Pieter Werner

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.

NICE has released Enlighten AI for Complaint Management, which automatically identifies and categorises consumer complaints as well as automates the remediation process to drive regulatory compliance and improve customer satisfaction, reducing churn.

As hospitals look for new ways to stop the spread of germs, Elbert Memorial Hospital has taken high-tech measures with the deployment of two LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots that quickly destroy viruses and bacteria in hard-to-clean places. The robots deactivate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on surfaces in 2 minutes.

More that almost 80% of global workers want a digital assistant to support them in everyday, mundane tasks. This and other surprising facts are revealed in Kryon’s 2021 Automation and the Future of Work Study, a global survey commissioned to explore shifting attitudes towards workplace automation. 

A new Danish company has solved a well-known and previously unsolvable challenge in the metal industry. Made4CNC has developed the world’s first completely automatic door opening solution, which can be fitted to any CNC machine make in under an hour. The door opener removes the last barrier to the automation of component feeding at machine works.

Research and consulting firm Jon Peddie Research  published a whitepaper on the benefits of companion robots, including the Sony Aibo dog. AIBO—is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence roBOt—meaning in the Japanese language “companion,” “friend,” or “pal.” Companion robots have been with us for over two decades and yet, according to JPR, are still not that well known.

Monogram Orthopedics, a startup in joint replacement surgery, announced it has crossed a five thousand Series B investor milestone on crowdfunding platform StartEngine. Aiming to personalize the $19.6B joint replacement market through artificial intelligence, robotics, and 3D printing, More than 1 million knee replacement surgeries are done a year in the United States alone, a figure that is expected to grow to 3.5 million by 2030.

FedEx Ground has implemented Berkshire Grey’s Robotic Product Sortation and Identification (RPSi) systems at its station in Queens, NY. Berkshire Grey, a developer of Intelligent Enterprise Robotics solutions, executed the RPSi systems to robotically sort the thousands of small packages that arrive daily in bulk into containers bound for other specific hubs and stations across the FedEx Ground network.  

Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), launched two powerful robots for transporting pallets and other heavy items around manufacturing facilities, warehouses and logistics centers. The MiR600 and MiR1350 robots, which can lift up to 600 kg (1322 pounds) and 1350 kg (2976 pounds), respectively, are designed to safely and efficiently perform material handling tasks in challenging industrial environments.

Velodyne Lidar announced ANYbotics is equipping its autonomous mobile robots with Velodyne’s Puck lidar sensors. ANYbotics robots provide industrial operators with an automated robotic inspection solution to support efforts in monitoring and maintaining plants.