Robotics News

Thursday, February 9, 2012

iRobot share price falls 33 percent on defense outlook
IRobot Corp.’s stock has lost a third of its value, after the company announced it would likely lose a significant chunk of its revenue from military contracts in the current year, due to constrained Department of Defense budgets.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

CasePick relaunches as Symbotic
CasePick Systems, a robotics and supply chain company in Wilmington, has emerged from stealth mode with a rebranding as Symbotic LLC, and a new website to boot.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

iRobot takes $6M stake of InTouch Health
Robotics developer iRobot Corp., maker of the Roomba, will make a $6 million investment and take a minority stake in San Diego, Calif., based InTouch Health, a telemedicine company.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Medrobotics gets $6.5M in debt round
Medrobotics Corp., a Raynham developer of robotic snake technology, has taken in $6.48 million of a total $10 million offering of debt and option, warrant, or other right.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Harvest Automation moves $7.8M funding into coffers
Harvest Automation, the Billerica company making robots to automate manual labor jobs, has added $7.8 million in a Series B funding round.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Former Netezza CEO Baum to lead robotics startup
Jim Baum, who recently left Netezza Corp. as CEO, has moved to the CEO job at a stealthy robotics startup in Wilmington. Baum has joined up with CasePick Systems, a CasePick staff member confirmed Monday.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

IBM's Watson bests Harvard, MIT; New challenge ahead in medicine
Watson, IBM Corp.'s 90-server computer, beat Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management teams handily in a Jeopardy! match Monday afternoon. But IBM has much broader goals for the machine, including as an aid in medical diagnosis.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

IRobot reports strong growth, but plans workforce cut
Home and government robot maker iRobot Corp. raised its projections for full-year results for the second time in 2011, but projected federal government cutbacks in military R&D spending mean the Bedford company will cut its workforce within the government robots business unit.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

QuietLogistics quietly closes on $5M in funding
Scenic Technology Corp. of Andover, which does business as QuietLogistics, has closed on $5.15 million in a new equity funding round, federal documents show.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

iRobot gets $60M PackBot deal
Bedford robot manufacturer iRobot Corp. has been awarded a five-year, $60 million contract to supply the U.S. Army with more of its two-foot-long combat robots that can be used for tasks such as bomb disposal and searching for improvised explosive devices.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

NortekUSA moves HQ from Maryland to Boston
Nortek AS, a Swedish firm that makes underwater acoustic instruments, moved its U.S. headquarters from Maryland to Boston, just a little more than a week after NortekUSA announced it had developed technology for Bedford's iRobot Corp.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

iWalk steps up with a distributor network
Bedford-based bionic leg maker iWalk Inc. has picked a dozen partners to be the first group of official providers of the company’s PowerFoot BiOM prosthetic.

Monday, September 19, 2011

WPI, NASA taking teams for robot challenge
Worcester Polytechnic Institute and NASA have opened up registration for the $1.5 million robotics challenge the two announced in February.

Friday, September 9, 2011

VGo names Vicars as new president, CEO
New Hampshire telepresence robotics firm VGo Communications Inc. has tapped local tech industry veteran Peter Vicars as its new president and CEO, filling the space left by the departure of previous CEO Brad Kayton in February.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

DOD pulls plug on iRobot's SUGV contract
Bedford's iRobot Corp. has received notice from The Boeing Co. that the government is partially terminating its subcontract for the 320 SUGV robot, which was first awarded in 2004.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Harvest Automation receives $2.5M financing
Harvest Automation has taken in $2.5 million in a combined debt and warrants offering, the Billerica robotics firm noted in a regulatory filing. The company focuses on developing robots to automate manual labor jobs, predominantly in agriculture.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

iRobot moves on healthcare market
IRobot Corp. has signed a deal with telemedicine systems provider InTouch Health to explore opportunities for healthcare applications based on iRobot's robotics platforms.

Friday, July 15, 2011

NSF's $18.5M grant aids new neural engineering center
The National Science Foundation has awarded an $18.5 million grant to eight institutions, including MIT, for the creation of an engineering research center for sensorimotor neural engineering.
IRobot boosts credit line to $75M
Bedford-based consumer and defense robotics company iRobot Corp. has bumped up a credit line with Bank of America from $40 million to $75 million, and extended it for two years.

Monday, July 11, 2011

CyPhy Works whips up $1.2M in new funding
Startup CyPhy Works Inc., a maker of small unmanned flying robots to be used for infrastructure inspections, has raised $1.2 million in a new round of funding, federal documents show.