This week’s deal news covered a breadth of sectors: biotech, medical devices, mobile applications, software, and robotics. Not to mention a major venture capital fund raise.

—Waltham, MA-based drugmaker Avila Therapeutics was bought by New Jersey-based Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) for $350 million, with as much as another $575 million available in milestones. Avila is a maker of “covalent” drugs that are designed to shut down the activity of disease-causing proteins for a prolonged period of time.

—Verastem, a young Cambridge, MA-based biotech working on drugs targeting cancer stem cells, completed its initial public offering, led by UBS and Leerink Swann. The IPO (5.5 million shares sold at $10 apiece) represented a strong showing among investors, as Verastem originally indicated it planned to sell 4.5 million shares priced between $9 and $11 each. The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy another 825,000 shares.

—Burlington, MA-based ConforMIS, a maker of knee implant systems, raised $89 million in a Series E funding from private equity investors and government investment funds abroad. The company said it will put the money toward sales, manufacturing, and expansion of its technology.

—Co3 Systems, a maker of data loss management software, received new funding from Fairhaven Capital. The Cambridge, MA-based startup said it will put the money (whose sum was undisclosed) toward sales, marketing, and engineering.

—Malborough, MA-based medical device startup Navilyst Medical will be acquired by Albany, NY-based AngioDynamics (NASDAQ: ANGO) in a transaction valued at $372 million, based on the company’s $14.20 per share closing stock price Monday. Navilyst, which focuses on … Next Page »

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As we wind down the first month of 2012, I thought I’d take the pulse of some of the bigger technology companies around town. In addition to tracking startups and entrepreneurship, this is an important measure of the health and well-being of the Boston tech community.

So here’s a list of 10 well-known public companies, their stock price (as of Friday’s close), most recent financials, and other tidbits. Not comprehensive, of course. But of these firms, you might be surprised whose stock is the highest right now.

Most of these companies will announce their end-of-year financials in the next two weeks…

Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM)
Stock price: $32.01
2011 stats: Q3 profit of $63M on $282M in revenue; coming off $1B+ revenue in 2010.
Recent news: The company has acquired rival Cotendo and is positioning itself as a platform for businesses to reach customers via Web, mobile, and cloud.
Big question: Why doesn’t Akamai own the cloud (like Amazon)?

Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB)
Stock price: $10.30
2011 stats: Q3 revenue of $15.9M (net loss of $7.4M); will announce full-year stats on Feb. 9.
Recent news: Coming off its IPO in August, Carbonite is adjusting to life as a public company.
Big question: Is online backup a big enough growth market?

Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT)
Stock price: $25.11
2011 stats: Q3 revenue of $54.3M ($5.4M profit); full-year stats coming Feb. 2.
Recent news: Constant Contact is moving into mobile/social rewards programs with its acquisitions of CardStar and Bantam Networks.
Big question: Can it make a full transition from e-mail to broader online marketing?

EMC (NYSE: EMC)
Stock price: $25.83
2011 stats: Full-year revenue of $20B ($3.4B profit), showing record growth.
Recent news: CEO and chairman Joe Tucci isn’t stepping down this year as planned. (Pat Gelsinger is rumored to be his successor.)
Big question: What is the ultimate future of EMC? In storage, big data, and cloud computing, as EMC goes, so will Massachusetts.

iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT)
Stock price: $32.88
2011 stats: Q3 revenue of $120.4M ($14.1M profit)
Recent news: iRobot laid off 8 percent of its staff in October but continues to grow.
Big question: Will consumer robotics ever really take off?

LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM)
Stock price: $41.51
2011 stats: Q3 revenues of $31M ($4.4M profit); full-year stats coming Feb. 15.
Recent news: LogMeIn has been expanding to new devices, markets, and geographies.
Big question: Is this still a lifestyle business?

Monster.com (NYSE: MWW)
Stock price: $7.35
2011 stats: $46M profit on roughly $1B revenue, compared to a $9M loss in 2010.
Recent news: Monster Worldwide had layoffs and is restructuring as it continues to expand globally and move into social/mobile technologies.
Big question: Is there a better job site out there?

Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN)
Stock price: $27.91
2011 stats: Q3 revenue of $400M, and $1.4B revenue for the fiscal year ($38.2M profit).
Recent news: Nuance acquired rival Vlingo in mobile speech recognition; mobile/consumer and healthcare continue to be its biggest markets.
Big question: Can it compete with the big boys (Apple, Google)?

TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP)
Stock price: $31.24
2011 stats: $3B+ market cap. Year-end stats coming Feb. 8. (2010 revenue of $486M.)
Recent news: After spinning out of Expedia last month, TripAdvisor is New England’s biggest consumer Web company.
Big question: Will it outcompete Google and others in travel search and content?

Zipcar (NASDAQ: ZIP)
Stock price: $16.14
2011 stats: Small profit in Q3 on $68M revenue. Full-year revenue expected to be 240M+ with net loss in $10M range (tune in Feb. 14).
Recent news: Coming off its IPO last spring, Zipcar has been expanding carefully in Europe and on U.S. college campuses.
Big question: Can it reduce costs enough to make a real profit?

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First of all, students should be studying what they are passionate about. Clearly, computer science will continue to spread into all aspects of human life. Within computer science, I believe machine learning and AI are perhaps the biggest study opportunity today. Biology and medicine are also undergoing vast changes. Personalized medicine will become a big issue; the understanding of the human genome and cell chemistry will open up entire new opportunities for innovation. So any study in the area of life sciences that connects to those new opportunities will be important. The will be amazing bioengineering opportunities, e.g., by developing materials and systems that connect with human tissue. Nanotechnology will become a major driver of new technologies in the future, with tons of great things to study at the intersection of new materials and human life.

I also believe some of the mundane aspects are ripe for overhaul, such as transportation and manufacturing. Studying robotics, rapid prototyping, autonomy in fields such as Aero-Astro, mechanical engineering, or computer science, should position students today to become the technology leaders of tomorrow. For students studying in humanities, I urge them to connect to the digital revolution that is unfolding right now. I am less excited about studying finance, since too many of us are already too creative in inventing new financial instruments that make society less stable.

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New England startups working on drugs, security software, robots, laser weapons (seriously), and mobile fitness applications have reported a bundle of deals this week heading into Thanksgiving.

—Newton, MA-based Allena Pharmaceuticals, a new startup targeting protein therapeutics, premiered with a $15 million Series A financing. The funding came from Third Rock Ventures, Frazier Healthcare, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

—Area security software makers were busy in the past week. CounterTack, formerly of the DC area, announced a $9.5 million financing and its plans to move to Boston. The new money comes from Fairhaven Capital of Cambridge, MA, along with other private investors. Boston-based Rapid7, a security assessment software maker, pulled in a $50 million Series C round from new backer Technology Crossover Ventures.

—Cambridge-based Agios announced its oversubscribed $78 million Series C financing, from its drug-development partner Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) and return investors Arch Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, and Third Rock Ventures. Also participating in the deal were “three leading, large public investment funds,” whose identity Agios did not disclose.

—The week kicked off with a duo of deal announcements from Harvest Automation and TeraDiode. Billerica, MA-based Harvest, which makes robots that harvest shrubs, raised $7.8 million led by Entree Capital. And Littleton, MA-based TeraDiode, which makes lasers for defense and industrial applications, pinned down $10 million in Series B money led by Argonaut Ventures.

—Mobile app developer RunKeeper nabbed a $10 million financing round, led by new investor Spark Capital, with participation from existing investor O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and new investor Revolution Ventures (co-founded by AOL chairman Steve Case). The Boston startup said it would use the money to further develop a platform for plugging different health-focused applications and devices into its RunKeeper ecosystem.

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A list of the most recent tech financings around Boston paints a pretty representative picture of what kinds of companies are getting built here (robotics, hardware, defense tech, custom goods via the Web). Consider:

—Billerica, MA-based Harvest Automation, a maker of agricultural robots, has raised $7.8 million in new funding led by Entree Capital. We first wrote about the company in 2008 when it was called Q Robotics. Since then, we’ve profiled Harvest here.

—Littleton, MA-based TeraDiode, a developer of high-powered lasers for defense and industrial applications, has closed $10 million in Series B financing led by Argonaut Ventures. I wrote about TeraDiode’s laser-weapon technology in July (yes, weapons). The company appointed a new CEO, Parviz Tayebati, in September.

—Cambridge, MA-based CustomMade.com said who its investors in its recent $2.1 million funding round are: Google Ventures and First Round Capital led the round, with a number of other firms and angel investors also participating. Earlier this fall, I wrote about CustomMade’s approach to online customization service.

That’s it for now, but there’s more financing news coming very shortly…

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Think of it as a flying beluga whale. At least, that’s the way Xconomy’s San Diego editor Bruce Bigelow, once described the Global Hawk robot spy plane. And I have to say, I am personally very excited that this reconnaissance craft extraordinaire will be one of the featured presentations at our 6X6: Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas conference in downtown Boston on December 1.

Get your tickets here—the saver rate ends on Thursday.

Built by Northrop Grumman, the Global Hawk was conceived in San Diego as the modern, robotic manifestation of Lockheed’s famous U-2 spy plane. Under development for well over a decade, it has a bulbed-out nose, a ‘V’-shaped tail, and long, thin wings that span 130.9 feet to be exact. But the important part is that it is built to fly autonomously for 35-40 hours at 65,000 feet-packing more than a ton of surveillance equipment from infrared and electro-optical sensors to synthetic aperture radar.

We are pumped that Bill Walker, chief of Global Hawk business development, will be one of our speakers. Walker reports he is bringing some cool video of the Global Hawk in action to share with our audience. “Global Hawk is a peek into the future of autonomous aircraft that can provide rapid access to remote areas of the world,” he says. Among the potential missions, for war and peace:

—track ground forces over a large area, and identify/locate small targets

—monitor shipping and maritime domain access for protection and threat assessment

—observe/assess large disaster areas to support relief operations

—collect scientific information about weather and climate, including hurricanes

—provide a communications gateway in the sky to connect military troops on the ground and in the air, or to connect first responders in a disaster area

Walker’s presentation and videos should be fascinating, but they are just one part of 6X6, which features one potentially game-changing tech company from each of Xconomy’s six cities—not to mention a special opening keynote from Xconomist Stephen Wolfram, the visionary founder and CEO of Wolfram Research and creator of Mathematica and the Wolfram|Alpha search engine.

You can see the rest of the lineup and get tickets here. We are looking forward to seeing you on Dec. 1.

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[Updated 4:35 pm] Bedford, MA-based iRobot laid off about 55 people last week from its government and industrial robots division, Xconomy has learned. I heard from a source familiar with the company that some of the layoffs came to light because ex-employees posted on social media looking for new positions. An iRobot spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The staff cuts come as the pioneering robotics company (NASDAQ: IRBT) announced its third quarter financial results this afternoon. The press release mentions that the company “implemented a reduction in force” because of “expectations for a reduction in government-funded research in 2012.” There is an earnings conference call scheduled for 8:30 am Eastern Time tomorrow.

The last significant layoff at iRobot was back in 2008, but this one is bigger, according to my source. The latest staff reduction is also notable because it affects the biggest division in the company—the one that houses some of its most famous products, like the PackBot military robot.

I have heard that iRobot has roughly 550 employees, which would make the layoff about 10 percent of the firm’s total workforce. Those numbers are not confirmed, however.

In the past year, Xconomy has reported on iRobot’s progress and expansion in Michigan, among other things. It’s not yet clear in which cities the staff cuts have occurred.

[Updated with comments from iRobot] A company spokesperson just confirmed the layoffs, but with slightly different numbers: “We can confirm that iRobot Corporation has had a reduction in force. This difficult action was taken based on our current view of future defense spending and a shift in program structure. In 2012 we see a significant decrease in our externally funded research and development. This transition from development to production requires our Government and Industrial robot division to reduce the size of its workforce. The reduction accounted for approximately 8 percent of the total workforce.

“We will be addressing this on the call tomorrow.”

[Updated 5:40 pm] iRobot has confirmed that 55 full-time employees were let go from the company’s offices in Bedford, MA; Durham, NC; and San Luis Obispo, CA.

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A Boston-area security tech company and the University of Michigan are involved in one of the most ambitious—and potentially controversial—transportation projects of our time. It could have major impact on federal legislation, and almost everyone you know.

Picture this: You’re driving in your car, approaching an intersection. Maybe you’re speeding a little, going 40 mph in a 35 zone, say. Unbeknownst to you, another driver is racing down the cross street and is about to run a red light (probably texting or something). This could spell disaster. But instead, your car picks up a wireless signal from the other vehicle. A beeping sound or flashing light on your dashboard alerts you to slow down, so you hit the brakes. Disaster averted.

Now let’s take it a step further. Maybe the alert is hooked into your car’s control system, so if you don’t put on the brakes, your car does it automatically. And maybe that’s fine with you. But you might be a little worried about giving up that kind of control in life-and-death situations. After all, computers get hacked and software crashes. Not to mention, you might not want your car broadcasting its speed and location out there for all to see (especially not the cops, since you were speeding).

This scenario isn’t the future. It’s happening already—at least the driver-alert part. In six cities around the U.S., trials of about 100 drivers each are underway to see how people react to in-car alerts (such as collision warnings, do not pass, and vehicle stopped ahead). But the next step is bigger. In Ann Arbor, MI, some 3,000 cars will be equipped with onboard wireless devices for communicating with each other and signaling to drivers when there’s an imminent hazard. This 12-month pilot study, which was announced recently and starts next August, is being led by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) through a $14.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The state of Michigan has been heavily involved as well.

The goal of the federal initiative is, ultimately, to save lives. In the U.S., auto accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 34; more than 30,000 people are killed on the nation’s roadways each year. The hope is that with new early-warning systems in place, a sizable fraction of would-be victims could be saved—some say 80 percent of non-alcohol-related cases—especially when high speed is involved.

The idea of wirelessly connected cars isn’t new, of course. The field of vehicle telematics has been around for years, with applications in fleet management, tracking, and safety. But advances in GPS location technologies, wireless communications, sensors, hardware, and algorithms are enabling smarter, better-connected vehicles to be tested on a bigger scale. And recent breakthroughs such as autonomous road-racing vehicles and Google’s self-driving car are starting to propel the technology into the mainstream.

Nevertheless, the Michigan study raises some serious real-world concerns. “This is a massive system with tremendous security and privacy implications,” says Ed Adams, the chief executive of Security Innovation in Wilmington, MA. And that’s exactly where his software security firm comes in.

Security Innovation developed the mobile software being used in the U-M study to … Next Page »

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Detroit already has a Greektown, a Corktown, a Poletown, and even Hockeytown. Soon, if Mark Salamango has his way, it will also have RobotTown, a nonprofit “living laboratory” dedicated to robotics innovation, testing, education, incubation, and events.

Salamango compares RobotTown, which he hopes will have a campus in the middle of the city, to a futuristic version of Dearborn, MI’s Greenfield Village, a National Historic Landmark that celebrates American history and innovation through unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, re-enactments, and displays. He wants to create a place where parents bring their kids, teachers bring their students, and interested parties come from near and far to interact with what’s on display, whether it’s agricultural robots in a field harvesting corn, personal vehicles powered by robots, or a food court where robots keep the floors tidy.

Salamango also wants RobotTown to be a facility where government and private industry can test robotics innovations, as well as a space where garage-workshop scientists can bring their ideas and collaborate with other tinkerers and entrepreneurs. Salamango says the vacant former Michigan State Fair site near 8 Mile and Woodward—with its 180 acres, paved lanes, and auditorium—is the venture’s dream home.

“We want a place where people can socialize with robots and understand them more,” Salamango says. “I also think it’s so valuable for kids to see scientists at work. I have daughters, and before they get into the Justin Bieber thing and then that’s all they care about, I want to get them interested in robotics.”

RobotTown was conceived by the U.S. Army’s head roboticist Jim Overholt, who works out of the Tank Automotive Research and Development Center in Warren, MI. Salamango, who has a background in … Next Page »

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Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Ahem.

[A giant “6x6” fills the screen.]

Macho narrator voice:
Star Wars had The Empire Strikes Back (Vader: “I am your father”)
The Godfather had The Godfather Part II (Pacino: “You broke my heart”)
Mad Max had The Road Warrior…well, you get the idea.

Now Xconomy presents 6×6, the long-awaited sequel to its riveting, change-the-world program from last December, 5×5. (It was “5×5” because we weren’t in New York City yet. Now we are.)

Yes, for the second straight year, Xconomy has canvassed its national network to find the most original, sensational, and transformative tech ideas out there—across software, hardware, digital media, social technologies, robotics, and more. We are inviting a select few speakers to Boston for an afternoon of mind-bending presentations and business networking.

It’s all taking place on the afternoon of Thursday, December 1, from 1:30-5:30 pm, at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology in downtown Boston. One featured speaker will be on hand from each of our six cities: Boston, New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego. We hope “6×6: Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas” will be a rallying point for the Boston tech community to get together and discuss the future of their fields with our out-of-town guests.

The concept is to highlight some of the BIGGEST tech ideas out there—as well as the nuts and bolts of how founders are building successful businesses around these ideas. This event is about truly changing the world, so we’ve asked everyone to please check their daily deals, social network plug-ins, and run-of-the-mill mobile apps at the door.

Who better to set the table than Stephen Wolfram? We’ve invited the renowned scientist, inventor, and business leader to give the opening keynote. Wolfram is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research and the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha. So he knows a little bit about changing the world from a software, computing, and business perspective. Oh, and he also spent 10-plus years working to reinvent the entire landscape of modern scientific thought with his book project, A New Kind of Science. I’ll stop there, but you can read an interview I did with Wolfram around the beginning of last year. (As for what he’ll talk about on Dec. 1, it’s safe to say I have no freaking idea—but I’ll keep you posted.)

Here’s a quick rundown on who’s representing our six cities at 6×6:

—From the hometown of Boston, we have Dave Icke, the CEO of Cambridge-based MC10, a pioneer in developing flexible electronics and sensors for consumer, healthcare, and energy markets.

—New York City is sending Jason Baptiste, the CEO of OnSwipe, a scrappy young startup that is trying to invent the future of media through a new tablet publishing platform.

—Representing Detroit is Nathaniel Borenstein, the Chief Scientist of Mimecast, an e-mail management company headquartered in the U.K. Borenstein, who’s based in Michigan, is one of the fathers of modern e-mail systems, and will talk about the future of communication in the cloud.

—From San Francisco comes Adam Goldstein, the CEO of Hipmunk, an online travel search company that’s been making waves with its novel visual interface for finding flights and hotels.

—Seattle will be repped by Kabir Shahani, the CEO of Appature, a fast-growing startup specializing in social and relationship marketing technologies for the healthcare industry.

—And from the sunny climes of San Diego comes Bill Walker, Chief of Global Hawk Business Development at Northrop Grumman, the aerospace and defense tech giant. Walker will talk about high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

We also have a few intriguing “burst” bonus talks to highlight, from some of the most exciting startups around Boston. They will include Affectiva (CEO Dave Berman), an MIT Media Lab spinout that’s commercializing software to make your computer or smartphone understand your emotional state (talk about a big idea); Krush (CEO Gina Ashe), an ambitious startup focused on social commerce and marketing for apparel and lifestyle brands; and GrabCAD (CEO Hardi Meybaum), a company that’s connecting engineers with people who need stuff built, via an online community and marketplace.

We are really looking forward to 6×6, and we hope to see you there on Dec. 1. You can register at the special super saver rate here.

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This week’s deals news in New England was dominated by cleantech and life sciences firms.

—Quincy, MA-based Bluefin Robotics, a maker of  autonomous underwater vehicles, acquired the assets of Hawkes Remotes for an undisclosed sum. Hawkes Remotes is a spinoff of Hawkes Ocean Technologies, a Bay Area developer of deep-ocean explorer vehicles.

—Providence, MA-based NABsys, a developer of gene-sequencing technology, raised $10 million in a Series C financing led by its return investor Stata Venture Partners. That brings NABsys’ total funding pot to $21 million. The startup said it will put the money toward developing and commercializing its solid-state electronic systems for single-molecule DNA sequencing and analysis.

—Mascoma, a Lebanon, NH-based biofuels developer, filed for a potential $100 million initial public offering, which is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, and Credit Suisse. As of fall 2009, the company had raised $100 million in private equity and about another $100 million in government grants and loans.

—Massachusetts startups collected $156.5 million in equity-based funding in August, continuing to dip from the dollars raised in earlier months of the summer, according to data from CB Insights Funding Flash.

—My hunch is that this month’s Bay State funding numbers will turn out better; Westborough, MA-based cleantech startup Boston-Power announced Tuesday that it had raised $125 million in funding, led by Beijing firm GSR Ventures. Return Boston-Power backers Oak Investment Partners and Foundation Asset Management also provided funding, along with the Chinese government. As a result, the developer of lithium-ion battery technology will shift its operations and manufacturing to China. Boston-Power has now raised more than $316 million.

—Cambridge, MA-based Tokai Pharmaceuticals took in a $23 million third tranche of its Series D round from existing investors Novartis Venture Fund, Apple Tree Partners, and angel investors. The money will go to Tokai’s prostate cancer drug galeterone (TOK-001), as it moves into the second of three clinical trial phases needed for FDA approval.

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[Updated 9/20/11. See below] The Silicon Valley vs. Boston tech scene discussion is a tired one, I know. But today we’ve seen a number of Boston-area companies make a splash with some significance to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here we go with the highlights:

—Burst Media, the Burlington, MA-based online ad distributor now owned by Blinkx (a San Francisco video search company), has rolled out four online community channels to help advertisers target gamers, moms, sports fans, and (dare I say it) fashionistas. The new sites—called Giant Realm, MomIQ, Stadium, and Ella—encompass thousands of independent Web publishers and their audiences. The company calls this “a significant first step in the realignment of Burst’s publisher strategy following its acquisition by Blinkx.” It’s also yet another example of tech companies trying to figure out how to distribute better-targeted ads to specific types of consumers.

—Bluefin Robotics, the maker of autonomous underwater vehicles in Quincy, MA, has acquired the assets of Hawkes Remotes, a spinoff from Hawkes Ocean Technologies, a Bay Area developer of deep-ocean explorer vehicles. Terms of the deal weren’t given. Bluefin Robotics, which is owned by Battelle (and not to be confused with fellow MIT spinout Bluefin Labs), says it plans to work with Hawkes’s remotely operated machines to extend its current product line to the oil and gas industry.

—TalkTo, a Cambridge, MA-based mobile software startup, presented at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco yesterday and was selected as one of six semifinalists to compete today. TalkTo makes a mobile app that lets people text any business—like a restaurant or hotel (to book a table or room) or a store (to ask about product selection)—and receive a text response, even if the business doesn’t know about TalkTo. I’m not quite sure how this works yet, but it sounds like a clever way to spread awareness of the app. It’s also yet another tool that local merchants will have to figure out if they want to use to communicate with customers.

Reached by e-mail, co-founder and CEO Stuart Levinson wrote, “TalkTo could be a very big deal because it’s a completely new way to communicate with businesses. Consumers have never been able to do this before. Instead of calling (which you can also do through the app), you suddenly have a second option—text.” He added, “How often do you think of calling a place only to realize it’s closed? So you make a note in your calendar to call the next day, or you try to remember and forget. Why not just send a text as soon as you think of it? When the business opens, you’ll get a text response.” [This paragraph was added on 9/20/11---Eds.]

—Tasted Menu, a Boston-area food tech startup, announced its beta launch today. The idea is to get people to rate the quality of specific restaurant dishes and share photos of them online. The startup, which is backed by angel investors, faces plenty of competition from companies like San Francisco-based Foodspotting and Boston-based Locu (formerly Goodplates, which was working on a dish-rating app).

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Dateline: 2030, give or take. We’re at war. Bullets are flying, ordnance is exploding, and conditions are beyond dangerous. Soldiers are scattered across the landscape, bleeding and waiting for help. A commander gives the order, and suddenly a fleet of robots storms the battlefield to pull the wounded to the safety of waiting rescue helicopters.

What may sound like the plot of a “Saving Private Ryan” meets “Blade Runner” science fiction movie is actually a potential future application of MABEL, a robot built in a University of Michigan lab. The robot is believed to be the world’s fastest bipedal machine with knees, a prototype for robots that engineers hope can one day serve as soldiers or rescuers.

“It’s quite exciting,” says Jessy Grizzle, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “I have never seen a machine doing a motion like this.”

Grizzle built MABEL in 2008 in collaboration with Jonathan Hurst, who was then a doctoral student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Grizzle and U-M doctoral students Koushil Sreenath and Hae-Won Park have spent the years since trying to perfect MABEL’s humanoid gait. They’ve been progressively improving the feedback algorithms that enable the robot to keep its balance while reacting to its environment in real time.

“We envision some extraordinary potential applications for legged robot research: exoskeletons that enable wheelchair-bound people to walk again or that give rescuers super-human abilities, and powered prosthetic limbs that behave like their biological counterparts,” said developer Hurst in a press release. Hurst is now an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University.

When researchers in the field of robotics first got started, robots had legs like pogo sticks. Even today few robots can run, and Grizzle says MABEL is the the only one to do it in a manner so closely human. Its … Next Page »

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Mountain View, CA-based Restoration Robotics said yesterday (PDF) that it has raised $41 million in a Series C financing round. Clarus Ventures led the round, which was joined by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Alloy Ventures, and Interwest Partners. The company is developing a computer-guided system that helps harvest healthy hair follicles for transplantation.

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Here in the Boston area we like hard technologies. We like companies with weird names. We like companies that have vision. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Tenebraex, SiOnyx, and MC10.

They are the micro-cluster of imaging tech companies. They are working on a mix of far-out stuff and closer-in products, with a multiple-focus approach that befits their chosen field. If they were superheroes, Tenebraex would have eyes in the back of its head (panoramic view); SiOnyx would see in the dark; and MC10 would morph into different shapes depending on what it was looking at. Taken together, they just might reinvent the cameras we use every day.

One example: Imagine an ultra-thin camera phone that can take high-resolution, wide-angle photos and video in a dimly-lit bar or restaurant, or outside at night. That’s what combining the companies’ capabilities could do—though, as far as I know, they are not working together.

Several months ago I first talked with Peter Jones, the CEO of Scallop Imaging, which is the fastest-growing division of Boston-based optical tech firm Tenebraex. Why am I telling you this now? One, I’ve been busy. Two, Scallop is about to debut its third camera product in September. Last week, Jones said the upcoming “as-yet-unnamed camera will be the industry’s first multi-megapixel panoramic camera for very low light environments.”

Scallop’s new camera follows in the footsteps of its earlier products: digital and analog versions of a device (see photo below) that stitches together images from five separate camera sensors into a 180-degree, distortion-free, high-res panoramic view, for security and surveillance applications. The advantage over traditional fisheye lenses and pan-and-tilt cameras? Image quality, cost, and convenience, Jones said.

Some recent customers include hotels, museums, retail stores, and the U.S. military. One of the more intriguing applications of the technology lies in robotics. Last winter, a U.S. Army research lab organized a contest at Fort Bragg, NC. A number of teams sent mobile robots into a remote area to beam back images—presumably to check out the surroundings without having to send troops in. The robot that used Scallop’s camera finished in the top two (in terms of meeting its objectives), and it was the only one that didn’t get stuck in the woods, Jones said. He attributed the performance in part to its wide field of view.

My colleague Wade first profiled Scallop Imaging back in 2008. Since then, the division has grown to about 50 people. Tenebraex, its parent company, is no flash in the pan either. The company started in 1992 and is profitable, having invested in Scallop “multiple millions” of dollars in research and development, Jones said. “The majority of our future growth will come from Scallop.”

The company’s upcoming low-light camera overlaps a bit with another local firm. … Next Page »

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CyPhy Works, the Boston-area robotics startup led by iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner, has raised an additional $1.2 million in equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. The investors in the round weren’t disclosed, but John Simon and Anita Jones are listed on the form as directors of the company, which was originally called The Droid Works. General Catalyst is an existing investor in CyPhy, which is still in stealth mode but is reportedly working on flying robots (UAVs), among other things. The startup previously raised $1.75 million early last year and won a $2.4 million government research grant in late 2009 to study UAVs.

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San Diego-based CareFusion (NYSE: CFN) says it has agreed to pay roughly $150 million to acquire Rowa, a German company that makes robotic equipment used in pharmacies for high-speed storage and retrieval of pre-packaged pharmaceutical products. In a statement today, CareFusion Chairman and CEO Kieran Gallahue calls Rowa “the clear pharmacy automation leader in Western Europe.” Combining Rowa with CareFusion’s Pyxis line of products represents an opportunity for the medical equipment provider to offer a comprehensive suite of medication management equipment outside the U.S. Rowa, based in Kelberg, Germany, has more than 300 employees.

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When we asked readers two weeks ago to send their biggest gripes with or suggestions for the innovation community, we told them to not hold back. Well, we got we asked for at XSITE 2011: The Entrepreneurship Era.

For example: “These laws don’t need to be tweaked, they need a shotgun murder and a burial behind the barn,” said Jeremy Brown.

Brown was ranting about laws in the Bay State that enable companies to make workers sign agreements that bar them from joining a competing company for at least a year. He said the binding agreements, which states like California don’t have, prevent his small Cambridge, MA-based robotics startup Rep Invariant Systems from attracting top talent from other veteran robotics companies in the state.

Then there were Josh Bob and Chris Palatucci, who had somewhat contradictory complaints. Bob, CEO and founder of Boston-based Textaurant said tech entrepreneurs should flesh out their product and get some potential customers before hitting up angel investors for cash. Eventually they should “get it through their thick skulls that they should get some traction before they go out and get money,” he said.

Palatucci, of Palatucci Executive Search, said that investors need to “put the venture back in venture capital,” particularly when it comes to life sciences. He said angels look all too much like VCs and VCs look more like private equity investors. He asked venture capitalists to take a risk on biotechs with pre-clinical data.

Jason Evanish of Greenhorn Connect used Jason Terry of the 2011 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks to inspire the audience. Terry had the NBA trophy tattooed on his arm before the beginning of the season, showing his confidence that the Mavericks had the right team and resources to make it to the top. Evanish said Boston should be equally confident in its own arsenal, pick up some “swagger” and tell entrepreneurs they should move to Boston rather than migrate to Silicon Valley.

And last but not least, there was Drew Hession-Kunz, founder of i-Nalysis and an adjunct business professor at Boston College. He rapped. The audience clapped. It was a bit of a struggle on both sides. He had complaints about angel investors, company founders, schools, and venture capitalists. And yes, he voiced those in a three-minute-long rap.

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[Updated 6/7/11 5:15 pm PDT] Sunnyvale, CA-based Liquid Robotics, maker of an autonomous, wave-powered robot that can glide on or below the sea’s surface, carrying industrial, scientific, or military instrumentation payloads, said today that it has raised $22 million in Series D funding. Vantage Point Capital Partners led the round, which was joined by Schlumberger, the provider of oilfield exploration services. A January regulatory filing showed Liquid Robotics had collected $18 million out of a potential $23.2 million in equity-based financing; Liquid Robotics says that filing pertained to the same funding round announced today, but that the fundraising hadn’t been completed at the time of the filing.

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PolyRemedy, a Concord, MA- and Mountain View, CA-based healthcare startup, has secured $20 million in a new Series C funding to fuel what president and CEO Mark Carbeau calls its “Netflix of wound care” business.

The deal was led by new investor Delphi Ventures of Menlo Park, CA. Previous PolyRemedy backers—MedVenture Associates, Advanced Technology Ventures and Flybridge Capital Partners—also contributed to the round, bringing the company’s funding pot to $47 million.

PolyRemedy has patented material sciences and polymer technology for creating customized dressings for patients with chronic wounds, like diabetic ulcers. The PolyRemedy system can tailor the medicine, moisture level, oxygen permeability, and other factors of the wound dressing to fit different stages of a patient’s care cycle. When Xconomy last caught up with the company, it was offering these treatments via a soda-vending-machine style robotics system that nurses worked with on site at hospitals or wound treatment facilities.

Not anymore. And here’s where the Netflix part comes into play. Now, home nurses interact with the PolyRemedy system via a Web-application on a computer, tablet, or mobile device, inputting factors on the patient’s wound and treatment (in six clicks) to produce the wound dressing recipe, Carbeau says. “The functional parameters are developed to optimize wound healing for that specific day,” he says.

Based on that information,PolyRemedy’s manufacturing facility customizes the dressings and mails them to the nurse agency or patient home, with labels and instructions for which wound dressing corresponds with which day.

“She’s now getting personalized advanced dressing that’s been tailored exactly to that patient,” Carbeau says of the home nurse. “We’ve taken all the variability of care out.”

PolyRemedy currently employs its system via five home health agencies, which manage networks of nurses visiting patients in their homes. The company will use the new funding to develop an asynchronous app (which nurses can access without connection to a cellular network), expand manufacturing, and build a sales and marketing team. It has brought on a new chief commercial officer— Cameron McKennitt of Kinetic Concepts (NYSE: KCI)—to help lead that effort.

Carbeau, also a Kinetic Concepts veteran, joined PolyRemedy in January 2010 to help shift the startup froma robotics-based healthcare company to one powered by software. “What I brought to the business to was to reorient our business away from traditional medical device company to a technology-enabled services business,” he says.

Back in 2008, PolyRemedy was just beginning to focus on how its system stored information on patients’ wounds and could potentially help better tailor future treatment. Now that’s a big piece of the value the company brings to the table, Carbeau says. The analytics help nurses track trends between treatment and healing and better educate patients.

“We ultimately use that data to make the algorithm smarter and create reports and alerts,” says Carbeau. “That’s what’s defining and driving improved care.”

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