A version of this article appears in the IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (Volume 26, Issue 1, March 2019). In mid-November, we received the sad news that Alphabet is closing SCHAFT, a spinoff of the University of Tokyo robotics lab. The decision comes one year after Boston Dynamics was sold to SoftBank, the company that also acquired Aldebaran Robotics (known for the Pepper and Nao robots). During the 2018 IEEE/Robotics Society of Japan International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, we heard that Rethink Robotics, which created the collaborative robot industry and had a large impact on our view of robots in industrial applications, had closed its doors. Some months before, Jibo and Mayfield Robotics, makers of Kuri, were forced to shut down sales and operations.

Cloud Robotics is a term that was popularized by James Kuffner after he brought together researchers from different relevant fields (robotics, machine learning, and computer vision) to assist in coming up with the initial Cloud Robotics concept. Cloud robotics, as the name suggests is bringing together cloud computing and robotics. In essence, taking all the benefits of cloud computing and finding ways to apply them to robot software and robotics. The past couple of years have established cloud computing as the technology of now and the future. In 2017, spending on cloud services was $153.5bn, and this is expected to rise by 21.1% in 2018 to $184.4bn.

Toyota revealed more details about its ambitious AI and robotics effort yesterday at CES in Las Vegas. Dr. Gill Pratt, who leads the effort as CEO of the newly formed Toyota Research Institute (TRI), announced an impressive line-up of engineers and executives to head its technical leadership team and advisory board. Among the hires is James Kuffner, who until recently led Google's robotics program and will focus on cloud computing at TRI. The advisers include notable technologists like Rodney Brooks from Rethink Robotics and Marc Benioff from Salesforce. Late last year, Toyota unveiled a US 1 billion program to advance AI and robotics, hoping to make cars safer and smarter, and also develop useful, reliable home robots to assist people.