Techburgher loves it when a local tech company gets international ink. Such is the case with Bossa Nova Robotics being profiled in Time Magazine. Get the article right here.
Posts Tagged 'Robotics'
Bossa Nova Robotics Featured in Time Magazine
Published October 9, 2009 News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: Bossa Nova Robotics, Pittsburgh, Robotics, Technology, Time Magazine
AETHON RELEASES NEW ROBOTIC OPERATING SYSTEM
Published August 17, 2009 News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: Aethon, Pittsburgh, Robotics, Supply Chain, Technology, TUG
AETHON®, Inc., the leading developer of mobile robotic
solutions for hospital supply chain logistics, announced today the release of its newest robotic
operating system – TUGOS 6.5, which will significantly advance the operational capabilities of
its autonomous mobile robot, the TUG®. With this latest upgrade, AETHON will also be able to
increase the number of application solutions it offers to hospitals. Most notably, this advanced
navigational operating system for mobile robotics significantly increases the processing speed
of TUG’s autonomous decision-making algorithms, improving its navigational speed and agility.
The new TUGOS 6.5 also allows the use of more powerful motors and larger wheels, enabling
the TUG to automate a wide range of hospital delivery tasks, including larger delivery carts for
environmental service applications such as trash and linen.
With over 100 hospitals now using the TUG, AETHON’s innovative robotic technology offers
customers the opportunity to invest in a product that provides a proven solution to improve
quality and time of delivery while lowering costs. AETHON has been addressing the
fundamental issues associated with lowering health care costs, increasing productivity, and now
improving worker safety, through greater optimization of logistic processes.
Marc Summerfield, Director of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC),
called the TUG “a transformational technology that has allowed us to save technician time while
improving medication turnaround time and nurse satisfaction”. Since the upgrade to AETHON’s
newest operating system, Marc and his staff have seen an additional increase in medication
throughput. Because of the TUG’s success in the pharmacy, UMMC is looking at the new TUG
features to further enhance medication efficiency and safety goals.
AETHON’s success in developing robotic solutions is unmatched in the world. Unlike any other
robotic system, its unique proprietary technology and innovative approach gives the TUG its
ability to safely and reliably operate in unstructured and dynamic environments such as
hospitals.
AETHON, Inc., a developer of mobile robotic solutions for hospital supply chain logistics, released its newest robotic operating system – TUGOS 6.5, which will significantly advance the operational capabilities of its autonomous mobile robot, the TUG®. With this latest upgrade, AETHON will also be able to increase the number of application solutions it offers to hospitals. Most notably, this advanced navigational operating system for mobile robotics significantly increases the processing speed of TUG’s autonomous decision-making algorithms, improving its navigational speed and agility.
The new TUGOS 6.5 also allows the use of more powerful motors and larger wheels, enabling the TUG to automate a wide range of hospital delivery tasks, including larger delivery carts for environmental service applications such as trash and linen. With over 100 hospitals now using the TUG, AETHON’s innovative robotic technology offers customers the opportunity to invest in a product that provides a proven solution to improve quality and time of delivery while lowering costs. AETHON has been addressing the fundamental issues associated with lowering health care costs, increasing productivity, and now improving worker safety, through greater optimization of logistic processes.
Marc Summerfield, Director of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), called the TUG “a transformational technology that has allowed us to save technician time while improving medication turnaround time and nurse satisfaction.” Since the upgrade to AETHON’s newest operating system, Marc and his staff have seen an additional increase in medication throughput. Because of the TUG’s success in the pharmacy, UMMC is looking at the new TUG features to further enhance medication efficiency and safety goals.
Cardiorobotics Closes on $11.6M Funding Round
Published July 27, 2009 News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: Cardiorobotics, Eagle Ventures, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Robotics
Cardiorobotics, Inc., a medical device company developing snake robot technologies for use in a wide range of surgical and interventional applications has closed on an $11.6 Million
private equity Series A round of financing. The round was led by Eagle Ventures and its co-investors, The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and The Slater Technology Fund and affiliated investors.
Funds raised in this round will support the advancement of the clinical product, a clinical feasibility trial on humans, and completion of
commercial product for regulatory approval in the United States and the European Union.
“This investment will be used to advance our core product, the cardioARMT, toward commercialization,” said Dr. Samuel Straface, Cardiorobotics, Inc.,
president and Chief Executive Officer. ”We’re pleased to have Eagle Ventures, The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, and The Slater Technology Fund and affiliated investors share our vision in providing single-port, off-pump treatments for patients with heart arrhythmias.”
“I am impressed by the combination of the breakthrough technology platform, experienced entrepreneurial leadership, and high commercialization potential
of the cardioARMT,” said Mel Pirchesky, president and Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Ventures.
Cardiorobotics’ is the global leader in snake robotics for minimally-invasive cardiac interventions, allowing minimally invasive
treatments for patients suffering with heart arrhythmias.
It’s Monday and Techburgher is still recovering from Whuff-aoke on Saturday night. The voice is back and we’re starting off the week with some exciting news from Cardiorobotics, a medical device company developing snake robot technologies for use in a wide range of surgical and interventional applications.
Cardiorobotics has closed on an $11.6 Million private equity Series A round of financing. The round was led by Eagle Ventures and its co-investors, The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and The Slater Technology Fund and affiliated investors.
Funds raised in this round will support the advancement of the clinical product, a clinical feasibility trial on humans, and completion of commercial product for regulatory approval in the United States and the European Union.
The investment will be used to advance the cardioARMT toward commercialization, said Dr. Samuel Straface, Cardiorobotics, Inc., president and Chief Executive Officer.
“I am impressed by the combination of the breakthrough technology platform, experienced entrepreneurial leadership, and high commercialization potential of the cardioARMT,” said Mel Pirchesky, president and Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Ventures.
Cardiorobotics’ is al leader in snake robotics for minimally-invasive cardiac interventions, allowing minimally invasive treatments for patients suffering with heart arrhythmias.
Robotics Institute Director Matt Mason Wins Robotics and Automation Society’s Pioneer Award
Published May 28, 2009 News , PTC Member , Personnel News Leave a CommentTags: Carnegie Mellon University, Matthew T. Mason, Pittsburgh, Robitics Institute, Robotics, Technology
Here’s some news from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute that flew in late last week before Memorial Day weekend. This almost slipped through the grates of the Techburgher Grill:
Matthew T. Mason, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, was presented the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s Pioneer Award at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Kobe, Japan. Mason, a professor of computer science and robotics, was cited by the society “for pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of robotic manipulation and to graduate education in robotics.”
The Pioneer Award has been presented annually since 1998 to recognize individuals who have initiated new areas of research, development or engineering that have had a significant impact on the development of robotics and/or automation. It is usually given to people in the mid or late portions of their careers. Previous winners include Takeo Kanade, professor of computer science and robotics and a former director of the Robotics Institute.
Mason has devoted much of his research to exploring the fundamental mechanics of how robots can manipulate the things around them and to developing the planning capability that robots need to decide what actions to take to achieve a goal. His research projects have included an origami-folding robot and desktop robots that use their wheels not only to move themselves, but to rearrange objects on a desk.
BotsIQ Roars Into Pittsburgh Region March 13 & 14/April 25
Published March 3, 2009 Events , General Leave a CommentTags: BotsIQ, National Tooling and Machining Association, Pittsburgh, Robotics
Nothing like metal-on-metal, robot battles!
BotsIQ is back– and bigger than ever! Be prepared for grinding metal, flying sparks and a remarkable display of student ingenuity in this gladiator-style robotics competition. The Southwestern PA BotsIQ 2009
competition is certain to be exciting not just for the students who build and battle their robots, but for anyone who attends the spectacular event. Organizers are thrilled to see the contest grow to more than 40 teams for this fourth year of competition. This year’s contest begins with preliminary battles at California University of Pennsylvania March 13 & 14, 2009 and finals slated for Saturday April 25, 2009 at Century III Mall in West Mifflin.
For months, teams of young people from across the region have worked countless hours and solicited the support of their communities. This battle to the finish of student-made, remote-controlled robots is backed by a committed group of educators and
manufacturers.
The National Tooling and Machining Association was instrumental in bringing BotsIQ to south western Pennsylvania in 2006. Students love BotsIQ because it makes education fun— drawing on their knowledge of math, science, engineering and even public speaking. Educators love BotsIQ because of the enthusiasm it sparks in their students and the resources it provides to their classroom. But, it’s the manufacturing industry that is standing behind this new sport because of the potential impact it has on business. Young people who are interested in how things are made are the future of
the high-tech manufacturing workforce.
Competing in 2009: Albert Gallatin Senior HS, Beaver County CTC, Belle Vernon Area HS, Butler County AVTS, Center Area HS, Central Westmoreland CTC, Connellsville Area HS, Derry Area HS, Eastern Westmoreland CTC, Fayette County AVTS , Forbes Road CTC, Greater Latrobe Senior HS, Greensburg Salem HS, Hampton HS, Hempfield Area HS, Highlands HS, Lenape Tech, Mapletown Jr/Sr HS, Montour HS, Northern Westmoreland CTC, Norwin HS, Parkway West CTC, Pittsburgh Peabody HS, Plum HS, Punxsutawney Area HS, Richland HS, Riverview Jr/Sr HS, Serra Catholic HS, Shaler Area HS, Somerset County Technology Center, South Park HS, Springdale Jr/Sr HS, Steel Center AVTS, Sto-Rox HS, West Mifflin Area HS, Western Area CTC, and Western PA School for the Deaf.
For more information, contact Terri Campbell at (724) 552-0174 or (724) 575-2420.
The Wavecam Never Blinks
Published January 13, 2009 Knowledge Center , News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: Penn State Football, Pittsburgh, Robotics, Villanova Basketball, Wavecam
Just when sports fans – and coaches – thought they had seen it all (in high-definition-slow-motion-reverse-camera angles, no less), along comes the Wavecam™. And for the first time, the action speaks louder than the play by play announcers.
That’s because this aerial robotic camera system is built to pan, tilt and zoom all while “flying” vertically and horizontally over football fields, basketball courts or hockey rinks (to name just a few potential venues).
The results? For people watching via broadcast television or Internet streaming, they’ll see new and different angles, as well as the traditional views. According to Gary Giegerich, Wavecam Media’s chief executive officer and co-founder, “The Wavecam enables audiences and coaches to see any view imaginable – in the play, over the play – it’s all right there.”
For coaches, it’s a whole new ballgame. Just ask Penn State’s Joe Paterno. After having the Wavecam installed at the team’s practice facility, the Nittany Lions went on to win a Big Ten championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
“The Wavecam is a great asset for us,” says PSU’s head football coach. “The camera can get behind the quarterback in the center, it can get sideways when the offensive line lines up or they’re up on the ball. We can get just about anything we want — and get it better with the Wavecam.”
That’s exactly what Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder Edmund Dougherty had in mind when he started designing the Wavecam in 2006. A member of the Emmy Award-winning team that designed and built the Skycam, Dougherty says the Wavecam is in a different universe.
“First of all,” he explains, “the Wavecam is permanently installed, which means it will be available for all events (for example, men’s and women’s basketball games, practices, concerts, graduations) held at a particular venue. Every broadcaster who has seen the Wavecam loves what it can do. In addition, it’s affordable and safe and easy to operate.”
The camera itself is mounted to a trolley that “flies” along thin Dura-tech™ suspension lines. Installation takes just about a week as the crew utilizes the facility’s existing infrastructure (walls, poles, ceilings and scoreboards). The flip of a switch turns it on; from there, it takes only one or two “pilots,” depending on the event, to operate the Wavecam system.
In 2008 Wavecam Media made its debut with two high profile customers — Villanova University basketball and Penn State football. According to Giegerich, talks are underway with a number of NFL, NBA and NHL teams, as well as with prominent college football and basketball programs.
“What makes Wavecam even more attractive to both professional and college sports is that revenue can be generated by selling on-trolley advertising and Wavecam sponsorship and naming rights. It’s definietly a win-win situation.”
Paterno agrees, “Once people see what the Wavecam is like, it’s obviously going to be something they want,” he says. “And it’s just not for football, it’s for all sports.”
Disney & CMU Launch Global R&D Lab (possible Walt Disneyburgh?)
Published August 12, 2008 News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: animation, Carnegie Mellon University, CMU, computer science, Disney, ETH Zurich, R&D, Research, Robotics
Disney announced a major research and development initiative to engage top technology universities to conduct research and development for its Parks & Resorts Division, Disney Media Networks, ESPN, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney Interactive Media Group and Pixar Animation Studios.
Carnegie Mellon University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), known for their leading-edge work in computer science and technology, are to establish collaborative labs with Disney in Pittsburgh and Zurich.
“Creating the next generation of sophisticated technologies requires long-term vision and collaboration with world-class innovators,” said Ed Catmull, president, Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, who made the announcement Monday at SIGGRAPH, the world’s largest computer graphics conference. “We are strengthening our commitment to R&D throughout Disney by establishing labs with Carnegie Mellon University and ETH Zurich,” he said.
The labs will connect Disney with renowned academic partners with world class science and technology talent. The labs will engage in R&D on computer animation, computational cinematography, autonomous interactive characters, robotics, data mining and user interfaces, among other initiatives. They will be located at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and ETH Zurich. Each lab represents a five-year commitment from Disney to fund a director and seven to eight principal investigators. Additional staff will include professors, academic interns, scientific consultants and collaborators.
Carnegie Mellon is home to some of the world’s leading researchers in computer science and engineering, entertainment technology and robotics, areas of particular interest to Disney. Jessica Hodgins, professor of computer science and robotics and director of Disney Research, Pittsburgh, said one of the lab’s first projects will be developing methods for people to interact with autonomous characters, either virtual or robotic. “We’ll be looking for ways to sense what a person is doing or thinking so that the character can respond appropriately,” she said. “Whether the character is a robot or a virtual creation, the interaction issues are the same. We need to figure out what sensors to build and how to interpret and respond to human behavior.”
ETH Zurich has a strong tradition of research in computational methods and computer systems. It is one of the most renowned locations for research in computer science, and as such, a strong partner for Disney. Professor Markus Gross, head of ETH Zurich’s Computer Graphics Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science, calls the collaboration with Disney “on the cusp of the cutting-edge.”
The Disney Research lab in Zurich will work with faculty members from the Department of Computer Science, specifically with Visual Computing and the Computer Graphics Laboratory, to conduct the highest level applied research in areas including computer animation, image synthesis, computational photography and artificial intelligence.
Joint Ph.D. projects and research contracts, as well as teaching services from senior Disney researchers, are part of the advantages and synergies to be drawn from the collaboration. Professor Markus Gross will head Disney Research in Zurich.
The individual R&D programs at Disney Parks & Resorts, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, Interactive Games, Disney‘s television and motion picture studios, and ImageMovers Digital and their existing university alliances with schools throughout the globe will continue. The Pittsburgh and Zurich labs will focus on areas of research that span multiple business units across the company.
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Phase I SBIR Awarded for Safe Routes
Published August 6, 2008 News Leave a CommentTags: combat, military technology, RE2 Inc., Robotics, route planning, SBIR, Small Business Innovation Research program
RE2, Inc., a leading developer of intelligent modular manipulation systems and Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) software solutions, announced that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop a System for Dynamic Modeling and Planning of Safe Routes for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), a U.S. Navy funded program.
“This project represents a new direction of technology development for RE2 and will build upon RE2’s strong background in robotics research and robust software engineering capabilities to provide a solution that meets the needs of today’s military,” stated Dr. Patrick Rowe, vice president of research and development for RE2, Inc.
During the six-month Phase I program, RE2 will research and develop enhancements for existing route planning technology that calculates the safest path through a post-combat or urban area, taking into account information about various threats. Threats include the chance of sniper attack, risk of encountering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and hostile local reaction to military presence. The RE2 team will also implement an intuitive graphical user interface software tool to display map and route information in an easy-to-understand format, and allow the user to quickly update the threat information as new intelligence is obtained in order to plan a new, safer route.
“In addition to improving our military’s ability to safely navigate through hostile environments, we envision that this technology will also be applicable to commercial markets in the future, thus expanding our product offerings outside of the Department of Defense,” said Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2, Inc.
TUG Delivers Cheer…and More…to Young Patients
Published July 28, 2008 News , PTC Member Leave a CommentTags: Aethon, automation, children, healthcare, hospital, Make-A-Wish, Robotics, train, TUG
Aethon Inc. recently announced general availability of its train-themed “JR” autonomous mobile robot to children’s hospitals across the country and that Aethon will make a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for each JR TUG that is deployed. The JR TUG is currently delivering equipment to children at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and medication to children in North Carolina at Carolinas Healthcare Systems in addition to the original implementation at UCSF.
Modeled after the title character in the children’s book “The Little Engine that Could,” JR was originally developed to help grant a wish for Jericho Rajninger, a seven-year old leukemia patient from Larkspur, California, and was donated to UCSF Children’s Hospital through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
As part of his chemotherapy treatment Jericho had to take more than 4,000 pills. He realized that the prospect of all that medicine could be frightening for other children. Jericho believed that having the medications delivered by a robot modeled after a train might make the prospect of all those pills more pleasant.
“We were honored to make Jericho’s wish to help other sick children a reality,” said Aldo Zini, CEO of Aethon. “We are extremely pleased that the JR robots are being deployed in other children’s hospitals and hope that they will in some sense help sick children and their parents nationwide cope with a difficult experience.”
JR is based on Aethon’s TUG, a mobile autonomous robot that transports medical equipment and supplies. JR has drawers in its “caboose” from which medications can be drawn by nurses. The robot also features a conductor who speaks to children with the voice of legendary voice over actor Don LaFontaine. “Look out, here I come,” “Thanks, from the bottom of my caboose,” “Pardon my caboose, I’m turning around,” “Engines revved and ready to go,” and “Choo choo, gotta run” are among the phrases JR speaks.
“Our JR TUG makes the delivery of equipment and supplies more efficient while offering some cheer to our young patients,” said Tom Lausten, director of Pharmacy Services at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. “In addition, staff is able to focus on patient care without having to worry about the logistics of delivery.”
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