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

By Mike Oitzman | October 5, 2023

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On 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 deliver 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 cellular robotics trade’s luminaries.

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Information of the week

• IFR reviews 2022 industrial robotic installations
  • In keeping with the Worldwide Federation of Robotics (IFR) World Robotics report, 553,052 industrial robots have been put in in factories around the globe – 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 models changed the earlier report of 2021 by progress of 5%.
    • Robotic installations in Japan have been up by 9% to 50,413 models, exceeding the pre-pandemic degree of 49,908 models in 2019. The height degree remained at 55,240 models 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 models 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 america, Japan, and China.
    • The European Union stays the world’s second-largest market (70,781 models; +5%) in 2022. Germany is likely one of the high 5 adopters worldwide with a market share of 36% inside the EU.
    • Lastly, Within the Americas, installations have been up 8% to 56,053 models in 2022, surpassing the 2018 peak degree (55,212 models). America, the most important regional market, accounted for 71% of the installations within the Americas in 2022. Robotic installations have been up by 10% to 39,576 models. This was simply shy of the height degree of 40,373 models achieved in 2018.
• 2024 Farm Robotics Problem
  • The 2024 Farm Robotics Problem competitors kicked off final week at FIRA USA 2024
  • It’s a college engineering problem for AG robotics, in an identical vein to the Indy Autonomous Problem
  • The Farm Robotics problem is supported by Farm-ng, which is supplying Amiga robotic elements to the contributors
  • The groups will suggest a selected AG automation-related mission after which execute the creation of the answer all through the varsity 12 months
  • Judging occurs in September 2024
    • There are 4 classes of awards:
      • Grand Prize: Awarded to the group that excels in all points of the problem, from innovation to implementation.
      • Class in Design: Celebrates the group that excels in making a well-designed, user-friendly answer.
      • Complexity: Honors the group that tackles probably the most complicated challenges with a complicated and complex answer.
      • Small Farm: Acknowledges the group 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 expertise to load containers into vans and trailers. Dexterity’s propriety cellular 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 modify 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 geared toward unlocking pallet operations within the warehouse.