The Robot Report Podcast

In this weeks episode Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzmanreview the large number of recent robotics funding announcements over the past week. Mike interviews Jan Becker and Joe Speed from APEX.AI and they discuss the importance and evolution of real-time operating systems and technology stacks for autonomous vehicles. They also discuss the Autonomous Challenge at CES event.

In this episode, co-hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman are joined by Dan Kara and the team discusses their thoughts about what's coming in 2022 in the world of robotics. You'll get three unique perspectives on the latest trends and happenings in industrial robotics, mobile robots and autonomous vehicles.

For the last episode of 2021, the editorial staff of Steve Crowe, Mike Oitzman and Dan Kara review and discuss the top robotics stories of 2021. Thank you to all of our faithful audience for a great year. If you have feedback or input, leave us a voicemail at therobotreport.com/voicemail

Welcome to Episode 64 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. In today's episode, Steve and Mike interview Fady Saad from Massrobotics and Eric Anderson from AWS Robotics about how Massrobotics and AWS are enabling young robotics startups to accelerate their growth and development. We learn about the new startup incubator program starting in 2022 and how your company can participate. Also on the show, we hear from Savioke CEO Steve Cousins about how a new feature in the Savioke Relay+ is delighting customers and setting the standard for social robotics interactions in the field.

Welcome to Episode 63 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. In today's episode, Steve and Mike interview robotics innovator Esben Østergaard, CEO of Reinvest Robotics and cofounder of Universal Robots. We discuss the potential impact of the pending EU AI Act and Machinery Directive. These directives are likely to impact the growth of AI startup in the EU and burden them with rules that will hamper innovation. Esben offers his thoughts about innovation and how successful robotics startups need a competitive playing field to be successful. Could this be the death of robotic and AI innovation in the EU? Listen in to learn more. Here's a link to Esben's recent blog about the impact of the EU AI Act and Machinery Directive. “The approach of the current machinery directive is sufficient. The problem is with governance. We recommend focusing on ensuring that products on the market actually comply with the current EU law, not creating new regulations,” said Østergaard. Steve and Mike also review the latest robotics news stories from the last week, including the following stories reported on The Robot Report: - Robotics Summit & Expo 2022 call for speakers - MiR is building autonomous pallet jacks - Knightscope IPO taking security robots public - Serve Robotics closes $13 million funding round - Nuro, Waymo bring autonomous deliveries to California

Samir Menon, founder and CEO of Dexterity Inc. joins the program this week. We discuss Dexterity's rapid growth and its approach to developing full-stack robotic picking for logistics, supply chain, and warehousing applications. Mike and Steve also discuss some recent trending stories, including China's role is ending a potential autonomous vehicle SPAC. https://www.therobotreport.com/spac-merger-plus-autonomous-trucks-called-off/ https://www.therobotreport.com/gatik-autonomous-box-trucks-milestone-walmart/ https://www.therobotreport.com/autonomous-racing-goes-head-to-head-at-the-autonomous-challenge-ces-in-las-vegas/

Today’s episode recaps a major week for autonomous vehicles. Cruise co-founder, CTO and president Kyle Vogt hailed the first driverless robotaxi ride in SF, Waymo started to map New York City and Nuro raised another $600M for its autonomous delivery vehicles. And we don’t even mention Aurora debuting on the Nasdaq, FedEx testing autonomous delivery in China, and Autobrains raising $101 million for its unsupervised AI for autonomous vehicles. You'll also hear from James DeSmet, president and CEO of CRG Automation. The company built a robotic system to help decommission a stockpile of 70,000 chemical missiles at a base in Kentucky. James walks us through the challenges of the project. Our favorite quote from the interview: “We’re just packaging a very dangerous chemical weapon instead of a Twinkie. It’s a little different, but it’s the same.” You can check out videos of the system in action over at CRG Automation’s YouTube channel.

In today's episode, Steve and Mike interview Alex Wischnewski, team lead for Technical University of Munich [TUM], and the winning race team at the 2021 Indy Autonomous Challenge. Alex discusses how the team came together for the competition and the stress of race day when they had to make changes to the race parameters to balance speed with safe operations. The Indy Autonomous Challenge turned out to be more difficult than anyone anticipated, and Alex provides a first hand view of pushing autonomous vehicles to the limit. Steve and Mike also cover the latest robotics news stories from the last week.

Mike caught up with Melonee Wise, founder of Fetch Robotics and VP of robotics automation at Zebra Technologies, at the AMRs and Logistics Conference. They discussed the new Fetch FlexShelf, FlexShelf Guide, RollerTop Guide autonomous mobile robot solutions that came out this week, as well as the state of logistics automation. We also discuss the news of the week, including Softbank reportedly negotiating the sale of its French robotics business, Softbank Robotics Europe, to German distributor United Robotics Group. We also discuss the new AMR solutions from Fetch Robotics, the historic IPO of AutoStore on the Oslo Stock Exchange and a couple of food-related automation items. Show Notes https://www.therobotreport.com/report-softbank-negotiating-sale-of-french-robotics-business/ https://www.therobotreport.com/fetch-robotics-adds-3-amrs-person-to-goods-workflows/ https://www.therobotreport.com/autostore-stock-surges-debut-oslo-stock-exchange/ https://www.therobotreport.com/spyce-closes-original-robotic-restaurant-in-boston/

This week, Steve and Mike recap the Autonomous Mobile Robots and Logistics Conference that took place in Memphis. They also talk to Stephanie Cannon of Pitney Bowes, which is deploying robotics systems from Ambi Robotics throughout the U.S to support its e-commerce network. We also discuss the news of the week, including Waymo's self-driving cars repeatedly hitting a dead-end in San Francisco, and the outrage sparked by a commercial quadruped that was outfitted with an unmanned rifle.

Our guest this week is Jon Hirschtick from PTC. Jon has started (and sold) two popular product development companies in his career: SolidWorks and Onshape. We also cover the robotics news from the week, PLUS a special discussion about our favorite startups for 2021. Timestamps News recap: 0-18:18 Interview with PTC's Jon Hirschtick: 20:57-1:04:40 Voicemails/Favorite Robotics Startups: 1:04:43-1:36:37

Amazon introduced its much-anticipated home robot this week, and it's underwhelmed the robotics industry. Mike and Steve share their thoughts on why Astro's future doesn't look bright. Listeners also call in to share their thoughts on the home robot. We also sit down with Adam Sachs, CEO and founder of Vicarious Surgical. Adam discusses the company's next-gen surgical robotics system, the challenges and keys to building it, and debuting on the NYSE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypp8/leaked-documents-amazon-astro-surveillance-robot-tracking

Steve and Mike talk to Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics and Jason Walker, CEO of Waypoint Robotics to discuss the big news of the day: the acquisition of Waypoint Robotics by Locus Robotics. The acquisition will pay immediate dividends for Locus customers who want a higher payload AMR for moving inventory within their warehouse. Rick and Jason share their stories about how the acquisition came together and what it means for both Locus Robotics customers and Waypoint Robotics customers.

In episode 54, Steve and Mike discuss recent funding news for four robotics companies totally $531M; iRobot J7+ poop avoidance algorithms; cost of the recent Ocado ASRS fire. We also interview Photoneo CTO, Tomas Kovacovsky, about 3D vision, 3D cameras and what it takes to build a robust, industrial camera/vision solution.

In episode 53 of The Robot Report Podcast, Steve and Mike discuss the Carbon Robotics funding; an update on the Intel LiDAR EOL; Attabotics patent case; Agility Robotics, Digit video. We also talk to Realtime Robotics founder and CTO George Konidaris about robot perception, safety and control.

In episode 52 of The Robot Report podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the recent news about Waymo expansion of driverless taxi service into San Francisco. Also featured in this episode is a conversation between Steve and Yaro Tenzer, CEO of RightHand Robotics. Steve and Yaro discuss the technology and capabilities of the RHR bin-picking and singulation solution for warehouse fulfillment applications.

Steve and Mike discuss the breaking news this week about the end of life for Intel RealSense cameras. Tesla unveiled plans to build a humanoid robot. We talk to Stratom CEO Mark Gordon about the autonomous solutions that help US troops to accomplish their mission in the field.

John Deere recently acquired startup Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million. Founded in 2017, Bear Flag Robotics retrofits its autonomy stack onto existing tractors. Dan Leibfried, Director, Autonomy and Automation, John Deere, and Igino Cafiero, Co-founder & CEO, Bear Flag Robotics, join the show to discuss the future of autonomous tractors and agricultural robotics. Mike also updates us on his trip to ATX West, we dive into our latest investments recap and we celebrate our 50 episode! http://www.therobotreport.com http://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com http://www.mobilerobotguide.com http://www.cobottrends.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0TB8KlrIx4 https://www.therobotreport.com/july-2021-robotics-investments-and-acquisitions/ https://mobilerobotguide.com/2021/08/05/john-deere-buys-developer-of-autonomous-tractors/

We talk to Jeff Chapman, the founder of The Chapman Group, about the current state of hiring within the North American robotics industry. Jeff is one of the "most connected" individual's within the robotics and automation industry and currently helps companies find talent and he helps individuals find the right opportunity. Tune into to learn what's Jeff's from his unique perspective on the industry.

We talk to Sami Atiya, CEO of ABB Robotics and Verónica Pascual, CEO of ASTI to get their insights on the recently announced acquisition of the Spanish mobile robotics company: ASTI Mobile Robots. The two companies have deployed their solutions to multiple, mutual customers in Europe in recent years. The combination of companies and products will establish the worldwide ABB mobile robotics development center in Borgas Spain (the current location of ASTI), while extending the reach of ASTI from 20 countries to 50+ countries. ASTI CEO Verónica Pascual will take on the role as leader of the new ABB mobile robotics division.

Claus Risager, CEO and co-founder of Blue Ocean Robotics, discusses the evolution of the Danish company and its early entry into disinfection robots. He also tries to sell us on the benefits of telepresence robots. We also discuss the bigger stories in the robotics industry of late, including the future of Fetch Robotics after the Zebra acquisition, Aurora taking its self-driving tech public via SPAC, the shutdown of Abundant Robotics and the Ingenuity Helicopter completing another historic flight on Mars. https://mobilerobotguide.com/2020/04/01/robotic-solutions-for-covid-19/ https://mobilerobotguide.com/2021/07/08/a-bright-future-for-fetch-robotics-following-zebra-acquisition/ https://www.therobotreport.com/aurora-taking-autonomous-vehicle-tech-public-via-spac/

This week, Mike Demko, head of AutoStore’s MFC business line, joins the program to discuss the growth of e-commerce and the role automation is playing. We also hear from Jason dePreaux, a market analyst for Interact Analysis, who discusses the robotics industry services market. https://roboweeks.com/ https://www.therobotreport.com/softbank-robotics-europe-cutting-workforce-40-in-shake-up/ https://www.therobotreport.com/hyundai-completes-acquisition-controlling-stake-boston-dynamics/ https://mobilerobotguide.com/2021/06/15/dusty-robotics-raises-16-5m-in-series-a-funding/ https://www.therobotreport.com/weride-raises-310m-funding-autonomous-vehicles/ https://www.interactanalysis.com/the-warehouse-automation-service-market-may-2021/

This week we break down the winners of the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards, which honor technology, business, and market innovations for the global robotics industry. We discuss how we picked the 50 winners, what we consider to be innovative, and share our personal favorite winners. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/2021-rbr50-robotics-innovation-award-honorees/ https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/2021-rbr50-robotics-innovation-awards-digital-edition/

In this episode we sit down and learn about the Robot Operations Group with co-founders Florian Pestoni and Joe Wieciek. In the second half of the show we discuss one vendor's experience as part of the working committee for the recent R15.08 Safety Standard when we talk to Mike Bearman from Vecna Robotics.

Joel Johnson, the passenger inside the Waymo One robotaxi that was confused by construction cones, takes us inside what went wrong. He also talks about his overall experience with Waymo One, which includes 147 rides to date. We also catch up with Tom Ryden, executive director of MassRobotics, who takes us inside the develop of the group's new mobile robot interoperability standard.

A3 president Jeff Burnstein returns to discuss the growth of robot shipments in North America for the first quarter of 2021. He discusses the impact COVID-19 had on the growth, the surge in non-automotive orders, and much more. We also catch up with WiBotic to discuss the benefits of wireless charging for autonomous mobile robots. CEO Ben Waters shares some startup advice and the future of wireless charging in space.

Ken Goldberg and Jim Liefer from Ambi Robotics join the program to discuss the company's approach to piece-picking robots and how Sim2Real AI is playing a major role. We also break down WTWH Media's acquisition of Mobile Robot Guide and how it'll educate potential buyers about the benefits of mobile robotics systems. We also chat with Paul Mikesell, founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, who takes us inside the development of the company's third-generation weeding robot.

Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics, and Travis Schneider, business development manager of RE2 Robotics, discussed the evolution of the company, which was founded in 2001. RE2 was focused nearly 100% on defense work in 2016, but now the defense sector accounts for less than one-third of its business. We also discuss the company's new Sapien line of intelligent robotic arms and adding more autonomy to its manipulators.

Kevin Blankespoor, VP of product engineering at Boston Dynamics, takes us inside the development of Stretch, the box-moving robot the company introduced this week. Blankespoor describes the evolution of the product design, the many system integration challenges, plans to improve the Pick vision system going forward, similarities between Atlas, Spot and Stretch, and much more.

Suma Reddy, CEO of agriculture robotics startup Future Acres, discusses the challenges farmers are facing today and how automation can help. I also discuss the most interesting stories of the week, including laser sounds from Mars, the truth about Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" beta software and rumors surrounding Amazon's secretive home robot Vesta.

Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot, discusses advancements in end of arm tooling and what's next for the industry. Juan Aparicio, VP of Product at READY Robotics, talks about simplifying programming interfaces to democratize the use of robotics.

Kevin Dunlap of Calibrate Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, joins the program to discuss the SPAC craze, recent robotics investments, and his thoughts about the state of the industry. I also hit on the robotics stories of the week, including Motional testing Level 4 robotaxis in Las Vegas, NASA's video of the Perseverance Rover landing and more.

Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics, discusses the company's $150 million Series E funding round and new unicorn status. He also explains why Locus should be a publicly-traded company. Will Wilder, CEO of Wilder Systems, joined the show to discuss the cobot system his team built that automates rapid COVID-19 testing results. He said the system is being adapted to help test for other viruses, such as Ebola and Zika. We also celebrate the incredible team at NASA JPL for putting robots back on Mars.

Helen Greiner, CEO of Tertill, a Boston-based startup developing gardening robots, joined the show to talk about how she will help the startup scale. She also discussed the challenges of developing consumer robots and how her experience co-founding iRobot will help. We also talk drone delivery and what went wrong at her commercial drone company CyPhy Works.

Tom McCarthy joins the show to discuss how Motiv Space Systems is developing a robotic arm to survive the extreme cold of the Moon’s South Pole. The COLDarm can survive temperatures as environments as cold as –279°F. COLDarm could be headed to the Moon in 2024. I also talk to Ben Upcroft, VP of Technology at Oxbotica, a company developing autonomy software for all sorts of autonomous vehicle applications, both off-road and on-road. We discuss the keys to infrastructure free navigation, the acceleration of innovation in the autonomous vehicle space and why Level 5 robotaxis might never arrive. And I discuss how Spot Arm will improve Boston Dynamics' Spot quadruped and the disappointment of Waymo not expanding its robotaxi service in Arizona.

For the first time, yearly orders of robots from non-automotive sectors surpassed automotive robot orders, as sales of robotic units in North America increased 3.5% in 2020 from 2019. A3 president Jeff Burnstein takes us inside the numbers and what it means for the future of robotics. We also introduce you to Canvas, a startup that recently exited stealth mode. It's trying to automate drywall finishing using robotics. We learn about the challenges and opportunities for Canvas' system. We recap the top stories of the week, including Softbank's ever-changing robotics strategy, AutoX launching a fully driverless robotaxi service in China, and Amazon launching a new robotics upskilling program.

American Robotics became the first drone company approved by the FAA to operate automated drones without human operators on site. Reese Mozer, CEO & co-founder of American Robotics, joined the podcast to discuss the implications for the company and the industry. He takes us through the technical capabilities of the company's drones, how humans will remain in the loop, and what types of missions its drones will now carry out. I also comment on the week's top robotics stories, including Marc Raibert weighing in on Atlas' dance skills, President Trump pardoning Anthony Levandowski, and Cruise raising another $2 billion and sending its autonomous vehicles over to Japan.

Greg Smith, president of Teradyne’s Industrial Automation Group, takes us inside the company's acquisition strategy. Teradyne's industrial automation portfolio include leading companies Universal Robots, Mobile Industrial Robots, Energid and AutoGuide Mobile Robots. Teradyne is still looking for acquisitions, and Greg tells us what Teradyne looks for in companies. Was Teradyne interested in Boston Dynamics before it was acquired by Hyundai for nearly $1 billion? Greg also shared that Universal Robots sold more than 9,000 cobots in 2020 alone, and he offered a unique perspective on mobile manipulation, saying the ROI is a challenge.

Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, discusses his pick-and-place robots that improving the economics of the recycling industry. Matanya discusses the technical and business challenges involved in running the company, as well as the evolution of its custom vision system and gripper. He also tells us how the data collected by the vision system is opening up new revenue streams. I also spoke to Josh Fox, an applications engineer at Festo USA. Josh was part of the team that won the recent MassRobotics-GM gripper challenge. Josh takes us inside the challenges and details the universal end effector Festo developed to handle a variety of sheet metal parts.

What robotics company had a better 2020 than Boston Dynamics. Michael Patrick Perry, Boston Dynamics' VP of business development, joins the podcast discuss the company's massive year and, of course, being acquired by Hyundai Motor Group for $880 million. We also catch up with Dr. Timothy Chung, program manager for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Tim takes us inside the recently completed Cave Circuit Virtual Competition and shares some of the lessons that were learned.

Aurora's acquisition of Uber's self-driving unit takes center stage on episode 27. We break down the acquisition and try to figure out why Aurora would have purchased Uber's troubled self-driving unit. We also catch up with Joel Reed, the interim executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Joel updates us on the status of the cluster, tells us about some interesting companies to watch, his daily sightings of autonomous vehicles, and how the cluster has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jud Kauffman and Joe Wolfel, co-founders of Austin, Texas-based startup Terradepth, are building autonomous submarines for deep ocean exploration. Its long-term goal is to build the Google Earth of the ocean. They discuss the challenges and opportunities of Terradepth's mission and how their Naval experience is playing a vital role. We also chat with Nader Elm, CEO and co-founder of Exyn Technologies. Exyn is a spin-off of the GRASP Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania that builds autonomous drones that are operating in GPS-denied environments such as mines.

We talk to Dextrous Robotics CEO and co-founder Evan Drumwright about its approach to automating the unloading of box trucks. This might be the next big problem for robotics companies to solve, and Dextrous is taking a unique approach. We also discuss the remake of Short Circuit and share our all-time favorite robotics movies. Other discussions include recent robotics investments, Motional's Level 4 autonomous vehicles coming to Nevada and a new study analyzes the ongoing robots vs. jobs debate.

We break down why Softbank is reportedly looking to sell Boston Dynamics to Hyundai for upwards of $1B. Hyundai would be the third owner of Boston Dynamics in the last 7 years. What's the reason for the sale: slow commercialization from Boston Dynamics, soured investments from Softbank or both? We discuss. We're also joined by Aaron Prather, FedEx's senior advisor of technology, research and planning, to discuss FedEx's growing use of robotics, his work on mobile robot interoperability, advice for startups, and his thoughts on Boston Dynamics and more.

We break down the fallout between Bossa Nova and Walmart with Simbe Robotics' Brad Bogolea. Andrew Smith, CEO and Founder of Outrider, joins the show to discuss the challenges and opportunities of developing level 4 autonomous yard trucks.

Mike Tremblay, president and CEO of Invest Ottawa, takes us inside the new Area X.O R&D facility that hopes to advance Canadian robotics. We also list the world's spookiest robots, and catch up with Buck Jordan, President and Chairman of Miso Robotics, to discuss the expanded trials with White Castle and the future of food automation.

Dave Evans, Founder and CEO of Fictiv, discusses the importance of a company's manufacturing and supply chain ecosystems. We breakdown case studies from Hebi Robotics and Gecko Robotics. We're also joined by Marc Alba of NTT Disruption, which is the new owner of the Jibo social robot. Marc updates us on the current status of the robot and the new direction in which it's headed.

Tessa Lau, founder and CEO of Dusty Robotics, updates us on the FieldPrinter building layout robot. She discusses how the company pivoted away from its initial product idea, its custom localization, mapping and navigation technology, building relationships with builders, and scaling its field operations team. We also discuss the expansion of Waymo's driverless robotaxi program around Phoenix. Where will the service head to next and when? We discuss. Bert Swift and Blair Locke, CEO & Co-founder of Coapt, join us to discuss the state of robotic prosthetics. Bert, who lost an arm to childhood cancer, shares his story and how a robotic prosthetic has changed his life.

Georg Stieler gives us an inside look at China's robotics industry, we catch up with Motional CTO Laura Major on all things robotaxis, and Toyota Research Institute is developing a ceiling-mounted gantry robot for your kitchen.

Doug Teany, COO, Corindus Vascular Robotics discusses robotic-assisted surgery, 5G hype vs. reality, and being acquired by Siemens Medical Solutions for $1.1 billion. We also talk about Helen Greiner joining a gardening robotics startup, privacy issues with Amazon Ring's indoor security drone and more.