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This year Rocking Robots again reported on trends and developments in AI, robotics and RPA. Especially the eventreports attracted a lot of viewers. In this overview we recap the videos that typify the year 2022:

Guardforce AI, provider of integrated security solutions, AI and Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS), has signed a definitive agreement with Shenzhen Kewei Robot Technology Company to acquire certain of Kewei’s robot business-related assets in China.

In the changed post COVID-19 business landscape, the global market for Robotic Lawn Mowers estimated at US$881. 7 Million in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$2. 3 Billion by 2027, growing at aCAGR of 14.

The size of the global welding robot market is currently estimated at US$7.6 billion, but is expected to nearly double by 2027, with a projected size of US$14 billion. This is evident from the report “Global Robotic Welding Industry”.

North American robot sales in the first nine months of 2022 reached record levels, with all indications pointing to 2022 ending with the highest number of robots sold in a year for the second year in a row. According to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), from January to September 2022, North American companies purchased 35,804 units valued at $1.875 billion, up 24% for units ordered and 27% for revenue over the same period in 2021.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) returns to CES 2023 to push the boundaries of head-to-head autonomous racing and showcase the future of autonomous mobility. The IAC will have a significant presence throughout CES 2023 with the Autonomous Challenge @ CES at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on January 7.

Dutch startup Fectar has developed an app that teaches Ukrainian children to recognize mines. This first-ever interactive augmented reality (AR) hologram lesson was created for explosives education. The lesson stems from the question soldier Charles Valentine asked himself: “How can we help the Ukrainian people to demine their country if 30% of the ammunition fired has not exploded but is still there?”

What if the U.S. placed a tax on robots? The concept has been publicly discussed by policy analysts, scholars, and Bill Gates (who favors the notion). Because robots can replace jobs, the idea goes, a stiff tax on them would give firms incentive to help retain workers, while also compensating for a dropoff in payroll taxes when robots are used. Thus far, South Korea has reduced incentives for firms to deploy robots; European Union policymakers, on the other hand, considered a robot tax but did not enact it.

A bird landing on a branch makes the maneuver look like the easiest thing in the world, but in fact, the act of perching involves an extremely delicate balance of timing, high-impact forces, speed, and precision. It’s a move so complex that no flapping-wing robot (ornithopter) has been able to master it, until now.

DEFCON AI, a software company working on modeling, simulation, and artificial intelligence for the Department of Defense (DoD), has announced that it closed a Department of the Air Force Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). This contract was awarded through Air Force Installations and Sustainment Center and Air Mobility Command to accelerate the transition from prototype to production code for DEFCON AI’s operational-level logistics and mobility training software.