JAZZ Venture Partners led the $22 million Series A funding round for Robust.AI which is planning to expand platform development and early partnerships.

Rodney Brooks, who has been a robotics innovator at MIT and several startups, including iRobot and Robust.AI, will share his perspective on three trends he says are shaping the future of robotics.

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…

By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report A sad day at Rethink Robotics. 21 jobs have been cut in Rethink’s first layoff. Although Rethink Robotics is downsizing, their action is not indicative of the robotics industry which is booming and hiring. The Boston Globe reported that Rethink Robotics, maker of the $22,000 Baxter…

By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Low-cost robots are marching into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Much has been said about the need to augment the skills and increase the productivity of small factory workers by using robotic assistants called co-robots. Europe funded an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) public-private consortium to…

Henrik Christensen, the KUKA Chair of Robotics at GA Tech and Chairman of the Roadmap project, Rodney Brooks, CEO of Rethink Robotics, Pete Wurman, CTO of Kiva Systems, and Russ Angold, CTO of Ekso Bionics all presented the new Roadmap to a packed gallery of the Robotics Caucus of the US Congress. From left: Pete Wurman,…

by Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report CBS News Reporter Steve Kroft interviews Rodney Brooks at ReThink Robotics.Click on the image above to see the segment. UPDATE March 6: Many reacted to the 60 Minutes segment as it related to the subject of whether robotics takes away or adds jobs. Abstracts and links…

By Frank Tobe, editor/publisher, The Robot Report Yesterday was the launch of Rethink Robotics’ Baxter shop assistant robot. Many reporters, including myself, saw Baxter at Rethink’s headquarters in Boston in the past two months but were embargoed from writing about it until today, the launch date. Looking at the stories – as they appear all…

Manufacturing is not merely about giving people jobs. The next generation of technological innovations is intimately tied to production processes. (MIT Technology Review) This new partnership will make sure that tomorrow’s breakthroughs are America’s breakthroughs. (President Obama at CMU) With much fanfare, and a trip to the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, President Obama launched a…