Robotics

Shadow Robotics was established in 1999 although its core team had been working on emerging robotics and dexterous robotic hands since 1987. They seek to create a robotic arm as dexterous and as flexible as a human hand.

IDTechEx recently interviewed Mr Ralf Teichmann, the general manager of Bionic Robotics, who make a light-weight, safe and collaborative robotic arm.

UAV Factory are a Latvian company, employing 60 people (most in production) and has over 1m Euros in revenue. IDTechEx interviewed them at RoboBusiness in June 2016.

Tillett and Hague Technologies (THT) are a small British outfit dedicated to providing perception-based automaton solutions to agricultural activities. Its technology has enabled the sales of more than 600 robotic agricultural machines.

We recently interviewed Dr Kynan Eng, CEO of iniLabs which is a 7-year-old spin out from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. They have developed a novel CMOS-based photosensor technology.

Forget steel and aluminum. The robots of tomorrow may be able to squish, stretch and squeeze.

Marty is a fully programmable and customisable walking robot. For kids, makers, and educators created by Edinburgh University startup Robotical.

We recently caught up with Dr Charles Fox, a Director at Ibex Automation which is a British start-up focused on farm automation, initially focused on weed spraying.

Harvest Croo was set up in 2013 by a Strawberry grower, Mr Gary Wishnatzki, and a robotic engineer, Mr Robert Pitzer. They have developed robotic strawberry pickers.

IDTechEx Director of Research Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh recently interviewed Juan Bravo, CEO and Founder of Agrobot, a Spanish company focused on developing robotic strawberry harvesters.

In experiments involving a simulation of the human esophagus and stomach, researchers have demonstrated a tiny origami robot that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and, steered by external magnetic fields, crawl across the stomach wall to remove a swallowed button battery or patch a wound.

Smart synthetic skins have the potential to allow robots to touch and sense what's around them, but keeping them powered up and highly sensitive at low cost has been a challenge.

The bio-bots are powered by muscle cells that have been genetically engineered to respond to light.

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited has unveiled plans for its newest team member - an autonomous delivery vehicle named DRU.

Following a previous article summarising the top level markets and trends in robotics, Dr Jon Harrop describes the emerging trends that will drive the evolution of the robotics space in the near future. Key topics of discussion are collaborative robotics, mobile robotics (including UAVs, UGVs and AUVs), trends in surgical and agricultural robots, geographical robotics interest from Japan, and the impact of the Chinese robotics market on the global picture.

Modern mobile robots have increasingly practical capabilities. Yet, while the capabilities of such mobile robots are impressive, how useful is a single mobile robot?

Several of the IDTechEx team attended 2016FLEX in Monterey, CA, last week, to learn the latest about flexible hybrid electronics and network with approximately 600 of our colleagues in this industry. 2016FLEX is an event run by the FlexTech Alliance, previously known as FlexTech. This article summarizes some highlights from the show.

Dr Jon Harrop presents IDTechEx's most recent work in robotics. This article covers the current market sectors for robotics today (including industrial, military, professional and personal robots), the value chain, and the key trends in this industry.