Engineer
Among the combinations of software and hardware for warehouse automation is robotics software and wearable technology. inVia Robotics Inc. and Rufus Labs Inc. yesterday announced a strategic partnership to jointly offer their systems through subscriptions. The companies said the combination of their e-commerce automation, wearables, and workforce analytics is intended to help address labor shortages and improve efficiency and productivity. Founded in 2015, Westlake Village, Calif.-based inVia Robotics said it has developed the “first economical” goods-to-person system through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model. Founded in 2013, Rufus Labs claimed to be the only company to offer industrial wearables and cloud enterprise…
Pitney Bowes Inc. today said it plans to deploy automated parcel-sorting systems from Ambi Robotics Inc. in its U.S. e-commerce hubs. The companies said the AmbiSort systems will help Pitney Bowes speed up parcel sortation for last-mile delivery providers on behalf of its e-commerce clients while improving operational efficiency, accuracy, and worker safety as parcel volumes continue to surge. “As we continue to scale our global e-commerce business, Pitney Bowes is on an aggressive path to seek out the most innovative technology partners in the world to co-develop new solutions that will improve our service offerings and make ecommerce logistics…
To be useful for a widening range of applications, robots need software that will enable them to learn new tasks quickly. Micropsi Industries GmbH today announced the latest version of its MIRAI robot control system. It now includes a “positioning skills” feature that provides examples of quality movements so that robots can generalize and understand how to handle variances more easily, said the Berlin-based company. “Our customers deployed the first generation of MIRAI with great success and were able to make their small-scale automation projects commercially viable for the first time,” said Ronnie Vuine, CEO of Micropsi Industries. “But we…
The already competitive market for mobile robots continues to go global. OTTO Motors today announced a series of partnerships to make its autonomous mobile robots available to a global audience. The Kitchener, Ontario-based company also said it has successfully completed third-party assessments to demonstrate that its products meet or exceed all relevant safety standards in Europe and the U.S., including ANSI/RIA R15.08, which it helped to define. “One of the things that sets OTTO Motors apart is our process-first approach to automating material handling,” stated Rick Baker, chief revenue officer of OTTO Motors. “It is how we’re able to achieve…
The drive toward autonomous freight continues, as self-driving software provider Embark Trucks Inc. and special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. II today announced that they have agreed to a merger that will lead to Embark becoming a publicly listed company. For the past five years, San Francisco-based Embark Trucks has been testing purpose-built Class 8 trucks using its autonomous driving software. The startup has partnered with leading carriers in the $700 billion U.S. trucking market such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, HP Inc., Werner Enterprises, Mesilla Valley Transportation, and Bison Transport. They pay a per-mile software-as-a-service subscription cost to deploy…
WeRide.ai, which claims to be the first startup to have permission to test driverless cars in both China and the U.S., today announced that it has closed its $310 million (U.S.) Series C fundraising round. The Guangzhou, China-based company said it plans to use the financing to continue developing and commercializing its autonomous vehicle technology. “WeRide Master Platform, our core autonomous driving technology solution, has helped to accelerate the company’s development,” stated Tony Han, founder and CEO of WeRide. “This drives the successful operation of our robotaxi service in Guangzhou since 2019 and the introduction of the WeRide driverless Mini…
The Toyota Mobility Foundation yesterday announced that it is working with autonomous vehicle provider May Mobility Inc., as well as the Energy Systems Network and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, to launch a free autonomous shuttle service in Central Indiana. “At May Mobility, our mission is to bring safe, accessible, and reliable mobility solutions to communities around the world,” said Edwin Olson, co-founder and CEO of May Mobility. “We're excited to bring AV [autonomous vehicle] technology to Central Indiana through our partnership with the Toyota Mobility Foundation, Energy Systems Network, and IndyGo.” Ann Arbor, Mich.-based May Mobility combines a variety…
From rigid exoskeletons to more flexible robots, wearable systems promise to restore or augment human capabilities. They are beginning to be available for therapeutic, assistive, or industrial use. This spring, Roam Robotics announced the availability of its Ascend smart orthosis, which is designed to help relieve knee pain and improve patient mobility. More than 20% of the global population is limited in mobility, noted Tim Swift, CEO of Roam Robotics. He founded the San Francisco-based company in 2013 to develop low-cost, wearable robots that could be easily integated into daily life. “I was originally in engineering and genomics R&D, and…
Integrating robotics software and hardware for piece picking can be challenging, so SVT Robotics Inc. has worked with RightHand Robotics Inc. to develop a prebuilt connector between SVT’s SOFTBOT Platform and the RightPick 3 item-handling robot. “By connecting to the prebuilt standard integrations of our SOFTBOT Platform, RightHand Robotics customers who adopt the RightPick 3 system can now deploy without the need for custom integration code,” stated T.J. Fanning, vice president of sales at SVT. “Integrators offering flexible, automated piece picking will be able to connect and integrate this robust solution faster than ever before.” SVT Robotics said SOFTBOT enables…
According to several news sources, Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to buy a stake in artificial intelligence truck-driving startup Plus and has placed an order for 1,000 autonomous driving systems. The deal would give Amazon the right to buy preferred shares of Plus via a warrant at a price of $0.46647 per share, an anonymous source told Bloomberg. That would amount to a 20% stake based on the company's shares outstanding before its planned merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. V. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed Bloomberg’s report. Plus said…
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