Perhaps 2021 will be seen as a tipping point, the year we suddenly noticed that the robots were everywhere. In the factory, of course, the use of industrial robots around the world is rapidly accelerating, with average global robot density in manufacturing hitting 126 robots per 10,000 employees, nearly double the number from just five years ago, according to the 2021 World Robot Report. The auto industry is the biggest employer of robots by far, accounting for 42% of all installed units in 2021; there were nearly 1,300 robots for every 10,000 human employees in the car sector. Industrial robots are becoming more versatile, too: This year's most innovative robotics companies include autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), such as Denmark's Mobile Industrial Robots, and Pittsburgh-based Seegrid, that use sensors and software to navigate safely through dynamic work environments, as well as collaborative "cobots"--the fastest-growing market segment--designed to work alongside humans and learn new tasks quickly. San Francisco-based Nimble uses AI and "imitation learning" to teach warehouse robots how to pick and pack products like cosmetics, apparel, and consumer electronics (once considered too delicate for robot handling) for U.S. customers including Best Buy, Victoria's Secret, and Puma.

Boston Dynamics has found a way to use robotic dogs without terrifying people. The maker of "Spot" -- a 71.7-pound, 33.1-inch-tall, four-legged robot -- has teamed up with DroneDeploy, a drone software provider, and Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the nation's largest privately held construction firms, to use the robots to automate construction documentation. "It definitely gets a lot of stares, I don't think out of fear but more out of shock and awe," said Jake Lovelace, a Brasfield & Gorrie innovation specialist. Outfitted with a 360-degree camera, Spot allows workers to autonomously capture data from building interiors and take close-up photos to document the progress a project has made for the bid process or inspection. It's built so that it can navigate rough terrain and also has sensors for noise, carbon dioxide and particulate levels, making it unnecessary for humans to risk going into potentially unsafe places, Lovelace said.

Last year, the US Department of Energy announced that the SunShot Initiative successfully met its 2020 utility-scale solar cost target of $0.06 per kilowatt hour three years earlier than expected. This milestone marks a huge step forward for the industry as it moves toward a greener future that's less reliant on fossil fuels. While 6 cents may sound cheap, it's far from the bottom. The SunShot Initiative is now working towards another lofty goal for 2030: $0.03 per KwH. This benchmark would make solar energy one of the least expensive options for new power generation, and help drive mass adoption on a national scale.

The ecosystem that's emerged around the collection and analysis of data from drones is growing very quickly, according to a new report issued by DroneDeploy, one of the companies operating in the space. According to DroneDeploy's "2018 Commercial Drone Industry Trends" report, more than 2,000 developers have signed up with the company to offer applications through its App Market, an online marketplace for drone-related software offered by companies such as Esri, Procore, and John Deere. Only about 80 apps are on offer from the App Market today, but the number is growing quickly. According to DroneDeploy, more than 120,000 applications have been downloaded from the App Market, and in the past 12 months there has been a 445% increase in downloads. This has corresponded with a general surge in drone usage during the same time.

DroneDeploy, a drone software company, has launched new construction solutions to meet the growing demand of industry for aerial site intelligence. According to DroneDeploy, the captured photos help plan photo flights, create a visual timeline of a job site, and generate a replica of weekly progress report. "Regular site progress reports offer context and add new dimensions to construction projects. However, it's difficult to create consistent site imagery over the course of a project," says Mike Winn, CEO of DroneDeploy. Drone on Demand was recently launched by DroneDeploy.

DroneBase and DroneDeploy are collaborating with each other with a mission to expand the businesses using software and data processing while performing drone missions. According to a press release, this unity provides immediate high-resolution aerial data to customers. "The future of drones is automation, but until drones can execute a planned flight without any human supervision, we need a simple solution that helps businesses of any size integrate drones into their workflows," said Mike Winn, CEO of DroneDeploy. Within the DroneDeploy Platform, the'Drone on Demand' app allows users to access the collected data within a 72-hour turnaround time. "Many enterprise customers have seen the value in drone data, but have no idea how to scale that solution out to all of their assets, properties, and worksites in an ROI-positive way," said Dan Burton, CEO of DroneBase.

Cloud computing is all well and good for enterprises with big-data applications and consumers with virtual assistants, but it runs into some limits in an isolated cornfield. On farms and other places far from powerful computers and network connections, there's a trend away from centralized computing even while most of the IT world is embracing it. In remote places, the internet of things requires local processing as well as data-center analysis. So-called edge computing is coming to industries including manufacturing, utilities, shipping, and oil and gas. Agriculture is getting it, too.

Last winter, as meteorologists warned of a monster El Niño, researchers at the Nature Conservancy in California prepared to mobilize. El Niño promised to bring in king tides that would raise the sea level by as much as one foot above normal during high tide, causing flooding along the coastline that researchers could study as a preview of climate change-induced sea level rise. But when a king tide arrives, it floods lots of pockets along the coastline at once. So they decided to try a new, distributed surveillance strategy: commercial drones, co-opted from a gung-ho statewide network of citizen scientists. The plan had a lot of advantages.