Robotic knee surgery platform developer OmniLife Science said today it began testing on its OmniBotics active spacer robotic tissue balancing device at 3 US sites after having won FDA 510(k) clearance in September. The Raynham, Mass.based company said its OmniBotics active spacer is designed to allow surgeons performing total knee surgeries to quantitatively manage the…
Realtime Robotics Raises $2M in Seed Funding
Realtime Robotics, a Boston, Mass.-based startup focusing on speeding up the time a robot takes to make decisions, has secured $2 million in seed funding. Key investors in the seed round include SPARX Group Ltd., Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures, a venture capital subsidiary of Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Realtime, founded in March 2016…
Titan Medical adds to $3m private placement, plus $7m from warrants exercise
Titan Medical (TSX:TMD) said today it added an approximate $300,000 to a private placement round that closed earlier this month alongside raising $6.5 million (CDN $8.4 million) from exercising share purchase warrants. The Toronto-based robotic surgical platform developer said that it raised a total of $2.6 million (CDN $3.3 million) through the placement of 13.4 million…
Procept BioRobotics launches AquaBeam trial in France
Procept BioRobotics said today that it launched a clinical trial aimed at winning reimbursement approval in France for its AquaBeam prostate treatment. Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Procept said the 30-patient Francais Water study is designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of prostate ablation via waterjet in treating benign prostate hyperplasia in men aged 45 to 80.…
Gawking from drones: Why geofences are the coming thing in UAVs
Owners of some 20 vehicles who were recently cornered by wildfires on a freeway near Los Angeles probably don’t have much good to say about aerial drones. For up to 20 minutes, five hobbyist drones prevented California firefighters from sending helicopters with water buckets over a stretch of I-5 while the flames raged. The consequence…
Bad robot: Will you trust your autonomous vehicle?
Leland Teschler | Executive Editor If you believe the hype coming out of Silicon Valley start-ups, we are on the verge of seeing highways filled with fully robotic drivers. But numerous well-chronicled accidents among semi-autonomous vehicles have brought many questions about whether people should trust artificially intelligent cars to make good decisions. We don’t have…
Robotics exec: China may not be the only leader in robots
China may be a robotics hotspot now, but the CEO of one of the largest robotics companies in the world says its U.S. investment was a good move. Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of Swedish-Swiss automation giant ABB (VTX:ABBN), said last week that the firm’s investment in the U.S. robotics market is returning dividends, CNBC reported. “You look…
Chinese search engine leader Baidu loses another AI exec
Baidu (NSDQ:BIDU), the operator of China’s most popular online search engine, has lost another artificial intelligence expert. Lin Yuanqing, former director of Baidu’s institute of deep learning, confirmed reports that he resigned in September to launch his own AI company. The departure of Lin, who specializes in image recognition and human-computer interaction, provides the latest setback for…
Riverfield Surgical Robot Laboratory raises $10m to challenge Intuitive Surgical in Japan
Robot-assisted surgery startup Riverfield Surgical Robot Laboratory reportedly raised more than $10 million (¥1.15 billion) for the Emaro robot-assisted surgery platform it’s developing. Based on technology developed at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Riverfield plans to have its device on the Japanese market by 2020, selling at half the price of the da Vinci robot…
‘Robutt’ Helps Ford Design Better Car Seats
Ford’s “Robutt” robot mimics human buttocks to help the company design better car seats.
A KUKA industrial robot arm lifts Robutt in and out of a seat 25,000 times over a three-week period to help design seats that will help passengers remain comfortable for longer.
Wal-Mart expands testing of robots to scan shelves
Long known for its human greeters, Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) is now expanding the use of robots to make sure its shelves are properly stocked. The Arkansas-based retail giant disclosed yesterday plans to increase the use of aisle-roaming robots in more than 50 locations after a pilot test in its home state, Pennsylvania and California. The…
China’s largest robotics company opens $303m campus
Siasun Robot & Automation, China’s largest robot maker, opened yesterday a 340,000-square-foot facility able to produce 10,000 sets of robots per year. The plant, which is in Shenyang capital of Northeast China’s Liaoning province, cost $302 million and took the company five years to build, the China Daily reported. The tech-focused campus consists of a headquarters…
HTI Cybernetics acquired by Chinese investment group for $50m
HTI Cybernetics, a Michigan maker of robotic welding systems, has been acquired by a Chinese investment group. HTI, based in Sterling Heights, Mich., was bought by Chongqing Nanshang Investment for $50 million, according to a Global Times report. HTI Cybernetics, which was founded in 1983, develops robotic welding systems for auto makers such as General…
Jibo Social Robot on Sale for $899
Three years after raising more than $3.6 million on a crowdfunding campaign, Jibo the social robot is now available for the public to buy. Pre-ordered units will start shipping to customers in November.
Robotics Division Contributes to Q3 2017 Growth, Says ABB
The robotics division of ABB contributed to the company’s growth in the third quarter, with manufacturing demand still strong worldwide. The industrial automation provider has also growth through recent acquisitions, most notably B&R.
Feds launch 3-year innovation zone program for testing drones
The drone industry got a big boost from federal officials yesterday with a White House order to establish a three-year pilot program to test drones in partnership with state and local governments in specific jurisdictions. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program was announced with President Trump directing U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao to…
Robot-guided spine surgeries reduce complications, Israel company says
Robotic-guided spinal surgeries reduce both complications and the number of revision surgeries needed, according to a new report released today by Mazor Robotics (NSDQ:MZOR). The study shows that spinal surgeries performed using the company’s guidance system had a five-fold reduction in surgical complications. Such technology also contributed to a seven-fold reduction in revision surgeries versus…
Robot-assisted mail delivery testing continues to expand, this time in Australia
Another country is adopting robotics to assist in postal deliveries — at least on a trial basis. Brisbane, Australia, is now planning to test after-hour deliveries by an autonomous robot from 6 p.m. to midnight for four weeks starting in mid-November. Essentially a mobile locker, the robot will be accompanied by an Australia Post employee and…
Commercial robotics market projected to triple to $4B in 5 years
The commercial robot market is poised to nearly triple in value during the next five years, with medical robots accounting for more than 40% of the product segment, according to a report. Commercial robotics, which doesn’t include industrial robots, refers to medical robots, drones, autonomous guided robots and field robots. This year, the market for such…
Robotics fund reports strong returns entering fifth year
A robotics-focused investment fund is entering its fifth year of operations and reporting returns of nearly 40%. Dallas-based Robo Global Robotics & Automation (NSDQ:ROBO) exchange-traded fund , which claims to be the first robotics investment fund, yesterday reported generating 37.7% for its investors and attracting more than $1.5 billion in assets since launching in late 2013,…
Delphi Buys Self-Driving Startup nuTonomy for $450M
Delphi Automotive has made another major move in its quest to develop autonomous vehicles. The U.K.-based automotive supplier has acquired autonomous vehicle software startup nuTonomy for $450 million. Delphi will pay $400 million up front for nuTonomy and $50 million in earn-outs. The transaction is expected to be approved by the end of 2017. The…
iRobot reports strong Q3, beats analyst estimates
Massachusetts-based iRobot (NSDQ:IRBT) today reported a 34% surge in third-quarter revenue and easily beat analysts’ consensus earnings projections. The company posted third-quarter profits of $22 million, or 76¢ per share, on revenues of $205.3 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, for a bottom-line gain of 13.21% on sales growth of 21.8% compared with Q3…