Its CES booth will have several new-to-the-US models on display, too.
Source: CNET
RightHand Robotics announced a $23 million Series B this week. That brings the pick and place robotic arm manufacturer’s total funding up to around $34 million, including last year’s $8 million Series A.
The robotics startup has impressed investors with the dexterity and speed of its robotic picking system, having recruited some big VC names along the way. This latest round is led by Menlo Ventures, along with investments from GV (nee Google Ventures) joining the likes of existing investors, Playground Global, Dream Incubator and Matrix partners.
Picking and placing has been a difficult robotics problem and one that’s only become more pronounced with the growth of fulfillment centers from the likes of Amazon. the online mega-retailer purchased logistics robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million, back in 2012 and has been rumored to be working on its own pick and place system.
As part of this round, former Kiva CEO Mick Mountz will be joining RightHand’s board of directors.“RightHand is picking up where we left off,” he said in a press release tied to the news. “Customers saw products coming directly to operators for picking and packing and would ask: ‘Why don’t you also automate this step with a robotic arm and gripper?’ But that was a difficult problem that we knew would require years of research and technical breakthroughs.”
RightHand will be using the funding to build out its technical and business teams.
Source: TechCrunch
The owner of a turbocharger company gives the supersonic car the boost it needed.
Source: CNET
Maybe Porsche’s next model won’t need a pronunciation guide.
Source: CNET
Phone manufacturers continue to experiment with alternatives to the notch.
Source: CNET
The tariff reduction doesn’t actually go into effect until Jan. 1.
Source: CNET
Time’s ticking, but it’s okay! Here are some great tech Christmas gifts with free 2-day shipping.
Source: Wired
Late last week, onlookers captured video and images of a Kiwi delivery robot moments after catching fire on the U.C. Berkeley campus. The startup has been piloting the robots on the University campus for around two years now (we profiled them back in May), largely without incident, but this is no doubt not how it wanted to gain national recognition.
Kiwi confirmed the incident in a blog post Saturday, working to minimize negative PR, noting that challenges “have impacted less than 0.6% of our robot fleet.” The challenge in this case apparently stemmed from the pint-sized delivery robot’s battery, which wasn’t replaced in time.
[Caution: dirty words above.]
The battery ignited with “some smoke and minor flames,” causing a student to grab a nearby fire extinguisher before the Berkeley Fire Department arrived to make sure that it wouldn’t reignite. Kiwi says it pulled all robots out of service as it investigated the issue, switching to hand delivery for food.
“We learned that the root cause was human error when replacing the batteries, where a defective battery was put in place of a functioning one,” the company writes. “This caused an exceedingly rare occurrence of the battery experiencing thermal runaway.”
Kiwi adds that it’s putting a new battery review process in place to help avoid similar incidents in the future.
Source: TechCrunch
Intel’s loss, it seems, is North’s game. As first noted by The Verge, the startup has picked up the “technology portfolio” behind Vaunt, the AR glasses shuttered by the chipmaker in April year after a couple of glowing previews.
North (nee Thalmic Labs) debuted its own take on the category around six months after Intel abandoned its efforts. Focals have been positioned as a kind of Warby Parker-esque take on the category. They’re essentially customizable glasses with a built-in head’s up display looking to finally deliver on the unfulfilled promise of Google Glass.
Intel’s own tech works in a similar matter, reflecting a laser projection back into the wearer’s eye. For Intel, however, Vaunt always felt like a pet project from a company that generates most of its revenue supplying components for other brands. Notably, Intel Capital has invested in North, so this deal could finally help some of its own vision finally come to fruition.
Big day! We’ve acquired hundreds of patents and patent applications from @intel‘s Vaunt smart glasses portfolio. So proud to grow our business with such a great partner. Stay tuned, this is just the beginning
#smartglasses https://t.co/GQjymr6Iol
— North (@focalsbynorth) December 17, 2018
North is certainly viewing the application purchase as more a partnership than anything, referring to it as such in a tweet. “So proud to grow our business with such a great partner,” the company writes. “Stay tuned, this is just the beginning.”
Details of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but North notes that it contains “hundreds of patents and patent applications.” Given how closely the two companies appear to be working here, it seems like a pretty safe bet they got a sweetheart deal for the portfolio.
Source: TechCrunch
Just when you didn’t think there could be any more drama over the Pentagon’s decade-long, $10 billion JEDI contract RFP, the plot thickened again last week when Amazon Web Services (AWS) joined the U.S. government as a defendant in Oracle’s lawsuit over the Pentagon’s handling of the contract RFP process.
Earlier this month, Oracle filed a complaint in the United States Court of Federal Claims alleging that the JEDI RFP process unfairly favored Amazon, that the single-vendor decision (which won’t be made until April) violates federal procurement rules and that two members of the JEDI team had a conflict of interest because of previous affiliations with Amazon Web Services.
AWS filed paperwork to join the case, stating that because of the claims being made by Oracle, it had a direct stake in the outcome. “Oracle’s Complaint specifically alleges conflicts of interest involving AWS. Thus, AWS has direct and substantial economic interests at stake in this case, and its disposition clearly could impair those interests,” the company’s attorneys stated in the motion.
The Motion to Intervene as a Defendant was approved by United States Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge, Eric G. Bruggink the same day.
Oracle filed a complaint alleging essentially the same issues with the Government Accountability Office earlier this year, but the GAO found no wrong-doing in a ruling last month. Oracle decided to take the case to court, where it has had some high-profile wins in recent years, including its case against Google over its use of the Java APIs.
The JEDI contract RFP has attracted attention for the length, the amount of money at stake and the single-vendor selection decision. This is a contract that every cloud company badly wants to have. Oracle has made it clear it’s not giving up without a fight, while Amazon Web Services intends to defend itself against Oracle’s claims.
Source: TechCrunch
