According to Australian Centre for Robotic Vision Research’s Nicole Robinson, research studies on the impact of social robot interventions there have been few and unsophisticated. There is good news… the results are encouraging.
As our world struggles with mental health and substance use disorders affecting 970 million people and counting (according to 2017 figures), the time is ripe for meaningful social robot ‘interventions’. That’s the call by Australian Centre for Robotic Vision Research Fellow Nicole Robinson – a roboticist with expertise in psychology and health – as detailed in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).
Having led Australia’s first study into the positive impact of social robot interventions on eating habits (in 2017), Robinson and the Centre’s social robotics team believes it is time to focus on weightier health and wellbeing issues, including depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and eating disorders.
Global Trials To Date
In the recently published JMIR paper, A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials on Psychosocial Health Interventions by Social Robots, Robinson reveals global trials to date are ‘very few and unsophisticated’. Only 27 global trials met inclusion criteria for psychosocial health interventions; many of them lacked a follow-up period; targeted small sample groups (<100 participants); and limited research to contexts of child health, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and older adults.
Of concern, no randomised controlled trials have yet involved adolescents or young adults at a time when the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates one in six adolescents (aged 10-19) are affected by mental health disorders. According to the agency, half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age, but most cases are undetected and untreated.
WHO warns: “The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives…”
In good news for the Centre’s research into social robot interventions, WHO pushes for the adoption of multi-level and varied prevention and promotion programs including via digital platforms (Read more HERE).
A Therapeutic Alliance
Despite limited amount of global research conducted on psychosocial health interventions by social robots, Robinson believes the results are nevertheless encouraging. They indicate a ‘therapeutic alliance’ between robots and humans could lead to positive effects similar to the use of digital interventions for managing anxiety, depression and alcohol use.
“The beauty of social robot intervention is that they could help to side-step potential negative effects of face-to-face therapy with a human health practitioner such as perceived judgement or stigma,” said Robinson, who has used Nao and SoftBank’s Pepper robots in her research at the Centre.
“Robots can help support a self-guided program or health service by interacting with people to help keep them on track with their health goals.
“Our research is not about replacing healthcare professionals, but identifying treatment gaps where social robots can effectively assist by engaging patients to discuss sensitive topics and identify problems that may require the attention of a health practitioner.”
In the JMIR paper, published last month, Robinson puts out a timely global call for research on social robot interventions to transition from exploratory investigations to large-scale controlled trials with sophisticated methodology.
At the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision’s QUT headquarters, she’s helping to lay the groundwork. The Centre’s research, sponsored by the Queensland Government, is assessing the capabilities of social robots and using SoftBank Robotics’ Pepper robot to explore applications where social robots can deliver value beyond their novelty appeal.
Social Robot Trials
In 2018, the Centre’s social robotics team initiated a set of trials involving Pepper robots to measure the unique value of social robots in one-to-one interactions in healthcare. After supporting an Australia-first trial of a Pepper robot at Townsville Hospital and Health Service, the Centre’s team has placed Pepper into a QUT Health Clinic at Kelvin Grove Campus.
The three-month study to June 2019 involves Pepper delivering a brief health assessment and providing customised feedback that can be taken to a health practitioner to discuss issues around physical activity, dietary intake, alcohol use and smoking. Members of the public who are registered as patients at the QUT Health Clinic are invited to take part in this trial.
In a separate online trial, the Centre’s social robotics team is assessing people’s attitudes to social robots and their willingness to engage with and discuss different topics with a robot or human as the conversation partner.
For more information on the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision’s work creating robots able to see and understand like humans, download our 2018 Annual Report.
Editor’s Note: This article was republished with permission from The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. The original article can be found HERE.
CloudMinds was among the robotics companies receiving funding in March 2019. Source: CloudMinds
Investments in robots, autonomous vehicles, and related systems totaled at least $1.3 billion in March 2019, down from $4.3 billion in February. On the other hand, automation companies reported $7.8 billion in mergers and acquisitions last month. While that may represent a slowdown, note that many businesses did not specify the amounts involved in their transactions, of which there were at least 58 in March.
Self-driving cars and trucks — including machine learning and sensor technologies — continued to receive significant funding. Although Lyft’s initial public offering was not directly related to autonomous vehicles, it illustrates the investments flowing for transportation.
Other use cases represented in March 2019 included surgical robotics, industrial automation, and service robots. See the table below, which lists amounts in millions of dollars where they were available:
Company
Amt. (M$)
Type
Lead investor, partner, acquirer
Date
Technology
Airbiquity
15
investment
Denso Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Toyota Tsushu Corp.
March 12, 2019
connected vehicles
AROMA BIT Inc.
2.2
Series A
Sony Innovation Fund
March 3, 2019
olofactory sensors
AtomRobot
Series B1
Y&R Capital
March 5, 2019
industrial automation
Automata
7.4
Series A
ABB
March 19, 2019
robot arm
Avidbots
23.6
Series B
True Ventures
March 21, 2019
commercial floor cleaning
Boranet
Series A
Gobi Partners
March 6, 2019
IIoT, machine vision
Broadmann17
11
Series A
OurCrowd
March 6, 2019
deep learning, autonomous vehicles
Cloudminds
300
investment
SoftBank Vision Fund
March 26, 2019
service robots
Corindus
4.8
private placement
March 12, 2019
surgical robot
Determined AI
11
Series A
GV (Google Ventures)
March 13, 2019
AI, deep learning
Emergen Group
29
Series B
Qiming Venture Partners
March 13, 2019
industrial automation
Fabu Technology
pre-Series A
Qingsong Fund
March 1, 2019
autonomous vehicles
Fortna
recapitalization
Thomas H. Lee PArtners LP
March 27, 2019
materlais handling
ForwardX
14.95
Series B
Hupang Licheng Fund
March 21, 2019
autonomous mobile robots
Gaussian Robotics
14.9
Series B
Grand Flight Investment
March 20, 2019
cleaning
Hangzhou Guochen Robot Technology
15
Series A
Hongcheng Capital, Yingshi Fund (YS Investment)
March 13, 2019
robotics R&D
Hangzhou Jimu Technology Co.
Series B
Flyfot Ventures
March 6, 2019
autonomous vehicles
InnerSpace
3.2
seed
BDC Capital's Women in Technology Fund
March 26, 2019
IoT
Innoviz Technologies
132
Series C
China Merchants Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, New Alliance Capital
March 26, 2019
lidar
Intelligent Marking
investment
Benjamin Capital
March 6, 2019
autonomous robots for marking sports fields
Kaarta Inc.
6.5
Series A
GreenSoil Building Innovation Fund
March 21, 2019
lidar mapping
Kolmostar Inc.
10
Series A
March 5, 2019
positioning technology
Linear Labs
4.5
seed
Science Inc., Kindred Ventures
March 26, 2019
motors
MELCO Factory Automation Philippines Inc.
2.38
new division
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
March 12, 2019
industrial automation
Monet Technologies
4.51
joint venture
Honda Motor Co., Hino Motors Ltd., SoftBank Corp., Toyota Motor Corp
Bonfire Ventures, Vertex Ventures, London Venture Partners
March 11, 2019
machine vision
Vtrus
2.9
investment
March 8, 2019
drone inspection
Weltmeister Motor
450
Series C
Baidu Inc.
March 11, 2019
self-driving cars
And here are the mergers and acquisitions:
March 2019 robotics acquisitions
Company
Amt. (M$)
Acquirer
Date
Technology
Accelerated Dynamics
Animal Dynamics
3/8/2019
AI, drone swarms
Astori AS
4Subsea
3/19/2019
undersea control systems
Brainlab
Smith & Nephew
3/12/2019
surgical robot
Figure Eight
175
Appen Ltd.
3/10/2019
AI, machine learning
Floating Point FX
CycloMedia
3/7/2019
machine vision, 3D modeling
Florida Turbine Technologies
60
Kratos Defense and Security Solutions
3/1/2019
drones
Infinity Augmented Reality
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
3/21/2019
AR, machine vision
Integrated Device Technology Inc.
6700
Renesas
3/30/2019
self-driving vehicle processors
Medineering
Brainlab
3/20/2019
surgical
Modern Robotics Inc.
0.97
Boxlight Corp.
3/14/2019
STEM
OMNI Orthopaedics Inc.
Corin Group
3/6/2019
surgical robotics
OrthoSpace Ltd.
220
Stryker Corp.
3/14/2019
surgical robotics
Osiris Therapeutics
660
Smith & Nephew
3/12/2019
surgical robotics
Restoration Robotics Inc.
21
Venus Concept Ltd.
3/15/2019
surgical robotics
Sofar Ocean Technologies
7
Spoondrift, OpenROV
3/28/2019
underwater drones, sensors
Torc Robotics Inc.
Daimler Trucks and Buses Holding Inc.
3/29/2019
driverless truck software
Surgical robots make the cut
One of the largest transactions reported in March 2019 was Smith & Nephew’s purchase of Osiris Therapeutics for $660 million. However, some Osiris shareholders are suing to block the acquisition because they believe the price that U.K.-based Smith & Nephew is offering is too low. The shareholders’ confidence reflects a hot healthcare robotics space, where capital, consolidation, and chasing new applications are driving factors.
Venus Concept Ltd. merged with hair-implant provider Restoration Robotics for $21 million, and Shanghai Changren Information Technology raised Series A funding of $14.89 million for its Xiaobao healthcare robot.
Aside from Lyft, the biggest reported transportation robotics transaction in March 2019 was Renesas’ completion of its $6.7 billion purchase of Integrated Device Technology Inc. for its self-driving car chips.
The next biggest deal was Weltmeister Motor’s $450 million Series C, in which Baidu Inc. participated.
Lidar also got some support, with Innoviz Technologies raising $132 million in a Series C round, and Ouster raising $60 million. In a prime example of how driverless technology is “paying a peace dividend” to other applications, Google parent Alphabet’s Waymo unit offered its custom lidar sensors to robotics, security, and agricultural companies.
Automakers recognize the need for 3-D modeling, sensors, and software for autonomous vehicles to navigate safely and accurately. A Daimler unit acquired Torc Robotics Inc., which is working on driverless trucks, and CycloMedia acquired machine vision firm Floating Point FX. The amounts were not specified.
Speaking of machine learning, Appen Ltd. acquired dataset annotation company Figure Eight for $175 million, with an possible $125 million more based on 2019 performance. Denso Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. contributed $15 million to Airbiquity, which is working on connected vehicles.
Service robots clean up
From retail to cleaning and customer service, the combination of improving human-machine interactions, ongoing staffing turnover and shortages, and companies with round-the-clock operations has contributed to investor interest.
The SoftBank Vision Fund participated in a $300 million round for CloudMinds. The Chinese AI and robotics company’s XR-1 is a humanoid service robot, and it also makes security robots and connects robots to the cloud.
According to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, TakeOff Technologies Inc. raised an unspecified amount for its grocery robots, an area that many observers expect to grow as consumers become more accustomed to getting home deliveries.
On the cleaning side, Avidbots raised $23.6 million in Series B, led by True Ventures. Gaussian Robotics’ Series B was $14.9 million, with participation from Grand Flight Investment.
China’s efforts to develop its domestic robotics industry continued, as Emergen Group’s $29 million Series B round was the largest reported investment in industrial automation last month.
Hangzhou Guochen Robot Technology raised $15 million in Series A funding for robotics research and development and integration.
Data startup Spopondrift and underwater drone maker OpenROV merged to form Sofar Ocean Technologies. The new San Francisco company also announced a Series A round of $7 million. Also, 4Subsea acquired underwater control systems maker Astori AS.
In the aerial drone space, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions acquired Florida Turbine Technologies for $60 million, and Vtrus raised $2.9 million for commercializing drone inspections. Kaarta Inc., which makes a lidar for indoor mapping, raised $6.5 million.
The Robot Reportbroke the news of Aria Insights, formerly known as CyPhy Works, shutting down in March 2019.
Editors Note: What defines robotics investments? The answer to this simple question is central in any attempt to quantify robotics investments with some degree of rigor. To make investment analyses consistent, repeatable, and valuable, it is critical to wring out as much subjectivity as possible during the evaluation process. This begins with a definition of terms and a description of assumptions.
Investors and Investing
Investment should come from venture capital firms, corporate investment groups, angel investors, and other sources. Friends-and-family investments, government/non-governmental agency grants, and crowd-sourced funding are excluded.
Robotics and Intelligent Systems Companies
Robotics companies must generate or expect to generate revenue from the production of robotics products (that sense, think, and act in the physical world), hardware or software subsystems and enabling technologies for robots, or services supporting robotics devices. For this analysis, autonomous vehicles (including technologies that support autonomous driving) and drones are considered robots, while 3D printers, CNC systems, and various types of “hard” automation are not.
Companies that are “robotic” in name only, or use the term “robot” to describe products and services that that do not enable or support devices acting in the physical world, are excluded. For example, this includes “software robots” and robotic process automation. Many firms have multiple locations in different countries. Company locations given in the analysis are based on the publicly listed headquarters in legal documents, press releases, etc.
Verification
Funding information is collected from a number of public and private sources. These include press releases from corporations and investment groups, corporate briefings, and association and industry publications. In addition, information comes from sessions at conferences and seminars, as well as during private interviews with industry representatives, investors, and others. Unverifiable investments are excluded.
Global Trials To Date
Keynotes