Daniel Theobald on funding early startups and the longer term for ag robotics

By Mike Oitzman | October 5, 2023

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In this episode

On this episode, we sit down with Vecna Robotics Founder and Chairman Daniel Theobald and discuss in regards to the perils of funding early-stage robotics startups and the expertise that Daniel will carry to the Robotics Startup Workshop on October 18 at RoboBusiness 2023.
Daniel additionally takes us behind the scenes at his newest enterprise at Twisted Fields on the California coast, his private farm and ag-robotics check floor. It’s an important dialog with one of many cell robotics trade’s luminaries.

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News of the week

• IFR reviews 2022 industrial robotic installations
  • According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) World Robotics report, 553,052 industrial robots have been put in in factories all over the world – a progress charge of 5% in 2022, year-on-year. By area, 73% of all newly deployed robots have been put in in Asia, 15% in Europe, and 10% within the Americas.
    • China is by far the world’s largest market. In 2022, annual installations of 290,258 items changed the earlier file of 2021 by progress of 5%.
    • Robot installations in Japan have been up by 9% to 50,413 items, exceeding the pre-pandemic degree of 49,908 items in 2019. The peak degree remained at 55,240 items in 2018. The nation ranks second to China within the dimension of the marketplace for industrial robots.
    • The market within the Republic of Korea rose by 1% – installations reached 31,716 items in 2022. This was the second 12 months of marginal progress, following 4 years of declining set up figures. The Republic of Korea stays the fourth largest robotic market on the earth, following the United States, Japan, and China.
    • The European Union stays the world’s second-largest market (70,781 items; +5%) in 2022. Germany is without doubt one of the prime 5 adopters worldwide with a market share of 36% inside the EU.
    • Finally, In the Americas, installations have been up 8% to 56,053 items in 2022, surpassing the 2018 peak degree (55,212 items). The United States, the most important regional market, accounted for 71% of the installations within the Americas in 2022. Robot installations have been up by 10% to 39,576 items. This was simply shy of the height degree of 40,373 items achieved in 2018.
• 2024 Farm Robotics Challenge
  • The 2024 Farm Robotics Challenge competitors kicked off final week at FIRA USA 2024
  • It’s a college engineering problem for AG robotics, in the same vein to the Indy Autonomous Challenge
  • The Farm Robotics problem is supported by Farm-ng, which is supplying Amiga robotic elements to the members
  • The groups will suggest a particular AG automation-related challenge after which execute the creation of the answer all through the college 12 months
  • Judging occurs in September 2024
    • There are 4 classes of awards:
      • Grand Prize: Awarded to the staff that excels in all features of the problem, from innovation to implementation.
      • Elegance in Design: Celebrates the staff that excels in making a well-designed, user-friendly resolution.
      • Complexity: Honors the staff that tackles probably the most advanced challenges with a sophisticated and complicated resolution.
      • Small Farm: Recognizes the staff that creates an answer particularly tailor-made to the wants of small farms.
• Dexterity debuts trailer loading system
  • Dexterity AI introduced a collaboration with FedEx Corp to leverage AI-powered robotic know-how to load containers into vehicles and trailers. Dexterity’s propriety cell robotic design, known as DexR, navigates autonomously to the again of trailers and makes use of its two robotic arms to load containers from a powered conveyor system into the truck.
  • At FedEx, robotic methods want to have the ability to deal with packages that change in dimension, form, weight, and packaging materials.
  • In August, Dexterity unveiled the three.0 launch of its Palletizing and Depalletizing software program (PDP), which is aimed toward unlocking pallet operations within the warehouse.