TransEnterix (NYSE:TRXC) today touted that its Senhance Surgical Robot system was used in the 1st 3mm micro laparoscopic robotic surgeries globally. The surgeries were performed at France’s CHU Saint-Ètienne and at Rome’s Policlinico A. Gemelli Foundation, the Research Triangle, N.C.-based company said, by Dr. Celine Chauler, Dr. Salvatore Aletti and Dr. Gabriele Barabino. “Patients are consistently…
Review of Industrial Automation Shenzhen (IAS) Show and Conference
Conferences and trade shows can be informative and offer an opportunity to explore new places, meet new people and get hands-on with new technologies. June’s Industrial Automation Shenzhen (IAS) trade show and conference took place in one of China’s fastest developing and most technologically sophisticated cities. We sent our new research associate, Muyuan Li, to…
UGV Vendors Take National Security Dispute to Court
Robo-Team has accused fellow UGV maker Endeavor Robotics of suggesting that it was under foreign influence while lobbying Congress. Endeavor has filed a legal motion to dismiss the complaint.
Titan Medical closes $7m offering
Titan Medical (TSX:TMD) said today that it closed a stock offering worth about $7 million for the Sport robot-assisted surgery platform it’s developing. The round consisted of two tranches, according to Toronto-based Titan: an initial round worth $5.7 million (C$7.3 million) and a subsequent $1.3 million (C$1.7 million) tranche, for gross proceeds of roughly $7.1 million…
July 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
July, 2017 was a big month for robotics-related company funding. Four raised more than $100 million and 15 others raised $271 million for a monthly total of $919 million. Acquisitions also continued to be significant with ST Engineering acquiring Aethon for $36 million, iRobot buying its European distributor for $141 million while SoftBank purchased 5% of iRobot…
China’s appetite now focused on artificial intelligence
China has recently announced their long-term goal to become #1 in A.I. by 2030. They plan to grow their A.I. industry to over $22 billion by 2020, $59 billion by 2025 and $150 billion by 2030. They did this same type of long-term strategic planning for robotics – to make it an in-country industry and to transform…
Worcester Polytechnic Institute launches smart medical devices program
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced the launch of its new PracticePoint program that is designed to bring research, development and testing of medical devices under one roof. PracticePoint, with $17 million in initial funding, will focus on creating smart and secure medical devices that can interact with the physical world and improve patient-centric care.…
7 medtech stories we missed this week: July 21, 2017
From Second Sight’s South Korean market entry to Sanuwave’s Indonesian distribution deal, here are seven medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth mentioning. 1. Second Sight enters South Korea market Second Sight announced in a July 5 press release that it has entered the market in South Korea with the implantation…
Titan Medical adds $1m to offering
Titan Medical (TSX:TMD) today announced the 2nd closing of a public offering of shares, bringing in an additional $1.3 million (CDN $1.7 million) on top of a previously raised $5.7 million (CDN $7.3 million) for a total of $7.1 million (CDN $8.9 million). The Toronto-based surgical robotics company said it sold an additional 11.1 million shares…
ST Engineering acquires mobile robot maker Aethon for $36 million
Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) has acquired Pittsburgh, PA-based robotics firm Aethon Inc through Vision Technologies Land Systems, Inc. (VTLS), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, VT Robotics, Inc, for $36 million. The acquisition will be carried out by way of a merger with VT Robotics, a special newly incorporated entity established for the transaction. The merger will see Aethon as…
Johnson & Johnson CEO Gorsky: Verb Surgical robotics program ‘on track’
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) executives yesterday said the company is “on track” with its Verb Surgical prototype robot-assisted surgery platform, with chairman & CEO Alex Gorsky labeling the healthcare giant’s approach with Alphabet‘s (NSDQ:GOOGL) Verily Life Sciences as “computerized surgery.” “We are quite excited about our computerized surgery program. Everything up to this point in time is on track.…
F.I.R.S.T. Global competition off to a rousing start with all teams getting visas
After much uproar, media attention, and political pressure, Pres. Trump intervened and enabled all the teams headed to Washington, DC for the F.I.R.S.T Global Robotics Championship whose visas had been held up or denied to get their visas – some as late as two days before the event. Although the Afghan team got all the…
Hand-wringing hides the fact that Mexico is employing more and fewer are coming to work in the U.S.
Manufacturers, robotics associations, ethicists and media pundits are still fighting the robotics and jobs issue yet The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) cites that between 2010 and 2016, 136,748 robots were shipped to the US —the most in any seven-year period in the US robotics industry. At the same time, US manufacturing employment increased by 894,000 and the…
The ups (and downs) of tech, robotic and AI funding
SoftBank’s Pepper humanoid robot operation (a joint venture with Foxconn, Alibaba and SoftBank) has incurred a big $274 million loss while Asia more than doubled the amount of funding for tech startups thus far in 2017. No one ever said VC funding was for the faint of heart. The Ups According to PwC and CB…
This snake-like robot could be used for colonoscopies
Ben-Gurion University researchers are working on creating an ingestible snake-like robot that can navigate through the small intestine for a robotic colonoscopy. The tiny, swallowable robot, deemed SAW (single actuator wave-like robot), moves in a wave motion and is able to move through the environment of the small intestine. “The external shape of the robot…
Equashield seeks to automate hazardous drug handling: a Drug Delivery Business News podcast
Equashield’s Jason Dutcher chats with Drug Delivery Business Newseditor Sarah Faulkner about the company’s closed system transfer device and its latest move to automate hazardous drug compounding. Healthcare workers are often tasked with handling hazardous drugs, which give off harmful vapors. Exposure to these drugs has been linked to severe health risks, including infertility, miscarriage and…
ReWalk Robotics inks French distro deal with Harmonie Médical Service
ReWalk Robotics (NSDQ:RWLK) said today it inked an exclusive French distribution deal with Harmonie Médical Service. Through the deal, HMS will operate as sole distributor of the ReWalk exoskeleton systems for individuals with spinal cord injuries in France. The deal includes both the ReWalk Personal and ReWalk Rehabilitation systems for home and clinical use, respectively. “Our partnership…
Titan Medical finds partner for Sport robotic platform feasibility, validation studies
Titan Medical (TSX:TMD) said today it inked a collaborative deal with Florida Hospital Nicholson Center to engage in a feasibility and validation study of Titan’s Sport robotic surgical system as the company seeks regulatory approval for the platform. The Toronto-based robotic surgical system developer said it expects to commence the studies in the 4th quarter, with…
Robotics industry growing faster than expected
Two reputable research resources are reporting that the robotics industry is growing more rapidly than expected. BCG (Boston Consulting Group) is conservatively projecting that the market will reach $87 billion by 2025; Tractica, incorporating the robotic and AI elements of the emerging self-driving industry, is forecasting the market will reach $237 billion by 2022. Both research firms…
Mazor Robotics gets a boost from Q2 prelims
Shares in Mazor Robotics (NSDQ:MZOR) got a boost today as investors reacted to its forecast for record second-quarter sales. Caesarea, Israel-based Mazor said it expects to post revenues of roughly $15.4 million for the 3 months ended June 30, which would be a 85.5% increase over the same period last year and 24.6% above the consensus…
China’s e-commerce dynamo JD makes deliveries via mobile robots
China’s second-biggest e-commerce company, JD.com (Alibaba is first), is testing mobile robots to make deliveries to its customers and imagining a future of a fully unmanned logistics system. Story idea and image courtesy of RoboticsToday.com.au. On the last day of a two-week-long shopping bonanza that recorded sales of around $13 billion, some deliveries were made using mobile robots designed…
Baidu’s self-driving tech plans revealed
In the race to develop self-driving technology, Chinese Internet giant Baidu unveiled its 50+ partners in an open source development program, revised its timeline for introducing autonomous driving capabilities on open city roads, described the Project Apollo consortium and its goals, and declared Apollo to be the ‘Android of the autonomous driving industry.’ At a developer's conference last week…