Consumer Robot for Autism Therapy Wins Top Prize in Nation's First RoboBowl Competition
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Oct 19, 2011. A Pittsburgh startup, Interbots,
won a first prize of $25,000 for its plan to develop consumer robots
that could help boost the social skills of autistic children in the
inaugural RoboBowl venture competition.
Interbots was one of five companies to present proposals for
next-generation robotics products or services in the health care and
quality of life industries during the finals of the
RoboBowl Pittsburgh competition at Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 13.
The event was sponsored by The Robotics Technology Consortium, Carnegie Mellon University
and the Innovation Accelerator. It was the first in a series of
national "next-generation robotics" venture competitions intended to
find and foster startup and early-stage companies seeking to develop
products and services that address unmet and underserved market needs in
targeted industrial sectors.
Interbots, founded in 2005, is a spin-off of
Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center.
The company specializes in the design and construction of custom
interactive characters — both physical and virtual — as well as control
software, and interactive multimedia content. Its RoboBowl proposal
focused on an affordable consumer robot and accompanying iPad/PC
software that would allow therapists and parents to guide autistic
children through activities that practice social referencing skills.
Another Pittsburgh company, TactSense Technologies, took second place
and a $10,000 prize. A spin-off of the University of Pittsburgh,
TactSense presented a novel tactile feedback system for robotic surgical
systems. The other finalists, Bright Cloud International Corp. of
Highland Park, N.J., Origami Robotics of Pittsburgh, and RescueBotics of
Mountain View, Calif., each received $5,000 prizes.
Summaries of the finalists' proposals are available at
http://www.cmu.edu/qolt/Events/robobowl-pittsburgh/robobowl-pittsburgh-finalists.html
"We were pleased to be part of the National Robotics Initiative's
inaugural RoboBowl business plan competition that took place with the
'Innovation Accelerator @
Carnegie Mellon'
event," said John Pyrovolakis, founder and CEO of Innovation
Accelerator. "These competitions will create new business ideas for
commercial robotics applications, with other ones to follow in the areas
of manufacturing robotics, infrastructure and environmental robotics,
and education robotics."
The judges for the final round competition were Pyrovolakis; Helen Greiner, president and CEO CyPhyWorks, president and CEO, Robotics Technology Consortium, iRobot
co-founder; Nathan Harding, co-founder and CTO, Berkeley Bionics;
Venetia Kontogouris, senior managing director, Trident Venture Capital;
Rich Lunak, president and CEO, Innovation Works; Steven S. Martin,
president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska; and Frank
DiMeo, vice president, Technical Staff, Physical & Biological
Technologies Practice, In-Q-Tel.
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