Category: Entrepreneurs

A year since Robot Launch – Leka (2014 Grand Winner)

At Leka, our mission is to help exceptional children live exceptional lives. Our first product, Moti, a small spherical autonomous a smart toy to help take care of children with special needs. Being a robot, Moti is both predictable and stable in its interactions, which is very important for the child’s sense of safety and …

Bruno Maisonnier moves on from Aldebaran

Farewell and thank you to Bruno Maisonnier, the founder and CEO of Aldebaran Robotics, which is now 95% owned by Softbank. Softbank had previously acquired a majority stake in the ground breaking French robotics company which created the humanoid NAO. Together Aldebaran and Softbank Robotics developed Pepper, the ‘world’s first robot that reads emotions’. Pepper is on display …

Second wave of social robots is here

Cynthia Breazeal’s Jibo launched today and coming on the heels of Pepper, Aldebaran and Softbank’s new social robot, and Jimmy from Intel. It seems like we’re seeing a second wave of social robots. Jibo is less of a humanoid than the others though and more of a human mirror, being able to be a telepresence …

Startup Series #6 MIT Entreprise Forum VLAB

The VLAB Collaborative Robots forum on Thursday May 29 was a masterclass for robot startups. For 90 minutes at the Knight Management Center at Stanford, we heard all about the business of robotics from industry veterans, vcs and startups. The panel consisted of Melonee Wise, CEO of Unbounded Robotics, Milan Shah, VP of Rethink Robotics, …

Robot Launch 2014 – People’s Choice Voting Week 1

For the next three weeks, Robot Launchpad visitors can vote for the “People’s Choice” startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we’re going to publish 10 videos from our Top 30 and during our live final on May 20, you can vote for the ultimate “People’s Choice” winner. This week’s videos (in alphabetic order) …

Robot Launch 2014 – First Round Favorites

We had a some amazing entries in Robot Launch 2014 across a wide range of fields, and not all of our favorites made it through to the Top 30. So we’d like to share some highlights of the First Round robot startups. Seeburger Robotics and Design have created a humanoid robot with 3D printed parts, …

Startup Series #5 Rodney Brooks, Steve Cousins & Pioneers Festival

It’s not every day you get to ask pioneering robot startup founders about their journey. The Robolution panel at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna comprised Rodney Brooks from Rethink Robotics and previously iRobot, Steve Cousins from Savioke and previously Willow Garage, Noland Katter from Anybots, and Walter Wohlkinger and Michael Zillich of Blue Danube Robotics, …

Is drone delivery really a robot startup?

Australian startup Zookal is making news today with their claims to be the world’s first drone delivery company.  It’s an exciting headline and I wish them well. But while you can quibble over who is really the first commercial drone delivery company, I think it’s more interesting that we’re hitting an inflection point where you …