THE ROBOT REPORT DECEMBER 2020

A Supplement to Design World - December 2020 www.therobotreport.com

2020:

The robotics year in review page 118

INSIDE:

• Top 10 robotics stories of 2020 ....................120 • 3 robotics applications accelerated by COVID-19 ...........................................................126 • Top 10 transactions in robotics in 2020 .......132

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A Supplement to Design World - December 2020 www.therobotreport.com

2020:

The robotics year in review page 118

INSIDE:

• Top 10 robotics stories of 2020 ....................120 • 3 robotics applications accelerated by COVID-19 ...........................................................126 • Top 10 transactions in robotics in 2020 .......132

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The Robot Report

2020 a year of robotics

Editor’s note:

growth but many challenges

Autonomous vehicles and supply chain automation kept advancing.

Eugene Demaitre and Steve Crowe | Editors, The Robot Report

“May you live in interesting times,” goes the old saying. Change has been a constant for robotics developers, but never more so than this past year. From growth in existing sectors to macroeconomic challenges, not to mention a global pandemic and a contentious U.S. election, engineers and businesspeople have been forced to pay attention to the world outside their laboratories and boardrooms.

All of these challenges have also provided opportunities for robotics. In this year’s-end issue of The Robot Report, we’ll look back at robotics trends, triumphs, and failures. What do you care about?

We’ll review some of our most popular articles of the past year.

We’ve been honored to serve at The Robot Report, which is part of WTWH Media’s robotics network. This includes sibling sites Robotics Business Review and Collaborative Robotics Trends, as well as numerous events, webinars, and a weekly podcast to keep you informed. We hope to be able to return to in-person conferences in 2021!

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This past year, manufacturing slowed, but disinfection robots, legged systems, and supply chain automation of all kinds boomed. Factories around the world used a total of 2.7 million robots, an increase of 12%, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). By comparison, service robot sales -- including supply chain and healthcare robots -- are catching up, increasing 32% worldwide, said the IFR.

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Self-driving cars and trucks led in 2020 investments. | Waymo What do shifts in consumer and work habits mean for automation? China was the first country in the world to suffer from the novel coronavirus and one of the first to begin recovering -- how does that affect manufacturing demand and robotics development?

Waymo, Cruise, Tesla, and others have raised billions of dollars in the past year or so -- how come so much money is flowing into autonomous vehicles, when fully self-driving passenger cars are likely still years away? We’ll examine these and other megatrends.

We’ll also peer into our crystal ball and make a few predictions about 2021. We think robotics innovators, investors, suppliers, integrators, and end users will still need to watch out for new regulations, emerging applications, and business pitfalls. Fortunately, there is help in the global community.

ROS 2, BVLOS drone deliveries, workforce retraining, and ongoing efforts to refine and apply machine vision and motion control are just some of the areas to follow in 2021. We look forward to sharing what we learn with you, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us with your own robotics news and insights! RR

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Service robot sales have been growing steadily worldwide. | IFR

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Top 10 robotics stories of 2020 Steve Crowe | Editor, The Robot Report

2020 has been a year unlike any other. If the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t enough, several other world-shi ing events dominated headlines, including wildfires, an impeachment trial, a racial justice movement, and an unprecedented U.S. election.

While most people are understandably eager to turn the page and hit the ground running in 2021, it’s important to recap the past year in robotics. Of all that happened, much could have been overlooked.

Since we discuss COVID-19 elsewhere in this report, we excluded it as a top story, although it was a factor in several of the following news items. Here are the 10 most popular non-COVID stories covered by The Robot Report in 2020.

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1 Hyundai reportedly in talks to acquire Boston Dynamics 2020 was, perhaps, the most crucial year for Boston Dynamics since it spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. It commercialized its first robot in June, selling its Spot quadruped to U.S.-based customers for $74,500. The company has since expanded sales internationally and reportedly sold 400-plus robots and generated more than $30 million in revenue in just five months.

Despite this traction, Bloomberg reported that So Bank Group is in talks to sell Boston Dynamics to automotive giant Hyundai for upwards of $1 billion.

So Bank itself acquired Boston Dynamics in 2017 om Google for an undisclosed price. If the deal were to go through, it would be the third owner for Boston Dynamics in seven years.

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Perseverance, NASA’s fifth robotic rover, is part of the Mars 2020 Mission and is expected to land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. | NASA

iRobot had hoped to jumpstart the U.S. robot lawn care market with Terra. However, it shelved the product due to COVID-19 . | iRobot

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Waltham, Mass.-based Boston Dynamics has historically operated as a research and development organization since it was founded. But a new emphasis on commercialization was evident after the SoftBank acquisition.

In April 2019, Boston Dynamics acquired Kinema Systems, a Californiabased startup that used machine vision and deep learning to help robots manipulate boxes.

Naysayers may claim that there is no market for legged robots or that Boston Dynamics has been too slow to commercialize. Others, like myself, argue that commercializing a quadruped of this ability is a major challenge and a milestone. It will take time to make significant market inroads.

SoftBank also shifted its investment strategy recently after being crushed by several poor investments, highlighted by WeWork’s failed initial public offering.

In addition, SoftBank has been going through big changes with new leadership, and sources told The Robot Report that several champions of the Boston Dynamics acquisition are no longer at SoftBank.

Another potential sale shouldn’t reflect poorly on Boston Dynamics.

This is largely being driven by changes at SoftBank. For Boston Dynamics, it’s another case of being owned by the wrong company at the wrong time.

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Bossa Nova’s shelf-scanning robots use multiple 3D cameras to capture the details of a shelf in real time. In January, Walmart planned to expand the use of the robots to 1,000 stores. However, it abruptly ended the contract in November. | Bossa Nova

2 Moxie social robot is designed to help children learn Even before COVID-19 changed learning environments around the world, parents, teachers, and therapists struggled to give enough attention to children with special needs.

In April, Embodied launched Moxie, a social robot designed to help children with cognitive development. Moxie uses machine learning and the SocialX platform to perceive and interact.

Social and therapeutic robotics companies have struggled in recent years, but Embodied has claimed that it is taking a different approach. Led by co-founder and CEO Paolo Pirjanian, former chief technology officer of iRobot, Embodied is hoping to reinvent how interaction with a robot is done beyond simple verbal commands to a more fluid social interaction including natural conversation, body language, emotive voice, and facial expressions.

Moxie provides play-based learning that is paced to weekly themes and missions with content designed to promote social, emotional, and cognitive learning. Moxie launched with special pricing of $1,699. At press time, its website said, “Due to overwhelming demand, we have sold out of reservations for our launch shipment.”

www.therobotreport.com

3 Self-driving truck startup Starsky Robotics shuts down It wasn’t a surprise Starsky Robotics closed its doors in March. What was surprising was how its co-founder and CEO, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, reacted. He said timing, more than anything, led to the company’s demise.

“Our approach, I still believe, was the right one, but the space was too overwhelmed with the unmet promise of AI to focus on a practical solution,” he said. “As those breakthroughs failed to appear, the downpour of investor interest became a drizzle. It also didn’t help that last year’s tech IPOs took a lot of energy out of the tech industry, and that trucking has been in a recession for 18 or so months.”

As 2020 comes to a close, investments in autonomous vehicles remain strong.

In October alone, autonomous vehicle companies raised more than $364 million.

Nevertheless, Seltz-Axmacher discussed the challenges facing autonomous vehicle companies. He said the biggest challenge is “supervised machine learning doesn’t live up to the hype. It isn’t actual artificial intelligence akin to C-3PO; it’s a sophisticated pattern-matching tool.”

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4 Mars Rover heads to space The launch of the Mars 2020 mission in July not only marked the latest efforts in humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life, it also represented advances in robotics.

The mission includes the Perseverance Rover, the fifth robotic rover the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent to Mars. The rover, which features a 7-ft. robotic arm, is designed to take multiple soil samples, seal them in containers, and deposit them on the surface of Mars so that a future mission can return them to Earth.

A drone helicopter called Ingenuity is attached to the rover. The main goal is to test the ability of drones to fly on Mars, which isn’t easy. The atmosphere is extremely thin, roughly comparable to the conditions on Earth at an altitude of 30 km (18.64 mi.). The drone has flown in a simulated test environment, but whether it will lift off on Mars remains to be seen. maxon SpaceLab’s Robin Phillips told The Robot Report that the drone should be viewed “as being the modern equivalent of the Sojourner rover.”

Perseverance is expected to land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.

5 Nuro R2 autonomous delivery vehicle sets milestones In February, Nuro became the first autonomous vehicle developer to be given exemptions by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for testing on public roads without the need to have controls for human operators.

In April, Nuro received a second permit, this time granted by the state of California, allowing it to test its second-generation test platform, the Nuro R2, on certain public roads of nine cities within Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Although more autonomous vehicle companies are now testing robotic delivery of goods instead of people, Nuro was early to this application and is being rewarded for it. In November, Nuro closed a $500 million Series C round, bringing its total funding raised to date to nearly $1.5 billion.

Nuro has partnered with brands such as CVS, Walmart, Domino’s, and Kroger.

The R2 is the first vehicle to operate fully autonomously on public roads in three different states -- California, Texas, and Arizona -- with no drivers, no occupants, and no chase cars.

6 Anki develops security robots before shutdown In a perfect example of how difficult the consumer robotics business is, Anki shut down in 2019 after it raised more than $200 million and had $325 million in revenue since it was founded in 2010.

Edtech startup Digital Dream Labs acquired Anki’s IP in late 2019, and some of Anki’s products could be on shelves again in time for the holiday season.

The Robot Report learned that prior to shutting down, Anki was developing two versions of Bingo, a security robot with a German shepherd-inspired design. There was a small consumer version called Mini Bingo for home-security applications and a more robust, rugged version

Anki was developing Mini Bingo, a home security robot, before it closed its doors. | Digital Dream Labs

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The Robot Report for commercial and military security applications.

The consumer version was designed to roam around the house, go to recharge its battery, and then continue its patrol.

If something was out of place, it would send you an alert. It would even bark like a real dog. Think of the Mini Bingo as a robotic guard dog. The larger model was about four-feet tall and had capabilities including thermal imaging, room scanning, mapping, facial recognition, and more.

Digital Dream Labs told The Robot Report it likely won’t pursue Bingo or Mini Bingo, especially since the larger version seems like “hardcore DARPA stuff.” The products also don’t align with Anki’s original vision, showing how a oncepromising consumer robotics company lost its way.

7 Walmart ends partnership with Bossa Nova Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, in early November abruptly ended its five-year partnership with Bossa Nova Robotics, a developer of autonomous mobile robots for taking shelf inventory.

This was a significant reversal from plans announced in January to expand deployments of the robots from 500 to 1,000 stores.

Walmart “found different, sometimes simpler solutions that proved just as useful, said people familiar with the situation,” according to The Wall Street Journal. With fewer people shopping inside Walmart stores due to COVID-19, these solutions included using more human employees for inventory monitoring.

According to a source, the robots’ performance and changes in Walmart leadership were other factors. Walmart executives were concerned about how the robots affected the customer experience and about the ability to scale the technology to other stores, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Unfortunately, this is a cautionary tale of what can happen when working with major corporations. Bossa Nova put all of its eggs into the Walmart basket and had to lay off about 50% of its staff. The company has pivoted its business twice since being founded; let’s see if it can do it again.

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Walmart continues to explore how robotics can enhance its business.

Its Sam’s Club subsidiary is bringing Tennant’s floor-scrubbing robots to its 599 stores. It is also exploring how these robots could also perform inventory monitoring.

In addition, Walmart recently announced a partnership with Cruise to test autonomous vehicle delivery in Scottsdale, Ariz.

8 Former coal miners become robot techs Robots are mistakenly too often viewed as a threat to the future of human jobs.

But not at the eKentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute (eKAMI), which is using robotics to provide former coal miners with a second chance and a brighter future.

Started in 2017, eKAMI is helping former coal miners switch careers to mobile robot technicians. The program includes instruction in both technical and soft skills Students train on the latest stateof-the-art CNC equipment, learning to program, set up, and operate machines that produce parts for various industries, including military and defense, robotics, aerospace, medical, and electronics.

AutoGuide Mobile Robots, a Massachusetts-based developer of autonomous mobile robots, has hired 25-plus eKAMI graduates.

Later in 2020, eKAMI partnered with READY Robotics to train students how to program multiple types of robotic arms. eKAMI is a great example of the workforce development programs that are desperately needed to prepare U.S. workers for the future.

9 Analyst looks at Chinese robotics China’s industrial automation and robotics market demonstrated significant strengths in 2020, according to international consultant Georg Stieler.

But immature firms and trade conflicts with the U.S. still pose challenges.

Industrial robots were among China’s industries that performed better in the second quarter than in the same period of the previous year. Based on the evaluation of the sales figures of the 20 leading domestic and foreign manufacturers of industrial robots in www.therobotreport.com

China, the market grew by 3.8% from the beginning of April to the end of June.

Other segments with robust growth were automated guided vehicles (AGVs, +17%) and collaborative robots (+9%). They particularly benefited from resuming projects that had been halted during the outbreak.

Sales of traditional multi-axis robots (-10%) and handling technology (-6%) continued to decline in the second quarter, mainly due to the persistently weak demand from the automotive sector.

At the present time, China can be seen as a bright spot in the global robotics market.

10 iRobot pauses lawn mower development iRobot delayed the launch of its longawaited Terra robot lawn mower. It made the announcement in April, putting the blame on COVID-19.

In its Q1 2020 earnings call in April, iRobot said it “suspended our go-to-market plans associated with our Terra robot mower. Although we believe there is substantial long-term opportunity in the robot lawn care market, our decision to take our foot off the gas for Terra was based largely on the likelihood of significant delays to our 2020 commercial plans for Terra caused by COVID-19 combined with the overall intensity of ongoing technology investment that would be required over the coming quarters to continue advancing the product. It is simply the wrong time to launch this product.”

Later in the year, during its Q3 earnings call, iRobot said, “Our go-tomarket plans to enter the robot mower market with Terra will remain on hold for the foreseeable future. To the extent we restart our efforts in this area, we will do so in stealth mode and will not be providing updates on a quarterly basis.”

There has been talk of an iRobot robot lawn mower since at least 2006, but the Roomba-like Terra was officially unveiled in January 2019. The U.S. robot lawn mower market is way behind other countries, including many in Europe, which the Associated Press reports has a $300 million robot lawn mower industry.

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The Robot Report

3

robotics applications accelerated by COVID-19

From healthcare and retail to manufacturing, the world will never be the same.

Eugene Demaitre | Senior Editor, The Robot Report

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has dominated 2020, affecting daily lives and every industry around the world. Early in the year, it aggravated a manufacturing slowdown that was the result of both expected economic cycles and trade tensions between China and the U.S. At the same time, the novel coronavirus has accelerated demand for robotics in supply chain and healthcare applications. Robotics suppliers switched om citing labor shortages to the need for social distancing as a rationale for adopting automation.

Even as governments grapple with subsequent waves of infection, there are early signs of recovery in some regions and in the automotive sector. As of the time of writing this article, a few vaccine trials have

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been promising, but it’s too soon to say when most businesses, schools, and travel venues will reopen. In the meantime, here are the top five ways in which the robotic industry has responded to COVID-19.

Disinfection and cleaning One of the most obvious applications for robotics in response to the pandemic is to disinfect hospital rooms and other spaces with ultraviolet radiation

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The public is increasingly accepting of delivery robots like this one. | Nuro

or chemical sprays. However, both developers and users should be aware of limitations.

UV-C light is effective at killing pathogens in the air or on surfaces, but it can be hazardous to humans and degrade certain plastics. Radiation exposure is one reason why it is better to send in an autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robot into an area to work.

In the Philippines, Robotic Activations apologized after a demonstration of its Keno robot caused eye irritation among as many as 10 observers. Disinfection robots need to detect when humans are nearby and shut down for safety.

Simply putting UV lights on a mobile robot base is not enough to guarantee effective or safe disinfection, noted Claus Risager, co-founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Robotics, which spun out of UVD Robots.

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“So many people are trying to copy the UVD robots,” he told The Robot Report. “It’s unbelievable how fast that came. There’s more to our product than putting light bulbs on a robot. We’ve done clinical design and long-term testing for all kinds of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, as well as time of exposure, angles, shadowing effects, and reflections.”

It’s also worth noting that the companies that were developing UV-C robots before the COVID-19 crisis -- UVD Robots and Xenex Disinfection Services LLC -- are among the market leaders, despite a host of imitators and research projects. UVD Robots’ system is on its third generation and is available through partners worldwide.

At midyear, new disinfection robots were announced every week. Some came from

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The Robot Report Third-generation UVD disinfection robot in a hospital room. | UVD Robots

established mobile robot providers, such as Lavender from Geekplus Technology Co., the SmartGuardUV from Fetch Robotics Inc., or the LD UVC from Omron Corp. and Techmetics Robotics.

Other systems from cleaning robot providers rely on sprays, mists, or a combination of chemicals and UV-C. These include the CIRQ+CLEAN from CIRQ+, Nimbus from Life Sciences Holdings Inc., and the Large Area Autonomous Disinfecting vehicle from Pratt Miller Mobility.

Both types must address the time needed to properly disinfect a certain space, the “shadowing” effect depending on angles and occlusions, and the endurance needed to treat multiple rooms or large areas like an airport lounge. Like UV, some chemical disinfectants pose a risk to people.

“UV robots are scary,” said Faizan Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of Avidbots.

“We are paying close attention to safety, and we’re active in the IEC [International Electrotechnical Commission] for safety.

Some sprays are safer for humans -sodium- or solvent-based, [and] we need to do analysis of this.”

In addition, some companies, such as Perpetual Motion, are developing drones to disinfect large areas, and Clearpath Robotics is among those working to treat outdoor spaces. Exyn Technologies conducted a study that found that

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unmanned aerial vehicles might not yet be a practical method of disinfection.

“The time and power required to ensure mission completion would not be an efficient solution to sanitize large areas at this time,” said Exyn. “To be an effective solution for large areas, further advancement is needed in the underlying UV-C LED technology so that effective sanitization could be achieved on the order of seconds rather than minutes.”

Stationary systems inside heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) infrastructure are another possible alternative for airborne viruses.

Remote diagnosis and treatment Healthcare workers, from nurses and surgeons to therapists, are already on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. Robots, drones, and artificial intelligence offer some help to providers who were already shorthanded before the pandemic. They can aid with screening entrants to facilities, contact tracing, and telemedicine.

In March, Draganfly Inc. said it was working with Vital Intelligence Inc. and the University of South Australia to develop drone-based detection of health metrics including heart and respiratory rates. The company also worked with the police department in Westport, Conn.

In August, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Massachusetts www.therobotreport.com

Institute of Technology used a Spot quadruped from Boston Dynamics to remotely obtain patients’ vital signs.

In September, Teledyne DALSA announced the Calibir GX thermal cameras to detect elevated skin temperatures.

Food-service organizations are also turning to robots and sensors.

CaliBurger, which has been testing Miso Robotics’ Flippy frying robot, also added facial recognition, thermal sensing, and contactless ordering at a recently renovated restaurant in Florida.

On the treatment side, social robots offer a more constant companion than busy clinical staffers, and telepresence and wearable systems can aid human therapists.

For example, Expper Technologies’ Robin robot is designed to work with children being treated for chronic conditions.

Many millennials would accept emerging technologies including telemedicine, robot-assisted surgery, and autonomous vehicles for the health and well-being of their children, found the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in a study released last month.

Another example is Energid Technologies Corp.’s work on remote diagnosis.

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Dr. Jeff Soble and Sarah Doherty, cofounders of startup Telehealth Robotics, to develop a system for medical kiosks, where patients could go to a local kiosk to get a carotid ultrasound performed by a remote technician,� said Neil Tardella, CEO of Energid.

The cutting edge of teleoperation, literally, is remote surgery, which organizations such as Corindus Vascular Robotics have been pioneering. This is aided by increasing levels of autonomy, which ees remote surgeons for higherlevel cognitive tasks, as well as 5G bandwidth for fast and accurate imaging and controls.

Social distancing in industry Social robots have also been pressed into duty during the pandemic, as suppliers of such robots look for more commercial viability. Robovie reminds shoppers to maintain social distancing in Japan, while

The Spot quadruped robot at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. | Boston Dynamics

Agilo Kim talks to restaurant diners in South Korea.

Social distancing is equally important on the factory or warehouse floor, leading to more interest in telepresence and teleoperation.

Vendors of collaborative robot

arms such as Universal Robots A/S and autonomous mobile robots like Mobile Industrial Robots ApS have said that their flexible automation can help businesses remain productive while spacing out staffers. “The days where factories are filled with tightly packed workers are likely

Supply chain automation booms during pandemic Several executives have told The Robot Report that the pandemic accelerated an existing shi om brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce, particularly for consumer packaged goods and groceries. Growth expected over the next three to five years occurred over the past six months, they said.

In the first few months of the year, supply chains were strained by the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, and they are now gearing up for the distribution of potential vaccines. Hospital supply chains are subject to shi ing demands like those in retail.

The need to respond to such demands has led to expectations of growth in robotics for pick-and-place, materials handling, and delivery applications. Vendors of mobile robots, automated storage and retrieval systems, and last-mile delivery vehicles in the air and on the ground have been bullish.

For instance, insightSlice predicts that the global market for delivery drones and robots will grow om $10 billion in 2019 to $38 billion by 2030.

In an April survey, Interactions LLC found increasing consumer comfort with robots for healthcare, retail, and delivery. “Online grocery and general merchandise orders need robotics to keep up with demand, velocity, and quality,� said Steve Hornyak, chief commercial officer at Fabric Ltd. “Then, to get products closer to customers and get to the one-day norm that Amazon has driven, you need microfulfillment centers rather than big warehouses at the edge of cities.�

At the same time, the rapid growth in e-commerce order fulfillment should be kept in perspective. “We’re looking at e-commerce numbers picking up to 20% of retail this year,� said Guy Courtin, head of global alliances at mobile robot provider 6 River Systems Inc. “When we talk to our parent company Shopi , it has

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seen six to seven years of growth in the past several months.� “But we should remember that 75% to 80% of retail is still in store, and as restrictions have loosened, we can see some of that returning,� he said.

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The Robot Report coming to an end, and industries must determine how to reduce human density without the commensurate reduction in productivity,” Tardella said. “Advanced software that allows robots to work in close proximity to one another can bring productivity levels back up to human level.”

In September, the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM Institute, announced nine projects that will receive a total of about $8 million to help U.S. industry respond to the pandemic. They include an autonomous disinfection robot for warehouses, the use of 3D printing and robotics to make PPE, and swarm robotics for building large structures.

Whenever COVID-19 is finally defeated, people will return to factories, restaurants, hospitals, and schools.

However, increasing autonomy and

Collaborative robots can help manufacturers with social distancing. | Universal Robots

awareness of the potential of robotics will likely mean a continued expansion of adoption for applications involving collaboration, remote monitoring, and rapid response to healthcare or market conditions. RR

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The Robot Report

Top 10 transactions in robotics in 2020 Autonomous vehicles leave other applications in the dust.

Eugene Demaitre | Senior Editor, The Robot Report

Self-driving cars and trucks, as well as sensors, artificial intelligence, and other enabling technologies, rode off with 2020’s biggest investments in robotics and automation. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic affected automotive demand and manufacturing, vehicle startups continued to draw more funding than industrial automation, aerial drones, or healthcare systems.

The Robot Report has tracked more than 360 transactions worth a total of $19 billion in 2020 to date, compared with 384 worth about $45.8 billion in 2019. The pandemic can be blamed for the decline, but note that only seven companies announced shutdowns this year.

There were 56 robotics mergers and acquisitions in 2020, compared with 86 in 2019. The total number of investments was closer, with 366 fundings as of

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late November, compared with 384 in the prior year.

While subtotals weren’t yet available as of press time, other noteworthy areas of automation receiving funding in 2020 included agricultural systems, components such as sensors and grippers, mobile robots for supply chains, and service robots for tasks such as customer service or food preparation.

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Autonomous vehicle developer Waymo raised more than $3 billion in 2020. | Waymo

Nuro is testing mobile robots for transporting goods rather than people. | Nuro

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MicroPort MedBot and Robocath have a joint venture around vascular robots. | Robocath

Here are the top 10 robotics transactions of the past year: 10 FLIR raises funding for defense imaging In July 2020, FLIR Systems Inc. offered $494 million in notes. The Arlington, Va.-based company makes thermal imaging sensors for mobile platforms such as robots and drones, as well as for handheld and stationary use. It serves military and industrial applications.

In 2019, FLIR marked consolidation in the defense systems market with its acquisitions of Aeryon Labs, Endeavor Robotics, and tethered drone maker Aria Insights, formerly known as CyPhy Works.

9 Nuro obtains Series C for delivery robots In November, Nuro raised $500 million in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to $5 billion. What makes Nuro different from other autonomous vehicle companies is that it has developed its R2 purely for transporting goods rather than people.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to test vehicles without the conventional features of passenger cars, such as side mirrors or a steering wheel.

In April, Nuro was one of the first two companies (along with Waymo) to get permission to conduct driverless testing in California. The company had previously raised $840 million in early 2019.

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8 SoftBank invests in Didi Chuxing driverless unit Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing’s autonomous driving subsidiary brought in its first external funding in May. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led the $500 million round.

Didi has developed what it claimed is the first electric car designed specifically for ride-hailing services. It is working with AutoX and AutoNavi on robotaxis in Shanghai.

The company hopes to have 1 million vehicles with basic autonomous driving capabilities by 2025, said Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Chuxing.

7 MicroPort MedBot sews up funding for laparoscopic robot MicroPort MedBot said in September that it would receive $512 million in three tranches led by Hillhouse Capital. It is the surgical robotics unit of Shanghai-based medical device maker MicroPort.

“MedBot has gradually formed a product portfolio of 3D electronic laparoscopy, [a] laparoscopic surgical robot, and [an] orthopedic surgical robot providing intelligent surgical solutions,” stated Martin Sun, chairman of MicroPort MedBot. In October, the company announced a joint venture with France-based Robocath to develop and distribute vascular robotics in China.

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6 Tesla borrows money for Shanghai factory Tesla Inc., whose electric vehicles include the Autopilot driver-assistance software and rely on cameras rather than lidar or a combination of sensors, took out a loan of $565 million in May. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla said it plans to use the funds from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. to build a production plant in Shanghai, its first outside the U.S. In October, Tesla announced the limited rollout of its “full self-driving beta” release.

5 Pony.ai rides off with $729M Toyota Motor Corp. participated in Pony. ai Inc.’s $462 million round in February.

Fremont, Calif.-based Pony.ai, which is working toward SAE Level 4 autonomy, also raised $267 million in Series C funding in November. The company is now valued at more than $5.3 billion.

“We will give full play to the technical and product advantages in vehicle design and manufacturing, V2X [vehicle-toeverything communications], to mobility as a service,” Pony.ai said. “We will engage in pre-installation mass production and business operations models while strengthening collaboration to accelerate the development and implementation of autonomous driving technology.”

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The Robot Report 4 Amazon buys Zoox for $1.2B Amazon.com Inc. reportedly accelerated its investment in autonomous vehicles by buying Zoox Inc. for $1 billion in June. Amazon had previously funded companies such as Rivian and Aurora Innovation Inc. Foster City, Calif.-based Zoox has been developing an autonomous ridehailing vehicle from the ground up, plus an “end-to-end autonomy software stack.”

3 Alibaba acquires China Smart Logistics Network One of the biggest reported transactions of 2020 was Alibaba Group Holding’s acquisition of Fosun International’s 6.7% stake in China Smart Logistics Network, which does business as Cainiao. The June deal was worth about $1.3 billion, raising Cainiao’s valuation to $20 billion.

Cainiao provides autonomous mobile robots to warehouses to meet spikes in e-commerce demand around holidays such as Singles Day. Alibaba is a rival to Amazon and JD.com.

2 Xpeng Motors has U.S. IPO In August, Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co., also known as Xpeng, announced that it had increased its U.S. initial public offering to $1.5 billion. The Guanghzhou, China-based electric vehicle maker said it plans to use the financing to expand research and development.

In November, Xpeng said it will be introducing autonomous vehicle hardware and software in 2021 production models.

“Introducing lidar technology into production vehicles is a breakthrough in popularizing autonomous driving, and an endorsement of our in-house R&D process,” said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng.

1 Waymo picks up $3B in two deals Self-driving car leader Waymo LLC had a good year, raising $2.25 billion in its first external funding round in March 2020. It then raised $750 million in May. After it and other companies paused testing in March, Waymo has expanded its robotaxi service in Phoenix, Ariz., and it is scaling up production.

There is a small herd of so-called unicorns chasing autonomous vehicles. In addition to Waymo and other businesses on this list, Cruise LLC raised $1.15 billion and Uber closed on $1 billion in 2019. Waymo and Nuro were both recognized with 2020 RBR50 innovation awards by Robotics Business Review, a sibiling site to The Robot Report.

Waymo has also partnered with Daimler on Level 4 self-driving trucks, run the Waymo Open Dataset Challenge, and logged 6.1 million miles in Arizona with no accidents that resulted in injuries.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company claimed the lowest rate of disengagements, or safety driver interventions, in 2019. While there is debate over whether that is a good metric for self-driving car progress, that number and Waymo’s funding rounds leave no doubt about its goals.

Several robotics developers have complained that all the funding flowing to driverless vehicle research has stiffened competition for qualified developers for other areas of robotics, but the advancements in perception, navigation, and cognition could help them.

For more ongoing coverage of transactions in robot, autonomous vehicles, and more, follow The Robot Report’s articles, podcast, and print publications. RR

Alibaba’s logistics unit uses Cainiao’s mobile robots. | Alibaba Groups

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Three adjacent technology transactions In addition to the fundings and acquisitions that The Robot Report reported in 2020, there were a number of other noteworthy transactions in technologies closely related to robotics. For instance, NVIDIA Corp. acquired processor maker Arm Ltd. om So Bank Group for $40 billion.

NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs) already power gaming computers, robots, and self-driving cars. So Bank has been a major technology investor but has had some financial difficulties lately.

Arm will help NVIDIA in its pursuit of artificial intelligence dominance.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based NVIDIA said it plans to build an AI supercomputer and a research and development center near Arm’s headquarters in Cambridge, U.K. “In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new Internet of things that is thousands of times larger than today’s Internet of people,” stated Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advance computing om the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars, and robotics to edge IoT and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe.”

Medtronic moves to challenge Intuitive Surgical Another big deal of the past year was Medtronic PLC’s $7.3 billion notes offering. The company, which has offices in Minneapolis and Dublin, Ireland, is a major medical device producer, and robot-assisted surgery is only part of its portfolio.

In May, the company announced new CEO Geoff Martha. It has also made several AI-related acquisitions and is working on bringing the Hugo surgical robot to market.

In addition, Medtronic is collaborating with Titan Medical Inc. on development of the Sport single-port surgical robot. Both hope to challenge Intuitive Surgical Inc.’s da Vinci system.

| Source: NVIDIA

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Stryker buys Wright Medical The third multibillion-dollar deal of the past year in robotadjacent technologies was Stryker Corp.’s $2.3 billion offering for Wright Medical Group NV. The acquisition was announced in May and completed in November.

As with Medtronic, Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker makes more than surgical robots, but Wright’s so ware expertise are expected to complement Stryker’s offerings. Wright has offices in Memphis, Tenn., and Stainesupon-Thames, U.K. “This acquisition enhances our global market position in trauma and extremities, providing significant opportunities to advance innovation and reach more patients,” said Kevin Lobo, chairman and CEO of Stryker.

To obtain approval om the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Stryker divested some assets to Colfax. Last year, Stryker also acquired Mobius Imaging and Cardan Robotics for $500 million and Orthospace for $220 million.

These 2019 healthcare deals were surpassed only by Smith & Nephew’s $660 million purchase of Osiris Therapeutics, Siemens’ $1.1 billion acquisition of Corindus Vascular Robotics, and Johnson & Johnson’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Auris Health.

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It’s not a web page, it’s an industry information site So much happens between issues of R&D World that even another issue would not be enough to keep up. That’s why it makes sense to visit rdworldonline.com and stay on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

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