Daily Crunch: Bing has a child porn problem
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you… Read more »
Category: Robotics
World’s most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center in Japan
The world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence startup SenseTime has set foot in Japan. The Beijing-based firm announced on Friday that it just opened a self-driving facility in Joso, a historic city… Read more »
Is Samsung getting serious about robotics?
A funny thing happened at Samsung’s CES press conference. After the PC news, 8K TVs and Bixby-sporting washing machines, the company announced “one more thing,” handing over a few brief… Read more »
Misty’s adorable robotics platform ships in April for $2,399
The road to consumer robots is littered with the remains of failed startups. Jibo and Kuri mark two recent examples of just how hard it is bringing such a device… Read more »
Ubtech shows off pair of humanoid robots at CES
You’d be forgiven for not knowing the name Ubtech, Honestly, I wasn’t really familiar with the Chinese company until late 2017, when they brought a biopedal stormtrooper robot by our… Read more »
Watch the ANYmal quadrupedal robot go for an adventure in the sewers of Zurich
There’s a lot of talk about the many potential uses of multi-legged robots like Cheetahbot and Spot — but in order for those to come to fruition, the robots actually… Read more »
UK police release airport drone suspects and admit there may not have been any drones after all
Less than a week after mystery drones grounded flights at the U.K’s second largest airport, wreaking havoc on as many as 140,000 people’s travel plans for the Christmas period, police have… Read more »
Drones ground flights at UK’s second largest airport
Mystery drone operator/s have grounded flights at the UK’s second largest airport, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people hoping to get away over the festive period…. Read more »
Anki’s Vector is getting Alexa access next week
Vector’s already got the adorable bit down, courtesy of a team staffed by former Pixar and Dreamworks animators. But Anki’s grownup version of Cozmo can use a bit of help… Read more »
Robot couriers scoop up early-stage cash
Joanna Glasner Contributor More posts by this contributor Bots replacing office workers drive big valuations Getting personal: Funding rises for software-driven tastemakers Much of the last couple of decades of… Read more »
The International Space Station’s new robot is a freaky floating space Alexa
Meet Cimon. The 3D-printed floating robot head was developed by Airbus for the German Space Agency. He’s been a crew member of the International Space Station since June, though as… Read more »
Toyota taps Docomo 5G to remotely control its humanoid robot
Toyota introduced T-HR3 to the world right around this time last year. The humanoid robot is capable of mimicking to the motions of a plugged-in human, a la Pacific Rim… Read more »
Mars Lander InSight sends the first of many selfies after a successful touchdown
Last night’s 10 minutes of terror as the InSight Mars Lander descended to the Martian surface at 12,300 MPH were a nail-biter for sure, but now the robotic science platform… Read more »
That night, a forest flew: DroneSeed is planting trees from the air
Wildfires are consuming our forests and grasslands faster than we can replace them. It’s a vicious cycle of destruction and inadequate restoration rooted, so to speak, in decades of neglect… Read more »
China’s Geek+ raises $150M to build robots for warehouses and logistics
One of the most immediate — and already live — applications for robotics and artificial intelligence in general has been in using unmanned robots in warehouses and other environments, where… Read more »
They’re making a real HAL 9000, and it’s called CASE
Don’t panic! Life imitates art, to be sure, but hopefully the researchers in charge of the Cognitive Architecture for Space Exploration, or CASE, have taken the right lessons from 2001:… Read more »
Kindred’s robots help retailers handle fulfillment centers — and take on Amazon
Since taking the reins as chief executive of Kindred at the beginning of the year, Jim Liefer has been focused on commercializing his company’s autonomous robots. But unlike forward-projecting use-cases… Read more »
Universal Robots snags 20 Rethink refugees after bot maker goes belly up
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, they say, and in the aftermath of Rethink Robotics shutting down last month there were plenty of good minds looking avoid that… Read more »
Burgerbot startup Creator hires inventor of Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog
Disney Imagineering animatronics wizard Dr. Martin Buehler is a legend in the robotics world. His work leading development of the galloping Big Dog quadruped at Boston Dynamics both inspired and… Read more »
Material Impact, a new fund focused on materials technology, just closed its debut fund with $110 million
Material Impact, a Waltham, Mass.-based firm that says it “transforms materials into companies that make an impact,” has closed its debut fund with $110 million in capital commitments from a… Read more »
TWIICE One Exoskeleton furthers the promise of robotic mobility aids
Few things in the world of technology can really ever be said to be “done,” and certainly exoskeletons are not among their number. They exist, but they are all works… Read more »
Reef-rejuvenating LarvalBot spreads coral babies by the millions
The continuing die-off of the world’s coral reefs is a depressing reminder of the reality of climate change, but it’s also something we can actively push back on. Conservationists have… Read more »