Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
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Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#2Genuine question — is $70 million, spread across +4 different competing companies, a lot of money, for an industry like robot makers?
Or, said another way, if the article had said the companies collectively raised $700 million, I don’t think I would’ve been surprised.
Can someone provide context?
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#3Sounds like another race to the bottom.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#4Genuine question — is $70 million, spread across +4 different competing companies, a lot of money, for an industry like robot makers? Or, said another way, if the article had said the companies collectively raised $700 million, I don’t think I would’ve been surprised. Can someone provide context?
I'm guessing at numbers from my limited experience, but a new robot development (let's say with some sophisticated features either hardware or software--not both) is probably a 20-50 person development. Salary (in normal land, not crazy west coast land) for a 2.5 year development is 6-15 million. Material cost runs 10-40% more.
So expect something like 4-10 new robot platforms coming out as a result of this. In a market where there's not a plethora of vendors, that's respectable.
If anyone has more direct experience I'd be happy to be corrected.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#5I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropriate.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#6I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
I hope this leads to the revival the use of the truly awesome word "automaton" for autonomous robots!
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#7I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
edit :
sorry, this was what I was looking for,
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#8$70 million is not competition for Amazon, $700 million is almost a rounding error in this context
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#9I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
My definition of a 'robot' is a machine with motor functions and can make its own decision on how to act in reaction to its environment.
For example, a phone isn't a robot, not unless you give it wheels and the ability to act.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#10I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
My definition of a 'robot' is a machine with motor functions and can make its own decision on how to act in reaction to its environment. For example, a phone isn't a robot, not unless you give it wheels and the ability to act.
By that definition, a clothes dryer with a humidity sensor is a robot. (And I'm fine with that!)