This week, the entire The Robot Report editorial staff is on the show to discuss the highlights of the 2024 RBR50 Innovation Awards that were announced earlier this week. Host Steve Crowe discusses the awards with Mike Oitzman, Eugene Demaitre, and Brianna Wessling. You can view all of the award winners and the writeups of their 2024 winning innovation on The Robot Report website: https://www.therobotreport.com/rbr50-2024/ All of this year's winners will be honored at the inaugural RBR50...

Our featured guest on the show this week is Jamie Lee, Managing Partner at Tamarack Global. Tamarack Global emerged on our radar last month as one of the investors who participated in the recent series B funding round for Figure AI.  After meeting Jamie Lee for research for those news stories, we invited Jamie to come onto the podcast and share his investment thesis and the reasons why they are so bullish about humanoids, Figure AI, and especially Figure CEO and founder Brett Adcock. The...

In this episode, cohosts Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre recap their attendance at the NVIDIA GTC24 event in San Jose CA, and Gene's recent trip to Denmark to attend the R24 robotics event. You'll get to hear about takeaways from the sessions that they attended, the vendor demos and robotics solutions that were at these recent shows. NVIDIA keynote story: https://www.therobotreport.com/nvidia-announces-new-robotics-products-at-gtc-2024/ R24 recap story:...

This week host Steve Crowe reviews what he saw and learned while attending MODEX in Atlanta GA earlier in the week. Steve highlights the new products and new features for the many automation providers at the show. He also shares some side conversations and checks the pulse of the warehousing and material handling industry. Don't miss this episode if you weren't able to attend the show yourself.

Nag Murty, CEO and cofounder of Electric Sheep, and Michael Laskey, CTO of Electric Sheep join the show this week to discuss how Electric Sheep is disrupting the commercial landscaping industry with autonomous mobile robots and a unique business model. The company is leveraging AI to enable autonomous mowers to cut the grass while simplifying the deployment process in the field. Electric Sheep is also vertically integrating the market segment through the acquisition of commercial landscaping...

Eric Adamson, CEO and co-founder of Tortuga, joins us in this episode to discuss agricultural robotics. Tortuga is one of the agtech companies leading the charge to transform greenhouse farming with their autonomous harvesting robots. Eric discusses the difficulties and successes of developing robots for use in greenhouses, shedding light on the processes involved in harvesting strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes. This episode offers an intriguing look into how technology and agriculture are...

On the show this week, we have a conversation with Thomas Tang, CEO and co-founder of Anyware Robotics. Anyware Robotics is launching an autonomous trailer unloading solution, that will make its debut at MODEX 2024. We also catch up with Matt Wicks, Sr Director and robotics automation business leader with Zebra Technology. Matt is responsible for the Fetch Robotics products at Zebra, and brings us up to speed on the AMR portfolio.

On the show today, we interview Dr Aaron Ames, Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems at CalTech. Dr Ames is also a cofounder and Chief Scientist of 3Laws - a company, providing safety-critical controls architecture for robotics companies. We talk about the last decade of development for bipedal locomotion and the recent evolution of humanoid robots since Dr Ames has been researching and investigating this interesting research area since his postdoc...

In this week's episode of the podcast, co-hosts Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre discuss the current state of Zipline with Keenan Wyrobek, who is the Chief Technology Officer and also one of the firm's co-founders. Additionally, we learn some more details on the design of the new ZIP delivery "Droid" from the chief droid engineer, Stephen Killian. Gene attended the Manifest, logistics tradeshow in Las Vegas earlier this week, and gives us an update on what he saw at the show.

In this episode, co-hosts Steve Crowe, Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre discuss the recent news about the termination of the proposed acquisition of iRobot by Amazon. As a result of the terminated deal, iRobot CEO and cofounder Colin Angle is stepping down from his role as CEO, and the company has laid off 31% of its employees. The companies signed the proposed acquisition agreement on Aug. 4, 2022, and the Seattle-based e-commerce giant would have acquired the Bedford, Mass.-based robotic...

On the show this week, cohosts Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre catch up with Marc Kermisch, CDO at CNHI. Marc takes us through the latest update on autonomy and the digitization of agriculture data to help farmers and growers improve yields and efficiency on the farm. We also recap the latest robotics news and walk through an update from robotics and automation companies who attended the 2024 CES show.

On the show this week, Steve Crowe, Gene Demaitre, and Mike Oitzman sit down and review their favorite robotics news stories from 2023. This episode also features appearances by Ken Goldberg, Ash Sharma, Aaron Prather, Kevin Lawton, and Jeff Linnell - all sharing their thoughts on the top news stories of the year. At the top of the list of news stories are the impact that GenAI and humanoid robots have made this year along with a snapshot of the state of the robotics industry.

In this episode, we learn about the innovative solution from Glidance, the 2023 RoboBusiness Pitchfire pitch contest winner. Cohosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman sit down with Glidance cofounder and CEO Amos Miller to learn all about the genesis of the company and their physical guidance robotic solution from Glidance. The device guides sight-impaired individual by perceiving the world around them and leading them on a safe path to their destination. This device is easy to use and quick to...

Today's episode is a deep dive into warehouse automation. We discuss the role humanoids are hoping to play in logistics, including how GXO is testing the Digit humanoid from Agility Robotics. We also discuss the state of mobile robots with John Santagate, the Vice President of Robotics at Körber Supply Chain. We also talk about artificial intelligence and the growth of picking robots with Peter Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of Covariant.

On this episode of the podcast, we check in with Adam Sachs, cofounder and CEO of Vicarious surgical robots. Adam comes back to the show with an update on the long journey to market for surgical robots. Adam last joined us in Episode 56, back in September 2021 when Vicarious first launched the Vicarious Surgical robot into pilot implementations. The Vicarious Surgical robot utilizes a single port requiring a 1.5 cm incision — smaller than the size of a dime — for the insertion of the camera...

In this podcast episode, we learn about the new Tangram Vision HiFi 3D sensor with Adam Rodnitzky and Brandon Minor from Tangram Vision. The company recently launched a Kickstarter for their new hardware product and the specs on this new sensor are promising to disrupt the depth sensor market for price and performance. Listen to the interview to learn more about this new product and search “HiFi 3D Sensor” on Kickstarter to see the complete product specs and get in the queue for your own...

This episode features a double header of interviews, a recap of news from the week, and the reintroduction of Eugene Demaitre as a cohost of the show. We welcome Eugene Demaitre back to the show as he rejoins the editorial staff as editorial director at The Robot Report and WTWH Media. Eugene co-founded this podcast together with Steve Crowe. This week's first interview is with Craig Van den Avont, President at GAM Enterprises. GAM manufactures motion drives and other custom motion control...

On the show today we recap the October funding stories and other robotics news stories of the last week, and then talk to Joyce Sidopoulis and Marita McGinn from MassRobotics about the upcoming 2024 MassRobotics Accelerator program (applications close Nov 30). For our featured interview, we talked to Brightpick CEO Jan Zizka about the capabilities and application of the new Brightpick mobile manipulator for eaches picking with the warehouse. For links to all of the stories with reference on...

In this episode, we recap the recent RoboBusiness 2023 event and the recent news of Agility Robotics humanoid testing at Amazon. Our featured interview on this episode is with Dr. Kate Darling, who is joining Marc Raibert in her dream job at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute to head up their AI and ethics research group. We talk to Kate about everything from AI and humanoid robots to her kids' love affair with the Marty Robot at the local Stop and Shop supermarket. Note: This is a long...

On the show this week, we check in with RGO Robotics cofounder and CEO Amir Bousani and Simon Jensen-Fellows from Verizon for an in-depth conversation about how AI is quickly evolving and how this will impact the perception and autonomy capabilities of mobile robots. Simon informs us on how Verizon's 5G network can support the edge computing and communication needs of the mobile robotics industry in the future. It's a look at how the architecture of the cloud and the edge is evolving to meet...

On this episode, we sit down with Vecna Robotics Founder and Chairman Daniel Theobald and talk about the perils of funding early-stage robotics startups and the experience that Daniel will bring to the Robotics Startup Workshop on October 18 at RoboBusiness 2023. Daniel also takes us behind the scenes at his latest venture at Twisted Fields on the California coast, his personal farm and ag-robotics test ground. It's a great conversation with one of the mobile robotics industry luminaries.

This week's podcast focuses heavily on the agricultural robotics industry. Mike shares his insights from FIRA USA and we sit down with Brandon Contino, CEO and co-founder of Four Growers, a startup building robots to harvest foods grown in greenhouses. Brandon talks about the technical and business challenges related to the robot and how focusing on greenhouses helps product evolution, We also recap the stories of the week, including how Toyota Research Institute is using Generative AI to...

Our guest this week is a long-time friend of the show and industry innovator Melonee Wise. Melonee was a co-founder of Fetch Robotics (acquired by Zebra in 2021), and an early pioneer of mobile robotics at Willow Garage. Melonee recently joined Agility Robotics in the role of CTO, where she is leading the technical roadmap. She brings a breadth of experience in commercializing mobile robotic solutions. The interview with Melonee starts at 23:51. In addition, catch up on the latest news in...

Andrew Smith, CEO and co-founder of Outrider, takes us inside the company's efforts to commercialize yard automation. Outrider turns electric yard trucks into autonomous vehicles that couple tractor to trailer using its patented robotic arm and precisely maneuver between dock doors and parking spots. We also recap the tops stories of the week, including new GPT-based cobot arms, declining robot sales in North America and...