04/21/09 — As predicted by RoboticsTrends’ sister publication Robotics Business Review, Ugobe, Inc., manufacturer of the ultra-lifelike, ultra-expensive Pleo robotic toy dinosaur, has declared bankruptcy.  The company has laid off its staff and filed for liquidation of its assets under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, according to a story this morning in the Idaho Statesman, the local paper that covers Eagle, Idaho, the hometown to which founder Caleb Chung returned the company last year after downsizing and closing the company’s Silicon Valley operations.  In its bankruptcy filing, Ugobe listed assets of $1.6 million, all but $100,000 of which was machinery in…

04/15/09 — The U.S. military has been one of the most enthusiastic and lucrative supporters of the robotics industry for decades and will continue to be so, according to Joseph Dyer, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and current president of iRobot Corp.’s government and industrial robots division. But if the robotics industry is going to keep up with the military’s demands, it has to mature a little—improving its designs to reduce overall cost, beefing up its lifecycle support, and expanding both manufacturing and maintenance networks. Speaking at the RoboBusiness Expo 2009 conference in Boston, today, Dyer said the robotics industry is…