Bringing a complex new product to market is an intensive process fraught with problems. Getting hardware ready for manufacturing is often the easy part; it’s the software and regulatory compliance that’s often the most challenging. Here are three examples: Ford Motor Co., Velodyne LiDAR and Jibo.
Ford Motor Co.
Ford announced plans to begin delivering fully driverless vehicles – cars without a steering wheel or pedals – in the next five years. It plans to initially target ride-sharing fleets and package delivery services with deliveries to individuals later in the decade. Since human drivers are the most costly piece in the metrics of commercial fleet operations, autonomous driving is the next big push to reduce costs and improve productivity and safety.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, Ford said that it was “keenly focused on fully driverless cars with concern over semiautonomous features [such as adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, and steering assistance] and whether drivers can take over quickly enough when driverless systems are disabled. We’re not going to play in this middle-of-the-road approach,” said Raj Nair, Ford’s product chief.
Ford has decided to not take the incremental approach that many other car companies are taking partly because the regulatory and insurance aspects of autonomous driving haven’t been worked out yet, nor has the artificial intelligence of the control software.
Photo: Velodyne LiDAR HDL-32E
Velodyne LiDAR
Ford also announced a $75 million investment in Velodyne, a Silicon Valley LiDAR maker. Ford’s investment in Velodyne is aimed at helping both Ford and Velodyne successfully recognize objects and navigate traffic. The funds will also be used to help Velodyne lower the cost of their LiDAR to between $300 and $500, the price point at which mass adoption becomes practical.
Baidu, a large Chinese web services and search provider, also participated in the $150 million investment in Velodyne.
Velodyne’s LiDAR sensors provide a full 360 degree 3D environmental view and are used in autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment/machinery, and for 3D mapping and surveillance. As can be seen in the chart provided by Frost & Sullivan, LiDARs will play a big role in all phases of the emergence of self-driving vehicles.
Velodyne’s problem is to get their LiDARs down in cost so that the company can be a major provider of LiDAR sensors for all new vehicles.
Source: Jibo The World’s First Social Robot for the Home/YouTube
Jibo
In a setback to global customers that pre-ordered Jibo’s, Jibo announced that they cannot deliver and will refund those orders, leaving only US and Canada orders unchanged. Jibo had previously announced a general delivery delay of nine months earlier this year.
In the email update to its international backers Jibo writes: “After exploring all the options, we have come to the conclusion that we will not be able to deliver Jibo to your country”, adding this is because the bot “won’t function up to our standards in your country.”
International orders add layer upon layer of localization issues: electrical certifications, language, speech recognition, cultural nuances, etc. Jibo’s solution to these mounting problems was to cancel all international orders and endure the disappointment of customers in the 45 countries involved.
Jibo, a cute social robot that premiered in a very successful IndieGoGo campaign in mid-2014, is now only going to ship to backers in the U.S. and Canada, with deliveries beginning in late October. From social media reports, it seems that there is still a lot of tumult about the software side of Jibo, the SDK, and the app site amongst insiders at Jibo as well as app developers. The consensus is that the initial round of Jibo’s to begin delivery in late October will be very limited in what they can do or what services they can offer.
In anticipation of the need for LiDAR devices in cars with assisted steering and other self-driving technologies, both Velodyne and Quanergy received funding. Quanergy raised $90 million and Velodyne got $150 million.
As can be seen in the chart provided by Frost & Sullivan, LiDARs will play a big role in all phases of the emergence of self-driving vehicles. Hence the immediacy of these two investments in LiDAR technology.
Velodyne LiDAR, a Morgan Hill, Calif.-based provider of technology that allows self-driving cars see and avoid what’s around them, has raised $150 million in equity funding from Ford Motor Co. and Baidu. Velodyne expects an exponential increase in LiDAR sensor deployments in autonomous vehicles and ADAS applications over the next several years, driving high revenue growth. The funds will be used to help Velodyne lower the cost of their LiDAR to between $300 and $500, the price point at which mass adoption becomes practical.
“LiDAR continues to prove itself as the critical sensor for safe autonomous vehicle operation,” said David Hall, founder and CEO, Velodyne LiDAR. “This investment will accelerate the cost reduction and scaling of Velodyne’s industry-leading LiDAR sensors, making them widely accessible and enabling mass deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. We are determined to help improve the goal of safety for automotive vehicles as soon as possible, as well as empower the efficiency autonomous systems offer.”
“We want the cost to be low enough to be used for all cars. We envision a safer world for the millions of automotive drivers across the globe,” said Marta Hall, Velodyne President of Business Development.
Quanergy Systems Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions, has raised $90 million. Backers include Sensata Technologies, Delphi Automotive, Samsung Ventures, Motus Ventures and GP Capital. Quanergy’s solid state LiDAR is included in the frontal piece of the Mercedes test car shown on the right. The solid-state nature of the LiDAR is a significant cost savings and the expected trade price (once full production begins) will be less than $250.
The Mobileye-Delphi collaboration “will accelerate the time to market” and enable carmakers to produce vehicles capable of driving themselves “without the need for huge capital investments,” said Amnon Shashua, chairman and chief technology officer of Mobileye.
Delphi, the former parts division of General Motors, and Mobileye, an Israeli company known for producing the sensors and other technology that help cars recognize obstacles in the road, are both major component providers to the auto industry.
August was another big month for funding robotic startups. 18 deals. Almost $430 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus another $1 billion paid in August for four acquisitions.
Fundings:
[Note that three of the companies receiving fundings this month were designers and manufacturers of solid-state LiDAR technology -- Velodyne, Innoviz and Quanergy.]
Airobotics, an Israeli UAV startup focusing on providing an all-purpose drone solution for industrial applications, raised $22.5 million (in February). Funders, led by CRV, included BlueRun Ventures, Noam Bardin, Richard Wooldridge and UpWest Labs. The company has 70 employees.
Blue Ocean Robotics, a Danish VC and accelerator, announced that an anonymous private investor bought 6.7% of Blue Ocean shares for $1.5 million. Blue Ocean intends to sell over 33% of their shares to get funds to finance their rapid growth (from 3 people in 2013 to 110 people today, plus 21 associated companies in 11 countries).
DroneDeploy, a San Francisco-based startup has raised $20 million in Series B funding to (1) grow their drone data management platform and (2) for hiring, product development, sales and marketing. Scale Venture Partners led the investment and was joined by High Alpha Fund. The DroneDeploy platform allows users to plan flights, pilot drones either one at a time or in fleet formations, and gather and analyze myriad data types to create detailed maps and 3-D models. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $31 million.
Emotech, the UK-based maker of the Olly robot, a product similar to Amazon's Echo device, has raised $10 million from Chinese venture investors Alliance Capital and Lightning Capital.
Farmbot, a Central California startup offering an open source DIY robot and system for home gardens, raise $813,000 from a crowdfunding campaign.
Farmers Business Network, an Iowa-based developer of an ag industry software and analytics system, raised $20 million to help farmers avoid spending on what they don’t need as they provide data to help compete with Monsanto and Dupont.
Formlabs, a designer and manufacturer of 3D printing systems based in Somerville, Mass., has raised $35 million in Series B funding from Foundry Group and Autodesk.
Glowforge, a Seattle-based 3D laser printer company, has raised $22 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Foundry Group and True Ventures. Last year Glowforge set a crowdfunding record by raising $27.9 million in just 30 days. Glowforge printers can be used to cut and engrave on pretty much any surface — exciting DIY and crafts people with their machine, which is smaller and less expensive than most alternatives.
Innoviz Technologies, an Israel-based developer of sensors and systems for autonomous vehicles, has raised $9 million in Series A funding. The round included Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures, and Delek Investments. Innoviz joins two other LiDAR makers getting funding this month: Velodyne and Quanergy. Read more.
Kraken Sonar Inc., a Canadian startup providing sonar, sensors and underwater robotics systems, closed a non-brokered private placement of 7,159,534 shares at a purchase price of $0.12 (USD) per share totaling $827,126.
Mavrx, a San Francisco-based developer of aerial imagery technologies focused on the ag industry and big data, has secured $12.42 million of a Series A round, according to a regulatory filing.
MicaSense, a Seattle-based agriculture sensor maker, raised $7.4 million from French drone and electronics company Parrot. The recent round piggybacks on Parrots’ previous $2m investment in the company in 2014. MicaSense creates sensor devices that attach to drones. RedEdge, its first product, is a multispectral camera able to capture data over precise wavelengths.
NVBots, a Boston-based developer of automated 3D printing solutions, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Woodman Asset Management.
Petnet, a Los Angeles startup providing personalized feeding for pets, raised $10 million in a Series A financing. Petco led the round.
PRENAV, a Silicon Valley unmanned aerial systems startup, raised $6.5 million in seed financing from lead investor Crosslink Capital, along with Haystack, Liquid 2 Ventures, WI Harper Group and investors Pear Ventures, Toivo Annus, and a number of other investors.
“Using drones to inspect structures such as cell towers and wind turbines typically requires an expert pilot because GPS isn’t adequate for close proximity flight,” according to Nathan Schuett, CEO of PRENAV. “The PRENAV system is the first drone to be approved by the FAA that will enable these types of missions to be performed autonomously, where the flight is controlled by a bot on the ground.”
Quanergy Systems Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions, has raised $90 million at a valuation of over $1 billion. Backers include Sensata Technologies, Delphi Automotive, Samsung Ventures, Motus Ventures and GP Capital. Read more.
Seegrid, a maker of vision-based autonomous industrial vehicles and systems, announced today that the company has raised approximately $12M of equity capital from Giant Eagle, its majority shareholder, and several other existing and new investors, and has a commitment for an additional $13M from Giant Eagle as needed.
“Seegrid is poised to repeat its 100-percent revenue growth from last year,” said Jim Rock, Seegrid’s CEO. “Seegrid continues to expand its customer base, which currently includes leading global companies such as Whirlpool, Daimler, and Jaguar Land Rover. Our customers use Seegrid’s driverless autonomous vehicle robots to streamline their manufacturing and distribution operations and improve their outstanding safety processes.”
Velodyne LiDAR, a Morgan Hill, Calif.-based provider of technology that lets self-driving cars see and avoid what's around them, has raised $150 million in equity funding from Ford Motor Co. and Baidu. Velodyne expects an exponential increase in LiDAR sensor deployments in autonomous vehicles and ADAS applications over the next several years, driving high revenue growth. To fulfill the high demand for Velodyne’s products, the company will continue to expand its resources across engineering, operations and manufacturing. In connection with this minority investment round, the Company plans to expand its board of directors to include two independent industry executives. Read more.
Acquisitions:
Bionik Labs, a Canadian provider of rehab solutions for individuals with neurological disorders, acquired all of the outstanding shares, assets and liabilities of Interactive Motion Technologies, a Watertown, MA provider of upper extremity rehab robotics, in April, for $23.65 million.
DPE Deutsche Private Equity has agreed to sell Westfalia Group, a German maker of towing equipment and integrator of robotic warehousing solutions, to Horizon Global Corp. for around $186 million (including assumed debt).
Otto Motors, a SF startup developing self-driving truck system kits, was acquired by Uber for an undisclosed amount. Bloomberg suggests the price is $680 million assuming certain targets are met. The deal was worth about 0.9% of Uber. Also part of the deal, Otto gets 20% of any trucking business profits they end up creating. Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer and one of Otto’s founders, will take charge of Uber’s self-driving car operations as well as continuing to run Otto’s trucking business.
Zimmer Biomet has entered the growing surgical robotics field with the purchase of France’s Medtech for an estimated $132 million. According to an SEC filing, Zimmer Biomet agreed to buy 1.4 million shares from founder Bertin Nahum and other stockholders at a price of $55 per share, as well as all outstanding convertible bonds and warrants previously issued by Medtech to private equity firm Ally Bridge Group. In addition, as soon as possible, and subject to review by the French federal regulator, Zimmer will make an all-cash tender offer to acquire the balance of Medtech shares.
How will artificial intelligence change the world of work? The Economistis holding a Facebook Live Q&A with their Deputy Editor on Tuesday, September 13, 4pm London time. You can watch, listen, and tune in on their Facebook page, here.
For many years integrators have engineered, built and installed automation machinery for their manufacturer clients. As manufacturing has begun to move from mass production to mass customization, the integration process has required more flexibility and increasingly used robots as part, if not all, of the solution.
On my recent research trip to Odense, Denmark, the value offered by integration firms was clearly evident in the integrator companies I visited. Each quietly went about helping their manufacturer clients solve production problems by designing, building, testing and installing complete or partial automated manufacturing lines and systems. They all appeared to be having success pains: each had recently moved into larger quarters and were quickly filling the new space, and each was finding it difficult to hire all the technical talent they sought.
What is an integrator?
Instead of robot manufacturers customizing their products for all the applications customers require, they rely instead on distributors and integrators to apply their expertise to help the end user customize their robots to fit their unique needs. The multiple roles integrators play in the growing robotics industry has gone unsung, yet they are an integral part of the robotics distribution channel. There is even an integrator certification program offered by robotics associations around the world.
Each of the Big Four robot manufacturers (KUKA, Fanuc, ABB and Yaskawa Motoman) have hundreds of integrators licensed to work with them in sales, service and support of their robots. There are hundreds more integrators that are hardware agnostic, i.e., they select the robot manufacturer that best solves their customer’s requirements. [The Robot Report’s directory of integrators lists more than 450 integrators and plots them on a global map. If you know of an integrator company not on the list and map, please let us know by emailing tips@therobotreport.com. Thanks.]
Recently, with the advent of plug-and-play collaborative robots and the growing use of newer and more user-friendly methods of training and programming, it was thought by many that integrators would become a dying breed replaced by super capable and easy to install and integrate multi-purpose robots. We’re not there yet, nor, are we likely to be there for many years to come. Hence the title of this article.
Integrators offer specialized engineering and programming services that many manufacturers either don’t have the staff to handle, or don’t want to invest in that level of staff. Integrators come in, help define the problem and solution, and then build and test it. Then they pack it up and move it to the manufacturer’s facility and install and integrate it into their in-house systems. They train the operators and when the system and operators are working successfully, they walk away. Job done.
Odense, Denmark
Odense, Denmark, is a pleasant, suburban-style city with a population of 172,000 and a workforce of around 80,000, on an island (Funen) whose workforce (excluding Odense) approximates 140,000. Robotics have played a significant role in the history of the area but particularly in recent years. The four robotic integrators profiled below – all headquartered in or near Odense – employ around 500 workers.
EGATEC A/S
EGATEC A/S specializes in automated end-of-line packaging and palletizing solutions. Rosborg, Denmark is a nursery that grows and sells miniature flowerpots and spices. Rosborg is one of EGATEC’s clients and the two are working together to automate Rosborg’s end-of-line packaging process – a step that handles 12 million plants per year by hand.
Rosborg is already mechanized. They’ve automated their potting and seeding operations. Plants then are placed on mobile trays slowly moving towards the harvesting stations where fully-grown plants are picked, wrapped and packaged for boxing and palletizing. These latter steps are presently done by hand and are the steps being automated by EGATEC.
EGATEC recently acquired A-One Packaging, a supplier of packaging machines for the food industry, to complement their own end-of-line packing robot cells.
Jorgensen Engineering A/S
Jorgensen Engineering A/S specializes in designing and engineering automation for food processing systems. Baby food; pet food; sacks; cans; powders; even the insertion of a measuring spoon (rightmost photo); etc. The 150-person company installs 50+ robots a year into client food-handling production lines. According to Marketing Manager Jesper Johansen (left and center photos), there has been a significant emphasis on hygiene and a shift toward the use of robotics in their solutions perhaps because of the milk powder scandal in China back in 2008. It was about that time that Jorgensen noticed that clients were insisting on robotic solutions for their food handling production problems and stressing that the solutions needed to be sterile and hygienic.
Integrators such as Jorgensen often have to work around client space limitations. I saw one in-process project at the Jorgensen facility that had a big gap in the work area. When I asked about it I was told that it provided space for an existing post located right in the middle of the new production line.
Gibotech A/S
Gibotech A/S and their Gibocare division, are integrators that specialize in providing automation solutions for the healthcare industry using machines, robots and control systems.
I visited with Mikkel Bjerregaard, the Sales Director (left photo). In the center picture, to help a client sort incoming medicines and samples, they developed a robotic vision, handling and sorting solution with their own special-purpose gripper. In the rightmost picture, they helped a hearing aid manufacturer automate the placement of intricate filters (circled in red) on the tip end of plastic sticks and then place those sticks into containers and those containers into shipping boxes.
Cabinplant A/S
Although I didn’t visit Cabinplant A/S, they are another of the integrator companies located in the Odense area. But this one just sold 80% of their shares to CTB, a Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) company. CTB designs, manufactures and markets agricultural, dairy and poultry processing equipment but, at the present time, they don’t utilize robots in their products and solutions. Cabinplant, on the other hand, designs, manufacturers and integrates food processing automation that often includes robotic equipment. For example, they make and sell a successful sardine cutting and packing robot cell (ever wonder how those little sardines get packed so neatly crisscrossed in those little cans? Or, who cut off their heads and tails?).
CTB’s chairman and chief executive officer Victor A. Mancinelli said, “The acquisition helps CTB to broaden the range of poultry processing options it can offer its customers as well as expanding into new market areas for processing, such as seafood and vegetables. Cabinplant’s knowledge of the food industry and its innovative approach to product development and implementation fit very well with CTB’s approach to its core markets.”
Reading between the lines, one can see that the investment in Cabinplant, an integrator using the latest technologies, and CTB, an integrator needing those very same technologies, was a strategic move that’s a win-win for both companies. It’s also a win for the Odense robotics community another success, more millionaires to reinvest their time and money in the community, and more positive notoriety for the area. All that is fodder for another article of the coattail effects on the Danish and Odense robotics clusters.
As autonomous cars begin to hit world markets in pilot tests and other ways, and before the International Federation of Robotics clarifies whether those vehicles are robots or not, two research firms have combined those vehicles with other robots. Their results are below.
Source: The Economist
The number of research reports covering the robotics industry has grown exponentially in the last few years. 109 have been previewed on The Robot Report thus far in 2016. The latest batch of 46 shown below brings the Y-T-D total to 155. Even though multiple vendors produce reports on the same topics, almost all show double-digit growth. [Here are links to the previous two recaps: [1, 2].]
Robotics market forecasts
August 2016, 24 pages and 248 charts, Tractica, $4,200 Tractica, by categorizing autonomous vehicles as service robots, estimates that 2016 industrial robots will drop to 41% of total robotics revenue, with the remaining 59% coming from non-industrial robots. The non-industrial service robots sector largely consists of consumer robots, enterprise robots, military robots, autonomous vehicles and supporting components, and UAVs. The combined global robotics industry will expand from $34.1 billion in 2016 to $226.2 billion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46%.
Global driverless car components market
August 2016, Allied Analytics, $3,792 The component market servicing the driverless car market is comprised of radar sensors; video cameras; LiDAR sensor; ultrasound sensors and a central computing system. Companies profiled include Google, Inc.; Daimler AG; Ford Motor Company; Toyota Motor Corporation; BMW AG; Audi AG ; AB Volvo ; Dutch Automated Vehicle Initiative (DAVI); Autonomous Lab; and Volkswagen.
Robotics: technologies and markets
June 2016, 239 pages, BCC Research, $6,650
The global robotics market reached nearly $24.9 billion in 2015. The market should reach over $25.9 billion and $31.5 billion in 2016 and 2021 respectively, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.0% from 2016 to 2021.
Global robotics R&D spending
July 2016, 55 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
The analysts forecast the global R&D spending market in the robotics industry to grow at a CAGR of 17.29% during the period 2016-2020.
Global cloud robotics
August 2016, 140 pages, Occams Business Research, $3,900
Rising internet and cloud infrastructure, rapid progress of wireless technology and rapid development of software frameworks and services for computational, storage, and communications infrastructure of modern data centers are the major drivers for the cloud robotics globally.
Artificial intelligence market forecasts
August 2016, 23 pages and 332 charts, Tractica, $4,200
Forecasts that annual worldwide AI revenue will grow from $643.7 million in 2016 to $38.8 billion by 2025. Tractica has created a taxonomy of 191 real-world use cases for AI, organized into 27 different industry sectors and corresponding with six major technology categories, plus multiple combinations of technologies.
Commercial & military drones
Global commercial drones
May 2016, Orion Market Research, $3,495
Global commercial drones market is expected to grow at an exponentially high CAGR of 41% for the forecasted period of 2016-2021.
The future of commercial drones: an appraisal
August 2016, 101 pages, Valour Consultancy, $4,589
An analysis on the applications for which UAV’s have currently been used and an extensive list of potential uses which represent future sources of service revenues. Also UAV frames, power trains, control and communications and future instrumentation packages are also examined.
Commercial and military drone market
August 2016, 90 pages, Mind Commerce, $1,995
The global drone market is anticipated to reach $4.2 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 9.2%. By 2018, UAVs will be used by nearly every major manufacturing company to control logistics.
Consumer drones market
June 2016, 66 pages, Tractica, $3,800
Worldwide sales of consumer drones reached $1.9 billion in 2015 and will reach a market value of $5.0 billion by the end of 2021. Unit shipments will increase from 6.4 million units in 2015 to 67.7 million units annually by 2021.
Drone payload market
August 2016, 171 pages, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The drone payload market is estimated to be valued at USD 3.63 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 7.72 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 16.25% between 2016 and 2021.
US DoD UAS Payloads
September 2016, Frost & Sullivan, $1,500
The DoD has been transitioning from acquiring new UAS to upgrading current platforms, sensors payloads, and overall capabilities. This report outlines the market payload size, and driving and restraining factors.
Global anti-drone market
July 2016, 116 pages, BIS Research, $3,800
Anti-drone systems are expected to generate $210 million in 2016. Report profiles Airbus, Blighter Surveillance Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Finmeccanica, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SAAB, Thales and Boeing.
Anti-drone market to 2022
March 2016, 137 pages, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The global anti-drone market is expected to reach $1.14 bn by 2022.
Global solar-powered UAV market
July 2016, 66 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
The global solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market will grow at a steady CAGR of nearly 13% through 2020.
Global UAV Sense & Avoid Systems
July 2016, 136 pages, BIS Research, $3,999
The UAV sense and avoid systems market, being an emerging market, will experience an exponential rate of growth expected to continue for next decade. This high rate of growth is attributed to the rising demand of UAVs in diverse commercial applications.
Professional service robots
Global service robotics
August 2016, 80 pages, Renub Research, $1,243
The global service robotics market (defense, ag, logistics, medical, construction, mobile platform, inspection, underwater, rescue, security and others) to surpass $7 billion by 2020.
Global cleaning robots
August 2016, Allied Analytics, $3,792
Details floor, pool, window and lawn robots and profiles Dyson, Ecovacs, Infinuvo, iRobot, Philips, LG, Neato, Intellibot, Yujin and Samsung.
Global smart robots
June 2016, 84 pages, Infiniti Research, $2,500
Analysts forecast the global smart robots market to grow at a CAGR of 20.65% during the period 2016-2020. 52 companies are mentioned. Emergence of IoT predicted as key driver.
Law enforcement robots
July 2016, 649 pages, Wintergreen Research, $4,100
Law enforcement robot markets at $1 billion in 2015 are anticipated to reach $5.7 billion by 2022.
Global security robots market
August 2016, 103 pages, Arcluster, $4,150
Forecasts the global security robots market to reach $2.7B by 2020.
Global IT robotic automation
July 2016, 196 pages, Accuray Research, $4,200
This report covers robotic as well as robot-like s/w apps (virtual rather than physical) and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 59% over next decade and will reach $49.3 bn by 2025.
Global military UGV market
July 2016, 123 pages, Strategic Defence Intelligence, $4,800
The global military UGV market values US$444.8 million in 2016, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.76%, to value US$707.8 million by 2026.
Agricultural robots & drones
Agricultural robots and drones
August 2016, 163 pages, IDTechEx, $4,975
Thousands of robotic milking parlours have been installed worldwide, creating a $1.9bn industry that is projected to grow to $8bn by 2023. more than 300k tractors equipped with autosteer or tractor guidance will be sold in 2016, rising to more than 660k units per year by 2026. This report also reflects on the agrochemical business and forecasts that crop protection chemical suppliers will no longer be able to ignore developments in the world of agricultural robotics. This is because their rise will change the amount and types of chemicals used, and will force suppliers to seriously consider re-inventing themselves as providers of crop protection, whatever its form, and not just narrow chemical suppliers.
Global agriculture robotics
July 2016, 80 pages, Nineteen Columns Market Research, $5,500
Outlines and classifies; profiles emerging AI vendors; describes needs and market segmentations.
Exoskeletons & medical robots
Global exoskeleton robots market
February 2016, 49 pages, Infiniti Research, $2,500
Infiniti forecasts the global exoskeleton robots market to grow at a CAGR of 50.85% during the period 2016-2020.
Global exoskeletons market
August 2016, 103 pages, Arcluster, $4,150
Global exoskeleton market to reach $3.75 billion by 2021.
Surgical robots and surgical assist robots
May 2016, 156 pages, Wintergreen Research, $4,100
Hip and knee orthopedic surgical robot device markets at $222 million in 2015 are anticipated to reach $5 billion by 2022.
Global handicap assistance robots
May 2016, 53 pages, Infiniti Research, $2,500
Forecast Global Handicap Assistance Robots Market to grow at a CAGR of 32.12% by the number of units shipped, during the period 2016-2020.
Telemedicine & connected health & mobile healthcare devices
July 2016, 189 pages, Mind Commerce, $1,995
The fast growing area of Health Care IT Solutions is encompassing many different technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), broadband wireless, robotics, telepresence, artificial intelligence, machine communications, Big Data and Analytics.
Industrial robots
Global industrial robots
August 2016, 79 pages, Renub Research, $1,252
Global Industrial Robotics Market is expected to be more than US$ 37 Billion by 2020. Automotive and Electrical & Electronics industry together expected to control close to 70% market share.
Global industrial robots
July 2016, 142 pages, Novonous, $5,000
Estimates that Global Industrial Robots Market will achieve annual CAGR of 15% till 2020.
Collaborative robots market
August 2016, 157 pages, Markets and Markets, $5,650
The global market for collaborative robots is expected to grow at a CAGR of 60.04% between 2016 and 2022 from USD 110.0 million in 2015 and reach USD 3.3 Billion by 2022.
Industrial robots market
April 2016, 110 pages, Zion Market Research, $4,200
The report includes a detailed value chain analysis and an analysis of Porter’s Five Forces model as it relates to industrial robotics.
Global parallel robots
July 2016, 61 pages, Infiniti Research, $2,500
The report forecasts the global parallel robots market to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% through 2020.
Global foundry and forging robots
July 2016, 97 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
The global foundry and forging robots market will grow steadily at a CAGR of more than 7% to 2020. APAC countries will remain the fastest growing area within the market.
Global packaging robots
July 2016, 68 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
Predicts the global packaging robots market to grow at a CAGR of more than 9% through 2020.
Asia Pacific (APAC) material handling market
August 2016, 82 pages, Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, $3,800
APAC) Automated Material Handling Market is estimated to grow from US$7.604 billion in 2015 to US$14.364 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 9.47% over the forecast period.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) material handling market
August 2016, 89 pages, Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, $3,800
EMEA automated material handling is estimated to grow from US$6.677 billion in 2015 to US$11.894 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 10.10% over the forecast period.
North America material handling market
July 2016, 87 pages, Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, $3,800
North America Automated Material Handling Market is estimated to grow from US$3.535 billion in 2015 to US$5.923 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 8.98% over the forecast period.
Global palletizing machinery (robotic and other)
July 2016, 453 pages, Global Industry Analysts, $4,950
Segments various types of end-of-line machinery and robotics and profiles 207 companies in the field.
Underwater vehicles
Global unmanned underwater vehicles
August 2016, 170 Pages, Accuray Research, $4,200
The Global Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) Market is poised to grow at a CAGR of around 12.2% over the next decade to reach approximately $7.25 billion by 2025.
International Federation of Robotics annual reports
The fact-based backbone for many of these research reports is the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) annual World Robotics Industrial Robotsand World Robotics Service Robots reports. These two books represent the official tabulation and analysis from all the robot associations around the world.
The 2016 reports cover 2015 activity. The two 2016 reports can be purchased for $2,000. The industrial report will be published and available for purchase September 29, 2016 and the service report on October 12, 2016.
Array of Things is designed as a “fitness tracker” for the city of Chicago, collecting new streams of data on Chicago’s environment, infrastructure, and activity. Credit: Rob Mitchum/Urban Center for Computation and Data
From autonomous vehicles to flash flood alert systems, technology transforms how people lead their daily lives and how local cities and communities function.
Last September, the Administration launched the National Smart Cities Initiative to help communities tackle local challenges and improve city and municipality services. Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) — the lead federal agency in the effort — announced more than $60 million in Smart Cities-related grants for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, with additional investments planned for FY 2017. This new funding adds to the nearly $40 million the agency awarded last year to support researchers working to design, adapt and manage the smart and connected communities of the future.
“The effective integration of technology and data into decision making and physical infrastructure has the ability to transform society, allowing local cities and communities to overcome physical, social, economic, and infrastructural challenges,” said Jim Kurose, assistant director of NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. “NSF-supported research in this area will help cultivate more livable, workable, sustainable and connected communities.”
The grants bring academic researchers from a range of disciplines together with community stakeholders and civic leaders. Through research that integrates digital tools and engineering solutions into the physical world, these partners will work to solve important challenges in health and wellness, energy efficiency, building automation, infrastructure and public safety.
“New understanding and innovations gained from NSF-funded research in Smart and Connected Communities will help measure and shape the pulse of communities’ physical and social infrastructures to improve the quality and efficiency of our lives in America’s cities, now and for our future,” said Grace Wang, acting assistant director of NSF for Engineering.
NSF has long supported the fundamental research that underlies smart and connected communities. This research has included advanced networking and connectivity, sensing, real-time data analytics, control, automation and decision-making. The agency has also been instrumental in transitioning these technologies to widespread use. For example, since 2012, the US Ignite initiative seeded the development of numerous new “gigabit application prototypes,” capable of processing large amounts of information in real-time, which has improved regional radar systems, autonomous vehicle management, and more.
Severe storms and rapidly accumulating rain recently contributed to historic flooding that caused extreme damage to the main street of Ellicott City, located not far from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) campus. Credit: Photo collections from the Office of the Maryland Governor, managed by the Maryland State Archives. [CC BY 2.0]
Today’s new NSF investments in support of the Smart Cities initiative include:
$24.5 million planned investment in Smart and Connected Communities for FY 2017, including an award solicitation exclusively focused on fundamental research and research capacity-building that will transform our nation’s cities and communities for the future. This program will develop a robust, multidisciplinary, diverse research workforce capable of addressing the challenges that our cities and communities face, with a focus on collaboration and partnership between researchers and community stakeholders to improve the quality of life for all.
$10 million in new awards to develop and scale next-generation internet applications and technologies through the US Ignite program. These awards provide citizens with access to gigabit-enabled networks and services, bringing data and analytics to decision-makers in real time. The focus of the research ranges from the development of advanced networking technology to the creation of application and service prototypes that leverage advanced technology.
$8.5 million in new awards for high-risk, high-reward research through Smart and Connected Communities. These Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) projects, combined with supplemental funding to existing NSF-funded grants, represent NSF’s initial efforts to grow a Smart and Connected Communities research community and pilot new research approaches. This includes $300,000 to a multidisciplinary team of researchers developing a new network architecture to expand internet access and engagement, and support community-building on Native American reservations.
$7 million in new Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity projects that translate breakthrough discoveries into emerging technologies through academic-industry collaborations. Such technologies can transform smart service systems, such as smart hazard notification systems, smart buildings and sensor networks to improve transportation efficiency.
$4 million in new Cyber-Physical Systems awards focused on Smart and Connected Communities. These awards support research that integrates computing, networking and physical systems — for example, in self-driving cars and smart buildings. Collectively, these awards are helping to establish the foundation for Smart Cities and the Internet of Things.
$2 million in new “Spokes” that extend the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs. These awards will use data science to improve the smart electric grid, keep bridges safer, grow better crops through the use of drone technology, and allow students to conduct citizen science on air pollution.
$1.5 million in new Smart and Connected Health research awards with a focus on Smart and Connected Communities. These awards will support the development of next-generation health-care solutions that leverage sensor technology, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, and more. This includes $300,000 to a multidisciplinary team of researchers to integrate community and clinical data to model the evolution of influenza in communities, supplementing prior investment by the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
$1.4 million in new Big Data research focused on Smart and Connected Communities. These awards will drive innovation in data analytics and data-driven decision making to fuel the growth and development of the communities of the future.
$1 million for researchers to participate in the 2016 NIST Global City Teams Challenge, supporting high-risk, high-reward research on the effective integration of networked computing systems and physical systems to meet community challenges. This includes $250,000 for real-time monitoring and detection of flash floods in several Maryland cities.
$1 million in new research and capacity-building awards that support lifelong learning, which is critical to cities and communities of the future. The awards will leverage networks and technology to foster lifelong learning in multiple formal and informal settings, enabling students to solve problems that arise within their communities.
Through the programs listed above and the projects they support, computer and information scientists, engineers, and social, behavioral, and economic scientists will collaborate with industries, non-profits, local governments and anchor institutions, such as schools, libraries and hospitals. The effort will continue to nurture and grow a research community focused on smart and connected communities, and will help train and prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers to advance solutions that improve tomorrow’s cities and communities.
There are many robotics clusters around the world successfully providing for the needs of their respective communities and a few not really achieving their desired goals. Odense and the Danish clusters certainly fall into the former category. They do so because they are organized at every level to be offering and have people that are business smart, humble and cooperative in approach, and public-spirited in nature.
On a recent trip to Denmark, a country with less than 6 million people, I saw firsthand the magnitude and power of a successful, working robotics cluster and how it can be an equalizer as well as an instigator. For example, Denmark is 7th in global robot density, i.e., the number of multipurpose industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing sector (behind Korea, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Taiwan) and Denmark doesn’t have an auto industry contributing to those figures.
The four maps on the right show the location and types of companies involved in the robotics industry in Denmark. These companies design, develop, manufacture and integrate robots and are included in the directories of The Robot Report. [Did you know The Robot Report has a large directory covering the robotics industry and that they are all plotted on a global map, which is freely accessible online?]
In the lower center of each map is the island of Fyn and in the upper center of Fyn is Odense, the city and area I visited.
What’s a cluster do?
Clusters are organized to bring together and share expertise, funding, leadership, and coaching to help make businesses successful, productive, profitable and employ people from the community. Clusters help stimulate innovation and startups, and keep workers and stakeholders informed and happy in, and pleased with, their industry. They offer expertise in international trading and collaboration. [For the purposes of this article, when I refer to a cluster I’m talking about those focused on fostering the development of robotics.]
Clusters don’t just happen by accident. They need knowledge sharing, community spirit and participation by all of the stakeholders. They need nearby universities to crank out students (particularly grad students) while researching breakthrough technologies. [Some examples of top-notch technical universities and the areas they cover include the Boston-Cambridge area (MIT, Boston University and Harvard), Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon University), Zurich (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich), Silicon Valley and SF Bay Area (Stanford and UC Berkeley), and Tokyo (University of Tokyo and Tokyo Institute of Technology).]
Clusters need successes so that there’s money to invest, mentors to provide coaching, and stories to be told.
They need a strong technical educational system not only to provide new talent, but to research and develop new solutions to local problems.
Finally, clusters need organization and help navigating technology transfer issues, local regulations, securing governmental incentives, startup help and scale-up assistance. Universities and government-sponsored funding agencies often offer these services as do accelerators and venture capital firms – but with varying levels of capability. Successful cluster organizations help cut through all the bureaucracies and expedite what needs to be done.
How are clusters established?
Clusters can be planned. In China, the national government has outlined and funded a massive plan to make robotics a domestic industry instead of buying robots from offshore companies. They have mandated 20 regional universities and local governments to work together to develop the technologies, incubate and fund startups, provide them with office and factory space, funding incentives, and get them up and producing.
Another example is in the U.S.: the University of California San Diego (UCSD) is investing in making itself a hub for cognitive, embedded technologies and communication sciences involved in robotics by adding teaching/research staff (as UCSD is doing), by working together with venture capitalists, local tech businesses (particularly Qualcomm, whose microchips are widely used in smartphones and other wireless devices), local military research labs, startup companies, and the research labs and programs already existent at UCSD and in the area.
(San Diego has major industry and defense employers with many robotics technologies and applications. There are also significant manufacturing sectors in San Diego and nearby Tijuana. And UCSD is a major plus as well. It already has a Flow Control & Coordinated Robotics Lab, a Computer Vision and Robotics Research Lab, an Intelligent Systems, Robotics and Control Lab, the Artificial Intelligence Group, and the Contextual Robotics Institute, to name just a few plus it is located in beautiful La Jolla north of San Diego. UCSD is also nearby the Scripps and Salk Institutes.)
Not all planned clusters achieve their goal. Each of the stakeholders has to play their part and serendipity also has a role in making a successful robotics cluster. Numerous cities and areas have tried and failed. Many are hopeful of success (and we are hopeful for them as well). Many are successful and productive such as RoboValley in The Netherlands, the Boston/Cambridge cluster, the cluster in Pittsburgh and the SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley cluster. It really needs active community spirit and some level of altruism. An example is the Silicon Valley cluster which struggles to get beyond an elitist flavor (which I perceive as selfishness). They have everything going for them: frequent get-togethers, lots of success stories, plentiful sources of money, multiple accelerators, really talented people including the scattering of the Willow Garage people, but they can’t shake the elitest label. Billionaire Scott Hassan founded Willow Garage with a public-spirited goal to develop a general-purpose personal robot to move around a house and help the daily life of people. Willow Garage was founded in 2006 (and closed in 2014) and operated something like Bell Labs and Xerox Parc did in, and for, the PC industry: it developed the open source robotics software system (ROS) and the TurtleBot and PR2. Willow Garage funded 60 research scientists each year in an ever-changing cadre that have since migrated to prominent robotics startups and businesses around the Bay Area (and world), all stimulated by an altruistic billionaire.
The Odense cluster
“The Odense cluster began 25 years ago when Maersk was planning to build an advanced shipyard in Odense and robotic welding and the advanced software for operating self-programming robots were to play big roles. They sought help and made sizeable donations to South Denmark University (SDU). Many of the key people in today’s robot scene were educated during that period, (e.g., Claus Risager was a project engineer at the shipyard and now heads the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) with a robotics division in Odense. Enrico Iversen, Thomas Visti and Esben Østergaard, CEO, COO and CTO of Universal Robots (UR), all graduated from SDU). As the shipyard closed the robotics people moved around. The SDU assisted in the creation of UR. The MIR people [a recent mobile robotics startup in Odense with Thomas Visti as CEO] were involved in the early stage of UR. It is all a very well connected community. At the same time the Danish culture is very much a sharing one and much less competitive than the US system. As the shipyard closed down the Mayor and local politicians have been very supportive of the creation of new companies to support the local economy. Many people from that time have been key to the success. It is an ideal combination of technology, business development and entrepreneurs,” said Henrik Christensen, a Dane that was a founder of EURON and later headed the US group that produced the American Roadmap for US Robotics. Christensen is now the director of the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego.
Clusters often ride on the coattails of successful companies. This is certainly the case with the Odense cluster. Universal Robots (UR) has become a country-wide hero in Denmark and particularly in Odense, where it is headquartered and where it employs 300+ people. Universal Robots recently sold to an American supplier of test equipment, Teradyne, for $315.4 million (according to Teradyne’s Edgar filing) making many of UR’s top people multi-millionaires. And those very same people are already reinvesting some of their money in new ventures in Odense.
The Odense cluster is multi-layered. They cooperate with national government-sponsored organizations such as RoboCluster; they work hand-in-hand with the main local university (U of Southern Denmark) and hundreds of other robot companies, research organizations and national clusters and networks. The chart below – which you can enlarge by clicking on it – provides details of the 30+ higher education programs, 10+ knowledge and research institutes, 80+ robot and automation companies and 10+ clusters and networks, plus the 2,200+ robotics-related jobs in the Odense area.
On my visit I asked each person I met whether they had personally received any support from the Danish or Odense cluster and each offered a story or two that showed they had a favorable impression of those interactions, particularly with the Odense apparatus. One person said he was able, through the mayor’s office, to expedite a zoning approval; another was able to work with the university (University of Southern Denmark) regarding research and finding talent; another said he got help finding local vendors capable of sub-contracting their needs; and many told me about encouraging foreign visits and assisting with foreign visitors. Others taught classes at SDU and hosted open houses at their robotics-related companies. They all told me about timely investments made by the Danish Growth Fund and other state-sponsored funding entities. I’d say that since everybody I talked with could cite an example of how they were helped by and spoke favorably toward the cluster, that the cluster was operating successfully.
Another mark of a good cluster is the ability to provide local, regional and international media with timely newsworthy facts and figures; not just generic publicity but real and timely information. Universal Robots is a classic example: from their beginning they have had a bevy of PR firms working for them and operating from a policy of always providing real information, no matter the situation or circumstance.
Bottom Line:
Generosity is a mental health principle: it is therapeutic. Lack of generosity takes many forms: tightness, negativity and elitism. There are many robotics clusters around the world successfully providing for the needs of their respective communities and a few not really achieving their desired goals. Odense and the Danish clusters certainly fall into the former category of successfully meeting the needs of their communities. In my opinion, they do so because they are organized at every level to be offering and have people in place that are business smart, humble and cooperative in approach, and public-spirited and generous in nature.
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September continued the big-money spree for funding robotic startups. 10 good-sized deals and three little ones. Almost $220 million (bringing the year-to-date total well over $1 billion)! Plus another $2.2 billion paid in September for six acquisitions.
Fundings
Carbon 3D, a Silicon Valley 3D printer startup, raised $81 million from a group of 6 investors led by BMW Group and Sequoia Capital, GE, Nikon, JSR and GV. The funds will be used for international expansion. Parts made on Carbon machines, using the company’s resins and elastomers, have different mechanical properties and a smoother surface than parts produced on traditional CNC machines because they’re not deposited layer by layer, cut or milled. Instead, they’re sculpted by precisely applying light and oxygen to a liquid pool of material. BMW and Ford are early users of this technology. Carbon CEO and co-founder Joe DeSimone said:
“We believe that 3-d printing is a misnomer. It’s historically 2-d printing over and over again and the breakthrough we [had] and wrote about in the research journal Science laid out our approach where we use light and oxygen to grow parts.”
Zymergen, a Silicon Valley integrator of lab robotics in industrial biotech, raised $42 million in a Series A funding led by Data Collective and including AME Cloud Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurveston, HVF, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures, True Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures.
Mazor Robotics (in August) completed the second tranche of the equity investment by Medtronic pursuant to a previously executed agreement between the parties. Mazor issued new securities representing 3.40% percent of Mazor's issued and outstanding share capital at a price equal to an aggregate purchase price of $20 million.
Saildrone, an Alameda, CA startup, raised $14M in a Series A funding round led by Social Capital with additional funds from Capricorn Investment and Lux Capital. The funding will be used to expand Saildrone's fleet of sailing drones, enhance Saildrone's data processing capacity, and scale commercial operations.
Drone Racing League has raised $12 million in new VC funding co-led by Lux Capital and RSE Ventures. Other backers include MGM, Sky Prosieben, Hearst Ventures, CAA Ventures, Vayner/RSE, Courtside Ventures, Sierra Maya Ventures and individual angels.
Sarcos Robotics, a Salt Lake City maker of military exoskeleton robots, has secured $10.5 million in funding from investors including Microsoft, Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures, Cottonwood Technology Fund and two unnamed private investment firms. Sarcos says it will use the funds to grow its team and bring its Guardian line of robotics to market. Beyond the obvious military applications, Sarcos envisions possibilities for the machines in a number of industries, ranging from oil and gas to mining to construction and manufacturing.
"There is substantial demand for robots that can carry out challenging tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans. Our human-operated robots are designed to perform meaningful, highly dexterous work in real-world settings while keeping people out of harm’s way,” said Ben Wolff, Sarcos’ CEO.
Rapyuta Robotics, a spin-off from the ETH Zurich, recieved $10M in a Series A funding round from SBI Investments, a Japanese VC. Funding will be used to support and expand its engineering team in order to accelerate development of additional features and new products, testing, and product release schedules plus funding of sales, and marketing efforts. Rapyuta is aiming to commercialize the RoboEarth project of enabling robots to talk and learn with and from other robots over the cloud.
Mavrx, a San Francisco startup using imagery and data to make prescriptions for the ag industry, raised $10M in a Series A round led by Eclipse with Bloomberg Beta and Visionnair Ventures.
Titan Medical, a Canadian startup involved in the design and development of a robotic surgical system, completed a public offering which raised $7.2 million. John Hargrove, Titan’s CEO, said: “We believe we have [with these new funds] sufficient funds on hand to enable us to move forward with the advancement of human factors and usability studies of the surgical system."
Navisens, a SF software, systems and AI startup, got $2.6 million in seed funding in a round led by Resolute Ventures with participation from KEC Ventures, Amicus Capital, Arba Seed Investment Group, and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. The company is introducing its patent-pending technology, motionDNA, a location solution that employs motion sensors for both indoor and outdoor location solutions.
OnFarm, a Fresno, CA ag startup, got an additional $125k in seed funding from 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley VC focusing on providing seed funding and startup coaching. OnFarm is developing a network of sensors, weather, maps, equipment and historical crop data and providing analytical and prescriptive data as a service.
Appolo Shield, an Israeli startup that is moving to Silicon Valley, received $120k in seed funding from Y Combinator. The company is developing an anti-drone system to actively protect sensitive areas. Their software takes control of intruding drones and commands them to land.
Raptor Maps, a Somerville, MA startup, received $200k in seed funding from Y Combinator (in August). Raptor is providing RaaS by capturing images and providing mapping data.
Acquisitions
Apple acquired India-based Tuplejump, a machine learning startup for an undisclosed amount. This is after an August acquisition of Turi, another machine learning platform for, what Geekwire suggests as upwards of $200 million.
Intel acquired Irish Movidius, a maker of image-processor chips for drones and virtual reality for $400 million. Movidius’ chips help drones and smartphones recognize faces and read signs without needing to stream to the cloud and wait for a response.
GE pays $1.4 billion to acquire two metal-based additive manufacturing makers:
Arcam AB, based in Mölndal, Sweden, invented an electron beam melting machine for metal-based additive manufacturing, and also produces advanced metal powders. Its customers are in the aerospace and healthcare industries. Arcam generated $68 million in revenues in 2015 with approximately 285 employees. In addition to its Sweden site, Arcam operates a metal powders operation in Canada, and DiSanto Technology, a medical additive manufacturing firm in Connecticut, as well as sales and application sites worldwide.
SLM Solutions Group, based in Lübeck, Germany, produces laser machines for metal-based additive manufacturing with customers in the aerospace, energy, healthcare, and automotive industries. SLM generated $74 million in revenues in 2015 with 260 employees. In addition to its operations in Germany, SLM has sales and application sites worldwide.
Hocomo, a Swiss provider of robotic and sensor-based rehabilitation solutions, merged with Chinese DIH International to provide comprehensive rehab solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. DIH International is a corporate holding group from Hong Kong with offices in China, Korea, the Netherlands and the US. The merged entity will become a full solution provider for the entire rehabilitation marketplace.
Cabinplant A/S, a Danish integrator of food processing equipment including a sardine packing robot cell, has sold 80% of their shares to CTB, a Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) company that designs, manufactures and markets ag, dairy and poultry processing equipment. Cabinplant employs 300 people and has representatives in more than 30 countries worldwide. No amount was disclosed regarding the transaction, however based on 2015 sales of $43M (from their annual report), and presuming a 10X revenue (predicated on what GE paid for the two 3D printer companies), it seems likely the selling price was in the range of $200M to $400M.
CTB’s chairman and chief executive officer Victor A. Mancinelli said, “The acquisition helps CTB to broaden the range of poultry processing options it can offer its customers as well as expanding into new market areas for processing, such as seafood and vegetables. Cabinplant’s knowledge of the food industry and its innovative approach to product development and implementation fit very well with CTB’s approach to its core markets.”
Dag Kittlaus, founder and CEO of Siri, Inc., produced and uploaded an app into the Apple App store February 2010. The app quickly rose to 1st in the ‘Lifestyle Section.’ In March, Steve Jobs called Kittlaus to start a dialogue which led to Apple acquiring Siri shortly thereafter in April.
Siri cost Apple around $200 million. In addition to the acquisition of the technology, the purchase was also a smart competitive move because Siri was working on adapting the app to work on Nokia and Android phones. At the time they sold the company to Apple, Siri had 24 employees. As the team moved into the Apple apparatus, and for the next 18 months, Kittlaus headed the team at Apple that applied Siri technology to the iPhone 4S which was launched in October 2011, the month Steve Jobs died.
The Siri app was free for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users. The algorithms that made the app work, however, were the product of years of defense-sponsored research at SRI International. SRI spun out Siri, Inc. in 2008 to commercialize their work. This included the three Siri founders: Kittlaus, Tom Gruber, CTO, and Adam Cheyer, VP Engineering. They named the company “Siri,” a Norwegian girls’ name. Silicon Valley venture capital firms Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures poured $24 million into the technology that Kittlaus, Gruber and Cheyer built into the Siri app.
After Jobs died, Kittlaus resigned and went back to Chicago to be near his family. Liv, his mother, was a native of Norway, and met Dag’s father, Karl, when he was serving with the U.S. Air Force in France. The couple settled in Palos Heights, Ill., a Chicago suburb, and had two sons. Whenever possible, Liv took them to visit her parents and sister in Norway. Doug went to Norway and completed his MBA at BI Norwegian Business School, in Oslo and stayed in Norway for seven more years. He began his career in technology at the Scandinavian telecom giant, Telenor Mobile. Returning to the United States, he worked at Motorola for five years and then went to work with SRI and the Siri project.
Source: YouTube/TechCrunch
In 2012 Kittlaus and a small group – including Cheyer and Brigham – created a new startup, Viv Labs and their AI Viv, named after Kittlaus’ mother but also the Latin root meaning live. In May 2016, Kittlaus demonstrated Viv at a TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York. The demonstration showed that Viv was a breakthrough accomplishment in providing a single conversational user interface (UI) to recognize our words, determine our intent, and then write code to effect that intent. At the demonstration, Kittlaus said that search wasn’t going anywhere but as Viv and other new AI assistants become more capable and become the primary resource for users, people really won’t want to go back to the old way.
Now enter Samsung, 5G, and the Internet of Things. On October 5, 2016, Samsung announced that it had acquired Viv Labs for an undisclosed amount. As part of the acquisition, the Viv founding team will work closely with Samsung’s Mobile Communications business but continue to operate independently.
“Unlike other existing AI-based services, Viv has a sophisticated natural language understanding, machine learning capabilities and strategic partnerships that will enrich a broader service ecosystem,” said Injong Rhee, CTO of the Mobile Communications business at Samsung Electronics. “Viv was built with both consumers and developers in mind. This dual focus is also what attracted us to Viv as an ideal candidate to integrate with Samsung home appliances, wearables and more, as the paradigm of how we interact with technology shifts to intelligent interfaces and voice control.”
In addition to their phone business, as we near 2020, when the new 5G telecom systems begin to be deployed, starting first in Korea in 2018 and Asia in 2019 and 2020, appliance makers such as Korean Samsung foresee the interaction of their devices with the Internet in all sorts of ways. Machine-to-machine technology, including robots, self-driving cars and other cognitive computing systems that are able to make decisions and solve problems without human intervention, is here now but growing in capabilities daily, and will soon be engrained in our daily lives as the capabilities of the 5G networks kick in. Human-machine-interaction, such as that offered by Viv, will be facilitated by 5G.
[NOTE: Samsung isn’t the only buyer of this type of UI technology. Last month Google acquired API.ai, a 2011 startup providing a virtual digital assistant. In December 2014, the company pivoted to focus on becoming a developer platform for natural language processing (NLP). Their platform enables developers to create their own voice apps across a range of end markets, including the mobile device, wearables, robotics, automotive, and smart home markets.]
{NOTE 2: In a move similar to Samsung’s acquisition of Viv to enable integrating it with Samsung home appliances, Amazon just partnered with KITT.ai, another developer of conversation-driven interfaces for developers, to make it easier for developers to use voice-controlled products using the Alexa Voice Service.].
What is 5G?
5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology and offers big advances in the number of simultaneous connections that mobile networks can support – up to a million connections per 1/3 mile. Apart from providing massive capacity, 5G users will see significantly improved network speeds and low latency, well beyond the capabilities of 4G. Data speeds on 5G are estimated to reach 20 times faster than current 4G networks. Estimates suggest that 5G users would be able to download a full-length, high-definition movie in just one second. In addition, 5G is expected to come with an ultra-low latency rate of less than 1 millisecond. Existing 4G networks have a latency of 10 milliseconds. Latency is defined as the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to get from one point to another. The ultra low latency also means that advanced applications, such as autonomous driving, can be supported by 5G networks with precision.
Bottom line
Personal assistants are all about simplifying the process of performing daily tasks. They are what you would expect from a knowledgeable executive assistant to maximize productivity and minimize your involvement, a person who really knows you and doesn’t require you to explain things again over and over. The list of vendors is impressive: Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, Baidu, Microsoft, Apple, SoftBank, all the car companies, smaller companies like Jibo, and many large consumer product providers – including Samsung.
To date, none have achieved that sweet spot where end users are fully satisfied. The holdup has been the software, the need for extensive coding, and the ability to identify “intent” from sounds recognized as words. The breakthrough technology that Viv is offering is a way to change the way programmers work with computers and developers offer their products. Programmers will no longer have to instruct step-by-step procedures in rigid code, but instead they’ll just have to describe the process and intent and the AI will develop the code – it will write the programs needed on the fly. And developers will just need to add Viv as their conversational UI.
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate, led a group that included Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and seven others in a $130 million funding round for Zymergen to help the company grow its workforce and scale its operations in Silicon Valley.
Zymergen is a startup with a focus on biology, analytics and robots. The company is attempting to produce industrial chemicals used in making products such as soap, ink and paint - a $3 trillion market according to Fortune Magazine. Zymergen creates the building blocks of these products from non-petroleum sources and creates new kinds of chemicals that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to develop. The creation of the microbes used by Zymergen are automated in what they call 'Robotics for high-throughput biology.' A recent Fortune article describes the process here.
"The company has a robot workforce to do things like stir liquid around in a petri dish while human scientists supervise thousands of robot-controlled trials in a given week. Zymergen then takes the data from these microbe experiments and uses a proprietary algorithm to sort through millions of different genetic combinations to guide the experiments and develop the best chemical."
Zymergen attempts to precisely automate every step and can build and test thousands of strains enabling quicker and predictable breakthroughs. Their automated lab generates more data than manual lab work and they feel that this level of automation and analytics speeds up the data capture and improves operations and engineering.
Our platform enables us to process and prioritize the enormous volume of data we collect to efficiently explore the near infinite design space for microbes. Prioritizing from among vast exploration possibilities [by decoding biology with machine learning] is the key to successfully engineering new strains. Our proprietary software lets us review large regions of the genome to pinpoint areas of interest which then guides additional tests with increased precision and reliability.
Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston startup attempting to do the same sort of thing, also received $100 million in funding in June. With those funds the company plans to obtain 600 million base pairs of manufactured DNA and from that develop not-pharmaceutical manufacturing processes in new areas such as commodity chemicals, industrial enzymes and human health markets.
According to TechCrunch, Ginkgo currently makes products for the flavor, fragrance and food industries as well as works with DARPA to produce probiotics that will help U.S. soldiers stave off stomach bugs they might pick up overseas.
Ginkgo will also be using some of the cash to finish building Bioworks2 - a rendering shown to the right. The new, 70,000 square-foot automated facility is being built to test prototypes of Ginkgo’s designer DNA and create those new products.
Each year the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) surveys and tabulates data from its worldwide network of robotics associations. The two 2016 annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World Robotics Service Robots reports represent the IFR’s analysis of 2015 results.
World Robotics Industrial Robots
By the end of 2019, there will be around 2.6 million industrial robots at work around the world – one million more robots than in 2015. That reflects a compounded annual growth rate of 12%. 70% of those robots work in the auto, electrical/electronics and metal/machinery industries. In 2015, growth occurred in the electronics industry, which boasted an 18% rise; the metal industry posted an increase of 16%, with the automotive sector growing by 10%.
Worldwide sales of industrial robots set a new record in 2015: 254,000 units sold; 12% more than 2014. 66,700 units sold in China of which 20,400 were made in China. The IFR didn’t provide sales values for industrial robots (I guess we’ll have to buy the book).
Asia is the strongest growth market with 156,000 units for the region, a 16% increase over 2014, but that figure is much lower than the 27% projected. The rate of growth of China-made robots penetrating the market also didn’t grow at the projected rate but it did grow at a healthy 31% rate. Slower but smarter.
Photo: Robot Report
With three national 10-year plans, the current one entitled “Made in China 2025,” Beijing is attempting to stimulate the in-country robotics industry on two levels: that manufacturers use robots to increase their productivity and global competitiveness and as robot and robotic components manufacturers to reduce the amount of foreign purchases of robots. This national plan applies to service robots too.
The IFR suggested that the trends fueling this steady increase of robot installations will be led by the collaboration of humans and machines, simplified applications, and lightweight and relatively portable robots. Two-armed robots, mobile solutions and the integration of robots into existing environments will also contribute as will an increased focus on modularity and lower overall prices.
World Robotics Service Robots
1. Professional service robots
The total number of professional service robots sold in 2015 rose by 25% to 41,060 units; up from 32,939 in 2014. The sales value increased by 14% to $4.6 billion.
The IFR is projecting that during the period 2016 through 2019, about 333,000 units will be sold with a value of $23.1 billion – a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10%:
Logistic systems will increase considerably during the 4-year projection period to about 175,000 units thereby accounting for 53% of the total forecast – 19,000 logistic systems were installed in 2015, 50% more than in 2014 and accounting for 46% of the total units and 17% of the total sales in 2015
Defense will account for about 75,000 units – in 2015 11,207 defense applications robots accounted for 27% of the total number of service robots sold
Field robots (mostly milking robots) make up about 34,600 units
Medical robots and exoskeletons will account for 14,750 devices
A new emerging group will be professional cleaning robots with about 11,700 units
2. Personal service robots
5.4 million service robots for personal and domestic use were sold in 2015, 16% more than in 2014. Sales increased by 4% to $2.2 billion. [Note: Service robots for personal and domestic use are recorded separately as their unit value is generally only a fraction of that of many types of service robots for professional use. Personal service robots are produced for a mass market with completely different pricing and marketing channels.]
The IFR is projecting that during the period 2016 through 2019, about 42 million units will be sold with a value of $22.3 billion – a 40% CAGR:
31 million units of robots for domestic tasks (vacuum cleaning, lawn-mowing, window cleaning and other types) with an estimated value of $13.2 billion.
11 million units of entertainment and leisure robots will be sold with an estimated value of about $9.1 billion.
37,500 eldercare and therapy robots will be sold. This number is expected to increase substantially in the next decade.
3. Service robotics start-up companies
The combined professional and personal service robotics segment is currently dominated by 43% European, 37% North American and 20% Asian producers. The composure of start-ups in the service robotics sector, however, is quite different. Quoting from the IFR’s press release:
“It is interesting to see the rising number of start-ups in this relatively new market. Around 620 companies have been identified. The US is currently in the lead with nearly 10% of all start-ups.”
Will your next doctor be an app? A cost-cutting NHS wants more patients to act as “self-carers,” with some technologized assistance. A series of flowcharts and phone trees might tell parents whose children have chicken pox how best to care for them—no visits to surgeries required. Or a mole-checking app might tell a worrywart when a given skin discoloration looks harmless, and when to go to a dermatologist, by comparing it to thousands of images in a database.
Cost-cutters in the legal field also promise an algorithmically cheapened future. Tax software simplifies the process of filing by walking the filer through a series of questions. Documents that might have taken human attorneys months to read, can be scanned for keywords in a matter of seconds. Predictive policing promises to deploy force with surgical precision.
All these initiatives have some promise, and may make health care and legal advice more accessible. But they are also prone to errors, biases, and predictable malfunctions. Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission settled lawsuits against firms who claimed their software could aid in the detection of skin cancer, by evaluating photographs of the user’s moles. The FTC argued that there was not sufficient evidence to support such claims. The companies are now prohibited from making any “health or disease claims” about the impact of the apps on the health of users unless they provide “reliable scientific evidence” grounded in clinical tests. If algorithms designed merely to inform patients aren’t ready for prime time, why presume diagnostic robots are imminent?
Legal automation has also faced some serious critiques lately. The University of North Carolina legal scholar Dana Remus has questioned the value and legitimacy of the “predictive coding” now deployed in many discovery proceedings. She and co-author Frank S. Levy (of MIT) raise serious questions about more advanced applications of legal automation as well. The future cannot be completely anticipated in contracts, nor can difficult judgment calls be perfectly encoded into the oft-reductionist formulae of data processing. Errant divorce software may have caused thousands of errors in the UK lately, just as US software systems have disrupted or derailed proper dispositions of benefits applications.
Moreover, several types of opacity impede public understanding of algorithmic ranking and rating processes in even more familiar contexts, like credit scoring or search rankings. Consumers do not understand all the implications of the US credit scoring process, and things are about to get worse as “alternative” or “fringe” data moves into the lending mix for some startups. If the consequences of being late on a bill are not readily apparent to consumers, how can they hope to grasp new scoring systems that draw on their social media postings, location data, and hundreds of other data points? At the level of companies, many firms do not feel that Google, Facebook, and Amazon are playing a fair game in their algorithmic rankings of websites, ads, and products. These concerns, too, are stymied by widespread secrecy of both algorithms and the data fed into them.
In response, legal scholars have focused on remediable legal secrecy (curbing trade secrets and improving monitoring by watchdogs) and complexity (forbidding certain contractual arrangements when they become so complicated that regulators or citizens cannot understand their impact). I have recommended certain forms of transparency for software—for example, permitting experts to inspect code at suspect firms, and communications between managers and technical staff. The recent Volkswagen scandal served as yet another confirmation of the need for regulators to understand code.
But there is a larger lesson in these failures of algorithmic ordering. Rather than trying to replace the professions with robots and software, we should instead ask how professional expertise can better guide the implementation of algorithmic decision-making procedures. Ideally, doctors using software in medical settings should be able to inspect the inputs (data) that go into them, restrict the contexts in which they are used, and demand outputs that avoid disparate impacts. The same goes for attorneys, and other professionals now deploying algorithmic arrangements of information. We will be looking at “The Promise and Limits of Algorithmic Accountability in the Professions” at Yale Law School this Spring, and welcome further interventions to clarify the complementarity between professional and computational expertise.
This post was originally published on the website of Nesta.
You may be surprised, but I’m not. These are the people I see regularly both in Silicon Valley and overseas interacting with the robotics community. That makes them the smart money (most of the time). According to CB Insights, the 7 most active robotics investors over the last 5 years are: Eclipse Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Lux, Intel Capital, Sequoia China, CRV, and Visionaire Ventures.
As CB Insights demonstrates, old school ‘smart money’ is still making investments in robotics — just at a slower pace. Overall, the last 5 years has seen an increase in global robotics equity funding to $2.6 billion in 405 deals.
Source: CB Insights
Eclipse Ventures is a $125m hardware fund. which ‘backs iconic entrepreneurs building vertically integrated companies incorporating hardware, software and data.’ Some of their portfolio companies include; Kinema Systems, Marble, Modbot, Rise Robotics, and Clearpath Robotics.
High-Tech Gründerfonds is Germany’s most active and leading seed-stage investor across fields of cleantech, biotech and robotics, with e576m in two funds. Portfolio companies include; REVOBOTIK, Bionic Robotics, Magazino, Reactive Robotics, Medineering.
Lux Capital has $700m under management and ‘invests in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible’. Some of their portfolio companies include; Saildrone, Tempo Automation, CyPhy Works and Auris Surgical Robots.
Intel Capital has had more portfolio exits than any other venture capital firm since 2005. Intel Capital is stage agnostic, across a wide range of technologies. Portfolio companies include; Ninebot, Yuneec, Savioke, and Persimmon Technologies.
Sequoia has invested in an unprecedented number of enormously successful companies, including Apple, Google, Electronic Arts, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and WhatsApp. Today, Sequoia has robust connections to the four most innovative and fastest-changing economies in the world: China, India, Israel, and the United States. Sequoia China portfolio companies include; Ninebot, Makeblock, Quotient Kinematics Machine, and DJI Innovations.
CRV, aka Charles River Ventures, has over $2.1b under management with more than 40 years of experience in 16 funds. Some portfolio companies include; Jibo, Wonder Workshop, Airobotics, and Rethink Robotics
Visionaire Ventures has just closed a second $200m fund and is investing in companies from artificial intelligence to machine/deep learning, robotic automation, visual perception, agricultural and digital health technologies. Portfolio companies include; CANVAS Technology, Modbot, Savioke, and Zipline International.
CB Insights Drone Quarterly Financing Trends to VC-Backed Companies shows a downward trend. The Robot Report's monthly funding reports shows something different: a change in the nature of drone applications getting funded.
According to CB Insights, there was $55 million invested in eight VC deals for the drone industry in the third quarter, compared with almost $106 million invested in 13 deals in the second quarter. In the third quarter of 2015, $134 million was invested in 12 drone-related companies, part of a banner year for drone startups.
In The Robot Report's July, August and September monthly funding reports one can see a marked change in the type of drone-related company funding from previous months: all are applications-related and none are for the construction of drones. Many of those companies funded use DJI drones for their applications.
Flying drones - $95.1 million funded and an additional $400 million paid for an acquisition:
The Drone Racing League raised $12 million for drone racing contests.
Intel acquired Movidius for an estimated $400 million. Movidius' vision chips and systems are now flying and avoiding collisions in DJI drones.
Airobotics, an Israeli startup, got $22.5 million to scale up production of their inspection drones for industrial mining, sea ports, oil and gas and other industrial facilities.
DroneDeploy secured $20 million for their app that flies drones and collects data to make maps and models for ag, construction, facility inspection and mining.
Mavrx got $22.4 in two different funding rounds. Mavrx is a service provider using drones and software to collect, analyze and prescribe actions for farmers.
MicaSense raised $7.4 million. They are an integrator of sensors and analytics software which they make for drones that they resell.
PRENAV raised $6.5 million in seed funding for their vision-guided infrastructure inspection drones.
Flyability raised $4.3 million for their safe drones for inaccessible places inspection.
Appolo Shield got a small seed round for their drone forensics and shielding software and device.
Underwater drones - $15.6 million funded:
Saildrone raised $14 million for their ocean data collection drones.
Autonomous Marine got $1.6 million for their data collection drones which they operate as a service provider.
Bottom line
As the drone industry gets over the fun of flying and separates into two distinct domains: (1) consumer-friendly flying cameras and (2) the business of providing data from overhead for a variety of business purposes, one can see the commoditization process happening: manufacturers of drones are consolidating and service providers are proliferating. This is what is showing up in the funding reports and also the news as companies that attempted to do it all rejigger themselves to become service providers and/or value-added resellers. 3D Robotics is an example of the latter.
October fundings for robotics-related startups totaled $291.75 million bringing the year-to-date funding figure very close to $1.5 billion. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired reported that $390.5 million traded hands. All in all, another strong month for robotics.
UPDATE #1 11/2/2016: Supporting the “another strong month for robotics” statement is an announcement from the RIA (Robotic Industries Association) that robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in the first nine months of 2016. A total of 23,985 robots valued at $1.3 billion were ordered from North American companies in the first nine months of 2016, an increase of 7% in units and 3% in dollars over the same period in 2015, which held the previous record.
UPDATE #2 11/2/2016: Fortune originally report the funding for Rokid as $65 million. They revised it to “more than $50 million.”
Fundings
Zymergen, an Emeryville, Calif.-based biological materials engineering company that leverages both robotics and big data, has raised $130 million in Series B funding. SoftBank Group led the round, and was joined by Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, and Tao Capital Partners and return backers Data Collective, True Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, DFJ, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures. Zymergen is attempting to produce industrial chemicals used in making products such as soap, ink and paint – a $3 trillion market. By creating the building blocks of these products from non-petroleum sources and creating microbes automated in what they call ‘Robotics for high-throughput biology.’ Read more.
Rokid, a Silicon Valley and Chinese AI and robotics company with a novel Jibo-like social assistant, has raised around $50 million in Series B funding. Advantech led the round, and was joined by existing investors IDG Capital Partners and Walden International.
Navya, a French developer of driverless electric and robotic vehicles, has raised $33 million in new VC funding. Keolis, Valeo and Group8 (Qatar) were joined by return backers Rebolution Capital (now part of 360 Capital Partners, CapDecisif Management and Gravitation.
Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian mobility company, raised $30M in a Series B funding round led by iNovia Capital with participation from Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, RRE Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The bulk of the capital will be used to scale up manufacturing, hire employees and expand go-to-market strategies for the self-driving vehicles made with Clearpath’s OTTO division for materials handling and transport in factory and warehouse environments.
“Factories operate like small indoor cities, complete with roads, traffic, intersections and pedestrians,” said Matt Rendall, CEO, and co-founder of Clearpath. “Unlike city streets, a factory floor is a controlled environment, which makes it an ideal place to introduce self-driving vehicles at scale. Companies like Google, Tesla and Uber are still testing, whereas our self-driving vehicles are commercially available today.”
Oryx Vision, an Israel-based developer of solid state depth sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles, has raised $17 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Maniv Mobility and Trucks VC.
Chronocam, a French startup developing bio-inspired vision systems for autonomous vehicles, received $15 million in a Series B round led by Intel Capital, Renault, 360 Capital Partners, iBionext Growth Fund, and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.
Hangar Technology, an Austin, Texas-based developer of autonomous data capture using drone technology, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Lux Capital. Hangar is presently in hiring mode and beta testing its drone photography on real estate sites.
Optimus Ride, a Boston-based developer of autonomous driving technology, has raised $5.25 million in seed funding co-led by NextView Ventures and FirstMark Capital.
Modbot, a San Francisco startup, raised $4 million in a seed round led by Visionnaire Ventures and included Eclipse, AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures and Autodesk, Inc.
“We’re seeing the emergence of a new era for robotics. Robotic systems are being democratized and becoming accessible to a rapidly growing audience, which is a key force shaping the future of making things,” said Maurice Conti, director of applied research and innovation at Autodesk.
“Our collaboration with Modbot is aimed at advancing robotics research so we can equip manufacturers of all sizes to take advantage of technologies that were once available to only a few large companies. Modbot is a pioneer in this area and we’re already seeing great results from our work together.”
OptoForce, a Hungarian sensor maker, received an undisclosed amount of equity funding from Danish investor (and prev CEO of UR) Enrico Krog Iversen and two VCs that invested in previous funding rounds. Iversen will join OptoForce’s board of directors.
OnRobot, an Odense, Denmark startup that manufactures a grasping device that can easily adapt to Universal Robots and other co-bots, got around $1M in equity funding from Enrico Krog Iversen, Thomas Visti and The Danish Growth Fund.
Acquisitions
Delair-Tech, a French UAS manufacturer, has acquired Gatewing from Trimble and also signed a strategic alliance with both Trimble and Microdrones, a German UAS maker, to be Trimbles preferred providers for UAS solutions. 100+ Gatewing employees are involved in the sale, however, no financial terms were disclosed.
“This transaction is part of our continuing program to tighten our corporate focus,” said Ron Bisio, vice president of Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “Trimble will remain actively engaged in the market by leveraging its brand-agnostic software technology for a broader range of UAS platforms.”
Rockwell Automation, an industrial automation and information conglomerate, acquired Maverick Technologies, a large American integrator of industrial robots, for an undisclosed amount.
FLIR Systems, a big vision systems provider, acquired Point Grey Research, a developer of machine vision cameras for use in industrial, retail, scientific, traffic, mapping, and other advanced imaging applications, for approximately $253 million in cash.
Howco, a provider of construction, transportation, mining and heavy equipment spare and replacement parts to customers worldwide, was acquired by Drone Services USA for $3.5 million to add an international and West Coast distribution capability and presence. Drone Services USA plans to continue acquiring companies to enable it to become a primary developer and manufacturer of low altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and related technologies.
OPS-Ingersoll, a Germany-based integrator of robots and automation systems for the mould and die industry, sold a substantial but minority interest to two Chinese partners: Leeport Holdings and Guangdong Greatoo Molds. The goal is to optimize a strategic position in Asia through the two partners’ networks.
Shenyang Blue Silver Group (SBS Group), China, acquired 85% of the Ecoclean Group within the Dürr Group for around $134 million in August. The Ecoclean Group has annual sales of $224 million, 850 employees and 10 sites in 8 countries, and provides cleaning and surface processing systems – some of which are robotic – for industrial part manufacturers, mainly in the auto industry. Dürr is a provider of painting, sealing and handling robots for the global auto industry. Shenyang Blue Silver has 700 employees and also has $224 million in annual sales. One of their activities is as an integrator of industrial robots for material handling.
Ralf W. Dieter, CEO of Dürr AG: “We are pleased to have found in SBS Group an ideal strategic partner for Ecoclean. The SBS Group has a clear strategic focus on machinery for processing parts in engine and transmission production and will be gaining in Ecoclean a company that is well positioned in this area.”
For the next three weeks, Robohub readers can vote for their “Readers’ Pick” startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we’ll be publishing 10 videos. Our ultimate Robohub Readers’ Favorites, along with lots of other prizes, will be announced at the end of November. Every week we’ll showcase different aspects of robotics startups and their business models: from agricultural to humanoid, from consumer to industrial and from hardware to robotics software. Make sure you vote for your favorite – below – by 18:00pm UTC, Wednesday 9 November, spread the word through social media using #robotlaunch2016 and come back next week for the next 10!
We are building a platform where companies can access any kind of solution and know that it will work on their robot, drastically simplifying development, testing, and deployment.
bridgeOS, by Bridge Robotics, is a cloud-based platform to run service robot applications. It allows users of service robots to easily manage and use robot applications with different robots and different skills. bridgeOS also provides developers not expert in robotics with a framework to help build robot agnostic applications.
Emobie is a social robot companion for kids with emotional and learning challenges. Emobie helps kids to understand and express their emotions and keeps them company throughout their day.
The Internet of Robots is a system designed for easy assembly of robots. It’s internet, electronics, hardware and software combined. You can send data, manage environment data and see what your robot sees. Just pick the modules and start creating your Internet of Robots.
Autonomous solar-powered helium dirigible for long duration aerial data collection, inspection, surveillance and videography. Can do anything a multirotor drone can do, but for 20 times longer, such as, stay in position in wind, patrol, circle or fly at up 20 miles per hour along a set of waypoints.
There are 50 million students in K-12, 90% of them do not learn coding. This is juxtaposed against the 1.4 million computing jobs needed by 2020. Robolink strives to address that issue by making STEM education fun. We teach children and hobbyists programming by building and programming robots.
We provide a novel tactile sensor that can measure proximity, contact and force. Our sensor sits where the rubber hits the road in robotic grasping and manipulation and is extremely low-cost and orders of magnitude more useful than any competing technology. Proximity helps the robot to align its hand with an object and avoid obstacles. Contact sensing allows the gripper/hand to create a constraint with the object without disturbing it and force allows it to gently handle an object and better understand how the object is located in the hand. We are selling the sensor for a growing number of platforms including Rethink Robotics Baxter/Sayer, Kinova Jaco and many more to come. We are also providing full-stack software that make manipulation easy.
We are developing an end-to-end 3D printing automation platform that will power the next industrial revolution. We have turned the conventional 3D printer into a continuously-operating production line by fully automating the entire manufacturing process from design to doorstep. The disruptive nature of SD3D lies in its network qualities; it resembles a SaaS platform on the front end and is powered by an advanced IoT automation network on the backend.
We have introduced the sense of touch in mobile robots and makes them suitable for narrow and crowded environments. We have patented a tactile technology that consists of a soft pressure-sensitive skin together with a control algorithm. Our technology makes the robot completely safe because the robot stops as soon as it feels the presence of an unexpected object or person.
We have an advanced radar system, measuring just 1″ x 2″ and weighing about 7 grams. It brings reliable, robust, accurate and high-speed distance sensing to drone platforms.
Clearpath Robotics, a leading provider of mobile robotic platforms for research and development, has partnered with ARGO XTR to release Warthog – a large, amphibious, all-terrain mobile robot designed for application development. Warthog enables researchers to reliably test, validate, and advance their robotics research faster than ever before in real-world conditions, whether on land or in water.
“ARGO XTR (Xtreme Terrain Robotics) has a terrific record of manufacturing rock-solid outdoor platforms,” says Julian Ware, General Manager for Research Solutions at Clearpath Robotics. “Combined with our expertise in robotics, we’ve developed rugged platform suitable for a wide range of robotics applications in mining, agriculture, forestry, space, and environmental monitoring.”
Warthog’s light-weight aluminum chassis, low ground pressure, passive suspension system, and 24” traction tires allow it to easily traverse a variety of tough terrains including soft soils, thick muds and steep grades, all while carrying up to 272 kg of payload. With built-in bilge pumps and an IP rating of 67, Warthog is fully weather-proof and amphibious, capable of moving through deep waterways at up to 4 km/h, or travel at speeds of up to 18 km/h while on land. The all-electric, skid steer platform has expandable power allowing for a runtime of 6 hrs and can be outfitted with quad tracks for ultimate traction and maneuverability in snow and sand.
“ARGO XTR is excited to partner with a progressive robotics company like Clearpath with our platform,” says Jason Scheib, ARGO XTR Robotics Program Director. “The combination of our proven experience in amphibious and extreme terrain environments with our platforms with the progressive software and sensor integration from Clearpath Robotics, has created a second to none solution for a myriad of research and commercial applications.”
Designed for end-to-end integration and customization, Warthog includes an internal computer, IMU, wheel encoders, and mounting racks, as well as accessible user power and communication ports for integrating sensors, manipulators, and other third-party hardware. Warthog is shipped with the Robot Operating System (ROS) preconfigured and a Gazebo simulation model, allowing researchers to get started quickly with existing research and widely available open-source ROS libraries.
Zoox, the secretive Silicon Valley startup working to build its own self-driving cars, has quietly raised $50 million (in October) in a Series A round led by Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund. This brings Zoox's total equity funding to $290 million.
“At Zoox what we’re creating... is not a self-driving car any more than the automobile is a horseless carriage. We’re not building a robo-taxi service; we’re actually creating an advanced mobility service,” said founder Tim Kentley-Klay in October.
“Zoox is developing fully autonomous vehicles and the supporting ecosystem required to bring the technology to market at scale,” according to a Zoox post on LinkedIn. “Sitting at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and design, Zoox aims to provide the next generation of mobility-as-a-service in urban environments.
Kentley-Klay, an Australian designer, is working on the stealthy startup with Jesse Levinson, who worked at Stanford University with Sebastian Thrun, co-creator of Google’s driverless car project. Earlier, in May, 2016, it was disclosed that Zoox would be deploying a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles by 2020 for ride-sharing services like those Uber offers. And Zoox's description says "Zoox is developing a breakthrough, fully automated, electric vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem required to bring the service to market at scale: autonomous mobility as a service.
Zoox is one of a dozen California companies that have received permits to test drive autonomous vehicles in California. Zoox got their permit in March, 2016. Ford, Honda, BMW, Cruise Automation, Nissan, Bosch, Tesla Motors, Delphi Automotive, Google, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen were the others.
Safe Car News, a website, said, "Uber has been working on its own autonomous-vehicle project, following in the footsteps of Google and Apple Inc. The automotive industry is finding itself competing against fast-moving tech companies [such as Zoox] that are new to the world of cars and threatening to upend a century-old industry.
For the next three weeks, Robohub readers can vote for their “Readers’ Pick” startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we’ll be publishing 10 videos. Our ultimate Robohub Readers’ Favorites, along with lots of other prizes, will be announced at the end of November. Every week we’ll showcase different aspects of robotics startups and their business models: from agricultural to humanoid, from consumer to industrial and from hardware to robotics software. Make sure you vote for your favorite – below – by 18:00pm UTC, Wednesday 16 November, spread the word through social media using #robotlaunch2016 and come back next week for the next 10!
AirZaar is a commercial drone operation management & data management platform that streamlines the relationship between Drone Operators and their Clients with a SaaS business model.
Cubit is a unique hardware/software platform designed by educators and engineers to address the specific challenges faced by K12 schools. We focus on opening access to 21st Century Learning technology by removing the barriers to entry while still delivering a fun, scalable and extensible platform.
We are developing a weeding robot for home gardens. Solar powered, autonomous, and self-sufficient, Tertill maintains a weed-free vegetable or flower garden.
The ERAD (Elevated Robotic Assistive Device) technology is centered about “mobile robotic devices that don’t take up floor space.” While floor-based mobile robots may have great potential for automating processes and assisting people (i.e. the disabled and infirm or home/industrial security), their need to navigate around objects (people, furniture, stairs, pets..) makes them expensive while still not alleviating the potential for a sense of obtrusiveness on the part of the users.
LabsCubed helps create the materials of the future through innovative testing systems. Our target market is destructive materials testing, which is approximately 600 million US dollars per year. We are solving this problem for plastic producers, who have rapid development cycles, modifying plastic compositions hundreds of times to meet their customer’s requirements. The testing and analysis of these varied compositions is not automated and requires significant labor, cost, and time. Human error during testing and in subsequent data analysis can hinder and prolong the development cycle.
Modular Science is building systems that help biologists collect, manage, and process large amounts of data. Robotic lab machines are expensive and cumbersome, so most day-to-day lab work is done manually, especially in academia and startups. A huge amount of biology remains to be explored and the best way to explore it is through experiments. Doing these experiments using robotics will make them more reproducible and allow them to cover a wider range of experimental conditions, ultimately leading to a better understanding of biology, which will have impacts in many aspects of our lives.
We are producing 3D bioprinters that operate like a human, and can grab tools like a human operator would and easily create complex structures with multiple materials. Allowing Researchers to work towards creating synthetic organs to end organ shortages and tissue models to replace animal testing. Our systems are affordable and easy to use.
Parihug seeks to sell electronically connected teddy bears that let loved ones hug each other from a distance. Two people can be on different sides of the world, each with their own bear. When one is hugged, a suite of soft, fabric-based sensors detects the hug and transmits a message to the other bear. The receiving bear then hugs its owner with a gentle vibration – haptic telepresence. The bears allow loved ones to connect with each other when they physically cannot be together and brings the human touch back into technological connection.
STEMCA offers a robotics platform for EDU and DIY. The main products of STEMCA School of Robotics and Innovation Centre are: STEMCA Inventor platform – STEM Education and DIY Amplified. The most advanced, affordable and approachable (easy to use) STEM education and DIY platform with focus on robotics and automation/IoT and SPARK – STEMCA Personal Assistant Robot Kit, an advanced and affordable personal assistant robot for everyone!
ViDi develops and commercializes the most advanced Artificial Intelligence software enabling computers, machines, robots and cars to understand real world images.
"The company has a robot workforce to do things like stir liquid around in a petri dish while human scientists supervise thousands of robot-controlled trials in a given week. Zymergen then takes the data from these microbe experiments and uses a proprietary algorithm to sort through millions of different genetic combinations to guide the experiments and develop the best chemical."
