Waymo is outsourcing its fleet operations, facilities, and charging infrastructure to its new partner Moove. | Source: Waymo

Waymo is bringing its robotaxis to Miami. In early 2025, the self-driving unit of Alphabet said it will begin testing its all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs on Miami’s streets. Through its new fleet partnership with Moove, Waymo said its Waymo One robotaxi service will be open to riders in Miami in 2026.

Waymo has previously tested its robotaxis in different parts of Florida, including Miami. The company said testing its robotaxis in Florida’s challenging, rainy conditions has been invaluable in advancing its autonomous driving technology. 

“Fully autonomous driving technology offers a safe and convenient option to the people of Miami. I’m so pleased to welcome Waymo to our city,” said Francis X. Suarez, Mayor of Miami. “Waymo’s commitment to sustainability with their all-electric fleet is the perfect mobility option to our city as we continue to prioritize low-cost, clean energy.” 

Waymo has spent 2024 expanding its robotaxis across multiple cities, including San Francisco and Phoenix, where it provides curbside service at Sky Harbor International Airport. It also released its 6th generation robotaxi, equipped with an optimized sensor suite for greater performance at a reduced cost. Waymo also has a robotaxi service in Austin, but there’s a long waitlist, and the service isn’t yet open to everyone.

Most recently, Waymo removed its LA waitlist and opened its service fully to the public. The change occurred eight months after Waymo launched its limited robotaxi service in Los Angeles. In that time, nearly 300,000 people joined its waitlist. In the city, its service area covers Santa Monica, Hollywood Boulevard, USC, and places in between. 

Waymo said it already provides over 150,000 trips per week across Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin.

Waymo partners with Moove

Moove is an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to gig workers. This will reportedly be the first time Moove works both in the United States and with an autonomous vehicle company. Moove operates in various cities across Africa, the Middle East, India, and the U.K., and it has raised over $400 million.

Waymo said it will first collaborate with Moove in Phoenix. There, Moove will begin taking on the management of Waymo’s fleet operations, facilities, and charging infrastructure.

“We are excited to partner with Moove in Phoenix and later Miami, bringing together their mobility-focused fleet management experience with our growing Waymo One service,” said Ryan McNamara, VP of operations at Waymo. “Together, we will provide safe, seamless trips for riders, and scale faster and more cost-effectively over time, with safety continuing to lead the way.”

In both Phoenix and Miami, Waymo will continue to offer its service through the Waymo One app. It will also remain responsible for the validation and operation of the Waymo Driver.

“Ride-hailing has transformed urban mobility over the past 15 years, yet the core experience has largely remained unchanged,” said Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO at Moove. “Waymo’s safe, reliable, and convenient Waymo One service leads in autonomous technology, and together, we’re driving a major shift in urban mobility. Moove is proud to partner with Waymo, bringing the operational expertise to make this transformation possible.”

More autonomous vehicle developments

Waymo isn’t the only company hoping to deploy its self-driving technology on U.S. roads. In November, Nuro expanded its driverless capabilities using zero-occupant vehicles with the Nuro Driver system. The company said this expansion covers multiple cities in two states and includes significant operational advancements.

The expanded deployment of autonomous vehicles demonstrates foundational technology for transporting people and goods, asserted Nuro. It plans to expand in Mountain View and Palo Alto, Calif., where the company increased its deployment area by 83%. Nuro also plans to increase its deployment area in Houston by 70%, in terms of linear miles. 

Additionally, Zoox recently expanded its operations in California and Nevada. The company is now testing its robotaxis in San Francisco and expanded its Las Vegas geofence. Zoox is not offering public rides in either city yet, but it hopes to launch its Las Vegas operation in early 2025. 

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Sperm whales spend, on average, 10 minutes of every hour on the surface, presenting challenges for researchers studying them. | Source: Amanda Cotton/Project CETI

In the chilly waters off the New England coast, researchers from the Cetacean Translation Initiative, Project CETI, can spend hours searching and waiting for an elusive sperm whale to surface. During the minutes the whales spend above water, the researchers need to gather as much information as possible before the animals dive back beneath the surface for long periods.

With one of the widest global distributions of any marine mammal species, these whales are difficult to track down, and even more difficult to learn from. Project CETI aims to use robotics and artificial intelligence to decode the vocalizing of sperm whales. It recently released research about how it tracks down sperm whales across the wide ocean.

“The ocean and the natural habitat of the whales is this vast place where we don’t have a lot of infrastructure, so it’s hard to build infrastructure that will always be able to observe the whales,” said Stephanie Gil, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and an advisor on the project.

The project brings together some of the world’s leading scientists in biology, linguistics, robotics, and more. The founder of Project CETI, David Gruber, estimated that it’s one of the largest multi-disciplinary research projects active today.

“Project CETI was formed in March 2020, and we’re now over 50 scientists across eight different disciplines,” he said. “I think we’re over 15 institutions, which I believe puts us as one of the most interdisciplinary, large-scale science projects that’s ever been conducted. It’s incredibly rewarding to see so many disciplines working together.”

Project CETI shares latest research

The researchers at the nonprofit organization have developed a reinforcement learning framework that uses autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will surface. The paper, published in Science Robotics, said it’s possible to predict when and where a whale may surface using various sensor data and predictive models of sperm whale dive behavior.

This new study involved various sensing devices, such as Project CETI aerial drones with very high frequency (VHF) signal sensing capability that use signal phase along with the drone’s motion to emulate an “antenna array in the air” for estimating the direction of pings from CETI’s on-whale tags.

“There are two basic advantages of [VHF signals]. One is that they are really low power, so they can operate for a really, really long time in the field, like months or even years. So, once those small beacons are deployed on the tag, you don’t have to really replace the batteries,” said Ninad Jadhav, a co-author on the paper and a robotics and engineering Ph.D. student at Harvard University.

“The second thing is these signals that these tags transmit, the VHF, are very high-frequency signals,” he added. “They can be detected at really long ranges.”

“That’s a really huge advantage because we never know when the whales will surface or where they will surface, but if they have been tagged before, then you can sense, for example, simple information such as the direction of the signal,” Jadhav told The Robot Report. “You can deploy an algorithm on the robot to detect that, and that gives us an advantage of finding where the whales are on the surface.”

Sperm whales present unique challenges for data collection

From left to right: Stephanie Gil, Sushmita Bhattacharya, and Ninad Jadhav. | Source: Stu Rosner

“Sperm whales are only on the surface for about 10 minutes every hour,” said Gil. “Other than that, they’re diving pretty deep in the ocean, so it’s hard to access information about what the whales are actually doing. That makes them somewhat elusive for us and for science.”

“Even we humans have certain patterns day to day. But if you’re actually out observing whales on a particular day, their behavior is not going to exactly align with the models, no matter how much data you’re using to make those models right. So it’s very difficult to really predict with precision when they might be coming up,” she continued.

“You can imagine, if [the scientists] out on the water for days and days, only having a few encounters with the whales, we’re not being that efficient. So this is to increase our efficiency,” Gruber told The Robot Report.

Once the Project CETI researchers can track down the whales, they must gather as much information as possible during the short windows of time sperm whales spend on the surface.

“Underwater data collection is quite challenging,” said Sushmita Bhattacharya, a co-author on the paper and a computer science and robotics Ph.D. student at Harvard University. “So, what is easier than underwater data collection is to have data collected when they’re at the surface. We can leverage drones or shallow hydrophones and collect as much data as possible.”

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Developing the AVATARS framework

At the center of the research is the Autonomous Vehicles for Whale Tracking And Rendezvous by Remote Sensing, or AVATARS framework. AVATARS is the first co-development of VHF sensing and reinforcement learning decision-making for maximizing the rendezvous of robots and whales at sea.

“We tried to build up a model which would kind of mimic [sperm whale] behavior,” Bhattacharya said of AVATARS. “We do this based on the current information that we gather from the sparse data set.”

Being able to predict when and where the whales will surface allowed the researchers to design algorithms for the most efficient route for a drone to rendezvous with—or encounter—a whale at the surface. Designing these algorithms where challenging on many levels, the researchers said.

“Probably the hardest thing is the fact that it is such an uncertain problem. We don’t have certainty at all in [the whales’] positions when they’re underwater, because you can’t track them with GPS when they’re underwater,” Gil said. “You have to think of other ways of trying to track them, for example, by using their acoustic signals and an angle of arrival to their acoustic signals that give you a rough idea of where they are.”

“Ultimately, these algorithms are routing algorithms. So you’re trying to route a team of robots to be at a particular location in the environment, in the world, at a certain given time when it’s necessary to be there,” she told The Robot Report. “So this is analogous to something like rideshare.”

Before bringing the algorithms into the real world with real whales, the team tested them in a controlled environment with devices the team put together to mimic whales.

We mimicked the whale using an engineered whale,” recalled Bhattacharya. “So basically we used a speed boat, and it had a loud engine. We used that engine noise to mimic the whale vocalization, and we had it move to mimic whale motion. And then we used that as our ground test.”

Project CETI tests AVATARS in the real world

A customized off-the-shelf drone flying to deploy a whale tag developed by Project CETI researchers. | Source: Project CETI

“Every day was a challenge when we were out on the boat, because this was for me, and my co-author Sushmita, the first time we were deploying real autonomous robots from a boat in the middle of the sea trying to collect some information,” Jadhav said.

“One of the major challenges of working in this environment was the noise in the sensor,” he continued. “As opposed to running experiments in the lab environment, which is more controlled, there are fewer sources of noise that impact your experiments or your sensor data”

“The other key challenge was deploying the drone itself from the board,” noted Jadhav. “I remember one instance where this was probably the first or second day of the second expedition that we went on last November, and I had the drone ready. It had the payload. It was waterproof”

“I had already run experiments here in Boston locally, where I had an estimate of how long the drone would fly with the payload. And then we were out on the boat running some initial tests, and the drone took off,” he said. “It was fine, it was doing its thing, and within a minute of it collecting data, there was a sudden gust of wind. The drone just lost control and crashed in the water.”

The team also had to try to predict and react to whale behavior when performing field tests.

“Our algorithm was designed to handle sensor data from a single whale, but what we ended up seeing is that there were four whales together, who were socializing,” Jadhav said. “They were diving and then surfacing at the same time. So, this was tricky, because then it becomes really hard for us on the algorithm side to understand which whale is sending which acoustic signal and which one we are tracking.”

Team tries to gather data without disturbing wildlife

While Project CETI works closely with sperm whales and other sea life that might be around when the whales surface, it aims to leave the whales undisturbed during data collection.

“The main concern that we care about is that even if we fail, we should not harm the whales,” Bhattacharya said. “So we have to be very careful about respecting the boundaries of those animals. That’s why we are looking at a rendezvous radius. Our goal is to go near the whale and not land on it.”

“Being minimally invasive and invisible is a key part of Project CETI,” said Gruber. “[We’re interested in] how to collect this information without interacting directly with the whale.”

This is why the team works mostly with drones that won’t disturb sea life and with specially developed tags that latch onto the whales and collect data. The CETI team eventually collects these tags, and the valuable data they contain, after they fall off the whales.

“A lot of times, people might think of robotics and autonomy as a scary thing, but this is a really important project to showcase that robots can be used to extend the reach of humans and help us understand our world better,” Gil told The Robot Report.

Project CETI aims to decode whale communications

This latest research is just one step in Project CETI’s overarching goal to decode sperm whale vocalizations. In the short term, the organization plans to ramp up data collection, which will be crucial for the project’s long-term goals.

“Once we have all the algorithms worked out, a future outlook is one where we might have, for example, drone ports in the sea that can deploy robots with sensors around the clock to observe whales when they’re available for observation,” Gil said.

“We envision a team of drones that will essentially meet or visit the whales at the right place, at the right time,” Jadhav said. “So whenever the whales surface, you essentially have a kind of autonomous drone, or autonomous robot, very close to the whale to collect information such as visual information or even acoustic if the drone is equipped with that.”

Outside of Project CETI, organizations could use AVATARS to further protect sperm whales in their natural environments. For example, this information could be used to reroute ships away from sperm whale hot spots, reducing the odds of a ship colliding with a pod of sperm whales.

“The idea is that if we understand more about the wholes, more about the whale communities, more about their social structures, then this will also enable and motivate conservation projects and understanding of marine life and how it needs to be protected,” Gil said.

In addition, the researchers said they could apply these methods to other sea mammals that vocalize.

“Here at Project CETI, we’re concerned about sperm whales, but I think this can be generalized to other marine mammals, because a lot of marine mammals vocalize, including humpback whales, other types of whales, and dolphins,” Bhattacharya said.

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Here are the top 10 most popular stories on The Robot Report in the past month. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter and listen to The Robot Report Podcast to stay up to date on the robotics developments you need to know about.

10. Europe has a key role to play in the development of robots, humanoids

While headlines often spotlight U.S. and Asian companies in the humanoid robotics race, startups in the tech hubs of Europe are making strides in developing human-like robots. From Norway to Switzerland, innovative European firms are pushing the boundaries of robotics technology, creating machines that can sense, feel, and interact with their environments in increasingly human-like ways. Read more.

9. Moxi reaches milestone of 100,000 autonomous elevator rides in hospitals

As development continues on humanoid robots, one mobile robot is already at work in hospitals. Diligent Robotics announced that its Moxi robot has completed 110,000 autonomous elevator rides at health systems across the U.S. The mobile manipulator has a single arm for opening doors and pushing buttons to operate elevators. Read more.

8. AeroVironment acquiring BlueHalo for $4.1B to boost defense tech

Defense contractor AeroVironment has agreed to acquire BlueHalo in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $4.1 billion. BlueHalo is best known for its drone swarm and counter-drone technology. The acquisition, which has been approved by both companies’ boards of directors, is expected to close in the first half of 2025. Read more.

 7. Kassow Robots’ new cobots designed for mobile manipulation

Kassow Robots in November 2024 introduced a new line of compact collaborative robots designed to integrate with mobile robots. The new Edge Edition cobots are smaller robot arms designed for mobile manipulation applications. They feature a direct DC connection from battery power, enabling them to operate while mounted to a mobile robot. Read more.

6. Collaborative Robotics unveils Proxie mobile manipulator

Collaborative Robotics Inc. unveiled its Proxie mobile manipulator publicly for the first time. The startup has been secretive about the design of the robot since Brad Porter founded the company in 2022. Porter has hinted at the design of the robot by alluding to the importance of a mobile manipulator for applications within the warehouse, with a kinematic that could be better suited for warehouse workflows than a humanoid. Read more.

5. Physical Intelligence raises $400M for foundation models for robotics

Foundation models promise to give robots the ability to generalize actions from fewer examples than traditional artificial intelligence approaches. Physical Intelligence it has raised $400 million to continue its development of artificial intelligence for a range of robots. Read more.

4. Schaeffler plans global use of Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoid

Schaeffler AG, a global leader in motion technology, is making a minority investment into Agility Robotics and buying Digit humanoid robots for use across its global plant network. The companies did not disclose the size of the November 2024 investment, the number of humanoids being purchased, or what they will be used for. Read more.

3. Pickle Robot gets orders for over 30 unloading systems plus $50M in funding

Robotic truck unloading fits the classic definition of dull, dirty, or dangerous jobs worth automating. Pickle Robot has raised $50 million in Series B funding and said that six customers placed orders during the third quarter for more than 30 robots to deploy in the first half of 2025. The new orders include pilot conversions, existing customer expansions, and new customer adoption. Read more.

2. Chicago’s South Suburbs see the future of manufacturing as American and robotic

For decades, the Chicagoland area has played a pivotal role in American manufacturing capability. Unfortunately, the once-strong bastion of manufacturing and fabrication has lost much of its fervor following years of economic stagnation, outmigration, and a declining tax base. However, as the global marketplace continues to evolve, U.S. manufacturers must contend with an aging ownership base, greater competition, and a severe labor shortage. Read more.

1. Red Cat wins U.S. Army next-gen drone contract over Skydio

Red Cat Holdings Inc. announced that it won the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance, or SRR, program-of-record contract. The company replaced Skydio on this contract. The U.S. Army set an initial acquisition target of 5,880 systems over a five-year period. Read more.

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Red Cat’s Black Widow drone features forward-looking obstacle-avoidance capabilities and an integrated FLIR Prism AI software stack. | Source: Red Cat

Red Cat Holdings Inc. this week announced that it won the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance, or SRR, program of record contract. The company replaced Skydio on this contract. The U.S. Army set an initial acquisition target of 5,880 systems over a five-year period. 

Skydio first earned this contract in 2021. At the time, it was valued at $99.8 million with a base year value of $20.2 million. While the company did compete for the contract this time around with its X10D drone, the Army said Red Cat’s system was more aligned with its requirements. 

“This is a powerful moment in time, coming after five years of blood, sweat, and tears put into SRR by our incredible team” stated George Matus, chief technology officer of Red Cat and founder of Teal, a subsidiary of Red Cat. “The long-awaited production selection marks a new era for our company and the future of American drones.”

“We were selected based on soldier feedback, technical performance, volume manufacturability, and system cost,” he said. “Our top priority now is to start ramping production of the next-generation system, recently announced as the Black Widow and WEB, and give warfighters the tools they need to be successful on the modern battlefield.”

Red Cat expects increased defense demand

San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Red Cat provides integrated robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations. Through its Teal Drones and FlightWave Aerospace Systems subsidiaries, the company offers drones including:

• Black Widow, its flagship product, a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) with advanced capabilities
• TRICHON fixed-wing vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle for extended endurance and range
• FANG, a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)-compliant, first-person view (FPV) drone optimized for military operations with precision-strike capabilities

Red Cat said it is preparing to meet increased demand across the rest of the U.S. Department of Defense, the federal government, and allied countries. The company’s Black Widow won the contract. Part of the company’s ARACHNID family of systems, the drones are designed for electronic warfare operations. 

Black Widow has a modular architecture, enabling swift adaptation to requirements for missions such as short-range reconnaissance, said Red Cat. It can also handle secondary payloads.

The company said its system is purpose-built for the warfighter, manufactured in the U.S., and intended to increase survivability and warfighter safety.

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Army gives new ARACHNID line a lift

The Army made the production selection after a test and evaluation process of Teal’s next-generation sUAS. The Army Project Management Office for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems, Army Maneuver Battle Lab, Army Test and Evaluation Command, and Army Operational Test Center evaluated the systems.

Red Cat said the SRR contract selection builds on momentum from its September acquisition of FlightWave, last month’s announcement of the ARACHNID line, and the creation of the Red Cat Futures Initiative. This week, Red Cat also said it is working with Palladyne AI Corp. to integrate Palladyne’s software into Teal drones.

“Both the operational and tactical levels of war and maneuver of combat elements have evolved significantly over the past couple of years,” observed Paul Edward Funk II, a retired four-star Army general and Red Cat board member.

“Operational success today depends on the ability to seamlessly move data across the battlefield,” he said. “From a tactical perspective, small unmanned aerial systems that are rucksack-portable are playing a vital role in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as surgical-strike capabilities based on the real-time needs of the warfighter.”

Skydio brings in $170M in funding

This latest news comes a little over a year after Skydio grounded its consumer drone operations to focus on its enterprise and public-sector customers.

According to the San Mateo, Calif.-based company, its drones are being used to put sensors in dangerous and important places to perform inspections, find missing children, and keep the military safe. They also make core industries, like public safety, transportation, energy, construction, and defense, safer and more efficient, it claimed.

It wasn’t all bad news for Skydio this week. TechCrunch reported that the company raised $170 million in a Series E extension round. This adds to the $230 million it raised last year. Skydio reached “unicorn” status, or $1 billion valuation, around its Series D in 2021.

Investors in the latest round include KDDI, a Japanese telecom operator, and Axon, which develops tasers and other technology for police forces. The extension also included previous investors such as Linse Capital, which currently owns more than 21% of Skydio. 

Skydio said its X10D drone provides timely information using advanced sensors. Its computing power can support team operations and inform the best decisions in real time, it asserted. Six custom-designed navigation lenses provide 360-degree visibility, eliminating blind spots.

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Waymo said its vehicles are already serving more than 100,000 paid trips every week across its deployment sites. | Source: Waymo

Anyone in Los Angeles can now take fully autonomous rides with Waymo One. The company, whose service area covers Santa Monica, Hollywood Boulevard, USC, and everything in between, has removed its waitlist in the city and is open 24/7.

It’s only been about eight months since Waymo launched its limited robotaxi service in Los Angeles. In that time, nearly 300,000 people joined its waitlist. Waymo said these LA riders have taken hundreds of thousands of paid trips across the city, and given Waymo valuable feedback about its performance. 

Waymo said its service has received an average 4.7 out of 5 star rating. Additionally, 98% of riders recently surveyed in LA said they are satisfied with the service and 96% find it useful.

“Now is an exciting time to welcome everyone in Los Angeles along for the ride,” said Tekedra Mawakana, the co-CEO of Waymo. “Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving. We’re so grateful to all of our first riders in LA, and we can’t wait to serve more riders soon.”

The self-driving unit of Alphabet has spent 2024 expanding its self-driving services across multiple cities, including in San Francisco and Phoenix, where it provides curbside service at Sky Harbor International Airport. In August, the company unveiled its 6th generation robotaxi, equipped with an optimized sensor suite for greater performance at a significantly reduced cost. Most recently, it brought in $5.6 billion in funding. Waymo also has a robotaxi service in Austin, but there’s a long waitlist, and the service isn’t yet open to everyone.

More about Waymo’s LA service

Riders can now traverse nearly 80 square miles of LA County, and Waymo intends to grow its service area to cover more of the city in the future. The company said it looks forward to welcoming many first-time riders and welcoming back those it has served over the last year, as it steadily scales its service over time just as we’ve done in San Francisco and Phoenix.

As it opens its doors to more people, Waymo is working closely with local community partners aligned with its mission to make roads safer and mobility more accessible. For example, Waymo is working with She is Hope, a non-profit dedicated to empowering single mothers in Los Angeles.

“Riding with Waymo was an incredible experience—smooth, safe, and truly impressive,” said Tisha Janigan, founder of She is Hope. “When I rode alone and with some of our single mother families, we were amazed by the driverless technology and the sense of comfort it provided. Access to Waymo could be a game-changer for women we serve, offering a nonjudgmental, reliable transportation option that prioritizes safety.”

While Waymo is a clear leader in the autonomous vehicle industry, there are a number of other companies hoping to breakthrough in the space. Amazon-subsidiary Zoox this week expanded its operation in California and Nevada. The company is now testing its robotaxis in San Francisco and expanded its Las Vegas geofence. Zoox is not offering public rides in either city yet, but it hopes to launch its Las Vegas operation in early 2025. 

Additionally, Chinese firms have been bringing in large amounts of money to further develop their technology. Last week, DeepRout.ai brought in $100 million led by Chinese automotive manufacturer Great Wall Motor. While WeRide last month brought in $485.5 million from its initial public offering and private placement. 

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Zoox’s purpose-built robotaxis don’t have traditional manual controls. | Source: Zoox

Zoox recently expanded its operations in California and Nevada. The company is now testing its robotaxis in San Francisco and expanded its Las Vegas geofence. Zoox is not offering public rides in either city yet, but it hopes to launch its Las Vegas operation in early 2025. 

“This marks our entrance with the robotaxi into our second commercial market,” said Aicha Evans, CEO of Zoox. “Since 2017, our test fleet has autonomously navigated San Francisco streets with a safety driver. Now that we’ve passed all critical safety measures, we are excited to begin testing our robotaxi in this wonderful city.”

Initial testing in San Francisco for the Amazon subsidiary’s robotaxi will occur in the SoMa neighborhood. During this testing phase, rides will not be available to the public. Instead, the service will be open to Zoox employees so the company can refine the riding experience, it said. As testing progresses, the company will expand its geofence to include additional neighborhoods throughout the city.

While the company’s test fleet has had a presence in San Francisco for some time now, its purpose-built robotaxi stands out from other autonomous vehicles on the road. 

“Zoox is the only company driving a purpose-built robotaxi on public roads without traditional manual controls,” said Jesse Levinson, co-founder and CTO of Zoox. “This expansion marks our third city for our robotaxi operations, following Foster City and Las Vegas. We’ve rigorously tested and validated our AI stack in multiple cities over the last seven years in preparation for the deployment of our robotaxi fleet. From day one, our robotaxis will be leveraging a deep history and understanding of this area.”

Zoox gears up for public rides in Vegas in 2025

Zoox said it is making progress towards welcoming its first public riders in Las Vegas in 2025. It recently deployed the robotaxi in a larger geofence in Las Vegas, including The Strip and surrounding areas.

The Strip is one of the most highly trafficked areas in Las Vegas and is full of complex driving scenarios, Zoox said. These include areas of more than eight lanes of traffic with multiple turning lanes, high speeds, heavy pedestrian traffic, and large-scale intersections. Deploying a robotaxi in this area, Zoox said, will provide invaluable learnings for its AI stack and service as it prepares Zoox for its first riders.

As the company prepares to welcome public riders in Las Vegas next year, it said it will do so through an early rider program. These select riders will have the opportunity to ride with Zoox for free, providing valuable feedback.

In addition to its operations in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Foster City, Zoox is also testing its technology in Austin and Miami. The company said it plans to enter these two new cities with care. Zoox will first conduct a brief mapping mission. Once this is finished, it will begin deploying its retrofitted Toyota Highlander test fleet, equipped with safety drivers, in small areas near the business and entertainment districts of two cities. 

Waymo is the leader in the robotaxi space. In late October 2024, Waymo said it’s providing over 150,000 paid trips and driving over 1 million fully autonomous miles every week. It offers public robotaxi services in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Waymo also has a 37-square-mile operating area in Austin, but there’s a waitlist to ride and is not yet open to the general public.

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Pipedream’s shuttle robots run on unpowered rails through the company’s pipe system to deliver food. | Source: Pipedream

Pipedream Labs Inc. announced the launch of its robotic food-delivery system at a leading quick-service restaurant, or QSR. The system delivers food orders from the kitchen to the customer in under 15 seconds, “transforming fast food into instant food,” it said.

The Austin, Texas-based company uses underground robots to facilitate high-speed delivery for QSRs and other facilities. Pipedream said it is dedicated to revolutionizing logistics and creating seamless, hyper-efficient systems for the modern world.

Canon Reeves, co-founder and chief technology officer of Pipedream, said autonomous delivery is inevitable, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes a reality. The restaurant industry is facing a long-term technical problem, as delivery robots need to seamlessly navigate sidewalks while sharing them with humans, he said.

Pipedream has taken this technical problem and transformed it into a constrained financial problem, Reeves asserted. 

“We know how much it costs to put in pipes. We can make these pipes smart and deliver robots,” he told The Robot Report. “As long as there’s enough value in getting things from A to B and every single point along that pipe, the match can pencil you to where you can finance that pipe.” 

This launch is part of Pipedream’s broader mission to make hyper-logistics a reality. The company aims to drastically reduce delivery times and streamline restaurant operations. Strong financial backing has fueled rapid growth. Pipedream previously raised $13 million in venture capital.

Pipedream Labs picks QSRs as its focus

Late last year, Pipedream Labs tested a below-ground system for fast and cost-effective autonomous deliveries in Peachtree Corners, Ga. While the company is still pursuing city-wide deployments like that one, it has also expanded its focus to new areas. 

“We sort of stumbled into pickup as a category,” Reeves said. “We knew that if we were going to create this individual network, that it was going to take a long time to do, and it was going to be really hard. You have to both integrate with suppliers and the demand side, with apartments and neighborhoods.”

“We kind of looked at our product and realized that we have the opportunity to take drive thru to that next step, which is, when I pull up, my thing is ready right then, and I can just grab it and go,” he continued.

Many restaurants and grocery stores are facing a challenge when it comes to pickup, noted Reeves. Customers love the option because it makes things much more convenient for them. However, businesses are now taking on extra work or increasing the number of online orders. 

“So just by talking to these customers, we realize that, oh man, if you could teleport things from one from inside the building to any spot in a parking lot, you could actually make a pretty great product,” Reeves said.

What Pipedream is building is similar to the pneumatic tubes in banks or pharmacies. The challenge is in creating a similar system that will work with food and drinks. 

“We have the most traction in the quick service restaurants category right now; that’s sort of the simplest and easier portion of the system. It’s the product we’re technically the furthest along on,” Reeves said. “That being said, we’ve developed really strong relationships in the grocery market and anticipate having grocery customers in the near term. And then we’re also working really hard towards the city deployment.”

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How will the robotic deliveries work?

Pipedream Labs’ system starts with constructing underground pipes for its robots to operate in. This process is a lot simpler than people would expect, said Reeves.

“It’s very simple. You are cutting some concrete, removing that concrete, removing the dirt, putting in some gravel, putting in the pipes, putting back some dirt, and putting on some more concrete,” he explained.

The recent deployment took Pipedream about four and a half days to finish construction, Reeves said. The company aims to bring this time down to just two or three days. 

“There’s some innovations that we can do in terms of reducing the amount that we have to dig, and in basically staging things so that as one process finishes another one starts,” said Reeves. “These are operational things that come from doing it more times.”

The construction process also includes implementing Pipedream’s above-ground kiosks, where customers will pick up their orders. This is one of the trickier parts of the system, Reeves acknowledged.

The company’s team had to create a system that uses robotics to raise the customer’s order to the kiosk window. It also created an interface that is simple enough for anyone to understand with zero training. 

“We’ve put a ton of time and engineering into creating what we call ‘portals,’ which are above-ground kiosks that customers and workers interface with,” Reeves said. “I would actually say about 50% of our engineering goes into the above-ground system, and then 50% goes into the underground, if not less.”

Pipedream looks to a smart city future

While Pipedream Labs is taking on numerous projects, Reeves said it is still working toward the same goal.

“Our focus and our goal has always been to be this sort of city-wide backbone for autonomous logistics. That is still the path we’re pursuing,” Reeves said. “It takes a certain level of organizational discipline to pursue these different markets and categories together, but the key is the technology underpinning all of this is the same. So the engineering team is all working on the same product.”

Moving forward, Reeves said that he imagines a future where Pipedream’s system works in tandem with other delivery robots. 

“We believe in this world where our system can hand off to other systems,” he said. “So you can image this system getting it close to your neighborhood, and maybe a sidewalk robot finished that last 100 feet to your doorstep.” 

For now, Pipedream claimed that it provides a safer and more reliable alternative to other robotic delivery methods. 

“If a drone messes up, it really can cause some harm, but if our system messes up, or if our construction goes wrong, there’s just not much room for us to hurt anybody or do anything that would negatively affect the city,” Reeves said.

Pipedream is a small company but is actively recruiting engineers for its team, said Reeves.

The post Pipedream Labs deploys underground robotic delivery system in Texas drive thru appeared first on The Robot Report.

Here are the top 10 most popular stories on The Robot Report in October 2024. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter or listen to The Robot Report Podcast to stay up to date on the robotics developments you need to know about.

10. Relay Robotics proposes levels of autonomous navigation for indoor robots

When we think of autonomous navigation, the first thing that usually comes to mind is self-driving cars. Although their development has spanned decades, recent years have seen significant advancements. One important framework that is used ubiquitously in the self-driving car industry is the classification of levels of driving automation. Defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in 2014, this framework remains a standard reference in the field. Read More

9. Robot Utility Models: the coolest thing you never heard about (yet)

Robot Utility Models (RUMs) are a new area of research and development for the advancement of AI training for robotics. Lerrel Pinto, an assistant professor of computer science, and a team at at New York University created RUM. This open-source research project is trying to generalize training for robots so that one doesn’t have to train thousands of examples of a task. Read More

8. Innovative motion solutions are supporting the latest trends in robotics

Rapidly growing markets for robot innovation include applications that enhance human health and wellbeing, such as bionics and robotic surgery. Robots in these fields rely on miniature DC motion technology, which require state-of-the-art motion control. Motors with increasing torque density and dynamics are helping robot designers improve precision and control. Read More

7. Atlas humanoid robot shows increasing competence in latest Boston Dynamics video

Boston Dynamics Inc. released a new video of its Atlas humanoid robot. The video shows the electric robot handling large automotive parts autonomously. According to the company, the robot uses machine learning to execute its tasks and 3D vision to perceive the world around it. Read More

6. Robotics investments near $1B in August

Fifty producers of robots and robotics-enabling technologies received funding in August 2024, pulling in a total of approximately $1 billion. This figure is on par with the $1.2 billion average The Robot Report has tracked each of the previous 12 months. Investment targeted to robotics companies for the first eight months of 2024 equals about $10.86 billion.  Read More

5. Fourier launches GR-2 humanoid, software platform

Shanghai-based Fourier launched GR-2, the latest generation of its GRx humanoid robot series. It has upgraded its hardware, design, and software. This announcement followed the company‘s rebranding from Fourier Intelligence to Fourier earlier this year, and the GR-2 release builds on the production release of the first-generation GR-1 in late 2023. Read More

4. PULS acquires Wiferion’s wireless charging business

DIN rail power supply provider PULS has acquired Wiferion from Tesla. This deal comes after Tesla acquired Wiferion for an undisclosed amount in June 2023. PULS said it plans to continue manufacturing, marketing and selling the company‘s wireless charging products worldwide. Read More

3. Renishaw and RLS help to drive a robot revolution

A revolution in collaborative robots promises to change how assistive care is delivered to the elderly, how people interact with their work environment, and even how surgeons perform heart surgery. RLS d.o.o. has over many years cultivated a value-added partnership with the German company, TQ-RoboDrive, part of the TQ-Group. Read More

2. Universal Robots AI Accelerator offers to ease development of cobot applications

The latest advances in artificial intelligence promise to improve robot capabilities, but engineers need to bring the technologies together. Universal Robots announced its UR AI Accelerator, a hardware and software toolkit to enable the development of AI-powered collaborative robot applications. Read More

1. Corvus Robotics soars to new heights with Series A round for drone inventory

Corvus Robotics Inc. has closed an $18 million Series A round and seed funding led by S2G Ventures and Spero Ventures. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has been engineering and validating its inventory drone system since it was founded in 2017. Read More

The post Top 10 robotics developments of October 2024 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Last month, EDAP TMS SA and Avenda Health said they will jointly offer personalized prostate cancer care using Avenda’s Unfold AI technology. Their stated goal is to launch the Focal One robot using an artificial intelligence for high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, procedures.

Avenda Health’s Unfold AI is a multimodal AI decision-support platform cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It can build 3D patient-specific cancer maps that reveal the extent of tumors that would otherwise be invisible, it said. This enables physicians to avoid leaving cancerous tissue behind while sparing healthy surrounding tissue. 

By combining Unfold AI’s planning with the Focal One robotic HIFU platform, EDAP and Avenda claimed that urologists can provide a more tailored, patient-specific HIFU ablation procedure for their prostate cancer patients.

Wayne G. Brisbane, M.D., an assistant professor of urology at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, worked with Avenda and Focal One to launch the system. Dr. Brisbane gave The Robot Report additional insight into how this technology could change urology procedures. 

How Focal One can change urology procedures

Wayne G. Brisbane, M.D., an assistant professor of urology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. | Source: UCLA Health

From the surgeon‘s perspective, how does Focal One change how you approach treating patients with prostate cancer?
Brisbane: Focal One enables us to ablate a specific area in the prostate rather than treating the entire prostate. While this approach is newer and not as well-established, it has been widely sought after by patients to reduce side effects of treatment.

Unfold AI’s 3D cancer-mapping technology helps us identify where to ablate. Traditional imaging methods like MRI can underestimate the extent of the cancer.

Unfold AI combines data from MRI, PSA levels, biopsy locations, and Gleason scores to create a detailed 3D map, which guides us in performing more accurate tumor ablation.

How do you think this technology will affect patient outcomes?
Brisbane: This technology will improve our ability to predict tumor extent and then deliver treatment guided by robotics. It takes the guesswork out of treating the tumor.

Unfold AI also allows us to select patients for focal therapy more confidently, particularly those who fall between active surveillance and more aggressive treatments.

What risks come with HIFU procedures, and how does Focal One minimize those?
Brisbane: HIFU treatments, while non-invasive and generally safe, do carry risks. These include changes in urinary and sexual function. However, the main concern about HIFU is cancer recurrence from incomplete treatment.

By fusing Unfold AI and FocalOne, we hope to limit one of the major risks of HIFU – incomplete ablations.

How does Focal One change your workflow?
Brisbane: Focal One provides an intuitive workflow and easily integrates with Unfold AI.

EDAP and Unfold AI prepped for prostate procedure

How closely did you collaborate with Avenda Health before this first procedure?
Brisbane: Before the first procedure, I collaborated with Avenda Health to ensure a thorough understanding of the Focal One system and its capabilities. Our partnership involved discussions about treatment protocols, technology integration, and how to leverage Unfold AI’s 3D cancer maps effectively.

How have patients reacted to this new technology?
Brisbane: Patients have responded positively to Focal One. Many feel relieved that we can target the tumor more precisely, reducing the risk of harming healthy tissue. They appreciate the less-invasive nature of the procedure, especially since traditional treatments often come with concerns about side effects.

Patients also value the insights from Unfold AI’s 3D cancer maps. Some have reported fewer side effects compared to conventional treatments, which has improved their perception of the procedure. The technology has helped build greater confidence among patients and improved their overall treatment experience.

In your opinion, could this technology be applied to other kinds of procedures in the future?
Brisbane: I do expect AI maps to be implemented through additional robotic platforms.

The post Doctor describes first robotic high intensity ultrasound procedures with Focal One, Unfold AI appeared first on The Robot Report.

Opteran has been working with Airbus Defence and Space since it was founded in 2020. Now, the company will implement its autonomy system into Airbus’ rover. | Source: Opteran

Opteran’s general-purpose neuromorphic software could be heading to Mars in the coming years. The company today announced that Airbus Defence and Space, with support from European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency, will test the Opteran Mind in Airbus space rovers. 

London-based Opteran said that nature offers a more efficient, robust approach to autonomy in space robotics. The company said its product will enable new mission capabilities for future Mars missions and other space exploration projects.

Based on more than a decade of research into animal and insect vision, navigation, and decision-making, Opteran is conducting tests with Airbus at its Mars Yard to give rovers depth perception in the toughest off-world environments.

“Mars is possibly one of the hardest places to do autonomy,” David Rajan, co-founder and CEO of Opteran, told The Robot Report. “Doing autonomy, in general, is typical on this planet, but we’re trying to do it on a planet where it takes 30 minutes or so, from Mars, to get a message.”

“It’s not like the moon, which is very, very close,” he added. “I think people don’t realize quite how far away Mars is in comparison to the moon. So, working in this area with a firm trying to build a machine to be autonomous in a place that is so far away and so hostile was just instantly interesting.”

Opteran said it has reverse-engineered natural brain algorithms into software that enables autonomous machines to efficiently move through challenging environments without the need for extensive data or training. Founded in 2020, the company earned a 2024 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for this work.

Robustness is paramount for space robotics

“Part of the [challenge] is the cost and complexity of building a system that you’re going to send to Mars. Just getting it there is so expensive,” noted Rajan. “So, if it breaks, you can’t just send another one out. You certainly can’t send another person out there to fix it. So the systems have got to be robust.”

Many of today’s off-world robots are cumbersome — taking minutes to compute a map of their surroundings from multiple cameras before every movement.

“Today, when you’re building a panoramic depth map, it can take minutes to process the data from the sensor and decide what you’re going to do,” Rajan explained. “So the machine, the rover, is essentially stopping to process the data, which takes a few minutes, and then it can work out what to do and then move again.”

These rovers need to repeat this process every few feet, or even inches, depending on the area, said Rajan. This means the rover takes slow, baby steps across the planet.

Opteran claimed that its visual and perception systems offer Mars rovers the ability to understand their surroundings in milliseconds, in challenging conditions, without adding to the robot’s critical power consumption.

“If you’re going to shoot it on a rocket, then the weight of the machine really matters,” Rajan said. “And if it’s going to be running remotely off of batteries, probably solar charging, then power consumption really, really matters.” 

“So it’s a low-weight algorithm that’s low power, and an algorithm that can process and build a depth map at 90 frames per second. So it’s kind of instant,” Rajan continued. “That completely transforms the pace and what you can do. Essentially, we take minutes of processing to nothing.”

Opteran discusses future plans for Mars exploration

Opteran said that the successful application of its Opteran Mind technology to real-world space exploration will significantly extend navigation capabilities in extreme off-world terrain. Ultimately, this provides rovers with continuous navigation while being able to drive further and faster.

The project’s near-term focus is on depth estimation for obstacle detection, and the mid-term focus on infrastructure-free visual navigation.

“What we do on the ground with customers is to enable autonomous machines to move independently without infrastructure. This means being able to judge not only depth, but also to locate, build maps, and navigate,” Rajan said. 

Opteran is working with the ESA and Airbus on improving autonomy for Mars rovers. Source: Opteran

“This is not part of this project. I should be clear about that, but our aspiration would go beyond depth perception to look at localization and mapping,” he continued.

Rajan said Opteran is interested in someday working with smaller, lighter, and cheaper rovers that could be sent to Mars as a fleet. These more disposable robots could tackle the mapping of difficult terrains. 

Once the results of the initial testing have been presented to the European Space Agency (ESA) the goal would be to move to the next stage of grant funding, which would start to focus on deployment and commercialization.

“It’s a team effort, and every tiny aspect has to be considered, and it has to be the best it can be,” Rajan said. “It has to be optimized to oblivion, because it’s going to face some of the harshest conditions, not just on the planet but also in the solar system.”

This project is funded by ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) through the UK Space Agency, which takes leading-edge technologies that are not ready to be sent into space and then develops them to be used in future missions.

The post ESA to test insect-inspired autonomy from Opteran for future space missions appeared first on The Robot Report.

From left to right: Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder at MassRobotics, Cynthia Breazeal, a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, and Ingmar Posner, a professor of engineering science at Oxford. | Source: MassRobotics

MassRobotics, a robotics innovation organization, recently announced Dr. Cynthia Breazeal as the 2024 recipient of its Robotics Medal. The organization said Breazeal won for her significant contributions to the field of robotics, notably for her work in the field of social robotics and human-robot interaction. The award is sponsored by Amazon Robotics. The award includes a $50,000 prize. 

With the Robotics Medal, MassRobotics seeks to not only celebrate individual achievements, but also to inspire and encourage women and other underrepresented groups to participate in shaping the future of the world through robotics.

Breazeal is currently a professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she founded and directs the Personal Robots group at the Media Lab. She is also the MIT dean for digital learning, where she leads Open Learning’s business and research and engagement units. 

A history with social robots

Breazeal work at MIT, however, is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her accomplishments. She is a pioneer of social robotics and human-robot interaction. Her work balances technical innovation in AI, user experience (UX) design, and understanding the psychology of engagement to design personified AI technologies that promote human flourishing and personal growth.

In 2012, Breazeal founded Jibo, a social robotics company named after its flagship product. Jibo could see with two hi-res cameras, which allowed it to recognize and track faces, take pictures, and enable video calling.

Despite raising nearly $72 million in venture capital and raising more than $3.5 million in a 2014 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, the company shut down in 2018.

Breazeal’s more recent work focuses on the idea of “living with AI” and understanding the long-term potential for social robots to build relationships and provide personalized support as companions in daily life. Her research group actively investigates social robots applied to education, pediatrics, health and wellness, and aging.

“I really just see myself as this year’s representative of all the amazing women. It’s a combination of their brilliance and their originality, but also their humanity and in so many ways their deep sense of service that they bring to their work,” Breazeal told The Robot Report. “I am thrilled to be this year’s representative, but I really do see myself as just a part of a world of incredible women.”

Editor’s note: There will be a ticketed Women in Robotics luncheon as part of RoboBusiness 2024 this week in Santa Clara, Calif.

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Breazeal sees award as a call to service

Not only is there still a gender gap within robotics, but Breazeal said there’s also a visibility gap for the women already within the industry. There are many trailblazing women in robotics, she said, but they’re often not chosen to keynote events or thought of as the face of robotics. 

“When you’re a woman in this field, you have to recognize there are so many amazing women doing incredible work,” Breazeal said. “And I really do applaud this particular award, because I do feel so many of the women in the field, we can be very prominent, but in a lot of ways we’re kind of the best-kept secret.”

While the award is an honor, Breazeal said that she also sees it as a call to service. This means using her position to elevate other women and other people from underrepresented groups in the industry. 

“How can I think about this award in terms of service to my community and to the world?” Breazeal asked.

She also noted that she wouldn’t be where she is without the wonderful people she has worked with throughout her career, including the students she teaches and mentors at MIT. 

“MIT is a world-class research university,” Breazeal said. “The work that you see is the product of brilliant students. You give them these opportunities to immerse themselves in these questions.”

“So, not only are we creating these amazing robot systems, but we’re also helping to foster, and nurture, incredible, brilliant young talent who have come out of this program,” she said. 

A validating moment for the social robotics field

In addition to being a milestone in her career, Breazeal said she also sees the award as a validating moment for the entire field of social robotics, which has now existed for 25 years. As a pioneer in the field, Breazeal saw firsthand the many detractors when the technology was in its early stages. 

“It’s kind of an atypical lens on robots,” Breazeal said. “Nobody was really thinking deeply about what it would mean for anyone, everyday people, to actually interact with robots. I mean, of course, we had science fiction and all these visions and so forth. But people weren’t really thinking about anyone beyond the non-expert being able to have value, or the non-commercial really being able to have value from this autonomous robot technology.”

She acknowledged that new ideas always draw skepticism, and the social robots had some big-name detractors early on. Breazeal recalled her work on Kismet, which some observers have called the first social robot, for her doctoral work at the MIT AI Lab in the late 1990s. At the time, she said, there were some people industry who doubted the benefits of “having a robot that could smile,” as they put it.

Kismet didn’t resemble the cute, approachable form factors that are often associated with social robots, but it could enter into social-emotional interactions with a human caregiver, reminiscent of parent-infant exchanges. These more natural interactions could be used to bootstrap the social-emotional-cognitive development of social robots, explained Breazeal.

She said knew that those detractors simply didn’t understand what she was trying to do. Fortunately, Breazeal had support from enough of the community to keep going. 

“Once we kind of got past those first friction points and started getting this nascent community together, it just became increasingly obvious that, of course, this is important,” Breazeal said.

“It is so incredibly rewarding that someone in social robotics received this honor,” she continued. “It just made the point that this field of human-robot interaction, social robotics, has become such an important part of the overall field of robotics.”

The post Cynthia Breazeal reflects on earning 2024 Robotics Medal from MassRobotics appeared first on The Robot Report.

Bota Systems will be showing its latest SensONE T80 force-torque sensor at RoboBusiness. | Source: Bota Systems

Bota Systems AG will be showing off its comprehensive range of force-torque sensors, including its latest sensor specifically designed for larger collaborative robots, at RoboBusiness next week in Santa Clara, Calif. The company will be exhibiting in Booth 613 on the show floor. 

Zurich-based Bota Systems specializes in cutting-edge sensors for robots and cobots. The company said its sensors are designed for humanoid, industrial, and medical robots — improving functions in fields such as welding and minimally invasive surgeries.

Force-torque sensors can give robots a sense of touch, enabling them to accurately and reliably perform tasks which were previously only possible with manual operators, said Bota Systems.

“At RoboBusiness, we will showcase our latest advancements in force-torque sensing technology,” Klajd Lika, CEO of Bota Systems, told The Robot Report. “Advancements in AI and machine learning promise to simplify robot programming, potentially increasing adoption even among users without robotics backgrounds, though challenges remain.”

“Robotics data, primarily from sensors measuring motion, is limited,” he added. “By capturing data that gives us information about the dynamic state of the robots, such as internal and external forces and tactile data, we can enhance training and inference efficiency.”

“We look forward to discussing how our technology will be shaping the future of robotics and why it is the ‘native language’ of robots that is hiding unlimited potential, at this year’s event,” said Lika.

See innovative sensors firsthand

RoboBusiness attendees will have an opportunity to see Bota Systems’ latest SensONE T80 force-torque sensor. It is the latest in the company’s SensONE line of lightweight six-axis force torque sensors for collaborative robots.

“This sensor is engineered to cover high sensitivity on the full payload range of large cobots, offering new possibilities for high-demand applications such as heavy palletizing and welding,” said Martin Wermelinger, head of robotics at Bota Systems. “We look forward to demonstrating how it will drive greater precision and efficiency in these and other complex tasks.”

Bota Systems said its SensONE sensors enable human-machine interaction and can provide force, vision, and inertia data. They can be used in a variety of industrial applications, including rehabilitation with robotic systems, precision assembly, product testing, polishing and grinding, and robotic-assisted surgery. 

Meet with Bota Systems and more at RoboBusiness

In addition to perception and other enabling technologies, RoboBusiness will focus on robotics innovation, and business and investment topics related to running a robotics company. Keynotes at the event will feature:

• Rodney Brooks, co-founder and chief technology officer at Robust AI, as well as co-founder of iRobot and Rethink Robotics
• Sergey Levine, co-founder of Physical Intelligence and an associate professor at UC Berkeley
• Claire Delaunay, chief technology officer at farm-ng
• Torrey Smith, co-founder and CEO of Endiatx
• A panel on driving robotics innovation with ABB, DHL, NVIDIA, and Teradyne

RoboBusiness will include more than 70 speakers, over 100 exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, 10+ hours of dedicated networking time, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition, a Women in Robotics Luncheon, and more.

RoboBusiness is co-located with DeviceTalks West, which focuses on the design and development of medical devices. Thousands of robotics practitioners from around the world will convene at the Santa Clara Convention Center, so register now to ensure your spot!

The post Learn about Bota Systems’ force torque sensors at RoboBusiness 2024 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Waymo’s autonomous technology integrated into one of Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 SUVs. | Source: Waymo

Today, Waymo LLC and Hyundai Motor Co. said they have entered into a multi-year, strategic partnership. In the first phase of this collaboration, the companies plan to integrate the Waymo Driver, Waymo’s sixth-generation autonomous technology, into Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 SUV.

Waymo said it will add the IONIQ vehicles to the Waymo One fleet over time. The IONIQ 5 vehicles destined for the company‘s fleet will be assembled at the new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) facility in Georgia and then integrated with Waymo’s autonomous technology. 

The companies said they expect to produce a fleet of IONIQ 5s equipped with Waymo’s technology “in significant volume over multiple years to support Waymo One’s growing scale.” Initial on-road testing will begin by late 2025, and the Waymo-enabled IONIQ 5 will be available to Waymo One riders in the years to follow, according to Mountain View, Calif.-based Waymo.

“Hyundai and Waymo share a vision to improve the safety, efficiency, and convenience of how people move,” stated José Muñoz, president and global chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Co. and president and CEO of Hyundai Motor North America.

“Waymo’s transformational technology is improving road safety where they operate, and the IONIQ 5 is the ideal vehicle to scale this further,” he added. “The team at our new manufacturing facility is ready to allocate a significant number of vehicles for the Waymo One fleet as it continues to expand. Importantly, this is the first step in the partnership between the two companies, and we are actively exploring additional opportunities for collaboration.”

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Waymo fleet forges ahead with IONIQ 5

Hyundai will deliver the IONIQ 5 to Waymo with autonomy-ready modifications such as redundant hardware and power doors. The Seoul, South Korea-based automaker claimed that its all-electric vehicle will enable long driving shifts on a single charge, and its 800-volt architecture will minimize time out of service with some of the industry’s fastest charging speeds.

In addition, the vehicle’s interior will offer additional legroom, headroom, and rear cargo space for a comfortable riding experience, said Hyundai. 

This partnership with Hyundai came just over a month after Waymo released its sixth-generation robotaxi. The company’s latest technology, including 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, six radars, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs), was rolled out on Geely’s all-electric Zeekr vehicles. 

Waymo partnered with Geely in 2021 to integrate its Waymo Driver into a version of Zeekr. China-based Geely said Zeeker was designed in Sweden specifically for autonomous ride-hailing. Waymo previously used fully electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles as the base of its robotaxis. 

The Biden administration in May 2024 proposed a 100% tariff on electric vehicles from China, up from 25%. Although it’s not yet clear why Waymo decided to diversify its fleet with Hyundai’s vehicles, these newly announced vehicles wouldn’t be subject to the same tariffs.

Hyundai isn’t putting all of its AV eggs into one basket

This partnership means that Waymo is the first company to take part in Hyundai’s new automated vehicle (AV) foundry business unit. Announced in August, the unit aims to engineer and validate vehicles for AV developers such as Waymo.

“We recently announced the launch of Hyundai Motor Co.’s autonomous vehicle foundry business to provide global autonomous driving companies with vehicles capable of implementing SAE Level 4 or higher autonomous driving technology,” said Chang Song, president and head of Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) Division. “There is no better partner for our first agreement in this initiative than industry leader Waymo.”

But the program is just part of of Hyundai’s investments in the AV industry. In May, Hyundai announced a $475 million funding round for Motional.

At the time, Motional said the latest investment demonstrates Hyundai’s belief in the strategic importance of autonomy technology and its confidence in the company’s ability to capitalize on the market opportunity. Motional was founded as a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv.

Despite the investment, however, Motional lags behind Waymo when it comes to deployments. Earlier this year, the company said it plans to focus its resources on the continued development and generalization of its core driverless technology. At the same time, it is de-emphasizing near-term commercial deployments and ancillary activities. 

Meanwhile, Waymo has spent 2024 rapidly expanding its service areas across three cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix, Ariz. Currently, the Alphabet Inc. unit said it’s serving well over 50,000 paid rides per week across the three cities.

The post Waymo adds Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 to its AV fleet in multi-year partnership appeared first on The Robot Report.

Here are the top 10 most popular stories on The Robot Report this past month. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter or listen to The Robot Report Podcast to stay up to date on all the robotics developments you need to know about.

10. 6 robotics startups competing in RoboBusiness Pitchfire

The Pitchfire Startup Competition has been an opening-day highlight for years at RoboBusiness, which will run on Oct. 16 and 17 in Santa Clara, Calif. Pitchfire, which will be 4:00 to 4:45 p.m. PT on Day 1 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, is a must-attend event for investors, robotics entrepreneurs and innovation leaders alike. Read more.

9. North American robot sales decline 8% in first half of 2024

Significant declines in the automotive component and semiconductor industries led to another drop in North American robot sales, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). In the second quarter of 2024, 7,123 robots were ordered in North America, which A3 said is a decline of 9.7% compared with Q2 2023. Read more.

8. Robotics investments top $1.3B in July

Robotics companies raised approximately $1.3 billion in July 2024. That figure is a result of 47 investments for producers of robots and robotics enabling technologies. July’s total is slightly more than the 12-month trailing investments average of $1.2 billion. Read more.

7. Unpacking Amazon’s unique Covariant AI deal

In Episode 162 of The Robot Report Podcast, co-hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman review recent robotics transactions. In addition, 1X Technologies in September 2024 announced the NEO Beta humanoid model and prepared for pilot deployments into test home environments. Read more.

6. BlackBerry QNX provides guidance on minimizing jitter, latency in robotics

Robots need to precisely synchronize for manufacturing applications such as assembly, welding, and materials handling. BlackBerry QNX recently released a whitepaper on “Optimizing Robotic Precision: Unleashing Real-Time Performance with Advanced Foundational Software Solutions.” Read more.

5. Women in robotics at Boston Dynamics give career advice at MassRobotics event

Women may be underrepresented in robotics, but there are opportunities for those who can collaborate, learn, and mentor, said speakers at a Women in Robotics event held by MassRobotics. Only 19% of robotics engineers are female in 2024, according to CareerExplorer. That is lower than the 35% of U.S. tech employees who are female, as reported by The World Bank. Read more.

4. Humanoid robotics developers must pick which problems to solve, says NVIDIA

To be effective and commercially viable, humanoid robots will need a full stack of technologies for everything from locomotion and perception to manipulation. Developers of artificial intelligence and humanoids are using NVIDIA tools, from the edge to the cloud. Read more.

3. China bets on robots for rapid growth, says IFR

At its recent Third Plenum, China mapped out the direction of its economic policies. Beijing wants to adapt to the latest round of industrial transformation by using robots as an engine for growth. The country is by far the largest robot market in the world. Read more.

2. Pudu Robotics debuts ‘semi-humanoid’ robot for versatile applications

Pudu Technology unveiled its latest service robot, the PUDU D7, in September 2024. It is the company’s first “semi-humanoid robot,” a term it introduced earlier this year. Pudu said it expects to fully commercialize the robot in 2025. Read more.

1. Rethink Robotics relaunches with cobots, AMRs, mobile manipulation

Rethink Robotics is making a bold return to Boston with a new roster of collaborative robot arms, autonomous mobile robots, and a mobile manipulator. The company started developing cobots in Boston back in 2008, but it had to revamp its product line and find new owners. Read more.

The post Top 10 robotics developments of September 2024 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Kawasaki says that if students can learn to program Astorino, then they can learn to program any kind of Kawasaki robot. | Source: Kawasaki Robotics

There are currently 174,213 robotics engineering jobs in the workforce today, according to the College Board. These jobs are expected to grow at a 6.41% rate in the next five years, opening the door for many qualified individuals to enter the field. To remain competitive and land these jobs, it’s more important than ever that students gain hands-on experience with robots before they enter the workforce. Kawasaki Robotics (USA) Inc. last week unveiled Astorino, an educational robotics platform for industrial and technical education providers. 

With Astorino, Kawasaki aims to offer the capabilities of a modern industrial robot at a fraction of the cost of other systems for the educational market. The Wixom, Mich.-based company said it will enable educators to more easily equip students with the foundational, real-world skills needed as manufacturing continues to evolve. 

“Astorino is really in a league of its own,” Alexandre Boffi, the manager of general industries at Kawasaki, told The Robot Report. It’s a completely new idea and a new approach to robotics education and training.”

“Instead of metal, it’s 3D printed. Because it’s 3D printed, we can keep the weight down,” he added. “It’s not servo-driven, it’s driven by step motors, so the safety concerns that you’d have with traditional robots aren’t here.”

“Really, it’s different from all other robots in the fact that it’s not meant to be performing an automated task as much as it is designed from the ground up for education,” said Boffi. 

Astorino weighs only 12 kg (26.4 lb.) and is powered by a 110V outlet. Kawasaki claimed that the robot is adaptable to any classroom environment.

At the core of Astorino is a 1 kg (2.2 lb.)-payload, six axis robot with a structure and programming environment nearly identical to that of a Kawasaki industrial robot. The company showed the robot to the public for the first time at the 2024 IMTS Smartforce Student Summit.

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Kawasaki makes its first foray into educational robots

Astorino is named after the popular open-source Arduino platform and ASTOR, Kawasaki’s development partner. ASTOR designed, developed, and built Astorino. 

Kawasaki said Astorino marks its first steps into the educational robot market. Boffi said that before Astorino, Kawasaki would provide its smaller industrial models for interested universities, but these robots were often too big and expensive for university labs.

“Some of our competitors did a really good job early on in providing some robots to universities, and that’s what people learn to program on,” Boffi said. “That’s what they get comfortable with. And then when they go out and get jobs at manufacturers, that’s what their preference is.” 

“We are advertising Astorino at a starting price of $5,000,” he said. “So what that means for the educator is that instead of buying one robot and having eight to 10 students learn on it, they can buy five robots, and everybody gets more time with the robot.”  

Boffi said that he doesn’t expect Kawasaki to catch up to more established competitors with entire lines of educational robots, but to make a more accessible robot. Instead, Kawasaki is prioritizing accessibility and flexibility with its robots. 

Kawasaki emphasizes flexibility and safety with Astorino

Astorino is the product Kawasaki Robotics’ extensive technology expertise, including hardware, firmware, control systems, application software, and training. The platform also comes with STL files so students can rapidly print 3D replacement parts for 99% of the robot.

“The idea is that if we supply these files, and if the class breaks something, then they can go and print up the spare part themselves,” Boffi said. “Or if we supply all the parts, maybe the first semester they build the thing, and the second semester, they learn how to program it.” 

The entire robot being 3D printed means it is lighter, cheaper, and provides ample opportunities for students to customize the system. 

“You can imagine the things that we’ll see on YouTube in three or four years, with people modifying this robot and learning new ways to do it,” Boffi said. “But most importantly, they’re going to be learning it on a Kawasaki.”

The Astorino platform includes a built-in control system, dedicated firmware and software, Modbus TCP and USB/Ethernet communication, and safety functions such as E-Stop and safety brakes. The motor control uses three signals — pulse/direction/enable — and steel gears reduce backlash to <5 arcmin.

The robot is flexible and can also be paired with multiple options such as three kinds of grippers, a 24V IO module, a cube feeder with optical sensors, and external sensors. Astorino’s motors ensure it is safe enough to use in an educational setting and by students of all ages, according to Kawasaki. 

“Where traditional robots use servo motors, which will ultimately push through and go to their position no matter what’s in the way, Astorino is using stepper motors, which don’t have that kind of force and capability,” Boffi said. “So the trade-off is you don’t have a lot of payload capability, but that’s not the goal with Astorino.” 

Kawasaki offers an interactive learning approach to increase knowledge retention and provide a comprehensive view of robotic systems. | Source: Kawasaki Robotics

Astorino aims to better student-to-equipment ratio

At a base price of $5,000, educators can now afford to provide a low student-to-equipment ratio so each student can spend more time directly working with the robots.

“Above all, everybody is saying, ‘This is great because it allows me to get more tools for the same amount of money, and that means more students can have access to it,’” Boffi said.

“I went to Central Michigan University, and I took a robotics. I think our lab had a FANUC, and there were probably 20 to 25 people in that course,” he said. “We probably had one robot, and then one that wasn’t working, so one and a half robots. And truthfully, I didn’t get a lot of time on that robot.” 

For the same amount of money it cost to get that one robot, Boffi said his university could now get eight Astorinos, with each robot split between only four students. 

“It’s also more accessible to younger students,” he added. “Really, the danger with a full-size industrial robot for younger students is that if something goes awry, they can get really hurt. And then if you want to add all the protections to it, that gets expensive.”

Moving forward, Boffi said Kawasaki is interested in offering a seventh axis for the robots. It’s also looking at different grippers it can offer, although the robot’s flexible nature means users can customize their own end effectors.

The open architecture of the robot leaves the door open for universities to use this robot in applications Kawasaki never imagined, but that’s the exciting part, said Boffi.

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