Agricultural robotics company Harvest Automation reported today that it has successfully raised $11.75 million in Series C financing. The Massachusetts-based company says the funds will be used to further commercialize the HV-100, its flagship product. HV-100 robots are designed for greenhouse, hoop house and nursery environments, where, as you would expect, they perform the most
The teams competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge come from some of the most prestigious universities and technologically innovative organizations in the world — places like MIT, Carnegie Mellon and NASA. However, even for them, it represents uncharted territory. “It’s a huge learning experience,” admits Bill Borgia, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Lockheed
A new documentary on the Maker Movement, appropriately titled “Maker,” is on track for completion thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. With seven days remaining, the project has nearly doubled its original $15,000 goal. Additional pledges will be accepted until Nov. 4. This is the second documentary for the team behind “Maker.” Their first effort,
The National Robotics Initiative, which launched in 2011 and is spearheaded by the National Science Foundation, earlier this week announced $38 million in new investments in the program’s second round of funding. Along with its partner agencies — the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture and NASA — it said the funding was
The demand for roboticists is growing, and universities are starting to take notice. Johns Hopkins University, for one, says it sees an increasing need from industry for people who can design and deploy advanced robotics systems. In response the school has launched a Master of Science in Engineering in Robotics degree program. The program is
Unmanned aircraft systems leader AeroVironment and helicopter maker Eurocopter said today that they have signed a cooperative agreement to explore potential joint military and commercial business opportunities. The announcement occurred at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in Washington. The majority of AeroVironment’s UAS are fixed-wing vehicles, though it does produce the Shrike
Investors looking to track the growth of robotics and automation can now turn to the Robo-Stox Global Robotics and Automation Index, a benchmark index for those market segments that announced its launch today. Starting today, NASDAQ will also list the Robo-Stox Global Robotics and Automation Index Fund under the symbol “ROBO.” The index includes a
The latest spin off from Willow Garage, a new company called Unbounded Robotics, today announced its first product, an ROS-based mobile manipulation platform called UBR-1. In the company’s inaugural blog post, the team behind UBR-1 acknowledges that it will inevitably receive comparisons to the Willow Garage PR2 robot. After all, the Unbounded founders are Willow alums
Anki, the robotic start-up backed by $50 million in venture capital that made a splash at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, has just released details on its first product, Anki Drive. Anki Drive will be available for $199 in Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada, on Apple.com and Anki.com starting Oct. 23. (The
The 11th Annual Electrolux Design Lab competition produced some pretty neat concepts this year, and after narrowing the field to eight last month, we have a winner. And the award goes to … “Mab,” an automated cleaning system concept that attracted quite a bit of attention over the summer. Mab envisions hundreds of flying mini-robots
