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Covariant was founded in 2017 with a simple goal: helping robots learn how to better pick up objects. It’s a large need among those looking to automate warehouses, and one that is much more complex than it might appear. Most of the goods we encounter have traveled through a warehouse at some point. It’s an […]
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Any doubts that ProMat has become a robotics event were laid to rest the moment you walked on the floor at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Locus Robotics planted its flag in a big, expensive way front and center in the convention center’s south hall. In less than a decade of existence, Locus has become one of […]
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If you’d told me five years ago that I would be flying to Chicago in March to attend a supply chain and logistics show, you would have been greeted by a momentary blank stare, followed by the image of a man attempting to determine in real time where his life went off-track. This is absolutely […]
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Somewhere along the way, ProMat turned into a robotics show. It’s no surprise, of course. Logistics and automation go hand in hand these days. In the decade since Amazon absorbed Kiva, same- and next-day delivery have become an industry standard. Retailers who can’t match those once impossible speeds are destined to fall behind — and […]
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There’s a broad range of thought on robot faces. It’s a surprisingly difficult aspect to get right for some very good reasons. For one thing, we’re hardwire to recognize and intuit faces, so small changes make big differences. For another, effectively they’re window toward understanding a person or animal’s mood, feelings, intentions, etc. Make them […]
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You’d be forgiven for missing this bit of news. I fully cop to not seeing it myself amid the buzz of last week’s Amazon acquisition news on Friday (knowing nod to Robot Report for pointing it out). Later that day, inside its quarterly earnings report, iRobot announced plans to cut 140 jobs — a figure […]
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Two things are for certain: 1) There continues to be a lot of excitement around warehouse robotics and 2) Geek+ is extremely good at raising money based on that fact. The Beijing-based warehouse robotics firm just raised another $100 million in funding, labeled a “Series E1,” with participation from Intel Capital, Vertex Growth and Qingyue […]
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Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion. The home robotics firm, best known for pioneering the robotic vacuum, was founded in 1990 by MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab members Colin Angle, Rodney Brooks and Helen Greiner. Twelve years after its founding, the company introduced the Roomba, a […]
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Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate-focused VC firm linked to some of Earth’s wealthiest individuals, has joined a $44 million bet on solar startup Terabase Energy. Terabase aims to rapidly build new solar farms “at the terawatt scale,” CEO Matt Campbell said in a statement. The startup claims its automated, on-site factory can already speed up […]
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Things were on the quiet side in robotland this week — and honestly, I don’t mind. It can hard to catch your breath covering the industry these days. But even a category as supercharged as robotics and automation has its occasional slow weeks — and late July/early August is as good a time as any […]
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