Biomedical engineers are helping develop a prosthetic arm for amputees that can move with the person’s thoughts and feel the sensation of touch via an array of electrodes implanted in the muscles of the patient.
Velodyne Lidar acquires Mapper.ai for advanced driver assistance systems
Velodyne said it is adding Mapper.ai mapping and localization software to advance its revolutionary lidar-centric advanced driver-assistance systems.
Acutronic Robotics fails to find funding for H-ROS for robot hardware
Acutronic Robotics, which was involved in the development of ROS2 and MARA, the first robot to run on the open-source operating system, was unable to agree on funding or acquisition.
Fetch Robotics raises $46M for autonomous mobile robots
Fetch Robotics raised $46 million in Series C funding for its autonomous mobile robots. Fetch Robotics has now raised $94 million to date.
Freedom Robotics raises seed funding for robotics dev tools, fleet controls
Freedom Robotics, which is making cloud and on-device software for managing robots and robotic fleets, closed a $6.6 million seed round.
New bonding technology for high-volume projects: DATA MODUL is a pioneer of hybrid bonding
The demand for touch displays for the professional/industrial sector is also continuing to grow constantly. In order to meet this growing and very different demand, such as for quantities, diagonals, technology etc., DATA MODUL is extending its offer of bonding technologies with an additional process: hybrid bonding. This technology is new to the market and…
OpenAI partners with Microsoft on $1B expansion of Azure for AI
Microsoft is investing $1 billion in OpenAI to build out Microsoft Azure to support artificial general intelligence.
15 European robotics startups to watch
After its second call for projects, RobotUnion awarded 20 projects funding and mentoring for the next phase of the competition.
Top 10 ROS-based robotics companies in 2019
Not only is the Robot Operating System the standard for research, but it is also increasingly the foundation for commercial robots. Here are 10 ROS-based companies, plus some honorable mentions.
SiLC takes modular, FMCW approach to lidar for self-driving cars, robots
SiLC is building lidar systems that get extra information out of photons while being safer for humans.
Meet 10-year-old robotics prodigy Michael Wimmer
The future of the robotics industry is in good hands. Meet 10-year-old Michael Wimmer, a robotics prodigy who lives just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. We caught up with Wimmer at the Robotics Summit & Expo 2019 If you don’t know Wimmer, the video above offers a chance to learn a little about him. What an…
Electronic skin could give robots an exceptional sense of touch
Robots and prosthetic devices may soon have a sense of touch equivalent to, or better than, the human skin with the Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin (ACES), an artificial nervous system developed by researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The new electronic skin system has ultra-high responsiveness and robustness to damage, and can be…
Multi-tool mount enables 1 UR e-Series cobot to use 3 grippers
New Scale Robotics (NSR) has announced the first multi-tool mounting system for Universal Robots (UR) e-Series cobots. The NSR-MTM-3-URe Multi-Tool Mount (NSR-MTM) allows users to mount and control up to three grippers or other tools on one UR e-Series cobot. The NSR-MTM System allows users to quickly set up and perform multiple processes with one robot.…
Toolcraft turns to UR e-Series cobots to save on production, increase throughput
In this case study, Toolcraft had to take on a third shift and precisely move medical parts in its CNC machine. With an integrator’s help, the machine shop used a UR5e cobot to increase production.
MiR500 mobile robot helps Cabka automate pallet transport
Germany-based Cabka Group recycles post-industrial plastics into pallets and other material handling products. Cabka North America’ 400,000-square-foot plant in the St. Louis, Missouri area runs 24/7 to manufacture about 5,000 pallets per day. But Cabka is challenged by labor shortages due to high turnover of temporary workers, which leads to expensive downtime. At Cabka North…
Robo Firefly drone goes small for efficiency, waits on crowdfunding
Robo Firefly ultralight drone faces headwinds in crowdfunding campaign.
Challenges of building haptic feedback for surgical robots
Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a modern technique that allows surgeons to perform operations through small incisions (usually 5-15 mm). Although it has numerous advantages over older surgical techniques, MIS can be more difficult to perform. Some inherent drawbacks are: Limited motion due to straight laparoscopic instruments and fixation enforced by the small incision in…
Smart manufacturing trends analyzed in GP Bullhound report
Smart manufacturing isn’t spreading at an even rate around the world, but GP Bullhound identifies trends for robotics developers to watch.
Perrone Robotics begins pilot of first autonomous public shuttle in Virginia
Virginia’s first public autonomous shuttle service pilot on open, public roads now live and serving the community.
6 common mistakes when setting up safety laser scanners
Having worked in industrial automation for most of my career, I’d like to think that I’ve built up a wealth of experience in the field of industrial safety sensors. Familiar with safety laser scanners for over a decade, I have been involved many designs and installations. I currently work for SICK (UK) Ltd., which invented…
COAST Autonomous to deploy first self-driving vehicles at rail yard
State-of-the-art facility operated by Harbor Rail Services in Kinney County, Texas, will become the first US rail yard to deploy self-driving vehicles.
Reader survey seeks input for The Robot Report
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Intuitive Surgical acquires Schölly Fiberoptic’s robotic endoscope business
Intuitive Surgical, the pioneer of robotic-assisted, minimally invasive surgery, has acquired Denzlingen, Germany-based Schölly Fiberoptic‘s robotic endoscope business. The financial terms of the acquisition were not detailed. Intuitive said the acquisition will integrate Schölly’s robotic endoscope manufacturing line and two Schölly sites into Intuitive operations: The robotic-related manufacturing line from Denzlingen, Germany The manufacturing site…
Intel Pohoiki Beach 64-chip neuromorphic system available for researchers
Intel unveiled its 8 million-neuron neuromorphic system codenamed Pohoiki Beach today at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Electronics Resurgence Initiative in Detroit. Consisting of 64 Loihi research chips, Intel claims Pohoiki Beach can be up to 1,000 times faster and 10,000 times more efficient than CPUs for autonomous driving, robotics and other applications.…
CloudMinds files for $500M IPO for cloud-based service robots
CloudMinds, which has developed a cloud-based infrastructure for making service robots smarter, filed for a $500 million IPO.