On the podcast this week we talk to Relay Robotics CEO Michael O’Donnell and CTO Steve Cousins about the launch of Relay2 delivery robot.

Relay adds three executives to boost software engineering, product management and industrial design.

The new organization acquires Savioke R&D and the Relay product line. It will continue to focus primarily on hospitality and healthcare.

Steve Cousins, founder and CEO of Savioke, discusses the new Relay+ robot and how it innovates the implementation of a service robot with an elevator.

Steve and Mike interview Fady Saad from MassRobotics and Eric Anderson from AWS about the new AWS Robotics Accelerator program

The new funding will help Promise Robotics commercialize its robotic factory platform to support its growing demand from homebuilders.

The redesigned Relay2 delivers twice the cargo capacity of earlier models while maintaining Relay’s sleek design.

Alex Lee appointed General Manager leading Doosan operations in North America.

Alex Lee appointed General Manager leading operations in North America.

We got the scoop on the new AMR solutions from Fetch Robotics and recap the week that was in robotics.

A great conversation with the legendary Jon Hirschtick – we discuss blackjack, and how to build (and sell) a successful product development platform company.

The ARM Institute highlights robotics projects focused on several pandemic-related issues, including facility and surface disinfection, COVID-19 testing, PPE production and more.

Ava Robotics, the iRobot spinout known for its telepresence robots, is expanding its product portfolio with the introduction of an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection robot for corporate offices, warehouses, and other work spaces. The new robot is an evolution of a research project Ava Robotics conducted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Greater Boston…

Demand for robotics developers is likely to keep increasing, as seen in these five application areas.

MERRIMACK, N.H. — Waypoint Robotics Inc. today announced the launch of MAV3K (pronounced Māy-vick), the newest member of its industrial-grade autonomous mobile robot product line. MAV3K can carry up to 3,000 lb. and has omnidirectional mobility that enables smooth and precise materials movement for manufacturing. “MAV3K is the product of more than three years of…

Pittsburgh startup IAM Robotics raised $20 million to expand the deployment of its Swift mobile picking robot. The round was led by KCK Ltd, a family-owned investment firm with teams in New York and San Francisco. IAM Robotics was founded in 2012 by Tom Galluzzo and Vladimir Altman, who worked at Carnegie Mellon University’s National…

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a rich knowledge of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Its invested millions to add mobile robots to its warehouses to help fulfill online sales, which in 2015, for example, were greater than Amazon, eBay, and Walmart combined. Alibaba is getting itself into commercial robotics with a new service robot called…

Twenty-seven startups raised money in June to the tune of $2.1 billion, another great month for robotics fundings! Also during June there were ten acquisitions and two IPOs. See below for details. The top robotics fundings were: Rockwell (NYSE:ROK) made a $1 billion equity investment in PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), an automation control software provider to government…

The surgical robotics market in the US has finally become competitive. In October, the FDA granted clearance to only the second robotic surgical system to date – the TransEnterix Senhance laparoscopic platform. The clearance was a huge milestone for the Morrisville, N.C.-based company and was quickly followed by yet another – almost exactly a month…

The service robotics industry has been growing exponentially for the past 10 years and many are out in the field performing a wide and diverse range of useful tasks. Consider Savioke, Reis & Irvy, and ECOVACS. These three companies are providing unique, new uses for service robots and are indicative of the growth of service robotics in…

It was a busy and abundant year for seed, crowd, series A,B,C,D and VC funding of robotics-related startups. 128 companies got funded, some multiple times. $1.95 billion, 50% more than 2015 which was also a phenomenal year with over $1.32 billion  funded. UPDATED 1/30/17: Added $100 million in China-based RooBo, $50 million for Israeli Roboteam, $9.5 million for Matternet, $2…

From NASA nearing the retirement of its InSight Lander to IP acquisitions there was no shortage of things to cover this month.