Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for May 27, 2021

TerraClear raises $25 million to commercialize Robotic Rock Picker

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TerraClear, an applied AI and robotics company, announced Series A funding of $25 million led by Madrona Venture Group, bringing the company’s total funding to $38 million. Rocks in fields break machinery, slow precision farming, and take up valuable time that modern farms do not have.

TerraClear’s Rock Picker picks an average of 400 rocks per hour and can pick up rocks of up to 300 pounds each.

In the past year, TerraClear has deployed early versions of their solution that both map and clear fields of rocks. These rocks not only break the backs of those picking them up, but break increasingly expensive precision machinery that is in common use by farmers for planting, irrigating and harvesting. [Read more…] about TerraClear raises $25 million to commercialize Robotic Rock Picker

US government-funded project tests connected vehicles for lifesaving applications

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A US Department of Transportation-funded project called THEA Connected Vehicle Pilot has been testing connected vehicles for lifesaving applications at the American Center of Mobility.

The tests were undertaken in collaboration with automotive manufacturers and road operators.

The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority Connected Vehicle Pilot (THEA CV Pilot) is a $22 million project jointly funded by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and THEA. [Read more…] about US government-funded project tests connected vehicles for lifesaving applications

Trinamic’s open-source reference design ‘speeds development of end-of-arm tooling’

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Trinamic Motion Control, now part of Maxim Integrated Products, has introduced an open-source, fully integrated reference design that it says simplifies the development of industrial robotic end-of-arm tooling (EoAT).

The TMCM-1617-GRIP-REF reference design integrates hardware-based field-oriented control (FOC) and three communication ports to “shrink the design size of electronic robotic grippers by three times, while reducing development time by half”, according to the company.

The reference design features Maxim Integrated’s industrial-grade MAX22000 high-precision configurable analog input/output and MAX14906 quad-channel digital input/output to adjust the multiple modes of the Trinamic TMCM-1617 single axis servo driver. [Read more…] about Trinamic’s open-source reference design ‘speeds development of end-of-arm tooling’

Beep secures $20 million Series-A investment from Intel and Blue Lagoon

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Beep, a provider of multi-passenger, electric, autonomous mobility solutions, has closed the company’s Series A investment round with Intel Capital and Blue Lagoon Capital, raising $20 million.

The funding will enable Beep to continue the expansion of its autonomous fleet deployments across North America and leverage its learnings to advance passenger mobility service for cities, business districts and campuses at scale.

Beep utilizes a combination of machine learning, contextual traffic data and the company’s existing centralized command center data to provide vital oversight in managing high-risk scenarios for autonomous vehicles in complex geo-fenced environments. [Read more…] about Beep secures $20 million Series-A investment from Intel and Blue Lagoon

automatica launches new platform for AI and robotics

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automatica, one of the world’s biggest industrial automation trade shows, has launched a new platform for artificial intelligence and robotics.

Called “munich_i”, the newly created platform will celebrate its premiere at automatica sprint from June 22 to 24, 2021.

In addition to the high-tech summit, munich_i also features the digital AI.Society exhibition as well as the Robothon developer competition and the robot driver’s license. All elements are presented in a digital format. [Read more…] about automatica launches new platform for AI and robotics

Acieta unveils ‘versatile robot’ for repetitive and dangerous work on press brakes

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Acieta, an industrial automation specialist and a Fanuc integrator, has unveiled a “versatile robot” for repetitive and dangerous work on press brakes.

Operating press brakes is a potentially dangerous part of metal part fabrication. To produce more parts of higher-quality without adding risk to workers, Acieta introduces the new FastBEND press brake tending robotic cell.

The versatile FastBEND robotic solution can be integrated with new or existing press brakes and may be outfitted for bin, pallet and conveyor outputs to process a wide variety of formed parts. As a pre-engineered system, the FastBEND is ready for delivery as soon as twelve weeks. [Read more…] about Acieta unveils ‘versatile robot’ for repetitive and dangerous work on press brakes

SberAutoTech launches its first fully autonomous vehicle

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By David Rafalovsky, CTO, Sberbank Group; executive vice president, head of technology, Sberbank

SberAutoTech, a Sber ecosystem company, has revealed a prototype of its own autonomous vehicle for future mobility, which it has named “FLIP”.

The brand-new and fully self-driving vehicle has been developed to match the highest level in international driving automation classification. It pursues the new mobility concept providing quick, safe, and comfortable transportation for passengers through cutting-edge IT and automotive technologies.

There is a proprietary electric platform driven by an electric motor powered by a replaceable battery module at the core of FLIP. Key differentiating know-how is that fast-swappable batteries can be replaced in five minutes. [Read more…] about SberAutoTech launches its first fully autonomous vehicle

KVH introduces P-series IMUs with PIC technology and new accelerometers

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KVH Industries, a specialist mobile connectivity and inertial navigation systems provider, has introduced the P-1750 IMU and the P-1725 IMU to complement the previously released P-1775 IMU and create a full line of IMUs that feature high-performance accelerometers and KVH’s patented photonic integrated chip (PIC) technology.

The KVH P-series IMUs are offered in the same proven, compact IMU housing design, and now offer more dynamic and accurate sensor performance delivering improved navigation capability and more environmental robustness in vibration and shock capability for more challenging applications.

Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s CEO, says: “We are pleased to continue integrating our groundbreaking PIC technology into our inertial navigation products for use in the large and growing autonomous market. [Read more…] about KVH introduces P-series IMUs with PIC technology and new accelerometers