Pieter Werner

China’s cloud infrastructure market grew 54% year on year in Q2 2021 to US$6.6 billion, led by Tencent Cloud, which grew 92%. Tencent Cloud accounted for nearly 19% of total cloud infrastructure spending in China, but remained third behind Alibaba Cloud and Huawei Cloud, and ahead of Baidu AI Cloud. The four Chinese Cloud Titans managed to maintain their dominance of the market, collectively growing 56% to account for 80% of total cloud spending.

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology combined label-free microscopic imaging with artificial intelligence to quickly detect and classify SARS-CoV-2.

Funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the latest Small Starts project led by Abbas Rashidi of the University of Utah introduces a robust, deep neural network model for analyzing the automobile traffic impacts of construction zones.

Robot combat competition BattleBots presented the official BattleBots casino slot games. Developed by Konami Gaming at Caesars Entertainment Studios during the new season taping of the 2021 World Championship. This game includes some of BattleBots’ most well known robot competitors like Tombstone, Witch Doctor, HyperShock, and more. BattleBots slots take players on a combat to cash as robots strike, swing, shove, slice, and smash with each spin.

Flow Robotics, a Denmark-based producer of robots for automated liquid handling and the creator of the flowbot ONE, announced that it has established its North American Subsidiary, Flow Robotics, Inc., with operations in Princeton, NJ. The company’s first product, the flowbot ONE, is designed to transform how liquid handling responsibilities are performed in the laboratory by automating manual pipetting tasks.

Researchers from Hiroshima University Hospital recently published a study about the efficacy of LightStrike pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection technology on surfaces contaminated with the superbug vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE). This is the third published study about LightStrike’s efficacy against VRE, a deadly pathogen that can live on hospital surfaces for days to weeks.

Velodyne Lidar and MOV.AI  are collaborating to provide robot manufacturers with enterprise-grade automation solutions, including mapping, navigation, obstacle avoidance and risk avoidance. The MOV.AI Robotics Engine Platform, combined with Velodyne’s lidar sensors, addresses the growing demand for automation in dynamic collaborative environments such as e-commerce, logistics, manufacturing and hospitals.

The global Robot as a Service market was valued at US$ 12.6 Bn in 2020 and is expected to reach US$ 41.3 Bn by 2028 at a CAGR of 15.9% between 2021 and 2028. according to a report by Coherent Market Insights. The growing need to monitor, control, and manage several operations in the logistics, food and beverage defense, and household sectors along with the increasing labor cost is driving the market growth.  

Electric Sheep Robotics has developed a robot te operate lawnmowers autonomously. Over 50% of landscape maintenance involves lawn mowing, a tedious and repetitive process made physically grueling by exposure to harsh weather. This exacerbates the industry’s labor shortages, low growth and shrinking margins. To answer these problems, Electric Sheep has created the Dexter robot, clamp-on hardware and software that turns commercial lawn mowers into self driving machines.

Deere & Company has acquired Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million USD. Founded in 2017, the Silicon Valley-based startup develops autonomous driving technology compatible with existing machines. The deal accelerates the development and delivery of automation and autonomy on the farm and supports John Deere’s long-term strategy to create smarter machines with advanced technology to support individual customer needs.