Rise Of The Robots

It's not just industry giants such as Amazon that are doing major deployments of autonomous robots. Customers in industries such as farming, warehousing, manufacturing and retail are beginning to make robotics systems a central part of their operations—and many of these systems are coming from cutting-edge robotics startups. Research firm IDC forecasts that global spending on robotics systems and drones will rise to $210.3 billion by 2022, up from an expected $115.7 billion this year.

Startups that are developing innovative robotics technologies have seen strong momentum in 2019, with a range of product launches, partnerships and funding rounds announced. This includes both developers of the robots themselves, as well as creators of software to enable enhanced robotics for other manufacturers.

What follows are CRN's picks for the coolest robotics startups of 2019.