Comau’s mobile manipulator uses a Racer-5 cobot and a 1500 autonomous guided vehicle (AGV). | Source: Comau

Comau has been developing a mobile manipulator that is being applied within three different EU projects. 

The company’s Mobile Robotic Arm involves a robotic arm mounted on an autonomous mobile platform. The system is integrated with Comau’s Racer-5 collaborative robot (cobot), a six-axis articulated robotic arm that can work at speeds of up to 6 m/s when human operators aren’t present. The Racer-5 is mounted onto a 1500 autonomous guided vehicle (AGV). 

The system can be integrated within Comau’s digital infrastructure and can provide visual feedback for pick and place operations, and more, with its integrated vision system. This includes a Comau MI.RA that is installed directly into the robotic arm. 

The system’s AGV is equipped with two independent batteries that power the AGV and the robotic arm separately. The AGV can also be managed using different types of navigation modes and a standard Comau controller. 

Comau’s first application for the Mobile Robotic Arm is with DIMOFAC, an EU initiative that aims to help companies implement a smart factory architecture. There, the platform is used for pick and place and warehouse automation tasks within a machining scenario. 

The PeneloPe Project, another EU project, uses the platform for glue dispensing and non-destructive quality inspection in the public transport domain. The goal of the program is to develop a closed-loop, end-to-end digital manufacturing solution that facilitates bidirectional data flows across the manufacturing value chain. 

Finally, Comau’s platform is being used as part of the ODIN project to support the manipulation of mechanical parts for automotive applications with the aim of demonstrating the technical and performance feasibility of collaborative robotics on the factory floor. 

Earlier this year, Comau entered into a cooperative agreement with Siemens to offer their jointly engineered product the Sinumerik Run MyRobot / DirectControl. With this product, robot kinematics can be fully integrated into a CNC system, optimizing control of all robotic machining and handling tasks. 

Comau is based in Turin, Italy and was founded in 1973. It recently launched a new robotics learning center with Ferrari. The e.DO Learning Center will use Comau’s robots to help students explore STEM subjects, coding and robotics. The facility is equipped with five of Comau’s e.DO 6-axis robots, complete with all necessary materials and accessories.

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Geek+ P-series robots handle storage shelving then queue and present items for picking to humans. | Credit: Geek+

Geek+ recently announced its combined worldwide fleet of P-series goods-to-person (GTP) workflow robots picked ten billion items over the past year. The GTP picking solutions deployed around the world covered over 175 million km during the period, according to the company, which is further than the distance from the Earth to the sun.

Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said: “We are very proud of what we have achieved recently. The amount of merchandise that our robots have handled, coupled with the savings in time and energy, demonstrate that mobile robots are a technology for today’s problems and a brighter future.”

Each day, the number of items managed by Geek+ GTP robots and warehouse management systems reached as much as 750 million, according to the company.

This is a significant milestone for a fleet of robots. In researching this claim, we reached out to the company to inquire about the deployed number of GTP robots used to reach this milestone.

In the U.S., Geek+ said it has deployed more than 4,000 robots in 24 locations since 2019. Worldwide, the company said it has deployed an additional 26,000 robots for a total worldwide fleet of 30,000 robots. We used that final figure in the calculation of this milestone.

With all of the data in hand, each robot needed to pick an average of 1.5 items per minute and drive at an average speed of 440 mm/sec (well within the technical and operating specifications of the robots).

The table below contains output from the spreadsheet that we generated to validate these claims. A company representative stated that the formula for calculating the items picked number was calculated using the average tasks picked per hour * average pieces per task * 10 working hours per day * operating robot * operating period.

Table 1 – Calculations for Geek+ robots (initial conditions in bold)

*data provided by Geek+

Over the past year, Geek+ has added new projects and expanded its collaboration with existing clients while continuing to evolve the complete solution. The company optimized Geek+’s warehouse management systems to boost robot efficiency by 15%. Geek+ said it plans to continue to improve and enhance its technology and expects further gains in sustainability and efficiency in 2023.

In 2022, Geek+ secured partnerships to expand into Canada and Brazil. Also, Geek+ has expanded its operations by adding a 1400m2 experience center and two new offices in North America, with over 100 employees.

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Amazon recently detailed how Astro, the company’s multi-purpose home robot, can navigate through its environment with limited onboard computational capabilities. Astro’s sensor field of view and onboard computational capabilities aren’t nearly as powerful as other autonomous robots. While this makes it a more affordable option for consumers, it also means it’s more challenging for Amazon to deliver a high-quality of motion. 

Amazon counteracts Astro’s lack of computation capabilities with algorithms and software designed to allow the robot to move more gracefully. 

Predictive planning is a key aspect of Astro’s navigational abilities. Astro’s limited computational capabilities mean it struggles with a large sensing-to-actuation latency. To combat this, Astro makes predictions about the movements of the objects around it, like people. The robot predicts where those objects will be and what its surroundings will look like at the end of its current planning cycle, helping it to account for latencies in sensing and mapping while it’s moving.

All of Astro’s plans are based on its latest sensor data and what it thinks its surroundings will look like when its plan will be taking effect. The robot can make these predictions because of its ability to predict and handle uncertainties and risks of collisions. 

Astro’s motivation to move towards its goal is always weighed dynamically with its perceived level of uncertainty. This means Astro evaluates uncertainty-adjusted progress for each candidate motion, allowing it to focus on getting to its goal when it determines risk is low, and focus on evasion when risk is high. 

The robot also uses trajectory optimization software to operate in its environment. Astro considers multiple candidate trajectories and picks the best one in each planning cycle. The robot plans 10 times a second and evaluates a few hundred trajectory candidates in each instance. 

Astro considers safety, smoothness of motion and progress toward its end goal. With these three criteria, the robot picks the trajectory that will result in optimal behavior. Other approaches limit the number of choices a robot can make to a discrete set, or a state lattice, but Amazon’s formulation is continuous, helping the robot move smoothly. 

Astro doesn’t just have to plan where its two wheels and body will go, it also has to plan movements for Astro’s screen. The robot’s screen is used to communicate motion and intent and for active perception, so Astro plans to do things like orienting its screen towards the person it’s following or in the direction it plans to go so humans around it know what its plans are. 

Amazon released Astro in September 2021. The robot can be used for a variety of things, including home monitoring, videoconferencing with family and friends, entertaining children, and more. The voice-controllable robot can recognize faces, deliver items to specific people, after a human puts the item in the storage bin, and use third-party accessories to, for example, record blood pressure. It can detect the sound of a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide detector or breaking glass. If you have a Ring account, Astro can send you notifications if it notices something unusual.

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Editors from The Robot Report attended the 2023 ProMat event in Chicago. In episode 109 of The Robot Report Podcast, co-hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the news and stories from the event. Also in this week’s episode, Mike highlights news related to the future of AI and robotics from the recent Nvidia GTC event.

ProMat 2023 Review

New robotics companies at the show included:

• Mushiny
• Multiway Robotics
• Quiktron
• SEER
• Tuskrobots
• Slip Robotics
• Pickle Robots

The most interesting robotics solutions at the show:

• Autonomous forklifts were everywhere on the show floor
• Agility Robotics demoed the latest iteration of Digit robot
• RightHand Robotics’ demoed a new suction cup switcher
• Boston Dynamics Stretch trailer unloading demo worked well
• Slip robotics had a new, novel trailer-loading/unloading AMR-based solution
• Locus One Interoperability was a key new feature of LocusOne software
• Verve Motion exosuit is a solution to warehouse worker fatigue

For a complete summary of our editor’s picks for robotics at ProMat 2023, check out this story.

Robotics Summit & Expo (May 10-11) returns to Boston

NVIDIA news this week:

• Omniverse Cloud for enterprises is now available as a platform as a service (PaaS) for compute-intensive workloads like synthetic data generation.
• Issac ROS DP3 release adds new perception capabilities and open-source modules
• New LIDAR-based grid localizer package
• New people detection support in the NVBLOX package
• GPU-accelerated 3D reconstruction for collision avoidance
• Updated VSLAM and depth perception GEM
• Source release of NITROS, NVIDIAs ROS 2 hardware acceleration implementation
• New Isaac ROS benchmark suite built
• The Robot Report story on Nvidia GTC
• NOTEWORTHY: Fireside chat between Jenson and Ilya Sutskever, Co-founder and Chief Scientist, OpenAI (Nvidia GTC site)

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Data science-driven platform seamlessly orchestrates large fleets of multiple robot form factors in very large warehouses to deliver predictable, efficient, and scalable productivity results. | Credit: Locus Robotics

Locus Robotics announces LocusONE, a seamless warehouse management solution that enables the operation and management of large quantities of multiple AMR form factors as a single, coordinated fleet in all sizes of warehouses. LocusONE uses proprietary data science to support the full breadth of material movement needs in today’s fulfillment and distribution warehouses.

“LocusONE makes it easy to deploy and manage large numbers of AMRs — and multiple form factors — within very large warehouses to work together as a single, orchestrated fleet,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. “Based on Locus’s proprietary data science engine, LocusONE enables operators to gain the flexibility and critical business intelligence needed to efficiently handle material payloads from 3 ounces to 3,000 pounds.”

The LocusONE platform supports a thousand or more robots, operating in sites as large as one million square feet or more, executing multiple use cases simultaneously in a single, intelligent, and orchestrated solution. With LocusONE, LocusBots engage in various tasks — including each picking and putaway, case picking and putaway, replenishment, pallet building, routine routes, point-to-point transport, counting, and more — within a single warehouse. The data science behind the scenes optimizes the mix of tasks throughout the day to achieve optimal warehouse productivity.

LocusONE integrates with any WMS system to provide flexible and dynamic fleet management and enables easy deployment of a mix of Locus Origin, Vector, and Max AMRs tailored to meet each warehouse’s specific needs. Regular enhancements are released as over-the-air updates to Locus’s installed base of more than 250 customer sites.

“Locus lets DHL Supply Chain deploy the right bot for our customers’ varied needs, all centrally coordinated and managed on one platform. With Locus’s powerful data science strategy, delivered through the LocusView dashboards, LocusONE plays an important role in providing the key business intelligence insight we need to optimize operational efficiency and improve service quality for our customers,” said Sally Miller, CIO North America & DSC Digital Transformation Officer of DHL Supply Chain North America. “Partnering with Locus has helped us deliver on our commitment to continuous innovation and digital transformation across the entire supply chain”.

Locus’s powerful data science foundation makes it possible to smoothly navigate hundreds – or even a thousand or more – bots in a single footprint as well as deliver predictive and actionable management guidance – in real time – to dramatically improve throughput across a multitude of use cases. LocusONE includes Locus’s award-winning LocusView package, which delivers data-driven, actionable insights across more than two dozen insightful reports and real-time dashboards, including labor guidance, predictive insights for work completion, operational comparisons against targets or time periods, order pool tracking and guidance, mission analysis and optimization, key performance visualization, and more.

LocusONE further extends Locus’s position as the industry’s AMR leader for automation and digitalization of warehouses, distribution, and fulfillment centers to efficiently meet increasing order volumes, labor shortages, and rising consumer expectations.

“As warehouses become increasingly complex, the ability to rely on a dependable data analytics strategy is essential to their smooth operation. Having the ability to deploy a flexible, seamless and proven AMR management platform to meet a broad range of use cases has become a must-have in the warehouse fulfillment industry,” said Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director at Interact Analysis. “This innovative platform demonstrates how critical multi-form factor interoperability is in today’s fulfillment warehouse and reflects Locus Robotics’ commitment to innovation, ease of use, and broad industry vision over the past few years.”

“LocusONE’s ability to integrate rapidly and efficiently with other automation technology – such as sortation or packaging systems – ensures that a nimble, scalable robotics solution can be easily deployed into both brownfield and greenfield environments,” noted Faulk.

“The LocusONE platform enables Kenco to create a seamless fulfillment experience that delivers enhanced productivity while improving employee morale and visibility. We rely on the LocusView dashboards to monitor progress and inform our labor management throughout the day,” said Kristi Montgomery, Vice President, Innovation, Research & Development Kenco Logistics. “LocusONE’s real-time insights allow us to delight our customers, and that’s what matters most to Kenco.”

LocusONE is available through the company’s all-inclusive, Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model. Locus Origin, Vector, and Max can be easily added to existing and new workflows, enabling operations to dynamically scale and adapt to changing market demands. In a study done by Peerless Research Group, nearly half of the respondents said they would prefer to buy their robotics solution as an entire integrated system that includes hardware, software, support, and maintenance.

Locus’s Recycle, Refurbish, and Repurpose initiative is designed to drive sustainability actively across all aspects of the business — from manufacturing and deployment to support and maintenance — at sites around the world. Locus is continually working to identify and implement best-practice strategies and tactics designed to reduce overall waste across all areas of our organization.

Locus will be showcasing LocusONE at Promat, Booth #S2303, the material handling industry’s premier event, running March 20-23 in Chicago, IL, where the Locus theme will be Vision, Intelligence, Results – emphasizing Locus’s commitment to delivering actionable intelligence in an innovative solution to drive results for customers. Locus will also host guests at the Locus Theater, featuring a lineup of informative industry speakers and presentations, discussions with Locus’s customers and partners, as well as showcasing live picking and putaway demos.

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OTTO Motors releases new software powering the industry’s most comprehensive fleet of AMRs with the ability to handle any material handling job up to 4,200 lb. | Credit: OTTO Motors

At ProMat 2023, OTTO Motors unveiled its newest AMR – the OTTO 600. The OTTO 600 extends OTTO Motors’ portfolio to five different models that can carry payloads from 100kg (297 lbs) to 1,500kg (4,200 lbs). OTTO AMRs are designed to automate material handling operations in manufacturing and logistics facilities.

OTTO 600 unlocks important new workflows with its ability to move pallets, carts and other payloads up to 600 kg (1,322 lb). With an all-metal construction and IP54 rating, OTTO 600 follows the OTTO Motors legacy of AMRs built to deliver results in the most demanding of factory environments.

“In 2015, OTTO 1500 defined the heavy-class AMR category. In 2017, OTTO 100 quickly became responsible for the industry’s largest AMR installations. In 2022, we launched OTTO Lifter, the world’s first truly autonomous forklift. Today, we’re proud to announce OTTO 600, a mid-range AMR offering the perfect balance of strength and agility,” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of OTTO Motors. “Powered by our industry-leading autonomous software, OTTO now offers an unmatched material handling portfolio.”

• Maneuverable in tight spaces: OTTO 600 offers capabilities of larger AMRs with the maneuverability needed to get around in constrained spaces like work cells.
• Durable build for demanding environments: In addition to a rugged, all-metal body, OTTO 600 offers a superior ability to withstand dust and fluids with IP54 construction.
• Fast and safe around people and objects: OTTO 600 works quickly and safely alongside people thanks to advanced sensors and OTTO’s proven autonomy software.
• Versatile to get different jobs done: Capable of moving carts and pallets, as well as connecting islands of automation, OTTO 600 unlocks limitless workflows including lineside delivery, work cell delivery and palletizer to stretch-wrapper transport.

Key specs:

• 600kg (1,322 lb) payload capacity
• 4.5 mph (2 m/s) maximum speed
• 1050 mm x 700 mm x 320 mm (41.3″ x 27.6″ x 12.6″) footprint
• IP54 rating

OTTO 600 is available through the existing global network of OTTO Motors system integrators and material handling solution providers.

New software release

OTTO’s latest software release, version 2.28, delivers faster and safer traffic movement and a new facility configuration interface for quicker workflow set-up. OTTO Motors invests heavily in software development to constantly evolve and deliver the smartest AMR software. This marks the sixth software release in the last three years. The OTTO AMR software suite is the most proven solution in the industry with over four million hours of production driving experience and is trusted for large-scale deployments by the most reputed brands like Toyota and GE.

“The success of large-scale, deeply integrated deployments depends significantly on effective fleet management, which is why we are continuously evolving our fleet manager. In this software upgrade, we are introducing new traffic management functionality that enables users to create different rules of the road for groups of different OTTO AMRs in the facility, resulting in faster traffic movement and improved safety,” said Jay Judkowitz, VP of Product at OTTO Motors. “As our customers continue to deploy a variety of models from OTTO in complex environments, this is a game changer.”

Software release features include:

• Team-Based Traffic Control: Customers can create traffic zones for specific robot types. For example, operators can specify lanes where larger AMRs cannot enter, ensuring smaller AMRs remain unblocked and are able to keep moving for higher throughput.
• New and intuitive facility configuration interface: Customers can now save up to 50% of the time required to set up facility maps and workflows. It is also easier for customers to use, learn and adapt to the system.
• Interoperability: OTTO Motors was the first AMR vendor to support the well-known AGV standard, VDA5050, empowering customers to manage dissimilar types of material handling solutions from a third-party master controller interface.
• New pallet types: OTTO Lifter now supports BulkPak® 4845 HDMP series bins, enabling customers to move more pallets of their choice.

Since its inception, OTTO Motors has helped customers achieve throughput improvements as high as 600% and return on investment in as little as 11 months in different industry verticals. This launch of OTTO 600 and new software enables OTTO Motors to help manufacturers automate a larger part of their material handling operations and achieve higher ROI.

OTTO 600 and the latest software will be showcased in booth #N7537 at PROMAT on March 20-23, 2023 in Chicago IL.

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Slip Robotics demonstrated its automated trailer loading/unloading system (ATLS) at ProMat 2023. The omnidirectional robot is designed to carry up to 8 full pallets and a total of 6 tons. It is capable of autonomously driving into a tractor-trailer for transport to the next destination. Three ATLS robots can fit inside a typical tractor-trailer.

Fork truck operators do not need to enter the trailer and instead load and unload pallets onto the Slip ATLS in the open loading dock. The best part of the optimization with Slip AMR is that driver waiting time can be reduced from 1.5 hours down to 5 minutes.

The Slip ATLS travels with the load to the destination, where it drives off the trailer, onto the dock for unloading and loading. A loaded set of ATLS robots would then drive onto the trailer for immediate departure.

The business model for Slip is that a logistics company would have a set (of three) ATLS robots for each loading bay on their loading dock. The ATLS robots would swap out as each new trailer arrives. Then the dock staff would unload the full pallets and reload the ATLS with the next trailer load of pallets.

If you are visiting ProMat, check out the Slip Robotics at Booth # N6739.

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Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) today at ProMat introduced MiR Insights, a cloud-based software tool that enables fleet owners to track and analyze the operations of its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). MiR said key features include data dashboards to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and heatmaps that track robot activity over both time and physical locations and to visualize areas with poor WiFi coverage and potential robot traffic bottlenecks.

MiR Insights is hosted on Microsoft Azure and is used in connection with MiR Fleet, MiR’s fleet management software. MiR Insights reads data from MiR Fleet but does not interfere with fleet operations or individual robot control, or adjust fleet settings. The data interface has options for data visualization as well as an API to port raw data for use in external systems.

MiR Insights will be available to customers in Q2 2023.

“MiR Insights provides robot fleet users a much better understanding of the robots’ performance and how they interact with their physical environment,” said Walter Vahey, president, MiR. “This knowledge will enable our users to continue to improve and expand their installations more rapidly and further increase their ROI.”

In late 2022, Teradyne merged its AMR subsidiaries AutoGuide Mobile Robots and MiR. This single supplier of AMRs is called Mobile Industrial Robots and is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, where MiR has managed its global operations since its launch in 2013. Prior to the merger, MiR offered a range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3,000 lb. (1350 kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high-payload AMR tuggers and forklifts that will operate on the MiRFleet software.

Then in early 2023, Søren E. Nielsen stepped down as president of MiR. Nielsen stepped into the role in August 2020, taking over the role from Thomas Visti Jensen. Nielsen was previously MiR’s chief technology officer since January 2018.

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Breaking news today regarding the failure and collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, one of the oldest banks in Silicon Valley to be used by generations of technology startups. Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the situation and the likely fallout and impact to robotics companies and the venture capital industry that supports them.

Also on the show today we (unrelatedly) interview Rylan Hamilton, cofounder and CEO of 6 River Systems. Mike had the opportunity to sit down with Rylan and talk about Rylan’s start in robotics with Kiva Systems and how he concepted and built 6 River Systems into a leading AMR manufacturer that’s now a major part of the Shopify family.

It’s a great interview about the importance of putting the customer first and starting with a problem, rather than a solution.

Links from today’s show:

• Silicon Valley Bank collapse live blog (Bloomberg)
• Plus One Robotics raises $50M Series C funding round
• John Deere acquires SparkAI’s human-in-the-loop tech
• Michael Kohen, founder and CEO of SparkAI on the podcast in episode 91
• 6 River Systems website

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From left to right: Niels Jul Jacobsen, Steve Boyle and Amir Bousani.

Traditional sensors and navigation stacks have enabled AGVs and AMRs to bring tremendous value to a finite set of indoor material handling applications. But a much broader set of additional applications remains unsolved due to limitations in more challenging environments, including outdoor, indoor/outdoor, spaces with dynamic or repetitive features and where mobile robots must interact seamlessly together with humans.

At the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston on May 10, in the panel “Unlocking New Applications for Mobile Robots, Niels Jul Jacobsen, CEO of Capra Robotics, Steve Boyle, CEO of Essential Aero, Amir Bousani, Founder and CEO of RGo Robotics, and Mike Oitzman, robotics editor at WTWH Media and founder of the Mobile Robot Guide, will discuss how recent technology advances are setting the stage for the next wave of innovative mobile robots and share examples of exciting new applications that will be unlocked. The panel will take place at 4:15 PM. 

Capra Robotics build mobile robots for both indoor and outdoor usage. Jacobsen has worked in industrial robotics and automation for more than 30 years. He is the founding father of Mobile Industrial Robots (MIR) and was on the board of Universal Robots from 2008-2015. He holds an MSc in Computer Science Technology and a Graduate Diploma in Finance from the University of Southern Denmark.

Essential Aero automates airfield operations using robots, both in the air and on the ground. Boyle is a series entrepreneur who has started successful tech companies in telecom, mobile applications, aviation, security, and now robotics, which requires all these domains and more. Essential Aero is located in the greater Sacramento area of CA.

RGo Robotics is pioneering an artificial perception technology that enables mobile robots to understand complex surroundings and operate autonomously just like humans. Before founding RGo Robotics, Bousani lead the Advanced Technologies and System Innovation Groups at Intel RealSense. 

You can find the full agenda for the Robotics Summit here. The Robotics Summit & Expo is the premier event for commercial robotics developers. There will be nearly 70 industry-leading speakers sharing their development expertise on stage during the conference, with 150-plus exhibitors on the showfloor showcasing their latest enabling technologies, products and services that help develop commercial robots. There also will be a career fair, networking opportunities and more. Expo-only passes are just $75. Academic discounts are available and academic full conference rates are just $295.

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Fulfil Solutions, a robotics company that offers an automated grocery fulfillment system, announced that it is emerging from stealth mode with $60 million in Series B financing. 

Fulfil creates robots that can pick and pack grocery items across all product categories and temperature states. The company opened its first fully automated micro-fulfillment warehouse a few months ago in Mountain View, California in the San Francisco Bay area. 

“To address the many challenges facing online grocery, retailers must adopt efficient automation that substantially reduces costs and provides the accuracy, quality and convenience customers expect,” Fulfil CEO and President Mir Aamir said. “That’s why our fully automated solution represents such a revolutionary step forward. Not only does it make online grocery retailing profitable while meeting customer expectations, but it also prioritizes social and environmental responsibility by cutting carbon emissions, eliminating food waste and enabling healthier food to reach more households at lower cost.”

This micro-fulfillment warehouse was created in partnership with The Save Mart Companies, and it powers a same-day grocery delivery and pick-up service called Lucky Now. When Lucky Now receives an order, Fulfill’s robots start picking up groceries and packing them within minutes. When the order is fulfilled, the robots bring the finished orders to a waiting area where drivers can collect them. 

“The Save Mart Companies is thrilled to embrace innovative technologies that help deliver on-demand groceries to our customers on their own terms,” Shane Sampson, Executive Chairman of the Board at The Save Mart Companies, said. “With Lucky Now, powered by Fulfil’s robotic automation, we are excited to offer the best value on local and fresh products that our shoppers have come to know and trust.”

Fulfil’s system uses advanced AI, machine learning, and optical and sensor technologies to enable grocery picking. The company’s mobile robots split and sequence grocery items to prevent damage and minimize pack time, while dispense stations drop item into the mobile robot’s tops and redistribute inventory to balance loads. During all of this, a database tracks every item’s location, origin and expiration to ensure order accuracy. 

Fulfil’s funding round was led by Eclipse, and included participation from Khosla Ventures and DCVC. 

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Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is shutting down its subsidiary Everyday Robots, according to reporting from Wired. 

On January 20, 2023, Alphabet announced it would be laying off around 12,000 workers, 6% of its workforce, and Everyday Robots is one of the few projects disbanded as part of the budget cuts. Some of the technology and part of the Everyday Robots team will be consolidated into existing robotics projects within Google Research, Denise Gamboa, director of marketing and communications for Everyday Robots, told Wired. 

The company graduated from Alphabet’s X moonshot lab just over a year ago. The company taught over a hundred wheeled, one-armed robots to clean cafeteria tables, separate trash from recycling and open doors. 

Everyday Robots wanted to create flexible and adaptable robots that could be used outside of industrial environments. The company’s first prototype was unveiled in 2021, and in 2022, it was upgraded with Google’s AI language research to allow them to process natural language commands. 

Robotics Summit (May 10-11) returns to Boston

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While the company had ambitious goals for its robots, they didn’t seem to ever make the commercialization stage even a decade after Alphabet acquired the company, although the robots did do some cleaning around Alphabet’s offices. Some of Alphabet’s other moonshot projects, like Loon, which created internet-beaming balloons, have already shut down for this very reason. 

Other previous moonshot projects, like Wing, a drone grocery delivery company, and Waymo, an autonomous driving company, still appear to be going strong. At the end of last year, Waymo announced that it would be expanding its service area in both San Francisco and Phoenix. 

According to Wired‘s reporting, a former employee from Everyday Robots said that the company struggled to determine the company’s mission. The team couldn’t decide if they were aiming for an advanced research project or a commercially viable product. 

Everyday Robots employed over 200 people, and Alphabet did not give any details about how many of those employees, or which, would be staying on with the company. 

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CaPow, a perpetual power solution provider, announced it raised a $7.5 million Seed round to scale up the commercialization of its battery-free, wireless, energy delivery eco-system for autonomous robotics. This solution provides continuous power for automated robotic environments while eliminating robot downtime due to charging. The round was led by IL Ventures, a VC fund focused on disruptive technologies for legacy industries, with co-investment from Mobilion VC, Payton Planar Magnetics, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Mobilitech Capital, and Mr. Ray Nissan, a prominent angel investor.

Today, many automated solutions rely on batteries for power supply. This dependency leads to several inherent inefficiencies such as charging downtime and rampant costs due to the need for additional robots to replace the ones that are being charged. Moreover, traditional batteries have a negative environmental impact, as they create safety hazards and are an operational “headache” since they require a dedicated procurement strategy, special shipping, handling, storage and recycling.

CaPow addresses the primary bottleneck for automation: the challenge of providing reliable, cost-effective, and non-pollutive energy. By offering consistent power flow for mobile robots, CaPow’s energy delivery eco-system allows automated robotic solutions to continuously operate with no energy depletion downtime while ending the concept of reliance on legacy batteries. CaPow’s “battery-free”, paradigm-shifting solution is being well received along the logistics value chain, as it is validated to cut down the size of the required robot fleet, enhance throughput and improve the ROI of automation.

Robotics Summit (May 10-11) returns to Boston

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CaPow’s proprietary solution facilitates optimal power transfer with wide and dynamic capabilities. It accommodates multiple users, as well as the presence of metal and debris in and around the energy transfer field. In addition, it supports large distances between the transmitting and receiving ends, as well as wide spatial coverage. This provides substantial power levels with optimal end-to-end efficiency. The value of CaPow’s technology further expands to the wider mobility market with a wide range of applications. 

Mr. Amir Fishelov joins CaPow’s Board of Directors as Chairman of the Board, leveraging his two decades of experience as Co-Founder of SolarEdge (Nasdaq: SEDG), a pioneer and global leader in smart energy technology. At SolarEdge, a $17B company, Mr. Fishelov served as Chief Architect as well as VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, leading large-scale and complex energy management projects.

“With the backing of our investors and strategic partners, CaPow is challenging robot manufacturers, automation solution providers, and facility operators to change their definition of operational efficiency”, says Prof. Mor Peretz, Co-Founder & CEO at CaPow. “We look forward to accelerating our product development to meet strong market demand for our innovative and proven technology. The company will use the proceeds from the investment round to expedite business growth in markets around the world.”

“At IL Ventures, we align closely with CaPow’s mission of creating a sustainable, battery-free power supply for the industry,” says Yoni Heilbronn, Managing Partner at IL Ventures. “We are excited to invest in an exceptional and proven technology, which is a game changer for the entire robotic power landscape.”

“I am very proud BGN Technologies took part in bringing CaPow’s revolutionary technology to the market,” says Zafrir Levi, VP Exact Sciences at BGN, the commercialization arm of the Ben-Gurion University. “We wholeheartedly believe in CaPow’s Perpetual Power solution, and this investment is proof of the company’s superior technology and for the massive potential for disrupting the industry in which it operates”.

The post CaPow Raises $7.5 Million Seed Round appeared first on The Robot Report.

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy addresses the crowd during the opening session of the World Ag Expo 2023. | Credit: The Robot Report

Speaker McCarthy is a native of nearby Bakersfield and Tulare is in the district that he represents. The speaker along with several other senators and representatives from other ag-heavy states were present on day one of the show for an important “listening session” related to the upcoming farm bill which is up for renewal this spring in the US Congress.

Tevel Aerobotics

The new Tevel Alphabot is a partnership between Tevel Aerobotics and S&S Harvesting. | Credit: The Robot Report

Tevel Aerobotics is the 2021 recipient of an RBR50 innovation award for fruit-collecting drones. Tevel’s major announcement at the 2023 World Ag Expo (WAE) is a new relationship with S&S Metal Fabrication to produce an automated platform harvester to support the Tevel drones as they move down a row.

The new S&S mobile base is a derivative of the existing S&S Alpha-1 platform harvester and is about 8 ft wide and 25 ft long. The vehicle features a soft conveyor belt in the middle of the vehicle to gently move the fruit to storage bins that accumulate and deposit the fruit into larger bins. These bins are then dropped off within the rox behind the autonomous vehicle as it progresses down a row within the orchard. 

Many observers of the initial Tevel fruit-picking demo last year pointed out that the drones were dropping the harvested fruit from too high and that it would likely damage the fruit. Tevel has solved this problem through the implementation of a canvas drop zone that catches the fruit deposited by a drone and then lets the fruit fall a short, repeatable distance to the conveyor.

Agtonomy

Agtonomy launched its new Tele-Farmer solution at World Ag Expo 2023. | Credit: The Robot Report

Agtonomy launched its new Tele-farmer solution at the 2023 WAE show. 

This was the biggest robotic agriculture new product announcement at the show. Agtonomy is a startup headquartered in South San Francisco.

The Tele-Farmer solution is positioned as a farm management software solution BUT the company demonstrated a fleet of what they’re describing as reference tractors automated by their Tele-Farmer software solution.

The solution is primarily targeted at high-value crops and orchard workflows like mowing, spraying, and weeding.

Tele-Farmer features two novel capabilities:

• Trunk Vision is an ai-based vision model designed to track the trunks of trees and navigate accurately through an orchard row.
• An autonomous battery changing feature that can autonomously place a dead battery onto the charger and then pick up a fully charged battery from a nearby charging dock.

Nexus Robotics

The Nexus Robotics weeder employs delta-style robot arms to selectively pull weeds out of the ground, while leaving the crop plants untouched. | Credit: The Robot Report

Canadian robotics company NEXUS Robotics attended the show for the first time. The company has a fully autonomous, unmanned, electric drive platform that features three delta-style robots located underneath the robot chassis to pick weeds from plant rows. Each delta robot arm has a single gripper designed to quickly pluck a weed plant from the soil.

The system uses images from a color camera and artificial intelligence to identify the plants from weeds, and then move the robot’s gripper to the location of the weed while the autonomous platform continues to drive along the row.

Nexus is targeting the lettuce market as the initial application for weeding and thinning during cultivation. The solution is delivered as a robot as a service solution. 

The company plans to have its first vehicles in the field this spring for the weeding and cultivation processes during the growing season.

Farmwise

The new Farmwise Vulcan is an autonomous weeder configured as a smart implement that can be attached to any standard tractor. | Credit: The Robot Report

Farmwise launched the new Vulcan smart implement at the show. Vulcan is completely re-engineered and leverages everything that Farmwise learned from several years of running the Titan, an autonomous weeding solution for clients in the Salinas Valley area of California.

The company plans to continue running its existing Titan-based fleet, but is not planning to expand this service.

The first advantage of the new Vulcan implement is that it is available in a three-row width, which immediately makes it three times faster and more efficient than the Titan. Secondly, Vulcan can be deployed behind any existing manual tractor, which opens up the market for Farmwise. Vulcan could also be deployed behind any of the autonomous tractors currently on the market, matching (or exceeding) the capabilities of the Titan. The result is a win-win for both farmers and Farmwise.

The device uses machine vision and artificial intelligence to identify crop plants from weeds and beneficials, and all of the AI models created with Titan can be leveraged to run Vulcan.

Finally, Vulcan uses hydraulics to actuate the weeding blades whereas Titan used pneumatics to actuate the blades. This provides more speed, precision and stiffness to the blade motion.

Vulcan is simple to operate as users only need to select the crop and row spacing, and then drive down the furrows. Vulcan does the rest. Farmwise technicians remotely monitor the operation and can quickly handle any alerts or errors that might come up during operations.

NOTE: Thomas Palomares, CTO & Co-Founder at FarmWise will present a use case at the upcoming 2023 Robotics Summit and Expo in Boston, MA on May 10-11 2023.

Monarch Tractor

The new Wingspan.ai software from Monarch Tractor is both a fleet manager and a tractor data management application. | Credit: The Robot Report

I have been covering Monarch Tractor since the company emerged from stealth in 2020. At the World Ag Expo last year, the company was featured only at partner booths. However, this year, Monarch Tractor had a booth and demo area that was bigger than John Deere or any of the other “veteran” tractor companies at the show. The company has raised over $80M in the last two years and began shipping its first production units in November of 2022. The company also signed a deal with Foxconn to start manufacturing the tractor in its Lordstown OH manufacturing facility.

So it should be no surprise that the company made such a huge investment in marketing for this event. The company is now making revenue and has a deep backlog of customers ready to buy and deploy the tractors. Every marketing dollar spent can be justified with a potential sale.

At the show, Monarch introduced a new fleet management software package called Wingspan.ai. Wingspan includes a new user interface and a feature set that simplifies the deployment, management, and maintenance of the tractors deployed on a farm. The company fully expects some customers to deploy more than one tractor, so fleet management features are key to controlling the day-to-day operations of the tractors.

Monarch is an open-source data platform and the company plans to make all of the information available about the Monarch tractor operations.

CEO Praveen Penmentsa has a vision where all of this tractor operational information flows upward and is consolidated for the farmer.

Carbon Robotics

Carbon Robotics created an autonomous weeder that uses lasers to zap the weeds and instantly kill them without any dangerous chemicals. In many ways, it’s the ideal solution for managing weeds without disturbing the soil or introducing harmful chemicals that might impact humans, animals, and pollinators.

There were no big announcements from Carbon Robotics this year other than the addition of new crops to the solution. This means that they have new vision identification models for new crops that expand the application for additional crops.

Most notably this year at the show, there was no autonomous version of the Carbon Robotics solution on display. The company is now all in on the smart implement version of its laser-wielding weeder. Both Carbon Robotics and Farmwise have arrived at the same conclusion: single-row autonomous platform cultivation solutions are not as economically viable as a multi-row, smart-implement version of the solution. It’s simple math, when you can cover three times the area in one pass, you can do the work three times faster. This is just the start of the smart-implement market.

The company also introduced an on-tractor power generator for the smart implement that provides onboard power for the unit using the PTO on the tractor.

Farm-NG

Farm-NG provides a variety of configurable components that can be put together to create any number of different style autonomous vehicles for the farm. | Credit: The Robot Report

Farm-NG is an Ag-robotics startup that launched its solutions at this show. The product is an industrial erector set-like platform with open-source software for the development of custom, autonomous farm machines. The Farm-NG product line includes a number of motors, linear actuators, sensors, cameras and a central control unit, all of which are plug-and-play over the CAN bus. It also includes ag-specific attachments such as discs, furrows, blades, tines, a seeding assembly, an integrated compost spreader, and a bunch of other miscellaneous components.

The genius of the system is its modularity and openness. Farmers are tinkerers, and this is the perfect toolkit for any small to medium-sized farming operation. The software included with the onboard controller is designed to be completely programmable through the touchscreen interface. This enables control over the various motors and attachments. However, the system is also completely open, and a programmer can extend the capabilities and write complex, vision or sensor-guided control algorithms. The system also enables secure, remote monitoring and remote teleoperation of the rig through either a WiFi or cellular network.

Bluewhite Robotics

This John Deere tractor has been converted into an autonomous tractor with Bluewhite autonomy package. | Credit: The Robot Report

Bluewhite is an Israeli startup that can automate any existing tractor with the addition of a sensor package and control actuators. The business model for BlueWhite is to work with the existing fleet of tractors that are owned by a farmer and add on the controls that convert the fleet into fully autonomous vehicles, while still preserving the manual drive capabilities of the vehicle.

The company has already converted a number of tractor models from the leading tractor manufacturers. They design custom actuators for steering, throttle, brakes, transmission, etc, that can be retrofitted onto the vehicles. As the company engineers these actuators for a new model, it is building a portfolio of controls that it can leverage for subsequent customers.

The company has a software package that enables remote monitoring and teleoperation of the solution. The software does rely on GPS, RTK or Comms for successful operation. Smart implements are also controllable providing autonomous operations from seed to harvest. 

Bluewhite operates a robot as a service (RaaS) model that enables farmers to operate the equipment locally while Bluewhite monitors the operation continually and handles exceptions and errors to preserve uptime and continuity.

Amos Power

Amos Power launched its new all-electric autonomous tractor. | Credit: The Robot Report

Amos Power is another startup that launched its autonomous tractor at the 2023 WAE. The company is building a completely autonomous, all-electric, tracked tractor. The platform features three separate electric motors, one for each drive train and a separate electrically driven PTO. This enables the PTO to run at a speed and power setting that is different from the drive train of the tractor.

The Amos Power tractor is fully autonomous and does not include a driver’s seat or any way for a farmer to ride in the vehicle. This is different from many of the other competitors and puts Amos Power into the unmanned autonomy segment of the market.

The tractor weighs 2500 kg (6600 lbs) and has a drawbar horsepower of 75-85 hp. The PTO has 34-40 hp. The company is currently taking reservations for its production generation of vehicles.

Guardian Agriculture

Guardian Ag launched its autonomous, unmanned crop-spraying drone. | Credit: The Robot Report

Guardian Agriculture was one of the few aerial unmanned solutions on display at the show. The Guardian SC-1 is a four-prop drone that features 1.5 m (60-inch) propellers and a 76 Liter (20 gal) payload. The vehicle is designed for autonomous aerial spraying operations and is designed to be operated by a single operator who is managing flight operations and the refilling station. The SC-1 would typically fly for 3-4 minutes before emptying its onboard tank and returning to the refill/recharge station. A quick five-minute refill/recharge puts the drone back into the air for continuous operations until all tasks are completed.

The company is currently developing a larger version of the platform that will feature 2 m (80-inch) props and a large capacity tank to extend flight capabilities.

Operators are required to acquire all of the appropriate drone flight and chemical handling certifications before operating the drone.

Beewise

Beewise is innovating the beekeeping industry with a fully autonomous beehive that provides real-time data on bee health and activity. | Credit: The Robot Report

One of the most unique autonomous innovations on display at the show was the Beewise beehome. This is a climate-controlled, solar-powered, remotely monitored beehive with a capacity of up to 24 different hives. The base unit measures 2.5m x 2m x 2m (8 feet x 6.5 feet x 6.5 feet), and weighs less than a ton without the colonies inside.

In addition to monitoring the bee hives and alerting the hive owner to the health of the bees, the unit also features an internal robot that autonomously harvests honey. The robot extracts the individual honeycombs from a hive, gently swiping the bees from the frame during the extraction process. The robot then inserts the frame into an extraction unit that spins the frame at high speed to extract the honey. The frames are then returned to the hive.

The hive operators also received real-time alerts tracking bee movements and other alert conditions.

Vinergy Inc

Vinergy developed an AMR for moving grape boxes from the crop row to the in-field pack-out station so that grape harvesters do not need to leave the row. | Credit: The Robot Report

Vinergy Inc is an experienced machine builder that is expanding it product portfolio to include automation for grape farmers. The company introduced the Gopher IQ autonomous tray mover to support the table grape harvesting process by moving filled boxes of grapes from the in-field rows to a central in-field packing station. This use case keeps the harvesting crew from having to leave their in-row location to deliver the filled boxes to the packing stations, typically a time-wasted operation for the harvesters. Due to the fragility of the crop, table grapes need to be harvested by hand.

The system is provided with a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. The Gopher HQ solution is a manual pack-out station for grape harvesting that provides a mobile packing station structure that can be easily moved anywhere in the field. It includes eight pack out stations, combined with an automated outfeed belt that queues cases of product. The HQ folds down and is designed to trailer up to three Gopher iQ units for transport on the road. The solution is available for deployment during the 2023 harvest season.

The company is also producing the Rhino, a new solution designed for the dairy feeding application. The Rhino is designed to operate in a dairy barn and push the cow feedback within reach of the herd as they feed.

The company also recently secured a grant to work with aerial drone vendor Tevel to provide a ground-based platform to move the battery pack for the harvesting drones, while also providing the structure for gathering fruit. The prototype unit is a much smaller scale than the S&S base unit shown elsewhere at the show, and it was optimized for safely packing stone fruit (peaches, apricots) that are more fragile than apples.

Burro

Burro launched a new autonomous charging station for the Burro AMR. | Credit: The Robot Report

Burro had a number of autonomous units on display at the show. The company is expanding operations with new scouting payload features. CEO Charlie Andersen describes the new security patrol feature as an opportunity for current (and future) Burro operators to extend the usage of their Burro mobile robots after the working day. Unfortunately, farmers are often the target of thieves during the overnight hours, when valuable crops and/or equipment are stolen. By deploying Burros equipped with additional cameras and sensors to patrol remote areas of the farm, farmers can feel more secure that they will be alerted to issues.

The company has also released a new charging station that enables Burros to autonomously recharge the battery without the need for manual plug-in or battery swap. This also supports the security patrol workflow by enabling the vehicles to charge themselves during overnight hours.

Pollination is another task that Burro is pursuing. Burro has started a partnership with Bloomx.ai to deploy a blueberry pollinating payload to the burro and have the vehicle autonomously traverse a field. Pollination for blueberries occurs by shaking the branches and moving the pollen from the male to the female flowers.

Finally, the company is pursuing the solar market including mowing weeds throughout a solar installation, as well as autonomously shuttling solar panels for workers during an install.

Naio Technologies

Naio Technologies demonstrated its complete lineup of autonomous tractors designed for specific crops. | Credit: The Robot Report

Naio Technologies had demo units on display for each of the various autonomous tractors in its portfolio. From the tiny Oz robot to the much larger Orio and Ted platforms. Naio has an established base of users in its native France, and the company is now expanding operations to the USA. The company focuses primarily on weeding and spraying operations in vegetable crops and especially in grapes and vineyards. All of the vehicles in the Naio lineup are unmanned autonomous vehicles and the Orio and Ted platforms carry the implement between the wheel base, which simplifies the safety requirements and the overall driving and control of the vehicle.

GUSS Agriculture

GUSS Agriculture launched a new ground sprayer attachment for the standard and mini GUSS sprayer base units. This attachment turns the GUSS vehicle from an aerial sprayer for orchard trees into a ground spraying machine that can dispense weed killer on weeds on the ground between the orchard trees. This helps with weed management during the growing season and helps to preserve chemical usage by limiting the overspray onto bare ground. The unit is equipped with downward-facing cameras that only spray when it can see the presence of weeds on the ground.

The post Editor’s picks: top robots from World Ag Expo appeared first on The Robot Report.

Pudu Robotics’ recently upgraded PuduBot 2. | Source: Pudu Robotics

Pudu Robotics announced that it brought in over $15 million in Series C3 funding. The round was exclusively invested by Puhua Capital, with Taihecap continuing to serve as the exclusive financial advisor. 

Pudu Robotics’ current lineup of robots includes the PuduBot, PuduBot 2, BellaBot, KettyBot, HolaBot and SwiftBot, which are all for indoor deliveries, the Flashbot for outdoor deliveries, PUDU CC1 and PUDU SH1 for cleaning and its disinfection robot the Puductor 2. 

The company plans to use the latest round of funding to build a new production base, expanding its production capacity. Pudu Robotics also hopes to develop more products for commercial cleaning scenarios. 

Recently, Pudu Robotics has been focusing on growing its impact globally. The company currently has a presence in 600 cities in more than 60 countries and regions around the world. The cumulative global shipments of all Pudu robots exceeds 56,000 units, with over 80% of sales currently coming from overseas markets. 

To get its robots into more industries, Pudu has partnered with many well-known brands, including McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Merriott, Hilton, Shell plc, MediaMarkt and Accenture. Pudu’s robots are at work in catering businesses, hotels, shopping malls, convenience stores and office buildings.

In Poland, Shell is using the BellaBot and KettyBot to greet customers, inform them of promotional campaigns and assist with order delivery in its automated service station. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the company’s robots are at work in Media Market, a European electronics retailer. It has robots in McDonald’s in Slovenia, Nevins Newfield Inn in Ireland and in a photography and videography studio in Italy.

In fact, in August, the company announced that its service robots are being used in over 50 businesses and brands across Europe. Pudu hopes to continue this strategy of getting its robots into as many industries as possible in 2023.

Pudu Robotics’ last funding round totaled $155 million and closed in August 2021. Investors in that round included Meituan, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, Sierra Capital China and more. 

The post Pudu Robotics brings in over $15M in C3 round appeared first on The Robot Report.