Mystery--solved

 

Following our previous post about the fate of AVRA, here is the true story: 

"In November 2011, AVRA Surgical Robotics, a US corporation who wanted to develop a surgical robotics system, approached Gombert. To pursue development of the surgical robot, a newly created subsidiary, MIS Robotics, entered into an agreement in October 2012 with RG Mechatronics, whereby the latter agreed to conduct the development and manufacturing of the surgical robotics system.

In the next six months, AVRA provided to its subsidiary loans totaling over US$4.5 million. But, by the end of 2012, the funding arrangement started to become troublesome. Eventually, Gombert terminated his connections with AVRA in March 2013, but in the meantime RG Mechatronics developed the surgical arm.

Later that year, Gombert acquired RG Mechatronics GmbH and started converting the surgical arm into an industrial collaborative robot. In April 2014, RG Mechatronics GmbH was renamed Gomtec GmbH to reflect “the change in commercial direction from consulting engineers to robot manufacturer.” Then in June 2014, Gombert unveiled its collaborative robot arm at Automatica 2014 (see photo bellow), right next to KUKA’s booth."

Read more about Gomtec, later acquired by ABB here.