Robotics

Bleeding edge robotics companies focused on a wide range of automation categories, including logotics, agtech, delivery, healthcare, home robotics and food service, along with the latest university and laboratory research into soft robotics, nano robotics and more.

GrayMatter self-reports that its systems currently produce “a 2~4x improvement in production line productivity [and a] 30% or more reduction in consumable waste.”

Labor shortages are still fueling growth at automation firms like GrayMatter

For the last two decades, Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of autonomous trucking startup Waabi, has been developing AI systems that can reason as a human would.  The AI pioneer…

Waabi’s GenAI promises to do so much more than power self-driving trucks

Out of an abundance of caution, the car took two minutes to turn a corner.

This humanoid robot can drive cars — sort of

The push to produce a robotic intelligence that can fully leverage the wide breadth of movements opened up by bipedal humanoid design has been a key topic for researchers.

Generative AI takes robots a step closer to general purpose

Featured Article

Inside Apple’s efforts to build a better recycling robot

Last week, TechCrunch paid a visit to Apple’s Austin, Texas, manufacturing facilities. Since 2013, the company has built its Mac Pro desktop about 20 minutes north of downtown. The 400,000-square-foot facility sits in a maze of industry parks, a quick trip south from the company’s in-progress corporate campus. In recent…

2:23 am PDT • June 3, 2024
Inside Apple’s efforts to build a better recycling robot

Featured Article

Industries may be ready for humanoid robots, but are the robots ready for them?

How large a role humanoids will play in that ecosystem is, perhaps, the biggest question on everyone’s mind at the moment.

11:00 am PDT • June 1, 2024
Industries may be ready for humanoid robots, but are the robots ready for them?

The product, which ZeroMark calls a “fire control system,” has two components: a small computer that has sensors, like lidar and electro-optical, and a motorized buttstock.

a16z-backed ZeroMark wants to give soldiers guns that don’t miss against drones

Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer distances, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its…

Amazon gets FAA approval to expand US drone deliveries

Response time is Aerodome’s immediate value prop for potential clients.

Aerodome is sending drones to the scene of the crime

When I attended Automate in Chicago a few weeks back, multiple people thanked me for TechCrunch’s semi-regular robotics job report. It’s always edifying to get that feedback in person. While…

These 81 robotics companies are hiring

We all fall down sometimes. Astronauts are no exception. You need to be in peak physical condition for space travel, but bulky space suits and lower gravity levels can be…

Astronauts fall over. Robotic limbs can help them back up.

Kyle Vogt, the former founder and CEO of self-driving car company Cruise, has a new VC-backed robotics startup focused on household chores. Vogt announced Monday that the new startup, called…

Cruise founder Kyle Vogt is back with a robot startup

iRobot has announced the successor to longtime CEO, Colin Angle. Gary Cohen, who previous held chief executive role at Timex and Qualitor Automotive, will be heading up the company, marking a major…

iRobot names former Timex head Gary Cohen as CEO

Cleaning the outside of buildings is a dirty job, and it’s also dangerous. Lucid Bots came on the scene in 2018 with its Sherpa line of drones to clean windows…

Lucid Bots secures $9M for drones to clean more than your windows

The first bit of news out of the Automate conference this year arrives by way of Alphabet X spinout Intrinsic. The firm announced at the Chicago event on Monday that it…

Alphabet-owned Intrinsic incorporates Nvidia tech into robotics platform

Microsoft, it seems, is hedging its bets when it comes to general-purpose robotics AI. At the end of February, the Windows maker spearheaded a massive $675 million Series B in…

Microsoft taps Sanctuary AI for general-purpose robot research

A harsh truth: As bad as North American wildfires have grown over the past several years, things are only going to get worse. Climate change continues to accelerate the issue,…

CMU is developing low-flying drones to map wildfires

Featured Article

Humanoid robots are learning to fall well

The savvy marketers at Boston Dynamics produced two major robotics news cycles last week. The larger of the two was, naturally, the electric Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching five million views. A day prior, the company tugged at the community’s heart strings…

1:15 pm PDT • April 28, 2024
Humanoid robots are learning to fall well

Last week, the U.K. announced its largest ever military support package for Ukraine. The bill brings the U.K.’s total support for this financial year to £3 billion — not quite…

London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups

Sanctuary AI often isn’t mentioned in the same breath as humanoid robotics firms like Boston Dynamics, Agility, Figure and 1X, but the Canadian company has been operating in the space…

Sanctuary’s new humanoid robot learns faster and costs less

Amazon confirmed it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station,…

Amazon ends California drone deliveries

Much has been (and will continue to be) written about automation’s impact on the jobs market. In the short-term, many employers have complained of an inability to fill roles and…

Robots can make jobs less meaningful for human colleagues

Serve Robotics, the Uber and Nvidia-backed sidewalk robot delivery company, debuted publicly on the stock exchange Thursday, making it the latest startup to choose going public via a reverse merger…

Uber, Nvidia-backed Serve Robotics hits public markets with $40M splash

This week Boston Dynamics retired its well-known Atlas robot that was powered by hydraulics. Then today it unveiled its new Atlas robot, which is powered by electricity. The change might…

TechCrunch Minute: New Atlas robot stuns experts in first reveal from Boston Dynamics

Featured Article

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot goes electric

Atlas lies motionless in a prone position atop interlocking gym mats. The only soundtrack is the whirring of an electric motor. It’s not quiet, exactly, but it’s nothing compared to the hydraulic jerks of its ancestors. As the camera pans around the robot’s back, its legs bend at the knees.…

6:07 am PDT • April 17, 2024
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot goes electric

Mentee Robotics hasn’t been in stealth, exactly. The Israeli firm caught a small wave of press at the tail end of 2022, following Tesla’s initial humanoid robotics announcement. As that…

A humanoid robot is on its way from Mobileye founder

Now that humanoids are all the rage in the robotics industry, Boston Dynamics on Tuesday officially retired theirs. The Hyundai-owned firm has always marched to the beat of its own…

Atlas shrugged: Boston Dynamics retires its hydraulic humanoid robot

It’s tough out there — and yet, doing my semi-regular jobs post always gives me hope. Seems every time I post one of these, the number increases. At 74 companies,…

These 74 robotics companies are hiring

The story of warehouse robotics is a story of attempting to keep up with Amazon. It’s been more than a decade since the online giant revolutionized its delivery services through…

Walmart will deploy robotic forklifts in its distribution centers

Sanctuary AI announced that it will be delivering its humanoid robot to a Magna manufacturing facility. Based in Canada, with auto manufacturing facilities in Austria, Magna manufactures and assembles cars…

European car manufacturer will pilot Sanctuary AI’s humanoid robot