Robotics

Inventory robots are having a moment. Two days back, Swiss firm Verity announced an $11 million raise. That followed a $20 million round from fellow drone inventory startup B Garage, which, in turn, arrived two days after Gather AI announced it had acquired competitor Ware. That same day, Dexory an

The demand for offshore wind has skyrocketed, like all renewable energy sources — but the necessary work of surveying, inspecting and mapping coastal areas is stuck in the past. Bedrock’s autonomous underwater vehicles and digital platform play could redefine the sector, and the company has

Why aren't there more robots in homes? This a surprising complex question — and our homes are surprisingly complex places. A big part of the reason autonomous systems are thriving on warehouse and factory floors first is the relative ease of navigating a structured environment. Sure, most

You'll have to forgive me, as this is going to be one of those in-between Actuator weeks. I finally took a couple of days off last week after working through the last few weekends, and today I've been rewarded with a throbbing migraine. Isn't the human body magical? Either way, it's

I'll admit that I've tiptoed around the topic a bit in Actuator due to its sudden popularity (SEO gods be damned). I've been in this business long enough to instantly be suspicious of hype cycles. That said, I totally get it this time around. While it's true that various forms of ma

Robotics investments were trending in the right direction prior to 2020, but the pandemic dramatically increased investor interest as more firms pushed to automate work. Manufacturing has been automated for decades, and the pandemic also dramatically increased both labor shortages and the deploymen

You'll have to forgive me, I spent most of the morning thinking and writing about VR. In the lead-up to Apple's expected headset announcement at WWDC next week, I did a one-person crash course into the world of extended reality, from its birth in the laboratories in the '50s and '60

The bipedal humanoids may, in fact, be coming — but the quadrupeds are already here. They're in labs, doing inspections in power plants and refineries, playing soccer and even — much to the concern of many — becoming cops. Boston Dynamics' Spot is easily the most instantly

We've discussed Agility quite a bit over the last several years. Most recently, it's been a focus on the Oregon firm's push to commercialize. There's no question that the technology is impressive here. That much was clear when it was still an OSU research project. The path to market

Shopify last week announced that it would be the latest big tech firm to undergo mass layoffs. The company is cutting 20% of its 11,600-person staff. The news arrived during earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, shooting its stock price up as a result. Also included in the announcement was n

When I visited Viam's Manhattan offices late last year, I was struck by two things. First, there's a killer view of Lincoln Center. As the weather is getting warmer and they're starting to do those all-ages outdoor movie screenings, you can probably just hang out up there and watch the

There are about four duck boats lined up directly across the street from this coffee shop. Boston has a knack for reminding you where you are, should you get bonked on the head and suddenly forget what city you're in. This is a far more truncated visit than the last time. Most likely as you'

When the company started, Robust.AI’s founders had no intention of making hardware. “Hardware's hard,” co-founder and CTO Rodney Brooks tells technewss, “and doing hardware at scale is harder. It takes a lot of resources and it takes a long time to get there. Which is why people lo

You’ve likely heard that “hardware is hard”; mostly because hardware startups have to deal with things that software companies don’t really have to worry about. That includes pesky details such as “physics” and “battery management” and “general