Late last month KUKA made a public offer to Swisslog shareholders to purchase their shares at 8.9% above the market price. Swisslog’s Board of Directors have recommended that the offer be accepted. KUKA, one of the Big Four global robot makers, stated that the purchase price would be $357 million and that the transaction would…
nLink mobile drilling robot wins RoboBusiness Pitchfire startup contest
Norway-based nLink, maker of the world’s first Mobile Drilling Robot, wins the 2014 RoboBusiness Pitchfire contest, beating out 14 other robotics startups.
At RoboBusiness, start-up contest chooses 3 winners
At RoboBusiness this week in Boston, Pitchfire – a Shark Tank-like pitch and question session – presented 14 start-up companies who pitched their wares to 5 judges. 3 winners were chosen. SoftRobotics Inc, a Boston-based start-up (not to be confused with SoftRobotics, a Los Angeles area software and systems developer), presented their new soft gripper, a…
4 reports predict steady growth for robotics
Four recent research reports covering service robots, vision guided robotics, material handling robots, and robot component speed reducers, all predict steady growth, particularly in China. QY Research offers their $2,200 report on the Global and China Vision Guided Robotics Industry and predicts steady growth for the industry segment through 2019. Another $1,500 report by Research in China covers…
RobotShop continues acquisition spree
RobotShop, one of Canada's fastest growing small companies, continues to expand and acquire. Its most recent acquisition is FlyingEinstein, a Florida-based manufacturer that designs and produces flight controllers for drones. In August, 2012 RobotShop acquired LynxMotion, a manufacturer and distributor of educational robot kits. In November, 2013, RobotShop acquired DiaLFonZo-Copter, a designer and producer of multi-rotor…
UCSD robotics: A New Investment on San Diego Campus
At a one-day forum on the UCSD campus, Chancellor Pradeep Khosla did two unusual things: he spent most of the day at the Contextual Robotics Technologies Intl Forum, and he announced that UCSD would create five new faculty slots in robotics and plans to develop a world-class robotics cluster in the San Diego area. “This…
What the buzz about Industrie 4.0?
It sounds impressive, has a lot of doctors of philosophy signed on as it’s originators, and it’s imported from Europe. Industrie 4.0, note the German spelling, very fancy, is the latest rage around the world of industrial automation. Personally, I think it’s just a fancy marketing campaign to stimulate sales of automation control systems. Alleging […]
Rethinking iRobot, Samsung and Dyson robotic vacuum cleaners
By Frank Tobe, Editor/Publisher, The Robot Report At a break in a conference in San Diego, I was sitting enjoying my tea, when up walked Rodney Brooks (of Rethink Robotics and Baxter fame) and said (with a mischievious smile): Rodney Brooks “I have a bone to pick with you! Robotic vacuum cleaners didn’t just become…
Self-driving car test sites
Swarm communication and urban city driving are integral to the safe deployment of self-driving cars. Mercedes-Benz and a joint Michigan-based consortium are setting up secure test sites in California and Michigan to test their solutions. Mercedes-Benz, along with local governments, is turning what used to be the Concord Naval Weapons Station into the U.S.’s largest…
Energy and Getting Stuff Done
Electricity in the modern age is taken for granted. Yet our technological society is incredibly dependent on it. Everything we do requires electricity to control, communicate or actually perform tasks. Even in the combustion engine, the starting motor is required to start the engine and the ignition system is required to generate high voltage discharges […]
Safety Concerns for Collaborative Robots
At a daylong workshop on Collaborative Robots by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), two main themes were expressed: worker safety and almost universal expectation for rapid deployment of collaborative robots. Yaskawa Motoman’s USA Technology Director Erik Nieves proved that collaborative robotics are more complex than one would imagine as he described the need for and methods…
Where does electricity come from?
Oddly, electricity is one of those things we never think about. It’s odd because electricity and electric motors have proven to be the most efficient means of producing mechanical work in the history or mankind. It’s on all the time, easy to transport, always ready and waiting for you to use it. The utility company […]
Vision-enabled package handling
Capturing and processing camera and sensor data and recognizing various shapes to determine a set of robotic actions is conceptually easy. Humans do it naturally. But it is difficult for a machine. Vision-guided motion is a growing field within robotics with a number of vendors, integrators and alternative methods such as vision guided robots (VGR), advanced…
Modular mechatronic systems gaining momentum
ACOPOSmotor sets new standards for decentralized motion control With the ACOPOSmotor, B&R combines a servo motor and drive in one compact unit. Safety technology can also be integrated as an option. This gives developers more freedom when designing a machine and can save valuable space in the control cabinet. The ACOPOSmotor is connected to the […]
DHL UAS Parcel Delivery Gets First Test
DHL launches first authorized autonomous delivery flights by “parcelcopter” to and from the North Sea island of Juist, 7.5 miles off the coast of Northern Germany. The DHL parcelcopter has been approved for testing delivery of medications and other urgently needed goods to the small North Sea island of Juist – one of a string of…
Liquid Robotics Continues Its Growth-By-Partnering
Sunnyvale-based Liquid Robotics continues their growth by partnering formula by striking another collaboration, this time with Boeing. Boeing Defense, Space & Security CEO Chris Chadwick said, “It's a great opportunity to partner with Liquid Robotics to provide new and existing customers a unique portfolio of defense solutions and capabilities and allows the Boeing-Liquid Robotics team to…
ReWalk IPO gets $36 million; Corindus gets $26.6; PrecisionHawk gets $10
ReWalk, the Israeli developer of exoskeletons, joins Ekso and Cyberdyne as publicly-traded companies on international stock exchanges. Their IPO sold 3 million shares at $12 per share. The stock then went on to $30! ReWalk Robotics was hoping to raise $50 million by selling 3.4 million shares at $15 but settled for selling only 3…
Swiss startup shows syncronized quadrocopters in Cirque du Soleil videos
Two new quadrocopter videos point to a unique future for flying machines. New Swiss ETH spinoff Verity Studios, in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, have produced two videos that entertain and enchant. In the following article from Robohub.org by Markus Waibel, Verity Studios CEO and co-founder, one can easily foresee a creative future for Verity…
Climate Change Weekend
This weekend saw climate change demonstrations all over the world. Interesting juxtaposition with an article by Steven Koonin, former Undersecretary of the Department of Energy, who says that the issue of climate change is “not settled”. Dr. Koonin presents several interesting data points, but overall, seems mostly to be questioning the methodology of those trying […]
Motor Centric Design – Part 3
With all the emphasis on how important wind power is to the future of energy supply, it is surprising to me that we haven’t seen a variety of dedicated generator designs. There are a few, but only a few. Maybe this is because the magnetics of generator design are not a popular topic in engineering […]
Unbounded Robotics Closes Down
For confusing reasons, Unbounded Robotics has shut down. Their $35,000 UBR-1 single-armed mobile robot that was shown late last year with great fanfare is no longer offered for sale. “Why?” is the big question. Unbounded was one of the start-up spin-off companies incubated by Willow Garage. Unbounded's UBR-1 robot was produced by the same team that…
Latest robotic vacuum product launches change industry from niche to mainstream
Recent robotic vacuum cleaner product launches by Dyson and Samsung have transformed what has heretofore been a niche market of early adopters and robot enthusiasts into a marketplace of serious consumer products for home cleaning. Both Dyson and Samsung have upgraded the vacuuming function of their robotic cleaners to be equivalent to non-robotic cleaners. Consequently, they…