All posts by Frank Tobe

Participants and startups in the emerging self-driving vehicles industry (components, systems, trucks, cars and buses) have been at it for over almost 60 years. The pace accelerated in 2004, 2005 and 2007 when DARPA sponsored long-distance competitions for driverless cars, and then again in 2009 when Uber began its ride-hailing system.

As the prospects that self-driving ride-hailing fleets, vehicles, systems and associated AI would soon be a reality, startups, fundings, mergers and acquisitions have followed reaching a peak in 2017. Thus far in 2017 more than 55 companies and startups offering everything from solid state distancing sensors to ride-share fleets and mapping systems – plus five strategic acquisitions – raised over $28.2 billion!

2017 Investments Trends: Self-driving

Listed below are month-by-month recaps of self-driving-related fundings and acquisitions as reported by The Robot Report. The two massive fundings by the SoftBank Vision Fund in May, the Intel acquisition of Movidius in March and Ford’s acquisition of Argo in February are extraordinary. Nevertheless, pulling out those billion dollar transactions still shows that $2.4 billion found its way to more than 55 companies. [The trend continues in November with Optimus Ride and Ceres Imaging both raising Series A money.]

Click on the month for funding details, links and profiles for each of the companies.

• October – $957.24 million:
  • Mapbox-$164M, Element AI-$105M, Horizon Robotics-$100M, Innoviz Technologies-$8, Momenta AI-$46, Built Robotics-$15, Blickfeld-$4.25, nuTonomy was acquired by Delphi Automotive-$450M, and Strobe was acquired by General Motors-unknown amount.
• September – $275 million:
  • LeddarTech-$101M, Innoviz Technologies-$65M, JingChi-$52M, Five AI-$35M, Drive AI-$15M, Ushr Inc-$10M and Metawave-$7M.
• August – $70 million:
  • Oryx Vision-$50M and TuSimple-$20M.
• July – $413 million:
  • Nauto-$159M, Brain Corp-$114M, Momenta AI-$46, Autotalk-$40M, Slamtec-$22M, Embark-$15M, Xometry-$15M and Metamoto-$2M.
• June – $112.5 million:
  • Drive AI-$50M, Swift Navigation-$34M, AEye-$16M, Carmera-$6.4M, Cognata-$5 and Optimus Ride-$1.1.
• May – $9.676 billion:
  • Didi Chuxing-$5.5 billion, Nvidia-$4 billion, ClearMotion-$100M, Echodyne-$29M, DeepMap-$15M, Hesai Photonics Technology-$16M, TriLumina-$9M, AIRY 3D-$3.5M and Vivacity Labs-$3.3M.
• April – $306.6 million:
  • Mobvoi-$180M, Peloton Technology-$60M, Luminar Technology-$36M, Renovo Auto-$10M, Aurora Innovation-$6.1M, VIST Group-$6M, DeepScale-$3M, Arbe Robotics-$2.5M, BestMile-$2M, Compound Eye-$1M.
• March – $15.343 billion:
  • Wayray-$18M, EasyMile-$15M, SB Drive-$4.6M, Starsky Robotics-$3.75M and CrowdAI-$2M. Intel acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion.
• February – $1.024 billion: 
  • ZongMu Technology-$14.5M andTetraVue-$10M. Ford Motor Co acquired Argo AI-$1 billion.
• January – $??? million: 
  • Autonomos was acquired by TomTom-unknown amount.

The SoftBank Vision Fund Effect

Plentiful money and sky high valuations are causing more companies to delay IPOs. The SoftBank Vision Fund is a key enabler of this recent phenomena. Founded in 2017 with a goal of $100 billion (they closed with $93 billion) with principle investors including SoftBank, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi’s national wealth fund, Apple, Foxconn, Qualcomm and Sharp, the Fund has been disbursing at a rapid pace. According to recode, the Fund, through August, had invested over $30 billion in Uber, ARM, Nvidia, WeWork, OneWeb, Flipkart, OSIsoft, Roivant, SoFi, Fanatics, Improbable, OYO, Slack, Plenty, Nauto and Brain Corp. Many on that list are involved in the self-driving industry.

The NY Times, in an article describing Masayoshi Son’s grand plan for the Fund, wrote that all these companies “have something in common: They are involved in collecting enormous amounts of data, which are crucial to creating the brains for the machines that, in the future, will do more of our jobs and creating tools that allow people to better coexist.”

Further, Son said he believed robots would inexorably change the work force and machines would become more intelligent than people, an event referred to as the “Singularity.” Mr. Son [said he] is on a mission to own pieces of all the companies that may underpin the global shifts brought on by artificial intelligence to transportation, food, work, medicine and finance. His vision is not just about predictions like the Singularity. He understands that we’ll need a massive amount of data to get us to a future that’s more dependent on machines and robotics.

Bottom Line

Companies involved in the emerging self-driving industry accounted for most of the dollars invested thus far in 2017. SoftBank’s fund and Masayoshi Son’s grand plan, combined with auto companies grabbing talent through strategic acquisitions, partnerships and investments, are leading the way. Robotics-related agricultural and healthcare-related investments were a distant second and third. Fourth went to underwater drones, systems and components.

Twenty-eight different startups were funded in October cumulatively raising $862 million, up from $507 million in September. Three of the top four fundings were for startups involved in the self-driving process. An additional five lower-amount startups were also funded for self-driving applications or components along with two of the six acquisitions.

Six acquisitions were reported during the month including Delphi Automotive’s buying nuTonomy for $450 million and Boeing’s acquisition of 550-employee Aurora Flight Sciences.

On the IPO front, Altair Engineering raised $156 million and Restoration Robotics raised $25 million when both went live on the NASDAQ stock exchange this month.

Fundings

• Mapbox, a Washington, DC and San Francisco provider of nav systems for car companies and others involved in autonomous vehicles, raised $164 million in a Series C round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from existing investors including Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, DBL Partners, and Thrive Capital. “Location data is central and mission critical to the development of the world’s most exciting technologies,” said Rajeev Misra, who helps oversee SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
• Element AI, a Canadian startup providing learning platform solutions for self-driving and advanced manufacturing, raised $135 CAD million (around $105 million) in a Series A round (in June) led by Data Collective, a SV-based venture capital firm, and included participation by Fidelity Investments Canada, National Bank of Canada, Intel Capital, and Real Ventures.
• Ninebot, the Chinese consumer products company that bought out Segway and raised $80 million in 2015, raised another $100 million in a Series C round  from the SDIC Fund Management Co. and the China Mobile Fund.
• Horizon Robotics, another Chinese startup, raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Intel Capital with participation by Wu Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Linear Venture, Hillhouse Capital and Harvest Investments. Horizon is developing self-driving vehicle autopilot and self-navigating consumer and neural network chips. Wendell Brooks, Intel SVP and President of Intel Capital which invested in Horizon said, “By 2020, every autonomous vehicle on the road will create 4 TB of data per day. A million self-driving cars will create the same amount of data every day as 3 billion people. As Intel transitions to a data company, Intel Capital is actively investing in startups across the technology spectrum that can help expand the data ecosystem and pathfind important new technologies.”
• Innoviz Technologies, an Israel-based developer of LiDAR sensing technology for autonomous vehicles, raised $73 million in Series B funding. Investors include Samsung Catalyst and SoftBank Ventures Korea.
• Zume Pizza, the Silicon Valley robotic pizza making startup, raised $48 million in a Series B funding. Investors in the round were not detailed. Zume is already delivering pizzas in Silicon Valley. It uses an assembly line of robots to flatten dough into circles, spread sauce and cheese, and slide the pies into and out of an 800 degree oven. Pizzas finish cooking in ovens inside delivery trucks.
• Momenta AI, a Beijing autonomous driving tech startup using machine vision (rather than LiDAR), raised $46 in a Series B round led by NIO Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital and Cathay Innovation Fund.
• Wonder Workshop, previously named Play-i, a Silicon Valley and Chinese educational robot startup, raised $41 million in a Series C round from a series of investors including Tencent, TAL Education Group, MindWorks Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank Korea, VTRON Group, TCL Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bright Success, WI Harper, and CRV. Wonder Workshop’s Dot and Dash robots are in use by thousands of student groups and schools around the world. “We founded Wonder Workshop to provide all children — girls and boys of all ages — with the skills needed to succeed in the future economy. This round of financing will allow us to continue on our mission to inspire the inventors of tomorrow,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO.
• FogHorn Systems, a Silicon Valley smart manufacturing software startup, raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Intel Capital and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures with new investor Honeywell Ventures and all previous investors participating, including Series A investors March Capital Partners, GE, Dell Technologies Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Darling Ventures and seed investor The Hive.
• Nanotronic Imaging, an Ohio testing solutions provider, raised $30 million in a Series D funding led by Investment Corp of Dubai and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
• Wandercraft, a French rehabilitation exoskeleton startup, raised $17.8 million in a Series B round from XAnge, Innovation Capital, Idinvest Partners, Cemag Invest and BPIFrance.
• Ever AI, a San Francisco startup developing facial recognition, announced that they had raised $16 million in a Series B funding led by Icon Ventures with participation from Felicis Ventures and Khosla Ventures. On the same day SoftBank announced their intention to use Ever AI’s facial recognition platform as a new feature for their Pepper robot.
• Built Robotics, a San Francisco startup developing a self-driving kit for construction equipment – a self-driving excavator – raised $15 million in a Series A round led by NEA (New Enterprise Associates) with participation by Founders Fund, Lemnos and angel investors including Eric Stromberg, Maria Thomas, Carl Bass, Edward Lando and Justin Kan.
• Veo Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based vision systems startup, raised $12 million in a Series A funding. Lux Capital and GV led the round, and were joined by unnamed investors including Next47.
• Riverfield Surgical Robot Lab, a Japanese startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Toray Engineering and included SBI Investment, Jafco and Beyond Next Ventures.
• Beijing Beehive Agriculture Technology Co. raised $9.4 million in an A funding round led by Tendence Capital and other unnamed sources.  The funding marks the company’s second financing round after it raised around $5 million from e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. and others in its pre-A funding.
• Titan Medical, a Canadian robotic single-port surgery device developer, raised $9.1 million: $2.6 million by floating 13.4 million common shares in a private placement to more than a dozen robotic surgeons in the US and Canada and an additional $6.5 million from the early exercise of purchase warrants for 42.6 million common shares.
• Robart, an Austria-based developer of AI and navigation intelligence for autonomous consumer robots, raised $7.2 million in a Series B funding. CM-CIC Innovation led the round, and was joined by Innovacom, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and SEB Alliance.
• Nileworks,  a Japanese drone crop spraying startup, raised $7.1 million from a group of Japanese investors including public-private partnership the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, agricultural chemical maker Kumiai Chemical Industry Co., Sumitomo Corporation and its subsidiary  Sumitomo Chemical Co., the Japanese National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, and The Norinchukin Bank. When the product goes on sale in 2019 the company will target rice farmers in Japan.
• Impossible Objects, an Illinois provider of 3D printing tech, raised $6.4 million in a Series A funding led by OCA Ventures and joined by IDEA Fund Partners, Mason Avenue Investments, Huizenga Capital Management and Inflection Equity Partners.
• AeroFarms, the indoor vertical farming startup which raised $34 million reported earlier this year, rounded out their $40 million Series D funding with $6 million from Ikea Group and chef David Chang of the Momofuku Group. AeroFarms just built its 9th indoor farm in Newark, NJ.
• Blickfeld, a Munich-based LiDAR maker for autonomous driving, raised $4.25 million in seed funding. Investors include Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, High-Tech Gruenderfonds, Fluxunit – OSRAM Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures.
• Realtime Robotics, a Boston motion planning and control startup, raised $2 million in seed funding from SPARX Group, Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures.
• Vitae Industries, a Rhode Island pharma dispensing robot maker, raised $1.8 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Slater Technology Fund. Other investors in the round included Techstars, BoxGroup, Compound and Founder Collective.
• Acutronic Robotics, a Swiss startup that last year acquired Spanish component maker Erle Robotics, raised an undisclosed amount from Sony in a Series A funding round. Sony will also adopt Acutronic’s Hardware Robot Operating System (H-ROS), for use in its own robotics division. Sony’s strategic use of the H-ROS platform in its own operations, and DARPA’s prior investment, suggest there’s a lot of interest in H-ROS for unifying legacy robotic systems from old-line robot providers.
• Bharati Robotic Systems, a Pune, India-based industrial robotic cleaning startup, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from its existing investors – Society For Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE, IITB Incubator), and other angel investors.
• IUVO, an Italian exoskeleton and wearable prosthetics spin-off from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, has received a joint investment from robot manufacturer Comau and Össur, a global provider of non-invasive orthopedics. No financial amounts were provided however Comau and Össur will now hold a majority share of IUVO. “This joint venture represents a key step toward the creation of wearable robotic exoskeletons that can enhance human mobility and quality of life,” emphasized Mauro Fenzi, CEO of Comau. “By uniting the know-how and enabling technologies of the various partners, we are in a unique position to extend the use of robotics beyond manufacturing and toward a truly progressive global reality. I believe the differentiating factor of a project like IUVO is the combination of Comau’s automation skills and Össur’s extensive experience in bionics and bracing to enable the production of products, such as the exoskeletons, and to be able to demonstrate the benefits of robotics”.
• Ultimaker, a manufacturer of professional desktop 3D printers and employer of over 300, raised an undisclosed amount from NPM Capital, a Benelux investment company.

Acquisitions

• Delphi Automotive, a UK Tier 1 automotive supplier, acquired nuTonomy, a Boston self-driving ride sharing startup, for $450 million. nuTonomy, a spin-off from MIT and Singapore and with funding from Ford, has grown to 100 employees including 70 engineers and scientists. The acquisition will double Delphi’s autonomous driving applications team.
• HTI Cybernetics, a Michigan industrial robotics integrator and contract manufacturer, has been acquired by Chongqing Nanshang Investment Group for around $50 million. HTI provides robotic welding systems to the auto industry and also has a contract welding services facility in Mexico.
• Ridecell, a San Francisco mobility platform provider of car sharing, ride sharing and autonomous vehicles software, has acquired Auro Robotics, a Silicon Valley self-driving vehicle startup with shuttles operating on the Santa Clara University campus, for an undisclosed amount but which TheInformation estimates to be around $20 million.
• Applied Automation, a UK components manufacturer of automation and control equipment, is changing and upgrading their status to include becoming an integrator of industrial and collaborative robots and, through the acquisition of PTG Precision Engineers, has gained talented engineering manpower to augment their sales/integration efforts. PTG is located across the street from Applied. No financial details about the acquisition were provided by either party.
• General Motors acquired Pasadena-based Strobe, a vision systems startup developing an optical micro-oscillator for LiDAR timing, navigation and sensing applications, for an undisclosed amount. Strobe will join the Cruise Automation self-driving group.
• Boeing is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences, a 550 employee Virginia-based UAS provider, for an undisclosed amount. “Since its inception, Aurora has been focused on the development of innovative aircraft that leverage autonomy to make aircraft smarter,” said John Langford, Aurora Flight Sciences founder and chief executive officer. “As an integral part of Boeing, our pioneered technologies of long-endurance aircraft, robotic co-pilots, and autonomous electric VTOLs will be transitioned into world-class products for the global infrastructure.”

IPOs

• Restoration Robotics, a San Jose, Calif.-based company focused on robotics that assist doctors in hair transplant procedures, raised $25 million in an upsized offering of 3.6 million shares priced at $7. In 2016, the company posted revenue of $15.6 million and a loss of $21.8 million. HAIR is now listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
• Altair Engineering, a Troy, Mich.-based engineering software maker, raised $156 million in an IPO of 12 million shares at $13. The stock (ALTR) is now trading on Nasdaq. Altair develops simulation and design software for industrial applications, automobiles, consumer goods and all types of robotics.
• Nilfisk Holdings, a Danish manufacturer of industrial cleaning machines including a new line of autonomous cleaners, was spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate, and went public on the NASDAQ Copenhagen exchange as NLFSK. Financial details were not disclosed.

Despite recent attempts to tease the robotics projects incubating at its Google X skunkworks, industry observers say that Google has done more to stifle than advance innovation in robotics.

A bit of history

On December 4th, 2013, John Markoff, a technology reporter for The New York Times, broke the story that Google had acquired seven robotic companies and that Andy Rubin, of Android fame, would be heading the group. Schaft, a Japanese start-up developing a humanoid robot; Industrial Perception, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed a computer vision system for loading and unloading trucks; Meka Robotics, a robot developer for academia; Redwood Robotics, a start-up intended to compete with the Baxter robot (and others) entering the small and medium-sized shop and factory marketplace; Bot & Dolly, a maker of robotic camera systems used for special effects such as in the movie “Gravity;” Autofuss, a design and marketing firm and a partner in Bot & Dolly; and Holomni, a maker of powered caster modules for omnidirectional vehicles.

On December 14th, 2013, Markoff followed up with the news that Google had added to its new stable of robotic companies by acquiring Boston Dynamics, a 20-year old developer of mobile and off-road robotics and human simulation technology mostly for DARPA and the Department of Defense.

Thus some of the leading startups in the industry and the whole 80+ talent pool from Boston Dynamics became part of Google. According to Markoff quoting Rubin,

“The company’s initial market will be in manufacturing, e.g., electronics assembly which is mostly done by hand. Manufacturing and logistics markets not being served by today’s robotic technologies are clear opportunity markets and the new Google robots will be able to automate any or all of the processes from the supply chain to the distribution channels to the consumer’s front door thereby creating a massive opportunity.”

The eight acquisitions were the talk of the business news but one piece from SFGate Tech Chronicles quoting Brian Gerkey described the positive sentiment best:

“Google’s move into robotics is likely to draw renewed attention and money into the space. It’s a pretty exciting day for robotics when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.”

Sales, vesting, transfers and departures

From 2014 to 2016 there were rumors and some media attention to the difficulties Google was having coordinating the talents within their robotic acquisitions, particularly after Rubin left and Google let it be known that they wanted to sell off Boston Dynamics because “their two- and four-legged robots were too far from being marketable.” Commercial projects were discussed but none came to fruition. People started to leave or move over to other parts of Google and GoogleX. Of the people that came from the 2013 acquisitions, some have left saying that the lack of direction and management had thwarted their desire to stay and contribute. Others have stayed but let it be known they’ll be available after their four-year sign-on stock options vest which will happen later this year.

In 2015 and 2016 the news of dissent continued as the name and group managers changed. No products emerged. James Kuffner led the robotics group until he left in January, 2016 to become the CTO of the Toyota Research Institute. Aaron Edsinger followed, but then he too left.

In June of 2017 Google finally found a buyer for Boston Dynamics – SoftBank. SoftBank also bought Schaft, a Japan-based startup whose walking robots never integrated into Google and, like Boston Dynamics, operated separately from the rest of Google’s robotics acquisitions.

For SoftBank, which acquired Aldebaran in 2012 and helped them make the humanoid robot Pepper, the two acquisitions offer mobility and robotics talent as SoftBank grows its SoftBank Robotics joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn.

Google made a mess

In a blistering recap of Google’s involvement in robotics from 2013 until now, Mark Bergen and Joshua Brustein wrote in BloombergBusinessweek Magazine:

“None of the acquired companies have robots in use beyond the offices of Google’s now-parent company, Alphabet Inc. At least three key robotics chiefs who joined in that 2013 wave left the company in the last few months, and, because four years is the typical vesting period for Google stock options, they probably won’t be the last. At this point, the exodus counts as a win for robotics, since many of the brightest minds in the field have essentially spent the past few years trapped in a time capsule. Ultimately, Google’s run on roboticists held the industry back more than moving it forward.”

Google today

Google hasn’t entirely receded from robotics. There is Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-car division, and Titan (renamed Project Loon), Google’s drone development project. In fact, Project Loon balloons are being used today in Puerto Rico to provide stationary platforms from which emergency Internet and web services are available. Additionally, GoogleX has operated their “arm farm,” a room full of robotic arms that are learning to grasp and manipulate random objects and teach the other robots in the room how to do the same. In a recent GoogleX blog, Hans Peter Brondmo, who now heads up Google’s remaining robotics team, said:

We’re working with the Google Brain team to explore how to teach robots new skills by learning from their shared experience, and we’re even simulating robots in the cloud so they can train fast, and then we’re transferring this learning onto real robots. By having virtual robots we can gather lots of data for training in the cloud. Then we transfer what the virtual robots learn to the real-world robots so they can quickly learn to perform new tasks. This is all critical research that will pave the (long) path toward building machines that can learn new skills quickly and operate safely and cost effectively in the world we live in.”

Bottom line

Rumors abound about the value of Google’s ant farm (the room where a dozen or more robot arms are using machine learning and swarm control to pick and place random objects which Brondmo described in his blog). But so far, except for those that have left or moved over to Waymo, nothing but research has come from the 3-1/2 years Google has had a robotics group. Unless you count the years of anxiety, secrecy and disappointment for all those super-smart entrepreneurs that initially had hoped for so much of their new association with Google.

But as Brian Gerkey said, “…when someone like Google makes an investment like that in robots, others are likely to follow suit. It can only spur investment and innovation.” That has happened in spades! 2015, 2016 and 2017 have all shown exponential growth in investments and strategic acquisitions for the robotics industry.

NEDO, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, is a regular funder of robotic technology, has an office in Silicon Valley, and participates in various regional events to promote its work and future programs. One such event was Robots on the Rise: The Future of Robotics in Japan and the US held October 16th in Mountain View, CA and jointly sponsored by Silicon Valley Forum.

Over 400 people attended the all-day series of panels with well-known speakers and relevant subject matter. Panels covered mobility, agricultural robotics, search and rescue, and the retail and manufacturing revolutions. Henrick Christensen from UC San Diego gave an overview of robotics in Japan and the US as a keynote. He described the key drivers propelling the robotics industry forward and the digitization of manufacturing: mass customization, unmanned vehicles, the aging society (particularly in Japan), and the continuing need for application-specific integrators.

He was followed by Atsushi Yasuda from METI, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (the agency that funds NEDO) who emphasized Japan’s need to focus on technologies that can safely assist their aging population. Manufacturing, agriculture, nursing and medical care, plus disaster relief were points he detailed.

I was the moderator of a panel on The Manufacturing Revolution: Automated Factories with speakers from Yaskawa (Chetan Kapoor), Yamaha (Hiro Sauou), OMRON/Adept (Edwardo De Robbio), GE (Steve Taub) and VEO Robotics (Patrick Sobalvarro). Trends in this arena are being driven by the global movement toward mass customization and the need for flexibility in automation and robotics. For the next while that flexibility will use humans in the loop to collaborate with their robot counterparts.

There was also an exhibition with around 25 companies and agencies participating in a pop-up type of trade show. It was noisy, fun and informative.

Best line from the investment panel: “Invest in missionaries; not mercenaries.” 

Second best line came from Henrik Christensen regarding measuring the successfulness of home robots by their “time to boredom.”

Most interesting question and answer about the future came from James Kuffner, the CTO of Toyota Research Institute who said that Toyota asked the Institute what the company should to do after self-driving reduces the size of the car industry. Kuffner said that Toyota decided to “pivot to robotics and particularly to assistance robots for health, elder and home care.”

In the panel on unmanned vehicles, the consensus was that mapping, proprietary driving data, regulation and weather were all holdups thwarting fully autonomous vehicles (Level 5 vehicles (without pedals or a steering wheel)). Because of those problems, it was their opinion that only Level 4 would be achieved in the next decade.

NEDO’s 2017 fundings total $1.17 billion and include $99.1 million for robot technology seed and mid-term fundings for practical robotic solutions. Current projects include infrastructure inspection and maintenance, disaster response robots, elder care robots, and next-generation technologies in industrial and service robots and AI.

SoftBank and Huawei jointly demonstrated various use cases for their forthcoming 5G network. 5G commercial services, which will provide ultra-high throughput of over 800 Mbps with ultra-low latency transmission of less than 2ms, will begin being rolled out in 2020 in Japan and Korea and 2021-2023 in China, Europe and the U.S.

5G will (we hope) be able to handle the massive growth of IoT devices and their streaming data. With 5G technology, getting and staying connected will get easier. You’ll still need a robust network provider but your devices will learn to do things like sync or pair automatically.

When 5G comes online, around 50 billion “things” will be connected and that number will be growing exponentially. Think of self-driving cars that have capabilities to communicate with traffic lights, smart city sensor systems, savvy home appliances, industrial automation systems, connected health innovations, personal drones, robots and more.

“5G will make the internet of things more effective, more efficient from a spectral efficiency standpoint,” said an Intel spokesperson. “Each IOT device and network will use exactly and only what it needs and when it needs it, as opposed to just what’s available.”

In the SoftBank and Huawei robot demonstration, a robotic arm played an air hockey game against a human. A camera installed on top of the air hockey table detected the puck’s position to calculate its trajectory. That data was streamed to the cloud and the calculated result was then forwarded to the robotic arm control server to control the robotic arm. In the demonstration, the robotic arm was able to strike back the puck shot by the human player on various trajectories at competition speed, i.e., with no noticeable latency from camera to cloud to controller to robot arm.

Other demonstrations by SoftBank and Huawei included real-time ultra-high definition camera data compressed, streamed and the then displayed on a UHD monitor; an immersive video scenery capture from 180-degree 4-lense cameras uploaded and the downloaded to smartphones and tablets; remote rendering by a cloud GPU server; and the robot demo. Each demo was oriented to various industries, eg: tele-health, tele-education, VR, AR, CAD overlays at a remote (construction) site and the robot example which can apply to factory automation and vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

Other vendors have also demonstrated 5G use cases. Ericsson and BMW tracked a connected car at 105 mph and Verizon used 5G wireless to livestream the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in VR and hi-res 4k 360° video.

5G is coming!

Danish Nilfisk Holding A/S began being listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under symbol NLFSK after being spun off from NKT A/S, a Danish conglomerate. Nilfisk is one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional cleaning equipment with a strong brand and a vision for growth in robotics.

Nilfisk expects that 10% of their revenue will come from autonomous machines within the next 5-7 years. In that pursuit, Blue Ocean Robotics and Nilfisk recently announced a strategic partnership to develop a portfolio of intelligent cleaning machines and robots to add to the Nilfisk line of industrial cleaners.

According to Hans Henrik Lund, CEO of Nilfisk,

“We estimate that approximately 70 percent of the cost of professional cleaning goes to labor. At the same time, the cleaning industry is one of the industries with the highest employee turnover. We therefore experience a significant need among our customers to introduce autonomous machines that can solve standardized cleaning tasks so that cleaning operators can be used for other assignments. We have a clear strategy to develop our product portfolio in partnership with highly-specialized technology companies that are the best in their field. We already have good experiences with this, and we are looking forward to starting this partnership with Blue Ocean Robotics, which complements our other partnerships very well.”

Preliminary Q3 2017 financial results reports revenue of approx. EUR 253m ($300 million) which represents a gain of approx. 3.4% over Q3 2016. EBITDA was approx. 11.7% in the first nine months of 2017.

Nilfisk competitors include Tennant, Karcher, Vector Technologies, Sumitomo, Discovery Robotics, ICE / Brain Corp, and Taski Intellibot to name just a few.

Recent news about growth of Chinese robotics and related AI indicate just how massive their investments are and how well they are paying off. For example, 90% of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show held in Berlin in September were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies. 

Further, Preqin reported that Q3 venture-backed deals totaled $49 billion. Included in the top 10 deals were Uber-competitor Grab’s raising $2 billion from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing and Alibaba’s $1.1 bn investment in eBay-like Tokopedia and $.8 bn to Cainiao (see below). Half of the top 10 were in Asia; only three were for US-based companies.

Three Chinese companies stand out with Texas-size robotics-related activity: Midea/Kuka is planning to sell 50-55% of its annual $3 bn output in China by 2020; Siasun’s robots are exported to 30+ countries; and Alibaba is investing $15 billion over five years in internal logistics for their growing e-commerce business.

Alibaba (BABA:NYSE)

Amazon take note: China’s largest smart warehouse is manned by mobile robots moving shelves to picking and packing stations — and they look amazingly similar to Amazon’s Kiva robots.

Alibaba is emulating Amazon in putting robots into the logistics warehouses it operates for sorting, picking and moving applications. Through its investment in logistics company Cainiao, and similar investments in local startups Geek+ and Quicktron, both of which make Kiva-like mobile robots and provide extensive network and traffic management software for e-commerce distribution centers. Cainiao currently executes 57 million deliveries a day. Alibaba, which had owned 47% of Cainiao, has invested a further $807 million to increase its stake to 51%. Alibaba’s goal for Cainiao is to delivery anywhere in China within 24 hours and anywhere in the world within 72.

Warehousing robots aren’t Alibaba’s only play. They are also investing in service robots through their joint venture with SoftBank Robotics and Foxconn and also augmented reality big-data-driven logistics navigation and picking solutions as well as other types of AGVs for towing, moving and sorting pallets, boxed goods and shelves.

In addition to the Cainiao investment, Alibaba also invested $1.1 billion in PT Tokopedia, a large e-Bay-like service covering Indonesia. Overall, Alibaba has committed $15 billion over the next five years to build out a global logistics network.

Midea Group (000333:SHE)

Midea, China’s 4th largest consumer products manufacturer, and the country’s biggest maker of air conditioners, refrigerators and appliances, has a masterplan to revamp itself into China’s leading robot manufacturer.

• Last year, for around $4.5 billion, they acquired the world’s 4th largest robot manufacturer, Germany-based Kuka AG.
• At their air conditioner plant, Midea has deployed 800 robots and replaced 24,000 workers in their quest to improve quality and reduce costs.
• In another factory, Midea engineers have made it so six robots produce and assemble remote control devices every seven seconds with 100% quality.
• Early this year they set up an alliance with Israel-based advanced motion control and automation systems company Servotronix.
• Then they invested another $1.5 billion in a new factory in southern China to manufacturer and assemble service and industrial robots (7,000 and 2,000 per year respectively).
• These robots will be for sale as well as for internal use and the goal is that by 2025, 17,000 industrial robots will be produced at that factory in addition to Kuka’s goals at Kuka’s separate facilities.
• Kuka plans to sell 50-55% of its annual output ($3 bn+) in China by 2020.
• Midea is doubling the number of research engineers working on product development and AI. Research projects include robotic bartenders, consumer food processors and industrial-grade food production robots.

Midea’s investments and strategic alliances underscore their ambition to lead in automation and robotics within China and, later, globally.

Siasun Robot & Automation (300024:SHE)

According to The Wall Street Journal, Siasun’s 2016 revenue was $2.02 bn which was 20.47% greater than FY 2015. Forbes rates Siasun as #20 on the Innovative Growth Companies list with a market cap of $5.1 bn and 2,500 employes.

Siasun focuses on four verticals: advanced manufacturing equipment, rail transit automation, autonomous energy equipment and advanced robotics (across all divisions). In addition to fixed and mobile industrial robots, Siasun has a line of clean room robots and a new collaborative robot. They also have an extensive line of mobile robots for material handling, warehouses, restaurants, public spaces and indoor cleaning and security. Online retailer JD.com has teamed up with Siasun to automate JD’s logistic network and JD says that it also plans to develop delivery drones and driverless vehicles.

Qu Daokui, president of Siasun, said the company is looking to invest in robot technology in Europe and the United States, with acquisitions starting from at least $1 billion. “We are interested in companies that have state-of-the-art technologies or have a key presence in the industry chain,” Qu said recently at the 2017 World Robot Conference in Beijing.

Currently, the Shenyang-based company’s industrial robots and other products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions. Moreover, two-thirds of Siasun’s customers are foreign companies. According to China Daily, Siasun robots are at work in Ford and General Motors auto plants in the U.S.

Last year, Siasun teamed up with Israeli companies and universities in a China-Israel robot research institute in Guangzhou where they are jointly working on artificial intelligence which Qu billed as of great importance to robots by giving them “wings”.

Bottom Line

Many critics and pundits warn that the free-flowing incentives China has been giving to effect its 5-year plans and Made in China 2025 program has produced fraud, false figures and unknown results. They worry about overcapacity and that many of the new companies involved in robotics are just in it to get the subsidies and tax breaks.

Nevertheless, the three companies profiled above attest to the fact that China’s overall goal to become a high-tech maker and user of robotics and AI is working… and working BIG. Texas BIG.

Two reputable research resources are reporting that the robotics industry is growing more rapidly than expected. BCG (Boston Consulting Group) is conservatively projecting that the market will reach $87 billion by 2025; Tractica, incorporating the robotic and AI elements of the emerging self-driving industry, is forecasting the market will reach $237 billion by 2022.

Both research firms acknowledge that yesterday’s robots — which were blind, big, dangerous and difficult to program and maintain — are being replaced and supplemented with newer, more capable ones. Today’s new – and future robots will – have voice and language recognition, access to super-fast communications, data and libraries of algorithms, learning capability, mobility, portability and dexterity. These new precision robots can sort and fill prescriptions, pick and pack warehouse orders, sort, inspect, process and handle fruits and vegetables, plus a myriad of other industrial and non-industrial tasks, most faster than humans, yet all the while working safely along side them.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Gaining Robotic Advantage, June 2017, 13 pages, free

BCG suggests that business executives be aware of ways robots are changing the global business landscape and think and act now. They see robotics-fueled changes coming in retail, logistics, transportation healthcare, food processing, mining and agriculture.

BCG cites the following drivers:

• Private investment in the robotic space has continued to amaze with exponential year-over-year funding curves and sensational billion dollar acquisitions.
• Prices continue to fall on robots, sensors, CPUs and communications while capabilities continue to increase.
• Robot programming is being transformed by easier interfaces, GUIs and ROS.
• The prospect of a self-driving vehicles industry disrupting transportation is propelling a talent grab and strategic acquisitions by competing international players with deep pockets.
• 40% of robotic startups have been in the consumer sector and will soon augment humans in high-touch fields such as health and elder care.

 BCG also cites the following example as an example of paying close attention to gain advantage:

“Amazon gained a first-mover advantage in 2012 when it bought Kiva Systems, which makes robots for warehouses. Once a Kiva customer, Amazon acquired the robot maker to improve the productivity and margins of its network of warehouses and fulfillment centers. The move helped Amazon maintain its low costs and expand its rapid delivery capabilities. It took five years for a Kiva alternative to hit the market. By then, Amazon had a jump on its rivals and had developed an experienced robotics team, giving the company a sustainable edge.”

Tractica

Robotics Market Forecast – June 2017, 26 pages, $4,200
Drones for Commercial Applications – June 2017, 196 pages, $4,200
AI for Automotive Applications – May 2017, 63 pages, $4,200
Consumer Robotics – May 2017, 130 pages, $4,200

The key story is that industrial robotics, the traditional pillar of the robotics market, dominated by Japanese and European robotics manufacturers, has given way to non-industrial robot categories like personal assistant robots, UAVs, and autonomous vehicles, with the epicenter shifting toward Silicon Valley, which is now becoming a hotbed for artificial intelligence (AI), a set of technologies that are, in turn, driving a lot of the most significant advancements in robotics. Consequently, Tractica forecasts that the global robotics market will grow rapidly between 2016 and 2022, with revenue from unit sales of industrial and non-industrial robots rising from $31 billion in 2016 to $237.3 billion by 2022.  The market intelligence firm anticipates that most of this growth will be driven by non-industrial robots.

Tractica is headquartered in Boulder and analyzes global market trends and applications for robotics and related automation technologies within consumer, enterprise, and industrial marketplaces and related industries.

General Research Reports

• Global autonomous mobile robots market, June 2017, 95 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global autonomous mobile robots market will grow at a CAGR of more than 14% through 2021.
• Global underwater exploration robots, June 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $3,500
  TechNavio forecasts that the global underwater exploration robots market will grow at a CAGR of 13.92 % during the period 2017-2021.
• Household vacuum cleaners market, March 2017, 134 pages, Global Market Insights, $4,500
  Global Market Insights forecasts that household vacuum cleaners market size will surpass $17.5 billion by 2024 and global shipments are estimated to exceed 130 million units by 2024, albeit at a low 3.0% CAGR. Robotic vacuums show a slightly higher growth CAGR.
• Global unmanned surface vehicle market, June 2017, Value Market Research, $3,950
  Value Market Research analyzed drivers (security and mapping) versus restraints such as AUVs and ROVs and made their forecasts for the period 2017-2023.
• Innovations in Robotics, Sensor Platforms, Block Chain, and Artificial Intelligence for Homeland Security, May 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $6,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report covers recent developments such as co-bots for surveillance applications, airborne sensor platforms for border security, blockchain tech, AI as first responder, and tech for detecting nuclear threats.
• Top technologies in advanced manufacturing and automation, April 2017, Frost & Sullivan, $4,950
  This Frost & Sullivan report focuses on exoskeletons, metal and nano 3D printing, co-bots and agile robots – all of which are in the top 10 technologies covered.
• Mobile robotics market, December 2016, 110 pages, Zion Market Research, $4,199
  Global mobile robotics market will reach $18.8 billion by end of 2021, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 13.0% between 2017 and 2021.
• Unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market, May 2017, MarketsandMarkets, $5,650
  MarketsandMarkets forecasts the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) market to grow from $470.1 Million in 2017 to $938.5 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.83%.
• Military/Civil UAS markets, May 2017, 608 pages, Teal Group
  The Teal Group’s 2016 world military market study estimates that UAV production will soar from current worldwide UAV production of $2.8 billion annually in 2016 to $9.4 billion in 2025, a 15.4% CAGR and that civil UAS production will soar from $2.6 billion worldwide in 2016 to $10.9 billion in 2025, a 15.4% CAGR.

Agricultural Research Reports

• Global agricultural robots market, May 2017, 70 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global agricultural robots market will grow steadily at a CAGR of close to 18% through 2021.
• Agriculture robots market, June 2017, TMR Research, $3,716
  Robots are poised to replace agricultural hands. They can pluck fruits, sow and reap crops, and milk cows. They carry out the tasks much faster and with a great degree of accuracy. This coupled with mandates on higher minimum pay being levied in most countries, have spelt good news for the global market for agriculture robots.
• Agricultural Robots, December 2016, 225 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Forecasts that shipments of agricultural robots will increase from 32,000 units in 2016 to 594,000 units annually in 2024 and that the market is expected to reach $74.1 billion in annual revenue by 2024. Report, done in conjunction with The Robot Report, profiles over 165 companies involved in developing robotics for the industry.

Bottom Line

The disparity between the projections of these research reports is wide but the CAGRs are mostly all double digit. It is easy to conclude as BCG did – that the robotics industry is growing faster than expected

SharkNinja, a well-known marketer of home consumer products, has entered the American robotic vacuum market with a product that is priced to compete against iRobot’s Roomba line of floor cleaners. Their new ION Robot navigates floors and carpets and docks and recharges automatically. It sells at a very favorable price point to iRobot’s.

SharkNinja has partnered with ECOVACS, a Chinese manufacturer of many robotic products including robotic vacuums and floor cleaners, to custom manufacture the new Shark ION Robot – thus SharkNinja isn’t starting from scratch. [ECOVACS is a big seller in China. On Singles Day (11/11/2016), online via the e-commerce giant Alibaba, ECOVACS sold $60.2 million of robotic products, up from $47.6 million in 2015. The star performer was a DEEBOT robotic vacuum which sold 135,000 units. The ECOVACS window-cleaning robot was another standout product, with more than 10,000 units sold.]

iRobot’s stock took an 18% negative hit – perhaps on the news of the product launch by SharkNinja, or perhaps because some prominent analysts downgraded their ratings of the company saying that iRobot is susceptible to a lower-cost similarly capable well-regarded branded product. The SharkNinja robotic vacuums fits those criteria.

SharkNinja is a fast-growing vendor of blenders, vacuums and other household products. They displaced Dyson in vacuums by engineering a superior product at a value price point (the Dyson robot vacuum sold for $1,000). SharkNinja, by using disruptive pricing and infomercial marketing, has garnered around 20% of the U.S. market for vacuums in just 10 years. SharkNinja’s non-robotic vacuums and blenders command significant shelf space and are very popular with customers and sellers alike. Thus they are a formidable competitor.

Also this month, SharkNinja raised an undisclosed sum from CDH Investments, a private equity fund with $20 billion of assets under management. CDH said they purchased “a significant equity interest” in SharkNinja.

iRobot’s Defensive Moves

iRobot has been making defensive moves recently. It acquired its two main distributors: Robopolis in Europe and Sales on Demand in Japan. It has used up much of its cash reserve to buy back shares of the company. And it sued what it considered to be patent violations by Hoover, Black & Decker, Bobsweep, Bissell Homecare, and Micro-Star International (MSI) (which manufacturers the Hoover and Black & Decker vacuums).

According to Zacks Equity Research, iRobot just favorably settled with MSI in an agreement where MSI will exit the global robotic cleaning industry and also provide a undisclosed compensation fee to iRobot.

Aerospace conglomerate United Technologies is paying $30 billion to acquire Rockwell Collins in a deal that creates one of the world’s largest makers of civilian and defense aircraft components. Rockwell Collins and United’s Aerospace Systems segment will combine to create a new business unit named Collins Aerospace Systems.

United Technologies will pay $140 per share for Rockwell Collins shares; $93.33 in cash and $46.67 in stock. The $140 price represents a 17.6% premium for Rockwell shareholders.

“This acquisition adds tremendous capabilities to our aerospace businesses and strengthens our complementary offerings of technologically advanced aerospace systems,” said UTC’s chairman and CEO, Greg Hayes.

Both companies have subsidiaries involved in robotics, drones and marine systems but both derive most of their revenue from civilian and defense aerospace.

• United Technologies includes Otis elevators, escalators and moving walkways; Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures military and commercial engines, power units and turbojet products; Carrier heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration products; Chubb security and fire-safety solutions; Kidde smoke alarms and fire safety technology; and UTC aerospace systems which provide aircraft interiors, space and ISR systems, landing gear and sensors and sensor-based systems for everything from ice detection to guidance and navigation. Their Aerospace Systems unit has a wide range of products for multiple unmanned platforms including unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
• Rockwell Collins (not to be confused with (or involved in this acquisition) Rockwell Automation* which is highly involved in robotics) designs and produces electronic communications, avionics and in-flight entertainment systems for commercial, military and government customers and includes navigation and display systems for unmanned commercial and military vehicles. Their electronics are installed in nearly every airline cockpit in the world. Their helmet mounted display systems and in-car head-up displays are also big revenue producers.

According to Reuters, “The deal also follows a wave of consolidation among smaller aerospace manufacturers in recent years that was caused in part by the need to invest in new technologies such as metal 3-D printing and connected factories to stay competitive. A combined United Technologies and Rockwell Collins could similarly invest, and their broad portfolios have little overlap.”

________________

• Rockwell Automation is one of 83 members of the ROBO-Global Robotics & Automation Index of which I am a co-founder. The index is designed to leverage advances in technology and macro economic drivers to capture growth opportunity from robotics and automation.

In an OpEd piece in the NY Times, and in a TED Talk late last year, Oren Etzioni, PhD, author, and CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, suggested an update for Isaac Asimov’s three laws of Artificial Intelligence. Given the widespread media attention emanating from Elon Musk’s (and others) warnings, these updates might be worth reviewing.

The Warnings

In an open letter to the U.N., a group of specialists from 26 nations and led by Elon Musk called for the United Nations to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. The signatories included Musk and DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, as well as 100+ other leaders in robotics and artificial-intelligence companies. They write that AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems in the form of autonomous weapons is feasible within years, not decades, and many in the defense industry are saying that autonomous weapons will be the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

Another more political warning was recently broadcast on VoA: Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to a group of Russian students, called artificial intelligence “not only Russia’s future but the future of the whole of mankind… The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world. There are colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now.”

Asimov’s Three Rules

Isaac Asimov wrote “Runaround” in 1942 in which there was a government Handbook of Robotics (in 2058) which included the following three rules: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Etzioni’s Updated Rules

Etzioni has updated those three rules in his NY Times op-ed piece to:

1. An A.I. system must be subject to the full gamut of laws that apply to its human operator.
2. An A.I. system must clearly disclose that it is not human.
3. An A.I. system cannot retain or disclose confidential information without explicit approval from the source of that information.

Etzioni offered these updates to begin a discussion that would lead to a non-fictional Handbook of Robotics by the United Nations — and sooner than the 2058 sci-fi date. One that would regulate but not thwart the already growing global AI business.

And growing it is!

China’s Artificial Intelligence Manifesto

China has recently announced their long-term goal to become #1 in A.I. by 2030. They plan to grow their A.I. industry to over $22 billion by 2020, $59 billion by 2025 and $150 billion by 2030. They did this same type of long-term strategic planning for robotics – to make it an in-country industry and to transform the country from a low-cost labor source to a high-tech manufacturing resource… and it’s working.

With this major strategic long-term AI push, China is looking to rival U.S. market leaders such as Alphabet/Google, Apple, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. China is keen not to be left behind in a technology that is increasingly pivotal — from online commerce to self-driving vehicles to energy to consumer products. China aims to catch up by solving issues including a lack of high-end computer chips, software that writes software, and trained personnel. Beijing will play a big role in policy support and regulation as well as providing and funding research, incentives and tax credits.

Premature or not, the time is now

Many in AI and robotics feel that the present state of development in AI, including improvements in machine and deep learning methods, is primitive and decades away from independent thinking. Siri and Alexa, as fun and capable as they are, are still programmed by humans and cannot even initiate a conversation or truly understand its content. Nevertheless, there is a reason why people have expressed that they sense what may be possible in the future when artificial intelligence decides what ‘it’ thinks is best for us. Consequently, global regulation can’t hurt.

August fundings totaled $369 million but the number of August transactions, seven, was down from previous months, eg: both July and June had 19 fundings each. Acquisitions, on the other hand, remained steady with a big one pending: Snap has been negotiating all month to acquire Chinese drone startup Zero Zero Robotics for around $150M.

Fundings

1. Auris Medical Robotics, the Silicon Valley startup headed by Dr. Frederic H. Moll who previously co-founded Hansen Medical and Intuitive Surgical, raised $280 million in a Series D round led by Coatue Management and included earlier investors Mithril Capital Management, Lux Capital, and Highland Capital. Auris has raised a total of $530 million and is developing targeted, minimally invasive robotic-assisted therapies that treat only the diseased cells in order to prevent the progression of a patient’s illness. Lung cancer is the first disease they are targeting.
2. Oryx Vision, an Israeli startup, raised $50 million in a round led by Third Point Ventures and WRV with participation by Union Tech Ventures. They all join existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Maniv Mobility, and Trucks VC, a VC firm focused on the future of transportation. The company has raised a total of $67 million to date. Oryx is developing a LiDAR for self-driving automobiles using microscopic antennas to detect the light frequencies. The tiny antennas are made of silicon which allows them to put thousands in one sensor thereby lowering the cost of LiDAR distancing. The advantage is increased range and sensitivity for an autonomous vehicle that needs to know exactly what is surrounding it and what those things are doing and can see through fog and not get blinded by bright sunlight.
3. TuSimple, a Chinese startup developing driverless technologies for the trucking industry, raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Nvidia with participation by Sina. Nvidia will own a 3% stake in TuSimple while the startup will support the development of the Nvidia’s artificial intelligence computing platform for self-driving vehicles, Drive PX2.
4. Atlas Dynamics, a Latvian/Israeli drone startup, raised $8 million from investment groups in Israel and in Asia. The 3-rotor Atlas Pro drone operates autonomously with interchangeable payloads and offers 55 minutes of flight time.
5. Common Sense Robotics, an Israeli warehouse fulfillment robotics startup, raised $6 million from Aleph VC and Innovation Endeavors. CommonSense is developing small urban, automated spaces that combine the benefits of local distribution with the economics of automated fulfillment. In big cities these ‘micro-centers’ would receive, stock, and package merchandise of participating vendors based on predictive algorithms. Vendors would then arrange last-mile delivery solutions.
6. Sky-Futures, a London-based industrial inspection services with drones startup, raised $4 million in funding from Japanese giant Mitsui & Co. The announcement came as part of Theresa May’s just-concluded trip to Japan. Sky Futures and Mitsui plan to provide inspections and other services to Mitsui’s clients across a range of sectors. Mitsui, a trading, investment and service company, has 139 offices in 66 countries.
7. Ambient Intelligence Technology, a Japanese underwater drone manufacturer spin-off from the University of Tsukuba, raised $1.93 million from Beyond Next Ventures and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Freebit Investment. Ambient’s ROVs can operate for prolonged periods of autonomous operation at depths of 300 meters.

Acquisitions

1. Dupont Pioneer has acquired farm management software platform startup Granular for $300 million. San Francisco-based Granular’s farm management software helps farmers run more profitable businesses by enabling them to manage their operations and analyze their financials for each of their fields in real time and to create reports for third parties like landowners and banks. Last year they partnered with the American Farm Bureau Insurance Services to streamline crop insurance data collection and reporting and also have a cross-marketing arrangement with Deere.
2. L3 Technologies acquired Massachusetts-based OceanServer Technology for an undisclosed amount. “OceanServer Technology positions L3 to support the U.S. Navy’s vision for the tactical employment of UUVs. This acquisition also enhances our technological capabilities and strengthens our position in growth areas where we see compelling opportunity,” said Michael T. Strianese, L3’s Chairman and CEO. “As a leading innovator and developer of UUVs, OceanServer Technology provides L3 with a new growth platform that is aligned with the U.S. Navy’s priorities.”
3. KB Medical, SA, a Swiss medical robotics startup, was acquired by Globus Medical, a musculoskeletal solutions manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount. This is the 2nd acquisition of a robotics startup by Globus. They acquired Excelsius Robotics in 2014. “The addition of KB Medical will enable Globus Medical to accelerate, enhance and expand our product portfolio in imaging, navigation and robotics. KB Medical’s experienced team of technology development professionals, its strong IP portfolio, and shared philosophy for robotic solutions in medicine strengthen Globus Medical’s position in this strategic area,” said Dave Demski of Emerging Technologies.
4. Jenoptik, a Germany-based laser components manufacturer of vision systems for automation and robotics, acquired Michigan-based Five Lakes Automation, an integrator and manufacturer of robotic material handling systems, for an undisclosed amount.
5. Honeybee Robotics, the Brooklyn-based robotic space systems provider, was acquired by Ensign-Bickford for an undisclosed amount. Ensign-Bickford is a privately held 181-year-old contractor and supplier of space launch vehicles and systems. “The timing is great,” said Kiel Davis, President of Honeybee Robotics. “Honeybee has a range of new spacecraft motion control and robotics products coming to market. And EBI has the experience and resources to help us scale up and optimize our production operations so that we can meet the needs of our customers today and in the near future.”

IPOs

1. Duke Robotics, a Florida and Israeli developer of advanced robotic systems that provide troops with aerial support and other technologies developed in Israel, has filed and been qualified for a stock offering of up to $15 million under SEC Tier II Reg A+ which allows anyone, not just wealthy investors, to be able to purchase stock from approved equity crowdfunding offers.

Failures

1. C&R Robotics (KR)
2. EZ-Robotics (CN)

China has rapidly become a global leader in robotics and automation. 2016 annual sales of industrial robots reached the highest level ever for any single country: 87,000 units (up 27% from 2015) and China’s stock of industrial robots is now, at 340,000 units, also the highest total in the world. while Chinese robot manufacturers increased their market share to 31% (up 120% from 2015).

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), which provided these figures, is forecasting that “from 2018 to 2020, a sales increase between 15 and 20 percent on average per year is possible for industrial robots.” And these projections don’t include service robots for professional and B2B use, and personal use such as toys, drones, mobile gofers, guides, home assistants, and consumer products like robotic vacuums and floor and window cleaners.

Outlook for 2017

According to a report released by China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA) at the big World Robot Conference in August in Beijing and reported by China Daily, China’s industrial robot market is expected to reach $4.22 billion in 2017 representing more than 110,000 new industrial robots.

At the same press conference, CRIA also reported that China’s service robot market will reach $1.32 billion this year, up 28% percent from 2015.

Outlook to 2020

The main drivers for the growth of the use of industrial robots in China are the electrical and electronics industry followed by general handling, welding and the auto industry. This broad and expanding demand is expected to continue as major contract manufacturers start and/or continue to automate their production. A further driving factor is China’s growing consumer market for all kinds of consumer goods.

According to the ten-year national plan “Made in China 2025,” the Chinese government wants to transform China from a low-cost labor-intensive manufacturing giant into a technology-based world manufacturing power. The plan includes strengthening Chinese robot suppliers and further increasing their market shares in China and abroad.

Shanzhai

Shenzhen is the Silicon Valley of technology and hardware for China. Things get made FAST. All kinds of ‘things.’ The can-make attitude in Shenzhen is being duplicated around China thus it is important to know what goes on, why it happens in Shenzhen, why it happens so fast, and what they think about patents, intellectual property and Western companies.

Another factor (driver) in China’s relentless push toward automation and robotics is this factoid: In 2016, China’s mobile payments hit $5.5 trillion, roughly 50 times the size of America’s $112 billion market, according to consulting firm iResearch. Chinese are adopting cashless and e-commerce methods at a rate significantly faster than the rest of the world.

WIRED Video produced an hour-long documentary describing the process, the people, and ‘Shanzhai,’ the evolving philosophy of copycat manufacturing, and attempts to put a positive spin on patent avoidance and what many Westerners call stealing, plus the speed of production for adequate profits (as opposed to massive profits). It is a worthwhile and very informative investment of an hour of your time.

The U.S. Army has ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology because of “cyber vulnerabilities.” The directive applies to all DJI drones and systems that use DJI components or software. It requires service members to “cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries and storage media and secure equipment for follow-on direction.”

DJI has about 70% of the global commercial and consumer drone market according to Goldman Sachs analysts. The market, including military, is expected to be worth more than $100 billion over the next five years.

The Army's move appears to follow studies conducted by the Army Research Laboratory and the Navy which said there were risks and vulnerabilities in DJI products. The directive cites a classified Army Research Laboratory report and a Navy memo, as references for the order to cease use of DJI drones and related equipment.

DJI responded with the following statement on their website:

Some recent news stories have claimed DJI routinely shares customer information and drone video with authorities in China, where DJI is headquartered. This is false. A junior DJI staffer misspoke during an impromptu interview with reporters who were touring the DJI headquarters; we have attempted to correct the facts since then, but inaccurate stories are still posted online.   

We want to emphasize that DJI does not routinely share customer information or drone video with Chinese authorities — or any authorities Any claims to the contrary are false.

In other DJI-related news, 3D Robotics (3DR), a previous camera drone competitor, announced a product partnership with DJI. Its 'Site Scan' aerial data analytics software platform now works with DJI drones, and is aimed at large construction and engineering companies using drones. 

DJI director of strategic partnerships Michael Perry stated: “This integration is a significant milestone for the AEC industry. We’re excited that 3DR Site Scan users can now use DJI drones to convert images into actionable data that helps project stakeholders save time and manage costs.”