Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

The Cionic Neural Sleeve aims to help people living with multiple sclerosis, stroke, cerebral palsy and other mobility impairments. | Source: CIONIC CIONIC , a bionic clothing company, brought in $12.5 million in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $23 million. The company’s first product, the Cionic Neural Sleeve, recently received FDA clearance.  The Cionic Neural Sleeve combines movement analysis and augmentation into a wearable device with a sleek and comfortable design that can be operated by a smartphone. The sleeve analyzes, predicts and augments a person’s movements, helping to reduce pain and increase mobility in users.  It works by first using a dense array of sensors to measure how the user’s body is positioned and how their individual muscles fire during movements. It then predicts intended movements by measuring electrical signals from the brain, and algorithms analyze this data in real-time to decide optimal muscle activation pa...

A Wing drone caught in power lines. | Source: The Age, Energex A Wing delivery drone crashed into power lines in Browns Plains, Queensland, Australia on Thursday. The crash left around 2,000 homes without power for 45 minutes and 300 without power for three hours, Danny Donald, a spokesperson from Australian utility provider Energex, told ABC News Australia and The Age . The drone landed on top of a power line around 2 PM and was hit with 11,000 volts of electricity, Donald told The Age . The drone caught fire and then fell to the ground, where it sat when Energex’s crew arrived on the scene. Wing told ABC News Australia that the drone made a precautionary controlled landing and came to rest on an overhead power line. Wing immediately reported the incident to Energex, who handled the incident from there, and apologized for the inconvenience caused. There was no permanent damage done to the network, according to Donald, so Energex would not be requesting Wing cover any damages...

RoboBoston , one of the largest celebrations of robots and robotics of its kind, takes place in the innovative Boston Seaport neighborhood on Friday, September 30th and Saturday, October 1. More than 40 companies and universities will gather to showcase cutting-edge robotics and technology in a series of professional and STEM-related events. RoboBoston will be held at Seaport Common, 85 Northern Avenue, Boston, and is free and open to the public. “Massachusetts has long been a leading area for robotics companies to establish themselves, innovate and grow,” said Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot and board member of MassRobotics . “A decade ago, there were only a handful of robotics companies in Massachusetts. Today, we are 400+ strong and a significant part of the technology economy. I’m delighted that MassRobotics is again bringing RoboBoston to life and sharing the excitement of robotics with the technology community, students and future roboticists.” RoboBoston will feature the following...

Cassie, a bipedal robot developed at the Oregon State University (OSU) College of Engineering and produced by OSU-spinout company Agility Robotics , recently ran 100 meters with no falls in 24.73 seconds at OSU’s Whyte Track and Field Center. The robot established a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 meters by a bipedal robot.  The bipedal robot’s average speed was just over 4 m/s, slightly slower than its top speed because it started from a standing position and returned to that position after the sprint, a challenging aspect of developing Cassie, according to the researchers behind the robot.  “Starting and stopping in a standing position are more difficult than the running part, similar to how taking off and landing are harder than actually flying a plane,” OSU AI Professor and collaborator on the project Alan Fern said. “This 100-meter result was achieved by a deep collaboration between mechanical hardware design and advanced artificial intelligence for the con...

Christian Meyer, CEO of Commonplace Robotics (left), and igus CEO Frank Blase. Credit: igus Germany motion plastics specialist igus has acquired a majority stake in Commonplace Robotics . Based in Bissendorf, Germany, Commonplace Robotics specializes in intuitive control systems and software and power electronics for robotics, both in industry and in education. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. igus and Commonplace Robotics have worked together for six years, developing the iRC igus Robot Control, an actuator, and the ReBeL cobot. With this acquisition, Commonplace Robotics and igus are combining their innovative strengths. The latest product of the collaboration is the ReBeL cobot for €4,970, including the control system. The actuator, also available as an individual component, combines igus’ plastic know-how in the gearbox with the power electronics and software from Commonplace Robotics. With six axes, the ReBeL can handle a payload of up to two kilogram...

A rendering of Tesla’s humanoid, known as Tesla Bot or Optimus. | Credit: Tesla As I write this, we are all eagerly and skeptically awaiting Elon Musk’s update on Tesla’s new Optimus robot. Musk said he will unveil a prototype of Optimus at Tesla’s AI Day on Friday. Let’s be frank, Optimus feels a bit dystopian, as if we’re all going to be eminently replaced by a sleek, slender, cold electronic robot. It feels like Optimus inhabits a world of beautiful black and white design, while the rest of us get to drive around in stainless-steel Cybertrucks overseeing our hole-drilling operations on Mars.  Despite bold claims and billions of dollars of R&D investment across multiple companies, we simply don’t know when Level 5 self-driving cars will be a reality, let alone when we might have a humanoid robot matching anything close to human capabilities. Musk has shown us that landing a rocket on a boat in choppy seas is easier than reliably detecting stop lights. Massive amoun...

ANYmal X is an autonomous quadruped robot that can perform scalable inspections. | Source: ANYbotics ANYbotics opened up commercial orders for ANYmal X, the company’s quadruped robot. The company has over 500 ANYmal X quadrupeds reserved already, and it plans for the first deliveries of ANYmal X to begin in mid-2023. ANYbotics made the announcement at the SPRINT Robotics World Conference for Inspection and Maintenance Robots.  ANYbotics introduced ANYmal X, the latest version of its series of quadruped robots, in March 2022. ANYmal X was designed and certified for usage in hazardous and potentially explosive environments (ex-certified), like oil, gas and chemical operations.  “ANYmal X closes an important technical gap, conducting automated inspections in very complex environments, with stairs and tight passages, and this in combination with Ex-zones, that’s a novelty!” Peter Welter, the Automation Manager at BASF, said. ANYmal has been available to customers through th...

The ROEQ TMC500 solution consists of a top module and the ROEQ Cart500. | Source: ROEQ Adept Technology innovated in 2014 with the release of the first cart-based solution for the Adept Lynx LD autonomous mobile robot, called the “cart transporter”. Since that time, Adept was acquired by OMRON , and ROEQ was founded to focus on building third-party cart top modules for AMRs . In the last couple of years, OMRON has added higher payload AMRs to its portfolio in the form of the OMRON LD-250 (250 kg payload) and OMRON HD-1500 (1500 kg payload) AMRs. ROEQ is taking its experience in designing and manufacturing top modules exclusively for Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and expanding its market to support AMRs from other vendors. Organizations who are deploying the OMRON LD-250 AMR now have a powerful new option to dramatically increase payload without having to invest in a larger, more expensive AMR solution. Michael Ejstrup Hansen, Managing Director at ROEQ, emphasizes how the new pr...

An Avidbot autonomously cleans a mall floor surface. | Source: Avidbots Avidbots , a producer of industrial cleaning robots, announced that it closed a $70 million Series C funding round. The company plans to use the round of funding to expand its fleet of robots and enhance its autonomy software.  Avidbots hopes to bring its industrial cleaning robots to customers in automation growth markets, like the United States, and worldwide by investing in its sales and marketing efforts. It plans to add over 100 employees in product, engineering, sales and marketing over the next 12 months.  “This is a special milestone in our company’s development. A special thank you to all our customers around the world as well as Avidbotters past and present for their tireless efforts to help us get here,” Faizan Sheikh, Avidbots CEO and co-founder, said. “We are very excited about the future as this financing allows us to accelerate our timelines for bringing new products to market as well a...

Stanley Robotics’ Stan robot, which uses Velodyne Lidar sensors, attaches to the front of cars to park them. | Source: Stanley Robotics Velodyne Lidar announced it signed a multi-year agreement with Stanley Robotics . The company plans to use Velodyne’s sensors in its automated valet parking solution where autonomous handling robots help cars park to increase the number of vehicles that can be stored.  Stanley Robotics will use Velodyne’s Puck and Velarray M1600 lidar sensors to provide perception and navigation capabilities in its all-electric Stan robots. Velodyne’s sensors provide real-time 3D perception data for localization, mapping, object classification and object tracking. The sensors can work in a wide range of difficult environments, including ones with varied lighting and precipitation.  “High-performance sensors are key to enabling our autonomous mobile robots to reliably navigate and maneuver in narrow parking lanes,” Mathieu Lips, COO of Stanley Robotics...

RoboBusiness , produced by The Robot Report and WTWH Media , recently announced the full conference agenda for the October 19-20 event at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Since its founding in 2004, RoboBusiness has grown and evolved to become the world’s premier robotics business development event. The conference sessions at RoboBusiness are designed to impart to technical professionals the information they need to successfully develop, deploy and manage the next generation of commercial robotics systems. Beyond the keynotes and conference sessions, there will be 60-plus exhibits and demonstrations on the expo show floor, a startup bootcamp, a career fair, the Pitchfire robotics startup competition networking receptions and more. Full conference passes are $795, while expo-only passes are just $75. Academic discounts are available and academic full conference rates are $295. RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum , an event designed to provide ...

6 River Systems’ Chuck AMR now has new accessories and a new “High Priority Chuck” feature. | Source: 6 River Systems 6 River Systems (6RS), part of the global commerce company Shopify, announced new features for its wall-to-wall fulfillment solution. The features make the company’s solution more configurable to increase productivity and flexibility. “Fulfillment can no longer be an afterthought as warehouses adapt to rising demand, labor costs and faster SLAs. Our customers need smart, interconnected solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure,” Rylan Hamilton, co-founder and CEO at 6 River Systems, said. “Through both hardware and software, the improvements we made to our system empower warehouse operators to increase efficiency, stabilize labor and support continuous growth.” The first of the features is for 6RS’ autonomous mobile robot (AMR) Chuck. The new “High Priority Chuck” feature can decrease pick cycle times and increase SLAs. High Priority Chuck is a system-...

Skyline Robotics leverages industrial robot arms to autonomously wash skyscraper windows. | Credit: Skyline Robotics Skyline Robotics , developers of OZMO , the world’s first high-rise window-cleaning robot, is delivering on its mission to modernize facade health technology in New York City. The company announced a key investment from commercial and residential real estate giant, Durst Ventures, an affiliate of The Durst Organization that owns some of New York’s most notable skyscrapers including One Bryant Park, One World Trade Center, and 151 West 42nd Street. The Durst investment will further Skyline’s development and deployment of OZMO, while The Durst Organization plans to utilize OZMO to enhance the quality of service provided to its tenants and residents. “As the real estate industry evolves, demand is growing for modern solutions that will not only maintain their assets but will monitor and enhance the underlying asset value,” said Michael Brown, CEO & Chairman, of Sky...