The United State automotive industry has recovered its production capacity to 16,000,000 vehicles a year for domestic consumption. That’s a lot of cars. It’s important because car making is one of the 4 or 5 largest segments of economic activity and because of the industry’s size, it impacts the entire economy. That means on average […]
Corindus Vascular Robotics goes public
Corindus Vascular Robotics raised $42 million last week by offering 11 million shares at $3.80 and going public on the NYSE MKT exchange, a special market for small-cap growth companies. Corindus, which sells the CorPath robotic angioplasty system that aid stent placement during coronary angioplasties from the safety of a radiation-protected interventional work console, had previously been trading…
Amazon challenges robotics’ hot topic: perception
Capturing and processing camera and sensor data and recognizing various shapes to determine a set of robotic actions is conceptually easy. Yet Amazon challenged the industry to do a selecting and picking task robotically and 28 teams from around the world rose to the competition. Perception isn’t just about cameras and sensors. Software has to…
Robot Cheetah Sees, Jumps Obstacles: Watch
A new LIDAR system allows MIT’s cheetah robot to autonomously jump over obstacles in its path while running 5 MPH.
B-Unstoppable Flying Tank Drone Launches on Kickstarter
B-Unstoppable can drive through a variety of terrain, but if the going gets tough it can take to the air.
GoPro Drone Coming in 2016
Speaking at the Code Conference, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman announced GoPro’s plans to come out with a quadcopter in the first half of 2016.
Robotics Playing Bigger Role in STEM Education
Only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and interested in a STEM career.
Rani Robotic Pill Could Replace Injected Medicines
The Rani robotic pill is swallowed like a normal pill and contains tiny needles made of sugar that push into the walls of your intestines and inject medication.
Clearpath Provides a Mobile Platform for Rethink’s Baxter
Clearpath’s new Ridgeback mobile platform is capable of carrying heavy payloads, including Rethink’s Baxter manipulator robot.
Techmetics Places $1M Order for Adept’s Lynx
Singapore-based Techmetics plans to use Adept’s autonomous intelligent vehicles for the hospitality and food and beverage markets.
Two critiques of media about our future with robots
After years of alarmist comments from robo-ethicists, futurists, technologists, business leaders and pundits, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, two journalists bring some reality to the issue. Many notable scientists and technologists think that the artificial intelligence field is advancing so fast that it needs ethical guidelines similar to those in the biotech…
Swiss-based ABB to make robots in U.S.
Robot manufacturing started in the U.S in 1961. 26 Unimates were made and deployed at a GM factory in Ewing, NJ. But over the years, manufacturing and manufacturers moved offshore, until now. In fact, the industrial side of the global robotics industry has become an offshore industry, mostly headquartered in Europe and Japan. The business…
Hycopter Drone Flies for 4 Hours via Hydrogen Power
Hycopter uses its frame to store energy in the form of hydrogen instead of air, eliminating energy storage weight. With less lift power required, Hycopter’s fuel cell turns the hydrogen in its frame into electricity to power its rotors.
Reporter Battles WordSmith Robot in Newswriting-Off
NPR pinned one of its top reporters against WordSmith, an AI system that churns out millions of stories each year.
Human Driver Races Audi RS 7 Autonomous Car: Who Will Win?
The race was decided by two-tenths of a second. Find out who came out on top.
Foldable Drone Takes Off In Less Than 1 Second
Swiss researchers have built a small foldable drone that can unfurl and take off in seconds.
Bocusini Wants to 3D Print Your Food via Pre-filled Cartridges
Bocusini works like a pastry bag, depositing food onto your plate layer by layer via a heated 3D food printing head.
Watch a Drone Rescue Flood Victims in Texas
A DJI drone was used to deliver a rescue line to a family surround by flood waters in their home in Texas. Watch video of how the drone helped.
3D Printing and Material Science
3D printing continues to make headlines. From ‘printing cars’ to printing jet engine parts, the field is growing. The good news is that a lot of money is being invested by government labs, large corporations and private investors. The bad news is that there will be a lot of “weeding out” as small start ups […]
5 Hottest Robot Projects on Kickstarter
Many crowdfunding projects are unsuccessful, but these robot projects are currently hitting homeruns on Kickstarter.
Watch a Robot Win a Putting Competition
Universal Robots attached a putter to the end of its UR5 robot arm and challenged golfers to a putting competition.
Robolink 12-in-1 Robot Kit Launches on Kickstarter
Rokit Smart is a user-friendly robotics kit that teaches building and programming of robots without soldering or prior experience.