Category Archives: Robotics

Jun 15, 2017, 2:42 pm EDT |By Tom Taulli, InvestorPlace Writer & IPO Playbook Editor

Robots may still seem kind of like a niche industry, but the reality is much different. Over the years, companies especially manufacturers have invested substantial sums on robotics. In fact, back in 2012, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) plunked down $775 million for Kiva Systems, a top robotics manufacturer for warehouses.

Source: Shutterstock

No doubt, the industry represents a nice growth opportunity. Lets face it, robotics are often cheaper than traditional labor.

But there are also powerful trends that are driving the growth. Just some include high-speed chips, sensor technologies, cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

So how big is the opportunity? According to research from IDC, the worldwide spending on robotics is expected to more than double by 2020 to a whopping $188 billion. Indeed, there is quite a bit of room for many players to reap hefty profits.

What are some of the companies to consider now? Lets take a look at the following tech stocks to buy:

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, http://investorplace.com/2017/06/4-tech-stocks-that-will-dominate-robotics/.

2017 InvestorPlace Media, LLC

Excerpt from:

4 Tech Stocks That Will Dominate Robotics - Investorplace.com

In the basement of a Highlands Ranch home, in a neighborhood of winding streets and cul-de-sacs, the Millennium Falcon sits shrouded in Roswell-type secrecy.

Its rail-thin designers and marketers who range in age from 14-18 form a tight circle around their creation. They block a photographer from taking images of the Falconscustom chassis and four-motor chain drive.

They fear photos of their latest design will leak into cyberspace and inform rivals of what theyre cooking up for the impending Super Bowl of high school robotics.

We really dont want anyone to see any recent changes we have made, said Spencer Gregg, whose mother is the coach of Team #6929 Data Force and is harboring the Falcon. She takes Spencer aside to make a case for a news photographers access to the teams hard work, but he holds firm. Visitors can observe the robot in action, but there will be no photos today.

No doubt, Data Force team members are nervous about the upcomingFestival of Champions,scheduled July 28 and 29 in New Hampshire. There, the teens and the Falcon will meet TeamRedneck Robotics, made up of students from Fairfield, Great Falls and Sun River Valley in Montana.

They are ranked just a few percentage points above us, said Spencer Gregg.

About 15,000 K-12 students from 33 countries face off in the annualFIRST robotics championships. The students design, build and program robots in a matter of weeks to compete in specific challenges.

Robots in the FIRST Robotics Competition, the highest level, are challenged to hang gears on hooks and climb a rope while fending off potential blocks from rival robots.

Data Forcewon the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in St. Louis in April. The event featured 128 national and international teams, narrowed from a field of 5,000. Rednecks Robotics won the FIRST Tech Challenge in Houston in April.

FIRST organizers hope to crown an ultimate world champion when the teams meet at the New Hampshire competition.

Hence, Data Forces secrecy. Coach Paree Gregg, whose two sons are on the team, said this is one of few Colorado teams to come away with a world championship in the 25-year history of the robotics showdown.

This is a big deal for these kids, and a big deal for the state, said Gregg.

Like its movie namesake, the Millennium Falcon is built for speed.It scoots along at about 2.5 mph and can shoot out four particle balls in 1.53 seconds. Its equipped with a small forklift that can scoop up and deposit a 2.5-pound yoga ball into a nearly 6-foot-high tower in 4 seconds.

The robot weighs 30 pounds and is the size of a large cardboard box. Its built to maneuver in a 12-by-12-foot square enclosed with foot-high walls, a space it must share with as many as three other robots.Theobject of competition is to successfully perform several tasks and thereby outscore your opponent.

At times, drivers control the robots. During the rest of a match robots operate only according to pre-programmed instructions. The matches can draw thousands of spectators, and although the robots are not equipped with phasers or flame throwers, opponents are known to bump each other to throw off a shot.

It can get pretty intense, said Spencer Gregg.

The Falcon is brimming with new equipment that should give it an edge in July, say team members.

Its really an improvement over what we built last year, said Kaushik Kaja, 14, the youngest member of Data Force. And thats the whole idea behind the competition, to change and improve from the past year.

Engineer Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, started FIRST the acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology in 1989 in hopes of sparking interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among kids.

Besides learning how to design, code and build robots, FIRST competitors also must employ soft skills, including producing a business plan, raising money and conducting community outreach for their project.

So far, Data Force members have raised $7,000 for their endeavor. They have also recruited sponsors, including State Farm, Baxter, Ingram Machining, RC Hobbies, Macys and King Soopers.

This is not just technical work, saidGregg. Theyve also had to harness and learn new skills to make this work.

Read more from the original source:

Colorado robotics team takes world championship, eyes next opponent - The Denver Post

TechCrunch is pleased today to announce the companies and judges participating in the pitch-off at TC Sessions: Robotics. This is going to be great.

New life is important. And while TC Sessions: Robotics features the best engineers and companies in the robotics field, were excited to host a small pitch-off that will pit four budding companies against each other in a bid to exhibit their project at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. To help pick the winner we assembled a fantastic team of judges.

Pitch-off events have long been a staple of TechCrunch events. In this particular contest, the individuals behind these projects will have four minutes to present their ideas to the judges and audience and conduct a live demo of the robot. The judges will then have four minutes to ask questions. The winner of the contest will be given an exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt SF this September (a $1995 value).

General admission tickets are selling out quickly and seating is limited in MITs Kresge Auditorium. The event takes place in Boston on July 17 and features a day of speakers, robotic demos and networking. We hope to see you there.

CP Robotics is based on patented software that makes robots able to automatically plan processes, such as grinding, milling, welding, plasma-cutting etc., based on a quick initial 3D scanning.

Hand4help Hand4help is developing low-cost, multi functional, 3D-printed robotic hand prosthesis for amputees.

Tangible Media Group The Tangible Media Group in the MIT Media Lab has developed a robotic haptic interface to give physical form to virtual objects.

Franklin Robotics Franklin Robotics has developed and will demonstrate Tertill, a robot that weeds personal gardens.

Jeremy Conrad is the co-founder and a partner at Lemnos Labs, a seed stage investment firm based out of San Francisco. Prior to Lemnos Mr. Conrad was an active duty United States Air Force officer working on the Airborne Laser Program. Mr. Conrad received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Helen Greiner cofounded iRobot in 1990 and served as president until 2004 and chairman until 2008. During her tenure, Helen Greiner guided iRobot into its position as a global leader with the release of the Roomba, the PackBot and SUGV military robots. In addition, Greiner headed up iRobots financing projects, raising $35M in venture capital for a $75M initial public offering. Greiner holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and a masters degree in computer science, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008 she founded CyPhy Works where she served as the CEO until 2016 and is now the companys Chief Technology Officer.

Daniel Theobald founded Vecna Technologies in 1999 with the mission to empower humanity through transformative technologies. With the guiding philosophy that automation is the key to developing a more sustainable and equitable future, Daniel has worked with several renowned institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Veterans Administration (VA) to develop automation solutions across a number of industries.

Melonee Wise is the CEO of Fetch Robotics, which is delivering advanced robots for the logistics industry. The company introduced their robot system, including Fetch and Freight, in May of 2015. Prior to joining Fetch, Melonee was CEO and co-founder of Unbounded Robotics. Before then, Melonee was Manager of Robot Development at Willow Garage, where she led a team of engineers developing next-generation robot hardware, including the PR2 and TurtleBot from Willow Garage. Melonee also has extensive experience in the growth of ROS as a research and commercial platform. Melonee is currently a Mentor in the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator.

9:00 AM 9:05 AM Opening Remarks fromMatthew Panzarino

9:05 AM 9:25 AM Whats Next at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory withDaniela Rus (MIT CSAIL)

9:25 AM 9:50 AM Is Venture Ready for Robotics?withManish Kothari (SRI), Josh Wolfe (Lux Capital) and Helen Zelman (Lemnos)

10:10 AM 10:35 AM Collaborative Robots At WorkwithClara Vu (VEO), Jerome Dubois (6 River Systems) and Holly Yanco (UMass Lowell)

10:35 AM 10:55 AM Coffee Break

10:55 AM 11:20 AM Building A Robotics Startup from Angel to Exit with Helen Greiner (CyPhy Works),Andy Wheeler (GV) and Elaine Chen (Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship)

11:20 AM 11:30 AM Soft Robotics (Carl Vause) Demo

11:30 AM 11:55 AM Imagineering Disney Robotics with Martin Buehler (Disney Imagineering)

12:00 PM 1:00 PM Lunch and Workshops TBA

1:00 PM 1:20 PM Robots at Amazonwith Tye Brady (Amazon Robotics)

1:20 PM 1:55 PM When Robots Fly with Buddy Michini (Airware), Andreas Raptopoulos (Matternet) and Anil Nanduri (Intel)

1:55 PM 2:15 PM Packbot, Roomba and Beyondwith Colin Angle (iRobot)

2:15 PM 2:35 PM Building Better BionicsSamantha Payne (Open Bionics) and TBA

2:35 PM 2:45 PM Demo TBA

2:45 PM 3:05 PM The Future of Industrial Robotics with Sami Atiya (ABB)

3:05 PM 3:25 PM Coffee Break

3:25 3:35 PM Demo TBA

3:35 PM 4:15 PM Robotics Startup Pitch-off (Judges and contestants TBA)

4:15 PM 4:35 PM The Age Of The Household RobotwithGill Pratt (Toyota Research Institute)

4:35 PM 4:55 PM Building The Robot Brain withHeather Ames (Neurala) andBrian Gerky (OSRF) and TBA

4:55 PM 5:20 PM Robots, AI and HumanitywithDavid Barrett (Olin), David Edelman (MIT) and Dr. Brian Pierce (DARPA) and TBA

5:20 PM 5:25 PM Wrap Up

5:25 PM -7:00 PM Reception

See the article here:

Meet the 4 projects competing at TC Sessions: Robotics' pitch-off ... - TechCrunch

TORONTO Back in 2009, Sobeys found itself at a crossroads.

Labour costs were rising, employee productivity was waning and the grocer knew that it had to keep building bigger distribution centres to accommodate the growing number of items being sold in its supermarkets.

So instead of building out and hiring more workers, the national grocery chain built up and replaced many employees with robots.

"The combination of labour costs going up and SKUs (stock keeping units) being on the rise kind of forced us to start thinking outside the box and try to find a technology to help us resolve those issues," said Eric Seguin, senior vice-president of distribution and logistics for Sobeys, during a tour this week at the company's largest warehouse in Vaughan, Ont.

Sobeys is one of a small number of Canadian retailers that have embraced robotics technology. Others have been reluctant to follow suit, experts say, due to a lack of investment, a lack of access to the technology and for a long time, a lack of competition.

Today, Sobeys (TSX:EMP.A) operates four robotics distribution centres: two facilities north of Toronto spanning 750,000 square feet, another in Montreal and one in Calgary that opened earlier this month.

Unlike its 21 traditional warehouses, the mostly-automated centres rely on robotics instead of workers to pull items off the shelves and pack them onto pallets to ship to its 1,500-plus grocery stores.

The robots, which whiz up and down rows of stacked products piled up to 75 feet high for 20 hours a day, have resulted in reduced employee costs and quicker and more accurate deliveries, Sobeys says. It's also allowed the Stellarton, N.S.-based grocer to double the amount of items that can be stored.

One robot does the work of four employees, Seguin said.

"The robots don't get tired," Seguin said.

"They always show up the morning after the Stanley Cup final. They are always there the morning after the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter if it's 35 (Celsius) and a beautiful weekend."

The company has spent between $100 million to $150 million on each of its robotics facilities. Seguin says retailers, especially those in the grocery industry, have been slow to adapt due to the high upfront investment costs.

But that attitude is changing and fast, says retail consultant Doug Stephens.

"Retail in this country has enjoyed for many decades a bit of a dearth of competition, which is coming to an end now," said Stephens, who recently wrote a book called Re-Engineering Retail.

"With the influx of U.S. players in the last decade and certainly with the presence and impact of Amazon, Canadian retailers are really having to awaken to the idea that if we don't adapt and change and compete we're going to be in big trouble."

Behemoth multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart have raised the stakes for Canadian retailers, offering lower prices, as well as quick and often free delivery or pickup services.

Last year, Canada's oldest retailer, Hudson's Bay Company, said it was spending more than $60 million in robotic upgrades to its 725,000-square foot Toronto distribution centre. Online orders that would've taken up to 2 1/2 hours to locate and pack manually are being shipped out of the warehouse and onto a truck within 15 minutes.

"We're really just on the cusp of the capabilities of these technologies," said Stephens.

While manual labour jobs are being lost in retail, the types of positions that survive the wave of automation will evolve and likely be more focused on loyalty and analytics, says Marty Weintraub, a partner in retail at consulting firm Deloitte.

"Robots can be much cheaper to implement and execute, and they don't come with some of the challenges that humans would face such as making errors or having poor judgment," he said.

"But technology cannot replace certain skills that computers can't do today, like jobs that require problem solving, intuition, the art of persuasion and creativity."

According to documents obtained by The Canadian Press in March, federal government officials were warned that the Canadian economy could lose between 1.5 million and 7.5 million jobs in the next 10 to 15 years due to automation.

In a report, Sunil Johal of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto estimates that the retail sector employs about two million people and between 92 per cent to 97 per cent of those who work in sales or as cashiers are at risk of losing their jobs.

"We're just scratching the surface of how technology can affect the retail sector," said Johal. "That's a cause of concern."

Follow @LindaNguyenTO on Twitter.

Read the rest here:

Rise of the machines: Canadian retailers on 'cusp' of using more robotics - Times Colonist

MUSCATINE Members of team Awesome Lego Builders stood around their project, waiting for other children and adults who walked around Muscatine Community College's student center to stop by.

When a few curious children stopped by, the team began their presentation and demonstrating their projecta motorized Lego spider about as big as their hands which moved on a field with animals, a miniature naturalist and a beehive that released a minuscule barrel of honey at the press of a button.

Joey Murphy, 9, explained why the team focused on spiders.

We thought they were interesting, he said, adding they remind him of Spiderman.

It took six weeks to design and build the project, which asked them to pick an animal that lives in the same habitat as a honey bee, and create a model and a poster about it.

The poster included a list of deadly spiders and other facts.

On Wednesday afternoon, team Awesome Lego Builders and six other Muscatine robotics teams presented their work at the FIRST Lego League Jr. Expo, the first expo of its kind for Muscatine.

Krista Regennitter, Muscatine County ISU Extension director, said there was a smaller gathering last year, but it did not rise to the level of an expo. Growing interest about robotics prompted them to host the bigger event.

The teams showed their projects to friends and families and volunteer reviewers.

(The reviewers) talk to them about what they learned and then they will look at the model and the poster and then every team will get an area of excellence (recognition), Regennitter said.

The teams are part of Clover Kids, 4-H groups that attract children from kindergarten to third grade.

The expo is kind of like the county fair for regular 4-Hers, she said. Its an opportunity to talk to a judge or a reviewer and say this is what I learned.

It also promotes creativity, science and engineering.

The neat thing is that it introduces STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with Lego, which everybody loves, she said.

For team Awesome Lego Builders, science figured into several stages of the design and creation of the spider model.

Liesie Poppe 9, said it took several attempts to create the Lego tree on which the spider rested. Inside the tree, they buried a battery. On first try, the tree they built wasnt big enough to hide the battery completely.

We just kept building it up, she said.

See the rest here:

Muscatine robotics expo encourages interest in STEM - Muscatine Journal

June 15, 2017 05:08 ET | Source: Research and Markets

Dublin, June 15, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "United States Enterprise Automation and Robotics: Market Analysis and Forecasts by Application 2017 - 2021" report to their offering.

This research evaluates enterprise robotics in the United States including companies, technologies, and solutions across industry verticals and applications. The report includes forecasts by industry vertical/application for 2017 through 2021.

Leading industry verticals are beginning to see improved operational efficiency through the introduction of robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Robotics investment in many industries represents a substantial capital expenditure with the potential to dramatically reduce operational expenses through resource optimization, quality improvement, and waste reduction.

Robotics in business will accelerate as less expensive hardware and improvements in AI lead to improved cost structures and increased integration with enterprise software systems respectively. The massive amount of data generated by robotics will create opportunities for data analytics and AI-enabled decision support systems. Emerging areas for enterprise robotics include Robotics as a Service, Cloud Robotics, and General Purpose Robotics.

Target Audience:

- Robotics companies - Investment organizations - Data management vendors - Industrial automation companies - Enterprise across all industry verticals

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction 2.1 Market Segmentation 2.2 Market Overview

3. United States Robotics Companies 3.1 2G Engineering 3.2 3D Robotics 3.3 Adept Technology Inc. 3.4 Aethon Inc. 3.5 Alphabet, Inc. (Google) 3.6 Amazon Robotics 3.7 Anki Inc. 3.8 Apex Automation and Robotics 3.9 Auris Surgical Robotics Inc 3.10 Autonomous Solutions, Inc. 3.11 Axium Inc. 3.12 Canvas Technology 3.13 Carbon Robotics 3.14 Carbon3D 3.15 Celera Motion 3.16 Clearpath Robotics 3.17 Construction Robotics 3.18 Cyphy Works 3.19 Denso Wave Inc. 3.20 Discovery Robotics 3.21 Ekso Bionics 3.22 Ellison Technologies Inc. 3.23 Energid Technologies 3.24 Epson Robots 3.25 Fetch Robotics 3.26 Ghost Robotics Llc 3.27 Greensea Systems Inc. 3.28 Hypertherm Inc. 3.29 Iam Robotics 3.30 Invia Robotics 3.31 Irobot 3.32 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. 3.33 Jibo 3.34 Kairos Autonomi 3.35 Knightscope 3.36 Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. 3.37 Lockheed Martin 3.38 Locus Robotics 3.39 Micromo 3.40 Modbot Inc. 3.41 Octopuz Inc. 3.42 Omnicell Inc. 3.43 Precisionhawk 3.44 Rewalk Robotics 3.45 Robotlab Inc. 3.46 Rockwell Automation Inc. 3.47 Rokid Inc. 3.48 Sapientx Inc. 3.49 Savioke 3.50 Seegrid 3.51 Sharp Electronics Corp. 3.52 Skyspecs 3.53 Soft Robotics Inc. 3.54 Softweb Solutions Inc. 3.55 Sri International 3.56 Stubli 3.57 Stryker (Mako Surgical) 3.58 Suitable Technologies 3.59 Syntouch 3.60 Teradyne Inc. 3.61 Titan Medical 3.62 Tm Robotics 3.63 Torc Robotics 3.64 Transcend Robotics 3.65 Ulc Robotics Inc. 3.66 Universal Robotics 3.67 Vecna Technologies 3.68 Verb Surgical 3.69 Vex Robotics 3.70 Vgo Communications 3.71 Vigilant Robots 3.72 Virtual Incision Corporation 3.73 Willrich Precision Instrument Co. 3.74 World Drone Academy 3.75 Wynright (Daifuku Co Ltd) 3.76 Yaskawa Motoman

4. Robotics Sector Analysis 4.1 Agriculture 4.2 Energy and Extraction 4.3 Financial 4.4 Healthcare 4.5 Industrial 4.6 Military and Public Safety 4.7 Retail and Hospitality 4.8 Enterprise (General)

5. Robotics Areas to Watch 5.1 Industry Developments 5.1.1 Growing Commercial Investments 5.1.2 New Market Players 5.1.3 Robots to Benefit from Cheaper Hardware 5.1.4 Robotics and the Cloud 5.1.5 Robots and Social Media 5.1.6 Robots and Artificial Intelligence 5.2 Robotics as a Service (RaaS) 5.3 General Purpose Robotics

6. Enterprise Robotics in United States Forecasts 6.1 Overall Enterprise Robotics Expenditures in United Sates 2017 - 2021 6.2 Robotics in Process Automation and Manufacturing USA 2017 - 2021 6.3 Robotics in Research and Science USA 2017 - 2021 6.4 Robotics in Healthcare: Medical, Surgical, and Biotech USA 2017 - 2021 6.5 Robotics in Logistics and Goods Delivery USA 2017 - 2021 6.6 Robotics in Data Analytics and Information Processing USA 2017 - 2021 6.7 Robotics in Customer Service (Virtual Guides) USA 2017 - 2021 6.8 Robotics in Agriculture USA 2017 - 2021 6.9 Robotics in Military and Public Safety USA 2017 - 2021 6.10 Robotics in Other Areas USA 2017 - 2021

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/l5zbcm/united_states

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United States Enterprise Automation and Robotics Market 2017 - 2021 - GlobeNewswire (press release)

New design could provide communication support in disaster zones.

GelSight technology lets robots gauge objects hardness and manipulate small tools.

Muscle grafts could help amputees sense and control artificial limbs.

New algorithm quickly makes sense of incoming visual data.

System directs camera-equipped drones to maintain framing of an aerial shot.

Professor David Mindell, who researches the interaction between automation and human behavior, discusses the interdependence of people, robots, and infrastructure.

MechE class ends semester with ingeniously designed robots battling on a Star Wars-themed playing field.

CSAIL approach allows robots to learn a wider range of tasks using some basic knowledge and a single demo.

Startups cloud-based system allows for project queuing by multiple users and automated part removal.

Technology developed at MIT could enable faster, cheaper, more adaptable building construction.

A simple statistical trick could help make a ubiquitous model of decision processes more accurate.

Microfluidic device generates passive hydraulic power, may be used to make small robots move.

A bio-inspired gel material developed at MIT could help engineers control movements of soft robots.

New technique could protect robot teams communication networks from malicious hackers.

CSAIL system enables people to correct robot mistakes using brain signals.

Made from hydrogel, robots may one day assist in surgical operations, evade underwater detection.

Adib is directing a new research group at the Media Lab, aiming to uncover, analyze, and engineer natural and human-made networks.

MIT Professor Daniela Rus combines automation and mobility to create a smarter world.

Fund establishes a global initiative to advance artificial intelligence research for the public good.

A look at 16 of the coolest things that happened at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 2016.

See the article here:

Robotics | MIT News

These gadgets measure about 1.25-inches along their sides and about .75-inches tall. Their undersides house a pair of wheels while the nubbly bit on top are compatible with Lego blocks, enabling you to install costumes and structures to the Toios.

They're reminiscent of the Anki Cozmo, however unlike that desktop robot, these little guys don't rely on an internal AI. Instead, the Toios are equipped with bluetooth receivers that enable them to talk to each other as well as receive commands from a remote console. That console issues its commands based on whatever cartridge with the preprogrammed operations you plug into it. The system also comes with a number of patterned paper designs that you cut out and attach to the Toios which both add to the visual effect and help control the robots, as you can see in the video below.

The Toios also come with a special optically-patterned mat which allows their visual sensors to navigate the play area, not unlike the Ozobot, though you can also take control of the robots' movements directly with one of a pair of controllers that plug into the console.

The various games and functions (and papercraft requirements) vary from the most basic up to highly complex designs which means that even if your kid gets bored with it after 5 minutes, you can keep playing. The Toio set runs for 30,000 yen -- that's roughly $275 US. There's no word yet on whether Sony will release additional cartridges or will allow users to program their own.

Excerpt from:

Sony's fantastical Toio cubes combine robotics with papercraft - Engadget

Photo: Toio Sony's Toio robot cube.

From Sony, the company that brought you the amazing Aibo and the slightly less amazing Rolly, comes a new consumer robotic toy: Toio, a toy platform consisting of little robotic cubes on wheels. Its much cuter and way more fun looking than it sounds, and could be just clever enough to keep kids interested for more than 5minutes (a common problem with a lot of robotic toys).

Heres the trailer that should give you an overview of what this thing is:

We dont have a lot of technical details on how the Toio cubes work, but they appear to have a pair of wheels at the bottom, some number of basic sensors, and bumps on top that are compatible with Legos. The robots are eachapproximately 32 mm 32 mm 19.2 mm (width depth height).

They communicate via Bluetooth to a video game-type console where you insert a cartridge, which tells the robots how to behave. There are alsomotion-sensing rings that act as controllers and let you make the robots drive and spin around.

But where things really get interesting is when you modify the cubes with basic crafting materials like paper and tape:

Toio kits come with specialmats, so were assuming that a lot of the neat tricks you see in these videos are made possible by optical pattern localization: This method allows robots to findtheir position byusing a downward facing camera andlooking at patterns underneath them. The robots then communicate with a centralized controllerto simulate interactive behavior with one another.

Robotic toy startupAnki may have been the first company to really make use of this technique, but its no longer unique to them. (Warehouse robotics company Kiva Systems, acquired by Amazon, also usedcameras to look at bar-coded stickers on the ground for localization.) The downside is that the functionality of the Toios are probably more limited when they are off of the mats, though it seems that you can use special cards to help them navigate:

That all looks like fun, for sure, but one thing to note is that this is not a regular, officialSony product. The companyis offering Toio through its crowdfunding platform, called First Flight,designed to incubateproduct ideas from Sony employees. The Toio team has engineers and designers from Sony headquarters as well asthe Sony Computer Science Laboratory, andcompany partners include Bandai, Lego, and Sony Music.The Toio website currently lists three different kits available for pre-order, each going for around30,000 yen, or about US$275.

Another thing to note is that, as with video game consoles, youll probably have to buy new cartridges from Sony if you want new behaviors for your Toios, and its unclear if they will be able to run code created using any of thevisual programming languages that are now popular among kids. If they turned out not to be programmable, the robots might not appeal to hobbyists and educators who value more open and hackable platforms.

Toio is certainly a clever little thing, and well see how things shake out in December, when the kits should start shipping.

[ Sony Toio ] via [ Fast Company ]

IEEE Spectrums award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

Sign up for the Automaton newsletter and get biweekly updates about robotics, automation, and AI, all delivered directly to your inbox.

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Sony Adds Toio Cubes to Its Arsenal of Strange Robotic Toys - IEEE Spectrum

GE Aviation has acquired a United Kingdom-based manufacturer that builds snake-arm robots for work in confined and hazardous areas.

Terms of the deal to acquire OC Robotics were not disclosed.

The robots are typically used in hazardous and hard-to-get to confined areas for inspections, repairs and cleaning in the aerospace, construction, nuclear, petrochemical and security industries, GE said in a statement.

GE will use the technology for work on jet engines, a company official said. The snake armed robots can stretch more than nine feet and bend more than 180 degrees, GE Aviation said.

OC Robotics will play an important role in how we service our customers engines, Jean Lydon-Rodgers, GE Aviation Services vice president and general manager, said in a statement Monday.

OC Robotics, which started two decades ago and is located in Bristol, England, has worked for more than a decade to develop the technology, officials said.

For 15 years, OC Robotics invested heavily to develop snake-arm robot technologies, and the aviation industry has always been a target area for this technology, Andy Graham, OC Robotics director, said in a statement.

GE Aviation operates the $51 million Electrical Power Integrated Services Center, opened in 2013, on the University of Dayton campus and produces aircraft parts at a facility in Vandalia. The company report revenues of $26 billion in 2016 and employs 44,000 employees, including 9,000 in southwest Ohio, said company spokeswoman Deborah Case.

OC Robotics was a privately held company and revenues were not immediately released.

Read more here:

GE Aviation will expand engine service business in robotics deal - Dayton Daily News