General Motors Co. last week announced it is buying the SoftBank Vision Fund's stake in its Cruise self-driving car company for $2.1 billion. San Francisco-based Cruise makes electric, driverless vehicles such as the Origin shuttlebus. Last month, the company announced that SoftBank was going to invest an additional $1.35 billion because Cruise had started operating its fully autonomous vehicles. It has also begun offering self-driving car rides to the public in San Francisco, claiming to be the first company to do so. Now that GM has bought SoftBank Vision Fund's stake, it will give Cruise the $1.35 billion in SoftBank…
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Monitoring development projects from start to finish is key to ensuring the accuracy and success of the overall design plan, according to Adams Surveying LLC. In its “Down to Earth, Above the Dirt” video series, the company explains how its drone surveying services have helped keep its customers on time and within budget. Adams Surveying uses drone-based lidar from Microdrones GmbH to quickly gather data for project analysis and volume measurements. “Down to Earth” is a documentary-style series that shows how real surveyors collect data and turn it into deliverables despite challenging conditions, hidden dangers, and inclement weather. Richardson, Texas-based…
Ondas Holdings Inc., which designs, makes, and markets industrial drones through its American Robotics Inc. subsidiary, today announced that it has acquired Ardenna Inc., which provides image processing and machine learning software for rail monitoring and inspection. The companies said the acquisition will enable new efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase safety for the rail industry. “The pieces that are needed to create an industrial data solution for analyzing rail infrastructure are coming together,” stated Eric Brock, chairman and CEO of Ondas. “We believe the acquisition of Ardenna will provide the rail industry with a solution that combines drones, automation, communications,…
Imaging and video technology company Matrox last week announced that it has agreed to sell its Matrox Imaging division to scanning, computing, and robotics provider Zebra Technologies Corp. The acquisition of Matrox Imaging, formally known as Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd., was reportedly worth $875 million. “The combination of Matrox Imaging's technical expertise with the global footprint of Zebra Technologies will present an opportunity for Matrox Imaging to accelerate its long-term strategic plan,” stated Lorne Trottier, co-founder and president of Matrox. “With its complementary machine vision and fixed industrial scanning portfolio, Zebra Technologies will be an excellent home for Matrox Imaging.”…
“Integration” is considered a dirty word by many in industry. Sure, there are more software and automation tools than ever, but getting them to play nicely with one another can still be a major challenge. CJ Logistics wanted to add robots and other technologies to a 1.1 million-sq.-ft. facility in Dallas, but it needed to address integration with the help of SVT Robotics. “This was a strategic initiative for our company,” said Laura Adams, vice president of technology, engineering systems, and solutions (TES) at CJ Logistics. “In this particular building, we wanted to deploy several technologies that CJ Logistics is…
With demand for robots growing as companies in multiple sectors look for new ways to enhance their productivity and competitiveness post-pandemic, ABB has compiled a set of growth predictions, looking at key trends driving demand for robots in the coming year. “The pandemic accelerated far-reaching global mega trends – from labor shortages and supply chain uncertainty, to the individualized consumer and growing pressure to operate sustainably and resiliently – leading new businesses to look to robotic automation,” says Marc Segura, ABB's newly appointed Robotics Division president. “As technology opens new opportunities for meeting customer demands, new trends will continue to…
In MassRobotics’ early days, when Executive Director Tom Ryden was going around speaking to industry and government leaders about his plan to build an innovation and networking robotics hub in Boston, one question got brought up constantly. “The No. 1 question I got was, ‘Why do you support this technology? It takes jobs, right?’” he said. That was around 2015. Seven years later, the robotics industry has certainly grown. The global market for industrial robots, which is just one of many types of automation, was valued at $43.8 billion in 2021, according to Statista.com. MassRobotics, an public-private nonprofit dedicated to…
GeekPlus Technology Co. and Bosch Rexroth AG yesterday said they have signed a channel agreement for North America. The partners have already augmented Geek+'s MP1000R mobile robot with Bosch Rexroth's ROKIT Locator laser localization software. “The signing of this North American strategic channel agreement with Geek+ is another milestone in the cooperation between our two companies,” stated Armando Gonzalez, business leader for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and robotics at Bosch Rexroth. “From cooperation in product development to cooperation in the channel market, we firmly believe that our two companies' innovativeness and expansion strength will be increased.” Lohr am Main, Germany-based…
Toyota Ventures yesterday launched its third global “call for innovation” to search for early-stage companies that can help make the “factory of the future” a reality sooner. Qualified entrepreneurs can apply for an opportunity to receive between $500,000 and $2 million in funding from Toyota Ventures. “We take a founder-first approach to investing, partnering with entrepreneurs to help them bring disruptive technologies and business models to market more quickly,” said Jim Adler, founding managing director of Toyota Ventures. “With the 2022 call for innovation, we are looking to support talented startup teams that are developing smarter and more sustainable factories…
Plus One Robotics Inc. this week said it will host live demonstrations of its PickOne vision software and Yonder supervisory software for logistics robots at MODEX 2022. In addition, Erik Nieves, CEO of Plus One, will host a seminar at the conference titled, “Humans Are the Loop – Workforce Development in the Age of Automation Hypergrowth.” “Supply chains and warehouses have changed drastically over the last few years,” said Nieves. “There is higher demand for goods in shorter amounts of time, and warehouses and supply chains continue facing critical labor shortages.” “Our software helps deliver precise hand-eye coordination, enabling robots…
API stands for application programming interface. Application programming interfaces are the links that allow pieces of software to communicate with each other. They are designed to only show programmers the essential details they need to send instructions to another program or device. They are helpful because they allow developers to build new features on top of existing applications. When working on robots, developers can take advantage of APIs to help expand their functionality and capabilities.