What is the current state of renewable energy in the US? Depending on who you listen to, 2012 could have been the best year ever, and 2013 is expected to be more of the same. 2012 wind turbine installations nearly doubled those of 2011. Is renewable energy fulfilling the expectations of it’s proponents? This is […]
Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Robotic Start-ups and Engadget Expand
At a weekend Engadget Expand event at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler spoke about Kickstarter’s success: 17 projects raised $1 million+ in 2012, a 43.66% success rate, with much of the money going to film & video projects, games, design and music. Also at the Engadget event were a group of…
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Robotic Start-up Companies
By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Fort Mason, San Francisco. Host to the Engadget Expand event held last weekend. FormLabs’ Form 1 $3,300 hi-res 3D printer. At last weekend’s Engadget Expand event in Fort Mason, San Francisco, Kickstarter‘s co-founder Yancey Strickler started off the show with a presentation of many of Kickstarter’s…
What’s Next for Machine Controllers
In the world of Industrial Controls, the traditional platform has been the PLC. This control was initially the by-product of decades of hard wired automation based on relay logic. The rules were fairly simple, everything got broken down to “on” and “off” contacts, but with the creation of an electronic platform that solved the logic […]
Quadcopters Advertising New Star Trek Movie
A squadron of 30 LED-studded Ascending Technologies quadcopters hovered above Potters Fields Park near London’s Tower Bridge and, in conjunction with Earth Hour, formed a three-dimensional Star Trek logo in the night sky – a treat slash advertisement from Paramount, the producer of the new movie “Star Trek – Into Darkness” which will be released…
Updated Robotics Roadmap Presented to US Congress
The Roadmap’s pdf is a must-read, full of real information, and can be downloaded here. Six sectors were reviewed: (1) Manufacturing, (2) Medical Robots, (3) Healthcare Robotics, (4) Service Robots (both professional and domestic), (5) Space and (6) Defense were all discussed. Congress was asked to invest in core science challenges stimulating development and solutions…
Updated Robotics Roadmap Presented to US Congress
Henrik Christensen, the KUKA Chair of Robotics at GA Tech and Chairman of the Roadmap project, Rodney Brooks, CEO of Rethink Robotics, Pete Wurman, CTO of Kiva Systems, and Russ Angold, CTO of Ekso Bionics all presented the new Roadmap to a packed gallery of the Robotics Caucus of the US Congress. From left: Pete Wurman,…
Which companies provide robotic systems to the military?
As awareness of the use of robotic drones on borders and by police departments across America is rising, a debate is taking place as to their value, potential misuse and future. My friends at Robohub are running a week-long series of focused stories on the subject and, in an attempt to add to the conversation,…
Three videos to watch from Engadget’s Expand Event
Last weekend’s Engaget Expand Event at Fort Mason in San Francisco had one panel of particular interest to robotics-interested people. It was misnamed Robopocalypse: Now. In spite of that, the participants’ presentations were great and you are sure to find the watching of all three videos of value. Chris Anderson, CEO of DIY Drones, has…
Chris Anderson; Marc Raibert and Steven Cousins at Engadget Expand Event
“Moore’s Law has never moved faster than is moving inside the phone you’ve already got in your pocket. The pace of development and the price performance curve is moving faster in smartphones than it’s ever moved in history and we’re taking advantage by drafting off this momentum and by employing military-grade technologies at toy prices,” said Chris…
WRW Engineering Launched as Part of BWC’s Renewed Focus
Bishop-Wisecarver Group (BWG), announced the launch of their mechatronics based engineering service company. WRW Engineering helps companies integrate mechanical, electrical and software engineering into custom mechatronic solutions that achieve higher production efficiencies, faster time to market, and increased revenues. The core of WRW is founded on BWG’s roots, building on its history of creative problem […]
Liquid Robotics Gets $45 Million To Continue Double-Digit Growth
Liquid Robotics today is a far cry from it’s initial goal of recording whale songs. Today that function and those recordings are the domain of the Jupiter Foundation and Liquid is focusing on making wave gliders for industry, government and science. Liquid Robotics just received a $45 million “E” round of funding and adds Riverwood…
Which companies provide robotic systems to the military?
Elbit Systems’ unique VIPeR Robot My friends at Robohub.org are running a week-long series of focused stories about robotics for defense, security and surveillance purposes. In an attempt to add to the conversation, here is a list of some of the companies that produce these types of robotic devices. This list is composed of publicly-traded…
Consumer Electronics and Industrial Control – Part 2
Maybe the real answer is volume. Comparing the size of the consumer electronics market to the industrial controls market including motion control there is still a huge disparity. The 2012 worldwide market for consumer electronics is estimated at $1 trillion while the worldwide market for industrial controls is around $140 billion. We can argue […]
Romo On The Move
Romotiv, the maker of the Romo robot, is moving from Las Vegas to San Francisco. CEO Rinaudo wrote the reason behind the move, which will take place over the next three months, was the company’s desire to be closer to the large pool of tech-savvy programmers and engineers in the Silicon Valley. More important, Romotive…
Industrial Control and Consumer Electronics
The world of consumer electronics migrates on at the speed of Moore’s Law. Cost and performance have been increasing uniformly for the last 20 years. The cellphone in your pocket is a more powerful computer than the one you had at your desk five years ago (give or take). The track record in the industrial […]
Foxconn Foxbot Update
Ilian Bonev, a robotics prof at the ÉTS in Quebec, blogged “The truth about Foxconns Foxbot industrial robots,” and included a 2008 Foxbot brochure which shows the specs for their entire robotics product line. Also included is a video showing a row of Foxbots handling, grinding and sanding what appears to be iPad back covers.…
Magnetic catheter steering system coming from Swiss start-up
A new start-up being spun off from the IRIS labs at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland offers promise of robotically-controlled catheters to support cardiac procedures. Aeon Scientific‘s new technology is also a platform for other medical applications including targeted drug delivery. In photo, the magnetics are shown on the left and enable moving the micron-sized…
Disruptive Robotics
By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Catherine Mohr and her da Vinci Surgical System. On February 1st of this year, Catherine Mohr, Director of Medical Research and chief spokesperson for Intuitive Surgical (ISRG:NASDAQ), gave a talk on the campus of CMU. (Video of talk and Q&A). I watched the video wherein Mohr pointed out…
Electric Racing
Lots of email this week about electric car and motorcycle speed records. My apologies to the many who corrected my errors, I was probably looking at old information. To be fair, there is a difference between speed records set at the Bonneville Salt Flats, speed records for the quarter mile, and competition racing speeds. So […]