text: Company Six offers hints to what Sphero spinoff could possibly be constructing – RobotBot
  26/01/2021 17/01/2021 Categories Defense / Security
  Sphero Inc., the Boulder, Colo.-based shopper robotics maker finest recognized for its remote-controlled BB-8 and R2-D2 toys, this week spun off yet one more firm. It mentioned Company Six (CO6) will focus robots and "AI-based software applications" that present situational consciousness to navy personnel, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and others who work in harmful conditions.
  CO6 has already raised a $3 million seed spherical led by Spider Capital, with participation from current Sphero buyers together with Foundry Group and Techstars, in addition to new investor GAN Ventures. The startups mentioned it plans to make use of the funds for commercialization and market entry of its preliminary merchandise.
  CO6 is being coy about what it's engaged on. "We are working on a highly durable, personal situational awareness robot and SaaS-based cloud offering," Jim Booth, former CEO of Sphero chief working officer and CEO of CO6, instructed The Robot Report by way of electronic mail. "We are actively working with members of the public safety sector throughout development to ensure the products we develop improve safety [and] operational efficiency and act as an extra set of eyes to help make good decisions for those out there in harm's way."
  In try and be taught extra about CO6, The Robot Report discovered that, as of May 1, 2020, Silicon Valley Bank has a safety curiosity in Sphero and its mental property (IP). Typically in these agreements, an organization places up its IP as collateral to obtain the mortgage. If Sphero fails to repay the cash, SVB might seize the collateral to make up for the cash it misplaced. Here is a duplicate (PDF) of the safety curiosity contract between Sphero and SVB.
  Included in that settlement are the next patents associated to "Sphero Safety Robotics, Inc., a Delaware corporation d.b.a. Company Six:"
  Sphero stopped making its Disney robots in 2018 after the licensing deal ran out. Since then, it has targeted on STEM-related robots, together with the four-wheel, all-terrain RVR. The aforementioned patents about self-propulsion ceaselessly point out wheels, so maybe CO6 is growing a extra ruggedized model of the RVR for ground-based reconnaissance and surveillance. Of course, that is pure hypothesis, and we'll have to attend till CO6 will get nearer to its preliminary launch date to be taught precisely what it's engaged on.
  Other firms are already promoting related robots, together with FLIR, ReconRobotics and Roboteam. FLIR's FirstLook, for instance, is a throwable, rugged, and expandable robotic that gives situational consciousness to maintain its operators out of hurt's approach.
  Booth mentioned CO6 at the moment has 9 workers who all helped Sphero convey greater than 4 million robots to market. Booth and Paul Berberian, previously the CEO of Sphero and now chairman of CO6, each have backgrounds in navy service.
  CO6 isn't the one firm to spin out of Sphero. In 2017, Misty Robotics break up out from Sphero after elevating an $11.5 million Series A. Foundry Group additionally backed Misty Robotics, which is headed by Ian Bernstein, co-founder and former chief expertise officer of Sphero. Booth was one of many early mentors to Sphero co-founders Bernstein and Adam Wilson as a part of the Techstars Boulder Accelerator 2010 class. He joined Sphero after the Techstars program and helped launch and scale the corporate.