Category Archives: Robotics

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Toronto-based Wealthsimple, a provider of tools for managing ones money and investment portfolio, reportedly raised $610 million in fresh funding at a valuation of around $4 billion.

Meritech and Greylock led the financing, which roughly doubled the companys valuation since its last round in October. Previously, Wealthsimple had raised around $310 million in known funding, per Crunchbase data.

Joanna Glasner

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management agreed to buy Verizons media group, which includes Yahoo and AOL. Verizon Media brands including Engadget and TechCrunch are included in the deal, and the group will be called Yahoo when the sale closes. Verizon will keep a 10 percent stake in the company, which will continue to be led by current Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan, the companies said in a statement.

Sophia Kunthara

Prescient raises $190M: Architectural software and design startup Prescient has raised a $190 million in new funding, led by Eldridge and JE Dunn. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based companys software platform makes construction more efficient, and has completed 57 buildings so far. Prescient last raised a $50 million Series E in July 2018, per Crunchbase.

Sophia Kunthara

Path Robotics lands $56M: Columbus, Ohio-based Path Robotics, a developer of autonomous welding robots, announcedit has raised $56 million in a Series B funding round led by Addition. The company says its AI-enabled robotics product will self-adjust for each part it produces, filling demand in a field facing chronic labor shortages.

Joanna Glasner

Bone Health Technologies inks $2.5M: San Francisco-based Bone Health Technologies closed on $2.5 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by Good Growth Capital. Bone Health is developing a new standard of care for treating both osteoporosis and osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis. The company was recently granted Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for OsteoBoost, its vibration belt designed for the prevention of osteoporosis. Studies show that one 30-minute treatment with OsteoBoost reduced bone loss activity in all study participants, according to the company.

Christine Hall

Dell to sell Boomi for $4B: Dell struck a deal to sell its Boomi cloud computing business to private equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG in a transaction valued at around $4 billion. Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based Boomi makes software that helps applications communicate with each other.

Joanna Glasner

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Editors Note: Verizon Ventures is an investor in Crunchbase.

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The Briefing: Wealthsimple Raises $610M, Path Robotics Scores $56M, And More - Crunchbase News

In 1913, Henry Ford revolutionized car-making with the first moving assembly line, an innovation that made piecing together new vehicles faster and more efficient. Some hundred years later, Ford is now using artificial intelligence to eke more speed out of todays manufacturing lines.

At a Ford Transmission Plant in Livonia, Michigan, the station where robots help assemble torque converters now includes a system that uses AI to learn from previous attempts how to wiggle the pieces into place most efficiently. Inside a large safety cage, robot arms wheel around grasping circular pieces of metal, each about the diameter of a dinner plate, from a conveyor and slot them together.

Ford uses technology from a startup called Symbio Robotics that looks at the past few hundred attempts to determine which approaches and motions appeared to work best. A computer sitting just outside the cage shows Symbios technology sensing and controlling the arms. Toyota and Nissan are using the same tech to improve the efficiency of their production lines.

At a Ford plant in Livonia, Michigan, robots assemble torque converters by wiggling components into place, with some help from machine learning.

The technology allows this part of the assembly line to run 15 percent faster, a significant improvement in automotive manufacturing where thin profit margins depend heavily on manufacturing efficiencies.

I personally think it is going to be something of the future, says Lon Van Geloven, production manager at the Livonia plant. He says Ford plans to explore whether to use the technology in other factories. Van Geloven says the technology can be used anywhere its possible for a computer to learn from feeling how things fit together. There are plenty of those applications, he says.

AI is often viewed as a disruptive and transformative technology, but the Livonia torque setup illustrates how AI may creep into industrial processes in gradual and often imperceptible ways.

Automotive manufacturing is already heavily automated, but the robots that help assemble, weld, and paint vehicles are essentially powerful, precise automatons that endlessly repeat the same task but lack any ability to understand or react to their surroundings.

Adding more automation is challenging. The jobs that remain out of reach for machines include tasks like feeding flexible wiring through a cars dashboard and body. In 2018, Elon Musk blamed Tesla Model 3 production delays on the decision to rely more heavily on automation in manufacturing.

Researchers and startups are exploring ways for AI to give robots more capabilities, for example enabling them to perceive and grasp even unfamiliar objects moving along conveyor belts. The Ford example shows how existing machinery can often be improved by introducing simple sensing and learning capabilities.

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Ford's Ever-Smarter Robots Are Speeding Up the Assembly Line - WIRED

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SIMI VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced it was granted clearance from the German government and completed the previously announced acquisition of Telerob Gesellschaft fr Fernhantierungstechnik mbH (Telerob), in a $45.4 million (37.5 million) cash transaction and the pay-off of approximately $9.4 million (7.8 million) in Telerobs debt at closing. Telerob now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AeroVironment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210504005768/en/

AeroVironment completes acquisition of Telerob, a leader in ground robotic solutions, to expand multi-domain robotic systems offering and global presence. (Photo: AeroVironment, Inc.)

Our acquisition of Telerob marks a significant expansion to our portfolio of intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, from small and medium unmanned aircraft systems, to tactical missile systems and now, unmanned ground vehicles, said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment president and chief executive officer. We welcome the talented Telerob team and look forward to delivering even more capability to our customers in the United States and more than 50 allied countries around the world.

The entire Telerob team is excited to join forces with AeroVironment so we can deliver our expanded offering to current and new customers around the world, said Norbert Gebbeken, Telerob managing director. Delivering intelligent, multi-domain robotic solutions, both in the air and on the ground, can help more customers achieve their mission objectives. Working together with the AeroVironment team in the future has the potential to create even more compelling solutions in multiple applications and industries.

Founded in 1994, Telerob offers one of the industrys most advanced and comprehensive turn-key unmanned ground robotics solutions, including the telemax and tEODor EVO family of UGVs, fully-equipped transport vehicles and training, repair and support services. Telerobs cutting-edge solutions safely and effectively perform a variety of dangerous missions, including explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), hazardous materials handling (HAZMAT) and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threat assessment. Telerobs ruggedized UGVs possess all-terrain capabilities and offer some of the most advanced, specialized, precision manipulators, autonomous functionality and intuitive operation to deliver a high degree of mission flexibility. Telerobs customers span 45 countries and numerous applications, including homeland security, emergency response and defense. Telerob is based near Stuttgart, Germany.

AeroVironment submitted a proposal with Telerob for the United States Air Force 10-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Large Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robot program, announced in October 2020. The Air Force has not announced the awardee for this program.

To learn more about advanced ground robotic solutions from Telerob, an AeroVironment Company, visit http://www.avinc.com/ugv.

ABOUT AEROVIRONMENT, INC.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) provides technology solutions at the intersection of robotics, sensors, software analytics and connectivity that deliver more actionable intelligence so you can Proceed with Certainty. Celebrating 50 years of innovation, AeroVironment is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems and tactical missile systems, and serves defense, government and commercial customers. For more information, visit http://www.avinc.com.

ABOUT TELEROB, AN AEROVIRONMENT COMPANY

Telerob, an AeroVironment Company, is a leading manufacturer of defense and homeland security solutions based in Ostfildern near Stuttgart, Germany. The product range includes remote-controlled unmanned ground vehicles for disarming improvised explosive devices and investigating CBRN hazards, fully equipped service vehicles, as well as mobile system solutions ensuring the safety and security of critical infrastructure and people. For more information, visit https://www.telerob.com/en/.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made on the basis of current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors outside of our control, that may cause our business, strategy or actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to successfully achieve the anticipated benefits of the Telerob acquisition, including by retaining key employees and customers; the risk that disruptions will occur from the acquisitions that will harm our business or any acquired businesses; any disruptions or threatened disruptions to our relationships with our distributors, suppliers, customers and employees; the ability to timely and sufficiently integrate acquired operations into our ongoing business and compliance programs, including the expansion of international locations; our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain additional contracts; changes in the regulatory environment; the activities of competitors; failure of the markets in which we operate to grow; failure to expand into new markets; failure to develop new products or integrate new technology with current products; and general economic and business conditions in the United States and elsewhere in the world. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210504005768/en/

Makayla ThomasAeroVironment, Inc.+1 (805) 520-8350pr@avinc.com

Mark BoyerFor AeroVironment, Inc.+1 (213) 247-4109mark@boyersyndicate.com

Source: AeroVironment, Inc.

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AeroVironment Completes Acquisition of Telerob, Expanding Multi-Domain Robotic Systems Offering and Global Presence - StreetInsider.com

Shelf-scanning robot Tally will be donning a new apron soon. Simbe, the company that makes the robot, announced its first deployment with Save Mart, the largest family owned grocery chain in California, which acquired 132 Albertsons stores in 2006 + has continued growing.

Tally robots will be rolling out to 7 stores across all three Save Mart banners in the Bay Area to bring greater visibility to inventory, streamline operations for store teams and improve the customer experience.

This is an important milestone for a sector that's been fixated on wider adoption and sees a real opportunity in the shadow of COVID-19, despite notable setbacks and some in the industry questioning the value of retail robotics late last year. In November 2020, Walmart killed a large contract with Simbe competitor Bossa Nova, which also makes a robot for inventory auditing and data-driven inventory insights.

"The pandemic has further illuminated the critical need for strong on-shelf inventory data, and no retail solution provides this data with greater accuracy and fidelity than Tally," said Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-Founder of Simbe Robotics. "Retailers are facing an ever-evolving landscape, and Tally provides a cost-effective solution that enables them to stay ahead of the curve, with improved operations and efficiency. Through our partnership together, The Save Mart Companies will build a more resilient supply chain and ensure the best possible experience for customers and store teams across all three of the company's banners."

Tally robots autonomously audit store shelves to ensure products are in stock and in the correct location on the sales floor. The real-time data and inventory insights collected by Tally help retailers reduce out-of-stocks by up to 30% and enable store teams to focus on servicing customers. As part of the pilot program, The Save Mart Companies will deploy Tally in three Save Mart stores in the Modesto area; two Lucky California stores in Dublin and San Ramon; and two FoodMaxx locations in Modesto and Tracy.

The data that these robots collect while roving aisles at retail locations, combined with powerful analysis, is meant to increase efficiency by solving for the $1.75 trillion "ghost economy," defined by out of stocks, inaccurate price execution, and lack of product location optimization industry-wide. With up-to-date inventory information, managers using robots like Simbe's flagship Tally robot can enact faster operational decisions at the store level and more nimble inventory management. The problem of poor stock management is so pervasive thatinventory mishaps account for more lost revenue than theft.

A study conducted last year by a leading management consulting firm found that Tally has reduced out-of-stocks by 20%, ensuring customers find the items they're looking for and freeing up time for store employees to prioritize other tasks like assisting customers.

But effective technology doesn't always find its market, which is why partnerships are key right now and why pilots like the one with Save Mart is key to build necessary momentum as retailers embrace automation anew.

"Deepening our commitment to innovation with this pilot program is a reflection of The Save Mart Companies promise to our customers to ensure the best in-store experiences," said Hal Levitt, SVP of retail operations at The Save Mart Companies. "We're pleased to have a strong technology partner in Simbe to support us in testing a new, effective inventory management solution in our stores and allowing us to provide better product availability."

Continue reading here:

Retail robots coming to these grocery stores - ZDNet

After a year without a new game challenge, any announcements from FIRST Robotics -- the international youth robotics organization -- or much hope, a homegrown tournament led by other area coaches came together and was recently held at the Sanford Center.

The first-ever Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference invitational event was put together for the robotics teams of the region who otherwise would have gone without a competition season. It also seemed to be one of the first in-person robotics tournaments in the country since COVID hit. Typically, the event is called the championship event and takes place in October, but was canceled due to the pandemic. The Bemidji tournament was unsanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League or FIRST Robotics.

The RoboJacks robot competes on Saturday, April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

According to the RoboJacks website, To our knowledge, this is only the second competition in the world and the first in the United States since the pandemic shut down so many things. As such, the team is excited to be part of this unique opportunity.

The tournament held, Saturday, April 17, featured 24 teams from around the area -- with some familiar faces from around the area including two teams from Cass Lake-Bena, a team from Kelliher and one from Nevis. The RoboJacks ended the competition in the quarter-final round, after four rounds of qualifying matches. The Backwoods Bots from Bigfork, Minn. won the overall competition.

Prior to this, the Pioneer caught up with the RoboJacks in the industrial technology room at BHS, as they tinkered with their robot.

On Thursday, April 15, the build team was hard at work making modifications to their robot at Bemidji High School.

Another corner of the room held programmers, gathered around a computer. In the other wing, the business team discussed fundraising strategies.

The RoboJacks prepare their robot for the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The RoboJacks are down some members of the team this year, as COVID-19 put a stop to regular competition. This led some regular members to opt not to return for the season, and made it difficult for the team to recruit freshmen members.

The team this year has 17 members -- which are broken down into subteams -- programming, build and business. Some of the larger subteams were further split into smaller groups for contact tracing purposes, so if someone in the group were to get sick, the whole team wouldnt be down for the count.

Typically, volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. For example, an engineer might help out the build team, a marketing professional might guide the business team, but these relationships were harder to cultivate during the pandemic.

If there's one thing I wish we had more of, its more mentors, RoboJacks Coach Kirk Anderson said. He added that if any professionals in the area would like to help out as mentors for the robotics team in the future, to get in touch via the RoboJacks website.

We are quite excited about the possibility of having any type of competition this year, Anderson said, ahead of the competition. He is new to the head coach position this year, taking over for former robotics coach Chris Conway.

Build team member Abigail Termont said the event was always a possibility, so the team had been preparing, but that they initially had low expectations.

As initial information was going out, it was, we're planning for this, but don't get your hopes up too far. So (the plan has) kind of always been there and it's only gotten more detailed, she said. We're gonna try to make sure we do this and to keep it as safe as possible.

RoboJacks coach Kirk Anderson looks on as students work on their robot on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

Abigail Johnson, business team lead, said the groups were meeting in some capacity while the school was in distance learning or hybrid, planning for the possibility of competing.

We were doing mostly Google Meets (meetings), just trying to come up with a plan. I know build team members were like measuring parts at home. And the business team mostly worked on outreach, trying to figure out where sponsors were with this year, Johnson said.

In a typical year, the FIRST Robotics would release a game or challenge early in the year, giving teams time to build a robot to compete for the upcoming competition season. As there was no official season this year, there was no new challenge. This meant teams were competing with their 2019-2020 robots, giving them much more time than usual to work the kinks out.

Termont said the group was making some modifications to the way the robot shoots out foam balls and the robots extendable hanging arm.

The lack of in-person events also made fundraising for the team more difficult.

When (the conference championship) is local, it's also a good chance for local businesses and organizations to check out. Since they are the ones who are spending money on the team it's a good chance to see in person what's going on with it, Anderson said.

The local competition event was the culmination of a labor of love -- local teams even built the game pieces used on the field.

The RoboJacks control their robot on April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The main movers and shakers of getting the event going have been Jesse Frost and Matt Wendlund from Cass Lake-Bena High School, Anderson said ahead of the event. There have been several other area coaches that have also put hours of work into making this happen.

Frost currently serves as the President of the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference.

This years game was called Infinite Recharge and had a Star Wars theme. Robots in alliances could earn points by throwing balls into various goals and hanging off of a balancing rail.

If youve never been to a robotics competition before, expect the following: colorful lights, festive team outfits, a glowing game field, students wheeling around large robots and flying balls.

This homegrown competition was no different. Though there were a few technical snags and snafus, overall the event carried on smoothly.

On April 17, the Sanford Center was once again filled with lights, student innovation, and almost certainly smiles. The face masks did little to muffle the long-held cheers.

Bemidji senior Dylan Thomas, head programmer for the RoboJacks, works on their robot after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

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Bemidji area robotics teams compete for the first time in a year - Bemidji Pioneer

Asia-Pacificcontinues to dominate the global industrial robotics market, and revenues are estimated to top $25.08 billion by 2024, with China, Japan and South Korea driving progress. The European region is the second most important, propelled by the automotive industry and Germanythe fifth-largest country globally for industrial robotics. North America's ongoing trend of production automation and keeping all manufacturing operations in-house puts it in the third position, with forecasted revenues of $6.19 billion by 2024.

For further information on this analysis, Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecast,please visit: http://frost.ly/5m6

"The global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a strong use case for industrial robots, which helped assure business continuity," said Nandini Natarajan, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "While 2020 witnessed reduced investments in robotics, the demand for industrial robots will rise sharply from 2021 on. The introduction of low-cost robots and innovative business models such as Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) are expected to drive demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs)."

Natarajan added: "Collaborative robots (cobots) are experiencing rapid market growth thanks to their utility, ease of installation, and consistently decreasing price, making them an affordable and viable solution for a wide range of applications. It will be the fastest-growing segment by 2024, recording a CAGR of 32.8% (2019-2024) and reaching $1.78 million in global revenues. Advances in 5G and edge computing will be instrumental in equipping cobots with improved flexibility and easier implementation."

For further opportunities, market participants should explore these strategic recommendations:

Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecastis part of Frost & Sullivan's global Industrial Automation https://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/information-communications-technologies/Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success.Contact us: Start the discussion.

Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities ForecastK518-10

Contact:Francesca ValenteGlobal Corporate Communications E: [emailprotected]http://ww2.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

http://www.frost.com

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Cobots Lead the Future of the Global Industrial Robotics Market, Finds Frost & Sullivan - PRNewswire

Around the world, grading, sorting, and assembling of fresh fruits and vegetables is done predominantly manually. It would save companies a lot of time and costs if these time-consuming, dull, and repetitive tasks were carried out by robots, says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team. And it would be even more efficient if one robot could perform multiple tasks.

Teachable robotsWageningen Agro Food Robotics began in 2019, the project, Autonomous Robots for Agrifood Processes. One of the aims of this four-year venture is the development of intelligent robots that can be taught to perform multiple tasks, from picking and sorting different types of fruits and vegetables to separating samples of the same type, based on size, shape, and other characteristics. Outsourcing tasks to such robots will allow fruit and vegetable processors to improve their cost/profit balance.

Human-activity recognitionThe Wageningen robots are equipped with cameras that capture the motions of a human expert performing picking and sorting tasks. Human-activity recognition includes data on the person, the scene and the object handled, Chauhan explains. Inbuilt computer vision and deep learning functionalities enable the robots to capture this information and learn new tasks from human demonstrations. Successful experiments have been carried out for different use cases, including picking and sorting mandarins of variable sizes, separating ripe from unripe bananas, sorting intact and damaged cucumbers, and separating out different types from a table of mixed fruits.

Global firstThe first demo application will be ready in Summer 2021, a global first in agri-food applications. An innovation like this requires the technical expertise of robotics and machine learning technologies, as well as extensive knowledge of product physiology and food processing. Here in Wageningen, these disciplines work closely together, Chauhan explains.

The next step will be to test the robots in a factory or a pilot plant and to make them even smarter, with more advanced sensors for sweetness, juiciness, and firmness of fruits and vegetables. Chauhan is already thinking beyond this aim: If people could see robots as co-workers, apprentices even, who knows how the future might look.

"A robot processing oranges could, for example, move easily on to processing strawberries, sorting them by sweetness and marking the sweeter ones with a premium price. Consumer confidence would benefit from the assurance that the products are never touched by human hands a clear USP in these pandemic times," says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team.

For more information:Wageningen University & Researchwww.wur.nl

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Intelligent robots increase the benefit from fresh produce - hortidaily.com - hortidaily.com

SoftBank Robotics, SB Logistics Corp. and Berkshire Grey are partnering to offer an advanced third-party logistics service for e-commerce fulfillment. Berkshire Greys robotic pick and pack systems will enable SB Logistics to process customer orders by robotically handling thousands of SKUS in different product categories.

Berkshire Greys RPP systems are capable of handling significantly higher volumes of SKUs than other robotic providers can handle, while offering levels of careful handling and precise placement that is unmatched in the industry. We challenged Berkshire Grey to increase their capabilities even further to best meet the very high expectations of customers in our target markets. Berkshire Grey met that challenge and developed advanced functionality to enable the most innovative solutions in warehouse robotics, says Fumihide Tomizawa, President and CEO, SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics. With Berkshire Greys RPP systems, we will be able to directly improve the productivity, quality and reliability of our fulfillment services.

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SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics Partner with Berkshire Grey to Develop New E-Commerce Fulfillment Operations - Supply and Demand Chain Executive

MARIETTA, OH Officials with Washington State Community College and the Career Center held an open house yesterday promoting their new robotics and advanced manufacturing pathway. They've formed a partnership to create a pipeline that aims to start high school students on a pathway that ends with them getting a high paid, in-demand job, likely in this area.

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George Bilokonsky is Washington State Community College's Dean of Engineering. He said they've had a robotics program for a while now. "This is automated manufacturing. We've done robotics, but we hadn't done the integrated piece where we're having several robotics working together, talking together. This is smart manufacturing."

High school students from around the county came to the open house yesterday with their parents to look at their robotics automation engineering program. WSCC and Career Center officials walked these students through their state-of-the-art labs and demonstrated how they could earn both high school, college credit, and receive industry credentials by working with robots.

They had four separate robots set up assembly-line style to machine a plain square of aluminum into a fancy-looking decorative plaque with a watch face set in. One robot even packaged it delicately into a small box. The first robot on the assembly line is the FANUC robodrill, and it actually has to be registered with The Department of Homeland Security. "This machine is so precise that homeland security requires it to be registered so they know where it's at in case weapons show up." Bilokonsky explained this machine has the precision required to make silencers or other components of guns or other weapons. "They know exactly the longitude and latitude points are of this machine."

Bilokonsky explained that the robot assembly line was to demonstrate where the industry is headed. "We've spent a lot of time talking to companies around here who are saying hey, we want to get there, we don't know how to get there. So we're training the personnel for companies in this area." He says the easy part is buying the robotics, but trying to get people to operate and maintain them is another thing altogether.

Amanda Herb is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement with Washington County. She said the catalyst for this advanced manufacturing pathway was the million-dollar robotics they displayed at the open house. There had been a discussion about a robotics program at the Career Center. "Instead of them trying to duplicate the equipment we had, we suggested that we partner and their students could come to our campus and use the equipment for their hands-on training." This isn't just a partnership for equipment use, but also a partnership in terms of what kinds of courses they can offer their students.

While the idea is of course to get students into this program, Bilokonsky said adults are calling him asking how they can get involved. "So they're working for a company that has robots. They want to learn how to program robots." He invites them to come down and enroll in one of his classes. "We're probably going to have some evening classes, some workshops. We are going to train the adults, we do want the adults to participate." He said they want to help the up-and-coming workers in the industry, as well as those already there.

Herb said this is a win-win for WSCC, the Career Center, and the students. "It gives us the opportunity to expose more students to the in-demand careers of robotics and advanced manufacturing." She said things like this really is the mission of Washington State. "To provide these hands-on opportunities for students. To really open up doors to new career possibilities." She believes students should be exposed to a wider range of career opportunities than they are now. "This partnership with the Career Center gives us the ability to introduce students to a career that they may have never thought of before."

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Marietta Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of our latest sponsors? Email any and all inquiries to me at christopher.schmitt@patch.com

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WSCC Partners With The Career Center For Robotics Program - Patch.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover Air Force Base (Dover AFB) and Kodiak Robotics, Inc. today announced that Kodiak has been awarded an AFWERX Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop autonomous vehicles for the Dover AFB flightline.

Flightline vehicles represent a natural fit for autonomous technology, given the structured driving environment and high demand for drivers. Through this SBIR Phase II, Kodiak and Dover AFB will also partner to identify the flightline vehicles best suited to automation. This SBIR grant demonstrates the Air Force's growing interest in automation technology's potential to increase efficiency and safety.

The Air Force's SBIR program, which is administered by AFWERX, is designed to help startups and small businesses adapt their civilian technology for Air Force use. Through this SBIR Phase II grant, Kodiak will partner with Dover AFB to adapt Kodiak's solution to the needs of flightline vehicles, and validate the software in simulation. At the completion of the SBIR project, Kodiak will be eligible for a SBIR Phase III grant that will fund autonomous flightline vehicle deployment.

"Kodiak's SBIR partnership with Dover AFB shows the flexibility of the Kodiak Driver to adapt to a wide range of deployment environments and customers," said Don Burnette, Kodiak's CEO. "We are excited to partner with the 436th Aerial Port Squadron to bring the benefits of autonomous technology to the flightline."

About Kodiak Robotics, Inc.:

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in April 2018 to develop autonomous technology that carries freight forwardso people, partners, and the planet thrive. Kodiak is building and operating self-driving trucks designed to operate on highway routes, making the freight industry safer and more efficient. Kodiak has developed the industry's most advanced technology stack purpose-built specifically for long-haul trucks. Kodiak delivers freight daily for its customers between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, operating autonomously on the highway portion of the route. In January 2021, Kodiak became the first company in the autonomous trucking industry to announce disengage-free customer deliveries, and released footage of over 1000 miles of disengage-free driving. Learn more about Kodiak on the web at kodiak.ai, and on Medium, LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE Kodiak Robotics

https://kodiak.ai/

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Kodiak Robotics And Dover Air Force Base Partner To Develop Autonomous Flightline Vehicles - PRNewswire