There are countless reasons why home robots have found little success post-Roomba. Pricing, practicality, form factor and mapping have all contributed to failure after failure. Even when some or all of those are addressed, there remains the question of what happens when a system makes an inevitable mistake. This has been a point of friction […]
Mercedes begins piloting Apptronik humanoid robots
Pilot season has officially begun for the world of humanoid robotics. Last year, Amazon began testing Agility’s Digit robots in select fulfillment centers, while this January, Figure announced a deal with BMW. Now Apptronik is getting in on the action, courtesy of a partnership with Mercedes-Benz. According to the Austin-based robotics startup, “as part of […]
Humanoid robots face continued skepticism at Modex
If your robotics startup is looking to raise, there’s close to a 100% chance you’re going to get two questions from potential investors: 1) How are you incorporating generative AI? and 2) Have you consider building a humanoid? The first is easy enough to answer. If you’re running a robotics firm in 2024, you have […]
Glacier is training AI-powered recycling robots
The future of recycling is here, and of course, it involves robots and artificial intelligence. Rebecca Hu, the co-founder of the robotics company Glacier, creates robots that help recycling plants separate and, well, recycle material. Before, sorting recyclable materials was a manual job that took hours for someone to do. Today, Glacier has been using […]
Uber Eats is launching a delivery service with Cartken’s sidewalk robots in Japan
Uber, along with partners Mitsubishi Electric and autonomous robotics startup Cartken, are launching a service in Japan that will use self-driving sidewalk robots to deliver food to customers. The companies announced that the service offered through the Uber Eats app will launch in a select part of Tokyo by the end of March. An Uber […]