All posts by Silicon Valley Robotics

Currently also featured on the cover of MAKE magazine, Jillian Ogle is a robot builder, game designer and the founder of Let’s Robot a live streaming interactive robotics community, where users can control real robots via chatroom commands, or put their on own robots online. Some users can even make money with their robots on the Let’s Robot platform which allows viewers to make micropayments to access some robots. All you need is a robot doing something that’s interesting to someone else, whether it’s visiting new locations or letting the internet shoot ping pong balls at you while you work!

As the first ‘Roboticist in Residence’ at Co-Lab in Oakland, Ogle has access to the all the equipment and 32,000 sq ft of space, providing her robotics community with a super large robot playground for her live broadcasts. And the company of fellow robot geeks. Co-Lab is the new coworking space at Circuit Launch supported by Silicon Valley Robotics, and provides mentors, advisors and community events, as well as electronics and robotics prototyping equipment.

You can meet Ogle at the next Silicon Valley Robotics speaker salon “The Future of Robotics is FUN” on Sept 4 2018. She’ll be joined by Circuit Launch COO Dan O’Mara and Mike Winter, Battlebot World Champion and founder of new competition ‘AI or Die’. Small and cheap phone powered robots are becoming incredibly intelligent and Ogle and Winter are at the forefront of pushing the envelope.

Ogle sees Let’s Robot as the start of a new type of entertainment, where the relationship between viewers and content are two-way and interactive. Particularly because robots can go places that some of us can’t, like the Oscars. Ogle has ironed out a lot of the problems with telepresence robotics including faster response time for two way commands. Plus it’s more entertaining than old school telepresence with robots able to take a range of actions in the real world.

While the majority of robots are still small and toylike, Ogle believes that this is just the beginning of the way we’ll interact with robots in the future. Interaction is Ogle’s strength, she started her career as an interactive and game designer, previously working at companies like Disney and was also a participant in Intel’s Software Innovators program.

“I started all this by building dungeons out of cardboard and foam in my living room. My background was in game design, so I’m like, ‘Let’s make it a game.’ There’s definitely a narrative angle you could push; there’s also the real-world exploration angle. But I started to realize it’s a little bigger than that, right? With this project, you can give people access to things they couldn’t access by themselves.” said Jillian talking to Motherboard.

Here are the instructions from Makezine for connecting your own robot to Let’s Robot. The robot side software is open source, and runs on most Linux-based computers. There is even  an API that allows you to fully customize the experience. If you’re building your own, start here.

Most of the homebrew robots on Let’s Robot use the following components:

• Raspberry Pi or other single-board computer. The newest Raspberry Pi has onboard Wi-Fi, you just need to point it at your access point.
• SD card with Raspbian or NOOBS installed. You can follow our guide to get our software to run on your robot, and pair it with the site: letsrobot.tv/setup.
• Microcontroller, such as Arduino. The Adafruit motor hat is also popular.
• Camera to see
• Microphone to hear
• Speaker to let the robot talk
• Body to hold all the parts
• Motors and servos to move and drive around
• LEDs and sensors to make things interesting
• And a battery to power it all

A lot of devices and robots are already supported by Let’s Robot software, including the GoPiGo Robot, and Anki Cozmo. If you have an awesome robot just sitting on the shelf collecting some dust, this could be a great way to share it with everyone! There’s also a development kit called “Telly Bot” which works out of the box with the letsrobot.tv site. See you online!

With the Robot Launch 2018 competition in full swing – deadline May 15 for entries wanting to compete on stage in Brisbane at ICRA 2018 – we thought it was time to look at last years’ Robot Launch finalists. And a very successful bunch they are too!

Tennibot won the CES 2018 Innovation Award, was covered in media like Times, Discovery Channel and LA Times.  Tennibot also won $40,000 from the Alabama Launchpad competition and are launching a crowdfunding campaign today!

Tennibot uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to locate/pick up tennis balls and navigate on the court. Tennibot is the world’s first autonomous tennis ball collector. The Tennibot team has already won the Tennis Industry Innovation Challenge. So, if you think that Tennis + Robots = Your kind of sport – then head over to Tennibot.com to learn more and purchase your Tennibot before it’s too late!

Other 2017 finalists include 

• Semio, from California have a software platform for developing and deploying social robot skills.
• Apellix from Florida who provide software controlled aerial robotic systems that utilize tethered and untethered drones to move workers from harm’s way.
• Mothership Aeronautics from Silicon Valley have a solar powered drone capable of ‘infinity cruise’ where more power is generated than consumed.
• Kinema Systems, impressive approach to logistical challenges from the original Silicon Valley team that developed ROS.
• BotsandUs, highly awarded UK startup with a beautifully designed social robot for retail.
• Fotokite, smart team from ETHZurich with a unique approach to using drones in large scale venues.
• C2RO, from Canada are creating an expansive cloud based AI platform for service robots.
• krtkl, from Silicon Valley are high end embedded board designed for both prototyping and deployment.

Apellix were also winners of Automate 2017 startup competition. Mothership have raised a $1.25 million seed round from the likes of Draper Ventures. Kinema Systems has just won the NVIDIA Inception Challenge out of more than 200 entrants and splits $1 million prize money with two other AI startups. BotsAndUs have trialled Bo in more than 11,000 customer service interactions. Krtkl is focused on revenue not fundraising, C2RO is building partnerships with companies like Qihan. And Fotokite just won the $1 million Genius NY competition.

You can watch the pitch presentation here: https://youtu.be/BzcrREvD8k0

You’ll also see some other familiar names from the shortlist for 2017, not to mention lots of success for our 2016 top startups. We can’t wait to see who will be finalists in 2018!

The Robot Launch startup competition has been running since 2014 and has helped robotics startups reach investors, build a reputation and grow their markets. We’ve had entries from all over the world and one of the significant trends has been how rapidly the stage of startup entrants has advanced. We now judge startups in several divisions: Preseed, Seed and PostSeed (or Pre Series A)

The Robotics Hub, in collaboration with Silicon Valley Robotics, is looking to invest up to $500,000 in robotics, AI and sensor startups! Finalists also receive exposure on Robohub and space in the new Silicon Valley Robotics Cowork Space. Plus you get to pitch your startup to an audience of top VCs, investors and experts. Entries close August 31.

In previous Robot Launch competitions we’ve had hundreds of entries from more than 20 countries around the world. Our finalists have also reached the finals of major startup competitions like Tech Crunch Disrupt, and gone on to raise millions of dollars of funding making strong industry partnerships, such as working with Siemens Frontier Program.

Our semifinalists will also been featured on Robohub, which means they’ll reach an audience of approx 100,000 viewers. Everyone who enters gets incredibly valuable feedback from top robotics VCs, investors and experts.

CRITERIA: Your startup should be under 5 years old, with less than $2 million in funding. You should have a great new robotics technology and business model. Your startup is related to robotics, AI, simulation, sensors or autonomous vehicles. ENTER NOW.

Robot Launch is supported by Silicon Valley Robotics to help more robotics startups present their technology and business models to prominent investors. Silicon Valley Robotics is the not-for-profit industry group supporting innovation and commercialization in robotics technologies. The Robotics Hub is the first investor in advanced robotics and AI startups, helping to get from ‘zero to one’ with their network of robotics and market experts.

Please share this in your networks and let us know if you’d like to be a judge, mentor or can offer a prize for Robot Launch 2017. Just email Andra [andra @ robotlaunch.com].

Learn more about previous Robot Launch competitions here.