Orangewood robot arms for mfg, robotics creating jobs, mujeres en robotica and more!
Is California going to ban autonomous vehicles? Or expand?
Very interesting talk about FogROS2 by Eric Chen (UC Berkeley and Goldberg Lab) at ROS By-The-Bay on Thursday at Intrinsic. Also a fun Women in Robotics event at InOrbit’s Robot Space in Mountain View - which Telemundo featured.
Big thank you to everyone who has become a paid subscriber - it makes you an angel investor in the work I do at Silicon Valley Robotics and as a startup advisor, and accelerator. And maybe we can do more to share your experience and expertize with the robotics startup community. Mentor Office Hours, maybe startup profiles. We’ll keep exploring.
Quick Reads:
Orangewood wants to build a cheap, programmable robotic arm for manufacturing - TechCrunch
The robots are coming - and the companies building them are looking for workers - CNBC
Robotics companies helping to create new jobs - CNBC
Meet the hamster ball robot that can fly and crawl - Fox News
Google’s DeepMind team highlights new system for teaching robots novel tasks - Brian Heater at TechCrunch
Aided by A.I. Language Models, Google’s Robots Are Getting Smart - NYTimes
DeepMind unveils RT-2, a new AI that makes robots smarter - VentureBeat
Think Surgical’s miniature robotic system developed with Sagentia gains FDA clearance - Robotics and Automation News
Bipartisan Lawmakers, Disability Advocates & Auto Experts Urge Congress to Pass AV Legislation - AVIA Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association
Blog: California Invented The Self-Driving Future. Now, Unions Are Trying To Ban It - AVIA
Tesla has debuted a model of its ultra-high-tech robot that will supposedly replace human labor - but does it actually work? - Yahoo
Is there a sinister side to the rise of female robots? BBC
Warehouse automation expected to pick up after hitting ‘rock bottom’ - SupplyChainDive
The Circular Supply Chain is Driving Corporate Decarbonization - Siemens
SoftBank Group and Symbotic Establish New Warehouse-as-a-Service Joint Venture To Transform Supply Chain Services Through Automation and AI - Symbotic
The Czingers disrupt manufacturing at top speeds - YaleNews
NASA’s Trio of Mini Rovers Will Team up to Explore the Moon - NASA JPL
Test Rovers Big and Small at JPL - NASA JPL
CADRE Mini Rover Drives Over a Rock - NASA JPL
Flying taxis are coming - eventually - to an exclusive few - CanadianPress
Cruise autonomous taxis are coming to Los Angeles. Everywhere could be next. Slate
Pony.ai and Toyota to Form Joint Venture to Advance Mass Production of L4 Autonomous Vehicles - Pony.ai
When Autonomous Vehicles Collide, Data Takes Over - IEEE Spectrum
US Automakers Turn to Domestic Sourcing for Innovative Battery Technology - SupplyChainBrain
Collaborative Robotics raises $30m Series A backed by Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Mayo Clinic; Launches Flywheel Program - CISION
This CMU system can turn any robot into an autonomous explorer - The Robot Report
Kroger begins testing cake printing robot from Beehex at location in Ohio - The Spoon
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop brings back the Automat - BDS Automat
Chipotle CEO says the ‘Autocado’ robot prototype makes workers’ jobs easier - CNBC
Robots could soon be stocking Canadian grocery shelves - CityNews
Robotics Events:
August 15th Call for White Papers for the 2024 Robotics Roadmap deadline
August 22nd SVR Robotics Technical Network
August 22nd - Founders & Funders Night Out
August 26th - IEEE Robotics Startup Bootcamp
September 19-21 “Disrupt’s Hardware Stage” from TechCrunch
(plus Brian Heater at Actuator says you save $600 till August 11 and save 15% on top of that with promo “ACTUATOR”)
September 19-21 - FIRA USA Salinas: Robotics and Autonomous Farming Solutions - FIRA
Save the date - September 22 - for Sustainable Robotics for Good with Synapse
September 28 - The Autonomous Systems Showcase - Deep Tech Showcase
October 1-5 - IROS in Detroit - IEEE RAS
October 25 - The Food AI Summit - Alameda CA - Call for Speakers open - from The Spoon
Deeper Reads:
Latest benchmarks on the journey from Seed to Series A in Europe - Mish Mashkautsan @ LocalGlobeVC
Only 1 in every 4–5 companies converts from Seed to Series A within 36 months, and despite the funding surge in recent years — that rate has barely changed between the 2012–15 and 2016–18 Seed cohorts.
National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) Year 1 Report - May 2023 (this is what has taken over from the National Robotics Initiative, AI in which robotics are just one example of an AI system)
In January 2023, per congressional mandate, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released an AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF), which was created following extensive stakeholder engagement and is already being used in numerous contexts and jurisdictions, such as in the state of California.
Tangram Vision + Foxglove
By adopting Foxglove and the MCAP file format, Tangram Vision was able to slash their customer onboarding workflows from months to days.
Tangram helps robotics teams with sensor-enabled products scale their perception stack – from one proof-of-concept robot to an entire fleet.
Cool Robots:
Through force-controlled sensors and other components, a robot can sense the strings, fingerboard and bow of the cello to adjust the strength and angle between the bow and strings, while the other robot can dynamically adjust the fingering for smooth performance. Video of Dobot Cobots playing Quantum by Fredrik Gran.
Browser-based robot dog simulator in ~800 lines of code from Hackaday.com
And hey, go ahead and send me your robot videos or pictures.
Noice!