Breaking news today regarding the failure and collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, one of the oldest banks in Silicon Valley to be used by generations of technology startups. Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the situation and the likely fallout and impact to robotics companies and the venture capital industry that supports them.

Also on the show today we (unrelatedly) interview Rylan Hamilton, cofounder and CEO of 6 River Systems. Mike had the opportunity to sit down with Rylan and talk about Rylan’s start in robotics with Kiva Systems and how he concepted and built 6 River Systems into a leading AMR manufacturer that’s now a major part of the Shopify family.

It’s a great interview about the importance of putting the customer first and starting with a problem, rather than a solution.

Links from today’s show:

• Silicon Valley Bank collapse live blog (Bloomberg)
• Plus One Robotics raises $50M Series C funding round
• John Deere acquires SparkAI’s human-in-the-loop tech
• Michael Kohen, founder and CEO of SparkAI on the podcast in episode 91
• 6 River Systems website

The post Silicon Valley Bank collapses and FDIC takes over appeared first on The Robot Report.

Symbotic Inc., a developer of A.I.-enabled robotics technology for the supply chain, announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter that ended December 24, 2022.

Symbotic posted revenue of $206.3 million, a net loss of $68.0 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $16.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. In the same quarter of fiscal year 2022, Symbotic had revenue of $77.1 million, a net loss of $23.1 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $21.3 million.

“Symbotic achieved triple-digit revenue growth and added to our base of outsourcing partners during the first quarter. We are optimistic about our outlook and are poised for continued strong growth. Demand for our solutions continues to grow and our backlog increased to $12.0 billion in the quarter,” Symbotic Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Cohen said.

Robotics Summit & Expo (May 10-11) returns to Boston

“In addition to our 168% annual revenue growth, gross margin improved and operating expenses, excluding stock-based compensation, declined sequentially,” Symbotic Chief Financial Officer Tom Ernst, said. “We initiated a record six system deployments during the first quarter as we continue to rapidly scale operations and deliver for our customers. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on hand increased by $94.1 million from the prior quarter to $447.5 million, leaving us well capitalized to execute our growth strategy.”

Symbotic made its debut on the NASDAQ in June under ticker symbol “SYM” after completing its business combination with SVF Investment Corp. 3, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by an affiliate of Softbank Investment Advisors. The combination was approved at a meeting of SVFC shareholders on June 3, 2022.  

Symbotic’s system includes a fleet of fully autonomous robots that receive, store and retrieve products in distribution centers. It utilizes hundreds of autonomous mobile robots called “Symbots”. 

Symbotic’s software is able to orchestrate an entire fleet of robots to receive, store and retrieve a virtually limitless number of SKUs, according to the company. Each robot is equipped with the company’s proprietary end-of-arm tooling and vision systems, which allow them to output cases, totes and packages at industry-leading speeds.

The post Symbotic brings in $206.3M in first public quarter appeared first on The Robot Report.

Universal Robots reported its highest annual revenue to date in 2022. | Source: Universal Robots

Teradyne announced it brought in $3.15 billion in revenue in FY 2022. This marks the company’s second-biggest year in history, following 2021. Its Industrial Automation Group, which includes Universal Robots (UR), Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), and Energid, brought in $404 million. 

This is a $28 million increase from the $376 million it brought in during 2021. In 2022, UR brought in $326 million, while MiR brought in $77 million. 

“We delivered better than expected results in the fourth quarter on higher revenue and gross margins and lower expenses than planned,” Teradyne CEO Mark Jagiela said in a release. “Increased shipments of our Eagle products serving the automotive and industrial chip markets combined with stronger demand for UR cobots in the quarter drove the improved results.” 

UR brought in $85 million in revenue in Q4 2022, slightly down from the $97 million it brought in during Q4 of 2021, but still resulting in a record-high year for the company for the second year in a row. UR saw a 5% increase in annual revenue from 2021 and a 12% growth on a constant currency basis. 

“We are proud to have continued to grow our business despite facing a difficult macroeconomic environment in 2022,” Kim Andreasen, UR’s chief financial officer, said in a release. “We focused on those things we are able to control, and we overcame supply chain challenges to report our highest annual revenue to date.”

Robotics Summit & Expo (May 10-11) returns to Boston

Teradyne expects its Industrial Automation Group to continue to grow strongly in 2023. In 2022, the company began growth initiatives, including a channel transformation at UR, to gain traction. These growth initiatives also included supplementing its traditional distributor network with focused OEM channels.

The Industrial Automation Group will also likely see growth because of its recent product releases, like the higher-payload UR20, which expands its service market. The UR20 will ramp up production in 2023, particularly in the second half of the year. 

“We invested last year in building world-class expertise in welding, palletizing and machine tending,” Kim Povlsen, UR’s president, said in a release. “We have also been working with our ecosystem partners to make automation easier for our customers than ever before. 2022 has been an important year for the company overall. We started construction on new headquarters, reached our 1000 employee milestone and launched a ground-breaking new cobot.”

MiR merged with AutoGuide Mobile Robots, another Teradyne subsidiary at the end of Q3 2022, with the integrated company officially being called Mobile Industrial Robots.

Prior to the merger, MiR offered a range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3,000 lb. (1350 kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high-payload AMR tuggers and forklifts operating on the MiRFleet software.

Teradyne expects the Industrial Automation Group to grow more than 20% in 2023, with much of that growth coming in the second half of the year.

The company’s market penetration for collaborative robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), is under 5%, leaving Teradyne with a lot of room for long-term growth. Teradyne is expecting its Industrial Automation Group to eventually make up 20% of the company’s entire sales. 

The post Teradyne’s robotics group brings in $404M in 2022 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Quanergy’s M1 Edge 2D LiDAR. | Credit: Quanergy

After going public 10 months ago via a SPAC with China’s CITIC Capital, at an implied $1.4 billion equity value, LiDAR maker Quanergy has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Quanergy is now looking for a buyer under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Quanergy said it expects to continue operations during the Chapter 11 process and seeks to complete an expedited sale process with Bankruptcy Court approval. To help fund and protect its operations, Quanergy intends to use available cash on hand along with normal operating cash flows to fund post-petition operations and costs in the ordinary course.

Quanergy also said CEO Kevin Kennedy will retire effective December 31, 2022. 

“It has been my honor to serve as CEO at Quanergy for the past 2.5 years,” said Kevin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Quanergy. “During this time, the company shifted our technology focus towards security and industrial applications which enabled the company to grow revenue by serving customer needs in a new marketplace.”

The company will transition its executive leadership to a newly appointed chief restructuring officer and president, Lawrence Perkins.

“Quanergy has made considerable efforts to address ongoing financial challenges stemming from volatile capital market conditions,” said Perkins. “Despite these challenges, the Company has seen improving demand in the security, smart spaces, and industrial markets, and improvements in supply chain conditions. We are confident that Quanergy’s efforts have positioned the company for a value-maximizing transaction during the Chapter 11 sale process. During the process, we will continue to prioritize the needs of our customers and I am thankful to the entire Quanergy team for their continued efforts and contributions to the business.”

For Q3 2022, which ended on September 30, Quanergy reported revenue of $2.3 million, which is said at the time was near the top end of its guidance range and up 104% year-over-year. It reported a third-quarter GAAP net loss of $17.7 million, compared to $19 million in the third quarter of 2021, and a third-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $12.3 million compared to $6.1 million in the third quarter of 2021. 

Revenue for its 2021 fiscal year was $3.9 million, which was up 30% year-over-year from $3 million in 2020. Quanergy said 1,065 LiDAR sensors shipped in the full year.

Tough times for LiDAR makers?

Quanergy isn’t the only LiDAR developer to be struggling financially. Last month, German LiDAR developer Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH filed for insolvency because it could not secure further growth financing. MicroVision, a developer of MEMS-based solid-state automotive LiDAR and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) solutions, swooped in to acquire certain assets of Ibeo for $15.8 million.

AEye reported revenue of $768,000 in its fiscal third quarter of 2022 with a GAAP loss of $23.6 million. Non-GAAP losses totaled $17 million in the quarter. AEye ended Q3 with $112.2 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

Ouster and Velodyne, two prominent LiDAR companies, recently announced they’re merging in an all-stock transaction. The agreement was signed on November 4, 2022, and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023.

Last year, Kyle Vogt, co-founder and CEO of autonomous driving company Cruise, said the LiDAR industry would consolidate. The issue, according to Vogt, is the projected revenue comes from “entirely overlapping potential customers, with very little discount applied to future projections.”

The post LiDAR maker Quanergy files Chapter 11 bankruptcy appeared first on The Robot Report.

AEye’s 4Sight intelligent sensing platform has an adaptive architecture for different levels of autonomy. | Source: AEye

AEye brought in $768,000 in revenue in the third quarter of 2022 and reported a GAAP loss of $23.6 million. Non-GAAP losses totaled $17 million in the quarter. AEye ended Q3 with $112.2 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. 

AEye’s revenue increased by 9% from the last quarter, and it saw a $4.6 million decrease in expenses from the prior quarter. The savings in expenses were due to lower accrued payroll, stock-based compensation costs and general and administrative costs. AEye hopes it can bring in $1 million in revenue in the fourth quarter. 

The company’s GAAP losses come out to a loss of about $.15 per share. AEye’s stock price losses were due to overall market sentiment, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Bob Brown said during its Q3 earnings call.

“We believe the impact we’re seeing on our stock price is predominantly related to overall market sentiment, rather than something company-specific,” Brown said during the call. “We’ve seen particularly negative sentiment around growth stocks given the dramatic rise in interest rates coupled with a potential recession looming. We’ll continue to focus on improving our shareholder value over time by controlling what we can which is executing well on our product development goals and on our business plan.”

Along with its latest earnings, the company announced it has broken ground on its high-volume manufacturing line at Sanmina’s future plant in Thailand, and that it’s launching its 4Sight line of products. 

“As planned, today we are excited to launch our 4Sight line of products which we believe to be built on the industry’s premier high-performance adaptive LiDAR platform. The reaction we are getting from users who require high-performance capabilities like autonomous hub-to-hub trucking, true high-speed highway autopilot, and other high-impact industrial, aerospace, and defense applications is incredibly encouraging. We believe the 4Sight platform is groundbreaking and will accelerate the adoption of LiDAR across diverse markets. The 4Sight platform differs from many other ‘point’ LiDAR solutions in that it is natively architected to integrate with other sensors and across networks to not only deliver optimal pre-perception data, but also help users customize how, when, and where they process critical information to make autonomous decisions,” Luis Dussan, founder and chief technology officer of AEye, said.

Earlier this month, two of the biggest LiDAR makers, Ouster and Velodyne, announced they’re merging in an all-stock transaction. The combined company plans to leverage the complementary customer base, partners and distribution channels to accelerate LiDAR adoption.

Kyle Vogt, co-founder and CEO of autonomous driving company Cruise, last year said the LiDAR industry would consolidate. The issue, according to Vogt, is the projected revenue comes from “entirely overlapping potential customers, with very little discount applied to future projections.”

Other LiDAR companies won’t be able to make the cut. In October, Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH, a global provider of LiDAR sensors, filed for insolvency and was granted insolvency proceedings in self-administration. 

The post LiDAR maker AEye brings in $768K, loses $23M in Q3 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Universal Robots, part of Teradyne’s industrial automation group, recently released its UR20 cobot. | Source: Universal Robots

Teradyne saw a small backslide in revenue in its industrial automation group, a 2% decrease, in Q3 of 2022 compared to the same time period last year. The group brought in $89 million in revenue for Q3 2022. 

The industrial automation group’s revenue is a decline from Q2 of this year when it brought in $101 million in revenue. The group consists of Energid, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), which just merged with AutoGuide Mobile Robots, and Universal Robots (UR). Energid’s revenue is included with UR’s. 

During Q3, UR brought in $73 million, and MiR brought in $16 million. UR sales decreased 5% during the quarter, while MiR sales rose 17% from the same quarter last year. Both companies saw a decrease in sales from last quarter when UR brought in $83 million and MiR brought in $17 million. 

For the first 9 months of 2022, 41% of Teradyne’s industrial automation sales were to Europe, 29% to the U.S. and 11% to China and the remainder to the rest of the world. 

Greg Smith, named president of Teradyne on July 1, 2022, attributed the slower-than-expected growth to two factors. 

“First, slowing industrial activity, especially in Europe, where PMI has dropped below 50 in July and has remained in that contraction zone since. Europe is our largest end market for automation, and this is a 10-point headwind to growth,” Smith said during the company’s Q3 earnings call. “Second, labor scarcity continues in our distribution channel, which we expect to reduce growth by about five points.”

Despite slow growth, Teradyne is optimistic about UR’s future. The company has seen higher demand than expected for its higher payload UR20 cobot released earlier this year. Teradyne expects the UR20 to start shipping in 2023 when it will start contributing to financial results. 

UR has also seen a lot of growth in welding. Its welding channel grew over 80% in the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same time last year, and it expects to ship over 1,200 robots in that vertical.

Inside the AutoGuide/MiR merger

Teradyne combined MiR and AutoGuide Mobile Robots at the end of Q3, with the integrated company officially being called Mobile Industrial Robots. The company’s headquarters will be in Odense, Denmark, where MiR has been based since 2013 when it was founded.

Prior to the merger, MiR offered a range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3,000 lb. (1350 kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high-payload AMR tuggers and forklifts that will operate on the MiRFleet software.

Smith said Teradyne decided about a year ago that the best way to differentiate its AMR business was to provide a broad product line under a single software control.

“We heard over and over again from big customers that they were struggling to implement complex workflows because complex workflows generally need AMRs to interact with each other,” Smith said. “The dominant way people were talking about that happening was through fleet management. That was putting those customers into an uncomfortable position where they didn’t know who to go to when things from multiple vendors didn’t work right. ”

Smith said Teradyne wants to take responsibility for the performance of the hardware and software and turn to partners to ensure a positive customer experience.

“If you look at any AMRs, whether they’re ours or someone else’s, customers can take up to two years to go from an initial pilot to a volume deployment. That’s because they have to work out their processes and adapt to the technology,” he said. “In some cases, like automakers, they have to invent new jobs. They don’t have people who know how to maintain AMRs, so they have to figure out how to fit that into their union regulations. That’s a complex issue to work through. We believe the ultimate destination for AMRs has incredible potential, but we need to simplify the process. And simplifying that process for us meant putting all of our AMRs under one software control and engaging with customers as one organization.

Smith said the bulk of the of work went into reworking the sensor suite of the AutoGuide robots to optimize their performance with MiR’s software and to enhance the MiR software to handle the higher speeds of the heavy payload vehicles from AutoGuide.

“The basic chassis stays the same, but because of the higher top speeds, we need to look much further ahead of the vehicle to react to obstacles and do the right thing. We had to modify the sensor suite of the AutoGuide robots and enhance the MIR software so it could handle the specific requirements of the heavy payload space. And that’s faster speed and more control of the path the AMRs take.”

The post Teradyne’s robotics group makes $89M in Q3 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Research advancements and technological progress have combined to remove barriers to robotics innovation and commercialization, providing the robotics sector with many opportunities for startups that can deliver robotics solutions that are functional and deliver real value.

While funding for robotics start-ups continues to increase, it is equally true that fundraising for a robotics startup can be challenging, more so compared to other sectors and technologies. At RoboBusiness, which takes place October 19-20 in Santa Clara, Calif., a keynote panel of leading robotics sector investment professionals will discuss venture capital (VC) and private sector investment into companies producing robots or enabling technologies.

The keynote, called “Robotics Sector Fundraising and Investment – Status, Trends and Recommendations,” will also highlight companies, technologies, and applications that have found commercial success or have the potential for doing so. Macro trends in the robotics sector, useful for uncovering novel technological innovations, as well as surfacing overlooked business opportunities, will be discussed. Topics include:

• The state of robotics sector investment
• Business, technological and social drivers for investment
• Gating factors and headwinds
• Why robotics startups succeed (or fail)
• Robotics unicorns
• Ongoing robotics opportunities

The panel will feature Karthee Madasamy, founder and managing partner of Mobile Foundation Ventures, Sherwin Prior, director of Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund, and Fady Saad, founder and general partner of Cybernetix Ventures. The panel will be moderated by Dan Kara, VP of robotics at WTWH Media, parent company of The Robot Report. View the entire RoboBusiness agenda here.

The other RoboBusiness keynotes include:

• Anthony Jules, co-founder, CEO, Robust AI
• Allison Thackston, senior technical lead and manager, roboticist, Waymo
• Sally Miller, CIO, North America, DHL Supply Chain
• Jonathan Hurst & Damion Shelton, Co-founders, Agility Robotics

RoboBusiness will feature 100-plus exhibitors, 50-plus speakers, a MassRobotics Career Fair and Startup Workshop, the Pitchfire Startup Competition, networking receptions and much more. Full conference passes are $795, while expo-only passes are just $75. Academic discounts are available and academic full conference rates are $295. Register today.

Co-Located Events
RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an international conference and exposition designed to provide engineers, engineering management, business professionals and others with information about how to successfully develop and safely deploy the next generation of field robotics systems for operation in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added, here.

Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.

Sponsorship Opportunities
For information about sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, download the prospectus. Question regarding sponsorship opportunities should be directed to Courtney Nagle at cnagle[AT]wtwhmedia.com.

About WTWH Media
WTWH Media is an integrated media company serving engineering, business and investment professionals through 50+ websites, 5 print publications, along with many other technical and business events. WTWH’s Robotics Group produces The Robot Report, Robotics Business Review, Collaborative Robotics Trends and Mobile Robot Guide, online technical, business and investment news and information portals focused on robotics and intelligent systems. WTWH Media also produces leading in-person robotics conferences, including the Robotics Summit & Expo, RoboBusiness and the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum. See www.wtwhmedia.com for more information.

The post RoboBusiness keynote to analyze state of robotics investment appeared first on The Robot Report.

Berkshire Grey’s robotic solutions can be used in several use cases, including grocery fulfillment. | Source: Berkshire Grey

Berkshire Grey, a provider of AI-enabled robotic solutions that automate online order fulfillment and store replenishment operations, revealed its 2022 Q2 results. The company brought in $23.4 million in revenue during the quarter, but had a net loss of $29 million. 

The company’s revenue saw a large increase from Q1 2022 when it brought in $5.5 million, but its losses also increased. In Q1, the company had a net loss of $23.6 million. Its revenue in Q2 2022 was $18.9 million higher than its revenue in the same quarter in 2021. 

Berkshire Grey saw $20 million in new orders in Q2 and through July 2022. It currently has a backlog of $100 million in orders, which also includes orders through July 2022. The company has $108 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q2 on June 30, 2022. 

During the second quarter, the company worked to expand its strategic partnership with FedEx. In August, it announced that FedEx would be purchasing $200 million of Berkshire Grey robots, which plan to be executed by the end of 2022. Additionally, the company announced it would be developing new automation solutions to help improve safety and efficiency at FedEx.

FedEx was also granted a warrant to purchase Berkshire Grey’s common stock. This vests incrementally and is subject to certain terms, including ordering and payment for Berkshire Grey’s products and services at any time before December 31, 2025.

The company also expanded its Berkshire Grey Partner Alliance (BGPA) program, which now includes 14 partners. Its newest partners include ABB and Swisslog. 

“We continue to execute against our large and growing market opportunity by expanding our relationships with our strategic customers and securing new accounts,” Tom Wagner, CEO of Berkshire Grey, said. “Our ongoing momentum reflects the value of our AI-enabled robotic solutions for the world’s most prestigious retailers, package handling companies, eCommerce providers and logistics companies.”

The company hopes to bring in $70-80 million by the end of the year. It ended 2021 with $51 million in revenue. Berkshire Grey began trading on the NASDAQ in July 2021 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). 

Berkshire Grey won a 2022 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for its robotic putwall from our sister publication Robotics Business Review. The system was launched in September 2021 to help meet surging e-commerce demands and mitigate labor shortages. The company said it can sort up to 240 orders at the same time.

The post Berkshire Grey loses $29M in Q2 on $23.4M in revenue appeared first on The Robot Report.

(From left to right) Ouster’s OS2, OS1 and OS0 LiDAR sensors. | Source: Ouster

Ouster, a developer of high-resolution LiDAR sensors for the automotive, industrial, robotics, and smart infrastructure industries, brought in $10.3 million in revenue in Q2 of 2022, up 40% year over year. The company raked in $8.6 million in revenue in Q1 of 2022. 

However, its net losses totaled $28 million in Q2. Ouster’s net losses are down from Q1 of this year, when it lost a total of $32 million.

The second quarter of 2022 was Ouster’s second-highest revenue quarter ever. The company’s success this quarter was driven by a 40% growth in the industrial vertical and 28% growth in robotics vertical.

Ouster said it has seen more customers using its LiDAR sensors for warehouse and port automation, off-highway mining and agriculture vehicles, construction robots and drones for mapping and volumetric measurements.

Ouster recently announced a partnership with MOV.AI, a mobile robotics software solutions provider. MOV.AI has integrated Ouster’s digital LiDAR into its Robotics Engine Platform for industrial equipment manufacturers that are looking to automate.

Ouster said it received a number of sizeable orders from the automotive industry, particularly in sensors for autonomous trucks, buses and shuttles. Ouster said it brought in approximately 90 new customers in Q2.

“Ouster continues to capture share in a rapidly evolving market, increasing revenue by 40% over the second quarter of 2021,” Ouster CEO Angus Pacala said. “Our ability to deliver performant and cost-efficient products to customers on time is a key differentiator. Our diversified strategy ensures that we are well-positioned to leverage automation trends across the industrialized economy, as more companies take steps to increase productivity, improve safety, and address ongoing labor shortages across their supply chains. The positive momentum we’re seeing from automakers following the release of our DF A-sample, coupled with upcoming product releases planned for later this year, positions us to capture additional market share and continue to outpace the competition.”

Ouster shipped 2,020 sensors in Q2, up 38% year over year. Its gross margins were 27%, down a bit from 26% in Q2 of 2021 due to supply chain headwinds and the company’s efforts to avoid production and shipping delays. 

Ouster adjusted its FY 2022 revenue guidance to $40 million to $55 million. Originally, its revenue guidance was $65 million to $85 million. 

“By revising our revenue guidance for this year and taking prudent financial measures to ensure access to capital in the current environment, we are better positioned to navigate headwinds while simultaneously scaling the business to achieve industry-leading growth,” said Ouster CFO Anna Brunelle.

The post LiDAR maker Ouster brings in $10.3M, but loses $28M in Q2 appeared first on The Robot Report.

The new UR20 cobot features a 20 kg payload and 30% more speed and torque compared to other UR cobots. | Credit: Universal Robots

Teradyne‘s industrial automation group generated $101 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2022. The group’s revenue grew 10% from Q2 2021 and 19% for the first half. Revenue declined slightly from the $103 million generated in the first quarter of 2022.

Teradyne’s industrial automation group consists of AutoGuide Mobile Robots, Energid, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and Universal Robots (UR). Energid’s revenue is included with UR’s and AutoGuide is still being revamped.

As always, UR led the group with $83 million in revenue during Q2 2022. That is up 8% year-over-year, with the highest growth in Northern Europe, but down slightly from the record $85 million the collaborative robotic arm pioneer generated in Q1 2022. MiR sales were $17 million for the quarter, which is up 9% from Q2 2021 in the quarter, but flat compared to the $17 million generated in Q1 2022.

Greg Smith, named president of Teradyne on July 1, 2022, said growth has been slower than planned for the first half of 2022. He attributed this to two main factors.

“The first factor was foreign exchange,” he said during Teradyne’s earnings call. “The majority of [industrial automation] revenue is linked to the Euro. For example, within Europe, at UR, we saw a robust 34% unit growth in the first half of 2022, but the decline of the Euro with respect to the dollar has muted UR revenue growth in that region to 20%.

“The second factor is lower regional demand that can be traced to a variety of region-specific causes, including COVID lockdowns in China and distribution partner staff shortages in North America where end demand remains quite strong.”

Teradyne CEO Mark Jagiela said the company is forecasting its industrial automation business to grow at about a 20% year-over-year level during the second half of 2022. That is below the company’s original 35% goal.

“As Greg highlighted, we believe that China demand will remain muted,” Jagiela said during the earnings call. “Distributor labor shortages in North America will limit the rate of installation expansion in the short-term and FX headwinds will not abate.”

In June 2022, UR introduced its UR20 cobot arm, the Danish company’s fastest and strongest cobot arm ever. The UR20 is expected to be available for pre-order in late Q4 2022 and will begin shipping in Q2 2023 for an undisclosed price. Anders Beck, VP of innovation and strategy at UR, discussed on The Robot Report Podcast how the UR20 was designed from the ground up and how a new joint design drives the UR20’s performance. You can listen to the interview with Beck below, starting at the 28:39 mark.

The post Teradyne’s robotics group makes $101M in Q2 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Intuitive Surgical da Vinci SP.

Intuitive reported second-quarter results that failed to meet the consensus forecast on Wall Street. The surgical robotics giant warned that COVID-19 will likely continue to have an adverse impact on da Vinci procedure volumes.

Sunnyvale, California–based Intuitive said last week that it earned $308 million, or 85¢ per share, off $1.52 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, representing a 40% bottom-line slide and a top-line gain of 4% compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.14, a nickel behind The Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of $1.19 on sales of $1.56 billion.

Worldwide da Vinci procedures were up 14% year-over-year in Q2 — but system placements were down 15%.

During a conference call with analysts, Intuitive officials said that trade-ins of da Vinci robots are significantly down because there’s a lower volume of older-generation systems out there. Supply chain disruptions, especially in the semiconductor space, negatively affected the timing of system builds to meet orders. Hospitals, meanwhile, are feeling pressures on their spending, looking to achieve more efficiency gains off existing capital equipment before acquiring more.

Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart said customer demand for procedures was healthy in the second quarter despite a challenging global environment that included COVID-19 lockdowns in the company’s second-largest market — China. “The leading indicator of the health of our business, procedure demand, remains healthy,” he said.

Work continues on next generations of Intuitive’s robotic systems, though Guthart noted that deeper technological opportunities and clinical impact also mean deeper validation work.

“And we’re not afraid of that work. I’d rather do things that are really clinically meaningful for the customer. … So it’s taking a little longer to get to market than it used to, maybe more than a little, it’s costing us more to get there. But that change in environment also means that really well-designed systems probably have longer useful life in the field. And I think we’re starting to see that early evidence of that as well.”

Investors reacted by sending ISRG shares down more than 12% to $197.49 apiece in after-hours trading. By the middle of the next day, they were just down more than 5% to $212.48 apiece.

BTIG analyst Ryan Zimmerman walked away from Intuitive’s evening’s earnings call weighing two divergent assertions that seemed obvious in hindsight: Robotic surgery procedures remain solid as customers increase utilization, but the hospital capital expenditure environment is worse than expected.

“We are maintaining our Buy as we think the sell-off will be bought up by [long-term] investors coupled with ISRG’s own share buybacks and on the potential for a next-gen system launch. We think these are the catalysts needed to get shares working again.”

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on sister website MassDevice.

The post Surgical robotics maker Intuitive misses mark in Q2 appeared first on The Robot Report.

A UR10e cobot performs MIG welding at a Polish production plant. | Credit: Universal Robots

Teradyne‘s industrial automation group grew its revenue 29% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022 to $103 million. The group consists of AutoGuide Mobile Robots, Energid, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and Universal Robots (UR). The companies generated $80 million in Q1 2021 revenue.

As usual, UR led the way with record Q1 revenue of $85 million. That is up 30% when compared to revenue in Q1 2021. UR sales in the United States grew 55% in the quarter.

“We’re seeing broad-based growth from many different segments,” Greg Smith, president of Teradyne’s industrial automation group, told The Robot Report. “Customers have told us they’ve been facing labor shortages since the beginning of pandemic. Now that they’ve realized those shortages aren’t going to get better, they’re investing in automation.”

UR sales for global welding applications grew more than 100% in Q1 2022 when compared to Q1 2021. Teradyne also highlighted UR’s growth in welding applications during the Q4 2021 earnings call. At that time, welding applications accounted for more than 6% of UR sales. Teradyne said that was more than 3x above 2020 levels.

“Reporting record Q1 revenue at a time when businesses across the world are facing disruption from the pandemic, supply chain challenges and conflict is a testament to the role collaborative automation can play in helping our customers stay competitive,” said Kim Nørgaard Andreasen, UR’s chief financial officer. “In addition to record revenue, we have been pleased this quarter to welcome 80 new employees to our rapidly growing company.

“When we consider the trends in both societies and businesses, everything points to a growing demand for automation. We are making plans to meet this demand, including starting work this month on new bigger headquarters in Denmark to help accommodate the company’s growth.”

Sales of MiR’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) grew 22% in Q1 2022 to $17 million. The growth was on the back of MiR’s newer MiR600 and MiR1350 heavy-payload AMRs and larger fleets being deployed at customer sites. MiR generated a total of $64 million in revenue in 2021.

Teradyne said it experienced minor slowdowns in China due to recent COVID-19 lockdowns and the European Union due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

“We delivered first quarter results ahead of the midpoint of our January outlook as we successfully resolved some short-term supply constraints at Universal Robots,” said Teradyne president and CEO Mark Jagiela. He continued, “In industrial automation, both cobot demand at Universal Robots and autonomous mobile robot demand at MiR remain strong and we expect the revenue growth rate to accelerate through the year.”

Teradyne’s industrial automation group generated $376 million in revenue in 2021. That marked a 34% increase from the $280 million generated in 2020.

Smith is giving a keynote presentation at the Robotics Summit & Expo. The event is focused on the technical issues involved with the design, development, manufacture, and delivery of commercial robots. The Robotics Summit & Expo takes place May 10-11 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Smith’s keynote, titled “Collaborative Robotics – Resolving the Manufacturing Labor Crisis, Creating New Opportunities,” will discuss the market drivers of human scale automation and present a model of the market potential for collaborative robots to automate dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. Smith will also share his vision for robotics, where people work with robots not like robots. The keynote will take place on May 11 from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM.

The Robotics Summit & Expo will feature 100-plus exhibitors, 50-plus speakers, the MassRobotics Engineering Career Fair, a Design for Additive Manufacturing Workshop, and networking receptions. Attendees also have the chance to test drive Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadruped. Full conference passes are $795, while expo-only passes are just $100. Academic discounts are available and academic full conference rates are $295. Register today.

The post Growth in welding, US sales drive Teradyne’s robotics group in Q1 appeared first on The Robot Report.

CEO Gary Guthart and CFO Jamie Samath discussed their efforts to address inflationary and supply chain challenges, with sole-source suppliers on their minds as they ramp up manufacturing capacity. (Go to our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing for more details.)

The Sunnyvale, California–based robotic surgery technology developer reported profits of $366 million, or $1.02 per diluted share, on sales of $1.49 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2022. Compared with Q1 2021, that was a 14% decrease in the bottom line and 15% growth in sales.

Adjusted earnings per share were $1.00, 8¢ short of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of $1.08 on sales of $1.43 billion. Intuitive noted that it retroactively adjusted prior year EPS information to reflect a three-for-one stock split.

Worldwide procedures performed with Intuitive’s da Vinci surgical robot increased approximately 19% compared to the first quarter of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to hold back procedures, and supply chain disruptions continued, Guthart said.

“Regardless of the healthy procedure demand, we are challenged by environmental stresses including regional waves of COVID, staffing pressure at hospitals, component and raw material availability, and logistics delays,” he said while delivering prepared remarks. “While it’s difficult to forecast how long these headwinds will persist, our teams are working hard to meet the challenge in the quarter.”

Intuitive placed 311 da Vinci Surgical Systems in the quarter, a 4% increase from the same quarter last year. The company’s installed base grew to 6,920 at the end of March, up 13% from a year before.

Intuitive did not provide financial guidance for the second quarter or full-year 2022 but said it expects 12-16% procedure growth for the full year.

Rich Mahoney, Vice President of Research at Intuitive, will give a keynote presentation at the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum. The event, designed to support those delivering the next generation of healthcare robotics solutions, will take place on May 10-11, 2022 in Boston at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Mahoney’s keynote, titled “The Best for Everyone”, will discuss the opportunity for healthcare robotics solutions to expand access to quality healthcare, with corresponding improvements in outcomes and quality of life. He will also highlight the special role and responsibility of engineers to achieve these important goals. The keynote will take place on May 10, 2022 from 8:45 AM to 9:30 AM. 

The keynote will draw on Mahoney’s more than 30 years of experience in early-stage research, development and commercialization of healthcare robotics. Prior to Intuitive, he was the founder and CEO of Seismic, a spin-off venture from SRI International, which introduced a new integration of clothing and robotics designed to enhance mobility and overall quality of life for employee safety and consumer health. Before Seismic, Mahoney was the Director of SRI Robotics for more than seven years, where he led a team delivering cutting-edge robotics innovations and multiple spin out companies. He was the founding President of Silicon Valley Robotics. 

UPDATE: ISRG shares were down nearly 13% at $237.02 apiece after trading opened the next day. MassDevices‘s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down about 3% on the day.

The post Intuitive’s profits fall short in first quarter appeared first on The Robot Report.

Sarcos plans to ship its Guardian XO and XT to customers in 2023. | Source: Sarcos

Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation earned $1 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021, a drop from the $3.4 million it made in Q4 2020. Sarcos suffered a net loss of $34.1 million in the quarter, compared to $3.9 million in the same quarter in 2020.

Sarcos creates exoskeletons and dexterous robots. It has already begun testing on its Guardian XO Beta unit, as well as its Guardian XT robotic avatar beta unit. It plans to begin production of commercial units of the XO and XT in 2022, with customer deliveries beginning in 2023.

For the full year 2021, Sarcos brought in $5.1 million in revenue, a decrease from the $8.8 million for the full year in 2020. Operating expenses in 2021 totalled $86.1 million, an increase from $29.8 million the year before. Much of the increase in operating expenses and the increase in net losses for the company comes from stock-based compensation, as well as higher general and administrative expenses from becoming a public company.

Sarcos merged with Rotor Acquisition Corp and went public in a SPAC merger that was finalized during Q3. This merger, announced in April 2021, came as yet another announcement of a SPAC-based public listing announcement. It began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol STRC in September 2021.

In Sarcos’ non-GAAP reporting, which excludes expenses from stock-based compensation as well as one time expenses related to the merger, it reported $14.7 million in net losses.

“The fourth quarter was one of major developments for Sarcos,” Kiva Allgood, president and CEO of Sarcos, said. “The completion of our initial Guardian XT Beta unit on schedule and the successful move into our new headquarters were testament to the hard work and dedication of the team. I’m thrilled to have joined Sarcos at this pivotal time in our product evolution and I am delighted at the progress we have continued to make as we have started initial testing of key elements of our Guardian XO beta unit. We believe that the recently announced planned combination with RE2, upon consummation, will enable us to offer a wider range of products to customers and significantly bolster our team of robotics experts, which makes us even more excited for the future.”

Sarcos announced earlier this week it is acquiring RE2 Robotics for $100 million. The deal consists of $30 million in cash and $70 million of Sarcos common stock, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.

The post Sarcos ends Q4 with $34.1M in losses, $1M in revenue appeared first on The Robot Report.

Autonomous mobile robots from Locus Robotics. | Credit: Locus Robotics

More than 100,000 mobile robots, including automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), shipped globally in 2021, according to a recent report from Interact Analysis. Overall, the number of robots shipped in 2021 rose 70% from the year before, which resulted in a 36% increase in revenue. 

Revenue for mobile robots hit almost $3 billion in 2021. For the first time in the over 40 years AGVs have been on the marketplace, AMRs surpassed them in revenue last year. AMRs brought in $1.6 billion annually, while AGVs finished almost $300 million behind AMRs.

AGVs also trailed AMRs in the number of units shipped. In 2021, there were 82,000 AMRs shipped, compared to 18,000 AGVs. Interact Analysis expects both markets to continue to grow. By 2025, it estimates AMR shipments will reach 640,000, while AGV shipments will reach just 43,000. 

The biggest market for mobile robots is China, which made up 40% of worldwide shipments in 2021. Following China is the United States, which made up over 25% of shipments. 

Interact Analysis predicts that by 2025, close to two million robots will be installed globally. China and the U.S. are expected to both play a large role in the market, but other countries that face high labor cost, low unemployment and high e-commerce penetration will also see growth. 

One such country is the UK, which says 2,300 units shipped in 2021. By 2025, Interact Analysis expects that number to rise by 700% by 2025, hitting over 18,500 units shipped. Countries that have lower labor costs, like India, are expected to see slower growth. In 2021, India had 566 mobile robots shipped, and that number is only expected to climb to 2,700 by 2025. 

Mobile robots see growth in different markets 

Mobile robot shipments in 2021. | Source: Interact Analysis

Mobile robots are flexible, cost effective and scalable, making them easy to implement in a variety of industries. Mobile robot sales are typically driven by demand from logistics, especially e-commerce. It’s no surprise, then, that mobile robots saw a lot of growth in merchandise, including retailers outside of the apparel and grocery sectors. 

22,000 units were shipped to general merchandise retailers in 2021. Following general merchandise retailers is automotive manufacturing, which shipped 15,000 units. Interact Analysis expects the general merchandise sector to grow 600% by 2025, reaching over 154,000 shipments. 

Mobile robots have also seen growth with third-party logistics (3PL) firms. 3PL firms are typically hesitant to automate, as large-scale integration automation solutions can be expensive and timely to implement. Mobile robots eliminate those issues, and are able to keep up with a booming 3PL industry. 

Overall growth in the mobile robot industry culminated in the first AMR company achieving ‘unicorn’ status. Last year, Locus Robotics reached a billion dollar valuation. 

AMRs weren’t the only type of robot to see growth in 2021. Last year set a new record for number of industrial robots sold in North America, with 39,708 units shipped, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. 

The post 100,000+ mobile robots shipped in 2021 appeared first on The Robot Report.