General Electric subsidiary Avitas Systems is using artificial intelligence technology from AI company Nvidia to automate industrial inspections, reducing costs, turnaround time and risk. Using a team of drones, crawlers or wheeled robots and autonomous underwater vehicles, Avitas performs inspections at sites in the energy, transportation and oil and gas sectors, such as power plants,…
March 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
March 2017 had 29 robotics-related startups saw funding totaling over $222 million – another solid month for 2017 and $658 million year-to-date. Acquisitions also continued to be substantial with Intel's eye-popping $15 billion acquisition of Israeli Mobileye. Plus there were three IPOs. Fundings Corindus Vascular Robotics, already an over-the-counter stock, raised $45 million in a private placement of 68 million shares at…
NASA tests robotic tools for drilling and manipulating ice
Want to go ice fishing on Jupiter’s moon Europa? There’s no promising you’ll catch anything, but a new set of robotic prototypes could help. Since 2015, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been developing new technologies for use on future missions to ocean worlds. That includes a subsurface probe that could burrow through […]
Popup AGV robot from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory may catch rover ride
The next AGV robot rovers to explore another planet might bring along a scout. The Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER) in development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, was inspired by origami. Its lightweight design is capable of flattening itself, tucking in its wheels and crawling into places rovers can’t fit. Over […]
Teledyne DALSA’s Newest Genie Nano Camera Features ON Semiconductor’s 18M Sensor
Teledyne DALSA, a Teledyne Technologies company and global leader in machine vision technology, today introduced a new model to its high-value Genie™ Nano GigE Vision camera series. Built around the ON Semiconductor® AR1820HS 18 Megapixel, backside illuminated (BSI) image sensor, this new camera (C4900) brings system integrators and OEMs even greater choice from a growing […]
2016 best year ever for funding robotics startup companies
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…
Teledyne DALSA presents its innovation for machine vision at ITE 2016
Teledyne DALSA, a Teledyne Technologies company and global leader in machine vision technology, will showcase its Calibir Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR) radiometric camera, its multi-line CMOS color Piranha XL camera and will provide a preview of its new Xtium-CXP PX8 frame grabber at the International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and Equipment (ITE Japan 2016). The […]
Self-driving cars, networks, and the companies and people that are stimulating development
Intel is establishing an autonomous driving division; hacker George Hotz is open-sourcing his self-driving software in a bid to become a network company; LiDAR and distancing devices are changing. What's it all mean? Intel: Semiconductor giant Intel, in a strategic move to become THE supplier of chips to the fast-emerging self-driving industry, is reorganizing and creating a…
November fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Seventeen robotics-related companies got funded for a combined total of over $225 million. Four more got acquired. Three went public to raise funds. And one failed. UPDATE 12/9/2017: ZMP has delayed its IPO because of a security breach. More info as it becomes available. Fundings: Seven Dreamers Labs raised around $60 million in a Series B round…
US auto industry installed 135,000 robots AND added 230,000 jobs
In the last six years, (2010–2015), according to the IFR (International Federation of Robotics), US industry has installed around 135,000 new industrial robots. The principal driver is automation in the car industry. During this same period, (2010–2015), the number of employees in the automotive sector increased by 230,000. This news affirms the conclusions of a study conducted by the…
Delivering Electric Power – Part 2
Delivering electric power across the United States was an incredible accomplishment that spanned decades. From the early electric ‘grids’ in urban areas dedicated to bringing electric light to millions of customers to the giant electric GRID that we have today has changed society forever. there are many issues with the current grid. The fact that […]
Review of Commercial UAV Show Asia held in Singapore
Alejandro Alonso-Puig, the CTO of Singapore UAS startup Infinium Robotics, visited and spoke at the Commercial UAV Show Asia 2016 held in conjunction with the IoT Show 2016, September 1-2, at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore. Puig has given permission to republish his review of the show. The well-known companies in the Commercial UAV market, as expected,…
46 research reports analyze the robotics industry and autonomous vehicles
As autonomous cars begin to hit world markets in pilot tests and other ways, and before the International Federation of Robotics clarifies whether those vehicles are robots or not, two research firms have combined those vehicles with other robots. Their results are highlighted in yellow below. The question as to whether autonomous vehicles are robots – or…
Henn-na Hotel: A strange hotel staffed by robots
By Marisa Martin • Design World Intern || Those who travel a lot want hotels that are comfortable and efficient. Soon, travelers could get just that thanks to robots. At the Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California, guests can interact with a service robot called A.L.O. the Botlr. Unveiled in 2014, A.L.O. can complete most bellhop tasks […]
AUTOMATICA 2016: digitalization and collaborative robotics
AUTOMATICA 2016, held in June in Munich at the massive Messe tradefair facility, is a gigantic show focused on automation, mechatronics, robotics and emerging technologies as they relate to the industrial and manufacturing sectors. The AUTOMATICA experience To give you an idea of how enormous the Messe is and the trade show was, it has two subway stops dedicated…
62 market research reports study robotics industry
The number of research reports studying the robotics industry is growing exponentially. To date in 2016 there have been 109 on subjects ranging from overly broad to very drilled-down views of the industry. Prices range from $800 to $6,500. Below are short profiles of 62 of those reports; the other 47 can be seen here. Many of the…
Drone Wars
Research into unmanned aircraft has been going on for some time. Called UAVs for Unmanned Airborne Vehicles, systems of various types have been under development since the 1908’s. The 1982 war between Syria and Israel was heavily impacted by Israel’s use of UAVs to sustain a major military advantage over Syrian armed forces. As with […]
New industrial 8-port gigabit managed switches
Antaira Technologies is proud to announce its expansion in the industrial networking infrastructure family with the LMX-0804G-SFP series. Antaira’s new industrial gigabit managed Ethernet switch line (LMX-0804G-SFP series) has been designed to fulfill applications in harsh or outdoor environments. Some applications where the LMX-0804G-SFP switch works well includes: power/utility, solar grids, windmills, mining infrastructures, factory/process […]
Energy Cost in Mechatronics
The field of mechatronics exists as a complex collection of engineering disciplines that has boundary conditions which are set by the mechanical load or work that is required. Everything you need to know about the final solution is a result of properly understanding the work that is required and investigating all the related issues that […]
Control
Control technology, like the computer technology that it comes from, is becoming more and more physically transparent. How it is deployed for use is more a function of it’s packaging than of the technology itself. 60 Years ago, early computing hardware required it’s own building, air conditioning, programming and maintenance crew. Today, electronics for control […]
Two profitable uses for robots
Industrial robots keep humming along, doing the dull, dirty and dangerous work of factories around the world. Newer applications are less often known but are quickly emerging. Here are two novel ones. ECOPPIA Ecoppia, a 2013 Israeli startup, is providing a robotic solar panel cleaning system to power companies with solar farms in the desert.…
Energy & Storage
Energy continues to make the news this week as the barrel price for crude oil goes up and gasoline prices at the pump increase. Electricity, which has increased in cost substantially, will continue to become more expensive because of political choices about our sources of generated power. Write your State congressman if you don’t like […]