robotics

The key theme of SAS Open D[N]A Café on March 4 was symbiotic robotics, the interaction between humans and robots. The host of this café, Arthur de Crook, interviewed Jaimy Siebel and Joost van de Loo of RoboValley, the thriving robotics community driven by TU Delft Robotics Institute. RoboValley aims to stimulate the development of intelligent robotics by furthering collaboration between industry, government and academia. Here are some takeaways.

Locus Robotics announces $150 million in funding. This makes the valuation of this provider of warehouse automation to $ 1 billion. Locus will use the new investment to further expand its global market and finance research and development (R&D).

German Bionic, manufacturer of robotic exoskeletons, has closed US $20 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and MIG AG with participation from Storm Ventures, Benhamou Global Ventures, and IT Farm. The financing round will enable German Bionic to expand its market and technology leadership for connected exoskeletons as well as ramp up development of its unique cloud robotics platform.

Expansion of Septentrio’s Research & Development team enables the company to further accelerate the realization of its cutting-edge GNSS/INS solutions for professional and industrial applications in  robotics, construction, survey and mapping, maritime, logistics and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, a multi-disciplinary initiative examining how emerging technologies are changing the nature of work, has released three research briefs focused on manufacturing. The briefs examine the adoption of new technologies by U.S. manufacturers as well as the development of new transformative manufacturing technologies: additive manufacturing (AM) and industrial robotics.

The finalists of the 16th Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics & Automation (IERA) showcase the latest skills robots have acquired to assist humans at work: OnRobot’s applicant is an intelligent gripper named RG2-FT: With the fingertips it “feels” and picks up delicate materials like thin glass or test samples and passes them on to humans. The second finalist is Photoneo’s high resolution MotionCam-3D. This 3D scanner captures quick moving objects and delivers the sharpest eyes in the world for industrial robots – even under sunlight.  

Swiss researchers suggest that teaching materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science, biology and chemistry as a combined discipline could help students develop the skills they need to create lifelike artificially intelligent (AI) robots as researchers.

The IBM Watson Center Munich had it’s Grand Opening on 16 Feb 2017 in the Munich’s Highlight Towers. On the 23rd floor, IBM has impressive showcases with real moving robots and IoT devices. Our German correspondent Dr. Harald Karcher visited the robots several times from 2017 to 2020. He provides an exclusive insight in this center of robotic innovation for RockingRobots.