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CFOs know the potential of automation—indeed, some think an estimate that at least 30% of existing business processes could be done by robots is an under-estimate—and many are indeed taking the first steps to roll them out across their organizations.  But a lack of easily identifiable, standardized automation targets, combined with calls on their attention from the rest of the business trying to cope with other kinds of digital transformation, is definitely slowing adoption.

Seegrid Corporation, provider of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for material handling, announced that it will be showcasing its newest autonomous lift truck, Seegrid Palion Lift, for the first time at MODEX, the world’s largest manufacturing and supply chain trade event.

What are the latest trends in automation? At the beginning of the new year there are of course all kinds of predictions. For the manufacturing-industry Diego Lombardo, VP of Product Marketing at UiPath, recently highlighted some market trends for Europe in the webinar Automation Accelerates: Industry Trends for 2022 and Beyond.

Continental’s development and production service provider Continental Engineering Services (CES) is working with startup Volterio on developing an intelligent charging robot. They plan to release the jointly designed charging robot by mid-2022. With CES meeting all necessary certification criteria of the automotive industry, it will then also develop the system to production maturity and ultimately take over the production of the charging robot.

Distalmotion, Revival Healthcare Capital and 415 CAPITAL announce the closing of a USD 90 million Series E financing round for further development of surgical robot Dexter. The investment follows Dexter’s successful initial clinical use last year, and supports Distalmotion’s international commercial scaling.

AI and robotics platform Beyond Imagination and GelSight, provider of tactile intelligence technology, have initiated a pilot to study the feasibility of using Beyond Imagination’s humanoid robotic technology to remotely operate GelSight’s tactile sensors.

Electric Sheep Robotics has introduced its Dexter robot. Dexter can turn existing commercial lawn mowers, both gas and electric, into autonomous vehicles. According to Electric Sheep, Dexter is designed to address critical labor shortages in the landscaping, facilities, and property management industries.

RSIP Vision, provider of medical imaging through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer vision solutions, has announced a new supporting technology for intraoperative video analysis. This technology provides real-time anatomical measurements in surgical videos, supporting a variety of clinical use cases, such as bariatric surgery, small bowel resection, and more.

Steep sections on slippery ground, high steps, scree and forest trails full of roots: the path up the 1,098-metre-high Mount Etzel at the southern end of Lake Zurich is peppered with numerous obstacles. But ANYmal, the quadrupedal robot from the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, overcomes the 120 vertical metres effortlessly in a 31-minute hike. That’s 4 minutes faster than the estimated duration for human hikers – and with no falls or missteps.

IBM announced it will be selling its healthcare data and analytics business, currently a key part of Watson Health, to investment firm Francisco Partners. The assets acquired by Francisco Partners include extensive and diverse data sets and products, including Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex, and imaging software.