Celebrating the good robots!

Solving our global challenges gets a boost with the 2020 Silicon Valley Robotics ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards

 

OAKLAND, California, Dec. 14, 2020 /Press Release/ — Silicon Valley Robotics, the world’s largest cluster of innovation in robotics, announces the inaugural ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards, celebrating the robotics, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will help us solve global challenges. These 52 companies and individuals have all contributed to innovation that will improve the quality of our lives, whether it’s weed-free pesticide-free farming, like FarmWise or Iron Ox; supporting health workers and the elderly manage health care treatment regimes, like Catalia Health or Multiply Labs; or reimagining the logistics industry so that the transfer of physical goods becomes as efficient as the transfer of information, like Cruise, Embark, Matternet and Zipline

The categories Innovation, Vision and Commercialization represent the stages robotics companies go through, firstly with an innovative technology or product, then with a vision to change the world (and occasionally the investment to match), and finally with real evidence of customer traction. The criteria for our Commercialization Award is achieving $1 million in revenue, which is a huge milestone for a startup building a new invention. 

Innovation Award: An outstanding early stage technology or product developed recently that will create an impact in the robotics industry.

EVE from Halodi Robotics CEO: Bernt Øivind Børnich Founded: 2014 HQ: Norway & Oakland, CA Halodi Robotics has developed the EVE humanoid robot platform using ...
FHA-C with integrated servo drive from Harmonic Drive CEO: Doug Olson Founded: 1960s HQ: Beverly, MA Harmonic Drive LLC has launched a new product in ...
FieldPrinter from Dusty Robotics CEO: Tessa Lau Founded: 2018 HQ: Mountain View Dusty Robotics develops innovative robotics technology that power the creation of high-accuracy mobile ...
Inception Drive from SRI International CEO: William Jeffrey Founded: 1946 HQ:  Menlo Park, CA The latest breakthrough from SRI Robotics is a novel ultra-compact, infinitely ...
nanoScan3 from SICK USA CEO: Tony Peet                  Founded: 1946              HQ:  Minneapolis, MN    Silicon Valley Robotics member and SICK distributor EandM nominated the new nanoScan3 ...
Robotics RB5 Platform from Qualcomm CEO: Steve Mollenkopf Founded: 1985 HQ:  San Diego, CA The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform supports the development of the next ...
Stretch from Hello Robot  CEO: Aaron Edsinger                 Founded: 2017             HQ:  Martinez, CA   Hello Robot has reinvented the mobile manipulator. In July 2020 they ...
Tensegrity Robots from Squishy Robotics CEO: Dr. Alice Agogino              Founded: 2017             HQ:  Berkeley, CA          Squishy Robotics’ rapidly deployable, airdroppable, mobile sensor robots provide ...
Titan from FarmWise Labs Founders: Sebastien Boyer, Thomas Palomares  Founded: 2016  HQ:  San Francisco & Salinas, CA           For vegetable growers who face increased growing costs ...
Velabit from Velodyne   CEO: Anand Gopalan Founded: 2007 HQ: San Jose, CA Velodyne Lidar, Inc. introduced Velabit™,  Velodyne’s smallest sensor which brings new levels of ...

Visionary Award: Outstanding leadership showcasing the successful application of robotics in venture backed or acquired companies with undisclosed revenue.

Built Robotics   CEO: Noah Ready-Campbell Founded: 2016 HQ:  San Francisco, CA Built Robotics transforms heavy equipment for the $1 trillion earthmoving industry into autonomous robots ...
In the Visionary Category for outstanding leadership showcasing the successful application of robotics in venture backed or acquired companies with undisclosed revenue ….. Cruise Founders: ...
Covariant  Founders: Peter Chen, Pieter Abbeel, Rocky Duan, Tianhao Zhang Founded: 2017 HQ: San Francisco, CA Covariant is building the Covariant Brain, a universal AI ...
Embark  CEO: Alex Rodrigues Founded: 2016 HQ:  San Francisco, CA Embark technology is already moving freight for five Fortune 500 companies in the southwest U.S. ...
Formant   CEO: Jeff Linnell Founded: 2017 HQ: San Francisco, CA Autonomous robots are awesome, but if you want to run a business with them, you’ll ...
Iron Ox   Founders: Brandon Alexander, Jon Binney Founded: 2015  HQ:  San Carlos, CA Iron Ox is an operator of autonomous robotic greenhouses used to grow ...
Dishcraft CEO: Linda Pouliot Founded: 2015 HQ: San Carlos, CA Dishcraft’s mission is to create happy, productive, sustainable workplaces by making automation accessible to food ...
Robust.AI   Founders :Anthony Jules, Gary Marcus, Henrik Christensen, Mohamed Amer, Rodney Brooks Founded: 2019 HQ:  Silicon Valley, CA Robust.AI is building the world’s first industrial ...
Zipline  Founders: Keenan Wyrobek, Keller Rinaudo, Will Hetzler Founded: 2011  HQ:  Half Moon Bay, CA Zipline is a California-based automated logistics company that designs, manufactures, ...
Zoox   CEO: Aicha Evans Founded: 2014 HQ:  Foster City, CA Zoox is working on the full stack for Robo-taxis, providing mobility-as-a-service. Operating at the intersection ...
Agility Robotics CEO: Damion Shelton    Founded: 2015             HQ:  Albany, OR, Pittsburgh, PA & Mountain View, CA Agility Robotics builds robots that go where people ...

Commercialization Award: An outstanding technology and business strategy for the successful application of robotics that has earned more than $1million USD in revenue.

Canvas   CEO: Kevin Albert Founded: 2017 HQ:  San Francisco, CA The Canvas system represents a bold new way to build and a first glimpse into ...
Catalia Health  CEO: Cory Kidd Founded: 2014 HQ:  San Francisco, CA With customers like Pfizer and a growing number of national specialty pharmacy chains, Catalia ...
Haddington Dynamics CoFounders: Kent Gilson, Todd Enerson Founded: 2015             HQ:  Henderson, NV & Oakland, CA Dexter HDI sports a set of industrial features while ...
Simbe Robotics CEO: Bradley Bogolea Founded: 2014 HQ:  San Francisco, CA Simbe is the company behind Tally, the fully-autonomous inventory robot that strategically roams store ...
Kindred Founders: George Babu, James Bergstra, Suzanne Gildert, Geordie Rose CEO: Marin Tchakarov Founded: 2014  HQ:  San Francisco, CA & Toronto, ON Kindred is a ...
Matternet Founder & CEO: Andreas Raptopoulos Founded: 2011  HQ:  Mountain View, CA Matternet is on a mission to make access to goods as frictionless and ...
Multiply Labs CoFounders: Fred Parietti, Alice Melocchi, Kameron C. Chan        Founded: 2016             HQ: San Francisco, CA   Multiply Labs has developed a fully automated ...
OhmniLabs  CEO: Thuc Vu Founded: 2015 HQ: Santa Clara, CA OhmniLabs is on a mission to shift the paradigm of robotics development. Using our platform, ...
Ubiquity Robotics CEO: David Crawley Founded: 2013 HQ:  San Jose, CA Ubiquity Robotics builds the autonomous mobile robot base Magni, which can carry 100 kilos, ...

Tessa Lau, Founder and CEO of Dusty Robotics, an Innovation Awardee said “We’re almost there. $1 million in revenue is our next goal.” Dusty Robotics’ FieldPrinter automates the painstaking, time-consuming process of marking building plans in the field, replacing a traditional process using measuring tape and chalk lines that hasn’t changed in 5000 years. The company’s vision of creating robot-powered tools for the modern construction workforce resonates strongly with commercial construction companies. Dusty’s robot fleet is now in production, producing highly accurate layouts in record time on every floor of two multi-family residential towers going up in San Francisco.

The SVR ‘Good Robot’ Industry Awards also highlight diverse robotics companies. In our Visionary Category, Zoox is the first billion dollar company led by an African-American woman, Aicha Evans, and Robust AI shows diversity at every level of the organization. Diversity of thought will be critical as Robust AI tackles the challenge of building a cognitive engine for robotics that incorporates common sense reasoning. 

“Robotics and AI will shape the next century in the same way the Industrial revolution shaped the 20th century. To create a future that amplifies human potential, the full spectrum of human perspective needs to contribute to the design process. This is fundamental to how we are building Robust.AI” explains COO Anthony Jules. 

We also wanted to highlight the community in robotics with our Champion Award, because as Silicon Valley Robotics Managing Director Andra Keay says, “In robotics, we’re always standing on the shoulders of giants. And many of these contributions go unrecognized outside of the robotics community. We depend on a strong community to help startups cross the chasm to commercialization, and so we want to recognize our Champions, starting with Willow Garage, which was the Fairchild of the 21st century.” 

Willow Garage had a massive impact on robotics in seven short years, from 2006 to 2013. Not only did they produce ROS, now maintained by Open Robotics, but alumni of Willow Garage can be found in the core teams of almost every groundbreaking new robotics company. Some, like Fetch Robotics, winner of our Overall Excellence Award and pioneer in autonomous mobile robots for logistics, achieved the full cycle from startup to ground breaking industry leader in only five short years. By 2018, Fetch Robotics was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

Overall Excellence Award:

  • Fetch Robotics founded in 2014 with Willow Garage alum Melonee Wise as CEO 
  • Ambidextrous founded in 2018 in Emeryville, CA by Jeffrey Mahler, Ken Goldberg, Stephen McKinley, David Gealy and Matt Matl 

Ambidextrous looks likely to follow the same successful trajectory, spinning out research from the University of California Berkeley, that uses AI and simulation to solve the ‘pick problem’ for handling real world items. At only two years old, Ambidextrous is already piloting solutions for significant customers. Two other UC Berkeley startups made our inaugural award list, Squishy Robotics and Covariant.ai, highlighting the large amount of robotics research happening in the Bay Area, in more than fifty robotics research labs. 

Hopefully, this will lead to more good robots solving global challenges. As one of our Champions, Dr Ayanna Howard says, “I believe that every engineer has a responsibility to make the world a better place. We are gifted with an amazing power to take people’s wishes and make them a reality.”

The full list of the 52 Awardees can be seen at https://svrobo.org/awards from 8am PST Monday December 14th 2020.

Excellence Award: At the Board’s discretion, an award(s) for overall Excellence shall be announced.

Entrepreneurship Award: Special mention for entrepreneurs with an innovative vision for robotics.

Co-Founders: Jeffrey Mahler, Ken Goldberg, Stephen McKinley, David Gealy, Matt Matl Founded: 2018 HQ: Emeryville, CA Category: Innovation Award and Overall Excellence Ambidextrous is empowering ...
CEO: Melonee Wise Founded: 2014 HQ:  San Jose, CA  Category: Commercialization Award and Overall Excellence Fetch Robotics is a San Jose, Calif.-based industrial robotics startup ...
Founder: Dayo McIntosh Founded: 2017 HQ: Oakland Meet Yateou, the world’s first consumer facing six-axis robot for the beauty and wellness industry. Founder Dayo McIntosh ...

Champion Award: Companies or individuals who are global champions for good robots and good robotics.

If robotics is the technology of the 21st century, rather than biotech, then we have some serious work to do. This week marks the ‘beginning ...
NASA Intelligent Robotics Group   Group Lead: Maria Bualat  Deputy Group Lead: Matthew Deans   Chief Roboticist: Terry Fong                  ...
Picknik Robotics Founders: Dave Coleman, Andy McEvoy, Mike Lautman, Rob Coleman, Mi Founded: 2015 HQ:  Boulder, CO   PickNik Robotics is a leading advocate of ...
Open Robotics Founders: Brian Gerkey, John Hsu, Morgan Quigley, Nate Koenig, Steffi Paepcke Founded: 2012    HQ:  Mountain View, CA Open Robotics, along with the broader ...
Robohub President: Sabine Haeurt           Founded: 2012 HQ:  Switzerland Robohub is an online platform and non-profit that brings together leading communicators in robotics research, start-ups, business, ...
SICK  USA CEO: Tony Peet                  Founded: 1946              HQ:  Minneapolis, MN Silicon Valley Robotics member since 2017, SICK has actively supported the California robotics industry. SICK ...
Willow Garage  Founder: Scott Hassan                Founded: 2006            HQ: Menlo Park, CA       History shows that one single semiconductor company Fairchild created a ...
Alex Padilla | California Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in as California Secretary of State on January 5, 2015. He is committed to ...
Ayanna Howard | Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech    “I believe that every engineer has a responsibility to make the ...
Evan Ackerman | Contributing Editor at IEEE Spectrum Evan Ackerman has been writing about science, robots, and emerging technology for over 10 years. After co-founding ...
Henrik Christensen | Director of Robotics, Distinguished Professor at UC San Diego and co-founder of ROBO-global & Robust.AI Henrik Christensen is currently Co-Founder of Robust.ai, ...
Joy Buolamwini | Algorithmic Bias Researcher, Poet of Code, Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League  Joy Buolamwini uses art and research to illuminate the social ...
Frank Tobe | Founding Editor of The Robot Report Frank Tobe is the Founding Editor and Publisher of The Robot Report which he launched in ...
Katherine Scott | Developer Advocate at Open Robotics Katherine Scott is a software engineer specializing in robotics and computer vision. Scott is currently the Developer ...
Louise Poubel | Software Engineering Supervisor, Ignition Technical Lead at Open Robotics Louise Poubel is a software engineering supervisor at Open Robotics. The foundation’s mission ...
Mark Martin | Bay Area Regional Director for Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development for California Community Colleges Mark Martin is the Bay Area Regional Director for ...
Rumman Chowdhury | CEO and Founder of Parity Rumman Chowdhury’s passion lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and humanity. She is a pioneer in ...
Timnit Gebru | AI Ethics Researcher I am currently a research scientist at Google in the ethical AI team. Timnit Gebru’s recent dismissal from Google ...