Robotic VISION Technologies and Intellectual Ventures Enter into Strategic Partnership

Just this past November, we announced a similar partnership with Seattle-based Visualant, a maker of optical hardware technology. In fact, in the past year we have announced innovative collaborations with small and medium sized companies around the world working in scientific fields as diverse as photonics, dairy feed, and packaging. We have several more such partnerships to announce in the coming months. 

Robotic VISION Technologies, or RVT, is an industry leader in machine vision technology. We believe that RVT has some of the best vision guidance software for robots on the market today. RVT's software and technology is used by the world's leading robot manufacturers and its products are installed in hundreds of locations worldwide. RVT owns six patents and has several more pending. The company has earned the Henry Ford Technology Award and the BAE Systems Chairman’s Award, both prestigious. We will be working with RVT by providing them access to our global network of inventors and collaborating with them on new inventions. We will also help strengthen their existing patent portfolio. Finally, we will help introduce the RVT suite of technology and software products to robotics and other companies around the world. 

The robotics field has been particularly active over the past year, with several large corporate projects receiving significant media coverage in recent months. Google announced its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, a military contractor that designs humanoid and animal-like robots, while Amazon has received a huge amount of attention for its Prime Air delivery drone program. A team in Korea is even developing nanorobots that help fight cancer and are touted as being more effective than chemotherapy. The International Federation of Robotics estimates the global market for industrial robots grew two percent in 2013, noting that demand has roughly doubled over the past decade. 

The new partnership between IV and RVT comes at just the right time to take advantage of the dynamic growth in the robotics market. Both here in the United States and around the world, robot manufacturers will see only an increased need for precision and reliability in the vision systems they utilize. RVT's technological and industrial expertise, in combination with its emphasis on the value and importance of intellectual property will help it capture more of the world market for machine vision systems. Intellectual Ventures is proud to be a key partner to RVT.