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Ghost Robotics smacks BD, chickens, half baked automation
irreverant take on robotics and automation
Thomas Norris
November 17, 2022
Robot vs Cat
People are unpredictable, robots however can consistently irritate you
📣 Topics of the Day 📣
Ghost Robotics bitch slaps Boston Dynamics 🥊
Soft Robotics is being funded by chickens 🐓
Another forklift company wants to dabble in automation
🔨 Tech of the Day: Automated Guided Forklifts
⭐ Job Posting of the Day! ⭐
Freaking sweet wheeled robot!
And the dog fight continues!!
The other day I mentioned Boston Dynamics and their lawsuit against Ghost Robotics. BD is claiming that Ghost's 4 legged friend's walk looks too much like their own yellow dog's walk and are claiming patent infringement. A pretty dumb claim.
Ghost Robotics laid the smack down today with this:
"Rather than compete on a level playing field, the company chose to file an obstructive and baseless lawsuit on November 11th in an attempt to halt the newcomer's progress. Boston Dynamics is drawing on their considerably larger resources to litigate instead of innovate."
I love the response. Boston Dynamics needs to focus on creating a profitable business so it doesn't get sold off again when Hyundai decides their tired of supporting the team that's focused on dancing robots.
Cluck cluck it's not a duck
Soft Robotics...you finally got your break. I interviewed with these guys a while back before their ceo had departed and seemed like a good company trying to figure out how in the world to commercialize their tech. But they didn't have much cash to pay so we didn't get far. But now they have sold more of their souls for $26M in a series C. They have caught the eye of the pretty ladies at the dance...Tyson Foods, Johnsonville ( the braut guys), and Marel (think food processing equipment). Based on this latest round of investments and who bought in it's no secret that they're headed down the protein route. Hopefully this cuts down on the number of immigrants losing fingers at meat processing facilities!!
Read more about it here:
Tech of the Day: IDGAF, oops I mean AGF
Automated Guided Forklifts
Tired of Bobby Joe beating up your forklifts? Ever caught someone drunk on a forklift?
Well, automated guided forklifts solve these problems and a few others. In simplest terms...its a forklift that drives itself. You program it and it runs a predetermined route. There are 2 main schools of thoughts on navigation. One is using a laser based system and another leveraging camera based tech. Both are pretty good but each have weaknesses. Vision based systems suck at positioning accuracy and laser based suck at navigating around obstacles. So depending on your application one may be a better fit than the other.
Key players in the space are Seegrid, Vecna, Junghienrich, JBT, Dematic.
Let's make my mortgage payment Plug of the Day
Mentor, Ohio....home of the great James A. Garfield..the president not the cat. And aside from Niagara Systems not home to much else. Niagara makes parts washers and cleaning systems for manufacturing facilities. Have oily parts that need cleaned before paint..they got you, need a special rinse before assembling those metal parts..you know who to call.
Want your company to be featured? Sign up HERE
Big Joe wants to play with the big boys too
So I read a tiny, itty bitty, miniscule press release about Big Joe, the forklift company wanting to get into the automation business. From the looks of it they created a pretty half baked plan. They have an operations guy running the program and heck they don't even have the "new" machine on their website yet. What I found interesting is a comment they made on the affordability of their units. That's important but more so it needs to work and be reliable. If they can't get those 2 things right they'll soon realize no one will buy their cheap machine.
Alrighty folks! Time to call it a day and get on with trolling my peeps on Twitter and Linkedin.
If you want to help us pay the bills check out our directory of robotics and automation companies.
JOB POSTING OF THE DAY
CAJA Robotics is hiring for a couple of different roles. Todays post is for their Robotics Field Technician. The role is remote but ideally based out of Indianapolis. They're still a bit of a startup but already have a handful of customers here in the US. Let them know we sent you!
Have feedback? Not sure that I'm looking for it. If you have something constructive you can catch me on Twitter. @robotsrcoming
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