Robotics

Even as robots become increasingly common across different parts of our world, they remain incredibly difficult to make.

Through a series of projects to be rolled out in coming months, two organisations will develop data-driven solutions for more efficient and sustainable farming.

Robots across the world help out in factories by taking on heavy lifting or repetitive jobs, but the walking, talking kind may soon collaborate with people, thanks to European robotics researchers building prototypes that anticipate human actions.

Scientists report they are on the cusp of using silk, one of the world's most coveted fabrics, to develop a more sensitive and flexible generation of multi-purpose devices that monitor a slew of body functions in real time.

Can you really use Outlook to make sure your office floor gets vacuumed? Absolutely!

Supercapacitors promise recharging of phones and other devices in seconds and minutes as opposed to hours for batteries. But current technologies are not usually flexible, have insufficient capacities, and for many their performance quickly degrades with charging cycles.

Using autonomous mobility technology, the wheelchair can identify its own position, select routes and automatically move to destinations via input on a smartphone.

Nursing robots - representing an infant, pregnant woman and surgical patient - allow nursing students to hear heart beats, discern symptoms and measure breathing.

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Based on what is believed to be the largest study of its kind, researchers say robotic assisted transhiatal esophagectomy (RATE) is effective and safe for a carefully selected group of patients.

Just like great wine needs time, great grapes require continuous attention and reliable assessment tools. Noting the absence of a convincing alternative to manual sampling and analysis, an EU-funded consortium has developed VineRobot, an 'Unmanned ground vehicle' equipped with non-invasive sensor technology.

RethinkX and Barclays Research have issued carefully prepared research concluding that the global peak for cars will be in only a few years. Analysts IDTechEx say around 2030. Most experts see it as inevitable.

Bionik Laboratories Corp, a robotics company focused on providing rehabilitation and assistive technology solutions to individuals with neurological and mobility challenges from hospital to home, has announced it has integrated Amazon's Echo technology and Alexa Voice Service into its ARKE™ lower body exoskeleton.

UNEXMIN is an EU-funded project that develops a novel robotic system for the autonomous exploration and mapping of Europe's flooded mines.

Geek+ is a Chinese company established in 2015. It has a system similar to Kiva: a network of automated mobile robots move totes full of items to people for pickings

BA System is an established French company with 200 employees and revenues in the region of 25m Euros. It provides AGVs and autonomous industrial trucks. Its autonomous vehicles can handle 0.5 to 14 tonnes.

Dispatch is a small CA based start-up that has raised $2m in seed money. It also develops autonomous last-mile delivery robots. Its original target market is university campuses where students have no cars.

Founded in 2014, Flashhold is now the best funded Chinese warehouse robotics company. It has raised more than $30m since early 2017. It is also an adaptation of the Kiva approach to the automation of the goods-to-person task.

Grey Orange is a well-funded Indian start-up focused on warehouse automation.It is one of the largest robotic companies in India. . It has developed square goods-to-person robots following the Kiva approach.

Kiva is the most successful example of an AGC company having achieved a sales price of $775 in 2012 to Amazon. This acquisition left a gap in the market that many similar companies are now seeking to fulfill.