Logistics

RBR50 company Nuro, which is developing autonomous delivery vehicles, added new investors to its $500 million Series C funding round that it announced in November 2020. Joining the round are Woven Capital and Chipotle Mexican Grill. This is the first investment for Woven Capital, which was established in January 2021 as the investment arm of…

Many parcel delivery drones of the future are expected to handle packages weighing five pounds or less, a restriction that would allow small, standardized UAVs to handle a large percentage of the deliveries now done by ground vehicles. But will that relegate heavier packages to slower delivery by conventional trucks and vans? A research team…

As the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred warehouse and logistics operators all over the world to implement social distancing policies, the work-from-home trend is spreading to an unlikely occupation – material handlers. Phantom Auto, a provider of interoperable remote operation software, is enabling humans sitting up to thousands of miles away to remotely operate unmanned forklifts,…

The mobile manipulator is available in two configurations: one that has to be manually moved around with a pallet jack and one that can autonomously navigate around a facility.

Nimble Robotics, Inc., a robotics and e-commerce fulfillment technology company, announced a $50 million Series A financing round led by DNS Capital and GSR Ventures with participation from Accel and Reinvent Capital among others. The company plans to accelerate hiring, product and technology development, and continue the scaling of robot deployments for its customer’s fulfillment…

The market has never been friendlier for autonomous delivery robots. The COVID-19 pandemic made pick-up, dine out and food delivery a viable option for many consumers who might not have considered these options during normal times.

Goods-to-Person (G2P) autonomous mobile robot (AMR) provider GreyOrange announces a new autonomous vertical bin picking solution together with robotics integrator Vicarious. The solution leverages a collaborative robot (cobot) arm and AI-driven vision guidance to locate and acquire items out of vertical bins contained on a mobile storage unit (MSU). Vicarious has raised more than $122M…

Berkshire Grey, a developer of integrated artificial intelligence and robotic solutions for e-commerce, retail replenishment, and logistics, is going public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Revolution Acceleration Acquisition Corp (RAAC). The deal values the combined company at $2.7 billion. Berkshire Grey said it will have approximately $507 million in cash when…

Locus Robotics, an RBR50 company and developer of autonomous mobile robots, closed a $150 million Series E round of funding today. The round was led by Tiger Global Management and BOND, and included support from existing investors. With a new $1 billion valuation, Locus becomes a unicorn company. There are several autonomous vehicle unicorns, but…

Plus, a developer of autonomous truck technology, raised $200 million in funding. The round was led by new investors Guotai Junan International, CPE, and Wanxiang International Investment. Existing investors also participated. Plus told The Robot Report it has now raised about $400 million since it was founded in 2016. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company just raised…

Uisee Technology, a Beijing-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $154 million in funding from the Chinese government-backed Guokai National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrade Fund. Uisee said the funding will be used to accelerate the development of its full-stack autonomous driving technology. Founded in 2016, Uisee’s autonomy stack helps create L4 autonomous vehicles for a variety…

Yaskawa is tapping Realtime Robotics’ motion planning technology to improve a variety of materials handling and fulfillment applications, including piece picking and mixed case palletizing. Yaskawa said using Realtime’s technology enables its robot cells to be deployed and used more efficiently. The first of these mixed pallet robot cells will soon start being installed at…

Wingcopter, a German developer of commercial drones founded in 2017, raised $22 million in Series A funding. Wingcopter will use the funding to scale its presence in the drone delivery space, with a special focus on healthcare-related applications. The Wingcopter 178 Heavy Lift drone can cover distances up to 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) and offers…

With this acquisition, Leadec expands its portfolio into parcel automation and strengthens its existing operations in North America.

As one of the busiest parts of a hospital, the pharmacy has, over the years, relied on technology to streamline its operations. From electronic tablet counters to completely computerized stocking and labeling solutions, technology has had a transformative impact on pharmacies across the world. Challenge Still, factors weighing on the efficiency of drug dispensing are…

Mobile robots for materials handling is already a crowded space. Now another company is set to enter the U.S. market. Scallog, a French developer of goods-to-person robots, signed an integration agreement with Bastian Solutions, a well-known materials handling expert owned by Toyota Industries. Founded in 2013, Scallog’s Boby automated guided vehicles (AGVs) pick up and…

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has dominated 2020, affecting daily lives and every industry around the world. Early in the year, it aggravated a manufacturing slowdown that was the result of both expected economic cycles and trade tensions between China and the U.S. At the same time, COVID-19 has accelerated demand for robotics in supply chain and…

The CEO of an autonomous delivery company looks at trends for the coming year and predicts increasing technology adoption and company consolidation.

In 2020, autonomous vehicles left other technology applications in the dust. Other areas of robotics receiving funding or merger and acquisition activity included supply chain automation, surgical robots, and quadrupeds.

In this Q&A, Vincent Guo from Siemens Digital Industries Software discusses how digital twins, augmented reality, and virtual reality can help production environments with productivity and social distancing.

The autonomous mobile robot (AMR) segment is expected to reach $6.8 billion by 2025, according to Frost & Sullivan. In a sign of that growth to come, AutoGuide Mobile Robots today opened an office in Munich. The German office will handle sales, service and support, deployment and training throughout greater Europe. This is the first…

Vecna Robotics said its new Autonomous Counterbalanced Fork Truck adds pallet-handling capabilities to its portfolio and can work with other warehouse automation.