Robotics & Automation News

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Boston Dynamics bring its canine robot to market

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Boston Dynamics is making its canine robot, Spot, available to the market in limited numbers and to select customers. (See video.)

This is the first time Spot will be on sale and most of Boston Dynamics’ robots are still in various stages of research and development, most famously perhaps its humanoids, but also its unusual “Handle” material handling robot, which is basically a robotic arm on two wheels.

Boston Dynamics describes Spot as “a nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors”. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics bring its canine robot to market

Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot shows off its gymnastic skills

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Boston Dynamics, the much-talked-about maker of humanoid and canine robots, has been demonstrating the gymnastic skills of one of its robots, Atlas. (See video below.)

Atlas is about 1.5 metres tall, weighs approximately 80 kg, and has 28 hydraulic joints.

The Boston Dynamics team have always impressed with their ability to mimic natural human or canine movements with their robots, and the new gymnastic skills they have taught Atlas are equally as accomplished. [Read more…] about Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot shows off its gymnastic skills

Festo opens development centre in Boston, USA

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Automation specialist Festo has officially opened its first development centre for components and automation solutions specifically for the life science market in Boston, USA.

The USA is at the forefront of the global life science market. This is where most industry-relevant innovations and new technologies emerge.

In order to participate in these developments at an early stage, Festo began setting up a Technical Engineering Center (TEC) in Boston at the end of 2017.

[Read more…] about Festo opens development centre in Boston, USA

Growing demand for consumer robots will lead to global spending on robots increasing to $87 billion by 2025, says BCG

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The global market for robotics is growing far faster than expected and is projected to reach $87 billion by 2025, according to new research by the Boston Consulting Group.

Updating its previous estimate of $67 billion from three years ago, the management consulting firm recently revised its forecast sharply higher, mostly because of soaring consumer demand.

In a new paper released today, Gaining Robotics Advantage, BCG projects an additional $14 billion of growth in the consumer sector to $23 billion, an increase of 156 per cent over its earlier estimate.  [Read more…] about Growing demand for consumer robots will lead to global spending on robots increasing to $87 billion by 2025, says BCG

SoftBank to buy Boston Dynamics, the maker of those unnervingly realistic humanoid and canine robots

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SoftBank, the maker of the Pepper and Nao humanoid robots, has reached a deal to buy Boston Dynamics, the robotics business owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. 

Some of the robots Boston Dynamics has been building a wide range of robots, some of which are humanoid, others canine and one or two wheeled – or a hybrid of these structures.

But whatever robots the company has made, they’ve been widely acclaimed as having some of the most realistic movements and best balance of any robots made anywhere – watching them move can be quite unnerving because they move almost exactly like humans or canines.  [Read more…] about SoftBank to buy Boston Dynamics, the maker of those unnervingly realistic humanoid and canine robots

nuTonomy to test its self-driving cars on public roads in Boston

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nutonomy-grab

On-street testing will begin before the end of 2016 in Raymond Flynn Marine Park

nuTonomy, the developer of software for self-driving cars, has signed a deal with the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that authorizes nuTonomy to begin testing its growing fleet of self-driving cars on specific public streets in a designated area of Boston.

nuTonomy will begin testing its self-driving Renault Zoe electric vehicle before the end of the year in the Raymond L Flynn Marine Park in the Seaport section of the city.

nuTonomy outfits its vehicles with a state-of-the art software system, which has been integrated with high-performance sensing and computing components, to enable safe operation without a driver.  [Read more…] about nuTonomy to test its self-driving cars on public roads in Boston

Google to sell robotics business

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Google appears to be looking to leave the robotics business if a report on the Bloomberg website is anything to go by. 

The search giant created Alphabet as a sort of parent company that manages all of its many business units and diverse interests. It is Alphabet’s management which seems to have made the decision to sell.

Boston Dynamics, which created some of the most impressive robots seen so far, in the form of the humanoid Atlas and the four-legged machine that walks like a dog or other small animal.

Bloomberg reports that the reason for the sale is that Boston Dynamics product, however fascinating, are not commercially viable, in that there is apparently no customers for them.

Full story at Bloomberg.com. 

DataRobot outgrows Boston headquarters

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Boston Financial and Waterfront Business Districts
Boston Financial and Waterfront Business Districts

Customer and staff growth has prompted DataRobot to move to new offices in the financial district which are ten times larger than the company’s previous location.

DataRobot said the expansion had necessitated the relocation of its Boston headquarters from its original location near historic Faneuil Hall to a 31,000 sq ft footprint at One International Place, the city’s gateway to its historic Financial and Waterfront Business Districts.

“DataRobot has met and exceeded numerous sales and staffing growth targets since we founded the company in 2012, creating a pressing need for much more office space,” said Jeremy Achin, DataRobot’s CEO and co-founder.

“In addition to growing Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Customer Care functions, this move also gives us the space to dramatically increase our innovative education programs for bringing practical data science to the masses.” [Read more…] about DataRobot outgrows Boston headquarters