Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

Sam Francis

Roam Robotics secures $12 million investment led by Yamaha Motor

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Roam Robotics, a company building robotic exoskeletons for everyday people as they live, work and play, has completed a $12 million Series A round of funding.

Yamaha Motor led the investment round with participation from existing and new investors Boost VC, Heuristics Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, R7 Partners, Spero Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Venture Investment Associates. Collectively these investors bring a wealth of experience in robotics, hardware, and consumer startups.

Tim Swift, Roam founder and chief executive officer, says: “Roam exists to change the boundaries of human mobility.  [Read more…] about Roam Robotics secures $12 million investment led by Yamaha Motor

Insight: How neural networks are powering autonomous delivery

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By Tanel Pärnamaa, deep learning engineer at Starship Technologies

Artificial neural networks are one of the main tools used in machine learning to convert unstructured, low-level data into higher level information. As the ‘neural’ part suggests, they are brain-inspired systems intended to replicate the way that humans learn.

At Starship, we are building a fleet of autonomous delivery robots using trainable units, including mostly neural networks, where code is written by the model itself. The robots are recording and processing large sets of data in order to recognise surroundings and how to react in real time as each situation requires.

To begin with, the robots start by gaining a sense of the world through radars, a multitude of cameras and ultrasonics. However, this poses challenges because most of this knowledge gained is low-level and non-semantic.  [Read more…] about Insight: How neural networks are powering autonomous delivery

Industrial technology provider JMP Solutions acquires Alfacon assets

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JMP Solutions, industrial technology provider to Fortune 1000 companies, has acquired the assets of Alfacon Solutions, a 35-year-old custom material handling solution provider based in Milton, Ontario.

The employees of Alfacon now form JMP’s material handling division and the company says it is “excited about the value this will bring to their customers”.

Scott Shawyer, JMP president and CEO, says: “We are very happy the Alfacon team has decided to join us at JMP. Their capabilities are world class and allow us to provide our customers with very high quality, made-in-North-America advanced material handling solutions.  [Read more…] about Industrial technology provider JMP Solutions acquires Alfacon assets

STMicroelectronics launches advanced image sensors for automotive safety systems

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Semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics has unveiled two new automotive global shutter image sensors, the VG5661 and VG5761, featured for driver monitoring.

Both were demonstrated with automotive software innovator Jungo’s driver-monitoring solution CoDriver, at the recent AutoSens Imaging conference and at Electronica 2018.

These advanced image sensors enhance monitoring of vehicle occupants by capturing the scene as illuminated from the camera, eliminating unpredictable external effects such as sunlight or street lighting.  [Read more…] about STMicroelectronics launches advanced image sensors for automotive safety systems

TCGRx and Parata Systems merge to create pharmacy automation giant

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Pharmacy packaging and automation provider TCGRx, a portfolio company of Frazier Healthcare Partners, has acquired Parata Systems.

Established leaders in medication adherence packaging and high speed automated robotic dispensing technologies, TCGRx and Parata have combined to create a new market leader focused on providing pharmacy technology solutions that support business growth, better health outcomes and lower medical costs.

Together, TCGRx and Parata currently have more than 4,500 medication adherence packagers, inspection systems and vial-filling robots installed in retail, long-term care, hospital, government and mail order pharmacies throughout North America.  [Read more…] about TCGRx and Parata Systems merge to create pharmacy automation giant

Siemens showcases sector-specific solutions and future technologies for Industry 4.0

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Siemens presented a range of sector-specific solutions and future technologies to enable the digital transformation of today’s discrete and process industries at the recent SPS IPC Drives event.

The central focus was on new products, solutions and services from the company’s Digital Enterprise portfolio designed to enable the merger between the physical and digital worlds to boost the flexibility, efficiency, quality, security and speed of their operations. To

get to grips with the rising complexity of production processes and leverage the many associated benefits, Siemens is continuously expanding and strengthening its portfolio with the integration of groundbreaking future technologies, from artificial intelligence to edge computing.  [Read more…] about Siemens showcases sector-specific solutions and future technologies for Industry 4.0

Worldwide semiconductor equipment sales drop to $15.8 billion in third quarter of 2018

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Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment fell to $15.8 billion in the third quarter of 2018, according to new data from SEMI.

SEMI is the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing supply chain.

In its latest report, the organization found that third quarter 2018 worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings dropped 5 percent from the previous quarter to $15.8 billion, but are 11 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago.  [Read more…] about Worldwide semiconductor equipment sales drop to $15.8 billion in third quarter of 2018

Google unveils cloud robotics initiative

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Google Cloud has unveiled what it describes as a “Cloud Robotics” service with a view to a commercial launch next year. The search giant says the initiative represents “a new approach to intelligent automation”.

Google says its Cloud Robotics platform will cover “foundational needs”, including “secure and robust connectivity between robots and the cloud”.

The management of digital assets can also be done with Kubernetes, which is described as “an open-source container-orchestration system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications”.  [Read more…] about Google unveils cloud robotics initiative

Kärcher Partners with the Aurora Economic Development Council

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Four powerful entities team up for new headquarter site

Kärcher and the US state of Colorado’s Aurora Economic Development Council are teaming up for a new North America headquarter facility in Aurora, Colorado, slated for opening in September 2019.

This next step for Kärcher is to improve the United States operations’ footprint to ensure competitiveness and sustainable growth.

Kärcher is a Germany-headquartered giant manufacturer of cleaning equipment such as vacuum cleaners and its annual revenues are approximately $2.5 billion.  [Read more…] about Kärcher Partners with the Aurora Economic Development Council

Vecna Robotics raises new investment and launches in new direction

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Vecna Robotics now a standalone company, separates from Vecna Technologies

Vecna Robotics, a developer of autonomous material handling technologies including warehouse robots, has separated from Vecna Technologies, creating two distinct companies.

As a standalone business, Vecna Robotics plans to play a major role in the coming transformation of industrial automation and robotics.

Powering this transformation, Vecna Robotics finalized an investment led by Drive Capital this summer to chart a new direction that will maximize both robotics and human workflow in the industrial sector.  [Read more…] about Vecna Robotics raises new investment and launches in new direction