The Robot Report Podcast

Jessica Yip, co-founder and chief operating officer of Canadian startup A&K Robotics joins the podcast. She discusses A&K's autonomous, electric pods that are being tested at airports to move passengers with mobility issues around concourses. The podcast also recaps the stories of the week, including Chili's pausing a robotics pilot, Locus scoring a major win with GEODIS and more.

This week we get an update on the technology embedded within the Indy Autonomous Challenge racecars in a conversation with Joe Speed, plus we learn how Skyline Robotics is deploying robots to clean skyscraper windows in New York City.

Peter Finn, managing director of Cowen’s Industrials investment banking group, joins the podcast to discuss the state of investment into the robotics industry. Peter discusses how inflation, higher interest rates, and other world issues have impacted how investors are approaching robotics companies. He also shares the trends he's seeing, markets he's excited about, investment advice and thoughts about Amazon’s pending acquisition of iRobot.

This week our guest is Sally Miller, Chief Information Officer for DHL Supply Chain North America. Sally discusses the deployment of robotics at DHL North America, and how DHL likes to work with vendors to innovate and optimize their logistic workflows. This episode is sponsored by Weintek USA, maker of HMIs. For more information check out: http://www.weintekusa.com or call +1.425.488.1100

Nima Fazeli, assistant professor of robotics at the University of Michigan and director of the Manipulation and Machine Intelligence Lab, joins the program to discuss the flaws of the chess-playing robot that broke a 7-year-old's finger during a tournament in Russia. Fazeli helped develop a Jenga-playing robot while at MIT. Mike and Steve also hit on the top stories of the week, including researchers using dead wolf spiders as mechanical grippers and another strong quarter for Teradyne's robotics group. Show Notes https://www.mmintlab.com/ https://www.therobotreport.com/mit-robot-uses-vision-touch-learn-jenga/ https://www.therobotreport.com/why-im-saying-no-to-necrobotics/ https://www.therobotreport.com/teradynes-robotics-group-101m-q2-2022/ https://www.therobotreport.com/locus-robotics-completes-soc-2-certification/ https://www.robobusiness.com/ https://www.fieldroboticsforum.com/

Mike Dooley, co-founder and CEO of robotics startup Labrador Systems, joins the podcast. We discuss how Labrador built autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for home environments to help the elderly and those with mobility issues. Mike also discusses how his days at Evolution Robotics and iRobot helped shape some of the decisions being made at Labrador Systems. Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman also dive into the recent layoffs and shutdowns that have impacted numerous robotics companies.

Our guest this week is Brian Gerkey, CEO and co-founder of Open Robotics and one of creators of ROS. Brian tells us about the development and evolution of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and why open source software has played such a pivotal role in the growth of the robotics industry and in the acceleration of robotics research in university and corporate robotic labs around the world.

This week, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the recent ban of autonomous tractors in California and what this means for the AGTECH industry to be able to test new solutions in California. Featured interview this week is Anders Beck, VP of Innovation and Strategy at Universal Robots. Anders introduces us to the new UR20 robot that was launched at Automatica 2022 this week. Special music this week is Tennessee Mines by Sam Hill, embedded with a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-sharealike 3.0 license.

Niels Jul Jacobsen, CEO of Danish startup Capra Robotics, joins the show to discuss the company's innovative mobile robotics platform. He also shares lessons learned from scaling and selling Mobile Industrial Robots, an AMR developer he founded in 2013. Capra Robotics Website - https://capra.ooo/ https://www.therobotreport.com/watch-disneylands-spider-man-robot-crash-into-building/ https://www.therobotreport.com/watch-ghost-robotics-quadruped-go-swimming/

In this episode, cohosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman learn the incredible story behind the bionic clothing company Cionic. The company was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Jeremiah Robison who joins us on the show this week to discuss his mission to build bionic clothing that can analyze and augment human movement, enabling the body to move with more freedom and control.