Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Starship’s sidewalk deliver robots navigating pre-mapped pavement roads. | Source: Starship Technologies Starship Technologies has started using ESPROS Photonics Corporation’s epc660 Time-of-Flight chip in its sidewalk delivery robots. Starship’s autonomous robots have been deployed on college campuses and other public areas for last-mile delivery operations.  Sidewalk delivery robots use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning and GPS to navigate in bright daylight and in darkness. ESPROS’ epc660 chip provided strong ambient light operation and high quantum efficiency, which gave Starship a breakthrough in operating autonomously in all ambient light conditions.  The epc660 has excellent performance in full sunlight. Epc660 can detect objects over long distances while using very little power, making it ideal for sidewalk robots that will need to conserve power as much as they can to increase runtime.  “The future of delivery, toda...

Titan Medical’s Enos single-acces robotic-assisted surgery system. | Source: Titan Medical Titan Medical  (Nasdaq:TMDI) announced today that it plans to review and evaluate strategic alternatives to unlock shareholder value. Toronto-based Titan develops single-access robotic-assisted surgery technology. It consulted with financial and legal advisors to determine that the review is in the company’s and stakeholders’ best interest. According to a news release, Titan’s board plans to consider a full range of strategic alternatives. That may include a corporate sale, merger or other business combination. It could also lead to a sale of all or a portion of its assets, strategic investment or other significant transaction. Titan Medical earlier this month  announced a plan to hold a virtual shareholder meeting on Jan. 12, 2023 . The goal is to seek approval for a share consolidation plan to maintain the company’s Nasdaq listing. As part of the strategic review, Titan engaged ...

A Qinetiq multi-mission explosive ordnance disposal robot. | Source: Qinetiq San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday night to allow the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to use remote-controlled and potentially lethal robots in emergency situations. The board voted 8-3 in favor of giving police the option to deploy robots as a last resort in emergency situations.  Tuesday night, the board added language to the proposal to specify that officers can only use such robots after using alternative force, de-escalation tactics or deciding that the subject wouldn’t be subdued using these alternative means. Even then, only a few high-ranking officers can authorize the use of robots for deadly force.  This will allow officers to use ground-based robots to kill “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and officers cannot subdue the threat after using alternative force options or de-escalation tactics.” The vote followed an over...

Verdant Robotics deploys autonomous cultivation solutions. | Credit: Verdant Robotics Verdant Robotics announced the close of $46.5 million in Series A funding, an investment period that took three rounds over the last three years. The investment will enable the company to scale the production of its advanced agricultural robotic cultivation technology and accelerate go to market programs. With the close of this round, the company has raised a total of $46.5 million to date (source: Crunchbase). In this round, lead investor Cleveland Avenue was joined by DCVC Bio, Future Ventures, SeaX Ventures and all existing investors, including Autotech Ventures, Cavallo Ventures and AgFunder. This level of investment is a positive sign for the growth and trajectory of ag robotics . Verdant is an innovator in the smart implement sub-market of agtech. The technology developed and employed by Verdant enables the smart implement to autonomously cultivate, weed and specialty crops. Vision camera...

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) have created assembling robots that are made up of the same components they use to build structures, and that can move independently in large numbers to make those structures.  The latest research, published in  Nature Communications Engineering , brings the researchers closer to creating a fully autonomous, self-replicating robot assembly system capable of assembling larger structures and planning its construction sequence.  MIT’s CBA has worked for years on similar research, like studies that have demonstrated that objects like a deformable plane wing and a functional racing car can be assembled from small, lightweight, identical pieces. This team’s research builds on that previous work and indicates that these small subunits of robots can be used to accomplish large-scale assemblies quickly.  The system developed by the team includes large, usable structures m...

The Versius surgical robot from CMR Surgical. | Credit: CMR Surgical CMR Surgical said today it’s working with Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s Ethicon business to sell CMR’s Versius surgical robotics systems in select markets. The collaboration involves commercial teams from the two companies working together. They’ll focus on selling to select hospitals in Italy, France, Germany and Brazil. “By entering into this collaboration agreement with Ethicon in select markets, CMR believes that this combination of expertise in minimal access surgery and digital innovation will deliver an optimized offering to customers” CMR Surgical CEO Per Vegard Nerseth said in a news release. “CMR looks forward to progressing this agreement in strategically important regions as CMR continues to rapidly expand on a global scale.” The news comes only weeks after Cambridge, U.K.–based CMR Surgical announced it had installed more than 100 Versius robotic surgery systems worldwide . There are now Versius ro...

Amazon’s newest robot, Sparrow, can pick individual items for packaging. | Source: Amazon Amazon continues to be a leader in automating warehouse operations, and that includes not only using existing technology but developing its own products and buying manufacturers of interest. In September, the company announced it was acquiring Cloostermans , a Belgium-based company that specializes in mechatronics. Cloostermans has been selling products to Amazon since at least 2019, including technology Amazon uses in its operation to move and stack heavy pallets and totes and robots to package products for customer orders. Amazon said this acquisition will ramp up its R&D and deployment in those areas. “We’re thrilled to be joining the Amazon family and extending the impact we can have at a global scale,” said Frederik Berckmoes-Joos, CEO of Cloostermans. “Amazon has raised the bar for how supply chain technologies can benefit employees and customers, and we’re looking forward to be pa...

Locus Robotics raised another $117 million in funding for its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that are used in fulfillment and distribution warehouses. The Series F funding round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and G2 Venture Partners. As part of the financing, Mark Midle, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs, and Zach Barasz, Partner, G2 Venture Partners, will join the Locus board of directors. Locus’ range of AMRs is made up of Origin, the company’s flagship AMR that can operate for 14 hours on a single charge and has a payload capacity of 80 lbs, Vector, an AMR with a 600 lb payload capacity, and Max, the company’s heaviest capacity AMR with a 3,000 lb payload limit. Locus acquired Waypoint Robotics in 2021, another AMR company whose portfolio of heavier capacity AMRs complemented Locus’. The Vector and the Max were originally Waypoint robots before the acquisition. The Locus AMRs are available through a Robotics as a Service (RaaS) model . This model not only allows th...

One of BOLDLY’s autonomous shuttles in Japan. | Source: BOLDLY Japan’s National Policy Agency announced that it would lift a ban preventing SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicles from operating on Japanese roads. The change in policy will allow autonomous vehicles (AVs) to operate in a limited capacity in April 2023.  The agency will announce more details on how the vehicles will be rolled out, where they’ll be available and how many will be on the roads after a public comment period scheduled to close at the end of November 2022.  Japan hopes that it can offer mobility services using Level 4 AVs in 40 areas of the country by 2025, and in more than 100 areas by 2030. These services will likely include AVs that will be used as delivery robots or tour buses on routes in lightly populated areas.  BOLDLY , a Tokyo-based company and subsidiary of SoftBank Corp., recently partnered with Auve Tech , an Estonian developer of autonomous shuttles, to deploy autonomous shuttles in Ja...

Bionaut Labs , a robotic drug delivery technology developer, closed a Series B financing round worth $43.2 million. Los Angeles-based Bionaut Labs uses microscale robots to deliver drugs for treating central nervous system (CNS) diseases and disorders. Through magnetic propulsion, the company’s Bionauts can navigate the human body and deliver drugs locally. The technology can reach deep locations in the midbrain with precision, going beyond the blood-brain barrier. This generates efficiency and helps to avoid side effects and toxicity from systemically delivered drugs. Bionaut aims to develop solutions for conditions including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, malignant glioma and hydrocephalus. Funds raised in the Series B round are earmarked for advancing the clinical development of Bionaut’s lead programs. Those programs include treatments for malignant glioma brain tumors and Dandy-Walker Syndrome (a rare pediatric neurological disorder). The company also plans to use...

  News : AI helps design synthetic DNA that controls cells' protein production visit: … https://artificial-intelligence-conferences.sciencefather.com/ Nominate Now : https://x-i.me/aircsen With the help of an AI, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in designing synthetic DNA that controls the cells' protein production. The technology can contribute to the development and production of vaccines, drugs for severe diseases, as well as alternative food proteins much faster and at significantly lower costs than today. How our genes are expressed is a process that is fundamental to the functionality of cells in all living organisms. Simply put, the genetic code in DNA is transcribed to the molecule messenger RNA (mRNA), which tells the cell's factory which protein to produce and in which quantities. Researchers have put a lot of effort into trying to control gene expression because it can, among other things, contribute to the development of ...

RoboSense announced its latest solid-state LiDAR at the Tech Day event. | Source: RoboSense RoboSense , a provider of Smart LiDAR Sensor Systems, held a new product launch and Tech Day event . During the conference, RoboSense officially launched  RS-LiDAR-E1 (E1) , a flash solid-state LiDAR that sees 360° based on its in-house, custom-developed chips and flash technology platform. The company also held the unveiling ceremony of a new smart manufacturing joint venture, Luxsense, jointly with Luxshare-ICT , a domestic leading electronics manufacturer. RoboSense launched E1, an automotive-grade flash solid-state LiDAR. It serves as a new product platform featuring area array transceiver technology with application-specific developed chips as the core. E1 is designed for large-scale series production with a simple bill of materials including no moving parts. It excels in all the three aspects of detection performance, cost efficiency, automotive-grade safety and reliability of LiDA...

CES has announced the innovation award winners for the upcoming CES 2023 event happening in Las Vegas, on January 5-8, 2023. We went through the list of honorees and highlighted the robotics-related solutions for this story. ACWA Robotics French robotics company, ACWA Robotics , built a water pipe infrastructure mapping robot. The robot moves through the pipes while the water is running. The robot is able to precisely track its location while imaging the pipes, creating a map of exactly where repairs are needed. This information helps the water utility to prioritize and execute infrastructure repair operations. Agrist Inc. Japanese startup, Agrist Inc , developed an AGTECH robot for harvesting bell peppers. The mobile robot uses an onboard SCARA manipulator and vision guidance to identify and pick the individual peppers one at a time. The robot is designed to operate for 12 hours on a battery charge. AmorePacific An ABB YUMi collaborative robot is at the heart of the Tonewo...

Cruise has deployed robotaxis, or plans to deploy robotaxis, in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin. | Source: Cruise Cruise recently released its safety report to give the public insights on what the company does to ensure its robotaxis are safe. The report details the approaches, tenets and processes that help keep Cruise vehicles safe on the road.  Cruise’s vehicles have driven nearly five million miles, and 500,000 driverless miles without any major incidents. The company aims to deploy the world’s most advanced driverless service, and identify, classify and mitigate the safety risks that come with operating a driverless service.  Cruise has many safeguards in place to ensure its robotaxi services are safe, including a company-wide Safety Management System (SMS), that helps to encourage a culture of safety within the company by giving employees a route for reporting safety concerns, and an Independent Safety Review Board made up of experts in autonomous driving from ou...

This week, we have a special video edition of The Robot Report podcast. This is the video feed from our recent interview with Tatum Robotics founder and CEO, Samantha Johnson . The video features American Sign Language (ASL) translation so that hearing-impaired individuals can also enjoy the content. Tatum Robotics is building a robotic device shaped like a human hand and arm, that can mimic a human translator for deafblind individuals. Currently, deafblind individuals communicate by touching the hand of their translator. The human translator uses finger spelling and ASL signs to communicate. Tatum Robotics is building a robotic analog to the human hand, designed to replicate the interaction between a translator and a deafblind user. Ultimately, Tatum Robotics wants to open up the world of ebooks for consumption by deafblind individuals. This will be followed by remote communication (i.e. over the web) between both hearing individuals and deafblind individuals, or even between two ...