Robotics – Product Management Confabulation

July 3, 2024

Deep tech VC Sidney Scott explains why he’s closing his firm as this area booms

With increasing competition for what is, essentially, still a small number of hard tech and deep tech deals, Sidney Scott realized it would be a challenge for smaller funds like his.

July 3, 2024

Amazon retires its Astro for Business security robot after only 7 months

Amazon has decided to discontinue its Astro for Business device, a security robot for small—and medium-sized businesses, just seven months after launch. In an email sent to customers and employees on Wednesday, provided to TechCrunch, the reason for putting Astro for Business on the shelf is a simple one: Amazon wants to focus on its […]

June 30, 2024

MIT’s soft robotic system is designed to pack groceries

RoboGrocery combines computer vision with a soft robotic gripper to bag a wide range of different items.

June 30, 2024

Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an ‘epidemic of loneliness’

In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached the zenith of pop cultural […]

June 29, 2024

MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AI

He says that the problem is that generative AI is not human or even human-like, and it’s flawed to try and assign human capabilities to it.

June 28, 2024

TechCrunch Minute: Beware the smiling robot with living skin

Will robots ever have living, human skin? Researchers have been exploring the question and they’ve come up with some pretty unsettling results. I think it’s fair to say that no one would confuse any of today’s robots, no matter how advanced, with another human being. Even when a company like Tesla or Figure creates a […]

June 27, 2024

Robotics investments are gaining speed after post-pandemic slowdown

The first six months of the year have seen $4.2 billion invested in robotics, putting this year well on track to beat 2023’s 12-month total of $6.8 billion.

June 27, 2024

Agility’s humanoid robots are going to handle your Spanx

Digit’s first job will be moving totes around a Connecticut Spanx factory — which is most definitely not a euphemism.

June 26, 2024

Persona’s founders are certain the world can use another humanoid robot

At this early stage, Persona’s pitch doesn’t stray far from the various humanoid firms with which it’s set to compete.

June 25, 2024

This smiling robot face made of living skin is absolute nightmare fuel

Giving robots a human-like exterior has been the standard for years — centuries even. But giving them actual, living skin that can be manipulated horrifying, slimy expressions? That’s new. The new work, published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, is very much just an experiment. This will not be the face of your next […]