10th annual RoboBusiness draws 1,000 professionals

Celebrating the event’s 10th year, RoboBusiness 2014 experienced record-breaking attendance and had more robots on the showcase floor than ever before.

With 80 exhibitors and more than 950 attendees, the event has more than doubled in size since 2012. Hosting attendees from more than 20 countries, this was not only the largest, but most internationally diverse event yet.

On Wednesday, October 15, nLink beat 14 competing startups, winning the Pitchfire event. The event consists of two-minute pitches to a panel of venture capitalists. The panel selected nLink’s Mobile Drilling Robot, calling it a disruptive technology that will relieve construction workers from overhead work involved with measuring and drilling in concrete ceilings.

On Wednesday evening, seven other companies emerged victorious during the Robotics Business Review Game Changer Awards.

The 2014 Game Changer winners included:
Autonomous Navigation: Kairos Autonomi’s Uomo
Data Collection Platform: Clearpath Robotics’ Kingfisher Unmanned Surface Vessel
Domestic Automation: iRobot Scooba 450 Floor Scrubbing Robot
Education: Rethink Robotics’ Baxter Research Robot
Gripper: Grabit 2518 and 2536 Grippers
Industrial Productivity: Andrew Alliance’s Andrew Automated Pipetting Robot
NextGen Game Changer: Harvard University’s Mobility Enhancing Soft Robotic Exosuit

And for the first time ever, a Showcase Theater was set up on the showcase floor, with live demonstrations and product unveilings throughout the afternoon of Thursday, October 16. The theater area was standing-room-only as eight companies took the stage.
 
RoboBusiness 2015 will be held September 23-25 in San Jose, Calif.