Top 10 robotic stories of November 2022

On Dec 1, 2022

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Between Boston Dynamics’ lawsuit against Ghost Robotics, layoffs reported at major companies and large funding rounds, there was no shortage of things to cover in November.

Here are the 10 most popular robotics stories on The Robot Report in November. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter to stay updated on the robotics stories you need to know about.

10. Meet Sparrow: Amazon’s new item-picking robot

Amazon has unveiled the latest addition to its collection of warehouse robots. Meet Sparrow, a robotic arm capable of picking individual products before they get packaged. Unlike Amazon’s Robin and Cardinal robots, which pick and organize packages to be sent out for delivery, Sparrow can handle individual products. This isn’t a simple task in a place like an Amazon warehouse, where over 100 million different items could need to be processed. Sparrow can pick 65% of them, according to the company. Read More

9. Pickle Robot’s unloading robots bring in $26M

Pickle Robot Company announced that it closed a $26 million Series A funding round and it has live pilot implementations unloading tens of thousands of packages a month at customer sites in the greater LA area. Pickle Robot creates artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled robotic automation systems that can unload trucks. The company plans to use the latest round of funding to accelerate go-to-market activities and strengthen deployment capabilities. Read More

8. Nuro lays off 20% of staff

Nuro, an autonomous vehicle delivery company with deployments in California and Texas, laid off about 300 employees, or 20% of its staff, on Friday, according to reporting from Tech Crunch. The company’s co-founders, Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, sent an email to employees Friday morning informing them of the layoffs and saying they would receive another update informing them if they would be impacted. Read More

7. Sarcos demonstrates robots for shipyard operations to the US Navy

Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation announced that the company has made significant strides in developing robotic technologies to usher in a new era of improved worker safety and productivity for shipyard operations. Sarcos robotic systems are designed to carry out maintenance, inspection, and repair activities, on and around ships underway and pier side, creating safer and more effective shipyard operations and improving the efficiency of sailors and shipyard workers. Read More

6. Hesai Technology announces fully solid-state LiDAR

Hesai Technology officially unveiled the FT120, a fully solid-state, near-range blind spot LiDAR designed for ADAS series production vehicles. FT120 is a fully solid-state LiDAR with no moving parts inside. It is designed for near-range blind spots and has a 100° x 75° ultra-wide field of view (FOV). FT120 has won over one million units of expected volume from leading OEMs. All the products are expected to be delivered in the second half of 2023. Read More

5. LEGO discontinues Mindstorms product line

The news that LEGO has discontinued the Mindstorms product line is bittersweet for me. I bought my daughter a LEGO Mindstorms kit for Christmas in 2000 when she was only three years old. My aunt, who was in town for the holidays, accused me of buying it for myself. Guilty. Read More

4. AMP Robotics’ recycling robots bring in $91M

AMP Robotics, a company creating robots that can organize recycling, brought in $91 million in corporate equity in a Series C funding round. This brings the company’s total raised funding to date to about $165.5 million. AMP Cortex, AMP Robotics’ robotic system, can automate the identification and sorting process for recyclables from mixed material streams. Read More

3. Reports of layoffs at Iron Ox

There are reports of significant layoffs at Iron Ox, an agriculture technology company that uses robotics to customize care for plants. Many now-former employees have posted on social media about the layoffs. While it’s unclear exactly how many employees have been laid off, numerous posts indicate Iron Ox let go of roughly half of its employees. Iron Ox also laid off a smaller number of employees a few months ago, according to other posts from former employees. Read More

2. Boston Dynamics suing Ghost Robotics over quadruped design

Boston Dynamics is suing competitor Ghost Robotics for patent infringement. Boston Dynamics claims Ghost Robotics infringed on seven patents related to its Spot quadruped robot. According to the complaint (PDF) filed in Delaware federal court, Boston Dynamics said Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 and Spirit 40 quadrupeds both contain infringing capabilities. Read More

1. Ghost Robotics responds to Boston Dynamics lawsuit

Ghost Robotics has responded to the patent infringement lawsuit recently filed by Boston Dynamics. Earlier this week, we learned that Boston Dynamics is suing competitor Ghost Robotics for allegedly infringing on seven patents related to the former’s Spot quadruped robot. Filed in Delaware Federal court on November 11, 2022, Boston Dynamics takes issue with both Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 and Sprint 40 quadrupeds. Read More

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