Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.82
December 19, 2018
…an active investor in the robotics sector. GV (formerly Google Ventures) also joined this round along with existing investors, including Dream Incubator, Matrix Partners, and Playground Global. RHR intends to use the funds to expand business and technical teams and broaden its suite of product applications in support of the company’s growing customer base. “This funding is a testament to our team’s intense focus on solving the critical challenge all our customers face – namely, how to respond to booming e-commerce growth given a scarcity of labor,” said Leif Jentoft, co-founder of RightHand Robotics. “We are aggressively investing in talent…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 10.07
December 06, 2018
Transforming the Way Goods Are Transported As reported by TechCrunch, Wing, the drone delivery X project that “graduated” into full company status under the Alphabet umbrella this past July, is taking flight in Europe. Wing announced that it will start a new pilot in Finland beginning in the spring of 2019 in Helsinki, delivering goods and packages of up to 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 pounds) within a distance of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Deliveries will be available for free as part of the trial, although the company intends to charge for them if a full commercial service launches.…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.27
December 01, 2018
…by road scanning firms like Atlatec, data giants like Google and autonomous car developers themselves. Hexagon’s product line includes the Leica Pegasus mapping platform. With connection to VTD, the product lets engineers speed up road digitization. In one project, geospatial consultant Transcend Spatial Solutions used the Pegasus system to map and digitize the span of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge (“Demystifying Mobile Mapping,” xyHt, June 2016, xyht.com). TASS International’s parent company Siemens has a partnership with Bentley Systems, known for architecture and infrastructure software. “We can import data from Bentley Systems and automatically generate a full 3D city map within…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.44
November 22, 2018
…the development of autonomous vehicles. There is another combine, Waymo/Google/Alphabet, working out kinks in the technology. Lyft and General Motors are combining efforts. And of course, Tesla and its innovative CEO Elon Musk, the peripatetic Canadian-American business magnate, investor, engineer, and inventor are bullish. The U.S. chip-making giant Intel announced Monday that it had reached a deal to acquire an Israeli company called Mobileye for $15 billion. The combination is expected to accelerate innovation for the automotive and trucking industry and position Intel as a leading technology provider for highly and fully autonomous vehicles. So What’s Happening in Trucking? Last…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.04
October 07, 2018
…shared-space distribution network, voice integration with Amazon Echo and Google Home to track the last mile delivery of heavy goods, and the XPO Connect digital freight marketplace with multimodal infrastructure. As reported by FreightWaves, XPO has worked with 29 robotics companies and deployed 79 different types of robots across its warehouses. Other XPO robotics vendors include Massachusetts-based 6 River Systems, which has deployed more than 100 robots for XPO; and KUKA Group's Swisslog, which is said to be providing the robotics for the digital warehouse XPO is building in the U.K. for Nestle. It was unclear whether the robots will…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 14.08
August 20, 2018
…AR can transform picking and other warehouse activities. When Google released the first version of Google Glass in 2013, Lucas developers loaded our voice picking application and created a “vision picking” demo. Our conclusion was that the technology was not ready for prime time, and Google eventually shelved the original version of glass. Since then, smart glasses have roared back to life with new, more capable hardware from Google and other vendors (Vuzix, Recon, etc.) who are targeting industrial applications in manufacturing, supply chain and field service. Today, there is little question that “vision” is the next big thing in…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.23
August 08, 2018
…the early engineers on the self-driving car team at Google. Eshel most recently was a vice president at Battery Ventures, where he led the firm’s autonomous-vehicle investment project. “This financing, coming just three months after founding Kodiak Robotics, is a huge validation for our vision,” Burnette said. “We believe self-driving trucks will likely be the first autonomous vehicles to support a viable business model, and we are proud to have the support of such high-profile investors to help us execute on our plan.” “Autonomous driving is likely one of the most major technology shifts of the last 100 years,” said…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.04
May 17, 2018
…identification that brought together more than 400 experts to Google’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. When he looks at the new mechanical and technology solutions coming to market, he sees the seeds planted back in the 1970s and 1980s now bearing fruit. “We’ve finally come to where we all thought in our naivete that we’d be by around 1980,” Hill says. “Nothing we’re doing today, even artificial intelligence, belies what we thought we could do more than 40 years ago. It’s just that we didn’t have the tools then that we have today.” So just what is materials handling innovation? And,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 11.59
November 22, 2017
…the big money chasing them extends from Apple and Google to General Motors and Otto, to name just a few of the many. It’s entirely possible that autonomous vehicles are the best funded R&D project in the history of mankind. “Autonomous vehicles are a competition, a race. The quickest and best companies at it will make billions if not trillions from the technology,” says Kevin Lacy, director of the transportation, mobility and safety division for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. See “The Interview” in this edition of NextGen Supply Chain for Lacy’s state-level view of autonomous vehicles. Part of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 13.64
September 18, 2017
…with NextGen Supply Chain technologies, including mobile robots and Google Glass. They seem disparate, but there’s a common thread between the three. If you haven’t heard Harry speak at a conference, he is an apostle for American manufacturing in the best possible way. Founded about 6 years ago, the Reshoring Initiative says that it “is the leading voice in making the case to companies that it is often in their interest to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States or keep existing jobs here.” The news this year: For the first time since I’ve been talking to Harry, the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.79
September 01, 2017
…Vegas mobile app from either the Apple Store or Google Play for access to floorplans, exhibitor listings, special events, new products and product categories, as well as the ability to plan an agenda, take notes, and get directions through the show halls. The Innovation Stages at both Pack Expo Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO will feature 55 free educational sessions across four stages, featuring new technology and advances from all segments of the packaging market. The PACK gives BACK benefit concert, sponsored by Rockwell Automation, features Grammy award-winning band The Doobie Brothers. A portion of the proceeds from the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.56
July 31, 2017
…is the equivalent of combined revenues of Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Baidu and then some (a lot) more. It is also a big employer: the US Bureau of Labour Statistics suggests that 1.79m people work in this sector driving 7.2m trucks for inter-city freight transport earning an average salary of 41.3 k$/year. No wonder this is a hot topic now then. Trucking is also potentially an easier target than general passenger cars. This is because it spends much of its time in intercity roads which are less congested and less sinuous than city ones. The driver may remain in…
