Interesting things about robots...
Time is flying! So here's February events and January news... and another newsletter coming up later this week.
It’s ROSCon 2023!
ROSCon is back and will be in New Orleans Louisiana on October 18th-20th 2023.
IERA Award applications due by February 28th
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award
Dec 05, 2022 — IFR and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) are looking for applicants for the next IERA Award presentation. In 2023 the event will be hosted during the ICRA conference from May 29 to June 2, 2023 in London, UK.
The IERA award is jointly sponsored and organized by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) and the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). It highlights and honors the achievements of inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products.
All submitted entries will be evaluated based on criteria that give equal consideration to both innovation and entrepreneurship. The winner will be awarded with a plaque and a $2000 cash prize. For additional details on the award and a list of the winners from the previous years, please see IEEE webpage.
In 2023 IEEE/RAS will host the IERA Award presentation. The finalists will present their innovation at a session which will be part of the ICRA 2023. The ICRA takes place from May 29 to June 2, 2023 in London, UK.
Deadline for application is February 28, 2023
And some great stories from January
While I’m catching us up on January, here’s my write up of The Robots of CES 2023. Not an exhaustive list, but most of these are companies I’ve been watching and I loved to see their progress.
And here’s one that I missed seeing in person, a dual arm humanoid mobile robot from Aeolus Robotics. The dual arms make opening doors easier and this service robot is being deployed in Japan, Hong Kong and Taipei for applications in eldercare.
I couldn’t make it to NRF, the National Retail Federation in New York this year but the secret is out. It’s a huge trade show for robots! (Even without Alibaba and JD.com).
In trade show news, AMT (SVR’s new partner) is bringing FormNext to the US in 2025, as well as Smart Production Solutions, previously held only in Germany. AMT is really expanding their offering of automated, robotics, connected and digital manufacturing technologies.
We’re going to see more manufacturing in the Bay Area as another innovative company sets up their factories. Archer Aviation is doing their early builds here before full production in Georgia.
Cepton, developer of LiDAR products for automotive has raised $100m from Koito Manufacturing Co. Cepton makes the Vista-X family of automotive grade LiDARS, the Sora-X family of industrial grade LiDARs, and also the Helius combining LiDAR with edge computing and perception software for 3D perception.
Scythe Robotics has raised a $13.8m Series A for their commercial grade robot lawnmowers. The M.52 has to tackle large areas with potentially steep slopes or rough terrain. And cope with the daily wear and tear of heavy operation.
Remember Seven Dreamers? The famous PR2 folding laundry? Foldamate? Finally there’s another laundry/drycleaning robot. Presso, founded in 2018 and based in Atlanta, just raised a seed round of $8m, bringing total funding up to $10.1m.
What’s happening in medical robotics? Quite a lot, thanks to 3D printing customized end effectors to 3D printed custom body parts for robotic orthopedic surgery. And here’s more about customized 3D printed grippers for short term manufacturing runs.
Robotics is rippling out into health adjacent spaces like cosmetics. Luum applies eyelash extensions by robot in their Bay Area salon. The startup was founded by Rachel Gold and Nathan Harding, who previously built exoskeletons.
Awesome female founder Yanwen Chen (who also has two PhDs in Computer Science) just raised a UKP 600k pre-seed round for PHINXT, which enables warehouses of any size to deploy autonomous robots without expertize, and minimal IT infrastructure costs.
Startup founders! Here’s one of TechCrunch’s BEST pitch decks from their tear down.
The ARM Institute will award $7.9m across eleven projects advancing manufacturing, ranging from Convergent Manufacturing using Multiple Industrial Robots to Ceramic Matrix Composites Pick, Place and Form Automation.
More from manufacturing, the US is increasingly turning to robots to reshore production. A recent ABB Robotics survey found that of the 375 participating manufacturers, 37% planned to reshore, and 41% were looking to increase automation of their manufacturing lines.
From the research community, specifically Kirstin Petersen’s Collective Embodied Intelligence Lab, some soft robots with complex movements.
Another great article from Brian Heater at TechCrunch Actuator, starting with some philosophy, then some startups, and then Brian is publishing robotics jobs to help both robot companies and people out of work through the recent rounds of tech downsizing.
Finally, should a robot be allowed to kill you?
More events!
Robots on Ice is returning to the Winterlodge in Palo Alto on February 26th! Let’s see those robots spin! Or curl :)
And Bots & Beer on March 1st… somewhere exciting!
Save Saturday April 8th for the Big Robot Block Party in Oakland again.
