The Robot Report Podcast

In today's episode, Steve and Mike interview Alex Wischnewski, team lead for Technical University of Munich [TUM], and the winning race team at the 2021 Indy Autonomous Challenge. Alex discusses how the team came together for the competition and the stress of race day when they had to make changes to the race parameters to balance speed with safe operations. The Indy Autonomous Challenge turned out to be more difficult than anyone anticipated, and Alex provides a first hand view of pushing autonomous vehicles to the limit. Steve and Mike also cover the latest robotics news stories from the last week.

Mike caught up with Melonee Wise, founder of Fetch Robotics and VP of robotics automation at Zebra Technologies, at the AMRs and Logistics Conference. They discussed the new Fetch FlexShelf, FlexShelf Guide, RollerTop Guide autonomous mobile robot solutions that came out this week, as well as the state of logistics automation. We also discuss the news of the week, including Softbank reportedly negotiating the sale of its French robotics business, Softbank Robotics Europe, to German distributor United Robotics Group. We also discuss the new AMR solutions from Fetch Robotics, the historic IPO of AutoStore on the Oslo Stock Exchange and a couple of food-related automation items. Show Notes https://www.therobotreport.com/report-softbank-negotiating-sale-of-french-robotics-business/ https://www.therobotreport.com/fetch-robotics-adds-3-amrs-person-to-goods-workflows/ https://www.therobotreport.com/autostore-stock-surges-debut-oslo-stock-exchange/ https://www.therobotreport.com/spyce-closes-original-robotic-restaurant-in-boston/

This week, Steve and Mike recap the Autonomous Mobile Robots and Logistics Conference that took place in Memphis. They also talk to Stephanie Cannon of Pitney Bowes, which is deploying robotics systems from Ambi Robotics throughout the U.S to support its e-commerce network. We also discuss the news of the week, including Waymo's self-driving cars repeatedly hitting a dead-end in San Francisco, and the outrage sparked by a commercial quadruped that was outfitted with an unmanned rifle.

Our guest this week is Jon Hirschtick from PTC. Jon has started (and sold) two popular product development companies in his career: SolidWorks and Onshape. We also cover the robotics news from the week, PLUS a special discussion about our favorite startups for 2021. Timestamps News recap: 0-18:18 Interview with PTC's Jon Hirschtick: 20:57-1:04:40 Voicemails/Favorite Robotics Startups: 1:04:43-1:36:37

Amazon introduced its much-anticipated home robot this week, and it's underwhelmed the robotics industry. Mike and Steve share their thoughts on why Astro's future doesn't look bright. Listeners also call in to share their thoughts on the home robot. We also sit down with Adam Sachs, CEO and founder of Vicarious Surgical. Adam discusses the company's next-gen surgical robotics system, the challenges and keys to building it, and debuting on the NYSE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypp8/leaked-documents-amazon-astro-surveillance-robot-tracking

Steve and Mike talk to Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics and Jason Walker, CEO of Waypoint Robotics to discuss the big news of the day: the acquisition of Waypoint Robotics by Locus Robotics. The acquisition will pay immediate dividends for Locus customers who want a higher payload AMR for moving inventory within their warehouse. Rick and Jason share their stories about how the acquisition came together and what it means for both Locus Robotics customers and Waypoint Robotics customers.

In episode 54, Steve and Mike discuss recent funding news for four robotics companies totally $531M; iRobot J7+ poop avoidance algorithms; cost of the recent Ocado ASRS fire. We also interview Photoneo CTO, Tomas Kovacovsky, about 3D vision, 3D cameras and what it takes to build a robust, industrial camera/vision solution.

In episode 53 of The Robot Report Podcast, Steve and Mike discuss the Carbon Robotics funding; an update on the Intel LiDAR EOL; Attabotics patent case; Agility Robotics, Digit video. We also talk to Realtime Robotics founder and CTO George Konidaris about robot perception, safety and control.

In episode 52 of The Robot Report podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the recent news about Waymo expansion of driverless taxi service into San Francisco. Also featured in this episode is a conversation between Steve and Yaro Tenzer, CEO of RightHand Robotics. Steve and Yaro discuss the technology and capabilities of the RHR bin-picking and singulation solution for warehouse fulfillment applications.

Steve and Mike discuss the breaking news this week about the end of life for Intel RealSense cameras. Tesla unveiled plans to build a humanoid robot. We talk to Stratom CEO Mark Gordon about the autonomous solutions that help US troops to accomplish their mission in the field.