Silicon Valley and the whole San Francisco Bay area have such an abundant talent pool that global companies and startups alike are setting up research labs and offices there to secure engineering and programming expertise.

The diversity of the talent pool can be seen in the goals and job descriptions of companies doing research there.

For example, Ford is opening a new 25,000 sq ft Research and Innovation Center to accelerate its development of technologies and experiments in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data.

• Some of the labs planned communication projects include in-car, car-to-car, car-to-home and remote parking.
• For autonomous vehicles, Ford is providing Stanford with vehicles equipped with aDRIVE (Autonomous Driving Refined in Virtual Environments) to test algorithms such as traffic sign recognition in dynamic driving situations and preparation for on-road testing.
• Human-machine smartphone, tablet and in-car interfaces will be tested for natural language speech recognition tasks. Also, developing seats which adapt to the backs of it’s drivers (which is the same kind of actuation and molding that robotic grippers are doing but in a different scenario).
• To analyze how customers are using their vehicles, Ford plans to use big data analytics to detect patterns that can lead to product improvements or new mobility services.

Ford plans to have one of the largest automotive research teams in Silicon Valley by the end of 2015 with 125 researchers, engineers and scientists in their new Palo Alto facility.

“At Ford, we view ourselves as both a mobility and an auto company, as we drive innovation in every part of our business,” said Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company president and CEO. “This new research center shows Ford’s commitment to be part of the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem – anticipating customers’ wants and needs, especially on connectivity, mobility and autonomous vehicles. We are working to make these new technologies accessible to everyone, not just luxury customers.”

Ford isn’t the only auto company competing for talent in the area: Honda has both a research lab and a developer studio for writing apps that can work in cars; Mercedes-Benz has a research lab as does BMW, Audi, GM and Nissan-Renault.

Also present in SV and the Bay Area, are Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies. Bosch is a good example. They have a facility focused on robotics, AI and autonomous driving, and are attempting to hire engineers and interns for all three teams.

With the commercial use of drones to increase in the coming years, we wanted to take a look at where we are today and take a quick look at what is just around the corner.

As of December 2014, there are 442 operators approved for ‘aerial work’ in the UK. These companies and organisations have gone through the pilot training necessary before becoming certified for ‘aerial work’ by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). It’s a rigorous process where pilots are required to understand the essentials of operating in airspace, prove their skills as a drone pilot and follow the operational process outlined by the CAA. Once approved, a license is valid for one year and can be extended each year. Assessments are also necessary for each drone in operation. The main training grounds for drones in the UK are Resource Group and EuroUSC.

Below is a map of just 303 of the 442 operator locations currently with approval for aerial work (we don’t have locations on all operators for various reasons). These operators carry out a range of services to cater to the needs of companies both nationally and internationally. We don’t think it will be too long before this map is dense with commercial operators given the value drones can offer and the rate pilots are seeking their permissions.

Operations are restricted to ‘line of sight’ without an extended permission and most operations are limited to 400ft (which is just under 122 meters) in height. To give you a guide of how high that is, St Paul’ Cathedral is 111 meters and the London Eye is 135 meters – so the lower end of some of the tallest buildings in London. There isn’t much reason to go above this height unless the drone needs to cover a long range for instance. For operational purposes 400ft is mostly sufficient.

True integration into airspace won’t be possible until drones are equipped with sense-and-avoid capabilities. There are a number of technology startups tackling this problem and the latest to announce their existence is Skydio. They have just come out of stealth mode and raised $3M in venture capital. These systems require onboard sensors to acquire an accurate representation of their surroundings at all times and in all circumstances. Kind of like what we’re seeing today with the development of autonomous cars on our roads.

Saftey is the number one consideration for the industry. There won’t be a commercial drone industry unless we are able to operate to the same safety levels of what we expect from commercial airliner operators. But with everything that is going on in the industry (far too much to consolidate into this one blog post), it’s clear to see where it’s going. To summarise:

• We’ve got a bustling commercial drone sector here in the UK, already catering to the needs of companies in many different verticals.
• We have the framework and guidance from a fantastic civil aviation authority – renowned as a world leader.
• We have well funded technology startups taking on some of the biggest technological challenges the industry faces.

It looks more than likely that there will be upwards of 600 commercial operators in the UK by the end of 2015. The CAA have developed a safe framework for the commercial drone industry to grow. With some fantastic technology advancements in the pipeline, it looks likely that drones will rapidly increase in reliability and versatility.

Rethink Robotics, Xenix, Rapyuta, Perceptron, Skydio, Sarcos and JIBO have all announced substantial fundings for a wide range of robotic ventures. Plus there are some new funders joining the fray.

Andreessen Horowitz lead a $3M financing of Skydio, a Silicon Valley startup developing collision avoidance AI systems for drones.

Texas-based XENIX, the germ zapping mobile robot that received a lot of publicity amidst the Ebola news, got $25 million to scale up manufacturing to meet sales demand. A recent Forbes story suggested many additional uses for the disinfection system once it fulfills its hospital orders.

Rapyuta Robotics, a Tokyo startup, raised $3 million to build cloud-connected low-cost multi-robotic systems for indoor and outdoor security applications.

Perceptron, a Michigan vision systems integrator, acquired two small European companies for $15.9 million:

• Coord3, an Italy-based coordinate measuring machine (CMM) designer and manufacturer
• And Next Metrology, a Czech Republic CMM software developer

JIBO, the Cambridge-based IndieGoGo social robot phenom that got 4,800 pre-orders and $2.3 million in crowd funding, received a $26.6 Series A equity boost to help them scale up to produce those 4,800, and hopefully many thousand more, JIBOs. Some of the money will be used to provide developers with SDK kits to help jump start JIBO with hundreds of independent apps.

Perhaps the biggest transaction of the month – but the information is presently not available – is the buyback of Sarcos from Raytheon. Salt Lake City-based Sarcos is the company made famous for their development of the colorful XOS-2 military exoskeleton and was then acquired by Raytheon in 2007. In addition to government contracts, Sarcos has also been involved in entertainment robotics such as the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas and the Jurrassic Park ride in Orlando, Florida.

Boston-based Rethink Robotics, of two-armed Baxter robot fame, got a just-in-time Christmas gift (announced in January) of a $26.6 million Series D equity round to sustain the company until it becomes funded through revenues.

Horizon 2020, the commission used to stimulated robotics-related development in the EU, announced their co-funding of 17 robotics-related projects totalling $87 million. Click here to review details of those 17 investments.

Finally, the small group of venture capital companies focusing on robotics and AI, Robolution, Grishin, Andreesen Horowitz, Lux Capital, Drone.VC, Bosch, Bezos, Google and Lemnos Labs, will be joined by two new ones:

• iRobot has sent up what is expected to be a $25 million fund and has already made its first investment into Paracosm, a Gainsville, FL 3D mapping software and systems developer.
• The Strategic Robotics Fund, in Charlottesville, VA, will come online sometime in the 2nd quarter.

KMel Robotics has been acquired by Qualcomm Technologies, a global tech company based in San Diego. KMel’s founders, two University of Pennsylvania graduates, announced the news on their company’s website.

Last month, local tech blogger Technical.ly reported that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was looking for a “tiny, speedy drone,” and that it had its eyes on KMel.

Read more on Philadelphia Business Journal.

A flurry of pay-for robotic research analyses are being offered by a variety of vendors. Ten are robotics-related - most show steady growth rates - a few project spectacular growth.

TechNavio, a British technology research company, was the company with the most reports - four, each of which costs $2,500:

• The Global Exoskeleton System Market, a 56-page report, forecasts the global exoskeleton market, in three markets (military, factory and rehab/healthcare), to grow at a 72.5% CAGR from 2014 through 2019. Key companies reviewed in the report include Cyberdyne, Ekso Bionics, ReWalk Robotics, Rex Bionics, Hocoma, Honda, Interactive Motion Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Sarcos.
• The Global Pharmacy Automation Market, an 84-page report, forecasts the global pharmacy automation market to grow at a steady 7% CAGR from 2014 through 2019. Central-fill systems, telehealth, robotic prescription dispensing systems and automated kiosks are expected to drive market growth during the forecast periodKey companies reviewed include CareFusion, McKesson, Parata Systems, ScriptPro, ForHealth Technologies, Health Robotics, Omnicell and Yuyama.
• The US Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market, a 101-page report, forecasts the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US to grow at a 6.43% CAGR over the period 2014 to 2019. Key vendors selling in the US include iRobot, LG Electronics, Monaural, Neato Robotics and Samsung. Global vendors that plan to begin sales in the US include Bosch, Dyson, ECOVACS, Miele, Panasonic and Philips.
• The Global Mobile Robotics Market, a 90-page report, forecasts the mobile robotics market to grow at a 12.63% CAGR over the period 2014 to 2019. Apart from the Aerospace and Defense industries, these robots are beginning to be used in industries such as Automotive, Warehouse, Healthcare, Energy, and Agriculture and Mining. Key providers analyzed in the report includes: Adept, Honda, iRobot, KUKA, Aethon, John Deere, Seegrid and also GeckoSystems, Bluefin and Bossa Nova Robotics.

Strategic Defence Intelligence, also a British company, produced The Global UAV Market 2015-2025, a 218-page report selling for $4,800. Focused on the hi-ticket defense and security industries this report doesn't reflect the growing civilian use of UAS. The report projects the global UAV market to grow at a 5.66% CAGR from 2014 to 2025 with North America and Europe the largest markets and the military drone segment (UCAV - unmanned combat aerial vehicle) to dominate the UAV market. Companies mentioned include AAI Corp, AeroVironment, BAE Systems, BlueBird Aero, Boeing/Cassidian Dassault Aviation, Elbit Systems, General Atomics, Northrop Grumman, Saab, and the Israeli and Korean aerospace agencies.

Frost & Sullivan, a UK company, has produced a report that analyzes the US DoD subset of the global UAV market in their 111-page $7,000 US DoD Unmanned Aerial System Market report. The Department of Defense (DoD) unmanned aerial systems market is transitioning from new systems to providing support and upgrades for existing systems consequently there is a diminishing market with intense competition between vendors. The report shows the various segments, constraints and challenges to get limited contracts and funding for the period 2014-2019.

IndustryARC, an Indian firm, is offering Global Warehouse Robotics Market 2015-2020, a $4,250 180-page report, includes robots used for palletizing, replenishment, assembling, disassembling, consolidation, sortation, packaging, labeling, inspection, storage etc. and includes vendors that provide robotic arms, gantry robots, picking carousels, Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV), robotic forklifts, and palletizers. The report projects a steady growth rate of 11.3% CAGR between 2014 and 2020. Vendors include ABB, Siemens, Kuka, Fanuc, ATS, Adept, Gudel, Kawasaki, Nahi Fujikoshi, Rockwell, Schunk Toshiba, Kiva and Yamaha.

Occam Research, another Indian firm, has the Global Medical Robotics Market by Application and Segment for 2014-2020, a 100-page $5,500 report, which provides analysis by segment: surgical robot, rehab robot, telemedicine, assistive robots, orthotics, prosthetics, radio surgery and exoskeletons. Vendors profiled in the report include: Intuitive Surgical, Accuray, MAKO, Mazor, Hansen, Titan Medical, Health Robotics, Agilent, Siemens and Carefusion.

Wintergreen Research, a Boston-based analysis and forecasting company, has also authored a UAV report but this 973-page report is entitled "Commercial Drones: Highways in the Sky, UAS, Market Shares, Strategies and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2015 to 2021" (whew!) and sells for $3,900. Wintergreen projects growth at 34.3% CAGR over the period from 2014 to 2021. Vendors analyzed in the report incude: AeroVironment, Boeing, Draganflyer, Lockheed, Northrop, Textron, Aurora, BAE, Google, Parrot, Schiebel and Textron.

According to Susan Eustis, leader of the team that prepared the study, “Police departments, the oil and gas industry, border patrol, and utilities are all using commercial drones. Units are used for agriculture.  Vendors continue to improve the capabilities of these drone aircraft.Their ability to support the commercial endeavors is increasing. Unmanned aircraft have fundamentally changed the accuracy of utility and oil and gas inspections. They are set to fundamentally change how agriculture is conducted.”

And finally, QY Research, a Beijing-based firm, is offering a $3,600 208-page report called Global Vision Guided Robotics Industry Report which is a study of the current state of the vision guided robotics industry. The report includes 21 profiles from vendors such as ABB, Bastian Solutions, Denso, Kuka, Siasun, Yaskawa Motoman, Kawasaki, Yaskawa and Teledyne.

Read more

New Chinese robotics investment fund; the RIA says 2014 North American robotics set new sales record; marine robotics company gets acquired. These stories and many more … 

Kmel Robotics, the Pittsburgh-based flying entertainment robot startup that became famous when they did a show using a swarm of lighted drones at the Cannes Film Festival, sold to chipmaker Qualcomm for an undisclosed amount. Qualcomm recently partnered with TechStars to set up a San Diego-based accelerator that plans to annually fund up to a dozen robotic startups.

A Sole Source Notice of DARPA contracting with KMel to provide a fleet of fast lightweight autonomous (FLA) mini drones may have forced KMel partners to seek funding and partners to scale up. We won’t know the real reason or amounts involved until Qualcomm provides that information in their quarterly SEC filing.

Harvest Automation, located just outside of Boston, is getting $2.9 million as part payment in an as-yet uncompleted funding round to start a new product branch: the OmniVeyor, a mobile device focused on e-commerce companies moving items around their warehouses. According to the Boston Business Journal, Harvest Automation has already raised $25 million for their agricultural robots and have sold over 100 of them to more than 30 farms around the U.S. with an active sales program underway to increase those numbers significantly.

Oceaneering International, the Houston-based marine engineering and services company serving the offshore oil and gas industry, is buying C & C Technologies for $280 million. In the image above, one can see all the drilling, rig and oil and gas operations going on in offshore deep waters. Lafayette, LA-based C & C provides ocean-bottom mapping and survey services using customized AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles). Oceaneering has a fleet of ROVs and AUVs and a design and manufacturing unit that makes ROVs and expects to maximize use of those ROVs in support of the mapping and survey services C & C provides. The acquisition is anticipated to be completed in early April. C & C’s sister company ASV (Autonomous Surface Vehicles) is not involved in the Oceaneering acquisition.

The Robotics Industries Association (RIA) reported that 2014 was the strongest year ever for North American robotics. Their detailed statistics will be sent to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), combined with other data, and compiled into the IFR’s annual report of industrial and service robotics.

27,685 robots valued at $1.6 billion were ordered from North American companies during 2014, an increase of 28% in units and 19% in dollars over 2013. Robot shipments also set new records, with 25,425 robots valued at $1.5 billion being shipped. Shipments grew 13% in units and 6% in dollars over the previous records set in 2013.

The automotive industry was the primary driver of growth in 2014, with robot orders increasing 45% year over year. Non-automotive industries also grew at 7% over 2013. Plastics and Rubber (25%), Semiconductor and Electronics (21%), and Metals (16%) were the prominent non-automotive industries.

According to Alex Shikany, Director of Market Analysis for RIA, the fastest growing applications for robot orders in North America in 2014 were Arc Welding (+58%), Spot Welding (+57%), Assembly (+16%), and Material Handling (+11%). RIA estimates that some 230,000 robots are now at use in United States factories, placing the US second only to Japan in robot use.

Han’s Laser Technology, a Chinese provider of laser processing equipment for marking, welding, cutting, drilling and solar, has, according to China Money Network, partnered with Guosen H&S Investment Company Limited, the private equity arm of state-owned financial service company Guosen Securities Company Limited, to establish a new $160 million fund to invest in the Chinese robot and artificial intelligence sector. Han’s Laser employs 6,200 people and plans to use the fund to improve its competitiveness in high-tech sectors such as laser systems integration, linear motors and visual identity.

Resort Savers RSSV, a Chinese companies that acquires market-ready petroleum industry technologies for installation and distribution in China, particularly technologies to clean oil storage units and recover usable oil, invested $2 million for a 20% share of Worx America, a designer of automated and robotic solutions that help improve efficiency and systems output for the energy industry. The Worx automated robotic system quickly cleans and recovers clean oil from container waste sludge, resulting in increased sales and decreased tank cleaning time giving RSSV the ability to offer proprietary solutions for onshore, offshore and subsea oil production, refining, cleaning and reclamation.

In Qualcomm’s quest to shape the future of robotics, the US-based semi-conductor juggernaut acquired KMel Robotics last week for an undisclosed sum.

Alex Kushleyev and Daniel Mellinger founded KMel Robotics in late 2011 after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. The duo have become renowned for their flying quads, attracting Lexus as a client to develop ground breaking visual displays like Amazing In Motion. It is without a doubt that the pair have become experts in the field of hardware design, high performance control and complete systems capable of autonomous operation.

Their website no longer displays the catalog of research projects they have achieved, but displays this message instead:

KMel Robotics is proud to announce its acquisition by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. on February 2, 2015.

We are extremely excited to become part of the Qualcomm team and look forward to bringing aerial robotics to the next level together.

Alex Kushleyev and Daniel Mellinger

Qualcomm already has a research lab dedicated to experimenting with their proprietary hardware and software. One of their projects, the Snapdragon Cargo, is a flying and rolling drone that has been equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The cargo also comes with it’s own integrated flight controller.

The Snapdragon Cargo houses a multi-functional computing platform that involves both hardware as well as software platforms. The low-power Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC makes use of multi-core processing, wireless communications, sensor integration, spatial positioning and real time input-output for a variety of drone applications.

Qualcomm has it’s own venture arm called Qualcomm Ventures, and together with Techstars, launched a robotics accelerator. Announced in October 2014, the idea is to fund and mentor approximately 10 companies each year to develop and accelerate the next generation of robotics and intelligent machines. So far Qualcomm has committed $1 million towards the program. We had a quick scan through some of their earlier portfolio investments and noted that Skycatch has also received funding from the venture arm.

We’re really impressed with the KMel Robotics team, and so look forward to seeing what they can achieve with the full backing of a company like Qualcomm. They will certainly have access to a lot more resource, technology and new toys. Keep those eyes peeled for the next iteration of aerial robotics coming out of a Qualcomm lab soon.

Fetch Robotics has just announced $3 million funding from Shasta Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures , which will be used to bring their new mobile manipulator robots to market in Q2 2015.Fetch Robotics is looking at the light industrial and logistics sectors, although researchers will also find the robots affordable. This comes hot on the heels of PAL’s February 4th launch of Tiago, also a mobile manipulator. And it seems very possible that Google will announce something similar very soon. After all, they have now had plenty of time (and experts) to finish what Redwood Robotics had started.

The innovator’s dilemma is at work here. The companies producing new mobile manipulators are not the big names in robotics. Companies like ABB, Kuka, Fanuc, etc. cannot really afford to produce a new style of robot that might damage their brand if it doesn’t perform to the same high standards. For example, ABB has been working on a collaborative manipulator for at least four years but in spite of unveiling the concept robot in 2011, ABB is only officially releasing YuMi for market on April 13 2015. This creates opportunity for faster-moving small companies. It looks like the technological conditions are ripe for the development of affordable mobile manipulators. Now, we’ll all get to see if the market is also ready.

Who’s who in the new light industrial manipulator sector?

These new robots are like the affordable compliant offspring of a PR2 and Motoman’s SDA series robots. Only these robots are safe for working together with humans and won’t break the bank. We will also be seeing combinations of robots where a base from one company, ie. Fetch or Adept is used with an arm from another, ie. Kuka or Universal.

Firstly, Fetch Robotics is not Unbounded Robotics, and the robots will be different (although Melonee Wise is now the CEO of Fetch Robotics and the core robot building team is the same). Unbounded Robotics ceased operation in 2014 just prior to marketing the UBR-1 (pictured). Where the UBR-1 was like a smaller version of Willow Garage’s PR2, the new robot(s) from Fetch Robotics will have separable base and arm(s). More information will be available in Q2 2015.

PAL’s Tiago is also modular, available as a base, as a base-and-arm package, and in other configurations. Tiago has a 7DOF arm capable of lifting a 3 Kg payload and a five-finger underactuated hand. Similar to the UBR-1, Tiago has a rising torso, USB and ethernet ports, and is also ROS compliant. The various Tiago combinations will cost between 30,000 and 60,000 euros.

Baxter from Rethink Robotics is not autonomously mobile but you can add a wheeled base to your Baxter and push it around. And Baxter is definitely affordable at $25,000 USD, although the various gripper options are extra.

YuMi from ABB is another stationery dual armed collaborative robot, developed for small parts assembly, especially in the consumer electronics sector. YuMi is part of a total small parts assembly solution that includes adaptable hands, flexible parts feeders, force control sensing and vision guidance.

Nextage from Kawada has similar specifications to Baxter and YuMi (although only 6DOF in the arms), but with an additional 1DOF in the waist. Nextage has been designed to be wheeled from place to place in an assembly line and has a compact configuration.

Who knows for sure what Google is about to announce, although they have the IP and the experts to complete Redwood Robotics and Meka’s vision of an affordable lightweight compliant robot arm. They’re also well positioned to develop an autonomous mobile base.

And who knows how many other startups still in stealth will announce their light industrial/logistics manipulators this year? I’m betting that there’s at least one more.

As well as some robot arm/base combos being mix-n-match, the end effectors are also a whole other story. Perhaps 2015 will really be the year of the end effector. 

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Robot Startup Series #7: Interview with Soft Robotics’ Carl Vause

• Just launched: Fellow Robots’s OSHbot
• Amazon Picking Challenge
• Grasping objects in a way that is suitable for manipulation

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Ex-Willow Garage and Unbounded Robotics veterans get $3 million to bring mobile manipulator and mobile platform to market.

Funding came from O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Melonee Wise was named CEO. Fetch Robotics is the new name for FYS Systems. FYS stood for Fetch Your Stuff. The new name, Fetch Robotics, seems more appropriate for a materials handling logistics market line of products.

Things are moving fast at Fetch. They've announced that the first robots will be introduced in the second quarter of this year and are searching to hire up to 10 positions in addition to their present 10-member team. They will launch a research edition of the robot first and probably show it at ICRA in May in Seattle.

From comments made by CEO Wise to IEEE/Spectrum, it appears that they are making more than one product.

"One is a mobile manipulator and one is a mobile base, and they'll work together. We're targeting the logistics market, looking to do order fulfillment with robots."

No pictures are available of the platform or the robot; the software however, will utilize and be built upon ROS. 

Evan Ackerman said it best when he wrote:

There was a lot of interest in Unbounded and the UBR-1, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of interest in what Fetch is working on. It’s not often that companies get second chances like this, and I’m certain that the Unbounded core team (and the rest of the roboticists at Fetch) are looking forward to proving that they can deliver the next generation of mobile manipulators.

As advances in actuators, processors and machine vision enable robots to be mobile and do more, and do it safely alongside humans, many companies are working on and beginning to offer mobile manipulator robots. We wish Fetch well in their new venture.

Read more

A bankruptcy judge cleared the way for Seegrid to exit from Chapter 11 by okaying the reorganization plan and rejecting challenges lodged by the ex-CEO.

The reorganization plan includes a debt-for-equity swap with Giant Eagle, Seegrid's largest lender, share and stakeholder who agreed to a delayed maturation date for tens of millions of dollars in unsecured notes. Giant Eagle will now have a 40% state in Seegrid. Thus Seegrid can remain open as a viable business albeit one with a lot of debt.

"I believe the debtor has demonstrated that the plan itself is feasible," said Judge Shannon adding that the feasibility standard does not require a guarantee of future success. "One of the best ways to assess feasibility is stakeholder support, and Giant Eagle and virtually all other creditors except the [group headed by the ex-CEO] voted in favor of the plan."

Seegrid filed for bankruptcy protection October 21, 2014. The judgement approving the reorganization plan was on January 20, 2015.

Seegrid's new website clearly shows the refocusing of effort to vision systems and by selling partner-produced pallet trucks and tow tractors - VGVs (vision-guided vehicles) - integrated with Seegrid's vision systems and fleet management software. Seegrid's VGVs navigate without wires, lasers, magnets or tape and their business focuses on partnering with tug, tow and lift manufacturers thereby enabling Seegrid to daisy-chain their vision systems onto their partner's manufacturing and marketing efforts to sell their lifts and tugs.

Read more

Softbank announced a delay in sales of their Pepper robot to the public from February until sometime during the summer. They have begun selling to developers however.

According to Tech-In-Asia, an Indonesian-based tech portal for all of Asia, Softbank received far more pre-orders from developers than expected and consequently wants to focus on meeting those developers needs so that by the summer there will be many more applications for Pepper. Pepper is also scheduled to go on sale at Sprint stores in the US this summer at a price to be announced. In Japan, the selling price is 198,000 yen which converts to $1,670.

Perhaps the delay also involves the recently announced collaboration between Softbank and  IBM's cognitive computer system called Watson. SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son speaking at his company's fiscal year 2014 earnings report briefing in Tokyo, said:

“[Regarding the] collaborative project with Watson and Pepper, we have started discussions with IBM, actually we have started testing. Watson and Pepper will make an interesting combination. AI will be enhanced further by combining the advanced technologies of [both].”

The Associated Press reported that SoftBank announced that it will incorporate artificial intelligence technology from IBM into its empathetic robot Pepper.

The AI engine "Watson" is already used in health care, travel and insurance services in English, but an adaptation was needed to make it work and think in Japanese, said Steve Gold, Vice President, IBM Watson Group. Unlike other cognitive technology that responds rather mechanically, Watson can learn over time like a human brain, and understands the concept of probability, which makes it sophisticated and more human-like for applications such as Pepper, according to IBM.

Pepper goes on sale in Japan this month but only to software developers who have reserved a robot, according to Softbank. Consumers won't be able to get a robot until sometime between June and August. Details of the sales plan were still undecided, and an announcement will be made later, Son said.

Read more

Farewell and thank you to Bruno Maisonnier, the founder and CEO of Aldebaran Robotics, which is now 95% owned by Softbank. Softbank had previously acquired a majority stake in the ground breaking French robotics company which created the humanoid NAO. Together Aldebaran and Softbank Robotics developed Pepper, the ‘world’s first robot that reads emotions’. Pepper is on display in Softbank and Nestle stores in Japan and there are somewhat delayed plans for Pepper’s sale in the US later in 2015.

Fumihide Tomizawa will become the new Aldebaran CEO effective March 4th. Tomizawa is also President of  Softbank Robotics Corp, with a background in global sales and business development. Tomizawa believes that the strengthened collaboration between the two groups will ‘drive Aldebaran’s growth globally’.

Maisonnier has agreed to sell his remaining shares in Aldebaran, step down as CEO and will become a Special Advisor to Masayoshi Son, the President of Softbank Corp. In a press release from Aldebaran, February 23rd, Maisonnier says that he wants to step back from the day to day operations of growing a robotics company and reflect on the changes that have occurred in the world, analyzing and integrating them back into the world of robotics.

“Fundamental things happened in the world, political, human and technological ones, that need to be analyzed deeply and integrated into the founding bricks of the future robotics area. I need time to think, I have books to write, and people to meet around the world.”

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Pepper delayed until summer
• The second wave of social robots is here
• Nestlé 1st big buyer of Softbank’s Pepper robot
• On Pepper, Aldebaran and emotional robotics: Interview with Bruno Maisonnier
• Natural language: The de-facto interface convention for social robotics

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The $50 million Series C funding, mainly from Qualcomm, provides the basis for a tacit partnership between Qualcomm and 3D Robotics with a goal of leveraging the pace of innovation in the smartphone industry and extending it to the world of 3DR.

The company plans to use the funding to expand their software and hardware products and intends to work with Qualcomm to further utilize that company’s Snapdragon processors, a platform designed for use with tablets and smartphones.

Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon processors, including sensors, wireless and computer vision, are considered to be ideal for developing advanced applications and driving increased performance for 3DR drones.

“By working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., we can bring advanced computing to the skies at an increasing pace,” said Chris Anderson, CEO of 3DR. “Such multi-gigahertz Linux-based onboard computing platforms, combined with state-of-the-art cameras and other sensors and wireless technologies, will allow us to create next-gen drones that are smarter, easier and safer than ever before.”

The recent FAA-suggested regulations of the airspace, and the opening up of that space to commercial ventures, will expand 3DRs role in that emerging set of industries. With Qualcomm as a significant investor, 3DR becomes privy to smartphone technology and sensors that can help 3DR speed up research and development for the drone world.

BCG research predicts that by 2025, adoption of advanced robots will boost productivity by up to 30 percent in many industries, and lower total labor costs by 18 percent or more in countries such as South Korea, China, the U.S., Japan, and Germany.

The use of advanced industrial robots is nearing the point of takeoff, a development that could power a new wave of productivity growth in many industries and lead to changes of up to 5 percentage points in the cost competitiveness of major export economies relative to the U.S., according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The BCG study projects that investment in industrial robots will accelerate markedly over the next decade, from annual growth that now averages 2 to 3 percent to around 10 percent. As a result, the total cost of manufacturing labor in 2025 could be 16 percent lower, on average, in the world’s 25 largest goods-exporting nations than they would be otherwise. Depending on the industry and country, output per worker could rise by an estimated 10 to 30 percent over and above productivity gains that typically come from other measures.

The biggest gains in labor savings will occur in nations that are at the forefront of deploying industrial robots, such as South Korea, China, the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Manufacturing labor costs in 2025, when adjusted for normal inflationary increases and net of other productivity measures, are projected to be 18 to 33 percent lower in these economies when advanced robots are factored in. In China, one of the world’s largest markets for robots, greater use of automation could compensate for a significant part of the loss in cost competitiveness that is expected to result from rapidly rising factory wages and the growing challenge of finding manufacturing workers. Economies where robotics investment is projected to lag—and where low productivity growth is already a problem—are likely to see their manufacturing competitiveness deteriorate further over the next decade. Such nations include France, Italy, Belgium, and Brazil.

“As labor costs rise around the world, it is becoming increasingly critical that manufacturers rapidly take steps to improve their output per worker to stay competitive,” said Harold L. Sirkin, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the firm’s series on the shifting economics of global manufacturing, introduced in 2011. “Companies are finding that advances in robotics and other manufacturing technologies offer some of the best opportunities to sharply improve productivity.”

The robotics study is part of ongoing research by BCG on the impact of advanced-manufacturing technologies, which also include additive manufacturing (known as 3-D printing), digital manufacturing, and the industrial Internet. In a recent survey of U.S.-based manufacturing executives at companies with sales of least $1 billion, 72 percent of respondents said that their companies will invest in additional automation or other advanced-manufacturing technologies in the next five years.

Although industrial robots have been used in factories for decades, robots currently perform only around 10 percent of manufacturing tasks, on average. By 2025, BCG estimates, the portion of tasks performed by robots will near 25 percent for all manufacturing industries worldwide.

A confluence of forces is likely to power the robotics takeoff in many industries in the near term. One is declining cost. For example, the cost of an advanced robotic spot welder has plunged 27 percent, from an average of $182,000 in 2005 to $133,000 in 2014—and the price is forecast to drop by a further 22 percent by 2025. At the same time, the performance of robotics systems (their speed and flexibility, among other attributes) is likely to continue improving by around 5 percent each year. The combination of price and performance improvements will greatly accelerate the time it takes for robots to become more cost effective than labor in many industries.

Advances in vision sensors, gripping systems, and information technology are driving this improvement in price and performance, making robots smarter, highly networked, and immensely more useful in a wider range of applications.

“For many manufacturers, the biggest reasons for not replacing workers with robots have been pure economics and technical limitations,” said Michael Zinser, a BCG partner who coleads the firm’s Manufacturing practice. “But the price and performance of automation are improving rapidly. Within five to ten years, the business case for robots in most industries will be compelling, even for many small and midsized manufacturers.”

As robots become more affordable and easier to program, smaller manufacturers will use them on a wider scale. This will greatly expand the market for robots and integrate them more deeply into industrial supply chains.

The inflection point for widespread robotics adoption will vary by industry and country, depending on factors such as wages, productivity, labor regulations, and the ease with which tasks can be automated. BCG estimates that manufacturers will begin to ramp up investment in robotics when the costs of owning and operating a system reach a 15 percent discount over the cost of employing a worker. In industries such as automotive manufacturing in the U.S., where it costs around $8 an hour to use a robot for spot welding compared with $25 for a worker, that point has already arrived—and the cost gap will widen considerably in favor of robots. Similarly, in U.S. electronics manufacturing, it costs around $4 an hour to use a UR5 robot for a routine assembly task compared with $24 for an average worker.

Manufacturers in some countries are currently installing robots much faster than in others. China, the U.S., Japan, Germany, and South Korea account for nearly 80 percent of robot purchases, a share that is likely to hold steady for the next decade. The competitive position of South Korea, which is the most aggressive adopter of robots given its labor costs, is expected to improve most dramatically relative to other leading export economies. Productivity-adjusted labor costs in South Korea are projected to be 33 percent lower in 2025, relative to what they would be otherwise, owing to advanced robotics—double the average cost reduction estimated across all 25 leading export nations. In Japan, Canada, the U.S., Taiwan, the UK, and Germany, the savings could amount to at least 20 percent based on expected investment and industry mix.

A number of countries, however, have been relatively slow to adopt robots. Some slow adopters, such as Mexico and India, are unlikely to lose much competitive ground, because their costs are forecast to remain low for the next decade. But there are also a number of high-cost economies that are lagging in robot use, largely because of inflexible labor laws that make it difficult to replace workers through automation. What’s more, several of these economies—such as Belgium, France, Italy, and Brazil—have already seen their competitiveness erode over the past decade relative to other export economies owing to rising costs and low productivity growth.

“It’s ironic that in some countries where economic logic suggests that manufacturers should urgently convert to automation, they have instead been among the slowest to do so,” noted Justin Rose, a BCG partner and coauthor, along with Sirkin and Zinser, of The U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance: How Shifting Global Economics Are Creating an American Comeback (Knowledge@Wharton, 2012). The BCG projections indicate that these economies are likely to see their cost competitiveness decline even further if nothing is done to address this trend.

Adoption will also vary by industry. The transportation equipment, computers and electronics, electrical equipment, and machinery industries are expected to account for around 75 percent of advanced robotics installations through 2025. By that time, robots should be able to handle 40 to 45 percent of manufacturing tasks in these industries. Adoption will be slower in industries such as food products, plastics, fabricated metal, and wood products, where many tasks will remain difficult to automate and wages are relatively low. Thanks to technological advances, however, robots are making greater inroads in these industries as well.

“Regardless of whether it’s time to invest in next-generation robots, manufacturers everywhere should start preparing,” added Sirkin. “They need to understand how costs and automation technologies are changing in their industries and what their competitors are up to. They also need to start training their workforces for new skills. The coming robotics revolution could significantly reshape the global manufacturing landscape.”

A formal BCG report containing the findings will be published later this year on the firm’s publishing portal, www.bcgperspectives.com.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Raffaello D’Andrea on the future of robotics
• ShanghAI Lectures: Alan Spreckley “Robotic Automation in Manufacturing”
• € 7M EuRoC competition opens call to ignite EU manufacturing industry
• Jobs by the numbers: Economic reports on the robotics and manufacturing industries
•  Factory-in-a-Day: FP7 invests €7.9M to make robotics affordable for SMEs

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Two robotics-related companies just got funding. Hansen Medical sold 53,846 shares to get $35M; Clearpath Robotics got $11.2M for an unusual reason.

Hansen Medical, a Silicon Valley robotic medical device company, got $35 million - at today's price - in a post IPO equity transaction where Hansen sold shares of newly issued convertible preferred stock and warrants that if exercised would enable purchasing even more shares but which can be converted into shares of Hansen Medical's common stock whenever the buyer wishes. 

Proceeds from the transaction will be used to support Hansen Medical's commercialization efforts with their newest product, the Magellan Robotic System, increase sales of the Sensei Robotic System and strengthen internal operations.

Hansen has received $116 million since 2011 - including this most recent $35M - to develop and launch their solutions using intravascular robotics technology for peripheral vascular interventions.

Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian provider of various types of mobile robots, received $11.2 million to aggressively expand its robotics portfolio for industrial material handling applications and continue its mission of building robots that improve human lives. Clearpath was the first robotics company to join the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots and vow never to make robots that autonomously decide when and where to fire weapons. 

The company plans to apply similar ethical standards as it expands from rugged outdoor robots to industrial material handling robotics.

Ever since the company began in 2009 working on low-cost robots that could clear minefields without risking human life, Clearpath Robotics has integrated proprietary technology into existing equipment spanning position tracking, maintenance, hauling or equipment control. From mine-removal to providing reliable unmanned vehicles to help researchers innovate faster, and a full product line of mobile robots, manipulators and aerial and underwater vehicles, Clearpath became profitable after just 18 months in business and this is their first funding since their initial angel seed funding of $360,000.

Their reason for this funding is to create a swarm of carrier robots that can pick and place items on shelves and other storage systems automatically, freeing up humans to focus on other logistical tasks.

"We are building robots that are essentially self-driving vehicles for the factory floor. Factories are organized chaos, and there is a huge movement to automate manufacturing operations, particularly for dull, dirty and dangerous jobs, and this fits with our mission to use technology to make life better,” said Matt Rendal, Clearpath CEO. “We envision a world where people don’t get hurt at work and where manufacturers can move operations back to North America because they don’t have to chase cheap labor.”

Read more

The first three months of 2015 are doing quite well for robotics-related companies. March fundings and acquisitions to CyPhy Works, Hansen Medical, Clearpath Robotics, DroneDeploy, JR Automation and Lacquey are detailed.

Debt and Equity Funding:

CyPhy Works received $2.5 million in debt financing from Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, according to a post in CrunchBase. Combined with $10 million in equity funding in 2010, 2011 and 2013, a name change from DroidWorks in 2009, and their original seed funding, Helen Greiner, of iRobot fame, and her tethered UAVs for search and rescue and infrastructure inspections has been winning government contracts and media attention for their two main products. Reese Schroeder, Motorola Solutions' managing director, said, “Every investment we make really starts with a strategic thesis. We think the “micro-filament tether” that they employ, which is used for both power and for communications is unique as it gives them persistence, which means that they are able to keep that drone up in the air for much longer periods of time than the free-flying devices. What that leads to is a very compelling use case. Think about things like a burning building or a disaster of some sort or a large festival or a large event in the city. This is a quick way to very quickly and cost-effectively get eyes and ears up.”

 

Hansen Medical, a robotic medical device company, got about $35 million in a post IPO equity transaction where Hansen sold shares of newly issued convertible preferred stock and warrants. Proceeds from the transaction will be used to support Hansen Medical's commercialization efforts with their newest product, the Magellan Robotic System, increase sales of the Sensei Robotic System and strengthen internal operations. Click here for more details.

 

Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian provider of various types of mobile robots, received $11.2 million to expand its robotics portfolio for material handling applications and continue its mission of building robots that improve human lives. Clearpath's reason for this funding is to create a swarm of carrier robots that can pick and place items on shelves and other storage systems automatically, freeing up humans to focus on other logistical tasks.

“We are building robots that are essentially self-driving vehicles for the factory floor. Factories are organized chaos, and there is a huge movement to automate manufacturing operations, particularly for dull, dirty and dangerous jobs, and this fits with our mission to use technology to make life better,” said Matt Rendal, Clearpath CEO. “We envision a world where people don’t get hurt at work and where manufacturers can move operations back to North America because they don’t have to chase cheap labor.”

 

DroneDeploy, a San Francisco startup, received $9 million in Series A funding adding to the $2 million in seed funding it received last September and an initial funding from AngelPad in 2013. DroneDeploy makes a cloud-based user-friendly and simplified app to control and manage drones for outdoor landscape mapping and agricultural monitoring and delivers processed data back to the user so that they can make meaningful decisions based on that data.

Acquisitions:

 

JR Automation, a Michigan-based Fanuc industrial robotics integrator, and Dane Systems, also an integrator, were sold by Huizenga Automation to NY private equity firm Crestview Partners for an undisclosed amount. JR Automation had sales of $170 million in 2014 and has over 400 employees. Crestview says the acquisition is an opportunity to augment its existing industrial portfolio as automation equipment becomes more prevalent in manufacturing operations and reaches into new industry segments. Crestview just closed a $3B investment fund focused on finding new-tech services, media, healthcare, energy and their newest interest: industrial automation. JR is the 3rd acquisition in this sector.

 

Food Technology Noord-Oost Nederland (FTNON), a food and ag industry equipment manufacturer, acquired a 51% majority share in TU Delft spinoff Lacquey BV, a food handling startup in The Netherlands for an undisclosed amount. Lacquey developed an under-actuation robotic hand sensitively attuned for picking up and handling fruit and vegetables without leaving pressure marks.

Other Funding Activities:

Lux Capital, a NYC and Silicon Valley venture firm, closed a $350 million fund to invest in seed and early-stage futuristic science and tech ventures. The fund was oversubscribed from the firm's initial target of $245 million. “We are fortunate to count as investors some of the world’s most respected institutions, foundations, families and individuals,” says Adam Kalish, Lux General Partner. Lux has invested in robotics-related and 3D printing ventures CyPhy Works, Kurion, Shapeways and Matterport. Lux's co-founder Peter Hebert has appeared on Silicon Valley robotic event panels.

 

Samsung Electronics announced an investment of $100 million to set up a new research lab at Imperial College London. The lab will concentrate on drones, robotics, 3D printing and virtual reality. The move forms part of Samsung's plan to make the Internet of Things (IoT) a reality after being a meaningless buzzword for years. Chief executive BK Yoon said 100% of Samsung’s products would be internet-connected and IoT capable within five years.

"Domino's rolls out driverless delivery vehicles" blared the headline on the Dominos UK website on April Fools Day. They even provided a short video clip of the phony vehicle delivering pizzas.

April Fools Day aside, it won't be long until many delivery companies will use autonomous vehicles. Companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Little Caesars, Amazon's Prime Air (and a million Chinese restaurants) are all working on the concept.

FedEx CEO Fred Smith has stated in many interviews that FedEx is working on using unmanned aircraft cargo planes for the future. He has even described a new "blended wing" design as being appropriate for FedEx's needs. A blended wing plane such as he described is being developed by Boeing - their X-48C unmanned aircraft. The plane has already been flight tested by NASA and Boeing and will be capable of transonic speeds.

Autonomous vehicles, whether air, land or sea are flourishing. Investment dollars are flowing. And ideas such as Dominos' won't just be an April Fools Day joke for too much longer.

Read more

Previously known for consumer products for smartphones, tablets and cars, Paris-based Parrot recently branched into both the consumer and commercial drone businesses.

Parrot created the AR.Drone quadcopter and revealed it at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. Since then they have sold over a million of them - 700M in 2014 alone! In 2014, drones generated 34% of Parrot's total revenue. At CES 2014 they launched two new mini drones for the retail consumer market. All appear to have done quite well during the Christmas season. 

But what is particularly interesting is Parrots growth In the commercial drone sector. Parrot is acquiring companies and developing products to provide drones, software and data solutions for the agriculture, mapping and surveillance industries. To jumpstart their movement toward commercial drones, two spinoffs from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), senseFly and Pix4D, were acquired in 2012.

• senseFly designs and develops a line of winged drones and is soon to release a quadcopter as well. All their drones are for commercial use. senseFly's $25K eBee drone was rated one of the Top 7 Drones for Agriculture in 2014 by DroneLife.
   
• Pix4D provides image processing software for mapping and modeling geo-referenced 2D images into 3D models and for a wide range of GIS and CAD applications.

Two more acquisitions in B2B (business-to-business) drones happened in 2014: Parrot invested in MicaSense and Airinov.

• MicaSense is a Seattle-based software and systems company providing advanced data gathering and processing, coupled with professional analysis tools, to provide accurate and repeatable information on the status of a crop. Raw data from the MicaSense camera, a lightweight, multispectral camera, is transformed into vegetation index maps. Powerful analytics provide time-based trends and change maps. Analysis tools such as plant population counts enable optimized farm management. Parrot invested $2M in a Series A round of funding in November, 2014.
   
• Airinov is a French provider of UAV farming applications and sensors for use on senseFly and other UAS. Their software can process flight and sensor data and produce fertilization recommendations which are compatible with most brands of dispenser equipment. Parrot invested $2.2M for a 20.9% equity interest in Airinov.

Henri Seydoux, Parrot’s founder, chairman and CEO, said:

We are moving forward with our external growth policy initiated in 2011 and focusing on new products with high-potential, outstanding and complementary technological expertise, applications for commercial and retail customer segments, strong operational and financial synergies. Parrot intends to meet the needs of professionals moving into the civil drone age and firmly believes in the commercial potential of this market, (on which the Parrot AR.Drone has already enabled us to gain global recognition) and I am very pleased that we can also serve the commercial drone market as well.

Agriculture is one of the fastest-growing market segments for unmanned aircraft commercial applications. The sensors required to capture accurate data are a critical part of the solution, and [our recent acquisition of MicaSense and Airinov] brings this technology to the table.

As much fun as Parrot's drones are, there is a growing market for professional service drones for mapping, surveying, protection, real estate photography and agricultural uses. Shenzen-based Dajiang Innovation Technology (DJI) has sold over 400M of their line of consumer and B2B drones; San Francisco startup Skycatch has partnered with one of the largest heavy machinery makers, Komatsu, to automate construction and mining job sites world wide using drones, mapping software and various sensors. 

• There is also a steadily growing defense and first-responder market led by Lockheed Martin, Boeing, AeroVironment, Elbit and Northrup Grumman. The Global UAV Market 2015-2025 projects the global defense UAV market to grow at a 5.66% CAGR from 2014 to 2025 with North America and Europe the largest markets and the military drone segment (UCAV - unmanned combat aerial vehicle) to dominate the UAV market. 
   
• But the real good news is Wintergreen Research's report entitled "Commercial Drones: Highways in the Sky, UAS, Market Shares, Strategies and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2015 to 2021" (whew!) which projects commercial drone growth at 34.3% CAGR over the period from 2014 to 2021. That's game-changing growth!

Read more

Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation and the Chinese Cybernaut Investment Group signed an agreement yesterday in Beijing to create a joint Russian-Chinese business incubator, a robotics accelerator program, and an investment fund worth $200M. 

The partnership aims to bridge the two countries, with the business incubator supporting at least 15 companies resident at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, and a robotics center located in China that will help accelerate the Skolkovo residents into the Chinese market. The $200M venture fund, provided by Cybernaut, will invest in Skolkovo residents that are conducting research into IT and robotics, space, energy-efficiency technologies and new materials.

The agreement comes into force in the third quarter of 2015 and Skolkovo Senior VP for Innovations Vasily Belov estimates that as much as $50M will be funnelled into Skolkovo companies before the end of the year, but that it’s too early to say how much of this will go into robotics ventures specifically.

Founded in 2005, Cybernaut is a venture capital and private equity firm based in Hangzhou, a city known for its manufacturing capabilities in hi-tech sectors such as electronics and medical engineering. Currently managing $5B Yuan in assets, the fund typically invests in domestic companies. According to Skolkovo’s Chief Roboticist Albert Yefimov, prior to this deal “Cybernaut has no investment in Russia” but is now actively negotiating deals in that country. In an email interview, Skolkovo’s Executive Director of the IT cluster Igor Bogachev said that Cybernaut is “focused on investing in wide range of service robotics, ranging from robotics for mining industry to educational robotics.”

The agreement brings benefits to both parties.

Russia will gain from the influx of cash, as well as access to China’s manufacturing pipelines and marketplace. According to Bogachev, Skolkovo resident companies “will have a chance to continue their development in the Chinese branch of the robotics center in order to get easier access to the local market like searching for an investor, or locating production lines [and] access to buyers.”

And China stands to gain, too – by bringing Russia’s research and technical expertise inside its borders. According to a report in the Chinese-language Economic Observer, and summarized in Want China Times, despite the 36 industrial parks developed for the robotics sector in recent years, “some companies that claim to be creating robots do not have labs, research teams, or the ability to conduct tests.” From that article:

“In China, 50% of the robot makers produce pirated products. They either reverse engineer existing products of foreign companies or buy old robot designs to manufacture as their own,” said QKM Technology president Shi Jinbo.

 

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Skolkovo conference seeks to jumpstart new areas of expertise for Russian robotics
• Robots Podcast: Russian robotics
• 25 Russian companies added to The Robot Report’s global map of robot providers
• Russia looks inward and outward at Moscow’s 2013 Open Innovations Forum

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Markets and Markets, a Dallas, TX research firm, in an 189-page $4,650 report, is projecting that the global commercial drones market will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 109.3% and reach $1.27 billion by 2020.

Another recent research report from IDTechEx, supports Markets and Markets' estimates: Electric Drones: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) 2015-2025 projects the market will reach $4.5 billion by 2025.

The Markets and Markets report, Commercial Drones Market by Type (Fixed Wing, Rotary Blade, Quad Rotor), Technology (Energy & Propulsion System, Automation, Collision Avoidance), Application (Government, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Retail) & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020, evaluates by technology as well as by application, type and geography.

• Technologies such as energy and propulsion systems, type and level of automation, collision avoidance, cybersecurity, onboard processing and communication data links and radio spectrum.
   
• Applications include inspection and spraying for agriculture, forestry and fisheries; first responder and law enforcement; security and monitoring of oil and gas, electrical grids and other distribution networks; general retail, factory, warehouse and campus surveillance; media and entertainment, and scientific and environmental research.

The list of companies profiled includes many defense contractors transferring their technologies into the commercial arena along with newcombers specializing on commercial unmanned aerial systems such as DJI, Trimble, 3D Robotics, Precision Hawk, DroneDeploy and senseFly.

Missing from their list of companies examined for their report was Parrot, a Paris-based company previously known for consumer and car products. Through acquisition and in-house invention, Parrot's founder, CEO and Chairman Henri Seydoux has turned his company into one that now derives 34% of their revenue from consumer and commercial drone businesses.

Read more