Bootstrapping Stretch: 'from robot to revenue to many robots'
Introducing another robotics companies that are boot strapping their way to success.
Stretch 3 is now available from Hello Robot, shipping in 1-2 weeks. And if you already have a Stretch 2, you can upgrade it to the full capabilities of Stretch 3 with DexWrist 3, Stretch Gripper 3 with D405 and wide angle head camera.
The world’s only lightweight, capable, developer-friendly mobile manipulator - ready for researchers, educators and explorers
Hello Robot have been on a slow but steady growth and improvement curve with their Stretch research, education and home care robot platform, in partnership with robot power users like Henry Evans from Robots for Humanity.
There are many reasons to admire Hello Robot, not least the beauty of the engineering in Stretch, and the fact that the small team at Hello Robot have been totally bootstrapped until now. Now not only are the Stretch robots built here in California, but Hello Robot has grown the largest mobile manipulator community in the world.
The community working with Stretch includes universities, startups, and Fortune 500 companies from over 14 countries.
Some additional notes about Stretch 3
Three years of customer feedback to create one great new robot. Going slower at the start allows for much greater incorporation of customer feedback into design iterations.
Now is the right time for Hello Robot to consider investment in order to expand more rapidly. If they choose to go that way at all!
Winner of IEEE Award for Technology in the Service of Society.
The @IEEESpectrum Technology in the Service of Society Award is presented to a company with the greatest potential to provide the most overall benefit to humankind. The 2024 honoree is @hellorobotinc, whose mobile manipulators improve the quality of life: https://t.co/5UHRBXB5Nj https://t.co/MWJN4ld6U6
Robot News
Some times you start reading robotics news in one location, and then you find more and more interesting stories, so thanks to Drone DJ this week for some thought provoking stories - particularly when you stack them all up together!
DJI Drone Ban - US to decide company’s fate on June 12th - Drone DJ
DJI is urging all pilots to ‘get involved’ amid threat of US drone ban - Drone DJ
Canada orders anti-drone firm to shut down over national security risks - Drone DJ
Chinese student’s drone photos raise espionage concerns in US - Drone DJ
Crowd chaos as thousands pack Sydney Harbour foreshore for VIVID drone show - The Age
New York police deploys life saver drones at city beaches - Drone DJ
Archer partners with South Korea’s KakaoMobility in $250 million eVTOL deal - Drone DJ
DJI FlyCart 30 makes first Mount Everest drone delivery - Drone DJ
Amazon gets FAA BVLOS approval for Prime Air drone delivery - Drone DJ
Walmart adding drone delivery option to its shopping app - Drone DJ
As US idles, UK ups its aid to Ukraine with 10,000 extra drones - Drone DJ
Ukraine on target to surpass one million FPV drone production goal, fueling wartime GDP growth - Drone DJ
Despite DJI’s opposition, Ukraine keeps buying thousands of its drones - Drone DJ
Hicks Underscores U.S. Innovation in Unveiling Strategy to Counter China’s Military Buildup - US Department of Defense
Ukraine Is the First “Hackers’ War” - For clues to the future of warfare, study the struggle between FPV drones and electronic warfare - IEEE Spectrum
Autonomous weapons: Palantir, Airbus engineers seek to calm 'killer robot' fears •
And so much more in the news … particularly regarding humanoids and LLMs..
The AI Revolution is coming for robots: how will it change them? - Nature
This is AI’s ‘next wave,’ according to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang - Quartz
Young people join robotics industry to boost its high-quality development - People’s Daily Online
Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson insists that robots are only coming for the jobs we don’t want to do - Fast Company
ARM Institute issues Future of Work study - ARM Institute
Inventory Robots Viewed as Essential Part of Store Team - Progressive Grocer
Australian miners at the forefront of the robotics revolution - Mining Technology
Future of robots depends on AI: Rainbow Robotics founder - The Korea Herald
Aramark and Pringle Robotics Team up to Deploy Autonomous Floor Cleaning Robots Across the Company’s Businesses - Business Wire
Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics show off first project: an open source robot that does chores - Venture Beat
Will Scaling Solve Robotics? The idea of solving the biggest robotics challenges by training large models is sparking debate - IEEE Spectrum
See also paywalled articles:
Three reasons why it’s good news that robots are getting smarter - The Economist
The quest to build robots that look and behave like humans - The Economist
Robots are suddenly getting cleverer. What’s changed? - The Economist
Robot Events
IEEE Workshop on Manufacturing for your Deep Tech and Robotics Startup
Do you have questions about any stage of your journey to manufacturing many? We connect you with experienced mentors in a series of q&a sessions. Also introducing the IEEE RAS Manufacturing Checklist - a comprehensive directory and resource.
Hosted by Silicon Valley Robotics at SRI International in Menlo Park
June 13 1pm to 5pm
https://robotstartupmfg.eventbrite.com
I’m also going to…
Senior Living Innovation Forum - Palm Springs - Sun/Mon June 9-10
Robotics Invest - Boston - Tues/Wed June 11-12
Manufacturing Workshop for Robotics Startups - Menlo Park - Thur June 13
Xooglers GenAI & Robotics - Multiverse - Monday June 17
TYE Global Young Entrepreneurs - TriValley - June 19
Build Night, Fixit Clinic and Sewing @ Circuit Launch - Friday June 21
Some more robotics conferences:
ISMR (Medical Robotics) 2024 : Jun 03 - Jun 05, 2024 . Atlanta, Georgia, United States
AIM 2024 Boston MA 14 July - 18 July
RSS Delft NL July 15-19
EMBC Orlando FL July 15-19
Humanoid Robotics Festival Lima Peru Aug 14-15-16
CASE 2024 Puglia Italy 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2024
BioRob Heidelberg DE 1 Sep-Sep 4
Commercial UAV Expo : Sep 03 - Sep 05, 2024 . Las Vegas, United States of America
CLAWAR 2024 Kaiserslauten DE Sep 4 - Sep 6
Actuate Summit : Sep 18, 2024 . San Francisco, United States of America
ICRA@40 Rotterdam NL 23 Sep - 26 Sep
ANTS (Swarm robotics) 2024 : Oct 09 - Oct 11, 2024 . Konstanz, Germany
IROS 2024 AbuDhabi 14 Oct - 18 Oct
FabTech Orlando 15 Oct -17 Oct
ROSCon Odense DK 21 Oct - 23 Oct
CORL Munich DE 6 Nov - 9 Nov
IEEE Future of Telepresence Pasadena CA 16 Nov - 17 Nov
Humanoids 2024 Nancy FR 26 Nov - 28 Nov
ProMat : Mar 17 - Mar 20, 2025 . Chicago, United States of America
ICRA 2025 Atlanta Georgia 17 May - 23 May 2025
If AGI is achieved, creating a fully automated robot would be amazing. It could do many things.