4 ms·

Great list. What do you think is driving the growth?

• beambot 11y ago
  It's probably a combination of things... The medical robotics companies have always raised pretty healthily. The drone companies are seeing a lot of traction, as are some of the consumer robot companies. But probably the biggest contributing factor: Major companies like Google, Toyota, and Amazon are spending $Billions each year on robotics efforts... and there are surprisingly few robotics startups for them to draw from. VCs are starting to realize that there are probably some real winners out there, and are actually embracing hardware again.
• Houshalter 11y ago
  There have been massive improvements in AI in the last few years. Particularly things like machine vision, speech recognition, and reinforcement learning. AI is one of the major things that has been holding back robotics. It may be that it's time has finally come, or at least is very close.
  • ef4 11y ago
    At least in the flying-robot space, I think cheap batteries and sensors have been at least as important. The sensors -- primarily accelerometers -- are etched in silicon, and benefit from a lot of the same cost and quality improvements as other microelectronics. Batteries don't get better as fast as processors, but they do get better. About 7% per year for the past two decades. That has been adding up, and finally tipped us over the point where you can have your own tiny flying helicopter for $15.