberKnife M6 (shown above) is a 3D image-guided and robotically controlled beam and patient positioning radiology delivery system. Accuray stock (ARAY:NASDAQ) is up 64% year-to-date from $2.72 to $6.95.