The RBR50 awards honor technology, business, and market innovations, as well as the robotics and automation organizations worldwide that were responsible for them.

The Robot Report’s Steve Crowe is joined by Kevin Dunlap, Managing Partner at Calibrate Ventures to discuss recent robotics investments including the Berkshire Grey SPAC and Locus Robotics’ $150 million Series E. Calibrate’s portfolio includes Built Robotics, Embodied, Farmwise, Misty Robotics, Soft Robotics, 3D Robotics and more.

Softbank’s most promising robotics investments are not those targeting the experimental technologies, nor the massive funding rounds for self-driving vehicles, but rather the mid-range investments in mobile robots for industrial and commercial applications.

Retailers with traditional automated storage and retrieval systems can now scale to fully automate millions of each picks in break pack operations.

In January 2020, robotics investments and mergers and acquisitions showed continued strength across applications, even as economic challenges affected manufacturing and food service robots.

Company services Global 100 retailers and logistics fulfillment with robotics and AI systems to improve efficiency.

Recent robotics awards have been given out for innovation in piece picking, UV disinfection of hospital spaces, and agricultural product packing.

AI companies aim to tackle data problems for enterprises; new company emerges to help solve supply chain issues through robotics and automation.