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Iván Hernández Dalas: Matternet adds ANRA’s UTM tech to expand drone delivery

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Matternet’s M2 Drone can carry payloads of up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) over distances of up to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) over urban and suburban areas. | Source: Matternet Matternet, a provider of urban delivery drone technology, recently partnered with ANRA Technologies, a developer of unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM). Matternet will integrate ANRA’s UTM capabilities with its software to manage fleets of drones. This partnership follows Matternet’s recent launch of a drone delivery operation in Silicon Valley. It said this collaboration will help scale its drone networks as it progresses toward home deliveries. The home delivery service has also been piloted in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California. “With our home delivery service now live in Silicon Valley, our focus is on expanding our operations to serve more communities,” Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet, said. “Working with ANRA Technologies provides us with additional UTM capabiliti...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Helm.ai upgrades generative AI model to enrich autonomous driving data

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Helm.ai’s GenSim-2 allows users to modify video data using generative AI. | Source: Helm.ai Autonomous vehicle developers could soon use generative AI to get more out of the data they gather on the roads. Helm.ai this week unveiled GenSim-2, its new generative AI model for creating and modifying video data for autonomous driving. The company said the model introduces AI-based video editing capabilities, including dynamic weather and illumination adjustments, object appearance modifications, and consistent multi-camera support. Helm.ai said t hese advancements provide automakers with a scalable, cost-effective system to enrich datasets and address the long tail of corner cases in autonomous driving development. Trained using Helm.ai’s proprietary Deep Teaching methodology and deep neural networks, GenSim-2 expands on the capabilities of its predecessor, GenSim-1. Helm.ai said the new model enables automakers to generate diverse, highly realistic video data tailored to specific req...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: New research analyzes safety of Waymo robotaxis

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Waymo’s 6th generation robotaxis have 13 cameras, 4 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers. | Source: Waymo Waymo shared new research with Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest insurance providers, analyzing liability claims related to collisions from 25.3 million fully autonomous miles driven by the Waymo Driver. The study expands on Waymo’s previous research by using auto liability claims aggregate statistics as a proxy for at-fault collisions. The study compared Waymo’s liability claims to human driver baselines, which are based on Swiss Re’s data from over 500,000 claims and over 200 billion miles of exposure.  It found the Waymo Driver demonstrated better safety performance when compared to human-driven vehicles. It showed an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims. Across 25.3 million miles, the Waymo Driver was involved in just nine property damage claims and two bodily injury claims. Both bodily injury claims...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: From AI to humanoids: top robotics trends of 2024

 The Robot Report Podcast · 2024 year in review: bold bets and dashed dreams In Episode 178 of The Robot Report Podcast, we present our annual end-of-the-year review show. This episode features the voices of our entire editorial staff, including Steve Crowe , Mike Oitzman , Gene Demaitre and Brianna Wessling . The staff recalls the good, the bad, and the ugly in 2024. The show also features guest commentary from A3 president Jeff Burnstein, Körber Supply Chain Solutions senior VP of robotics John Santagate, and Mytra AI co-founder and CEO Chris Walti. Stories from 2024, covered in the show Agility’s deployment of Digit humanoids at Spanx Agility’s humanoid deal with Schaeffler New electric Atlas humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics Figure raising close to $700 NVIDIA supports humanoids, touts Blackwell at GTC Alphabet invests $5.6B in Waymo AeroVironment spends $4.1B to acquire BlueHalo for drone defense Aptiv expected to raise $2.1B for autonomous vehicles Amazon...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Robot Talk Episode 103 – Keenan Wyrobek

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Claire chatted to Keenan Wyrobek from Zipline about drones for delivering life-saving medicine to remote locations. Keenan Wyrobek is co-founder and head of product and engineering at Zipline , the world’s first drone delivery service whose focus is delivering life-saving medicine to the most difficult to reach places on earth. Prior to Zipline, Keenan was a co-founder and director of the Personal Robotics Program at Willow Garage. He was involved in launching the Robot Operating System (ROS) and shipping PR2, the first personal robot for software R&D. Keenan has spent years delivering high tech products to market across a range of fields including consumer electronics and medical robotics. View Source
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Alimak Group, Skyline Robotics create autonomous building maintenance unit

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Ozmo, Skyline Robotics’ flagship robot, uses force sensors to calculate how much pressure it can use when cleaning windows. | Source: Skyline Robotics Alimak Group and Skyline Robotics are creating an automated building maintenance unit (BMU). Alimak Group also made an undisclosed, strategic investment in Skyline Robotics. According to Skyline Robotics, the global construction industry is valued at $12.74 trillion. It said that automating the industry, especially for class A building construction, will not only enhance operational efficiency but also contribute to sustainable building management. Skyline Robotics’ flagship product, Ozmo , is a high-rise window-cleaning robot. Founded in 2017, the company said Ozmo keeps people out of harm’s way, improves the consistency and quality of window cleaning, and even creates new jobs. The company‘s goal is to automate all types of work at heights, starting with window cleaning. In 2023, Ozmo earned the company an RBR50 Robotics Innovati...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Symbotic acquires OhmniLabs, maker of disinfection & telepresence robots

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OhmniLabs offers UV disinfection robots and telepresence robots. | Source: Ohmnilabs Symbotic has acquired OhmniLabs, a Silicon Valley-based developer of healthcare robotics systems. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. While Symbotic could pursue healthcare robotics solutions , it certainly would also be interested in OhmniLabs’ in-house manufacturing expertise.  Founded in 2015, OhmniLabs builds disinfection and telepresence robots. It has used a fully in-house development and manufacturing model that it said sped up its time to market. Ohmnilabs has two main product: OhmniClean, a fully autonomous UV-C disinfection robot OhmniCare, a mobile telehealth robot OhmniLab’s also has modular library with prototyping capabilities that let customers design, develop, and deploy robotics applications. The company said it will continue to sell and support Ohmni products as part of Symbotic’s team and product line. Symbotic offers end-to-en...
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