IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023 - 102

food preparation, food running, and
vending. These robots primarily aim to
address labor shortages by partially
automating (sometimes fully) various
food service tasks. Automation applications
have so far included food portioning
and all-in-one food prep and
vending machines as well as robot mixologists,
among others. The following
list provides details on this industry:
■ Number of companies: 52
■ Number of deals: 183
■ Amount of capital invested:
US$1.42 billion
■ Number of investors: 332.
These six companies (Figure 2) have
45.2% of all capital invested in food service
robots and machines.
■ Miso Robotics, founded in 2016;
total raised: US$106.03 million
These six companies have 45.2% of all capital invested in food service robots
and machines.
■ Chowbotics, founded in 2014; total
raised: US$17.28 million
■ Picnic, founded in 2016; total raised:
US$48.44 million
■ RoboBurger, founded in 2019; total
raised: US$10 million
■ Blendid, founded in 2015; total
raised: US$26.81 million
■ Bear Robotics, founded in 2017;
total raised: US126.19 million.
Miso Robotics
Founded 2016
Total Raised US$106.03M
Chowbotics
Founded 2014
Total Raised US$17.28M
Picnic
Founded 2016
Total Raised US$48.44M
RoboBurger
Founded 2019
Total Raised US$10M
Blendid
Founded 2015
Total Raised US$26.81M
Bear Robotics
Founded 2017
Total Raised US$126.19M
FIGURE 2. Major investments in food service robots and machines. M: millions. (Source:
PitchBook Data.)
Total Deals Over Time
US$18B
US$16B
US$14B
US$12B
US$10B
US$8B
US$6B
US$4B
US$2B
US$0B
Total Capital Invested
Total Deal Count
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
5
201220132014 2015 20162017 2018 2019202020212022
Source: PitchBook Data
FIGURE 3. Deals over time in autonomous trucking. (Source: PitchBook Data.)
10 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE MARCH 2023
2
AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING
Autonomous trucking companies are
using technologies such as lidar, computer
vision, and artificial intelligence
to automate the long-haul trucking
industry (Figure 3). Self-driving trucks
have the unique advantage of typically
having well-defined routes to travel,
making the challenge of full autonomy
more realistic relative to their car counterparts.
Autonomy is predicted to be a
standard feature in first-mile logistics
by the end of the next decade. The following
list provides some details on
this industry:
■ Number of companies: 34
■ Number of deals: 146
■ Amount of capital invested:
US$30.27 billion
■ Number of investors: 302.
One of the difficulties we are trying
to reconcile is that investment data
are market driven rather than technology
driven. For example, autonomous
mobile robots (AMRs) may sound like
an industry segment, but AMRs are
also selling into many new market areas
that have not traditionally used robotics
and do not track or report that information.
AMRs are not just logistics for
warehouses or factories but also food
delivery robots that can range from
deployments inside restaurants (Bear
Robotics); inside hotels (Savioke); on
sidewalks or campuses (Starship, Kiwi,
and Cartken); or on roads (Nuro).
The IEEE RAS IAB aims to provide
some insights into this evolving
landscape as part of our mission
to advance the commercialization of
robotics research through the collection
of industry and investment data;
robotics road maps; the development
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023

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