Whether it Microsoft expanding its ROS capabilities, the growing role of cobots in healthcare, or examining how autonomy solutions providers are key to future of mobile robotics, there was no shortage of robotics stories to be thankful for in November 2019.
Here are the Top 10 most popular robotics stories on The Robot Report in November. Subscribe to The Robot Report‘s weekly newsletter to stay updated on the robotics stories you need to know about.
10. Robotics investments recap October 2019
The Robot Report tracked about $1.3 billion in robotics transactions in October 2019. About half of the investments, or $532 million, were around autonomous vehicles, followed by healthcare, logistics, and agricultural robotics. Zoox Inc.’s $200 million funding toward a Series C round for its robotic taxis was the largest transportation transaction reported last month. Read Full story
9. China’s robotics market: A look ahead to 2020
Trade tensions and a global economic slowdown have affected demand in the Chinese robotics market. However, interest in supply chain automation and political support of domestic innovation could encourage growth in 2020. We spoke with Georg Stieler, managing director for Asia at international consulting firm STM Stieler, about the state of the robotics market in China. Read Full story
8. Cobots in healthcare: Q&A with KUKA’s Corey Ryan
Corey Ryan, Manager of Medical Robotics at KUKA, is keynoting the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, which takes place Dec. 9-10 in Santa Clara. Ryan’s keynote will describe how cobots are currently being used to support healthcare applications. He will also compare and contrast different methods for adopting collaborative robots, and highlight selection criteria. Read Full story
7. Amazon Robotics opening Massachusetts innovation hub in 2021
Amazon.com announced plans to build an Amazon Robotics innovation hub and create 200 technology and advanced manufacturing jobs in Westborough, Mass. The company said it will invest more than $40 million in the new site, which will open in 2021, as it grows its engineering, manufacturing, support, and test teams in the state, which is already home to more than 150 robotics companies. Read Full story
6. Whiz cleaning robot launches in North America
The Whiz commercial cleaning robot, which has been available for a few months in Asia, is now available in North America. SoftBank Robotics America and ICE Robotics launched it at the ISSA Show North America. It uses Brain Corp.‘s BrainOS navigation software, and staffers can teach it up to 600 cleaning routes. Read Full story
5. Hease Robotics shuts down after fire destroys business
Hease Robotics, the French developer of the Heasy robot, shut down on November 7. Co-founder Jade Le Maitre said its “offices, production facilities and stockpiles” were destroyed in a fire at Bel-Air Camp on October 8. The damages caused by the fire were estimated at more than one million euros ($1.1 million), “plunging [Hease Robotics] immediately into a state of insolvency.” Read Full story
4. Autonomy solution providers key to future of mobile robotics
For the past thirty years, the robotics industry has been defined by a large number of providers building similar products with proprietary operating systems, controllers, and software to perform largely similar tasks. However, the value is now shifting to the middleware and software that can power robots and develop their value-added services. Read Full story
3. AMP Robotics raises $16M for recycling robots
AMP Robotics’ high-speed Cortex system is designed to precisely automate the identification, sorting, and processing of material streams to extract maximum value for businesses that recycle municipal solid waste, e-waste, and construction and demolition materials. The company said its robots consistently pick twice as fast as humans and with much greater accuracy. Read Full story
2. 6 ways robotics can help close manufacturing’s talent gap
As of August 2018, the U.S. had 508,000 jobs available in manufacturing. However, this opportunity will soon start looking more like a potential crisis for employers. The report predicts 4.6 million jobs — a mix of new positions and exiting retirees — to fill between 2018 and 2028, with only 2.2 million of them “likely” to be successfully filled. The following is a look at six ways robots are picking up the slack. Read Full story
1. Microsoft expands ROS capabilities
Microsoft Windows 10 has officially supported ROS since May 2019. Microsoft has since expanded its ROS/ROS2 support with new robotics development tools announced at ROSCon in Macau. The new tools include a Visual Studio Code extension for ROS, Azure VM ROS template support for testing and simulation, an Azure Kinect ROS Driver, and more. Read Full story
Which of these robotics stories will you remember most? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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