Where Innovation Meets Imagination
A gardening robot has raised more than $312,000 on Kickstarter despite its owners setting a goal of $120,000.
Led by the inventor of the Roomba, the Boston-based Franklin Robotics is currently raising funds for their first release – a solar-powered, robotic weed-killer for home gardens.
Named Tertill, the 2.5-pound, disk-shaped robot patrols the garden and intelligently identifies – and whacks – unwanted plants. [Read more…] about Gardening robot raises more than $300,000 on Kickstarter
Singapore Technologies Engineering has acquired Aethon and its autonomous mobile robot, TUG, usually seen performing some logistical task or other.
ST Engineering is a $5 billion engineering firm with global operations and strong expertise in mobile robotics.
The value of the deal was not made public.
Aethon will become a division of ST Engineering’s US headquarters, VT Systems and will be part of the group’s land systems sector which is led by ST Kinetics, which is focused on robot technology innovation. [Read more…] about ST Engineering acquires Aethon, maker of the TUG autonomous mobile vehicles
A burger-flipping robot developed by Cali Group and Miso Robotics has received $3.1 million in financing from strategic investors including Acacia Research and Match Robotics. (See video below.)
Miso was co-founded and funded by Cali Group, which owns the Caliburger chain of fast food restaurants across the US. The company is currently specialising in automation for the catering industry.
The burger-flipping robot has been named “Flippy”, appropriately enough, and was the first robotic product developed by Miso, and the company has since developed numerous automation applications for the robot, including preparation, grilling, frying, and so on. [Read more…] about CaliBurger’s ‘Flippy’ robot gets $3 million to flip burgers
Boston has become one of the main centres for robotics technologies in recent years, with many well-known companies emerging from the area.
Perhaps with this in mind, the Toyota Research Institute decided to showcase its latest developments in autonomous vehicle technology, something it’s calling “Platform 2.0” – basically, its new driverless car – to attendees at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference at MIT.
“This is the first time that we are showing the car off to the Boston-area robotics community,” said a spokesman for TRI. “This new advanced safety research vehicle is the first autonomous testing platform developed entirely by TRI, and reflects the rapid progress of our autonomous driving program.” [Read more…] about Toyota showcases its new advanced autonomous car platform to Boston robotics community
By Thomas Cutler
Until now pick-to-light equipment has represented a significant fixed capital expense with little consideration for variable use, often driven by seasonality, warehouse/distribution variance, and project management flux.
From manufacturers to 3PL (third-party logistics) companies, these swings in low or high usage represented a level of waste as purchased lights went unused and wasted.
Pick-to-light is a fulfilment technology which uses alphanumeric displays and buttons at storage locations to guide the manual picking and recording of items for shipment. [Read more…] about Next generation pick-to-light offers dynamic automation scalability
Industrial technology company Wärtsilä and the world’s largest logistics company, DHL, say they have been utilising mobile robots from Fetch Robotics to streamline warehouse operations. (See video below.)
The companies say they have completed a “successful pilot”, where they tested autonomous vehicles from Fetch Robotics.
The pilot was carried out in Wärtsilä’s central distribution centre in Kampen, the Netherlands, where the entire logistics chain of Wärtsilä’s spare parts, from order intake to customer delivery, is managed.
As Wärtsilä’s partner, DHL runs the warehouse operations. [Read more…] about DHL and Wärtsilä complete tests of mobile robots from Fetch Robotics for warehouse operations
Business-to-business publisher WTWH Media has bought The Robot Report for an undisclosed sum.
TheRobotReport.com was founded in 2008 by Frank Tobe, and is one of the leading websites in this growing sector of publishing.
The website covers robotics in a variety of business segments, including transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and even outer space. It has an international perspective, covering many countries around the globe. [Read more…] about WTWH Media buys The Robot Report
Denso Robotics has opened its latest and “most modern” sales, application and training center, located 40 minutes northeast of Cincinnati.
The Denso Robotics sales, application and training Center in West Chester, Ohio provides production operators, programmers and maintenance personnel training on the finer points of today’s cutting edge robotic arms, controllers and applications.
Staffed with experts in their field, the center is designed to serve Denso Robotics’ customers in the Midwest, East Coast and Southern regions of the country. [Read more…] about Denso opens new sales and training centre as it celebrates 50 years
The fast-growing North American robotics and automation market is creating new kinds of jobs, according to the Association for Advancing Automation, or A3.
The association says new technologies, such as collaborative robots and advanced vision systems are driving growth and diversity of employment in the sector.
Jeff Burnstein, who has a number of roles in the association including A3 president, says: “Automation technologies are fueling entirely new categories of jobs – really creating the jobs of the future – in addition to enabling companies to become more productive and create higher-quality products in safer environments.” [Read more…] about North American robotics market growing and creating new types of work, says A3
Well-funded startup Genesis Robotics has accelerated the development of a range of products based on its “ground-breaking” technology, which the company claims will transform the entire industry.
All of the new products Genesis has developed are based on something it calls LiveDrive, an actuator system which uses a gear with no teeth, invented by the company itself.
Making a gear work without teeth sounds impossible – how does it move connected parts without teeth? Imagine a gear on a bicycle without teeth and you’ll get the picture. [Read more…] about Genesis Robotics accelerates development of prototypes based on its ‘revolutionary’ LiveDrive actuator
