The PARC treasure trove is open!
Automate and ICRA are almost here - see you in person?
Thank you for feedback! It seems like this format newsletter is working, so every week I’ll send you links to all the robotics news I’m reading and all the robotics events I’m considering going to. (these days there are too many to be able to attend them all). On that lovely pizza base I’m going to scatter links to Silicon Valley Robotics projects, anything I’m writing and assorted other interesting things, in a flavor of the week fashion.
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. Maybe Mentor Office Hours, maybe startup profiles. We’ll keep exploring.
Quick Reads:
The risk to social cohesion, if the benefits of robotics are not evenly shared, justifies an urgent focus of social policymakers. Via Robotics Australia Group submission to Aust National Robotics Strategy. Robotics Australia Group on Linked In
ShipSage and ForwardX Robotics Team Up to Provide Cutting-Edge Alternative to FBA - ForwardX Robotics at PR Newswire
Jellyfish-like robots could one day clean up the world’s oceans - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems at Robohub
Google’s Intrinsic Promise Of Democratizing Robots May Fall Short - Andre Wegner at Forbes.com
OhmniLabs and JTM Enterprises Partner to Safeguard American Indian Communities - Ohmnilabs at EINNews
Europe could be on the cusp of a golden era in robotics. Here’s why - Robin Godenrath, Alex Rohregger at TechCrunch
Introducing Theopolis, Formant’s Integration With Generative AI - by Alex Sixt at Formant
Sanctuary AI’s new humanoid robot stands 5’7" and lifts 55 lb - Brian Heater at TechCrunch | Yahoo News UK
Hai Robotics Offers Pilot Systems to Help U.S. Businesses Adopt Automation, Leapfrog Competition - Robotics 24/7 Staff
6 River Systems Handoff a Sign for Mobile Robot Vendors to Demonstrate Value, Say Analysts - Eugene Demaitre at Robotics 24/7
DHL Supply Chain Expresses Confidence in Locus Robotics With Fleet Expansion - Eugene Demaitre at Robotics 24/7
Robotics Executives, Systems Integrators Discuss Challenges With Scaling Robot Deployments at Cascadia Connect - Cesareo Contreras at Robotics 24/7
Jenn Apicella Named Interim Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network - Cesareo Contreras at Robotics 24/7
Austin Russell became the youngest self-made billionaire in 2021; now he owns Forbes - Connie Loizos at TechCrunch
US tech policy must keep pace with AI innovation - Rudina Seseri at TechCrunch
Inside the AI culture war - BEN SCHRECKINGER at Politico
Introducing Intrinsic Flowstate - Wendy Tan White, Chief Executive Officer at Intrinsic
Google AI is catching up with Microsoft - BEN DICKSON in BDTech Talks at Substack
Import AI 329: Compute IS data; don't build AI agents; AI needs a precautionary principle - JACK CLARK in Import AI at Substack
Viewpoint: China’s Troubles Present a Moment for North America - Sean Randolph at Bay Area Economy
John Deere employees now using Comau exoskeletons - By Brianna Wessling at The Robot Report
Is the Solow Paradox back? - Mekala Krishnan, Jan Mischke, and Jaana Remes at Mckinsey Digital
Assessing the Impact of New Technologies on the Labor Market: Key Constructs, Gaps, and Data Collection Strategies for the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Jenny Marlar of Gallup at BLS.gov
Growth trends for selected occupations considered at risk from automation - Michael J. Handel at BLS.gov
Robotics Adoption Survey Finds Ups, Downs, and a Few Surprise - David Miller at Automation World
Rockwell Automation and Doosan Unite to Form Partnership as the U.S. and South Korea Celebrate Historic Anniversary -Ed Moreland at BusinessWire
AMP Robotics Raises Additional Series C Investment From Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund - Carling Spelhaug at BusinessWire
Tesla Rethinks the Assembly Line - By Austin Weber at Assembly Mag
Meet Theopolis: Formant’s integration with Chat GPT-4 - Formant at Twitter
Hybrid theory of corporate legal personhood and its application to artificial intelligence - Siina Raskulla at Spring
Mitsubishi Electric invests in Clearpath Robotics - Private Capital Journal
Cruise, Waymo near approval to charge for 24/7 robotaxis in San Francisco - Rebecca Bellan at TechCrunch
The AI Scaling Hypothesis - DANIEL BASHIR AND ANDREY KURENKOV at Last Week in AI
Toyota Research Institute Shares Results of $100M Research Partnership With U.S. Universities - Robotics 24/7
Coffee Meets AI: Seattle Startup's Robot Baristas Serve Up The Perfect Cup Every Time - Jeannine Mancini at Yahoo! Finance
Flexiv and Cardinal Machine Join Forces to Combat Labor Shortages With Adaptive Robots - Noah Barker of Flexiv at BusinessWire
Canvas and USG Partnership Aims to Transform Drywall Industry - USG Groups at BusinessWire
Mitsubishi Electric Announces Strategic Investment in OTTO Motors to Accelerate Industrial Automation - Jess Blenkarn of Otto Motors at BusinessWire
Amazon VP in charge of the Astro home robot leaves after less than 2 years, leaked email shows - Eugene Kim at Business Insider
‘Super cute’ robot isn’t just for large companies - Katie Ann McCarver at Vegas Inc
Are killer robots the future of war? -Nils Adler at Aljazeera.com
One of us! Engineers fool fish school into accepting robotic koi - Cosmos Magazine
Re-imagining robot design: meet crochet-wearing Blossom - Petra Stock at Cosmos Magazine
New model seeks to explain how humans interact socially with robots - BY TARA ROBERTS at Standford News
How Scientists Developed a Robotic Hand to Pick Blackberries in Arkansas - John Lovett at University of Arkansas News
The future of autonomous retail stores - Technology Review.com
ANYbotics raises $50 million to help deploy its robot dog - Brian Heater at TechCrunch
A Former Pilot On Why Autonomous Vehicles Are So Risky > 5 questions for transportation-safety expert Missy Cummings - PHILIP E. ROSS at Spectrum IEEE
Roktrack Is a Solar-Powered, Weed-Eating Robot - MrT0b0r at Hackster IO
Apple autonomous driving tech secrets stolen by ex-engineer, feds say - JONATHAN M. GITLIN at Ars Techinca
Introducing Amazon Astro, Household robot for home monitoring, with Alexa, Includes 30-day trial of Ring Protect Pro - Amazon
Out of Stealth:
Pioneering magnetic levitation for logistics - USPOSITRONIX - also…
Kat here, with Alphabet’s robotics company, Intrinsic. Hope you’re well!
I’m reaching out because we’re holding our first-ever product keynote on Monday, May 15th at 9:00am PT. Since spinning out of Google X, Intrinsic has been pretty quiet about our plans. That’s changing Monday when we’ll announce our first product and our first industry partner. Our ultimate goal is to make it possible to build real-world robotic applications the way software developers build smartphone applications – and vastly expand the usefulness of robots in industrial and business settings.
If you’re interested in joining the keynote, you can register to watch it virtually here. I’ll also share some materials on Monday that summarize what we announced, as well as some courtesy media assets for use.
I hope you can join us on Monday at 9:00am PT. If you have any questions in the meantime, please let me know!
Robotics Events:
May 19 2-5pm - Robotics Technical Network in SF - Silicon Valley Robotics
May 19 6-8pm - Founders & Funders Network in SF - Silicon Valley Robotics
May 22-24 - Embedded Vision Summit in Santa Clara - Embedded Vision Alliance
including: May 23 Women in Vision Reception - Embedded Vision alliance
discount code - SUMMIT23-SVRWIR
May 22-24 - Automate in Detroit - A3
May 29th- June 2nd - ICRA in London - IEEE RAS
June 5-6 - IEEE Conference on AI in Santa Clara - IEEE CS
June 7-8 - Robotics Investment Summit in Boston - Cybernetix Ventures
June 14-17 - VivaTech in Paris - VivaTechnology
June 19-22 - TechConnect World in Washington DC - TechConnect Org
June 20-22 - FITMA in Mexico City - Feria Internationale
June 20-22 - Sensors Converge in Santa Clara - Sensors Converge
June 26-29 - Collision in Toronto - Web Summit
June 27-30 - Automatica in Munich - VDMA
June 27 - coming soon The Future with Robots at the Commonwealth Club SF
Oct 1-5 - IROS in Detroit - IEEE RAS
Deep Reads:
The Xerox PARC archive is open to the public and ready for you to explore!
Beginning in 1970, researchers at Xerox’s revolutionary Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) worked to develop computer hardware and software for the “office of the future.” Luckily, they took care to back up their work and migrate data over time to more updated storage formats.
With help from CHM, a tremendous digital archive of this historic work has been preserved.
The archive contains nearly 150,000 unique files—around four gigabytes of information—and covers an astonishing landscape: programming languages; graphics; printing and typography; mathematics; networking; databases; file systems; electronic mail; servers; voice; artificial intelligence; hardware design; integrated circuit design tools and simulators; and additions to the Alto archive.
I will be at Automate; I would love to meet and network. My company makes a safety system that turns all robots into cobots.