As autonomy stalls, lidar companies learn to adapt
Lidar sensors are likely to be essential to autonomous vehicles, but if there are none of the latter, how can you make money with the former? Among the industry executives… Read more »
Category: Robotics
Companies take baby steps toward home robots at CES
“I think there are fewer fake robots this year.” I spoke to a lot of roboticists and robot-adjacent folks at this year’s CES, but that comment from Labrador Systems co-funder/CEO… Read more »
Waymo’s Anca Dragan and Ike Robotics CTO Jur van den Berg are coming to TC Sessions: Robotics+AI
The road to “solving” self-driving cars is riddled with challenges, from perception and decision making to figuring out the interaction between humans and robots. Today we’re announcing that joining us… Read more »
Going fast: Buy a demo table at TC Sessions: Robotics+AI 2020
Startup founders, set your sites on TC Sessions: Robotics+AI, which takes place on March 3, 2020. This annual day-long event draws the brightest minds and makers from these two industries… Read more »
Pollen Robotics is selling a $17,000 robot torso for researchers and startups
CES has never been a great show for serious robotics. It’s not a phenomenon I expect to change at any point in the near future, though things do seem to… Read more »
You can buy Lovot’s undying robotic love for $3,000
How much would you shell out for the lifelong love of a robot pal? Honestly, $3,000 seems like a downright deal, all said. Japanese robotic startup Groove X returned to… Read more »
Pyka and its autonomous, electric crop-spraying drone land $11M seed round
Modern agriculture involves fields of mind-boggling size, and spraying them efficiently is a serious operational challenge. Pyka is taking on the largely human-powered spray business with an autonomous winged craft… Read more »
Terradepth raises $8 million to build a fleet of autonomous deep-ocean data robots
Plenty of the ocean remains unexplored, even though it’s a huge trove of potentially valuable information. Current methods for mapping and gathering ocean data, especially deep-ocean data, generally require humans… Read more »
Einride to launch commercial pilot of driverless electric pods with Coca-Cola European Partners
Autonomous robotic road-riding cargo pod startup Einride has signed a new partner for a commercial pilot on Sweden’s roads, which should be a great test of the company’s electric driverless… Read more »
Top mobility VCs discuss their current investment strategies
The mobility industry is rapidly shifting to readjust for an electric and autonomous future. Automotive companies are increasingly looking outside the manufacturing sector to fuel growth, and companies that used… Read more »
This robot scientist has conducted 100,000 experiments in a year
Science is exciting in theory, but it can also be dreadfully dull. Some experiments require hundreds or thousands of repetitions or trials — an excellent opportunity to automate. That’s just… Read more »
The ACLU wants details about videos of Boston Dynamics robot in police exercises
Back in April at our robotics event at UC Berkeley, Boston Dynamics head Marc Raibert showed off video of the company’s Spot robot in a number of different real world… Read more »
NASA’s space pallet concept could land rovers on the moon cheaply and simply
Establishing an enduring presence on the Moon will mean making a lot of landings — and NASA researchers want to make those landings as reliable and cheap as possible. This… Read more »
Antarctic tests will prepare this rover for a possible trip to an icy ocean moon
Exploring a distant moon usually means trundling around its uniquely inhospitable surface, but on icy ocean moons like Saturn’s Enceladus, it might be better to come at things from the… Read more »
Robotics startup Picnic, known for its automated pizza assembly system, raises $5 million
Picnic, a robotics startup that focuses on food production, announced today that it has raised $5 million in additional seed funding. The new round was led by Creative Ventures, with… Read more »
Atlas the humanoid robot shows off a new and improved gymnastics routine
Boston Dynamics has been teaching its old bots new tricks – Atlas, its humanoid robot that walks on two legs, can now do a surprisingly elegant gymnastics routine, tumbling into… Read more »
Take cover, it’s a drone with a nail gun!
The FAA has warned against equipping your drone with weapons such as flamethrowers and handguns. But can a nail gun really be considered a weapon — that is, outside of… Read more »
FarmWise and its weed-pulling agribot harvest $14.5M in funding
Automating agriculture is a complex proposition given the number and variety of tasks involved, but a number of robotics and autonomy companies are giving it their best shot. FarmWise seems… Read more »
This prosthetic arm combines manual control with machine learning
Prosthetic limbs are getting better every year, but the strength and precision they gain doesn’t always translate to easier or more effective use, as amputees have only a basic level… Read more »
UK police arrest a number of climate activists planning Heathrow drone protest
UK police have arrested a number of environmental activists affiliated with a group which announced last month that it would use drones to try to ground flights at the country’s… Read more »
Voyage raises $31 million to bring driverless taxis to communities
Voyage, the autonomous vehicle startup that spun out of Udacity, announced Thursday it has raised $31 million in a round led by Franklin Templeton. Khosla Ventures, Jaguar Land-Rover’s InMotion Ventures,… Read more »
Shopify buys warehouse automation tech developer 6 River Systems for $450 million
Shopify, the shopping technology developer that’s quickly becoming the anti-Amazon, has taken another step up the sales supply chain with its $450 million acquisition of the warehouse automation and management… Read more »
Reach Robotics is closing up shop
Reach Robotics, the company behind the spider-like MekaMon robot you might’ve seen on the shelves at the Apple Store, is closing down. Billed as the “world’s first gaming robot,” MekaMon… Read more »
Starship Technologies CEO Lex Bayer on focus and opportunity in autonomous delivery
Starship Technologies is fresh off a recent $40 million funding round, and the robotics startup finds itself in a much-changed market compared to when it got its start in 2014…. Read more »
Bear Robotics is raising big bucks for robots that deliver food to restaurant patrons
Some days, it feels like there’s almost no end to the number of jobs that might be replaced altogether or in some part by smart machines, from radiologists to truck… Read more »
Sphero has acquired LittleBits
Sphero and Little Bits have long been kindred spirits in the world of entertaining STEM toys, and soon they’ll be one and the same. Sphero this morning announced plans to… Read more »
Silicone 3D printing startup Spectroplast spins out of ETHZ with $1.5M
3D printing has become commonplace in the hardware industry, but because few materials can be used for it easily, the process rarely results in final products. A Swiss startup called… Read more »
Waymo self-driving cars head to Florida for rainy season
Waymo is taking some of its autonomous vehicles to Florida just in time for hurricane season to begin testing in heavy rain. The move to Florida will focus on testing… Read more »
Postmates lands first-ever permit to test sidewalk delivery robots in San Francisco
On-demand delivery business Postmates says it’s been granted the first-ever permit for sidewalk robotics operations in the city of San Francisco. According to San Francisco Public Works, the permits are… Read more »
Applications still open for Hardware Battlefield TC Shenzhen
We’re still in the hunt for innovative early-stage hardware startup founders. And by that, we mean boundary-pushers, exceptional disrupters and all-around game-changers. If that sounds like you, you still have… Read more »