Robotics and Automation

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>>> Meta Plans Major Investment Into AI-Powered Humanoid Robots


Bloomberg

by Mark Gurman

February 14, 2025


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-plans-major-investment-ai-160000083.html


(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc., after pushing into augmented reality and artificial intelligence, has identified its next big bet: AI-powered humanoid robots.

The company is making a significant investment into the category — futuristic robots that can act like humans and assist with physical tasks — and is forming a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division to conduct the work, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Meta plans to work on its own humanoid robot hardware, with an initial focus on household chores. Its bigger ambition is to make the underlying AI, sensors and software for robots that will be manufactured and sold by a range of companies, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiative hasn’t been announced.

Meta has started discussing its plan with robotics companies, including Unitree Robotics and Figure AI Inc. At least initially, it doesn’t plan to build a Meta-branded robot — something that could directly rival Tesla Inc.’s Optimus — but it may consider doing so in the future, the people added.

The humanoid effort mirrors exploratory projects at other technology giants, including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Deepmind division. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

Meta confirmed the creation of the new team to employees Friday, telling them it will be led by Marc Whitten, who resigned as chief executive officer of General Motors Co.’s Cruise self-driving car division earlier this month. He was previously an executive at gaming company Unity Software Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

“The core technologies we’ve already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics,” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, wrote in a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. He mentioned the company’s advancements in hand tracking, computing at low bandwidth and always-on sensors.

Meta executives believe that while humanoid robotics companies have made headway in hardware, Meta’s advances in artificial intelligence and data collected from augmented and virtual reality devices could accelerate progress in the nascent industry. Current humanoids are still not useful enough to fold clothes, carry a glass of water, place dishes in a rack for cleaning or conduct other home chores that could get consumers interested in the category.

“We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs,” Bosworth wrote. Whitten, who will report to Bosworth, will have headcount to hire around 100 engineers this year, one of the people said.

Meta’s goal is to provide what Google’s Android operating system and Qualcomm Inc.’s chips did for the phone industry by building a foundation for the rest of the market.

The software, sensors and computing packages that Meta is already developing for its devices are the same technologies that are needed to power humanoids, according to one of the people involved in the project.

Meta has been investing billions of dollars for years into its Reality Labs hardware division, which sells products like the Quest VR headset and the increasingly popular Ray-Ban smart glasses. Meta plans to spend $65 billion this year on related products, including artificial intelligence infrastructure and the new robot work.

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has said that his company’s Optimus robot will eventually be sold to consumers and could cost around $30,000. Tesla is beginning limited production this year. Other businesses also have made headway. Boston Dynamics, for instance, has already brought products to market for automation in warehouses. Some companies are focused on selling to businesses and manufacturers, while Meta’s intention is to sell into homes (to a few rich trendies who can afford a $30 K robot, lol)

Humanoids are an evolution of the work companies have been doing in autonomous vehicles. They use similar underlying technologies and require large amounts of data and AI processing. But while the safety stakes are lower — roaming a person’s home instead of traveling 50 miles per hour on an open road — Meta executives believe humanoids are more challenging because every person’s home has a different layout, while city streets are fairly standardized.

Meta will build some of its own hardware, use off-the-shelf components and work with existing manufacturers as soon as it can, said the people with knowledge of the project. They added that building prototypes and hardware is key for testing ahead of deploying a platform, even if Meta itself doesn’t ultimately release a branded product.

The company is pitching its work as the platform of choice for robot development, one of the people said, adding that the goal was to make Meta’s Llama software a foundation for robotics researchers around the world.

Meta will also seek to develop tools for robot safety, addressing possible dangers such as a person’s hand getting caught in an actuator or another part of a humanoid robot. There are also issues related to power safety, such as how a robot powers down or stops functioning mid-task if it runs out of power.

While the official push into humanoid robots is new for Meta, the company’s FAIR, or Fundamental AI Research Group, has been exploring and publishing papers on robotics work for months. Apple recently started publishing AI papers related to robotics work as well.

One person with knowledge of the project said that Meta believes humanoids are still a couple of years away from being widely available — and it could be years before the company’s platform is ready to underpin third-party products. But it will become a major focus for Meta and the broader tech industry, the person said.

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>>> Apple is reportedly exploring humanoid robots


TechCrunch

by Brian Heater

February 12, 2025


https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/12/apple-is-reportedly-exploring-humanoid-robots/


Apple is exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid robotic form factors, according to a new scoop from longtime Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The intel comes on the heels of a research paper from the iPhone maker that explores human interactions with “non-anthropomorphic” robots — specifically a Pixar-style lamp.

While Apple’s research paper highlights elements that could inform an eventual consumer robot, the work primarily shines a light on progress from a company still mired in the early research stages of a complex field. Kuo qualifies the work as “early proof-of-concept,” adding that the Apple Car project was effectively abandoned in a similarly early stage. Citing “current progress and typical development cycles,” Kuo projects 2028 as an optimistic timeline for mass production

What makes robots unique compared to other early-stage Apple projects — such as a rumored foldable iPhone — is the level of transparency from the notoriously tight-lipped Apple. (This is the same company that, as part of a legal settlement, recently demanded a public apology from a former iOS engineer who leaked details about the Vision Pro.)

It’s unavoidable. Progress in robotics is supported by work from universities and research facilities, along with behind-the-scenes corporate projects. For the past several years, many robotics companies have faced difficulties hiring quickly enough to support release timelines that have accelerated in the age of generative AI. Publishing research for the public to read is a great resource for recruiting engineers.

Kuo suggests that the research paper’s use of the “non-anthropomorphic” qualifier is designed to distinguish the robot from humanoid research.

“While the industry debates the merits of humanoid vs. non-humanoid designs,” he writes, “supply chain checks indicate Apple cares more about how users build perception with robots than their physical appearance … implying sensing hardware and software serve as the core technologies.”

Broadly speaking, “anthropomorphic” can be applied to robotic systems beyond what we might normally classify as a humanoid. This includes systems that are influenced by human characteristics but aren’t exactly a one-to-one humanoid with two arms, two legs, and a face. Apple appears to currently be in the “throw it at the wall” phase, with work ranging from simple systems to complex humanoids.

Kuo broadly refers to the proof-of-concept system as part of a “future smart home ecosystem.” That could mean anything from a full humanoid designed for household chores to a smart home display with a mechanical arm. Leaks around the work have suggested the latter — which is far more plausible than coming out of the gate with a humanoid capable of folding your laundry. Such a product could have a place on a far-off road map, but to get there, Apple first needs to prove that people want a home robot that isn’t just a vacuum.

Numerous companies that are building industrial humanoids, including 1X, Figure, and Apptronik, are researching a path from the factory floor to the home. Pricing and reliability are two major sticking points. If you think the $3,499 Vision Pro was a tough pill to swallow, wait until you see the first batch of humanoids for the home. For now, the goal is getting reliable industrial humanoid production to scale, which will bring the price down over time.

After abandoning the Apple Car and stumbling out the gate with both the Vision Pro and Apple Intelligence, it’s fair to assume that Apple is taking a cautious approach to robots. While Apple has a solid track record of popularizing existing product categories, Silicon Valley is littered with the husks of failed home robots. The same can also be said for the smart home category.

One thing we can say for certain is that Apple is actively exploring robotics. Beyond that, we can probably look forward to at least another three years of leaks and speculation.

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>>> Robot controlled by a king oyster mushroom blends living organisms and machines


by Katie Hunt

CNN

September 4, 2024


https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-build-robot-part-fungus-080020874.html


A wheeled bot rolls across the floor. A soft-bodied robotic star bends its five legs, moving with an awkward shuffle.

Powered by conventional electricity via plug or battery, these simple robotic creations would be unremarkable, but what sets these two robots apart is that they are controlled by a living entity: a king oyster mushroom.

By growing the mushroom’s mycelium, or rootlike threads, into the robot’s hardware, a team led by Cornell University researchers has engineered two types of robots that sense and respond to the environment by harnessing electrical signals made by the fungus and its sensitivity to light.

The robots are the latest accomplishment of scientists in a field known as biohybrid robotics who seek to combine biological, living materials such as plant and animal cells or insects with synthetic components to make partly living and partly engineered entities.

Biohybrid robots have yet to venture beyond the lab, but researchers hope one day robot jellyfish may explore oceans, sperm-powered bots may be able to deliver fertility treatments and cyborg cockroaches could search for survivors in the wake of an earthquake.

“Mechanisms, including computing, understanding and action as a response, are done in the biological world and in the artificial world that humans have created, and biology most of the time is better at it than our artificial systems are,” said Robert Shepherd, a senior author of a study detailing the robots published August 28 in the journal Science Robotics.

“Biohybridization is an attempt to find components in the biological world that we can harness, understand, and control to help our artificial systems work better,” added Shepherd, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University who leads the institution’s Organic Robotics Lab.

Part fungus, part machine

The team began by growing king oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus eryngii) in the lab from a simple kit ordered online. The researchers chose this species of mushroom because it grows easily and quickly.

They cultivated the mushroom’s threadlike structures or mycelium, which can form networks that, according to the study, can sense, communicate and transport nutrients — functioning a little like neurons in a brain. (Alas, it’s not strictly accurate to call the creations shroom bots. The mushroom is the fruit of the fungi — the robots are powered by the rootlike mycelium.)

Mycelium produces small electrical signals and can be connected to electrodes.

Andrew Adamatzky, a professor of unconventional computing at the University of the West of England in Bristol who builds fungal computers, said it isn’t clear how fungi produce electrical signals.

“No one knows for sure,” said Adamatzky, who wasn’t involved in the research but reviewed it before publication.

“Essentially, all living cells produce action-potential-like spikes, and fungi are no exception.”

The study team found it challenging to engineer a system that could detect and use the small electrical signals from the mycelia to command the robot.

“You have to make sure that your electrode touches in the right position because the mycelia are very thin. There is not a lot of biomass there,” said lead author Anand Mishra, a postdoctoral research associate in Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab. “Then you culture them, and when the mycelia start growing, they wrap around the electrode.”

Mishra engineered an electrical interface that accurately reads the mycelia’s raw electrical activity, then processes and converts it into digital information that can activate the robot’s actuators or moving parts.

The robots were able to walk and roll as a response to the electrical spikes generated by the mycelia, and when Mishra and his colleagues stimulated the robots with ultraviolet light, they changed their gait and trajectory, showing that they were able to respond to their environment.

“Mushrooms don’t really like light,” Shepherd said. “Based on the difference in the intensities (of the light) you can get different functions of the robot. It will move faster or move away from the light.”

‘Exciting’ work

It’s exciting to see more work in biohybrid robotics that moves beyond human, animal and insect tissues, said Victoria Webster-Wood, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group in Pittsburgh.

“Fungi may have advantages over other biohybrid approaches in terms of the conditions required to keep them alive,” said Webster-Wood, who wasn’t involved in the research.

“If they are more robust to environmental conditions this could make them an excellent candidate for biohybrid robots for applications in agriculture and marine monitoring or exploration.”

The study noted that fungi can be cultivated in large quantities and can thrive in many different environments.

The researchers operated the rolling robot without a tether connecting it to the electrical hardware — a feat that Webster-Wood called particularly noteworthy.

“Truly tether-free biohybrid robots are a challenge in the field,” she said via email, “and seeing them achieve this with the mycelium system is quite exciting.”

Biohybrid robotics in the real world

Fungi-controlled technology could have applications in agriculture, Shepherd said.

“In this case we used light as the input, but in the future it will be chemical. The potential for future robots could be to sense soil chemistry in row crops and decide when to add more fertilizer, for example, perhaps mitigating downstream effects of agriculture like harmful algal blooms,” he told the Cornell Chronicle.

Fungi-controlled robots, and fungal computing more broadly, have huge potential, according to Adamatzky.

He said his lab has produced more than 30 sensing and computing devices using live fungi, including growing a self-healing skin for robots that can react to light and touch.

“When an adequate drivetrain (transmission system) is provided, the robot can, for example, monitor the health of ecological systems. The fungal controller would react to changes, such as air pollution, and guide the robot accordingly,” Adamatzky said via email.

“The emergence of yet another fungal device — a robotic controller — excitingly demonstrates the remarkable potential of fungi.”

Rafael Mestre, a lecturer at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom who works on the social, ethical and policy implications of emergent technologies, said that if biohybrid robots become more sophisticated and are deployed in the ocean or another ecosystem it could disrupt the habitat, challenging the traditional distinction between life and machine.

“You are putting these things into the trophic chain of an ecosystem in a place where it shouldn’t be,” said Mestre, who was not involved in the new study. “If you release in big numbers it could be disruptive. I don’t see at this moment this particular research has strong ethical concerns … but if it continues to develop I think it’s quite crucial to consider what happens when we release this in the open.”

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>>> Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) is transforming the seemingly mundane sector of warehouse management with its AI-driven solutions. While it might not spark the same excitement as AI-generated content, major corporations like Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT) recognize its offerings’ benefit to their bottom line. This level of corporate endorsement is a strong indicator of the company’s value, but Symbotic isn’t stopping there.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-ai-stocks-overlooked-sectors-104200970.html

Recently, the company announced the development of a new AI-managed warehouse system designed for smaller companies. This system is intended for shared-use facilities where multiple small businesses operate. This strategic move significantly broadens Symbotic’s total addressable market, positioning it to capitalize on the rapidly growing warehouse and storage sector. By targeting smaller-scale operations, Symbotic is poised to tap into a previously underserved segment, offering substantial growth potential for investors.

Symbotic is also unique among AI stocks on this list in that it’s suffering from high short interest, which currently sits at nearly 28%. This scenario makes Symbotic primed for a short squeeze considering its strengths, prospects and current per-share pricing drop since January.

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>>> Symbotic Inc. (SYM), an automation technology company, engages in developing technologies to improve operating efficiencies in modern warehouses. The company automates the processing of pallets and cases in large warehouses or distribution centers for retail companies. Its systems enhance operations at the front end of the supply chain. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts. <<<


Autonomous forklifts -


>>> Walmart looks to bet $200 million on autonomous forklifts -sources


Reuters

by Siddharth Cavale and Jeffrey Dastin

Jul 26, 2024


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-walmart-looks-bet-200-110416770.html


Walmart (WMT) has plans to potentially spend $200 million on self-driving forklifts as part of broader efforts to automate more warehouse operations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The world's largest retailer wants autonomous forklifts to move pallets of goods in its distribution centers, which replenish Walmart stores. It has intended to buy possibly hundreds from Fox Robotics and invested $25 million in the Austin-based startup, the sources said.

The rollout, which Walmart could stop at any time, would occur in stages over several years and hinges on the retailer's satisfaction with the "FoxBots," said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

Details about Walmart's investment and rollout have not been reported before. They underscore the company's strategy for warehouse automation, which aims to grow profit and help it compete with retailers like Amazon.com.

Camille Dunn, a Walmart spokesperson, declined to comment on the $200 million spending plans. She referred Reuters to an April announcement that said Walmart had piloted the technology and would add at least 19 FoxBots to four facilities, noting that deployments are "an evolving process" from proof of concept to rollout.

"We evaluate the performance at each phase to determine if the technology meets our ability to better serve customers," she said in an email. "Some initiatives we scale, some initiatives we don't."

Fox Robotics said its customer deals are confidential.

In recent years, Walmart has focused increasingly on robotics to help it replenish stores, manage costs and keep the price of goods low.

Analysts from Jefferies estimated the company could add $20 billion to its profit before interest and taxes by fiscal 2029, thanks to its efforts in automation and artificial intelligence. Arun Sundaram of CFRA Research added: "Expect more and larger deals in the future."

As one example, Walmart announced a deal in 2022 with the robotics vendor Symbotic to implement automation in 42 distribution centers. Walmart owned more than 13% of Symbotic stock as of a January securities filing.

Now, Walmart has taken a stake in Fox Robotics and has warrants to invest more, the people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Fox and Symbotic deals are similar in that they restrict use of their technology by Walmart's biggest competitors, the sources said. Exclusive deals with suppliers are not uncommon in retail.

The Symbotic agreement states that key employees would be bound by non-competes and receive competitive pay, while Symbotic would be barred from selling its technology in certain non-Walmart warehouses. Details were redacted in a securities filing.

Walmart declined to comment on its contractual agreements with the robotics vendors. Symbotic said it does not comment on its customers' business strategies.

Stemming turnover

Tested for more than a year, the FoxBots unload pallets and help put them into Symbotic's automated system, which catalogues and stores goods, Walmart has said in press releases.

A single human operator can manage up to six of the autonomous forklifts at a time, saving as much as 40% on labor costs, Fox Robotics said on its website. A worker is still needed to open warehouse doors for instance, but the goal is for Walmart to depend less on labor in the long run, the sources said.

Dunn said, "People will always be part of our warehouse operations."

Finding workers to staff warehouse and other blue-collar jobs can be challenging, two of the sources said. Employers might pay little for onerous work, and sometimes staffers do not show up, one of them said. "There's a younger generation of people that just don't want to do these jobs," the source said.

At Walmart, a freight handler at its Coldwater, Michigan distribution center might "lift up to 40 to 60 pounds repetitively for extended periods of time," according to a job posting on Glassdoor. Another ad asked if a candidate had proficiency in operating equipment such as a forklift and would work 12-hour or overnight shifts, for $19.30 to $24.80 an hour.

For David Guggina, executive vice president of supply chain operations at Walmart U.S., automation has meant new technical roles for associates and other employment opportunities, not job cuts. It reduces physically demanding work, giving Walmart "substantially low turnover," he said.

"A reduction in turnover absolutely drives savings," Guggina told Reuters. "You improve your productivity because you have less folks that are sitting in what I call (the) learning curve."

Asked how much Walmart was spending on automation overall, Guggina said Walmart was investing billions of dollars into its supply chain network.

In spite of their promise, robotics have not always paid off for the company, which pulled the plug on shelf-scanning units in its stores years ago.

Their long-term feasibility can be uncertain, depending on significant adjustments and a controlled environment, whereas humans can adapt faster, said Katie Driggs-Campbell, a professor the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering.

"We are still far away from the robotics replacing humans in the retail industry," she said.

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Autonomous forklifts - >>> Walmart looks to bet $200 million on autonomous forklifts -sources


Reuters

by Siddharth Cavale and Jeffrey Dastin

Jul 26, 2024


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-walmart-looks-bet-200-110416770.html


Walmart (WMT) has plans to potentially spend $200 million on self-driving forklifts as part of broader efforts to automate more warehouse operations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The world's largest retailer wants autonomous forklifts to move pallets of goods in its distribution centers, which replenish Walmart stores. It has intended to buy possibly hundreds from Fox Robotics and invested $25 million in the Austin-based startup, the sources said.

The rollout, which Walmart could stop at any time, would occur in stages over several years and hinges on the retailer's satisfaction with the "FoxBots," said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

Details about Walmart's investment and rollout have not been reported before. They underscore the company's strategy for warehouse automation, which aims to grow profit and help it compete with retailers like Amazon.com.

Camille Dunn, a Walmart spokesperson, declined to comment on the $200 million spending plans. She referred Reuters to an April announcement that said Walmart had piloted the technology and would add at least 19 FoxBots to four facilities, noting that deployments are "an evolving process" from proof of concept to rollout.

"We evaluate the performance at each phase to determine if the technology meets our ability to better serve customers," she said in an email. "Some initiatives we scale, some initiatives we don't."

Fox Robotics said its customer deals are confidential.

In recent years, Walmart has focused increasingly on robotics to help it replenish stores, manage costs and keep the price of goods low.

Analysts from Jefferies estimated the company could add $20 billion to its profit before interest and taxes by fiscal 2029, thanks to its efforts in automation and artificial intelligence. Arun Sundaram of CFRA Research added: "Expect more and larger deals in the future."

As one example, Walmart announced a deal in 2022 with the robotics vendor Symbotic to implement automation in 42 distribution centers. Walmart owned more than 13% of Symbotic stock as of a January securities filing.

Now, Walmart has taken a stake in Fox Robotics and has warrants to invest more, the people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Fox and Symbotic deals are similar in that they restrict use of their technology by Walmart's biggest competitors, the sources said. Exclusive deals with suppliers are not uncommon in retail.

The Symbotic agreement states that key employees would be bound by non-competes and receive competitive pay, while Symbotic would be barred from selling its technology in certain non-Walmart warehouses. Details were redacted in a securities filing.

Walmart declined to comment on its contractual agreements with the robotics vendors. Symbotic said it does not comment on its customers' business strategies.

Stemming turnover

Tested for more than a year, the FoxBots unload pallets and help put them into Symbotic's automated system, which catalogues and stores goods, Walmart has said in press releases.

A single human operator can manage up to six of the autonomous forklifts at a time, saving as much as 40% on labor costs, Fox Robotics said on its website. A worker is still needed to open warehouse doors for instance, but the goal is for Walmart to depend less on labor in the long run, the sources said.

Dunn said, "People will always be part of our warehouse operations."

Finding workers to staff warehouse and other blue-collar jobs can be challenging, two of the sources said. Employers might pay little for onerous work, and sometimes staffers do not show up, one of them said. "There's a younger generation of people that just don't want to do these jobs," the source said.

At Walmart, a freight handler at its Coldwater, Michigan distribution center might "lift up to 40 to 60 pounds repetitively for extended periods of time," according to a job posting on Glassdoor. Another ad asked if a candidate had proficiency in operating equipment such as a forklift and would work 12-hour or overnight shifts, for $19.30 to $24.80 an hour.

For David Guggina, executive vice president of supply chain operations at Walmart U.S., automation has meant new technical roles for associates and other employment opportunities, not job cuts. It reduces physically demanding work, giving Walmart "substantially low turnover," he said.

"A reduction in turnover absolutely drives savings," Guggina told Reuters. "You improve your productivity because you have less folks that are sitting in what I call (the) learning curve."

Asked how much Walmart was spending on automation overall, Guggina said Walmart was investing billions of dollars into its supply chain network.

In spite of their promise, robotics have not always paid off for the company, which pulled the plug on shelf-scanning units in its stores years ago.

Their long-term feasibility can be uncertain, depending on significant adjustments and a controlled environment, whereas humans can adapt faster, said Katie Driggs-Campbell, a professor the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering.

"We are still far away from the robotics replacing humans in the retail industry," she said.

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Kinetic Automation - >>> Startup unveils robotic system that use AI-eyes to fix EV damages

Kinetic Automation claims to fill a significant gap in the collision repair aftermarket.


Interesting Engineering

Jun 21, 2024

by Prabhat Ranjan Mishra


https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/kinetic-automation-robots-electric-cars


Kinetic Automation

A California-based startup has developed a robotic system to quickly diagnose issues with an electric vehicle’s digital system.

Kinetic Automation’s system uses computer vision and machine-learning software to provide diagnostics and recalibration of the high-tech systems in modern vehicles.

The robotic system’s rapid diagnosis is likely to increase EV sales, which has cooled down in 2024 due to increasing cost of repairs for EV models.

Kinetic Automation maintains that today’s modern vehicles have more technology in them than ever before. “Repairing them is an urgent need and an extraordinary opportunity,” the company says.

Kinetic Automation leverages robotics, proprietary AI

The company claims that it leverages robotics, proprietary AI, and specialized expertise to automate digital collision repair across all makes and models.

“We help businesses adapt to the evolving automotive landscape by repairing digital collision damage in minutes rather than hours, increasing capacity, and growing revenue with unparalleled speed and precision.”

Only 26% of US consumers are likely to consider purchasing an EV

The innovative repair method comes as a 2024 study by J.D. Power found that only 26% of US consumers are very likely to consider purchasing an EV in the next twelve months, while more than 20% are very unlikely to consider an EV purchase.

The startup claims to fill a significant gap in the collision repair aftermarket, providing digital repair solutions for a wide range of businesses from national collision chains to dealerships and fleets.

Kinetic Hub can support up to 80 calibrations per day

According to the company, every state-of-the-art Kinetic Hub can support up to 80 calibrations per day. And with cycle times under 60 minutes, from drop-off to delivery, this gives collision repair businesses the flexibility and capacity to accept more customers and grow revenue without burdening their own staff, and without adding additional equipment or floor space.

When a customer’s car rolls up to one of Kinetic’s service bays, it is first scanned from bumper to fender with machine vision sensors, some on a robotic arm that peers over the top of the vehicle. The scan determines which systems need to be precisely programmed or need a recalibration, reported CNBC.

Then Kinetic’s software, which is connected to the vehicle’s systems, will initiate and track the completion of those fixes.

The company claims that all new vehicles have at least 3 sensor modules, with most modern vehicles having 30 or more. “New capabilities such as camera, lidar, radar and ultrasonic-based technologies are exponentially increasing the complexity of repairing today’s vehicles.

Kinetic Automation aims that one day it will provide its services to robotaxi fleets, and to the owners of other autonomous vehicles.

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>>> Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) -- Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/14-best-robotics-stocks-buy-194148400.html

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) is a global manufacturer and distributor of farming equipment, operating in four segments – Production and Precision Agriculture, Small Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. In 2021, the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Bear Flag Robotics, a Silicon Valley-based startup specializing in autonomous driving technology for existing machines. The $250 million deal aims to expedite the development and deployment of automation and autonomy in farming.

According to Insider Monkey’s third quarter database, 55 hedge funds were long Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), compared to 56 funds in the prior quarter. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the leading stakeholder of the company, with approximately 4 million shares worth $1.5 billion.

ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy made the following comment about Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“Our industrials holdings produced robust absolute returns for the quarter. While the ISM Manufacturing Index fell in November to contractionary levels, our industrial holdings have largely been able to maintain earnings due to strong competitive positions, historically large backlogs and company-specific drivers. For example, Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) continues to benefit from a strong upgrade cycle as record farmers’ income is driving broad and rapid adoption of the company’s precision agricultural equipment.”

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>>> Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) - Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/14-best-robotics-stocks-buy-194148400.html

Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) is a medical technology company operating in two segments – MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment specializes in implants for hip and knee joint replacements, trauma, and extremities surgeries, as well as spinal implant products. The MedSurg and Neurotechnology segment provides a range of medical devices and products for various medical specialties, including surgical equipment, navigation systems, emergency medical equipment, and neurotechnology products for minimally invasive endovascular techniques and brain surgeries. Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) is one of the best robotics stocks to invest in.

On January 30, Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) reported a Q4 non-GAAP EPS of $3.46 and a revenue of $5.8 billion, outperforming $0.19 and $200 million, respectively. Terry Smith’s Fundsmith LLP is the leading stakeholder of the company, with 5.5 million shares worth $1.5 billion.

Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“We initiated a position in Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) during the quarter. Stryker is a large diversified medical device company with two business segments: (1) MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and (2) Orthopedics and Spine. The stock sold off during the quarter along with many other medical device stocks because of concerns about the impact of GLP-1 weight loss medicines on their business (lol). Specific to Stryker, the concern was that weight loss would reduce demand for hip and knee implant procedures because obesity is one factor that drives osteoarthritis. We think this concern was overstated and saw the sell-off as an opportunity to buy a high-quality growth company at a reasonable valuation. We think Stryker is well positioned with its broad product portfolio to benefit from the trend of more orthopedic and other medical procedures moving from the hospital to ambulatory surgery centers. The company also has several new product launches coming up that should drive growth. At its recent Investor Day, management provided long-term financial goals including organic sales growth at the high end of the medical technology industry and double-digit EPS growth.”

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>>> Telematics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies (road transport, road safety, etc.), electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedia, Internet, etc.).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telematics#:~:text=Telematics%20most%20commonly%20relate%20to,machine%20or%20group%20of%20machines.


Telematics can involve any of the following:

Lexus Gen V navigation system

The technology of sending, receiving, and storing information using telecommunication devices to control remote objects
The integrated use of telecommunications and informatics for application in vehicles and to control vehicles on the move
Global navigation satellite system technology integrated with computers and mobile communications technology in automotive navigation systems

(Most narrowly) The use of such systems within road vehicles (also called vehicle telematics)

History

Telematics is a translation of the French word télématique, which was first coined by Simon Nora and Alain Minc in a 1978 report to the French government on the computerization of society. It referred to the transfer of information over telecommunications and was a portmanteau blending the French words télécommunications ("telecommunications") and informatique ("computing science"). The original broad meaning of telematics continues to be used in academic fields, but in commerce it now generally means vehicle telematics.[1]

Vehicle telematics

Telematics can be described as thus:

The convergence of telecommunications and information processing, the term later evolved to refer to automation in automobiles, such as the invention of the emergency warning system for vehicles. GPS navigation, integrated hands-free cell phones, wireless safety communications, and automatic driving assistance systems all are covered under the telematics umbrella.
The science of telecommunications and informatics applied in wireless technologies and computational systems. 802.11p, the IEEE standard in the 802.11 family and also referred to as Wireless Access for the Vehicular Environment (WAVE), is the primary standard that addresses and enhances Intelligent Transport System.

Share bicycle with solar powered electronics to track and account for its usage
Vehicle telematics can help improve the efficiency of an organization.[2]

Vehicle tracking

Vehicle tracking is monitoring the location, movements, status, and behavior of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. This is achieved through a combination of a GPS (GNSS) receiver and an electronic device (usually comprising a GSM GPRS modem or SMS sender) installed in each vehicle, communicating with the user (dispatching, emergency, or co-ordinating unit) and PC-based or web-based software. The data is turned into information by management reporting tools in conjunction with a visual display on computerized mapping software. Vehicle tracking systems may also use odometry or dead reckoning as an alternative or complementary means of navigation.[citation needed]

GPS tracking is usually accurate to around 10–20 meters,[3] but the European Space Agency has developed the EGNOS technology to provide accuracy to 1.5 meters.[4]

Trailer tracking

Trailer tracking refers to the tracking of movements and position of an articulated vehicle's trailer unit through the use of a location unit fitted to the trailer and a method of returning the position data via mobile communication network, IOT (Internet of things), or geostationary satellite communications for use through either PC- or web-based software.[citation needed]

Cold-store freight trailers that deliver fresh or frozen foods are increasingly incorporating telematics to gather time-series data on the temperature inside the cargo container, both to trigger alarms and record an audit trail for business purposes. An increasingly sophisticated array of sensors, many incorporating RFID technology, is being used to ensure the cold chain.[citation needed]

Container tracking

Freight containers can be tracked by GPS using a similar approach to that used for trailer tracking (i.e. a battery-powered GPS device communicating its position via mobile phone or satellite communications). Benefits of this approach include increased security and the possibility to reschedule the container transport movements based on accurate information about its location. According to Berg Insight, the installed base of tracking units in the intermodal shipping container segment reached 190,000 at the end of 2013.[5] Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 38.2 percent, the installed base reached 960,000 units at the end of 2018.[citation needed]

Fleet management

Fleet management is the management of a company's fleet and includes the management of ships and/or motor vehicles such as cars, vans, and trucks. Fleet (vehicle) management can include a range of functions, such as vehicle financing, vehicle maintenance, vehicle telematics (tracking and diagnostics), driver management, fuel management, health and safety management, and dynamic vehicle scheduling. Fleet management is a function which allows companies that rely on transport in their business to remove or minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improving efficiency and productivity while reducing overall transport costs and ensuring compliance with government legislation and Duty of Care obligations. These functions can either be dealt with by an in-house fleet management department or an outsourced fleet management provider.[6]

Telematics standards

The Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP)[7] developed the industry's first telematics standard.[citation needed]

In 2008, AEMP brought together the major construction equipment manufacturers and telematics providers in the heavy equipment industry to discuss the development of the industry's first telematics standard.[8] Following agreement from Caterpillar, Volvo CE, Komatsu, and John Deere Construction & Forestry to support such a standard, the AEMP formed a standards development subcommittee chaired by Pat Crail CEM to develop the standard.[9] This committee consisted of developers provided by the Caterpillar/Trimble joint venture known as Virtual Site Solutions, Volvo CE, and John Deere. This group worked from February 2009 through September 2010 to develop the industry's first standard for the delivery of telematics data.[10]

The result, the AEMP Telematics Data Standard V1.1,[10] was released in 2010 and officially went live on October 1, 2010. As of November 1, 2010, Caterpillar, Volvo CE, John Deere Construction & Forestry, OEM Data Delivery, and Navman Wireless are able to support customers with delivery of basic telematics data in a standard xml format. Komatsu, Topcon, and others are finishing beta testing and have indicated their ability to support customers in the near future.[10]

The AEMP's telematics data standard was developed to allow end users to integrate key telematics data (operating hours, location, fuel consumed, and odometer reading where applicable) into their existing fleet management reporting systems. As such, the standard was primarily intended to facilitate importation of these data elements into enterprise software systems such as those used by many medium-to-large construction contractors. Prior to the standard, end users had few options for integrating this data into their reporting systems in a mixed-fleet environment consisting of multiple brands of machines and a mix of telematics-equipped machines and legacy machines (those without telematics devices where operating data is still reported manually via pen and paper). One option available to machine owners was to visit multiple websites to manually retrieve data from each manufacturer's telematics interface and then manually enter it into their fleet management program's database. This option was cumbersome and labor-intensive.[11]

A second option was for the end user to develop an API (Application Programming Interface), or program, to integrate the data from each telematics provider into their database. This option was quite costly as each telematics provider had different procedures for accessing and retrieving the data and the data format varied from provider to provider. This option automated the process, but because each provider required a unique, custom API to retrieve and parse the data, it was an expensive option. In addition, another API had to be developed any time another brand of machine or telematics device was added to the fleet.[11]

A third option for mixed-fleet integration was to replace the various factory-installed telematics devices with devices from a third party telematics provider. Although this solved the problem of having multiple data providers requiring unique integration methods, this was by far the most expensive option. In addition to the expense, many third-party devices available for construction equipment are unable to access data directly from the machine's electronic control modules (ECMs), or computers, and are more limited than the device installed by the OEM (Cat, Volvo, Deere, Komatsu, etc.) in the data they are able to provide. In some cases, these devices are limited to location and engine runtime, although they are increasingly able to accommodate a number of add-on sensors to provide additional data.[11]

The AEMP Telematics Data Standard provides a fourth option. By concentrating on the key data elements that drive the majority of fleet management reports (hours, miles, location, fuel consumption), making those data elements available in a standardized xml format, and standardizing the means by which the document is retrieved, the standard enables the end user to use one API to retrieve data from any participating telematics provider (as opposed to the unique API for each provider that was required previously), greatly reducing integration development costs.[10]

The current draft version of the AEMP Telematics Data Standard is now called the AEM/AEMP Draft Telematics API Standard, which expands the original standard Version 1.2 to include 19 data fields (with fault code capability). This new draft standard is a collaborative effort of AEMP and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), working on behalf of their members and the industry. This Draft API replaces the current version 1.2 and does not currently cover some types of equipment, e.g., agriculture equipment, cranes, mobile elevating work platforms, air compressors, and other niche products.

In addition to the new data fields, the AEM/AEMP Draft Telematics API Standard changes how data is accessed in an effort to make it easier to consume and integrate with other systems and processes. It includes standardized communication protocols for the ability to transfer telematics information in mixed-equipment fleets to end user business enterprise systems, enabling the end user to employ their own business software to collect and then analyze asset data from mixed-equipment fleets without the need to work across multiple telematics provider applications.

To achieve a globally recognized standard for conformity worldwide, the AEM/AEMP Draft Telematics API Standard will be submitted for acceptance by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Final language is dependent upon completion of the ISO acceptance process.

Satellite navigation

Satellite navigation in the context of vehicle telematics is the technology of using a GPS and electronic mapping tool to enable a driver to locate a position, plan a route, and navigate a journey.[12]

Mobile data

Mobile data is the use of wireless data communications using radio waves to send and receive real-time computer data to, from, and between devices used by field-based personnel. These devices can be fitted solely for use while in the vehicle (Fixed Data Terminal) or for use in and out of the vehicle (Mobile Data Terminal). See mobile Internet.

The common methods for mobile data communication for telematics were based on private vendors' RF communication infrastructure. During the early 2000s, manufacturers of mobile data terminals/AVL devices moved to try cellular data communication to offer cheaper ways to transmit telematics information and wider range based on cellular provider coverage. Since then, as a result of cellular providers offering low GPRS (2.5G) and later UMTS (3G) rates, mobile data is almost totally offered to telematics customers via cellular communication.

Wireless vehicle safety communications

Wireless vehicle safety communications telematics aid in car safety and road safety. It is an electronic subsystem in a vehicle used for exchanging safety information about road hazards and the locations and speeds of vehicles over short-range radio links. This may involve temporary ad hoc wireless local area networks.

Wireless units are often installed in vehicles and fixed locations, such as near traffic signals and emergency call boxes along the road. Sensors in vehicles and at fixed locations, as well as in possible connections to wider networks, provide information displayed to drivers. The range of the radio links can be extended by forwarding messages along multi-hop paths. Even without fixed units, information about fixed hazards can be maintained by moving vehicles by passing it backwards. It also seems possible for traffic lights, which one can expect to become smarter, to use this information to reduce the chance of collisions.

In the future, it may connect directly to the adaptive cruise control or other vehicle control aids. Cars and trucks with the wireless system connected to their brakes may move in convoys to save fuel and space on the roads. When a column member slows down, those behind it will automatically slow also. Certain scenarios may required less engineering effort, such as when a radio beacon is connected to a brake light.

In fall 2008, network ideas were tested in Europe, where radio frequency bandwidth had been allocated. The 30 MHz allocated is at 5.9 GHz, and unallocated bandwidth at 5.4 GHz may also be used. The standard is IEEE 802.11p, a low-latency form of the Wi-Fi local area network standard. Similar efforts are underway in Japan and the USA.[13]

Emergency warning system for vehicles

Telematics technologies are self-orientating open network architecture structures of variable programmable intelligent beacons developed for application in the development of intelligent vehicles with the intent to accord (blend or mesh) warning information with surrounding vehicles in the vicinity of travel, intra-vehicle, and infrastructure. Emergency warning systems for vehicle telematics are developed particularly for international harmonization and standardization of vehicle-to-vehicle, infrastructure-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure real-time Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) systems.

Telematics most commonly relate to computerized systems that update information at the same rate they receive data, enabling them to direct or control a process such as an instantaneous autonomous warning notification in a remote machine or group of machines. In the use of telematics relating to intelligent vehicle technologies, instantaneous direction travel cognizance of a vehicle may be transmitted in real-time to surrounding vehicles traveling in the local area of vehicles equipped (with EWSV) to receive said warning signals of danger.

Intelligent vehicle technologies

Telematics comprise electronic, electromechanical, and electromagnetic devices—usually silicon micro-machined components operating in conjunction with computer-controlled devices and radio transceivers to provide precision repeatability functions (such as in robotics artificial intelligence systems) emergency warning validation performance reconstruction.

Intelligent vehicle technologies commonly apply to car safety systems and self-contained autonomous electromechanical sensors generating warnings that can be transmitted within a specified targeted area of interest, i.e. within 100 meters of the emergency warning system for the vehicle's transceiver. In ground applications, intelligent vehicle technologies are utilized for safety and commercial communications between vehicles or between a vehicle and a sensor along the road.

On November 3, 2009, the most advanced Intelligent Vehicle concept car was demonstrated in New York City when a 2010 Toyota Prius became the first LTE connected car. The demonstration was provided by the NG Connect project, a collaboration of automotive telematic technologies designed to exploit in-car 4G wireless network connectivity.[14]

Carsharing

Telematics technology has enabled the emergence of carsharing services such as Local Motion, Uber, Lyft, Car2Go, Zipcar worldwide, or City Car Club in the UK. Telematics-enabled computers allow organizers to track members' usage and bill them on a pay-as-you-drive basis. Some systems show users where to find an idle vehicle.[15] Car Clubs such as Australia's Charter Drive use telematics to monitor and report on vehicle use within predefined geofence areas to demonstrate the reach of their transit media car club fleet.

Auto insurance/Usage-based insurance (UBI)

See also: Auto insurance risk selection

The general idea of telematics auto insurance is that a driver's behavior is monitored directly while the person drives and this information is transmitted to an insurance company. The insurance company then assesses the risk of that driver having an accident and charges insurance premiums accordingly. A driver who drives less responsibly will be charged a higher premium than a driver who drives smoothly and with less calculated risk of claim propensity. Other benefits can be delivered to end users with Telematics2.0-based telematics as customer engagement can be enhanced with direct customer interaction.

Telematics auto insurance was independently invented and patented[16] by a major U.S. auto insurance company, Progressive Auto Insurance U.S. patent 5,797,134, and a Spanish independent inventor, Salvador Minguijon Perez (European Patent EP0700009B1). The Perez patents cover monitoring the car's engine control computer to determine distance driven, speed, time of day, braking force, etc. Progressive is currently developing the Perez technology in the U.S. and European auto insurer Norwich Union is developing the Progressive technology for Europe. Both patents have since been overturned in courts due to prior work in the commercial insurance sectors.[17]

Trials conducted by Norwich Union in 2005 found that young drivers (18- to 23-year-olds) signing up for telematics auto insurance have had a 20% lower accident rate than average.[18]

In 2007, theoretical economic research on the social welfare effects of Progressive's telematics technology business process patents questioned whether the business process patents are pareto efficient for society. Preliminary results suggested that it was not, but more work is needed.[19][20] In April 2014, Progressive patents were overturned by the U.S. legal system on the grounds of "lack of originality."

The smartphone as the in-vehicle device for insurance telematics has been discussed in great detail[21] and the instruments are available for the design of smartphone-driven insurance telematics.

Telematics education

Engineering Degree programs

Federico Santa María Technical University (UTFSM) in Chile has a Telematics Engineering program which is a six-year full-time program of study (12 academic semesters). The final degree in Telematics Engineering has the title of Ingeniería Civil Telemática (with the suffix of Civil).[22]

Pontifical Catholic University Mother and Teacher (PUCMM) in the Dominican Republic has a Telematics Engineering program which is a four-year full-time program of study (12 academic four-month periods). The final degree in Telematics Engineering has the title of Ingeniería Telemática.[23]

University Bachelor programs

Harokopio University of Athens has a four-year full-time program of study. The department goal is the development and advancement of computer science, primarily in the field of network information systems and relative e-services. For this purpose, attention is focused in the fields of telematics (teleinformatics) which are relative to network and internet technologies, e-business, e-government, e-health, advanced transport telematics, etc.[24]

TH Wildau in Wildau, Germany has provided a three-year full-time telematics Bachelor study program since 1999.[25]
TU Graz in Graz, Austria offers a three-year Bachelor in telematics (now called "Information and Computer Engineering").[26]
Singapore Institute of Technology offers a three-year Bachelor in Telematics.
National Open and Distance Learning University of Mexico* (UNADM) offers a four-year degree in Telematics delivered online.[27]

University Masters programs

Several universities provide two-year Telematics Master of Science programs:

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway[28]
University of Twente (UT), The Netherlands[29]
University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), Spain[30]
Harokopio University Athens[31]
TH Wildau in Wildau, Germany[32]
TU Graz in Graz, Austria (now called "Information and Computer Engineering")[33]
European Automotive Digital Innovation Studio (EADIS)

In 2007, a project entitled the European Automotive Digital Innovation Studio (EADIS) was awarded 400,000 Euros from the European commission under its Leonardo da Vinci program. EADIS used a virtual work environment called the Digital Innovation Studio to train and develop professional designers in the automotive industry in the impact and application of vehicle telematics so they could integrate new technologies into future products within the automotive industry. Funding ended in 2013.[34]

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>>> Godfather of AI tells '60 Minutes' he fears the technology could one day take over humanity

Geoffrey Hinton hails the benefits of artificial intelligence but also sounds the alarm on such things as autonomous battlefield robots, fake news and unintended bias in employment and policing.


Kyle Moss

October 9, 2023


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ai-geoffrey-hinton-60-minutes-fears-technology-take-over-humanity-073704715.html


Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called “the Godfather of AI,” sat down with 60 Minutes for Sunday’s episode to break down what artificial intelligence technology could mean for humanity in the coming years, both good and bad.

Hinton is a British computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, best known for his work on artificial neural networks — aka the framework for AI. He spent a decade working for Google before leaving in May of this year, citing concerns about the risks of AI.

Here is a look at what Hinton had to say to 60 Minutes interviewer Scott Pelley.

The Intelligence

After highlighting the latest concerns about AI to set up the segment, Pelley opened the Q&A with Hinton by asking him if humanity knows what it’s doing.

“No,” Hinton replied. “I think we’re moving into a period when for the first time ever, we have things more intelligent than us.”

Hinton expanded on that by saying he believes the most advanced AI systems can understand, are intelligent and can make decisions based on their own experiences. When asked if AI systems are conscious, Hinton said that due to a current lack of self-awareness, they probably aren’t, but that day is coming “in time.” And he agreed with Pelley’s take that, consequently, human beings will be the second-most intelligent beings on the planet.

After the idea was floated by Hinton that AI systems may be better at learning than the human mind, Pelley wondered how, since AI was designed by people — a notion that Hinton corrected.

“No, it wasn't. What we did was, we designed the learning algorithm. That’s a bit like designing the principle of evolution,” Hinton said. “But when this learning algorithm then interacts with data, it produces complicated neural networks that are good at doing things. But we don’t really understand exactly how they do those things.”

The Good

Hinton did say that some of the huge benefits of AI have already been seen in healthcare, with its ability to do things like recognize and understand medical images, along with designing drugs. This is one of the main reasons Hinton looks on his work with such a positive light.

The Bad

“We have a very good idea sort of roughly what it’s doing,” Hinton said of how AI systems teach themselves. “But as soon as it gets really complicated, we don’t actually know what’s going on any more than we know what’s going on in your brain.”

That sentiment was just the tip of the iceberg of concerns surrounding AI, with Hinton pointing to one big potential risk as the systems get smarter.

“One of the ways these systems might escape control is by writing their own computer code to modify themselves. And that’s something we need to seriously worry about,” he said.

Hinton added that as AI takes in more and more information from things like famous works of fiction, election media cycles and everything in between, AI will just keep getting better at manipulating people.

“I think in five years time it may well be able to reason better than us,” Hinton said.

And what that means is risks like autonomous battlefield robots, fake news and unintended bias in employment and policing. Not to mention, Hinton said, “having a whole class of people who are unemployed and not valued much because what they used to do is now done by machines.”

The Ugly

To make matters worse, Hinton said he doesn’t really see a path forward that totally guarantees safety.

“We’re entering a period of great uncertainty where we’re dealing with things we’ve never done before. And normally the first time you deal with something totally novel, you get it wrong. And we can’t afford to get it wrong with these things.”

When pressed by Pelley if that means AI may one day take over humanity, Hinton said "yes, that's a possibility. I’m not saying it will happen. If we could stop them ever wanting to, that would be great. But it’s not clear we can stop them ever wanting to."

So what do we do?

Hinton said that this could be a bit of a turning point, where humanity may have to face the decision of whether to develop these things further and how people should “protect themselves” if they do.

“I think my main message is, there’s enormous uncertainty about what’s going to happen next,” Hinton said. “These things do understand, and because they understand we need to think hard about what’s next, and we just don’t know.”

Pelley reported that Hinton said he has no regrets about the work he’s done given AI’s potential for good, but that now is the time to run more experiments on it to understand, to impose certain regulations and for a world treaty to ban the use of military robots.

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>>> Robotic glove that 'feels' lends a 'hand' to relearn playing piano after a stroke


June 30, 2023

Florida Atlantic University


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230630130152.htm


Summary:

A new soft robotic glove is lending a 'hand' and providing hope to piano players who have suffered a disabling stroke or other neurotrauma. Combining flexible tactile sensors, soft actuators and AI, this robotic glove is the first to 'feel' the difference between correct and incorrect versions of the same song and to combine these features into a single hand exoskeleton. Unlike prior exoskeletons, this new technology provides precise force and guidance in recovering the fine finger movements required for piano playing and other complex tasks.

For people who have suffered neurotrauma such as a stroke, everyday tasks can be extremely challenging because of decreased coordination and strength in one or both upper limbs. These problems have spurred the development of robotic devices to help enhance their abilities. However, the rigid nature of these assistive devices can be problematic, especially for more complex tasks like playing a musical instrument.

A first-of-its-kind robotic glove is lending a "hand" and providing hope to piano players who have suffered a disabling stroke. Developed by researchers from Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science, the soft robotic hand exoskeleton uses artificial intelligence to improve hand dexterity.

"Playing the piano requires complex and highly skilled movements, and relearning tasks involves the restoration and retraining of specific movements or skills," said Erik Engeberg, Ph.D., senior author, a professor in FAU's Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and a member of the FAU Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute. "Our robotic glove is composed of soft, flexible materials and sensors that provide gentle support and assistance to individuals to relearn and regain their motor abilities."

Researchers integrated special sensor arrays into each fingertip of the robotic glove. Unlike prior exoskeletons, this new technology provides precise force and guidance in recovering the fine finger movements required for piano playing. By monitoring and responding to users' movements, the robotic glove offers real-time feedback and adjustments, making it easier for them to grasp the correct movement techniques.

To demonstrate the robotic glove's capabilities, researchers programmed it to feel the difference between correct and incorrect versions of the well-known tune, "Mary Had a Little Lamb," played on the piano. To introduce variations in the performance, they created a pool of 12 different types of errors that could occur at the beginning or end of a note, or due to timing errors that were either premature or delayed, and that persisted for 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. Ten different song variations consisted of three groups of three variations each, plus the correct song played with no errors.

To classify the song variations, Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithms were trained with data from the tactile sensors in the fingertips. Feeling the differences between correct and incorrect versions of the song was done with the robotic glove independently and while worn by a person. The accuracy of these algorithms was compared to classify the correct and incorrect song variations with and without the human subject.

Results of the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI, demonstrated that the ANN algorithm had the highest classification accuracy of 97.13 percent with the human subject and 94.60 percent without the human subject. The algorithm successfully determined the percentage error of a certain song as well as identified key presses that were out of time. These findings highlight the potential of the smart robotic glove to aid individuals who are disabled to relearn dexterous tasks like playing musical instruments.

Researchers designed the robotic glove using 3D printed polyvinyl acid stents and hydrogel casting to integrate five actuators into a single wearable device that conforms to the user's hand. The fabrication process is new, and the form factor could be customized to the unique anatomy of individual patients with the use of 3D scanning technology or CT scans.

"Our design is significantly simpler than most designs as all the actuators and sensors are combined into a single molding process," said Engeberg. "Importantly, although this study's application was for playing a song, the approach could be applied to myriad tasks of daily life and the device could facilitate intricate rehabilitation programs customized for each patient."

Clinicians could use the data to develop personalized action plans to pinpoint patient weaknesses, which may present themselves as sections of the song that are consistently played erroneously and can be used to determine which motor functions require improvement. As patients progress, more challenging songs could be prescribed by the rehabilitation team in a game-like progression to provide a customizable path to improvement.

"The technology developed by professor Engeberg and the research team is truly a gamechanger for individuals with neuromuscular disorders and reduced limb functionality," said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of the FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science. "Although other soft robotic actuators have been used to play the piano; our robotic glove is the only one that has demonstrated the capability to 'feel' the difference between correct and incorrect versions of the same song."

Study co-authors are Maohua Lin, first author and a Ph.D. student; Rudy Paul, a graduate student; and Moaed Abd, Ph.D., a recent graduate; all from the FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science; James Jones, Boise State University; Darryl Dieujuste, a graduate research assistant, FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science; and Harvey Chim, M.D., a professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Florida.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Aging of the NIH and the National Science Foundation. This research was supported in part by a seed grant from the FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science and the FAU Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE).

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>>> The real-life version of 'Terminator': This tiny shapeshifting robot "melts" to escape cages


by Camille Fine

USA TODAY

January 29, 2023


https://www.yahoo.com/news/real-life-version-terminator-scientists-110507249.html


Although magnetically controlled soft robots have been around, this oozing version may invoke new feelings of terror, with AI-dystopian characteristics that would be a hallmark of any movie involving the end of humankind.

Scientists say the Lego-shaped robot can “melt” from solid to liquid and reform itself to squeeze in and out of tight spaces, perform tasks like soldering a circuit board and even escape cages.

In a new study published January 25 in the journal Matter, scientists showed the incredible strength of this phase-shifting property, which can be controlled remotely with a magnetic field. It’s made from a mixture of magnetic materials including neodymium, iron, and boron, and the liquid metal gallium.

Researchers took inspiration from nature. A graphic in the article depicts sea cucumbers, for instance, which can rapidly and reversibly change its stiffness.

Most existing materials for these robots are able to enter delicate spaces like the human body because they are stretchy — but, because they are also solid, unable to pass through the narrowest of spaces.

Additionally, magnetic liquids are fluid but unable to carry heavy objects — unlike this robot which can make itself sturdier and stronger when under pressure or when carrying something heavier than itself, the study said. A solid robot, about 50 milligrams (or less than an ounce), is able to carry about 30 times its own weight.

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>>> Robobees Are Back — This Time In The Image Of A “Fairy” That “Could Help Save The Planet”


FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Natural Blaze

ENVIRONMENT

By Amanda Warren


https://www.naturalblaze.com/2023/02/robobees-are-back-this-time-in-the-image-of-a-fairy-that-could-help-save-the-planet.html


Longtime readers might remember when we first covered the Robobee concept back in 2014. Robot insect research dates back much further in military circles where they’ve been designed for search and rescue, hazardous exploration, surveillance, climate mapping, and traffic monitoring – to name a few.

Greenpeace wound up creating a fictionalized video like something from Black Mirror that postulated what the world could look like if these “superior” creations were unleashed to fulfill their singular mission as autonomous pollinators.

The real Robobee wasn’t nearly as sophisticated — nor would it ever be mistaken for the real thing — but it was hailed as a marvel of engineering nonetheless.

The main goal for the Robobee has remained lofty ever since – to solve the problem of bee-colony collapse, which legitimately would put our ability to feed ourselves at grave risk, by introducing autonomous swarms of robot pollinators. Pesticide use is well documented to negatively impact bees in a variety of ways, but the researchers oddly highlight global warming as the main issue, which remains highly debatable.

Whereas the original Robobee concept relied purely on solar power, new research is focusing on harnessing the power of both wind and light (even laser and LED) with a “fairy” robotic pollinator that was also inspired by dandelion seeds.

It’s no Tinkerbell, but it might be the closest we’ll get to seeing a real-life fairy. A team of engineers is developing a small fairy-like robot that moves with the power of wind and is controllable using light. Researchers in Finland say these dandelion-inspired smart robots could help save the environment, taking over for pollinators (like bees) who are disappearing from nature.

“Superior to its natural counterparts, this artificial seed is equipped with a soft actuator. The actuator is made of light-responsive liquid crystalline elastomer, which induces opening or closing actions of the bristles upon visible light excitation,” says Hao Zeng, an academy research fellow and the leader of the Light Robots group at Tampere University, in a media release.

Past work using stimuli-responsive polymers has created soft-bodied robots that can walk, swim, and jump. Until now, however, no one has been successful in making these types of robots fly. The fairy-like robot contains several features that make it capable of flying. It has a large number of empty spaces that supports a lightweight structure. It also easily floats through the air when the wind hits it. Additionally, the robot has a stable separated vortex ring that allows for long-distance wind-assisted traveling.

“The fairy can be powered and controlled by a light source, such as a laser beam or LED,” Zeng says.

Shining light on the robot can help modify the shape of its dandelion seed-like structure. The robot manually adapts to wind direction and force changes by altering its shape. A light beam also helps to control when it is ready to launch and land.

Could this robot do the job of bees?

The fairy isn’t just for show and tell; they could help pollinate our environment. With some more tweaking, the engineering team has hopes that the dandelion-shaped robot could use sunlight rather than a single light beam to operate. If so, it could potentially carry micro-electronic devices like GPS and sensors on its journey.

“It sounds like science fiction, but the proof-of-concept experiments included in our research show that the robot we have developed provides an important step towards realistic applications suitable for artificial pollination,” adds Zeng.

With more fairy robots floating on the wind, scientists could use millions of artificial dandelion seeds to carry pollen. The sunlight could help steer the fairies toward specific areas with trees and flowers waiting for pollination.

“This would have a huge impact on agriculture globally since the loss of pollinators due to global warming has become a serious threat to biodiversity and food production,” Zeng concludes.

Another improvement Zeng and the team are trying to make is controlling the precision of how fairies land on plants and trees. Additionally, to make the robot eco-friendly, they hope to make them biodegradable and recyclable.

The study is published in the journal Advanced Science.

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>>> MIT engineers design self-replicating robots capable of assembling giant structures

Researchers advance efforts to create groups of robots that could construct almost anything.


Interesting Engineering

Nov 29, 2022


https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/mit-self-replicating-robots-assembling-giant-structures


When it comes to the manufacturing of commercial aircraft, different parts are manufactured at various locations.

Before finally bringing them all together in a central plant and putting the finished aeroplane together, the tail components, the fuselage, and the wings are made at different plants.

Many other large structures, besides aircraft, are also built in sections. But what if instead of sections, the entire assembly could take place in one go using a team of small robots?

A doctorate student, Amira Abdel-Rahman, and Neil Gershenfeld, professor and director of MIT Center of Bits and Atoms (CBA), are envisioning precisely this in their doctoral thesis work which was recently published in Nature.

Self-building robots formed of superior voxels

The new research provides a step forward towards building robots that can basically make anything. It builds on years of research that employed small, identical lightweight components, including the assembly of a functioning race car and a malleable aeroplane wing.

The MIT team have successfully produced prototype robots capable of assembling small structures which connect to build whole vehicles and buildings- and even bigger robots.

They can transport data and power from one unit to another

Like earlier experiments, the team's approach uses voxels (the volumetric equivalent of a 2-D pixel), which are a collection of tiny identical subunits that create big, useable structures.

However, in this case, the voxels employed are more complex than earlier ones in that each of them can transport data and power from one unit to another. Previously, voxels were only mechanical structural components.

“When we’re building these structures, you have to build in intelligence,” Gershenfeld said in an MIT article.

Additionally, older versions involved bots that were connected through wire bundles and control systems. The new system is more efficient as voxels ensure there is a single structure — no bundles of wires or power sources.

The voxels join end-to-end to constitute the robots, and they can use their attachment points to grab another voxel and move it into its desired position. When the voxel is attached to the structure, it is released in that position.

When the structure size becomes large enough, the robots can make bigger robots in order to be efficient and reduce travel time across distances.

Algorithms handle the robots’ decision-making

One of the main focuses among researchers is to create algorithms that handle the robots’ decision-making as to when to build the structure, when to build more robots, and when to build larger ones.

According to Gershenfeld, an automatic robot assembly system that is capable of assembling massive structures and self-replicating will still take years to set up. However, this new work is a huge step towards achieving that goal.

Ultimately, this technology can be used to make large airplanes, factories, automobiles, etc., in a single go. Robotic workforces can quickly scale the materials and personnel needed to assemble the desired structures making the entire process that much more time and labor efficient.

You can compare this robotic system that assembles big structures like that to a kid making a large castle using LEGO blocks. The work has attracted significant interest from potential users like NASA, who the researchers are now collaborated with. Additionally, Airbus SE, a Europe-based aerospace firm, is sponsoring the study.

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Cognex - >>> This High-Growth Stock Just Told Us Its Future Is Even Brighter


Motley Fool

By Lee Samaha

Sep 29, 2022


https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/09/29/this-high-growth-stock-just-told-us-its-future-is/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article


KEY POINTS

All of its key end markets are suffering this year.

The growth company is establishing relationships with the leading companies in its end markets.

Management recently upgraded its served market estimate.

This machine vision company just upgraded its near-term revenue expectations.


It's been a brutal year for shareholders in machine vision company Cognex (CGNX -2.39%). The stock is down nearly 45% this year as the company's main end markets (automotive, consumer electronics, and logistics) have suffered in line with ongoing supply chain challenges and slowing consumer spending. If that wasn't enough, a fire at a primary contractor damaged Cognex's inventory of components; the last thing needed in the current environment of component shortages. That said, some recent developments help point to many of the reasons why the stock remains attractive for long-term growth-oriented investors.

Cognex upgrades expectations

Cognex's machine vision solutions replace the human eye in automating manufacturing and distribution processes. Examples include fitting screens on mobile phones or logistics in e-commerce warehousing. There are two reasons to feel more positive about Cognex stock, and they both speak to the long-term case for the stock. The first is management's recent upgrade to revenue expectations for its third quarter. Back in the second-quarter earnings report management gave disappointing guidance of revenue of $160 million to $180 million for the third quarter. Management put that down to "the June fire at the company's primary contract manufacturing site and lower expected revenue from e-commerce logistics."

Fast forward to the recent update, and management upgraded guidance to revenue of $195 million to $205 million. Management put the guidance increase down to its ability to deliver on customer orders "sooner than anticipated due to strong progress in replenishing component inventory destroyed in the previously disclosed fire."

Why it's good news

It highlights that the company's component shortage problems are likely to ease and speaks to its commitment to its customers. The latter is a crucial factor in a growth company's development. As a growth company trying to encourage the adoption of its machine vision technology in new markets (more on that in a moment), it makes sense to establish relationships with industry leaders, and it also makes sense to service those customers well.

There's evidence Cognex is doing both of those things. For example, its most significant consumer electronics customer is Apple, while its largest logistics customer (although undisclosed) is possibly Amazon. Establishing relationships with such companies will surely encourage the adoption of its technology among second- and third-tier players.

Furthermore, Cognex has long been proactive in servicing key customers. In 2014, management significantly increased expenses to service its large orders with Apple. That business approach was echoed in 2021. When component shortages started to bite, management prioritized delivery of chips. According to CEO Rob Willet on the fourth quarter conference call, prioritizing delivery to customers "added incremental costs in 2021, due to the significant premiums we've paid to procure components through brokers, and for expedited freight".

Upgrade to served market estimate

Second, Cognex recently upgraded its estimate for its served market to $6.2 billion from a previous estimate (given in 2019) of $4.2 billion. The new estimate breaks out its market in terms of its three key end markets, with logistics (essentially machine vision for use in e-commerce warehousing) now being its largest end market at $2 billion, automotive (Cognex's traditional end market) representing $1.5 billion, and consumer electronics adding $1.35 billion. The medical-related end market is $650 million, and "others" makes up $1 billion.

Interestingly, logistics is now, by far, Cognex's largest served market -- a significant improvement from being a distant third a few years ago. Similarly, the "others" end market is almost as large as Cognex's consumer electronics market -- suggesting there's plenty of growth potential from the adoption of machine vision in new markets.

Management estimates its current market share is only around 15%, giving it ample room to grow by taking market share and participating in end market growth of 13% over the long term. Overall, management expects to grow at a 15% rate over the long term.


CGNX EV to EBITDA Chart

DATA BY YCHARTS

What it all means to investors

While there's no guarantee that Cognex will grow at 15% over the long term -- a figure in line with the mid-teens annual revenue growth achieved over the last decade -- , the upgrade to third-quarter estimates demonstrates how lumpy the company's earnings growth can be. All it will take is automotive companies expanding electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing lines, e-commerce warehousing companies developing facilities, or consumer electronics companies introducing new product lines, and Cognex could see a few large orders. These are some factors in the thinking behind the estimate of long-term growth of 15%. Cognex now trades on a multi-year valuation low (see chart above), and despite the bad news this year, it remains an attractive growth stock option.

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>>> Amazon is buying robot vacuum company iRobot for $1.7 billion


ZD Net

by Sabrina Ortiz

Aug. 5, 2022


https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/kitchen-household/amazon-is-buying-robot-vacuum-company-irobot-in-a-1-7-billion-dollar-deal/


Amazon is buying robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot in a deal valued at approximately $1.7 billion.

iRobot is best known for the Roomba, the autonomous vacuum cleaner that finds its way around household obstacles to vacuum floors completely on its own. It also makes robot mop devices, too.

Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, says Amazon was the perfect fit for the company. "Amazon shares our passion for building thoughtful innovations that empower people to do more at home, and I cannot think of a better place for our team to continue our mission. I'm hugely excited to be a part of Amazon and to see what we can build together for customers in the years ahead," he said. He will remain as CEO once the transaction is completed.

Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices, said that Amazon recognizes how much iRobot has done to make people's lives easier.

"Over many years, the iRobot team has proven its ability to reinvent how people clean with products that are incredibly practical and inventive—from cleaning when and where customers want while avoiding common obstacles in the home, to automatically emptying the collection bin," said Limp in the release. "Customers love iRobot products—and I'm excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers' lives easier and more enjoyable."

iRobot far from the first company Amazon has acquired to expand its smart home portfolio. In the last five years, Amazon acquired Blink Home, the security camera company, for an undisclosed amount and Ring, the camera doorbell company, for approximately one billion dollars. These acquisitions allowed the company to add security devices to its smart home ecosystem.

Amazon has been a leader in the smart home space with their Alexa Smart home technology, which allows you to control everything from lighting to security to televisions and thermostats with the sound of your voice.

iRobot and Amazon already had established a relationship when they partnered to make the Roomba and Braava jet robots compatible with Alexa in 2021. This partnership allowed customers to use voice commands to tell the robots to start or stop cleaning and to go back to its home base.

Meanwhile iRobot reported revenues of $455.4 million and a net loss of $31.5 million due to supply chain constraints in the fourth quarter of FY 2021. The company also said that it sold its 40 millionth robot during the final quarter of 2021.

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Optimus robot - >>> Tesla CEO Elon Musk: 'People do not realize the magnitude of the Optimus robot program'


Yahoo Finance

by Brian Sozzi

April 21, 2022


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-tesla-optimus-robot-102430216.html


Elon Musk is clearly bullish on Tesla (TSLA), the potential of Twitter (TWTR), and the Optimus robot.

"I was surprised that people do not realize the magnitude of the Optimus robot program," the Tesla CEO said on the company's earnings call late Wednesday. "The importance of Optimus will become apparent in the coming years. Those who are insightful or who listen carefully will understand that Optimus ultimately will be worth more than the car business and worth more than full self-driving, that’s my firm belief."

Tesla first revealed the Optimus robot — also known as Tesla Bot — at an artificial intelligence-focused event in August 2021. The robot, 5-foot 8 inches and 125 pounds, is designed to perform repetitive or mundane tasks that humans hate (or can't be hired to do in a tight labor market).

Wall Street analysts generally don't believe Optimus will be a financial needle mover in the medium-term given they aren't being produced at scale.

"I would say no, but time will tell," Wells Fargo auto analyst Colin Langan told Yahoo Finance when asked about the robot impact. "He has proven the markets wrong before."

In theory, the Optimus program has potential to help Tesla lower operating costs in its facilities —it's just a matter if Musk can make enough robots.

In the meantime, what the Street is believing on Tesla is that could be on its way to another strong year of making electric vehicles profitably.

Shares of Tesla rose 7% in pre-market trading as Tesla pummeled Wall Street estimates for sales, margins, and earnings. The stock was the number one trending ticker on the Yahoo Finance platform.

Here's how Tesla performed versus Street estimates:

Revenue: $18.8 billion versus $17.9 billion expected

Adjusted earnings per share: $3.22 versus $2.27 expected

Musk noted that despite COVID-19 related shutdowns at its key Shanghai manufacturing plant recently, Tesla production has come back with a "vengeance." He added that will aid in Tesla potentially delivering 60% more cars this year compared to 2021, ahead of many analyst estimates.

"Taking a step back, with the supply chain issues still a lingering overhang on the auto space and logistical issues globally, we believe these 'Cinderella-like' delivery numbers in a brutal supply chain backdrop speaks to an EV demand trajectory that looks quite robust for Tesla heading into the rest of 2022," Wedbush Managing Director Dan Ives said.

Ives has a $1,400 price target on the stock. At current levels, Ives' price target assumes 33% upside over the next 12-months.

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>>> Knightscope IPO taking security robots public


The Robot Report

By Brianna Wessling |

December 6, 2021


https://www.therobotreport.com/knightscope-ipo-taking-security-robots-public/


Knightscope’s security robots can be used in a variety of facilities.


Knightscope, a Mountain View, Calif.-based developer of autonomous security robots, is going public on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “KSCP.” Knightscope will be offering $40 million of Class A common stock at $10 per share.

Knightscope plans to use the proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO) to continue to scale its fleet of security robots and to invest in new technologies. The company has a line of four security robots, ranging from a stationary robot to an all-terrain one.

“On this important day, I wish to take a moment to thank the absolutely relentless team at Knightscope and our 28,000+ investors for their unwavering support,” said Knightscope chairman and CEO William Santana Li. “We are committed more than ever to our mission of making the United States of America the safest country in the world. We need to provide the brave women and men in uniform, on our own soil, cutting edge technology to help them make smarter, faster and safer decisions. They deserve only the best and so does every community in our great nation, as we work to reimagine public safety, together.”

Knightscope was founded in 2013 and has raised more than $75 million in funding. In 2020, the company gained its first federal purchase order through a General Services Administration (GSA) contract.

The company offers its robots for sale using a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. RaaS is a capital expense heavy business model as the RaaS-provider (KnightScope) doesn’t sell the physical equipment to its customers, it only offers the robots in a subscription model. Thus the robots remain on the books for Knightscope throughout their useful lifetime.

Knightscope first announced its plans to go public at its shareholders meeting in September 2021. There, the company also announced it would be prioritizing its 28,000-plus investors first, allowing them to purchase stock before the rest of the public. You can watch a video of that meeting below.

According to an SEC filing, Knightscope’s revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2021 increased by $141,000 (9%) to $1.8 million. Revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was $1.6 million.

Knightscope’s shares were listed for sale immediately following the closing of the NASDAQ on December 1, 2021.

In April 2020, Knightscope announced new software features that would help to encourage social distancing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The software enables Knightscope robots to identify tight groupings of people and then play warning messages.

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>>> Best AI ETFs for Q1 2022

ROBO, ROBT, and KOMP are the best AI ETFs for Q1 2022


Investopedia

By NATHAN REIFF

December 21, 2021


https://www.investopedia.com/investing/top-etfs-capitalizing-artificial-intelligence/?utm_campaign=quote-yahoo&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral


Artificial intelligence (AI) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) seek to provide exposure to a fast-growing segment of the technology industry. AI aims to simulate human intelligence, leveraging powerful algorithms to make machines think and act like human beings. Though the automation of repetitive tasks and substitution of human labor by machines is nothing new, AI is accelerating this trend, resulting in giant leaps in productivity.

For investors who are optimistic about AI’s growth potential but unsure about which companies will perform best, an AI ETF is an option. AI ETFs hold a basket of stocks in companies that are engaged in some aspect of AI, enabling investors to share in the growth of AI companies’ profits without the challenge of trying to separate the winners from the losers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The artificial intelligence (AI) sector, as represented by the technology sector, outperformed the broader market over the past year.

The AI exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the best one-year trailing total returns are ROBO, ROBT, and KOMP.

The top holdings of these ETFs are iRhythm Technologies Inc., Ambarella Inc., and Bruker Corp., respectively.

A special note: Some ETFs that use AI as a tool for picking stocks are also sometimes referred to as AI ETFs. But this story focuses on ETFs targeting companies that use AI for other industries, such as robotics, automation, healthcare, and automobiles.

There are six distinct AI ETFs that trade in the United States, excluding inverse and leveraged funds as well as those with less than $50 million in assets under management (AUM). The AI sector does not have its own benchmark, but its performance is best reflected in the index for the technology sector: the S&P 500 Information Technology sector index.

The information technology (IT) index has outperformed the broader market with a total return of 38.8% over the past 12 months, above the S&P 500’s total return of 28.9%, as of Dec. 9, 2021.1 The best-performing AI ETF, based on performance over the past year, is the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO).

We examine the three best AI ETFs below. All data in the lists below is as of Dec. 9, 2021.2


ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO)

Performance Over One-Year: 19.4%
Expense Ratio: 0.95%
Annual Dividend Yield: 0.17%
Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 89,414
Assets Under Management: $2.0 billion
Inception Date: Oct. 22, 2013
Issuer: Exchange Traded Concepts

ROBO seeks to track the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, which gauges the performance of companies engaged in robotics, automation, and AI.3 The ETF provides exposure to companies developing intelligent systems technology capable of sensing, processing, and acting, as well as to companies that apply that technology.4

The ETF follows a blended strategy of investing in a mix of value and growth stocks. It is diversified across a range of market capitalizations and developed markets.

The fund's top three holdings are iRhythm Technologies Inc. (IRTC), a digital healthcare company; Azenta Inc. (AZTA), a provider of automation, vacuum, and instrumentation equipment; and Teradyne Inc. (TER), an automatic test equipment designer and manufacturer.5


First Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence and Robotics ETF (ROBT)

Performance Over One-Year: 14.8%
Expense Ratio: 0.65%
Annual Dividend Yield: 0.15%
Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 20,446
Assets Under Management: $294.6 million
Inception Date: Feb. 21, 2018
Issuer: First Trust

ROBT tracks the Nasdaq CTA Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Index, an index composed of companies engaged in the AI and robotics segments of the technology, industrial and other economic sectors. Companies must be classified as AI or robotics engagers, enablers, or enhancers by the Consumer Technology Association to be included, and must meet market capitalization, free float, and trading volume minimums.

The fund’s portfolio is broadly diversified geographically, with U.S. stocks accounting for the largest portion at just under 50%. Japan has the next largest portion of invested assets, followed by the United Kingdom, France, and several other countries.6

The top holdings of ROBT include Ambarella Inc. (AMBA), a fabless semiconductor design company; PKSHA Technology Inc. (3993:TKS), a Japan-based algorithmic license business; and Ciena Corp. (CIEN), a telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier.7


SPDR S&P Kensho New Economies Composite ETF (KOMP)

Performance Over One-Year: 14.0%
Expense Ratio: 0.20%
Annual Dividend Yield: 1.03%
Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 115,588
Assets Under Management: $2.1 billion
Inception Date: Oct. 22, 2018
Issuer: State Street

KOMP is a multi-cap, blended fund tracking the S&P Kensho New Economies Composite Index. The index is composed of companies that leverage advancements in exponential processing power, AI, robotics, and automation.

The fund holds stocks domiciled in both developed and emerging markets. Semiconductor, application software, and aerospace and defense stocks make up the three largest portions of the portfolio.8

The top holdings of KOMP include Bruker Corp. (BRKR), a maker of scientific instruments for molecular and materials research; Teledyne Technologies Inc. (TDY), a maker of aerospace and defense electronics, digital imaging, and related solutions; and Avis Budget Group Inc. (CAR), a parent company of rental car businesses.9

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UiPath (PATH) - >>> 3 Artificial Intelligence Stocks Leading the New Wave


TipRanks

December 6, 2021


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-artificial-intelligence-stocks-leading-102641095.html


Let’s start off with UiPath, an AI company specializing in robotic process automation, or RPA. This is a clever hill in the larger AI field, using machine learning and AI to create bots – the automated software units that can handle the ordinary, boring, and repetitive tasks of the digital world. Or, as the company puts it, they’re robots so that people don’t have to be robots.

UiPath’s software robots offer customers a wide range of advantages, from accuracy to cost savings, to regulatory compliance to happier customers – and happier personnel, with improved productivity. While bots get a lot of negative press, especially for their abusive use in social media, when used constructively, they fill an important role.

The company has been in operation since 2005, but went public earlier this year, riding the tide of rising stock prices when it held its IPO. The stock opened on the NYSE on April 21, in an upsized IPO. The company put 13 million shares up, and existing shareholders sold another 14.474 million shares. The initial price was set at $56, above the $43 to $50 range expected. UiPath realized $728 million of the total $1.34 billion raised; the company did not profit from the sale by existing stockholders. Since the event, PATH shares have slipped 36%. Even so, the company has a market cap above $22.76 billion.

UiPath will report its third quarterly results as a public entity on December 8, but we can check back to the last quarter, the company’s fiscal 2Q22 report from September 7, to get an idea of where it stands. The company reported total revenue of $195.5 million, up 4.8% sequentially and 40% yoy. Annual recurring revenue, a measure of forward business potential, rose to $726.5 million, a gain of 60%, and the company finished its fiscal Q2 with $1.9 billion in liquid assets.

This company’s strong product and clear revenue potential attracted the attention of Credit Suisse analyst Phil Winslow, who wrote, “We believe that UiPath’s differentiated, end-to-end hyperautomation platform that can scale from individual workers to company-wide initiatives will enable the company to continue driving strong new customer acquisition, robust customer expansion, and attractive unit economics longer than Wall Street appreciates.”

Winslow, a 5-star analyst, gave the stock an Outperform (Buy) rating, and a $75 price target suggesting a one-year upside of 69%. (To watch Winslow’s track record, click here.)

With UiPath, we move to a stock with a Buy rating from the analysts. The 16 most recent reviews include 7 Buys, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell, for a Moderate Buy overall consensus. The average price target is $70.43, indicating a potential for 59% growth from the share price of $44.32. (See UiPath’s stock analysis at TipRanks.)

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>>> UiPath Inc. (PATH) provides an end-to-end automation platform that offers a range of robotic process automation (RPA) solutions primarily in the United States, Romania, and Japan. It develops UiPath Studio, a platform designed for RPA developers looking to build complex process automations with built-in governance capabilities, such as robust debugging tools, application programming interface automation, wizards to automate desktop or web applications, leverage custom code, and to integrate machine learning models into production workflows. The company also offers UiPath Robots, which emulates human behavior to execute the processes built in UiPath Studio; and UiPath Orchestrator that tracks and logs robot activity, along with what people do in tandem to maintain strict compliance and governance through dashboards and visualization tools. In addition, it provides maintenance and support for its software, as well as professional services, such as training and implementation services to facilitate the adoption of its platform. UiPath Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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>>> Best AI ETFs for Q4 2021

LOUP, ARKQ, and ROBO are the best AI ETFs for Q4 2021


Investopedia

By MATTHEW JOHNSTON

August 31, 2021


https://www.investopedia.com/investing/top-etfs-capitalizing-artificial-intelligence/?utm_campaign=quote-yahoo&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral


Artificial intelligence (AI) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) seek to provide exposure to a fast-growing segment of the technology industry. AI aims to simulate human intelligence, leveraging powerful algorithms to make machines think and act like human beings. Though the automation of repetitive tasks and substitution of human labor by machines is nothing new, AI is accelerating this trend, resulting in giant leaps in productivity.

For investors who are optimistic about AI's growth potential but unsure which companies will perform best, an AI ETF is an option. AI ETFs hold a basket of stocks in companies that are engaged in some aspect of AI, enabling investors to share in the growth of AI companies' profits without the challenge of trying to separate the winners from the losers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The AI sector, as represented by the tech sector, slightly underperformed the broader market over the past year.

The ETFs with the best one-year trailing total return are LOUP, ARKQ, and ROBO.

The top holdings of these ETFs are Harmonic Drive Systems Inc., Tesla Inc., and Intuitive Surgical Inc., respectively.
A special note: Some ETFs that use AI as a tool for picking stocks are also sometimes referred to as AI ETFs. But this story focuses on ETFs targeting companies that use AI for other industries, such as robotics, automation, healthcare, and automobiles.

There are six distinct AI ETFs that trade in the U.S., excluding inverse and leveraged funds as well as those with less than $50 million in assets under management (AUM). The AI sector does not have its own benchmark, but its performance is best reflected in the index for the technology sector, the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index. The information technology (IT) index has slightly underperformed the broader market with a total return of 30.5% over the past 12 months, just below the S&P 500's total return of 31.4%, as of Aug. 27, 2021.1 The best-performing AI ETF, based on performance over the past year, is the Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF (LOUP). We examine the three best AI ETFs below. All data in the lists below is as of Aug. 27, 2021.2


Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF (LOUP)

Performance Over One-Year: 51.7%
Expense Ratio: 0.70%
Annual Dividend Yield: N/A
3-Month Average Daily Volume: 14,789
Assets Under Management: $76.9 million
Inception Date: July 25, 2018
Issuer: Innovator

LOUP is a multi-cap ETF that tracks the Loup Frontier Tech Index, which holds a basket of companies representing AI technology as well as robotics, fintech, autonomous vehicle technology, virtual reality, and similar technologies. LOUP holds approximately 30 stocks, with the majority of them based in the U.S. The fund follows a blended strategy, investing in a mix of growth and value stocks.3 Its top three holdings include Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. (6324:JAS), a Japan-based manufacturer of mechatronics products and speed reducers; Snap Inc. (SNAP), a camera and social media company; and Class A sponsored ADRs of Baidu Inc. (BIDU), a China-based company offering Internet search engine and other online services.3


ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ)

Performance Over One-Year: 45.1%
Expense Ratio: 0.75%
Annual Dividend Yield: 0.80%
3-Month Average Daily Volume: 356,112
Assets Under Management: $2.7 billion
Inception Date: Sept. 30, 2014
Issuer: ARK

ARKQ holds a basket of multi-cap equities focused on autonomous vehicles, robotics and automation, 3D printing, energy storage, and space exploration. Until November of 2019, the fund was called the ARK Industrial Innovation ETF.4 ARKQ is an actively managed ETF that employs a growth strategy and is geographically diversified across developed markets throughout the world. The fund's top three holdings include Tesla Inc. (TSLA), an electric vehicle and clean energy company; Trimble Inc. (TRMB), a provider of advanced location-based software solutions; and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. (KTOS), a defense contractor and security systems integrator for the U.S. federal government as well as state and local agencies.5


ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO)

Performance Over One-Year: 40.5%
Expense Ratio: 0.95%
Annual Dividend Yield: 0.18%
3-Month Average Daily Volume: 81,840
Assets Under Management: $1.8 billion
Inception Date: Oct. 22, 2013
Issuer: Exchange Traded Concepts

ROBO seeks to track the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, which gauges the performance of companies engaged in robotics, automation, and AI.6 The ETF provides exposure to companies developing intelligent systems technology capable of sensing, processing, and acting, and companies that apply that technology.7 The ETF follows a blended strategy of investing in a mix of value and growth stocks. It is diversified across a range of market capitalizations and developed markets. The fund's top three holdings include Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG), a provider of robotics-assisted minimally invasive surgery technology; ServiceNow Inc. (NOW), a software company that provides a cloud computing platform for digital workflows; and Vocera Communications Inc. (VCRA), a provider of instant voice communication solutions.

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>>> Microrobots designed to deliver drugs to diseased cells find inspiration in starfish larva


Medical X Press

Nov 9, 2021

by Ra­hel Künz­ler

ETH Zurich


https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-microrobots-drugs-diseased-cells-starfish.html


The new microbot inspired by starfish larva stirs up plastic beads. Credit: Cornel Dillinger/ETH Zurich


Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a tiny robot that mimics the movement of a starfish larva. It is driven by sound waves and equipped with tiny hairs that direct the fluid around it, just like its natural model. In the future, such microswimmers could deliver drugs to diseased cells with pinpoint accuracy.

Among scientists, there is great interest in tiny machines that are set to revolutionize medicine. These microrobots, often only a fraction of the diameter of a hair, are made to swim through the body to deliver medication to specific areas and perform the smallest surgical procedures.

The designs of these robots are often inspired by natural microorganisms such as bacteria or algae. Now, for the first time, a research group at ETH Zurich has developed a microrobot design inspired by starfish larva, which use ciliary bands on their surface to swim and feed. The ultrasound-activated synthetic system mimics the natural arrangements of starfish ciliary bands and leverages nonlinear acoustics to replicate the larva's motion and manipulation techniques.

Hairs to push liquid away or suck it in

At first glance, the microrobots bear only scant similarity to starfish larva. In its larval stage, a starfish has a lobed body that measures just a few millimeters across. Meanwhile, the microrobot is a rectangle and ten times smaller, only a quarter of a millimeter across. But the two do share one important feature: a series of fine, movable hairs on the surface, called cilia.

A starfish larva is blanketed with hundreds of thousands of these hairs. Arranged in rows, they beat back and forth in a coordinated fashion, creating eddies in the surrounding water. The relative orientation of two rows determines the end result: Inclining two bands of beating cilia toward each other creates a vortex with a thrust effect, propelling the larva. On the other hand, inclining two bands away from each other creates a vortex that draws liquid in, trapping particles on which the larva feeds.

De­pend­ing on whether it is swim­ming or feed­ing, the star­fish larva gen­er­ates dif­fer­ent pat­terns of vor­tices.

Artificial swimmers beat faster

These cilia were the key design element for the new microrobot developed by ETH researchers led by Daniel Ahmed, who is a Professor of Acoustic Robotics for life sciences and healthcare. "In the beginning," Ahmed said, "we simply wanted to test whether we could create vortices similar to those of the starfish larva with rows of cilia inclined toward or away from each other.

To this end, the researchers used photolithography to construct a microrobot with appropriately inclined ciliary bands. They then applied ultrasound waves from an external source to make the cilia oscillate. The synthetic versions beat back and forth more than ten thousand times per second—about a thousand times faster than those of a starfish larva. And as with the larva, these beating cilia can be used to generate a vortex with a suction effect at the front and a vortex with a thrust effect at the rear, the combined effect "rocketing" the robot forward.

In their lab, the researchers showed that the microrobots can swim in a straight line through liquid such as water. Adding tiny plastic beads to the water made it possible to visualize the vortices created by the microrobot. The result is astonishing: both starfish larva and microrobots generate virtually identical flow patterns.

Next, the researchers arranged the ciliary bands so that a suction vortex was positioned next to a thrust vortex, imitating the feeding technique used by starfish larva. This arrangement enabled the robots to collect particles and send them out in a predetermined direction

Besides swimming, the new microrobot can collect particles and steer them in a predetermined direction.

Ahmed is convinced that this new type of microrobot will be ready for use in medicine in the foreseeable future. This is because a system that relies only on ultrasound offers decisive advantages: ultrasound waves are already widely used in imaging, penetrate deep inside the body, and pose no health risks.

The fact that this therapy requires only an ultrasound device makes it cheap, he adds, and hence suitable for use in both developed and developing countries.

Ahmed believes one initial field of application could be the treatment of gastric tumors. Uptake of conventional drugs by diffusion is inefficient, but having microrobots transport a drug specifically to the site of a stomach tumor and then deliver it there might make the drug's uptake into tumor cells more efficient and reduce side effects.

Sharper images thanks to contrast agents

But before this vision can be realized, a major challenge remains to be overcome: imaging. Steering the tiny machines to the right place requires that a sharp image be generated in real time. The researchers have plans to make the microrobots more visible by incorporating contrast agents such as those already used in medical imaging with ultrasound.

In addition to medical applications, Ahmed anticipates this starfish-inspired design to have important implications for the manipulation of smallest liquid volumes in research and in industry. Bands of beating cilia could execute tasks such as mixing, pumping and particle trapping.

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>>> Israel debuts battlefield robot to support, protect troops


By Mike Glenn

The Washington Times

September 13, 2021


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/sep/13/israel-debuts-battlefield-robot-support-protect-tr/


An Israeli defense contractor on Monday rolled out a remote-controlled armed robot that its maker says can keep human troops out of harm’s way. The Rex MK II is just the latest unmanned combat system that is changing the face of tomorrow’s battlefield.

Developed by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, the Rex MK II can be adapted for a variety of missions, ranging from gathering intelligence to logistics support, with the capacity to carry a load of up to 1.3 tons. Armed with an arsenal that includes .50 caliber and 7.62 mm machine guns, it can also help conduct attacks.

“The multi-mission Rex MK II is intended to support infantry ground troops in various stages of fighting,” company officials said in a statement. “This includes providing logistical assistance to troops by carrying munition supplies, critical medical equipment, water and food, as well as evacuating injured personnel on stretchers.”

The robot also can be used to gather intelligence through a system that incorporates electro-optical sensors and radar. The Rex MK II is not fully autonomous — it requires a human controller — but it can drive itself to a set location on its own and use its optical sensors to bypass obstacles in its path.

Some critics have warned that even semi-autonomous systems like the Rex MK II are another step closer to battlefield robots that can attack targets on their own. Human Rights Watch launched the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots” to ensure human control over the use of force.

Israel uses a smaller military robot called a Jaguar to patrol its volatile southern border with Gaza, and has developed several other unmanned systems for battlefield use, including the RobARC used to uncover and destroy explosive devices, and the RobDozen, an unmanned bulldozer that can carry out complex engineering tasks in danger zones.

“The need to support ground forces in the field to carry out various missions while minimizing threats to soldiers’ lives is at the heart of our values here,” Zvika Yarom, general manager of IAI’s land division, said in a statement. “We are experiencing a rise in demand from clients for unmanned land platforms.”

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>>> Sarcos Robotics - is a wearable and teleoperated industrial robotics company that augments humans to enhance productivity and safety.

Sarcos Robotics augments human performance by combining human intelligence, instinct, and judgment with the strength, endurance, and precision of machines to enhance employee safety and productivity. Leveraging more than 25years of research and development, Sarcos’ mobile robotic systems, including the Guardian® S, Guardian® GT, and Guardian® XO®, are revolutionizing the future of work wherever physically demanding work is done.

Formerly the robotics division of a major defense contractor, Sarcos is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, powered by an innovative team of entrepreneurs and engineers, and backed by Caterpillar, GE Ventures, Microsoft, and Schlumberger.

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https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sarcos?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=profile_cta&utm_campaign=yahoo_finance


(Palantir is investor)

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>>> Alphabet’s Wing Touts Milestone in Drone Delivery Growth


MSN

by Alan Levin

8-25-21


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/alphabet-e2-80-99s-wing-touts-milestone-in-its-growing-drone-deliveries/ar-AANJA4x?ocid=uxbndlbing


(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Wing subsidiary is about to reach a milestone in the fledgling drone-delivery business: Any day now it will deliver its 100,000th package to a customer.

At its busiest delivery hub, in Logan City, Australia, the company earlier this month set a new internal record of 4,500 deliveries in one week. The system will one day be a far more efficient mode of transporting goods to people’s homes than what exists today, according to a top executive.

“We’re extremely bullish on our ability to offer this service at a lower cost than ground delivery very profitably over time,” Jonathan Bass, Wing LLC’s head of marketing and communications told Bloomberg News. “You can begin to look at this and extrapolate to what drone delivery will look like in urban and suburban environments around the world.”

Even as government regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere hash out technical requirements for this new class of flying machines, Wing is expanding rapidly. In addition to existing test sites in Australia, Virginia and Helsinki, it has plans for deliveries at an undisclosed new location in the U.S., according to an emailed statement.

The potentially tectonic shift to routine deliveries of sandwiches, cups of coffee and rotisserie chicken remains a long-range goal as regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere wrestle with how to craft rules.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the world’s busiest airspace, just finalized a set of basic technical standards for how drones should be tracked with radio beacons. In recent months, it convened a panel of industry representatives to help develop critical rules for how unpiloted devices can fly long distances safely.

Wing -- along with several other companies including Amazon.com’s Prime Air and United Parcel Service Inc. -- have gotten various levels of approval from the FAA to conduct tests in the U.S.

Owing in part to more restrictive rules by the FAA, Wing’s demonstration project in Christiansburg, Virginia, has been used to test various deliveries, from Girl Scout cookies to library books. Bass declined to provide statistics for deliveries in the U.S.

He did predict an expansion in the U.S. without citing a location as well as a similar effort in Finland. The company for the first time said it has plans to expand delivery tests outside of its Virginia location.

“We’ll expand quite a bit in the United States in the next few months, I expect,” Bass said.

A separate site in Canberra, Australia’s capital, is also growing quickly and currently makes more than 1,000 deliveries a week, Bass said.

Wing hasn’t released detailed financial information and Bass said only that the company doesn’t yet charge customers for deliveries. “We’re investing in growth today,” he said.

One of the most popular products for Wing deliveries is a simple cup of coffee. The company delivered 10,000 coffees in Logan City last year.

The company says its 100,000-delivery milestone represents real products sold to customers, and doesn’t count practice runs.

Another popular item is roasted chicken, known in Australia as a “hot chook.” The chickens are at the upper limit of what Wing’s drones -- which are half-copter, half-plane hybrids -- are capable of carrying. The limit is about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) to a location about 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, he said.

While turning Wing into an everyday service across the globe may be years away, the tests are encouraging, according to the company.

Customers can order online and Wing is increasingly automating flying operations, using computers to simulate the most efficient routes and allowing a single human to simultaneously monitor multiple drones at the same time.

“The system itself, the components of the aircraft and the aircraft are relatively inexpensive,” Bass said. “It’s very quick and easy to set up. Both the materials cost and the operations cost overtime we expect to be dramatically lower than ground delivery.”

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>>> Amazon’s Drone Delivery Fleet Hits Milestone With FAA Clearance


Bloomberg

By Alan Levin

August 31, 2020


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-31/amazon-s-drone-delivery-fleet-hits-milestone-with-faa-clearance


Company plans its first commercial airborne drops in U.S.

Approval is crucial step for drones, though hurdles remain


Retail behemoth Amazon.com Inc. took a big leap toward delivering goods from the sky by becoming one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.

The Federal Aviation Administration designated Amazon Prime Air an “air carrier,” the company said Monday. That allows Amazon to begin its first commercial deliveries in the U.S. under a trial program, using the high-tech devices it unveiled for that purpose last year.

Amazon and its competitors must still clear some imposing regulatory and technical hurdles before small packages holding the likes of cat food or toothpaste can routinely be dropped at people’s homes. But the action shows that they’ve convinced the government they’re ready to operate in the highly regulated aviation sector.

“This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates the FAA’s confidence in Amazon’s operating and safety procedures for an autonomous drone delivery service that will one day deliver packages to our customers around the world,” David Carbon, an Amazon vice president who oversees Prime Air, said in a statement.

The FAA confirmed it had granted the approval, saying in a statement that it’s trying to support innovation in the expanding drone arena while ensuring that the devices operate safely.

Amazon joins Wing, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, and United Parcel Service Inc. as companies that have gotten FAA approval to operate under the federal regulations governing charter operators and small airlines.

Wing, with partners Walgreens and FedEx Corp., has been conducting limited drone deliveries under a similar FAA approval in Virginia since last year. UPS flies medical supplies within a hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. Other smaller companies and startups are also seeking expanded FAA approvals.

Amazon will begin its own delivery tests, it said, declining to say where and when they would occur. It operates several test sites in the U.S. Northwest and in the nearby Vancouver area. It previously performed experimental deliveries in the U.K.

To receive FAA certification, the company had to document everything from pilot-training programs to drug testing. It also demonstrated its operations for FAA inspectors in recent days.

The approvals have at times challenged the FAA because its regulations were designed for aircraft with humans aboard, not unoccupied drones. Applicants have had to seek waivers for requirements such as the rule that a pilot must wear a seatbelt, or that flight attendants must be present on some flights.

The approval comes as Amazon’s business has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers turn away from traditional stores -- some of which were ordered closed -- in favor of online purchases.

Amazon and other companies hoping to revolutionize the retail world with drones have made significant strides in recent years. They’ve invented new devices and shown, at least on a limited scale, that they’re capable of flying relatively long distances and carrying the payloads necessary for packages.

But routine deliveries are most likely still years off.

The FAA is preparing to finalize a set of regulations by the end of this year that will serve as a framework to expand drone flights over crowds, a building block necessary for deliveries. Among other things, the rules will require all but the smallest such devices to broadcast their identities and location, to minimize the risks of terrorism or striking other aircraft.

That’s just the first step, however. For drones to operate efficiently, they must be able to fly pre-programmed routes without human pilots watching their every move.

Amazon, for example, said last year it plans for its devices -- a family of drones known as the MK27 -- to make deliveries within 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) of a warehouse, reach customers within 30 minutes, and carry packages weighing as much as five pounds.

Current U.S. regulations don’t permit such autonomous flights. FAA hasn’t yet created standards for these operations, and no companies have been approved to conduct them without safety measures such as costly on-ground observers.

Similar standards for the design and manufacturing of drones and acceptable levels of noise also need to be developed. In addition, the FAA has to develop a new air-traffic system to track low-altitude drone flights and maintain order in the skies.

Amazon’s MK27 drone. which it unveiled last year, has a hexagon-shaped frame and takes off and lands like a helicopter. Once airborne, it tilts and flies like a plane for greater efficiency. It carriers multiple sensors and computing systems designed to allow it to touch down at a home without hitting power lines or posing a danger to people or pets.

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>>> Robots are changing the future of farming

A robot named Sam rules over this atypical Ohio farm.

CNET

by Megan Wollerton

Feb. 9, 2020


https://www.cnet.com/features/robots-are-changing-the-future-of-farming/


It's a cloudy day in early October and I'm circling my rented Jeep Wrangler around a maze of industrial buildings in Hamilton, Ohio. Hamilton is a small city 30 miles north of Cincinnati with a population of just over 62,000 people. Like much of Ohio, farming is important here.

I'm on my way to a farm called 80 Acres, but it isn't the sprawling midwestern wheat field you're picturing in your mind. This tech-centric farm is indoors, housed entirely in a nondescript 10,000-square-foot warehouse.

You can't tell from the outside, but this is a bustling produce farm that has tested over 100 varieties of leafy greens.

Food and agriculture are the top contributors to Ohio's economy. There are about 78,000 farms in Ohio, putting it near the top of every list ranking US states by number of farms. Its biggest crops are soybeans, corn and wheat.

But US farming is in trouble. There are roughly 2 million farms in the country spread across 900 million acres and they earned a total of $389 billion in sales in 2017, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, released in April 2019. All three of those numbers are lower than they were five years ago. There are fewer farms, there's less land dedicated to agriculture and the remaining farms are making less money.

There are a lot of reasons for these declines, from dropping commodity prices, to climate change and a trade war with China. There's also a growing trend of larger farms making the majority of the profits. Less than four percent of US farms made more than two thirds of agriculture sales in 2017.

80 Acres Farms doesn't just want to make fresh, local produce for Cincinnati and neighboring areas; it wants to completely overhaul the food system in the US.

"We decided that the [food] industry was really broken and that it had to be fixed from within. Farmers are struggling and they don't want their kids to be in farming," 80 Acres CEO Mike Zelkind explains as we watch a robot named "Sam" expertly maneuver containers of leafy greens around a series of stacked shipping containers inside the Hamilton warehouse.

I'm here to see how 80 Acres is changing farming for this corner of Ohio -- and how its sister company, Infinite Acres, is selling its sustainable technology to other farms with an ultimate goal of "feeding the world."

A plan to feed the world

Zelkind and Tisha Livingston, the president of 80 Acres and CEO of Infinite Acres, came up with the idea for their farm in 2015. Back then, "controlled-environment agriculture" -- more commonly known as indoor or vertical farming -- was a relatively new industry. Indoor farming is a type of climate-controlled agriculture that typically relies on artificial lights and other technology to grow crops indoors.

Zelkind has a lot of respect for early indoor farming pioneers, but he says there's one thing they don't have that sets 80 Acres Farms apart: He and Livingston have over 50 years of combined experience in the food industry.

Zelkind worked for General Mills from 1991-1996. He later transitioned to VP and SVP roles at ConAgra Foods, Bumble Bee Foods and AdvancePierre Foods. He was the CEO of Sager Creek Vegetable Company before he and Livingston co-founded 80 Acres.

Livingston held various roles at Pierre Foods and AdvancePierre Foods from 1995-2014, before becoming a VP and then COO at Sager Creek Vegetable Company.

We're exhilarated and we're scared and we've gotten further than anybody else we know. And we're absolutely nowhere. We know that this won't cut it, and this is yesterday. We're working on tomorrow.

The duo witnessed firsthand the systemic problems with the food industry for decades. Zelkind says three things need to happen for any long-lasting, positive change to take place: We need to grow things differently, change the supply chain and distribution channels and merchandise differently.

For 80 Acres Farms, "growing things differently" translates to indoor farming.

Indoor farms can grow produce without pesticides, year-round. That immediately negates concerns about any of the synthetic or natural pesticides used in commercial and organic agricultural production and the inherent seasonality of traditional outdoor farming, as well as weather-related issues due to climate change such as droughts and floods.

"Even if you grow it differently, you can't stick it on some broken supply chain," Zelkind adds. Tomatoes and strawberries are bred for transportation -- and food in the US travels at least 2,000 miles on average to get from the farm to your grocery store shelf, he explains.

Tomatoes and strawberries are specifically bred to have thicker skins and they're picked from farms before they're ripe -- just so they will survive the 2,000 journey to your town. When you factor in the travel time, the shelf life of produce is significantly lower than it would've been if it were picked at peak ripeness and sent to a local store.

80 Acres puts its farms near the stores it serves and currently has six fully operational facilities. There's one in Alabama, one in North Carolina, two in Arkansas and two in Ohio, including the one I'm visiting today.

The name 80 Acres comes from their other Ohio farm, which is located on a quarter acres of land and grows the equivalent of 80 acres worth of crops.

The Ohio farms supply local grocery stores including Kroger, Whole Foods, Jungle Jim's and Dorothy Lane Market (a Dayton, Ohio-based store that also happens to make the best brownies I've ever tasted).

The final hurdle for 80 Acres is how to merchandise their food, which they package locally in-house. For this, they forget about the tech powering 80 Acres and lean on the taste. "We are sampling in the store aggressively because once you taste it, you know," says Rebecca Haders, vice president of creative and marketing at 80 Acres, who's tagging along with us today.

Of course, the tech really doesn't matter if the produce doesn't taste good -- but Zelkind, Livingston and Haders are unanimous: You really *can* taste the difference between typical grocery store produce and produce from 80 Acres Farms.

I bought a carton of their "Fireworks Tomatoes" at a Kroger in downtown Cincinnati and they were right; they were delicious. They tasted better than standard grocery store tomatoes, but on-par with the freshest, most flavorful produce at your local farmers market.

One drawback is the price. The 9-ounce carton of 80 Acres cherry tomatoes cost me $3.99. Kroger-brand conventional cherry tomatoes come in a 10-ounce carton and cost $2.49; Kroger's Simple-Truth-brand cherry tomatoes cost $2.99 for a 10-ounce carton. Even Whole Foods, a brand known for its higher pricing, sells packaged tomatoes for less than 80 Acres.

While 80 Acres' tomatoes were better, I wouldn't want to spend over $1 more on them each time I went to the store. I asked 80 Acres why budget-conscious customers -- or any customers, really -- should buy their produce when it costs more. Haders tells me the retailer sets the price, not 80 Acres.

"We know, based on consumer feedback, that the customer highly values our consistent flavor, truly pesticide-free, local, just picked-fresh tomatoes. Pricing is at par today with local, organic, but with efficiencies of scale, we intend to bring prices down without compromising product quality, freshness, or flavor," Haders adds.

Their focus may be on taste, but the truth is, Zelkind and the rest of the team care deeply about the tech. It's the crucial piece that has enabled 80 Acres Farms to grow so quickly. It's also the key component in solving the challenges associated with overhauling the food industry.

A top secret facility

"This facility is kind of top secret," Zelkind says as we stand in front of ten stacked shipping containers. "Everything in here is proprietary." I'm the first reporter to see it, I learn, and Zelkind, Livingston and Haders talk about the technology here in hushed, excited tones. While other indoor farms rely on tech, 80 Acres says it has taken a more holistic commercial approach with fully-automated robots loading produce for shipping and computer systems to help monitor the crops and manage their lighting schedule.

The team has spent five years on intensive trial and error to build this farm. They've brought in tech from other companies and also experimented by building their own to get as close as they can to an "optimal" indoor farm. Each new farm they build benefits from the things they learned the last time around -- and this facility in Hamilton is their newest and most high-tech farm.

"We're exhilarated and we're scared and we've gotten further than anybody else we know. And we're absolutely nowhere. We know that this won't cut it, and this is yesterday. We're working on tomorrow," Zelkind explains.

80 Acres' Hamilton farm has 10 shipping containers that measure 40 feet long, eight feet wide and eight feet tall. Each shipping container has between four to six levels and can accommodate roughly 4,000 plants. If every shipping container is filled to capacity, that's 40,000 plants total. This facility focuses on lettuces and other leafy greens.

There's a reason why 80 Acres and other indoor farms focus on these types of crops, explains Erik Runkle, professor of horticulture at Michigan State University. Customers want them year-round, despite seasonal availability -- and leafy greens are typically transported long distances, despite being perishable. Their nutritional content can also decrease during shipping.

Then the question becomes: How economically viable is indoor farming really? In short, we don't exactly know yet, Runkle tells me. He and colleagues from Michigan State and other universities received a grant from the USDA (the US Department of Agriculture) to study this exact thing, but even after the four-year study, Runkle doesn't expect the answer to be a simple "yes" or "no."

Commercial indoor farming in the US got started about 8-10 years ago, Runkle explains. He estimates that less than 1% of US produce farming comes from indoor farming today. Most of the early companies have gone out of business. Some well-known pioneers, like New Jersey's AeroFarms, are still around.

"Indoor farming is always going to be much more expensive than anything grown in a field," Runkle adds. He doesn't expect indoor farming to replace traditional farming anytime soon -- or perhaps ever. But he does see it as a potential solution in places where water is a limitation and field irrigation is either unrealistic or impossible.

Fortunately, some technological advancements have reduced the cost of indoor farming, making at least a little more viable today than it would've been a decade ago.

LED lights have been one of the most significant technological advancements that made 80 Acres possible. Older lights cost more money, used more energy and made the environment too hot for plants. Now, with LEDs, 80 Acres has customizable, automated lighting systems in place to simulate daylight with different color temperatures. They use less energy, spend less money and the plants are happier too.

This farm also relies on two robots, Sam and Barney, to handle most of the heavy lifting. The bots load and unload pallets of plants from each shipping container on a set schedule -- or manually, as needed. Other companies still hire people to go up on scissor lifts and move these heavy plant containers, Zelkind explains.

There are cameras inside each container, too, so the team can check in on their plants whenever they want. And 80 Acres is developing machine learning to identify irregularities -- pests, color deficiencies, variations in plant sizes and much more -- so that growers don't have to watch the plants 24/7.

When the cameras find an irregularity, it can be shared across the 80 Acres team to more quickly identify the potential issue and work toward a solution.

"We use all of that [technology] to assist growers, not to replace growers," Zelkind says. The AI tech today isn't anywhere near where it would need to be to take over the job of a grower, but making room for technology has definitely changed how growers interact with plants. 80 Acres even offers its own training classes to teach employees how to use their technologies.

Controlled-environment agriculture is becoming an increasingly prevalent area of study in agriculture departments at the University of Arizona, Cornell University, University of Nebraska and many other schools.

Tim Brobbeck started out as a grower at 80 Acres three years ago. Now Brobbeck's the plant manager. Brobbeck says it can be tricky to gauge what's going on with a certain plant when you can't climb up and access it easily. The cameras help, but it can still be difficult sometimes to tell what exactly is happening. This tech learning curve is exactly what Livingston is focused on as the CEO of Infinite Acres.

To Infinite Acres -- and beyond

Infinite Acres is 80 Acres' tech company. As head of Infinite Acres, Livingston works to make the tech as smart as possible, in order to support the growers and the rest of the team here. But there's another goal that goes way beyond the Hamilton farm or even 80 Acres' five other farms: She wants to take what they've learned about indoor farming tech from 80 Acres and sell it to other farmers all over the world.

80 Acres is open to selling its technology to other farms and helping them run things or simply selling the tech, training the existing staff to use it and leaving them to it, Livingston explains. They're eager to share what they know about lighting, sensors, vision systems, robots and automation with other farmers -- and there's a big demand for it.

I ask the 80 Acres team what makes them special, how they managed to keep going. "Our pedigree is grit," Zelkind chimes in. Their failures, coupled with their existing knowledge of the food industry and genuine passion for the work keep them going.

"We say, 'fail fast and cheap with tremendous insights,'" Livingston adds. It's kind of their motto. They've made a lot of mistakes, they readily admit.

They've killed a lot of crops. They've had so much humidity in grow zones that it literally rained, and killed everything. "We were in the process at one point where we were just continuing to seed knowing that we were gonna kill all of the crops that we had," Zelkind says with a chuckle.

But they've come this far and they're determined to train a new generation of farmers, just like Tim Brobbeck, to make healthy produce more accessible than ever before. "I love the scalability of [80 Acres] and the idea that we can go out and maybe feed the world someday," says Brobbeck. That sounds pretty good to me.

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>>> Carbon Robotics Disrupts Farming Industry with Autonomous Weeders

Robots eliminate weeds with lasers to solve one of the farming industries’ biggest challenges


BusinessWire

April 13, 2021


https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210413005415/en/Carbon-Robotics-Disrupts-Farming-Industry-with-Autonomous-Weeders


SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Carbon Robotics, an autonomous robotics company, today unveiled its third-generation autonomous weed elimination robots. The Autonomous Weeder leverages robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and laser technology to safely and effectively drive through crop fields to identify, target and eliminate weeds.

“AI and deep learning technology are creating efficiencies across a variety of industries and we’re excited to apply it to agriculture”

Unlike other weeding technologies, the robots utilize high-power lasers to eradicate weeds through thermal energy, without disturbing the soil. The automated robots allow farmers to use less herbicides and reduce labor to remove unwanted plants while improving the reliability and predictability of costs, crop yield and more.

“AI and deep learning technology are creating efficiencies across a variety of industries and we’re excited to apply it to agriculture,” said Carbon Robotics CEO and Founder, Paul Mikesell. “Farmers, and others in the global food supply chain, are innovating now more than ever to keep the world fed. Our goal at Carbon Robotics is to create tools that address their most challenging problems, including weed management and elimination.”

By deploying robots created by Carbon Robotics, farmers will experience the following benefits:

A significant increase in crop yield and quality: Lasers leave the soil microbiology undisturbed, unlike tillage. The lack of herbicides and soil disruption paves the way for a regenerative approach, which leads to healthy crops and higher yields.

A reduction in overall costs: Automated robots enable farmers to reduce the highly variable cost of manual labor as well as reduce the use of crop inputs such as herbicides and fertilizers. Labor is often farmers’ biggest cost and crop inputs account for 28.2% of their total expenses. Reducing costs in both these areas is a huge benefit.

Adoption of regenerative farming practices: Traditional chemicals used by farmers, such as herbicides, deteriorate soil health and are tied to health problems in humans and other mammals. A laser-powered, autonomous weed management solution reduces or eliminates farmers’ needs for herbicides.

An economical path to organic farming: One of the largest obstacles to organic farming is cost-effective weed control. A solution to weed management that doesn’t require herbicides or an increase in manual labor provides farmers with a more realistic path to classifying their crops as organic.

Carbon Robotics’ groundbreaking technology is designed for row crops with 200 acres to tens of thousands of acres. A single robot will weed 15-20 acres per day and replace several deployments of hand weeding crews. Since its founding in 2018, the company has worked closely with farmers to develop its technology, which supports effective and efficient weed elimination for both conventional and organic farmers. The robots have undergone beta testing on specialty crops farms, working on fields with a variety of crops, including broccoli and onions.

“This is one of the most innovative and valuable technologies that I’ve seen as a farmer,” said James Johnson of Carzalia Farm, who has utilized Carbon Robotics’ technology on his farm. “I expect the robots to go mainstream because of how effectively they address some of farming’s most critical issues, including the overuse of chemicals, process efficiency and labor. These robots work with a variety of crops, are autonomous and organic. The sky’s the limit.”

Carbon Robotics’ 2021 models have already sold out, but new models for the 2022 growing season are available for pre-order. Carbon Robotics offers a leasing option, which makes the robots more accessible to smaller farms with less acreage. The company will continue to explore new robot models and capabilities to help farmers improve efficiency and reliability across a variety of tasks.

About Carbon Robotics

Carbon Robotics is pioneering the next revolution in agriculture through the deployment of autonomous robots. Carbon Robotics’ Autonomous Weeders are purpose built to tackle one of the industry’s biggest problems: weed control. By leveraging artificial intelligence, robotic controls, and laser technology, Carbon Robotics’ revolutionary, high-precision approach improves crop yield, provides safer working conditions for farmers, reduces overall costs associated with modern farming, and creates sustainable paths to regenerative and organic produce. Carbon Robotics was founded in 2018 and is based in Seattle. For more information, visit: https://carbonrobotics.com/.

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>>> Brooks Automation To Acquire Precise Automation For $70M


Yahoo Finance

by Anusuya Lahiri

April 26, 2021


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brooks-automation-acquire-precise-automation-124219327.html


Brooks Automation Inc (NASDAQ: BRKS) has inked an agreement to acquire collaborative robots and automation subsystems developer Precise Automation for $70 million.

Precise’s technology enables convenient human-robot workflows via process automation.

Precise’s products are used in laboratory automation and semiconductor and electronics manufacturing end-markets.

Precise’s history of innovation in vision technology, precision motion, integrated controllers and direct-drive motors, and track record of solving customer challenges in laboratory and semiconductor automation made it a great fit with Brooks, Brooks CEO, Steve Schwartz said.

Precise co-founders Brian Carlisle and Dr. Bruce Shimano will join Brooks. Precise produced $17 million in revenue over the last year.

Brooks expected the acquisition to be immediately earnings accretive. It held $323 million in cash and equivalents as of Dec. 31, 2020.

Price action: BRKS shares traded higher by 3% at $105.82 in the premarket session on the last check Monday.

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>>> UiPath files confidential IPO paperwork, could become one of New York City’s biggest tech companies


CNBC

DEC 17 2020


https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/17/uipath-files-for-ipo-could-become-one-of-nycs-biggest-tech-companies.html


Robotic process automation company UiPath has submitted a draft registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

The company becomes the latest to take advantage of a frenzied IPO market and bull market for stocks that’s continued despite nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and a difficult year for the broader economy.
Earlier this year, UiPath raised $225 million at a $10.2 billion valuation — one that would rank it among the most valuable New York City tech companies at the time of its Wall Street debut.

The company, ranked No. 50 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, did not disclose its financial information nor did it specify how many shares would be offered.

UiPath is the latest company taking advantage of a bull market that’s continued despite nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and a difficult year for the broader economy. Three of the 10 biggest tech IPOs for U.S. companies, in terms of capital raised, have taken place this year. Two happened on consecutive days in the last week, when DoorDash and Airbnb started trading on Dec. 9 and 10. The other was software vendor Snowflake, which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in September.

On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and online retailer Poshmark both announced their intention to go public.

Investors and bankers have told CNBC that UiPath is among a large crop of subscription software companies that could have significant debuts next year. Others include GitLab, a site that helps developers share and manage code; HashiCorp, which provides cloud infrastructure automation software; Databricks, a provider of software that allows companies to analyze and use large data sets; and Tanium, a cloud security vendor.

Earlier this year, UiPath raised $225 million at a $10.2 billion valuation — one that would rank it among the most-valuable New York City tech companies like Etsy and MongoDB at the time of its Wall Street debut. The round was led by Alkeon Capital Management, a tech-focused hedge fund that’s become one of the industry’s best performers this year by betting big on e-commerce retailers and work-from-home plays.

UiPath uses artificial intelligence to build software robots that let companies automate back-office, repetitive and time-consuming tasks. The goal is to move humans away from this work and allow them to focus on things that bring more value to a company. Investors see great promise in this: Since the company was founded in 2005, UiPath has raised over $1 billion in funding from investors, including Coatue, Dragoneer, Sands Capital and Wellington. The company claims to have annual revenue of about $360 million and more than 6,300 customers, including Amazon, Bank of America and Verizon. It says 50% of Fortune 20 companies are clients.

As companies use AI from UiPath and other advanced technologies to help them with digital transformation, the whole topic of robotics seems eerily dystopian. The worry is that robots will replace humans in all kinds of tasks, repetitive and otherwise. UiPath says its software isn’t out to replace humans, but rather enable them to focus on parts of their job that only humans can do.

The company, which issued a release announcing the IPO registration, declined CNBC’s request for comment. Founder and CEO Daniel Dines said in a July statement that “Covid-19 has heightened the critical need of automation to address challenges and create value in days and weeks, not months and years,” adding that UiPath is “committed to working harder to help our customers evolve, transform, and succeed fast in the new normal.”

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>>> 10 Robotics Stocks on the Technological Cutting Edge

Robotics stocks offer multi-decade growth potential


By Vince Martin,

InvestorPlace

Jun 18, 2020


https://investorplace.com/2020/06/10-robotics-stocks-cutting-edge/


Robotics stocks offer an attractive source of opportunities for growth investors. The long-term potential of the industry is obvious. And adoption should only accelerate amid the response to the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, for over a decade, investors have been rewarded for focusing on growth over valuation. As long as that trend holds, robotics stocks should be winners. Whether it’s healthcare, defense or heavy industry, automation and robotics literally are going to change the world. Savvy investors will look for exposure to that transformation.

That said, there are two current issues with investing in the trend. First, valuation is a potential catch for investors looking for robotics stocks to invest in. The broader opportunity for the group is known to at least some extent. Markets have adjusted accordingly.

Second, some of the industry’s growth is going to come from companies for which robotics is still a small part of the overall business. For instance, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit Google X is developing robots through its Everyday Robot Project. Yet it will be years before robotics materially impact Alphabet stock, even in a best-case scenario.

Still, there are enough robotics stocks out there for investors to choose from. Here are 10 of the most intriguing:

Let’s take a deeper look into what makes each of these hold significant long-term promise.

Robotics Stocks to Buy:


iRobot (IRBT)

Perhaps its surprising, but iRobot is the most divisive stock in the group. The case for IRBT stock seems solid. The company’s Roomba is the clear leader in home robotics, generating over $1 billion in annual sales. The Braava mopping robot grew sales 30% year-over-year in 2019, if off a small base.

Its valuation is a bit high, but iRobot has a fortress balance sheet, with almost $10 per share in cash. In the context of the growth potential and the balance sheet, a 36x forward price-to-earnings multiple doesn’t seem prohibitive. And a business update on Monday dispelled fears about demand pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, while sending IRBT stock to a 10-month high.

Yet skepticism persists. Short sellers continue to target the name: over 30% of shares outstanding are sold short. Trade war concerns led the stock to plunge last year. Tariffs were a key reason why adjusted earnings per share declined 15% year-over-year in 2019. And bears see competition from privately held Shark as another negative catalyst.

Long-term, the case for IRBT stock still seems attractive. There will be new products on the way, and a growth runway that’s potentially decades long. But given the intense debate over IRBT at the moment, and a newly volatile broad market, investors interested in the stock don’t necessarily need to rush in at the highs.


ABB (ABB)

On paper, ABB is one of the better robotics stocks out there. The problem is that, in practice, the company hasn’t yet been able to capitalize.

After all, ABB stock has traded sideways for years now. The 20-year return, even including dividends, is only barely positive. The industrial giant has outperformed General Electric (NYSE:GE), but Honeywell (NYSE:HON) has been the clear winner among diversified industrial names.

That broader sense of disappointment applies to ABB’s robotics business as well. ABB is the world’s second-largest robot manufacturer. But revenue in the category declined last year, and weakness in the automotive industry suggests further pressure in the medium term.

So ABB stock is a turnaround play, and given large businesses elsewhere not a pure play on the robotics business. That said, the stock still offers an intriguing bet. A dividend yield just shy of 4% presents a “get paid to wait” bull case. Valuation is reasonable. And ABB plans to expand its robotics business into new end markets like healthcare, while aiming for margin improvement at the same time.

For investors looking for an aggressive play on robotics, there are better choices than ABB stock. But for those intrigued by the trend, but still looking for value, this diversified giant is an attractive play.


Stereotaxis (STXS)

Stereotaxis has the potential to be one of the best-performing robotics stocks over the coming years. But the company has to deliver.

Stereotaxis manufactures robotic systems and instruments used in cardiovascular procedures, most notably for treatment of irregular heart rhythms. Its platforms actually use magnetism to move catheters, an intriguing approach that the company says is safer and more effective.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen small-caps (Stereotaxis has a market value just under $400 million at the moment) in the space provide big returns as they are acquired. Just last year, Siemens Healthineers (OTCMKTS:SMMNY) picked up Corindus Vascular Robotics last year for just over $1 billion. That followed the entry of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) into the space, via its purchase of Auris Health in February 2019.

The concern, however, is whether Stereotaxis actually can deliver. The company went public in 2004 at $8 per share; thanks to a reverse split, shareholders since the IPO are down over 92%. Profitability remains elusive.

The second-generation Genesis system is supposed to change that. If it does, the rewards are obvious. A purchase price in line with that of Corindus would suggest that STXS stock can triple.

But from a simple look at the company’s history, the risks, too, are obvious. Stereotaxis simply hasn’t gotten it done yet. That will have to change for returns to improve.


AeroVironment (AVAV)

AeroVironment is more of a unmanned aerial systems (UAS) pure play than FLIR. The company long has done big business with the U.S. military. But as the American presence in the Middle East shrank, so did AeroVironment’s revenues.

The company has thus pivoted toward contracts with American allies. Just over half of fiscal 2019 (ending April) revenue came from overseas. And there should be more opportunities to get larger contracts with more allied nations.

That said, valuation is a bit of a concern, particularly with an 11%-plus gain so far this year. And AeroVironment has struggled in driving commercial revenue after talking up that opportunity in past years.

Execution on that front would help. So would margin expansion. And the company remains a potential takeover target for the likes of Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT). Back near $70, AVAV is a bit of a “show me” story, but it’s an attractive story nonetheless.


FLIR Systems (FLIR)

FLIR Systems isn’t a robotics pure-play. The company’s core business is manufacturing thermal imaging systems used by customers ranging from the U.S. military to law enforcement to construction.

But that core business looks attractive, particularly with FLIR stock down 20% year-to-date. Taking the long view, growth and margins both should be positive. FLIR’s manufacturing costs are declining, while the potential applications for its products are expanding.

Meanwhile, there’s enough here to put FLIR on the list of robotics stocks. The 2019 acquisition of Endeavor Robotics added unmanned ground vehicles to the company’s portfolio. UGVs are used for ordnance disposal and reconnaissance in situations too dangerous for humans to be involved.

FLIR’s robotics expertise extends to the air as well, through its manufacture of UAS — more commonly referred to as drones. And the company manufactures sensors used by other robot manufacturers, giving it exposure to secondary markets.

On its own, FLIR stock looks attractive here. For robotics bulls, it looks like a solid buy.


Trimble (TRMB)

Trimble, too, is not a pure-play on the robotics trend. The diversified industrial supplier offers everything from construction software to agricultural systems to telematics solutions used by transportation organizations.

But Trimble has a growing foothold in the robotics market. A partnership with two other companies is developing a “robotic dog” to be used for dangerous jobs on construction sites. Trimble’s Robotic Total Stations are used by surveyors. And there are other second-order benefits to the company from growing robotics use cases.

At 20x forward earnings, Trimble isn’t necessarily cheap, and the stock has struggled to break through resistance modestly above the current price. This might be a bit of a “buy the dip” play, particularly given near-term pressure on certain end markets. But strong performance on the robotics side of the business could be enough to drive solid long-term returns for patient investors.


Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)

Intuitive Surgical is the largest of the pure-play robotics stocks. And investors who got in early have done very well. ISRG stock has gained some 9,400% in the 20 years since its initial public offering. The company’s Da Vinci platform is unquestionably the leader in the space, and has helped to create the robotic surgery market itself.

What’s interesting about ISRG, however, is that the gains have come to an end. The stock has traded sideways for the last 21 months. A steep valuation and modestly decelerated top- and bottom-line growth have created concern among investors and analysts. Intuitive Surgical stock in fact now trades modestly above the average Wall Street price target.

Still, as far as robotics stocks go, ISRG remains the gold standard. And while the stock has been stuck for almost two years, there’s a path to a rally, particularly if Intuitive Surgical can find another growth driver.


Globus Medical (GMED)

Right now, Globus Medical is not much of a robotics play. Most of the company’s revenue comes from its musculoskeletal business, which includes implantable devices and surgical instruments used in spinal and orthopedic procedures.

That has been a good business, as sales and earnings have grown steadily over the years. GMED stock has gained 256% since its 2012 IPO. And at 27x earnings, there’s a case that the stock is priced reasonably for the growth in that side of the business.

Meanwhile, Globus has developed its own robotic platform, the ExcelsiusGPS. That platform is used now to improve surgical precision and outcomes, but Globus expects that over the long term, ExcelsiusGPS can support artificial intelligence and augmented reality as well.

The near-term catch is that robotics still are a small part of the business, generating just 6% of 2019 sales. And last year’s performance was soft: revenue in the category was flat for the year. Unsurprisingly, GMED stock has followed the same trajectory.

Still, the long-term opportunity is intriguing. And there’s a case that GMED stock is an attractive “heads I win, tails I don’t lose much” stock. If the robotics platform stumbles, the larger medical device business supports the valuation, and could make the company an acquisition target. And if ExcelsiusGPS succeeds, the long-term performance of Intuitive Surgical stock shows how meaningful that success can be.


Daifuku (DFKCY)

Japanese giant Daifuku is an intriguing robotics play. The company long has been a leader in materials handling, and is leveraging its expertise into developing automation solutions, with a core focus on retailers.

Obviously, with the rise of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), there is no shortage of companies looking to improve their warehouse and logistics solutions to keep up. That opens an enormous opportunity for Daifuku.

Competition is stiff, and valuation is a worry. Some U.S. investors may have trouble accessing the shares as well: liquidity in the over-the-counter listing is somewhat thin. Still, Daifuku is an intriguing play on automation and robotics — and there’s another way to get exposure to the stock.


Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ)

Investors bullish on robotics stocks can go the exchange-traded fund route. And the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF seems like the best play.

The BOTZ ETF does have some exposure to artificial intelligence as well. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in fact is the largest holding, at a bit over 13% of assets. But the fund’s top ten holdings include Intuitive Surgical and ABB. Core positions include a number of Japanese robotics leaders, including Daifuku, Mitsubishi Electric (OTCMKTS:MIELY) and Fanuc (OTCMKTS:FANUY).

Like the market as a whole, BOTZ has bounced back sharply from March lows. But the ETF still sits well below early 2018 highs. And a dip in recent sessions might provide a buying opportunity. The broad trend of robotics seems like it can drive strong growth, and if it does BOTZ should have upside from here.

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>>> NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) operates as a visual computing company worldwide. It operates in two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor. The GPU segment offers processors, which include GeForce for PC gaming and mainstream PCs; GeForce NOW for cloud-based gaming; Quadro for design professionals working in computer-aided design, video editing, special effects, and other creative applications; Tesla for artificial intelligence (AI) utilizing deep learning, accelerated computing, and general purpose computing; GRID, which provides power of NVIDIA graphics through the cloud and datacenters; DGX for AI scientists, researchers, and developers; and EGX for accelerated AI computing at the edge. The Tegra Processor segment provides processors comprising SHIELD devices and services designed to harness the power of mobile-cloud to revolutionize home entertainment, AI, and gaming; AGX, a power-efficient AI computing platform for intelligent edge devices; DRIVE AGX for self-driving vehicles; Clara AGX for medical instruments; and Jetson AGX for robotics and other embedded use. The company's products are used in gaming, professional visualization, datacenter, and automotive markets. NVIDIA Corporation sells its products to original equipment manufacturers, original device manufacturers, system builders, add-in board manufacturers, retailers/distributors, Internet and cloud service providers, automotive manufacturers and tier-1 automotive suppliers, mapping companies, start-ups, and other ecosystem participants. NVIDIA Corporation was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

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>>> Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG), together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets da Vinci surgical systems, and related instruments and accessories in the United States and internationally. The company's da Vinci Surgical System include surgeon's consoles, patient-side carts, 3-D vision systems, da Vinci skills simulators, da Vinci Xi integrated table motions, and Firefly fluorescence imaging products that enable surgeons to perform various surgical procedures, including gynecologic, urologic, general, cardiothoracic, and head and neck surgical procedures. It also manufactures EndoWrist instruments, such as forceps, scissors, electrocautery tools, scalpels, and other surgical tools, which incorporate wrist joints for natural dexterity for various surgical procedures. In addition, the company offers EndoWrist Stapler, a wristed stapling instrument for resection, transection, and creation of anastomoses; and EndoWrist One Vessel Sealers that are wristed single-use instruments for bipolar coagulation and mechanical transection of vessels up to 7mm in diameter and tissue bundles that fit in the jaws of the instrument. Additionally, the company sells various accessories comprising sterile drapes for ensuring sterile field during surgery; and vision products that include replacement 3D stereo endoscopes, camera heads, light guides, and other items that facilitate use of the da Vinci Surgical System, as well as Ion endoluminal system for biopsies. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

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>>> Brooks Automation, Inc. (BRKS) provides automation and cryogenic solutions worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Brooks Semiconductor Solutions Group and Brooks Life Science Systems. The Brooks Semiconductor Solutions Group segment offers wafer automation and contamination controls solutions and services. Its products include atmospheric and vacuum robots, robotic modules, and tool automation systems that offer precision handling and clean wafer environments; and automated cleaning and inspection systems for wafer carriers, reticle pod cleaners, and stockers. This segment also offers repair, diagnostic, and installation services, as well as spare parts and productivity enhancement upgrade services. The Brooks Life Science Systems segment provides automated cold storage systems; consumables, including various formats of racks, tubes, caps, plates, and foils; and instruments used for labeling, bar coding, capping, de-capping, auditing, sealing, peeling, and piercing tubes and plates. It also provides sample management services, such as on-site and off-site sample storage, cold chain logistics, sample transport and collection relocation, bio-processing solutions, disaster recovery, and business continuity, as well as project management and consulting. In addition, this segment offers sample intelligence software solutions and customer technology integration; laboratory work flow scheduling for life science tools and instrument work cells, sample inventory and logistics, environmental and temperature monitoring, and clinical trial and consent management, as well as planning, data management, virtualization, and visualization services; and gene sequencing analysis and synthesis services. The company serves the semiconductor capital equipment and life sciences sample management markets in approximately 50 countries. Brooks Automation, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

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>>> Top 5 Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Stocks To Buy According to Hedge Funds


Insider Monkey

by Chika Nwakanma

August 3, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-5-robotics-artificial-intelligence-162349437.html


What are the best robotics and artificial intelligence stocks to buy today? In this time of uncertainty characterized by volatile market movements, economic contraction, and spiraling unemployment, finding stocks to put your money into seems like an arduous task. Some investors might think that the stock market is acting irrationally and puzzled by the quick recovery of stock prices sin the end of March. The market's movements isn't far away from economic realities. Economic reality is that long-term real interest rates are negative, the Federal Reserve is flooding the market with cheap credit, and the current economic slowdown is temporary.

This is the perfect environment to buy technology stocks which aren't negatively affected by the coronavirus induced lockdowns and economic slowdown. In this article we are going to take a look at the top 5 robotics and artificial intelligence stocks to buy. We are on the cusp of a technological revolution that will fundamentally change how we live our lives. Recent advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence will open the door to robots, driving cars, and many other inventions that we can't even imagine today. So, we decided to take a look at the best robotics and AI stocks to buy in order to generate high returns as the companies bring new products in to the marketplace.

In order to compile this list of best robotics and AI stocks to buy we started with top 15 stocks in the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ). According to its website this ETF "seeks to invest in companies that potentially stand to benefit from increased adoption and utilization of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), including those involved with industrial robotics and automation, non-industrial robots, and autonomous vehicles".

Savvy investors have used hedge funds as a litmus test to gauge the profitability of stocks and to know the trajectory of market sentiment. Research carried out by Insider Monkey has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings have consistently outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 56 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). As such, hedge fund sentiments are undoubtedly a useful indicator that experienced investors should pay attention to.

Based on hedge funds sentiment, we present 5 most popular robotics and AI stocks among the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey.

5. John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE: JBT)

John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE: JBT) provides technology solutions to the food and beverage industry, including equipment and services to air transportation industries. The company has a market capitalization of $2.995bn. This stock has underperformed by -18.4%. In 2020, Q1 John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE: JBT) released quarterly earnings of $1.09 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.42 per share a year ago

The company is poised to gain from focus on developing innovative products and services and expanding the aftermarket business on the effects of the pandemic are over. The management also aims to continue its ‘Elevate Plan’ aiming to drive persistent growth and margin expansion and strategic acquisition programs. Growing demand for protein, beverages and ready-to-eat meals are likely to act as key catalysts in the long haul.

John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE: JBT) is in the portfolio of 12 hedge funds. Royce Associates has the biggest position in JBT in our database. Adage Capital and Citadel are also invested in this stock but they have been trimming their holdings more recently.

4. Brooks Automation, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRKS)

Brooks Automation, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRKS) has a market capitalization of $3.49bn. This year, the company's share price has increased by 10.84%. In 2020,

Brooks Automation is in the portfolio of 18 hedge funds. Billionaire Ken Fisher, Chuck Royce, and Paul Marshall And Ian Wace are among the top hedge fund backers of BRKS.

3. iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT)

iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT) is a robotics company with a market capitalization of $2.052bn. Its share price has increased by 51.3% this year. iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT) maintained its earnings streak in the second quarter of 2020, reporting earnings of $1.06 per share.

It is no surprise that the company is in the portfolio of 19 hedge funds. Quant hedge fund Two Sigma has the biggest equity position in IRBT in our database.

2. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG)

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) is known for its da Vinci surgical systems in the United States and internationally. The company has a market capitalization of $80.443B. This yeas alone, shares of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) have increased by 15%.

Even though the company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.11, for the second quarter, its earnings collapsed 65.8% year over year.

Fifty hedge funds had bullish positions in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) at the end of the first quarter. The largest stake in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) is held by Fisher Asset Management, which reported holding $350.1 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by GQG Partners with a $137.2 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, Adage Capital Management, and OrbiMed Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position, Unio Capital allocated the biggest weight to Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG), around 3.45% of its 13F portfolio. Rock Springs Capital Management is also relatively bullish on the stock, designating 3.12 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ISRG.

1. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA)

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) is a gaming and crypto company. We discussed NVDA in detail in this article. The company has a market capitalization of $261.104bn. NVIDIA has been one of the best performers in the U.S. stock market over the last few years. The stock was changing hands for $30 at the beginning of 2016 and currently trades at $440, representing a more than thirteen-fold jump. The company recently surpassed Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to become the largest U.S. semiconductor maker.

Based on this performance, it is no surprise that the stock is in the portfolio of 95 hedge funds. Fisher Asset Management and GQG Partners held the largest equity positions in NVDA in our database at the end of March.

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>>> Investing in automation in a changing world

Growth in automation is being driven by many factors, including social distancing.

FIDELITY VIEWPOINTS

06/11/2020

Key takeaways

As hardware and software become increasingly advanced, machines are able to work alongside humans or complete complex, intricate tasks.
Other trends that may increase the push toward automation include a growing middle class in developing countries as well as health and safety concerns for workers.

Automation as an investable idea isn't just about robots, though they are a part of it. Companies that make software, cameras, sensors, and semiconductors all offer ways for investors to find opportunities.
Automation is transforming many aspects of our lives. It's used to assemble smartphones, grab boxes in a warehouse, assist surgeons through operations, skim vast amounts of data, even drive your car. And that's creating opportunities for investors.

"Automation is an exciting global theme that our research analysts are watching across regions and across sectors," says William Shanley, Managing Director of Research and co-portfolio manager of the Fidelity Disruptive Automation Fund (FBOTX).

What is automation?

Automation uses machines or electronics to complete a task—with or without a human involved. Some of the primary components related to automation are robotics, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and electronics, as well as machine vision and sensors.

The field of automation is already big but growing fast
The automation trend is big, broad, and fast-growing. In the field of factory automation alone, the total addressable market globally was about $160 billion in 2018.1 And that's expected to grow at a high single-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through the next 5 to 10 years.

What's driving the growth in factory automation? Here are 6 tailwinds:

1. Products are more complex.

Electronic devices, like smartphones, have become increasingly intricate. Using machines in the manufacturing process can be more efficient than humans alone.

For example, the metal casings of many smartphones are milled by a machine called the Robodrill.

2. As the middle class grows in developing countries, wages are rising.

Wages in many areas of Asia have risen steeply in recent years, particularly in Southeast Asia.2 As wages increased in China, manufacturing gradually shifted to countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where wages are lower—but growing quickly. In order to control costs, manufacturers have a strong incentive to automate.

3. Health and safety concerns for human workers are being recognized.

Automation can help to increase worker safety. Plus, people have physical needs that machines may not need, including the need for climate control, adequate ventilation, and lighting.

4. "Co-bots" (collaborative robots) are evolving.

Robots have historically not been able to work alongside humans—due to safety issues—but that has changed over the past decade.

Co-bots are robots that don't require protective fencing, and they can work together with humans to do a given task. For example, on the auto factory floor, a co-bot can lift a heavy tire and move it to the body of the car. The final steps of making sure the tire is in place can be done by a human. Many tasks that were previously done by humans alone can now be done in conjunction with robots, increasing efficiency and safety.

5. Peak robot density is far away for most countries.

Robots per manufacturing worker are still very low in many countries, which means that the growth runway for robots is long. Robot volumes have grown at close to a 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past decade, and we could see strong growth for many years to come.

Robot density in the manufacturing industry (2018)

Density is robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers. Source: International Federation of Robotics.

6. Social distancing may be a tailwind for some areas of automation.

With more people working from home, laptops, tablets, and smartphones may see increased demand. That can mean more semiconductor chips and data centers. "All of that is positive for automation," says Tak Nishikawa, a research analyst with Fidelity Investments.

What are the risks?

While automation benefits from strong secular tailwinds, it is also cyclical. When manufacturing companies feel comfortable expanding, they may invest in machines, like robots. So the robotics industry is tied to the capital expenditures (CAPEX) of businesses, which rise and fall with the business cycle.

"If you invest in automation stocks at the peak of a CAPEX cycle, then for a period of time your returns may not be good. But over the long term, the category has tended to outperform—just because of the secular dynamics around automation," Nishikawa says.

Where are the opportunities?

Robots are everywhere—assembling furniture, polishing smartphones, and assembling battery packs for electric vehicles.

Within this broad category there are high barriers to entry. The leading companies have wide moats, which may help them stay competitive in this growing field.

There are many companies in the automation space, including Japanese companies like Keyence (KYCCF), and SMC (SMCAY). There are also some in Europe, like Siemens (SIEGY) and ABB (ABB). And there are companies in the US, including Rockwell Automation (ROK) and Parker Hannifin (PH)

The potential uptick in online shopping is positive for what are known as warehouse automators. This category includes companies like Daifuku (DFKCY) in Japan, and Dematic, owned by Kion (KIGRY) in Europe. Amazon has its own warehouse automation company, Amazon Robotics (formerly Kiva before being acquired), making and installing robots for Amazon's warehouse floor.

Software is another critical component of automation. "Google has been a leader in AI and their technologies are likely to be very important in automation. But the universe is quite big, so there are lots of great companies within the space to invest in," says Nishikawa.

Another area to watch is machine vision and sensors. Machine vision is using cameras and software to achieve an outcome—for instance, detecting defects or quality control. One of the global leaders in machine vision is Keyence (KYCCF_, who competes with US-based Cognex (CGNX) in this area. "Machine vision is one of the fastest growing product categories within automation," Nishikawa says.

Companies that make robots may also be positioned for growth over the long term. Fanuc (FANUY) is a global leader in this area, controlling more than a quarter of the world market share. "It's an area that has grown at 20% CAGR over the last decade," says Nishikawa.

Global robot demand

It's estimated that global demand for robots will exceed 500,000 units by 2021. Global demand was just over 100,000 in 2008.
Source: International Federation of Robotics as of 2018.
How to invest

Finding individual companies that will outperform in a complex and dynamic global environment requires deep research spanning many regions. Since the automation theme is global in nature and cuts across traditional sectors and industries, investors may want to consider a thematic fund to invest in this trend. Fidelity's Disruptive Automation Fund (FBOTX) is one example, investing in companies related to automation around the world and across many sectors, including areas such as industrial robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving. With the ability to look for opportunities everywhere, the fund tries to spot disruptive automation companies wherever they may be.

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>>> ETF Strategist: Robotics and AI Will Be a Top Theme in 2020


ETF Trends

February 19, 2020


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/etf-strategist-robotics-ai-top-163134245.html


Investor participation and automation—it’s a top theme in 2020 that will persist as more technological advances take place in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). As such, investors can look to an ETF like the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic ETF (BOTZ) , which has more than $1.5 billion in net assets—a sign investors are aware of its importance for disruptive technology exposure.

“I think this is intuitive with investors,” said Jay Jacobs, head of research and strategy at Global X ETFs. “They see that automation is getting more powerful, that companies are investing in robotics, they’re investing in bringing in AI systems, but they don’t really know where to start. Who are the big robotics companies?” he said. “They’re not ... common knowledge to U.S. investors. The ETF, I think, is a perfect example of giving people that exposure to the companies best positioned in the space.”

BOTZ seeks to invest in companies that potentially stand to benefit from increased adoption and utilization of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), including those involved with industrial robotics and automation, non-industrial robots, and autonomous vehicles.

Additionally, BOTZ seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Indxx Global Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index. The index itself captures large and mid cap representation across 23 Developed Markets (DM) and 24 Emerging Markets (EM) countries.

From a trading standpoint, traders can use ETFs like the Robotics & AI Bull 3X ETF (UBOT) . UBOT seeks daily investment results equal to 300 percent of the daily performance of the Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index, which is designed to provide exposure to exchange-listed companies in developed markets that are expected to benefit from the adoption and utilization of robotics and/or artificial intelligence.

The robotics space is certainly in a push-pull dichotomy of investors capitalizing on the latest in disruptive technology, while at the same time, getting push back from those threatened by the wider adoption of robots. The fears are warranted given that robotics technology has the capacity to supplant human jobs.

Key characteristics of UBOT:

The Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index (IBOTZNT) is designed to provide exposure to exchange-listed companies in developed markets that are expected to benefit from the adoption and utilization of robotics and/or artificial intelligence, including companies involved in developing industrial robots and production systems, automated inventory management, unmanned vehicles, voice/image/text recognition, and medical robots or robotic instruments, as determined by the index provider, Indxx.

Companies must have a minimum market capitalization of $100million and a minimum average daily turnover for the last 6 months greater than, or equal to, $2 million in order to be eligible for inclusion in the Index.

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>>> Can San Diego’s Brain Corp. become the Microsoft of self-driving robots?


The local startup thinks it has developed a strong operating system to spark the autonomous mobile robot industry, but competitors are fighting hard to promote their own technology in the nascent market


By MIKE FREEMAN

SEP. 11, 2019


https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/story/2019-09-10/can-san-diegos-brain-corp-become-the-microsoft-of-self-driving-robots


Ten years ago computational neuroscientist Dr. Eugene Izhikevich walked away from a successful career in academia to co-found Brain Corp. with the ambitious goal of building artificial brains for robots.

These days when the Russian-born Izhikevich lands late at San Diego International Airport, he sometimes sees the fruits of that decision rolling along the airport halls.

The squat, half-ton robot powered by Brain Corp.’s technology isn’t sexy. It scrubs floors at a leisurely pace.

But under the hood, it does things that many robots can’t — navigate safely in unpredictable, public places with no driver.

“Anything with wheels can be turned into a fully autonomous, self-driving robot using the BrainOS operating system, provided that the speeds are slow and stopping is never a safety concern, which means we are staying away from driving on public roads,” said Izhikevich, Brain Corp.'s chief executive.

Self-driving cars get a lot of hype. But the technology and infrastructure needed for widespread adoption of autonomous cars is likely years away. The market is not a priority for Brain Corp. for now.

But a few under-the-radar industries are ripe to automate with self-driving robots, including large venue floor cleaning, retail restocking and health care equipment delivery.

Industrial/commercial robots have been around for years to help build cars or fetch merchandise at warehouses. But these machines are not well-suited to operate around people. They’re often caged off from workers. The robots find their way by following wires in the floor on pre-programmed routes.

In the last five years, a new type of robot has emerged in commercial markets. These robots aren’t tethered to specific routes. They can operate safely alongside people.

“If the robot encounters something and it doesn’t know what to do, it can stop and wait for people to walk away or the situation to clear up,” said Izhikevich.

Brain Corp. is a leader in this space. It doesn’t build robots itself. It partners with firms that make manually operated machines and helps them convert the equipment into self-driving robots.

Its proprietary BrainOS operating system integrates off-the-shelf cameras and sensors with a cloud-connected software stack to provide a “brain” that enables robots to understand their surroundings.

Though small compared with the overall robotics market today, the market for these autonomous mobile robots is forecast to grow fast — notching a compound annual growth rate topping 50 percent over the next decade, according to ABI Research, a technology market research firm.

In April, Walmart ordered 1,860 self-driving cleaners for its stores powered by the BrainOS operating system.

This summer, Brain Corp. teamed up with Softbank Robotics to deploy autonomous Whiz vacuum cleaners, which are the size of an office trash can. Whiz robots target smaller retail and workplace spaces, with the initial roll out in Japan.

“We deploy 150 robots per month to Walmart, and Walmart is not our biggest customer,” said Izhikevich. “We have thousands of robots deployed out there.”

Mobile robotics today looks like the personal computer industry before Microsoft Windows, said Izhikevich. Every robot maker is trying to develop their own hardware, operating system, navigation, cloud infrastructure and other features themselves.

“That is why robots today are expensive and kind of clumsy,” said Izhikevich. “I realized that a Microsoft of robotics is going to appear and unite everybody on this single platform. Robots will become cheaper, much more capable and ubiquitous. Brain Corp. has to become this Microsoft of robotics.”

The jury is still out on that. Several robotics rivals want to do the same thing, including BlueBotics, Balyo, Seegrid and Kollmorgen.

In addition, big companies such as Amazon and Google remain threats to enter the autonomous mobile robot market either through their current robotics operations — Amazon uses thousands of guided robots in its warehouses — or by pivoting their self-driving car initiatives toward other robotics markets.

“The desire of Brain, and many other companies, is to develop the common base platform that all robotics manufacturers will defer to when building a new mobile robot,” said Rian Whitton, an analyst with ABI Research. “Competition is increasingly fierce in this space.”

Whitton added that it’s not clear whether robotics manufacturers will flock to a common operating system when they can use existing, open source middleware to heavily tailor their own software.

Still, Brain Corp. has something to offer. The company “is amongst the most well-established, has the most comprehensive technology stack and is aiming to develop solutions across the widest range if verticals,” said Whitton.

Founded in 2009, Brain Corp. spent is first five years embedded inside Qualcomm, working on creating neuromorphic artificial intelligence silicon based on the wiring of the human brain. Known for his contributions to the theory of spiking neural networks, Izhikevich has authored two textbooks on computational neuroscience. He came to the region as a senior fellow in theoretical neurobiology at the San Diego-based Neurosciences Institute.

In 2014, Brain Corp. spun out on its own. It has raised $125 million to date from Softbank Vision Fund and Qualcomm Ventures. The company employs about 320 people globally — mostly in San Diego — but also in satellite locations in Japan and Europe.

“I want to see robots everywhere — in our homes, in the office, doing landscaping and agriculture and cleaning and deliveries, basically taking care of us,” said Izhikevich. “There is no way a single company can create all those robots. The only way for me to realize my vision is to build the software and then partner with other companies, each one focusing on their own type of robot, but each one will use our software.”

In commercial floor cleaning, Brain Corp. has signed on with four large manual equipment manufacturers — Tennant, ICE, Minuteman and Nilfisk.

Tennant, a 150-year-old Minnesota company, got its first Brain Corp. enabled robotic floor cleaner to market in less than a year. Its customers are driven to automate not only to lower costs but also by labor shortages and safety concerns around operating hulking scrubbers deep into the night shift, said David Strohsack, vice president of product management and marketing for Tennant.

But autonomous floor scrubbers introduce complex technology into a non-technical work environment, said Strohsack. For now, it remains unclear whether they will have staying power among Tennant customers.

“We monitor a number of factors to see if this a sustainable disruption or a blip,” he said. “I would say in certain industry segments — retail being one — the evidence is mounting that this is absolutely a sustainable disruption to the industry.”

Brain Brothers: Brain Corp., makes a software operating system for mobile robots. It's top market is large venue floor cleaners. This spring, it partnered with Softbank Robotics to power the Whiz, a trash can sized vacuum targeting the small retail and office spaces.

In addition to Walmart and the San Diego International Airport, Brain Corp. provides its operating system to machines operating in Mall of America, Mitsubishi Property Group and the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, among others.

“Running an auto scrubber is a really mundane task,” said John Beach, senior housekeeping manager at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. “Believe me you can fall asleep if you’re not careful. We wanted to reallocate our team to more high value tasks.”

It hasn’t all smooth sailing with the robotic scrubbers. The mall has glass railings on some upper floors. At first, sensors picked up the scrubber’s reflection in the glass and stopped, thinking it was an obstacle.

But that problem has been fixed, said Beach. The mall is planning to buy more autonomous machines next year. While they usually run on the overnight shift, Beach will bring them out occasionally during regular mall hours when weather is bad to clean snow and salt near entrances.

“The cool thing is parents and children, they love looking at these machines,” he said. “The machine looks like a normal scrubber. It has a steering wheel. It doesn’t look like a robot. It is just driving itself with nobody on it. People get a kick out of that.”

This spring, Brain Corp. introduced a new self-driving system targeting auto-delivery robots that haul merchandise from the back of big box stores or loading docks at malls to retail shelves for restocking.

Next year, the company plans to release software development kit tools so it’s easier for any robotics company do adopt the BrainOS operating system.

The company also is building out new services to deliver analytics data to retailers that robots collect while cleaning.

The data could include spotting when the price of a product is incorrect, when a product is misplaced on the shelf or if the merchandise layout doesn’t match the retailer’s overall plan.

“While our robots clean floors in retail environments, they also have 3-D sensors and cameras for navigation,” said Izhikevich. “We have video of every product on every shelf of big box retailers, so we can use this to provide additional services to retailers in terms of merchandise analytics.”

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Rockwell - >>> Robotics Stocks Will Thrive in the Wake of COVID-19


Rockwell and ABB are two of the top names plugged into a trend that will only accelerate once the coronavirus is in the rearview mirror.


Motley Fool

James Brumley

Apr 30, 2020


https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/30/robotics-stocks-will-thrive-following-covid-19.aspx


Shares of robotics manufacturers ABB (NYSE:ABB) and Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) both jumped Tuesday following so-so earnings reports during a trading session that was anything but decidedly bullish. Rockwell topped its sales and earnings estimates for the three-month stretch ending in March, but the bar was set low. Unlike ABB, Rockwell Automation managed to grow its top and bottom lines, yet each company cautioned investors that coronavirus-related shutdowns were already taking a financial toll on the quarter currently underway. The stocks rallied anyway.

That bullish interest may be rooted in an idea that's much bigger than last quarter or the present quarter, however.

While the sheer disruption caused by the coronavirus is making it difficult to "do" any sort of business, and the prospect of a recession is forcing some organizations to rethink spending plans, the COVID-19 contagion has exposed a weak link in the world's commerce engine -- people. If people can't or won't work, things don't get done. Robots, however, don't get sick.

What the robotics makers said

For its second fiscal quarter ending in March, U.S.-based Rockwell turned $1.68 billion worth of revenue into operating earnings of $2.43 per share. That was better than the $2.04 per share earned in the same quarter a year earlier when the company generated $1.66 billion worth of business. But, organic sales were flat, and Rockwell warned its shareholders that organic revenue looked as if it was going to slump between 6.5% and 9.5% this year.

Swiss automation company ABB fared worse in its first quarter of the year, with revenue of $6.21 billion sliding 9% lower compared to the year-earlier comparison of $6.85 billion. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) slipped 17% to $636 million, coinciding with a comparable decrease in profit margins.

The company didn't offer detailed full-year guidance, but CEO Bjorn Rosengren did comment, "In the second quarter, we expect ABB's operations to be significantly challenged by a sharp drop in demand due to lockdowns in many parts of the world."

So why the big advances for each? Most plausibly because investors know where the present global situation is leading.

Speeding up workforce changes

GlobalData analyst Wafaa Hassan was the latest to chime in on the matter, commenting on Tuesday, "Robots have been replacing humans in certain jobs for some time, but the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the process."

Hassan was responding to reports that robotics company Brain Corp. had secured new funding that will primarily go to expanding the use of its robots to scrub floors for companies that have been under shutdown orders for weeks now. Other floors have gotten use, like stores operated by in Walmart and Kroger, both of which already use Brain's cleaning robots. Walmart is buying another 1,500 robots in response to the COVID-19 contagion and the expanded need for cleanliness.

It was Hassan's broader assessment that points to the changing underpinnings of the industry's forward progress. He adds, "The COVID-19 crisis will ultimately increase the use of robotics across all industries."

He's not alone in his expectation. While almost all companies will have to fight to work past the temporary financial roadblock put in place by the coronavirus, manufacturing sites, processing plants, and other industrial companies don't want to be trapped in the same situation again. International Data Corporation's (IDC's) Jordan Speer wrote for IndustryWeek late last month that more than 70% of the companies participating in IDC's 2020 Supply Chain Survey said robotics will be important, or very important, to their organization within the next three years. Market research company Fact.MR now believes the robotic process automation market is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33% through 2029 due to the adverse impact of COVID-19.

Well-suited to capitalize on a trend

Rockwell Automation and ABB certainly aren't the only automation names that stand to benefit from the displacement of millions of workers. Fellow Fool Lee Samaha named 10 robotics stocks last year that may catch a nice tailwind as we move into the new normal of a post-coronavirus world.

Rockwell and ABB may be the easiest to own, however, due to their bigger size and more straightforward product lines. ABB makes total control systems for materials companies, auto manufacturers, paper companies, and food processors -- just to name a few -- all hit hard by shutdowns. Rockwell makes servos, computerized motion-control systems, and the sensors that make them all work together properly, plus more.

Of the two, Rockwell Automation appears to be the lower-stress pick right now. Not only is it seemingly faring better than ABB in what's turned into a very uncertain environment, but there's also better visibility. While Rockwell knows revenue is apt to dip this year, at least it's been willing to suggest how much that's going to happen. And, analysts still expect a resumption of solid growth after this year.

History and projection of Rockwell Automation's revenue and per-share earnings.





More than anything though, these are both names well suited to capitalize on a bigger theme -- robotics -- than a short-term cultural or societal tide. As an example, a biopharma company that comes up with a treatment for the coronavirus may do very well for a quarter or two, but there's no thrilling follow-up. The aforementioned IDC, conversely, believed earlier this year that the global robotics and drone market was poised to swell from $129 billion this year to $241 billion by 2023. The COVID-19 contagion likely dampened that expectation in the meantime, but Fact.MR's decade-long, double-digit growth expectation suggests the industry will push past what's only going to be a temporary headwind.

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>>> Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) provides industrial automation and digital transformation solutions. It operates in two segments, Architecture & Software, and Control Products & Solutions. The Architecture & Software segment offers a portfolio of automation and information platforms, including hardware and software. Its products include programmable automation controllers; design, visualization, and simulation software; and human machine interface products, networking products, industrial computers, sensing devices, machine safety devices, motion control products, and independent cart technology products. This segment also offers manufacturing execution systems and analytics software to enhance operational productivity and meet regulatory requirements. The Control Products & Solutions segment offers low and medium voltage electro-mechanical and electronic motor starters, AC/DC variable frequency drives, motor control and circuit protection devices, operator and signaling devices, termination and protection devices, relays and timers, and electrical control accessories. This segment also provides pre-configured line and load power solutions, packaged drives, motor control centers, and intelligent packaged power and engineered to order automation equipment solutions; and professional lifecycle services, such as safety, security, and digital transformation consulting, as well as automation and information project delivery capabilities, plant network, cloud, cybersecurity, asset management and predictive analytics, and remote, on-site, and managed support services. It primarily serves a range of industries, which include the automotive, semiconductor, and warehousing and logistics; food and beverage, and life sciences; and oil and gas, metals, and chemicals through independent distributors and direct sales force worldwide. Rockwell Automation, Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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>>> We Must Reckon with Japan's 60-Foot-Tall Gundam Robot

Mother of God, this thing can walk.


Popular Mechanics

By Courtney Linder

Jan 29, 2020


https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a30702460/giant-gundam-humanoid-robot/


The world's largest humanoid robot is currently being built in Yokohama, Japan.





Modeled after Gundam, a humanoid robot that stars in various anime series, films, manga, and more, the robot will be almost 60 feet tall. It won't debut until October, but there is a 64-foot-tall Gundam statue in Tokyo, in the meantime.

At the Port of Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, the world's largest humanoid robot will come to life. Modeled on Gundam, the popular fictional robot that has been the subject of some 50 TV series and movies since 1979, plus a slew of video games and manga, the bot will tower nearly 60 feet tall and feature 24 degrees of freedom. So yes, this thing will be able to walk.

Since 2017, Tokyo has had a massive Gundam statue in its Odaiba neighborhood, coming in at almost a whopping 65 feet. So why stop there? Why not give the Gundam real movement?

Groundwork for the robot is already being laid, as scaffolding is presently in place at Yamashita Pier, where the mega-Gundam will live for a full year, beginning in October. But the engineering challenges will be great, as the current level of expertise in actuation will be pushed to the limit. It's one thing to merely build a bipedal walking robot it's a whole other challenge to build one that's 60 feet tall and weighs 25 tons.

Several videos from the Gundam Channel outline the creation process. In the second installment, we get a tour of where the hands are being designed, built, and assembled. From the metal fingertip to where the wrist will connect, the hand is about 6.5 feet, or approximately one Big Ben Roethlisberger.

Jun Narita, head of design, explains that he's having a rough time of it. Special considerations about the types of material and motors must be taken into account, because otherwise, one hand could weigh as much as 600 kilograms, or over 1,300 pounds. "This weight restriction is like a curse," he says in Japanese.

Narita has to ensure the hands weigh about 200 kilograms, closer to 440 pounds. Any heavier, and excess strain will be put onto the elbow joints when the arms move, meaning it'll likely break and poor Gundam will lose his limbs. In the end, Narita reduced the number of motors used in the hands and decided to build the frame for the hands out of aluminum, rather than steel. The hands can now move, and even have the ability to form the peace sign.

Meanwhile, the overall design work is in pretty capable hands. Masaki Kawahara, lead designer for the Gundam robot, has some serious chops as this is the fourth time he's built a life-sized Gundam. While some of those, including the current statue in Tokyo, are taller than the forthcoming humanoid robot, none of them could walk.

Japan Is Sending Gundams to Space for the Olympics

"Up until now, we've tried to design them to be strong in terms of both looks and structure," Kawahara says in another video installment. "This time, there are a lot of other things that we need to consider.

Still, there are some personalities about as big as Gundam himself that the designers and engineers must please. Namely, that's General Director Yoshiyuki Tomino, the mecha anime creator who is known as The Father of Gundam. While looking over an early design of Gundam's body, not yet crafted out of metal, he comments on Kawahara's design.

"I don't like how straight the lines are," he says. "It's just not interesting." And while the team seems to freeze up a bit while Tomino is in the building, he does point out some important design flaws. The portion of Gundam where the pilot should sit to teleoperate the robot is too small for a person to sit in with a full protective suit on, he points out. So the team made the hole wider.

Really, though, all Tomino wants is for the team to take some creative measures in bringing the 41-year-old Gundam to life for a 2020 audience. "I feel like there's room for some more modern interpretations or additions in the current design," Tomino says.

The good news: Based on a simulation from the University of Tokyo's JSK Lab, all the design work looks promising from a technical standpoint. At least in the confines of the simulation tool shown in the video above, the enormous Gundam can successfully walk. Whether or not the real robot will be able to pull it off is yet to be seen. We'll just have to wait for another teaser video—or you'll have to catch a flight to Japan this fall.

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>>> Roomba Maker Developing Robot With Arms That May Do the Dishes


Bloomberg

By Mark Gurman

January 9, 2020


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-09/roomba-maker-s-future-robot-will-have-arms-and-may-do-the-dishes?srnd=premium


IRobot won’t start selling new device for at least five years

Company developed the technology for former military business


IRobot Corp., maker of the disc-shaped Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, said it’s working on a household helper that will have arms that could load dishes, pick up clothes, or bring food from kitchen to table.

The Bedford, Massachusetts-based company won’t start selling such a product for at least five years. But prototypes of the arms exist inside its research and development labs, Chief Executive Officer Colin Angle said in an interview on the sidelines of the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. IRobot’s main new hardware launch for 2020 will be its Terra lawnmower.

The shares gained as much as 3.8% Thursday in New York.

IRobot previously developed robotic-arm technology for its military unit. The company sold that business in 2016 but kept the arm assets. At the time, the company didn’t know how to adapt the technology for mainstream use, Angle said, but new advancements in computer vision and the ability for robots to map out a person’s home make such devices possible.

Other technology companies are also working on home robots, including Amazon.com Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., but so far they are focusing on devices with video conferencing and voice assistants rather than the ability to actually conduct physical tasks.

The trade war between the U.S. and China could put a damper on iRobot’s ambitions in the near term. Angle said it’s had a “negative impact” on business. “We are having to scale back R&D and profitability” targets, he said. The company started shipping its lower-cost Roomba vacuum cleaner robots out of Malaysia, instead of China, in November, he said.

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>>> Grocery-Packing Robots Are Aiming For World Domination


U.K. supermarket-tech company Ocado has won contracts around the world.

Its latest deal in Japan is a tall order to fill on top of everything else.


Bloomberg

By Andrea Felsted

November 29, 2019


https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-29/ocado-japan-deal-is-tall-order-on-top-of-kroger-ramp-up


This is a tall order.

Ocado Group Plc’s new deal in Japan is appetizing, but it’s probably bitten off more than it can chew.

The online grocer that’s specialized in automating how orders are filled said on Friday that it will provide Aeon Co. with its technology, initially in the region around Tokyo. It hasn’t put a value on the deal, but Ocado expects the contract to cover sales of about 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) by 2025, rising to about 7 billion pounds by 2035.

To achieve that, analysts at Bernstein estimate that it will need to build about 20 automated warehouses, the same number envisaged in Ocado’s biggest deal to date with U.S. supermarket group Kroger Co.

It’s not surprising that Ocado Chief Executive Officer Tim Steiner has been tantalized by licensing the company’s software in Asia. Japan is the world’s fourth-biggest grocery market, according to industry researcher IGD. There’s also potential in other parts of Asia.

But Ocado already has a lot on its plate, not least the Kroger partnership, where success is crucial to enhancing its credibility with clients and investors alike.

Covering all Bases

Ocado is now represented in two of the world's four biggest grocery markets

The shares slumped earlier this month on concerns that its roll-out at one of the U.S.’s biggest traditional grocery retailers was progressing slower than expected. Ocado is also facing a new challenge from startup Takeoff Technologies. Like Ocado, which was started by three former Goldman Sachs bankers, its executives have Wall Street as well as grocery industry experience. But, rather than building giant state-of-the-art warehouses, it concentrates on making the process of picking groceries directly off of supermarket shelves for home delivery more efficient. This model has also been favored by Tesco Plc in the U.K.

Ocado sought to reassure investors recently that the relationship with Kroger was on track, announcing the sixth location for what in industry jargon is called a fulfillment center. But given the importance of this contract, the fact that the U.S. is still the world’s biggest grocery market and that the group had been chasing tie-up there for years, it would have been better to keep it as its priority.

When it comes to the capital available for investing in these big international partnerships, shareholders can take heart. Ocado’s sale earlier this year of a 50% stake in its U.K. online grocery business to Marks & Spencer Group Plc for up to 750 million pounds, boosted its coffers.

Ocado said it had 1 billion pounds of headroom. With each warehouse costing about 30 million pounds, it has scope to build 30. Even with all the recent contract wins, it doesn’t expect to have to build more than 30 distribution centers, so it should have enough capital for its current commitments.

Management bandwidth is another story. Next year, Ocado will be juggling the Kroger contract, getting Aeon off the ground and overseeing the transition to M&S becoming its grocery supplier in the U.K. That’s a lot to do. And let’s not forget its other contracts with Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA in France, Sobeys Inc. in Canada and Coles Group in Australia.

Turning Japanese

The new contact with Aeon has reassured Ocado investors

The Aeon contract will also require yet more developers to prepare the technology too. Ocado estimates it will need to take on an extra 400 people to get the job done.

Investors shrugged off any such concerns on Friday, with the shares rising as much as 15%. But Ocado has a history of unexpected items in its bagging area, from not having enough capacity in its warehouses to a fire at one of its robotic fulfillment centers in the U.K. earlier this year. Over-filling its delivery box increases the risk of more unpleasant surprises.

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>>> Robotics and Automation ETFs Programmed for Further Gains


Protectionist policies and a full labor market underpin industry demand


Investopedia

BY TIMOTHY SMITH

Jun 19, 2019


https://www.investopedia.com/robotics-and-automation-etfs-programmed-for-further-gains-4690864


The Terminator would be worried – a rise of the machines coincides perfectly with the rise of protectionist policies. As multinational companies try to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of trade tariffs, they are likely to utilize robotics and automation for manufacturing products, rather than getting them made abroad. Not only do these innovative technologies shield revenues from political risk, but they also simplify a company's supply chain and help expedite delivery times.

"As there are more signs of de-globalization, protectionism, and nationalism – not just in the United States – multinationals are seriously rethinking how to move down a new path and reconfigure their operations globally. We are in the first inning, but we are game on," said Joseph Quinlan, an analyst at Bank of America, per Barron's.

Businesses that operate in this space should also benefit from a tight jobs market and growing skills shortage as companies look to technologies such as advanced manufacturing, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence to make up the labor shortfall. According to market data and research site Statista, global revenues from robotic process automation are expected to rise from $1.6 billion in 2019 to over $3 billion in 2022.

Those who follow this exciting technology should consider trading these three exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that provide exposure to companies at the forefront of the robotics and automation industry. Let's look more closely at each fund and go over several trading strategies.

Robo Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO)

Launched in 2013, the Robo Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF (ROBO) aims to provide similar investment results to the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index. The benchmark tracks global equities that derive a portion of their revenues from robotics and automation products, processes, services, or devices. ROBO tilts toward the industrials and technology sectors, with respective allocations of 54.51% and 33.81%. An average spread of 0.09% and daily turnover of roughly 250,000 shares keep trading costs low. The fund's 0.95% management fee sits above the 0.66% category average but is competitive for a thematic fund. As of June 19, 2019, ROBO has a large asset base of $1.25 billion, offers a small 0.33% dividend yield, and is trading up 17.14% year to date (YTD).

ROBO shares rallied sharply between late December and April to come within 1.6% of their 52-week high at $42.82 set on Sept. 21, 2018. Like the broader market, the fund fell away in May but has staged a recovery this month. The price found support at the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) in Tuesday's trading session that may lead to further upside. Traders who take a long position should set a take-profit order near the YTD high at $42.13. Think about cutting losses if the ETF closes beneath the 200-day SMA.

Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF[/b (BOTZ)

With assets under management (AUM) of $1.45 billion, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ) seeks to track the performance of the Indxx Global Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index. The ETF, formed in 2016, invests in companies that develop and produce robots or artificial intelligence in applications, such as drones, health care robots, and predictive analytics software. BOTZ targets Japanese robotics companies, allocating roughly half its portfolio to the country. Trading costs come in slightly lower than ROBO, with an average spread of 0.05% and over 700,000 shares changing hands daily. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.68%, issues a 1.28% dividend yield, and is up almost 20% on the year as of June 19, 2019.

A broad inverse head and shoulders pattern on the ETF's chart suggests that a significant bottom is in place. Despite a "golden cross" buy signal appearing in April, the fund has failed so far to continue its upward momentum. Buying interest crept back into BOTZ Tuesday after a minor pullback to the 200-day SMA. A recent bullish moving average convergence divergence (MACD) cross above the signal line confirms rising prices over the past two weeks. Those who buy at these levels should anticipate a move to the April swing high at $21.99. Set a stop-loss order under the low from Monday, June 14, at $19.51 to close out losing trades.

iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF (IRBO)

The iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF (IRBO), created in June 2018, attempts to follow the performance of the NYSE FactSet Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Index. To be included in the underlying index, a prospective company must either derive at least 50% of its revenue, have a 20% market share, or generate $1 billion in annual revenue from one of the 22 RBICS sub-industries with exposure to the robotics and artificial intelligence space. The $31.85 million fund holds a large basket of 90 stocks, with no stock commanding more than a 2.5% allocation, helping to diversify risk across the industry. IRBO's average spread of 0.28% is a little wider than the first two funds discussed, while its 0.47% management fee is lower. Performance wise, the ETF has returned 19.09% YTD as of June 19, 2019.

IRBO shares added the bulk of their YTD gain in the first quarter but have failed to gain traction since. The price declined below the 200-day SMA in May, although it quickly bounced back above the closely watched indicator in early June. Yesterday's 2.06% gain indicates that the price may want to run higher and test resistance at $26. Traders who enter here should consider positioning a stop under Monday's session low at $23.59 to protect trading capital.

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>>>Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information in order to automate tasks primarily in manufacturing processes worldwide. It provides machine vision products, which are used to automate the manufacture and tracking of discrete items, including mobile phones, aspirin bottles, and automobile tires by locating, identifying, inspecting, and measuring them during the manufacturing or distribution process. The company offers VisionPro software, a suite of patented vision tools for advanced programming; Cognex Designer that allows customers to build vision applications with a graphical flowchart-based programming environment; and Cognex ViDi, a deep learning-based image analysis software. It also provides general-purpose vision systems for vision tasks, including part location, identification, measurement, assembly verification, and robotic guidance; and vision sensors for vision applications, such as checking the presence and size of parts comprising In-Sight product line of vision systems and a range of 3D vision systems. In addition, the company offers ID products comprising DataMan image-based barcode readers and barcode verifiers, as well as vision-enabled mobile terminals for industrial barcode reading applications. It sells its products to customers in the consumer electronics and automotive industries, and semiconductor and electronics capital equipment markets through direct sales force, as well as through a network of distributors and integrators. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts.

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>>> Daimler Trucks to acquire Torc Robotics for autonomous truck tech


3-30-19

Antuan Goodwin


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/daimler-trucks-to-acquire-torc-robotics-for-autonomous-truck-tech/ar-BBVomRu?OCID=ansmsnnews11#page=2


Four years ago, Daimler Trucks' Freightliner Inspiration Truck became the first ever self-driving commercial truck to receive a road license plate for autonomous operation on public highways. Today, Daimler Trucks is shifting into overdrive with the acquisition of Torc Robotics, an American autonomous vehicle company, to help improve and commercialize SAE Level 4 automated trucks on US roads.

Torc, for the unfamiliar, has been developing autonomous vehicle tech for over a decade. We first became aware of the company back in 2008 as Torc Technologies -- the company selling the ByWire XGV, a self-driving Ford Escape Hybrid upgraded technology developed for the 2007 DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, as a research platform for anyone interested in developing autonomous cars. Torc has helped develop autonomous shuttle buses and has partnerships for mining, defense and agriculture applications of its automated-driving tech. Just last year, we were able to take a ride in Torc's Project Asimov autonomous demonstration vehicles at CES 2018.

The majority stake acquisition, which is still pending approval by US regulators, will bring Torc Robotics into the Daimler Trucks family. Torc will continue to operate as a separate entity "retaining its name, team, existing customers and facilities in Blacksburg, Virginia," according to a statement by Daimler trucks. Daimler's investment of an undisclosed sum will allow the robotics company to expand its team and work closely to bring its self-driving know-how (and Level 4 technology) to the development of autonomous heavy vehicles like big rig trucks. Other Daimler companies -- such as passenger car manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz -- would also benefit from Torc's tech and tighter integrations.

Daimler has already been actively developing autonomous tech for trucks. The Mercedes-Benz Actros debuted Highway Pilot assist, a semi-autonomous driving system that can steer accelerate and brake when the conditions are right. However, this automated tech is pretty much highway-bound and still needs a human to take over when the weather or road markings get bad. "Torc's Level 4 system has been shown to operate well for both urban and highway driving in rain, snow, fog and sunshine," said Roger Nielsen, CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, in a statement explaining the benefit the Torc acquisition would bring to Daimler.

"With the ever rising demand for road transportation, not the least through e-commerce, there is a strong business case for self-driving trucks in the US market," said Michael Fleming, CEO of Torc, "I believe the fastest path to commercialization for self-driving trucks is in partnership with Daimler Trucks, the OEM market leader."

Trucking is a huge part of the American economy -- some would say that it is the backbone -- that is facing down a growing supply-and-demand problem. Our growing demands for product shipments and food deliveries from Amazon, Ebay and other online retailers is coming into conflict with a creeping shortage of qualified truck drivers. This has sent logistics companies looking for new ways to keep their rigs rolling and in the black and created a technological gold rush as companies like Daimler Trucks, Nikola and Tesla race to bring smart solutions like automation and electrification to market.

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>>> AeroVironment gets $3.2M defense deal for unmanned aircraft systems


By I-Chun Chen

L.A. Biz

Nov 6, 2018


https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2018/11/06/aerovironment-gets-3-2m-defense-deal-for-unmanned.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo


AeroVironment Inc. has received a $3.2 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to provide RQ-20B Puma AE II small unmanned aircraft systems.

Monrovia, California-based AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) said it received the firm-fixed-price contract on Sept. 14 to provide the drone systems, as well as training and support to an allied nation in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) area.

The company said it expects delivery by March 30.

“The vast, diverse landscape of the INDOPACOM area of operation demands small unmanned aircraft systems that can support ground, riverine and maritime operations effectively,” Kirk Flittie, vice president and general manager of AeroVironment’s unmanned aircraft systems business unit, said in a statement. “The combat-proven Puma has demonstrated its unique effectiveness in a wide range of operating environments, from mountains to deserts, from the Arctic to Antarctica, on land and on the open ocean, delivering actionable intelligence to help customers proceed with certainty.”

AeroVironment said its family of small drones comprise the majority of all unmanned aircraft in the U.S. DoD inventory and its international customers include more than 45 allied governments.

“This contract is a good example of the additional procurement potential among our international customers,” said Flittie.

The AeroVironment Puma is designed for land-based and maritime operations. The company said the all-environment Puma, with its Mantis i45 sensor suite, is capable of landing in water or on the ground, giving the operator extended flight time and a level of imaging capability previously unavailable in the small UAS class.

AeroVironment’s small unmanned aircraft systems include the RQ-11B Raven, RQ-12 Wasp and RQ-20A/B Puma. They operate with a common ground control system and provide increased capability to the warfighter that can give ground commanders the option of selecting the appropriate aircraft based on the type of mission to be performed. This increased capability has the potential to provide significant force protection and force multiplication benefits to small tactical units and security personnel, AeroVironment said.

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>>> AeroVironment, Inc. designs, develops, produces, supports and operates a portfolio of products and services for government agencies, businesses and consumers. The Company operates through two segments: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), which focuses primarily on the design, development, production, support and operation of UAS and tactical missile systems that provide situational awareness, multi-band communications, force protection and other mission effects, and Efficient Energy Systems (EES), which focuses primarily on the design, development, production, marketing, support and operation of electric energy systems. The Company supplies UAS, tactical missile systems and related services primarily to organizations within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The Company also supplies charging systems and services for electric vehicles (EVs), and power cycling and test systems to commercial, consumer and government customers. <<<