By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report To be able to choose between proprietary software packages is to be able to choose your master. Freedom means not having a master. Freedom means not using proprietary software. – Richard Stallman, open systems advocate Certainly robotics has its share of proprietary software and control systems. Each robot…
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…
The Beginning of Something Important: InTouch Health and iRobot’s RP-VITA
By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report Last week I attended the 7th Annual Remote Presence Clinical Innovations Forum hosted by InTouch Health in Santa Barbara, CA, a two-day users conference disseminating the latest information regarding a wide range of telemedicine-related topics through presentations and workshops. The keynote address, by Yulun Wang, Chairman and CEO of…
iRobot and Willow Garage Debate Closed vs. Open Source Robotics at Cocktail Party
A version of this post originally appeared on Automaton, IEEE Spectrum’s robotics blog. By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report What’s the best approach to building commercially successful robotics companies? Here are two arguments from two prominent people in the robotics industry: Identify a need that can be filled with a robotic solution in a large…