We are in recent years seeing more and more facets of our daily lives adapt to incorporate not only some broad, loose conception of ever-evolving technology, but a level of automation and connectedness that is markedly changing the relationship we have with the world around us — not least because it’s changing the relationship that things
Three Mid-Atlantic states — Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia — recently signed an agreement to work collaboratively to support the Federal Aviation Administration’s integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace. The FAA is currently in the process of selecting six UAS test sites, which will be used to conduct research into how to
In the world of mobile robots, there are leaders and there are followers. Well, not exactly, but leader-follower formations are a common way of organizing the movement of mobile robot groups. And it’s a system that works well — unless something happens to the leader. Recent research from Missouri University of Science and Technology aims
3D Robotics, the unmanned aerial vehicle company founded in 2009 by former Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, today announced a $30 million Series B financing round. The company said it will use the funds to expand its development and deployment of advanced UAV applications, with a focus on agricultural crop mapping and other commercial aerial survey
Stryker Corporation, a medical technology company based in Michigan, yesterday reported a definitive agreement to acquire MAKO Surgical Corp. for a purchase price of about $1.65 billion. MAKO’s stock price exploded following the announcement, gaining more than 83 percent on the day to close at $29.45. MAKO builds robots designed to assist with orthopedic surgery.
Robot Turtles, a board game designed to teach 3- to 8-year-olds the basics of programming, has surpassed $500,000 on Kickstarter with two days left in its funding period. In the process, it has become the most-backed tabletop game ever on the service, according to its creator Dan Shapiro. Shapiro is a digital entrepreneur who sold
Northrop Grumman Corporation, one of the largest defense contractors in the world and a leading manufacturer of unmanned systems, was recently recognized for its actions to reduce carbon emissions by United Kingdom-based environmental watchdog CDP. CDP, which was known as the Carbon Disclosure Project until it outgrew its original focus, is an international not-for-profit that
On the heels of Apple’s report that 200 million people have already adopted iOS 7, the robotics world got its own update news with the announcement that the category-defining Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics is moving to version 2.0. Rethink called the software update “game-changing” for its interactive manufacturing robot, which introduced the idea of
The Israeli business daily Globes reported yesterday that Mazor Robotics has filed a draft prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $46 million through the sale of American depositary shares on the Nasdaq stock market. American depositary shares make it easier for U.S. investors to invest in foreign companies; in this case, each
The past few years have seen an explosion of interest in the idea of the autonomous car, with traditional automotive manufacturers, university-based research teams and more broadly tech-oriented firms all announcing projects aimed at progressively shifting the responsibility of actually operating a vehicle from the human driver to a variety of “smart” systems embedded into
