Delta exhibited its data center and other technologies at NVIDIA GTC 2024. Source: Delta Electronics

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Artificial intelligence and robotics both devour power, but simulation, next-generation processors, and good product design can mitigate the draw. At NVIDIA Corp.’s GTC event last week, Delta Electronics Inc. demonstrated how its digital twin platform, developed on NVIDIA Omniverse, can help enhance smart manufacturing capabilities.

“We’ve partnered with NVIDIA on energy-efficient designs to support AI,” Franziskus Gehle, general manager of the Power Solutions business unit at Delta, told The Robot Report. “We’ve co-developed 5.5 kW designs for 98% efficiency.”

The Taipei, Taiwan-based company explained how its technologies can benefit industrial automation and warehouse operations. Delta also showed its ORV3 AI server infrastructure product and DC converters and other technologies designed to support graphics processing unit (GPU) operations.

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Delta designs simulation to manage automation

Founded in 1971, Delta Electronics said it is a global leader in switching power supplies and thermal management products. The company’s portfolio includes systems for industrial automation, building automation, telecommunications power, data center infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, renewable energy, and energy storage and display.

Delta added that its energy-efficient products can support sustainable development. The company has sales offices, research and development centers, and factories at nearly 200 locations around the world. It provides articulated robot arms, SCARA robots, and robot controllers with integrated servo drives.

“Since 1995, Delta has supplied automation components, and it now offers a full product line,” said Claire Ou, senior principal for strategic marketing in the Power and System business group at Delta. “We’ve used NVIDIA simulation for our customers and ourselves, for machine tools and semiconductors.”

“Because Delta has a lot of factories around the world, it’s best to do test runs to fine-tune our hardware and software before implementation,” she told The Robot Report. “Our solutions can monitor and manage warehouses and factories for maximum productivity.”

In addition, Delta has developed its own standalone simulation software in addition to NVIDIA Omniverse, and it can integrate data from both. In the past, automation designers, manufacturers, and users worked with different tools, but customers are now optimistic about easier collaboration, said Ou.

“In 2012, Industry 4.0 was about digitalizing manufacturing,” she noted. “Since then, our management and monitoring systems have been integrated into global factories. We’re also working with data for construction and smart buildings.”

NVIDIA partners for digital twins to manage power

“We are honored to be the only power and thermal management solutions provider at NVIDIA GTC 2024, where we will showcase the NVIDIA Omniverse-powered digital twin we have developed, which underscores our superior expertise in next-generation electronics manufacturing,” stated Mark Ko, vice chairman of Delta Electronics. “We look forward to helping transcend the boundaries of energy efficiency in the AI realm using the latest technologies.”

Delta has deployed its power management technology to leading cloud solution providers (CSPs) and AI developers such as Meta (parent of Facebook), Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, noted Gehle.

“Our customers have doubled their power requirements in the past six months rather than in years,” he said. “All of their road maps anticipate a significant increase in power demand, so they need management in place for next-generation GPUs and power-hungry generative AI.”

“We used digital twins and Omniverse to design and pre-qualify our products worldwide,” Gehle explained. “It’s important that our data center plans are aligned with those of our customers.”

At GTC, Delta presented an integrated Open Rack Version 3 (ORV3) system for AI server infrastructure with server power supplies boasting energy efficiency as high as 97.5%. It also included SD-WAN, Common Redundant Power Supply Units (CRPS) with 54Vdc output, ORV3 18kW/33kW HPR Power Shelves, a Battery Backup Unit (BBU), a Mini UPS, and a liquid cooling system.

In addition, the company showed its portfolio of DC/DC converters, power chokes, and 3D Vapor Chambers for GPU operations.

“The new era of AI-powered manufacturing is marked by digital twins and synthetic data, which can enhance efficiency and productivity before actual production begins,” said Rev Lebaredian, vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology at NVIDIA, in a release.

“By developing its digital platform on NVIDIA Omniverse, Delta can virtually link specific production lines and aggregate data from a diverse range of equipment and systems to create a digital twin of its operations,” he said. “And with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, it can generate synthetic data to train its computer models to achieve 90% accuracy.”

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RIOS works with NVIDIA Isaac Sim and serves the wood-products industry. Source: RIOS Intelligent Machines

RIOS Intelligent Machines Inc. this week announced that it has raised $13 million in Series B funding, co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. and IAG Capital Partners. The company said it plans to use the investment to develop and offer artificial intelligence and vision-driven robotics, starting with a product for the lumber and plywood-handling sector.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based RIOS said its systems can enhance production efficiency and control. The company focuses on three industrial segments: wood products, beverage distribution, and packaged food products.

RIOS works with NVIDIA Omniverse on factory simulations. It has also launched its Mission Control Center, which uses machine vision and AI to help manufacturers improve quality and efficiency.

RIOS offers visibility to manufacturers

“Customers in manufacturing want a better way to introspect their production — ‘Why did this part of the line go down?'” said Clinton Smith, co-founder and CEO of RIOS. “But incumbent tools have not been getting glowing reviews. Our standoff vision system eliminates a lot of that because our vision and AI are more robust.”

The mission-control product started as an internal tool and is now being rolled out to select customers, Smith told The Robot Report. “We’ve observed that customers want fine-grained control of processes, but there are a lot of inefficiencies, even at larger factories in the U.S.”

Manufacturers that already work with tight tolerances, such as in aerospace or electronics, already have well-defined processes, he noted. But companies with high SKU turnover volumes, such as with seasonal variations, often find it difficult to rely on a third party’s AI, added Smith.

“Mission Control is a centralized platform that provides a visual way to visualize processes and to start to interact with our robotics,” he explained. ‘We want operators to identify what to work on and what metrics to count for throughput and ROI [return on investment], but if there’s an error on the data side, it can be a pain to go back to the database.”

Smith shared the example of a bottlecap tracker. In typical machine learning, this requires a lot of data to be annotated before training models and then looking at the results.

With RIOS Mission Control, operators can monitor a process and select a counting zone. They can simply draw a box around a feature to be annotated, and the system will automatically detect and draw comparisons, he said.

“You place a system over the conveyor, pick an item, and you’re done,” said Smith. “It’s not just counting objects. For example, our wood products customers want to know where there are knots in boards to cut around. It could also be used in kitting applications.”

RIOS is releasing the feature in phases and is working on object manipulation. Smith said the company is also integrating the new feature with its tooling. In addition, RIOS is in discussions with customers, which can use its own or their existing cameras for Mission Control.

Investors express confidence in automation approach

Yamaha has been an investor in RIOS Intelligent Machines since 2020. The vehicle maker said it has more than doubled its investment in RIOS, demonstrating its confidence in the company’s automation technologies and business strategy.

IAG Capital Partners is a private investment group in Charleston, S.C. The firm invests in early-stage companies and partners with innovators to build manufacturing companies. Dennis Sacha, partner at IAG, will be joining the RIOS board of directors.

“RIOS’s full production vision — from automation to quality assurance to process improvement to digital twinning — and deep understanding of production needs positions them well in the world of manufacturing,” said Sacha, who led jet engine and P-3 production for six years during his career in the U.S. Navy.

In addition, RIOS announced nearly full participation from its existing investors, including Series A lead investor, Main Sequence, which doubled its pro-rata investment. RIOS will be participating in MODEX, GTC, and Automate.

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Ruland Manufacturing has chosen Flexxbotics FlexxCORE technology for its robotic machine tending needs. | Source: Flexxbotics

Flexxbotics, which delivers workcell digitalization for robot-driven manufacturing, today announced that Ruland Manufacturing Co. has selected it to deliver autonomous process control in its FANUC RoboDrill workcells. The companies said the project’s goal is to achieve “lights out” operations. 

The machine-tending system from Flexxbotics enables Ruland’s collaborative robots from Universal Robots to communicate directly with its FANUC RoboDrill machinery and Renishaw inspection probes. The cobots connect to these probes to inspect the part after machining so it can make changes to account for tool wear and other factors, said Flexxbotics.

With the FlexxCORE system, Ruland can achieve continuous operation and higher utilization, claimed the Boston-based company. Flexxbotics added that it provides the ability to dynamically change jobs in workcells, reducing the changeover time from over an hour to just one minute. 

“One of the challenges we’ve had with previous automation projects has been the complexity of the robot-to-machine interfacing, which Flexxbotics solves,” said Dustin Vinci, engineering manager at Ruland Manufacturing, in a release. “What’s great about the Flexxbotics solution is the complete coordination of our robots with our CNC machines and inspection equipment for direct feedback and autonomous adjustments, enabling 24/7 production.”

Why Ruland chose Flexxbotics

Founded in 1937, Ruland is a precision manufacturer of high-performance shaft collars, rigid couplings, and motion control couplings. These can be used for applications including medical devices, robotics, machine tools, semiconductors, food, and packaging. 

Ruland said it decided to use Flexxbotics technology for a number of reasons. First, it provides in-line inspection for precision quality, 100% part coverage, and closed-loop optimization for uninterrupted production.

The company also provides automatic configuration and program loading of robots, CNC machines, and inspection equipment for each job.  The FlexxCORE system includes a dynamic changeover process for over 100 SKUs with only three in-feed part presentation fixtures.

In addition, Flexxbotics said it provides smart workflows with contextualized step-by-step instructions. These instructions are based on the CNC machine and robot’s status at failure for error resolution. This way, technicians or operators know exactly what went wrong. 

Ruland was also interested in the company’s open connectivity and interoperability between robots, CNC controllers, different inspection equipment, and IT and business systems. Finally, Flexxbotics said it provides extensibility to numerous workcell configurations, inspection technologies, and machinery types including Haas and Brothers CNCs, along with various dispensing machine options. 

“With Flexxbotics, we have achieved our 80% utilization goal for our FANUC RoboDrill cells in less than 90 days,” Vinci said. “The optimization process that Flexxbotics provides has been invaluable

FlexxCORE the ‘backbone’ of the smart factory

Flexxbotics’ workcell digitalization technology delivers autonomous process control for machining environments utilizing robotics. The company’s flagship product, the FlexxCORE technology, connects and coordinates robots with existing automation equipment, IT systems, and people. 

“We understand the complexity involved in transitioning to next-generation machining operations and the necessity for advanced robotic machine tending,” stated Tyler Bouchard, founder and CEO of Flexxbotics. “What we’re doing at Flexxbotics is enabling the world’s most sophisticated smart factory environments to embrace robot-driven manufacturing at scale.”

The company recently teamed up with Vention to release a combined machine-tending offering. The partners claimed that customers can now benefit from the combination of Flexxbotics’ system with Vention‘s MAP offering.

Customers can now use Vention’s cloud-robotic tools and modular automation hardware to design custom workcells, while also taking advantage of Flexxbotics’ software-as-a-service/hybrid system.

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Olis Robotics error-recovery system will be available with all Kawasaki robot models starting in Q2. Source: Business Wire

Olis Robotics and Kawasaki Robotics Inc. said yesterday that they will jointly offer robots and controls to enable customers to restart production faster, reduce troubleshooting and downtime costs by up to 90%, and gain access to expert support more quickly.

“We’re seeing a growing demand for remote robot monitoring and recovery capabilities,” stated Paul Marcovecchio, director of the General Industries business unit at Kawasaki Robotics, in a release. “Adding Olis to our industrial robots is a game changer for the market.”

“Our new partnership supports the industry gamut, from smaller first-time end users and their integrator partners up to more complex AI-driven applications in larger plants,” he said. “All stakeholders can now easily and cost-effectively monitor, access and recover their robot cells remotely.”

Marcovecchio added that Olis Robotics has taken the time to understand the adaptation barriers. “As a result, they created a powerful tool that also addresses end-user concerns such as cybersecurity or the need to retrofit machines,” he said.

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Olis Robotics offers remote monitoring and control

Olis Robotics claimed that it is a leader in remote error recovery for industrial robots. The Seattle-based company said that by providing the best remote-control user experience, it can “catalyze automation adoption.”

Founded in 2013 as a spinout from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab, Olis said it has built on over a decade of telerobotics research and development conducted with the U.S. Navy and NASA. When robots fail, the company claimed that its flagship Olis system delivers the data needed for remote monitoring, control, and troubleshooting.

The company also said its users can connect directly to their robots through an on-premise device via a secure connection, avoiding the risks and complexities associated with cloud-based systems. To ensure physical safety, Olis is designed to always obey the robot controller’s safety restrictions.

Kawasaki and partners to demo palletizing at MODEX

Wixom, Mich.-based Kawasaki Robotics (USA) Inc. said it has incorporated more than 50 years of experience with industrial automation for a wide range of applications and markets. The company said it provides a set of standard features on all of its robot models.

At Booth C5475 at MODEX 2024 in Atlanta from March 11 to 14, Kawasaki and Olis Robotics plan to showcase their partnership with CRG Automation, a Louisville, Ky.-based integrator. They will demonstrate a “state-of-the-art” robotic corner board system, integrated with a mixed palletizing and depalletizing cell.

The cell will feature a Kawasaki RS007L robot placing corner boards on pallets being wrapped to ensure overall load stability. The system can handle multiple SKUs of unstructured products.

It will be equipped with Olis Robotics remote error-recovery software, so attendees can see how it alerts users when the robot unexpectedly stops or when it fails to pick or place a part. After such a system failure, the attendees can use Olis to run a tool-inspection routine and perform remote error recovery, allowing the robot to resume its cycle and get back to work.

Fredrik Ryden, CEO of Olis Robotics, noted that Kawasaki robots are built to last for decades, giving end users maximum control of a highly customizable product. “Kawasaki’s commitment to a world-class buying experience and quick ROI [return on investment] in a wide range of applications is a perfect match for Olis,” he said.

Ryden asserted that Kawasaki’s extensive integrator network is another key factor in the new partnership, as Olis provides integrators time-saving bandwidth through the remote support capabilities, enabling them to grow up to 25% faster.

“We’re incredibly excited to start working with Kawasaki integrators to deploy and retrofit Olis units with Kawasaki robot arms,” he added. “It’s a win-win for both the integrator and their customers.”

The Olis remote monitoring and error recovery system will be available for any Kawasaki robot model starting the second quarter of 2024.

Learn more about Kawasaki Robotics here, watch robot application videos here and connect on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

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AutonomyOS is designed to help automate manufacturing tasks. Source: Omnirobotic

Omnirobotic Inc. today said it has closed on $500,000 in funding. The Laval, Quebec-based company said it plans to use the financing to commercialize robots using its proprietary AutonomyOS platform for manufacturers struggling with labor shortages in high-mix production environments.

“Building autonomous machines allows Omnirobotic to address the need for skilled labor at scale,” said Francois Simard, co-founder and CEO of Omnirobotic, in a release. “This model has proven to be much more effective at deploying AutonomyOS at scale.”

“We sold in six months more machines than forecast for a year,” he added. “Manufacturers want to buy proven solutions, not automation projects. Developing standard machines that they can try before they buy proved to be the right approach to getting SMEs to adopt new automation technology.”

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Omnirobotic adds hardware, restructures

Since 2016, Simard and Omnirobotic co-founder Laurier Roy have worked to develop AutonomyOS, a platform to train robots to perform manufacturing processes on never-seen-before parts. Until 2022, the company licensed AutonomyOS to users building autonomous machines.

Last year, Omnirobotic changed its business model to become a machine builder, selling robotic equipment built on AutonomyOS. The company restructured to reflect this change in June.

Investissement Québec, as a representative of the government of Québec, supported Omnirobotic in this transition, restructuring the company’s debt, while existing strategic investors, the management, and all the remaining employees injected new liquidities.

In November, Omnirobotic signed a distribution agreement with Würth Baer Supply Co. to commercialize robots for woodworking. Simard noted that Omnirobotic plans to address additional markets with new products. 

“The new products developed by Omnirobotic using AutonomyOS are addressing well-identified skilled labor shortage in the industry,” he said. “We plan to widen our product line in the metal transformation and composite sectors in the near future.”

“Our autonomous sanding robots are already disrupting the cabinet manufacturing industry by allowing companies counting as few as six people to automate one of the hardest tasks in their shop successfully,” said Simard. “That is why we recently moved to a new 6,500 sq.-ft. [603.8-sq.-m] facility that will allow us to build up to 180 machines yearly.”

Génik invests to serve global customers

Strategic investors led Omnirobotic’s round, which also included participation from Genik and Exelpro management, as well as its own employees. It previously raised $5 million in 2020.

Génik is a vertically integrated company that has designed and manufactured automated systems for more than 30 years. The Saint-Jérôme, Québec-based member of the Excelpro Group said it serves customers around the world.

“Genik is serving some companies using autonomy,” stated Patrick Gariépy, co-founder and president of Genik Automation. “We see the future of automation in this kind of technology, which is why we decided to re-invest in Omnirobotic.”

“We are training some of our engineers on using AutonomyOS and are using it to maintain Genik as an automation leader,” he said.

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Flexxbotics’ system is now compatible with FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving equipment. | Source: Flexxbotics

Flexxbotics has announced that its robotic technology is now compatible with FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving products for machine tending. This includes communication with FOBA’s integrated camera system for vision-based inspections. 

With Flexxbotics’ robot-driven operation of FOBA equipment, customers can achieve continuous operation, greater throughput, and higher yields, asserted the company. In addition, the integration offers closed-loop feedback to the robot for autonomous process control, it said. 

“Combining FOBA with Flexxbotics is particularly valuable in industries with strict regulatory compliance requirements that dictate the highest levels of repeatable precision, such as medical devices and surgical products, along with aerospace, defense, and space,” said Tyler Bouchard, co-founder and CEO of Flexxbotics, in a release.

“Environments that require rapid and accurate processing like semiconductor and electronics operations also benefit substantially,” he said. “With Flexxbotics and FOBA together, customers can optimize cycle time, expand capacity, and increase profit per part.”

Compatibility promises more flexibility, faster deployments

FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving, a brand of ALLTEC Angewandte Laserlicht Technologie GmbH, provides laser marking systems and laser engraving machines. Its offerings include fiber laser markers and UV laser markers, ultrashort pulse laser markers, CO2 laser markers, and green laser markers for a range of applications and industries. 

Flexxbotics said its patent-pending FlexxCORE technology enables robots to securely connect and communicate with FOBA laser marking and engraving equipment. This compatibility includes the FOBA MarkUS control, its digital I/Os, PROFINET, Profibus/TCP/IP, and EtherCAT. 

FlexxCORE can coordinate robot actions with FOBA’s three-stage marking process. This includes part inspection before marking, automatic mark alignment, and subsequent validation of the marking, noted the Boston-based company. 

The system uses either the Intelligent Mark Positioning (IMP) or Point & Shoot (P&S) capabilities in the FOBA equipment for precise alignment of the laser marker on the customer’s product. It also allows for vision-assisted workflows if needed for accuracy, said Flexxbotics.

“Connecting robotic machine tending with our FOBA laser-marking solution using Flexxbotics provides an even greater return on investment,” stated Jeffrey A. Kniptash, FOBA’s sales manager for Americas. “Enabling Flexxbotics robot-driven manufacturing with our FOBA laser marking and engraving equipment to enable autonomous process control can remove bottlenecks and deliver continuous operation.”

Flexxbotics aims for robot-driven manufacturing at scale

Flexxbotics claimed that its “workcell digitization technology is the backbone of the smart factory,” and key to achieving robot-driven manufacturing at scale. It said its software-as-a-service (SaaS)/hybrid architecture runs both online and offline, so production can continue with or without Internet access.

FlexxCORE also works with existing automation equipment, IT systems, and people, said the company. Last week, Flexxbotics announced compatibility with Makino machine tools. It previously noted that FlexxCORE works with HURCO CNC machines and automation, as well as with Nakamura-Tome machine tools.

A full set of bidirectional communication, transform, and routing capabilities are available in FlexxCORE for connected robots and FOBA equipment. This includes loading programs, sending instructions, updating parameters, and status awareness depending on the equipment’s capabilities, said Flexxbotics. It said this allows the robots to command the smart factory machinery.

The company plans to demonstrate its technologies at ATX West from Feb. 6 to 8 in Anaheim, Calif.

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New CEO Gary Jackson (above) is working with Micropsi founder Ronny Vuine. Source: Micropsi

Last month, Micropsi Industries appointed Gary Jackson as CEO, allowing founder Ronny Vuine to focus on product innovation and serving customers. The company’s MIRAI vision system uses artificial intelligence to control industrial and collaborative robot arms in real time.

Jackson has more than 30 years of executive experience and was previously CEO of video analytics provider Drishti, which was recently acquired. He has led software companies such as Vantive, Ounce Labs, Shunra, and Zeekit, said Micropsi.

“I’ve been working in enterprise business-to-business software for my entire career,” Jackson told The Robot Report. “What I bring to the table is, No. 1, an understanding of how to organize and manage a software business. No. 2, I would say my DNA and my training is more on the sales and go-to-market side of things.”

“My most recent company was doing automated video analyses of human processes in manufacturing,” he recalled. “We would look at a cycle and the human interaction with tools and parts in the environment and break it down into its components parts. And then we’d identify where there were anomalies in the process, the parts, or the tools used and send alerts to management in real time.”

Jackson looks to apply more AI to manufacturing

With his experience with machine learning and quality assurance, Jackson said he understands the roles that robots and AI can play in production.

“I’ve been studying manufacturing floors and production lines for years, and I have certainly observed situations where the robots’ part in the in the overall process was defined in a particular way that interacted with the humans,” he said. “Drishti was installed at Deloitte’s smart factory in Wichita, Kan. It’s a spectacular facility that’s not just a test site or a STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] kit for students; it’s a full factory line, with something like 11 workstations with robotic and manual assembly.”

Micropsi has offices in Berlin and San Francisco. The company said MIRAI enables robots to learn from humans and respond directly to sensor information so they can deal with variances and cost-effectively operate in dynamic environments.

“During my time at Drishti, there were many, many use cases with robotics that our customers asked us to help with where analyzing video wasn’t sufficient to solve a problem,” said Jackson. “For instance, one had a robotic arm using a gas sensor that had difficulty determining if there were leaks in the line behind a refrigerator or some other unit. The reason was that these tubes could be very different in location from one unit to the next.”

“It was the area of the largest variance, and I saw that Micropsi had solved that problem for one of its customers,” he noted. “Micropsi was able to deal with the variability … and I had never seen a production environment where a robot could actually follow the curve of whatever anomaly was going on in that assembly process.”

Delving more deeply into data to demonstrate value

Micropsi also plans to share more of the data captured by cameras, said Jackson. It is exploring how to feed that data to command-and-control systems and the dashboards that factory personnel look at daily for key performance indicators (KPIs).

“I know that the data is massively valuable,” he said. “Now, we’re empowered to assemble and display it for integration with other systems. That’s all to be determined.”

Micropsi said that it already works with leading automotive and electronics manufacturers and that it expects to continue growing in the U.S. Jackson asserted that delivering value to customers is more important than making a quick sale.

“I’m not just interested in revenue,” he said. “In fact, my first message to my sales team was, ‘I don’t want a single dollar from any one of your customers unless I’m satisfied that we can actually solve the problem.’ And I will have a 95% customer success rate because that’s just the way I operate.”

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Micropsi looks to new use cases, market growth

“Now, as I look forward with Micropsi, we can extend what has been done already into use cases that we haven’t even touched yet, just by expanding the capability of the AI,” Jackson said. “So for instance, we are going to look heavily at things like anomaly detection and picking and not just assembly. So these are these are things that we can do since we have the robotic arm and the camera in place.”

“There are things that we can do with the AI that we haven’t even explored yet,” he added. “We’re at just the tip of the iceberg.”

Jackson also said he expects the economic constraints of the past year to loosen up in 2024 and 2025 in response to ongoing supply chain and labor challenges. Despite all of the recent hype around generative AI, Micropsi needs to do more to promote its unique use of vision AI for manufacturing, he said.

“The list of companies trying to do what Micropsi has done is very small,” said Jackson. “My goal is to have wins within my first 90 days that we can show and measure the difference AI is going to make. From that win, we’ll plan the next one and the next. It’s really the only way to not only remain sticky with the customer, but also to help advance the industry.”

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Mujin TruckBot uses MujinController technology to unload trailers, as seen here at Automate 2023. Source: Mujin

Mujin Inc. today announced that it has finalized its Series C extension round with an additional $18 million, bringing its total Series C funding to $104 million. The Tokyo, Japan-based company said it plans to use the funding to advance the accessibility of its MujinController platform for robotics integrators and end users.

“It has been quite a roller coaster ride,” Ross Diankov, CEO of Mujin US, told The Robot Report. “From the beginning, our [trade show] booths attracted attention. It wasn’t just sensors, vision, or motion planning; we’re trying to bridge the gap of these disparate technologies for a coherent system, which culminated in our MujinController, the first intelligent robot controller on the market.”

Founded in 2011, Mujin said in a release that it “works with many of the world’s largest companies to make material handling applications easier to deploy, more accurate, and less costly.” The company has designed its controllers as a common platform for industrial and collaborative robots for pick-and-place and other logistics applications.

“When you look at robotics as a whole, no single company stands out because of its interdisciplinary nature,” Diankov said. “It requires a lot of effort to unify technologies, which is exactly the challenge we tackled.”

MujinController starts with digital twins

The MujinController uses “machine intelligence” and “real-time digital twins” to enable robots to operate autonomously and reliably in production, said Mujin. The company claimed that its approach can help developers improve automation precision and safety for existing and new applications.

“It’s a real paradigm shift — we do not teach by demonstration,” Diankov said. “We infuse the robot with a digital twin to understand its surroundings, and only then do we do motion planning. Previously, one had to program deterministic waypoints for robots.”

What does “real-time” mean?

“Every millisecond, in regular and predictable intervals, MujinController gathers data from all pipelines,” replied Diankov. “Once we have the state of the environment, the robot can simulate into the future and plan many moves ahead to find the optimal path.”

But what if the robot’s state itself changes?

“If some exception happens, or even if the power goes off, then the robot has to recover itself for safety,” said Diankov. “It’s a pretty big thing that many in automation struggle with. Things will always happen on the line. How to recover easily — that’s where non-volatility comes in, like RAM on a computer. NVRAM survives shutdowns.”

Machine intelligence a step to full autonomy, says Mujin

“Machine intelligence is the combination of the digital twin, real-time control, motion planning, and perception,” Diankov continued. “These four components allow a machine to reason about its surroundings in a predictable way and to complete tasks in an optimal way.”

“Then, robots can do extremely advanced tasks that were previously impossible to program,” he said. “This is the concept that glues together intelligent controls and robotics. It’s also the technology needed to get to true autonomy — many autonomous vehicle companies are actually building these digital twins internally themselves.”

Diankov asserted that machine intelligence can help accelerate robotics development and commercialization.

“Robotics users can’t trust demonstrations. The only way is to prove robots in the real world, which is what Mujin does,” he said. “We help shorten the time from concept to working in the field, which determines how fast robotics grows.”

“We’re observing right now that, even with an inexperienced team or a new integrator, the time to create a new behavior or deploy a new system is decreasing exponentially,” Diankov said. 

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TruckBot and QuickBot tackle common logistics pain points

“It’s really about listening to the pain points of our customers every single day,” said Diankov. “The technology is still maturing, but even if customers run into an unexpected problem, they can be confident that Mujin is there to solve it with them.”

“We can build systems extremely fast, like the TruckBot for trailer and container unloading,” he added. “Under the hood, it’s all MujinController. It’s different hardware than other robots but the same concepts internally.”

In addition to the MujinController and TruckBot, Mujin offers QuickBot for depalletizing.

“All applications are in demand right now, but there are not many automated systems that can do mixed-SKU palletizing or truck unloading, which are especially important in logistics, to singulate freight to sorter systems,” said Diankov. “When we choose applications to use with our controllers, we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Mujin expands strategically

Mujin said its Series C funding brings its cumulative fundraising to $178 million. Japan Post Capital Co. and another strategic partner provided the capital boost for the extension round. Mujin and Japan Post said they plan to innovate to improve efficiency for Japan Post’s facilities.

How did the company manage to get funding in a time of restrained venture capital?

“Mujin is in a unique position — we started in Japan and learned what it takes to build reliable robotics,” Diankov recalled. “We then expanded our manufacturing arm to China. We work with talented people who understand manufacturing and have incredible hardware.”

The global market for robot controllers could experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8%, from $6.3 billion in 2023 to $12.5 billion by 2028, according to Markets and Markets. It cited increasing collaboration between robot makers and software providers, as well as demand for industrial automation in the logistics, automotive, and electronics markets, among others.

The company last week opened an office in Eindhoven, Netherlands. In the U.S., Mujin has been growing its team in Atlanta after opening an office in the area in 2021.

It considered Boston for its research-and-development talent and Pittsburgh for its proximity to automotive manufacturing, but it chose Atlanta because of its logistics end users such as UPS and materials handling integrators, including Vanderlande, FORTNA (including the former MHS), and Geek+.

“We want to be close to customers,” said Diankov. “Deployment is the best metric of success for investors. When you ask about ease of use and deployments, many robotics providers say they’re still working on it.”

“Our first task is to deploy systems and build trust,” he noted. “After we’ve achieved that, we’ll figure out how to deliver the platform and put it into people’s hands to create their own applications. A lot of the Series C money is going into creating SDKs [software development kits] and user interfaces so we can start selling MujinController to the masses.”

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A mobile robot and a mobile manipulator operator side by side in a warehouse. | Credit: Adobe Stock

One emerging protocol for real-time, deterministic communication in robotics is time-sensitive networking, or TSN. The key advantage of TSN is that it uses standard Ethernet networking cables, hubs, and switches.

When architecting a control system, roboticists and control engineers no longer need to manufacture custom cabling for communication between a robot controller and the drives. Networked architecture enables a more modular design for a robotic system.

Networked control architecture goes back decades

Adept Technology was one of the early industrial robot companies to market and sell a modular and networked controller and motion control architecture. Adept used FireWire (IEEE 1394) as the communications method for its multi-axis linear motion controllers. It replaced traditional control architecture with networked controller, motion control, and vision processing modules communicated over FireWire.

I was the product manager for the Adept Technology controller product line and an IEEE committee member for the standardization of the FireWire IEEE 1394 protocol as a bus for real-time control communication at the heart of the Adept SmartAxis product line.

So much has happened since 2002. Processor speed and capability increased, while its physical dimensions decreased. Power consumption has been optimized for power-constrained (battery-operated) applications.

The explosive growth of the Internet and demand for higher and higher bandwidth communication created a foundation for the improvement of every type of application that depends on networked interaction. The concept of the “cloud” and “edge” based processing opened the floodgates for entirely new business models across the entire business and IT ecosystem.

In the world of robotics, the Robot Operating System (ROS) evolved to become an open-source platform widely adopted by university labs, robotic startups, and mature robotics companies.

ROS is now in its second generation, and ROS 2 was redesigned from the ground up to meet the needs of production systems, providing the necessary core software and control components to accelerate robotics development.  

Acceleration Robotics releases high-speed isochronous networking 

Acceleration Robotics has now extended the concept of real-time isochronous network communication development pioneered by companies like Adept Technology, with the release of ROBOTCORE ROS 2 and ROBOTCORE RTPS. This marks a significant milestone in the field of robotics networking by implementing hardware (prototyped with an FPGA) technology that allows robots to exchange information in less than 2.5 microseconds.

These products are intended to revolutionize robotics and ROS 2 networking communications by delivering speeds that are 62x to thousands of times faster than current standards.

”We present a review and classification of the various communication standards relevant to the field, as well as an introduction to the typical problems with traditional switched Ethernet networks,” said Víctor Mayoral Vilches, founder, chairman, and CTO of Acceleration Robotics.

“We discuss some of the TSN features that are important for deterministic communications and test one of the shaping mechanisms, the time-aware shaper, in an example robotic scenario,” he added. “Our research suggests that TSN will eventually replace many real-time industrial solutions. The outcome should create a unified landscape of physically inter-operable robots and components.”

Regarding the current state of the market, Vilches went on to say, “Right now, we’ve completed projects and collaborations with AMD, Intel, and Microchip. Our work with them continues, but we’re expanding in 2024 further and into case studies. Essentially, we will be focusing more on bringing these technologies into real industrial use cases and have real impact.”

“We’re closing deals with end-users mostly in Spain, the Basque Country, and focused on big industrial robot automation setups wherein robots need to move faster and thereby compute/communicate faster,” he said.

Vilches was involved in the TSN technical effort and pioneered much of the initial work in robotics, including a paper from 2018 that is still widely cited by silicon vendors today. According to Vilches, the team used a lot of the initial work and concepts from the Firewire working group to get inspired for this expansion.

Round-trip average network latency breakdown. ROBOTCORE ROS 2 enhances the networking architecture of robotic systems and tackles a common criticism ROS 2: its latency overhead over the DDS communication middleware. It does so by building a hardware implementation of the core ROS 2 abstraction layers (RCL, RMW) and by establishing direct hardware data paths with the underlying DDS middleware. This remove the latency overhead of ROS 2 over DDS for speed and absolute determinism. | Credit: Acceleration Robotics

When asked how much the speed improvement in baseline networking has enabled the extension of TSN to Ethernet, Vilches said: “First, networking links (data link layers) nowadays are rather impressive and empower data exchange within very few nanoseconds. We’re getting very impressive results with some of the modern FPGA solutions we are using now. This is especially true for 10G, 100G, and above Ethernet links, but also applies to wireless alternatives as well as deterministic endeavors (such as TSN with 10G NICs, etc.).”

“Second, [we did a] complete rewrite of the networking layers into hardware,” he explained. “It took about five years to study properly the bottlenecks in the robotics stack in alignment with popular approaches (e.g. ROS) and propose a solution.”

Vilches wrote a bit about this context in a recent blog post. An Acceleration Robotics team identified the bottlenecks and discussed the need for a complete redesign of the underlying networking layers, known as the ROS 2 underlayers, to achieve low-latency isochronous communications. This involved ensuring that every layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) stack could provide such capabilities.

ROBOTCORE ROS 2 delivers absolute determinism via hardware when combined with ROBOTCORE RTPS and ROBOTCORE UDP/IP. Compared to software-based solutions, it ensures that the communication latency is lower and that it remains the same, regardless of the load of the system. This crucial for real-time robotics and solving major communication bottlenecks. | Credit: Acceleration Robotics

One of the mistakes the team observed in past approaches is that the de facto strategy in the industry to meet timing deadlines is a laborious, empirical, and case-by-case tuning of the system. They concluded that this “CPU whack-a-mole” approach in robotics is unsustainable for real-time systems and this makes it hard to scale.

The team completely rewrote the robot networking stack, including ROS 2, and implemented it in hardware. The resulting design was prototyped and implemented into FPGAs. 

Vilches and a group of academics and industry leaders set out to create a methodology to measure robotics and control system performance. Acceleration Robotics published the RobotPerf documentation earlier this year.

ROBOTCORE ROS 2 hardware implements the ROS 2 robotics framework for unprecedented network interface speed and efficiency. This robot core (IP core) uses FPGA technology to boost ROS 2 communication speed. This speeds data processing, reduces latency, and improves robotics system synchronization. ROBOTCORE ROS 2 powers the future of accelerated robotics networking by sending or receiving packages in less than 2.5 microseconds, 62x faster than CPU-based software.

ROBOTCORE offers versatility for applications

The ROBOTCORE ROS 2 is versatile and widely compatible, making it a viable solution for scenarios where speed and reliability are non-negotiable. These applications include:

• Industrial automation: Streamlines communication in manufacturing and assembly lines for enhanced operational efficiency.
• Remote operation: Offers smooth and responsive control in teleoperation systems, crucial for precision tasks.
• Autonomous vehicles: Ensures rapid data exchange essential for the real-time decision-making of autonomous driving systems.
• Research and development: Provides a reliable platform for developing and testing next-generation robotic technologies.

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A look at ABB’s Skill Creator inside its Wizard Easy Programming software. | Source: ABB

ABB Robotics has expanded its free Wizard Easy Programming software to include its six-axis industrial robots that use an OmniCore controller, which already works with its collaborative robots. The Zurich, Switzerland-based company claimed that its system lowers barriers to automation for new users and offers ecosystem partners and integrators a tool to support their customers. 

Wizard Easy Programming intended to speed setup

Released in 2020, ABB’s Wizard Easy Programming uses a graphical, no-code, drag-and-drop programming approach. The company said it designed the software to help both first-time and expert robot users to develop applications in just minutes.

Without Wizard Easy Programming, this task can take a week of training and another week of development, noted ABB. 

Since its release, Wizard Easy Programming has been adopted in various applications using ABB’s cobot portfolio, which includes the Yumi, SWIFTI, and GoFa product families. 

Wizard Easy Programming provides operational flexibility in addition to helping operators with no prior training to develop cobot applications, said ABB. The company asserted that the software allows users to modify existing programs and pre-programmed blocks through an intuitive graphical interface. Users can modify behaviors ranging from robot movements to signal instructions and force control. 

“Addressing industry challenges and opportunities is essential to sustain and accelerate the worldwide adoption of robotics automation,” Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics, said in a release. “By extending Wizard Easy Programming to our six-axis industrial robots, ABB Robotics is responding to the scarcity of skilled labor and rising manufacturer demand for simple and easy-to-use robot programming software for their robot fleets.”

Skill Creator helps users and developers, says ABB

With Wizard Easy Programming, ABB aims to cater to both novice and experienced users. The program comes with Skill Creator, a tool to help system integrators and other expert users efficiently create customized, application-specific Wizard blocks for use with their customers. 

The company claimed that Skill Creator can simplify the creation of highly specific tasks such as machine tending and welding. It is also suitable for complex applications like medical inspections, it said. 

ABB added that ecosystem partners developing accessories such as grippers, feeders, and cameras will gain access to a digital tool to share product-specific functionalities. With Wizard Easy Programming’s extended scope, partners will have this access regardless of the type of robot their technology will be deployed on, the company said. 

Wizard Easy Programming software will come preinstalled on all ABB cobots and new six-axis industrial robots using its OmniCore robot controller family. OmniCore delivers an average of 20% energy savings, offers built-in digital connectivity, and more than 1,000 scalable functions, according to ABB. 

Earlier this month, SUS Corp., a Japanese supplier of aluminum frames and die-cast aluminum components for the automotive industry, deployed a series of ABB’s YuMi dual-armed cobots. SUS said ABB’s robots are helping it to reshore its production and address challenges presented by workforce shortages. 

In September, ABB  announced that it will invest $280 million in a new robotics campus in Västerås, Sweden, that will serve as the hub for ABB Robotics’ offerings in Europe. The company said it plans to start construction on the new campus in the first quarter of 2024 and to complete it by the end of 2026.

ABB said the new facility will increase its manufacturing capacity for collaborative and industrial robot arms by 50% and enable it to better serve the European market. 

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KEBA demonstrates PCB testing at SPS 2023. Source: Intrinsic

Intrinsic Innovation LLC is building a software platform that it said will make robotics more accessible to developers. This week, the company is demonstrating how its real-time control framework can be integrated with KEBA Group AG’s robot controllers at the Smart Production Solutions, or SPS, trade fair.

“A core design principle for our team at Intrinsic is hardware interoperability,” said Intrinsic in a blog post. “As we build a platform to make robotics more accessible to solutions builders around the world, we rely whenever possible on open interfaces, industry standards, and existing ecosystems.”

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said the framework is the basis for its Flowstate tool for robotics and artificial intelligence developers. The Web-based tool abstracts functions such as path planning and manipulation into skills to facilitate robot programming. Intrinsic is working with beta testers including industry partner Comau.

Learn from Agility Robotics, Amazon, Disney, Teradyne and many more.

KEBA demonstrates motion control at SPS

By integrating robot controllers and software, KEBA is showing the potential of robotics interoperability at SPS in Nuremburg, Germany, said Intrinsic. “This is the first time we’re showing that our systems can work together to pave the way for seamless use of dozens more robot brands in the KEBA ecosystem,” it said.

KEBA has provided industrial automation, digital interfaces, and energy systems since 1968. The Linz, Austria-based company and Intrinsic are showing how Flowstate and KEBA’s controllers can support six degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot arms from a range of manufacturers.

The partners are demonstrating printed circuit board (PCB) testing, a common task in electronics production. Intrinsic claimed that its real-time control framework “allows for instantaneous reactions to incoming sensor signals, which enables sensor-based motion control and compliant motions on industrial robots.”

It added that the platform allows users to add hardware modules and capabilities that they might need for their applications. “Our vision is for partners to easily extend our framework, through new hardware integrations, such as this one with KEBA’s controller streaming interface, and unique capabilities for motion control,” said Intrinsic.

In the PCB application, a robot scans and grips circuit boards and inserts the delicate objects into a circuit board tester. Depending on the test results, the robot then sorts the PCBs into corresponding boxes. 

“With the integration of two powerful ecosystems, we bring together the best technologies of KEBA and Intrinsic to create real added value for robotics applications,” said Christian Augdopler, vice president of robotics at KEBA Industrial Automation GmbH. “Using Flowstate in combination with the KEBA robotics solution, we can help enable flexible automation solutions that use sensor-guided motion and process adaptation, rather than being hard-coded. We are convinced this will unlock a lot of efficiencies across industries.”

“As our teams continue to work together, we will be exploring how to bring this technical integration into the mainstream, in easy-to-access ways for the industry,” wrote Intrinsic. “We’re excited about the significance of this collaborative milestone as we pave the way for even more seamless interoperability in automation, across hardware and software ecosystems.”

KEBA demonstrates integrated robot control at SPS. Source: Intrinsic

Intrinsic Flowstate lets robots react in real time

Intrinsic explained that Flowstate provided AI perception capabilities, enabling the robot at SPS to detect the position and orientation of the circuit board and plan the appropriate point at which to grasp it. Flowstate’s motion-planning skills allow for process adaptation, adjusting the trajectory of the robot based on the current position of the circuit board, it said.

In addition, the manipulation skills use data from force-torque sensors to adjust motions and “detect” a successful insertion of the circuit board into the test adapter, said Intrinsic.

“We’re demonstrating for the first time that our technologies easily work together,” said Ravi Kolluri, head of engineering at Intrinsic. “What we’re really excited about is interoperability and the potential this can unlock for the broader ecosystem, including supporting more and more robot manufacturers in new ways.”

In 2021, Intrinsic spun off from Google Inc. parent Alphabet Inc. In 2022, Intrinsic acquired Open Source Robotics Corp., the for-profit division of the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which has developed the Robot Operating System (ROS).

In May, the company introduced Flowstate, and Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic, was a keynote speaker at the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston. In June, Intrinsic announced a collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries “to democratize access to robotics.”

The beta for Flowstate is open to new applicants.

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AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced AMD Kria K24 System-on-Module (SOM) and KD240 Drives Starter Kit, the latest additions to the Kria portfolio of adaptive SOMs and developer kits. AMD Kria K24 SOM offers power-efficient compute in a small form factor and targets cost-sensitive industrial and commercial edge applications. Advanced InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging makes the K24 half the size of a credit card while using half the power¹ of the larger, connector-compatible Kria K26 SOM.

The AMD Kria K260 was a 2023 RBR50 innovation award winner for the integration of a complete robotics control foundation solution.

The K24 SOM provides high determinism and low latency for powering electric drives and motor controllers used in compute-intensive digital signal processing (DSP) applications at the edge. Key applications include electric motor systems, robotics for factory automation, power generation, public transportation such as elevators and trains, surgical robotics and medical equipment like MRI beds, and EV charging stations.

Coupled with the KD240 Drives Starter Kit, an out-of-the-box-ready motor control-based development platform, the products offer a seamless path to production deployment with the K24 SOM. Users can quickly be up and running, speeding time to market for motor control and DSP applications without requiring FPGA programming expertise.

The AMD Kria K24 SOM is a great base solution for OEMs to embed within larger solutions. | Credit: AMD

“The AMD Kria K24 SOM and KD240 development platform build on the breakthrough design experience introduced by the Kria SOM portfolio, offering solutions for robotics, control, vision AI and DSP applications,” said Hanneke Krekels, corporate vice president, Core Vertical Markets, AMD. “System architects must meet growing demands for performance and power efficiency while keeping expenses down. The K24 SOM delivers high performance-per-watt in a small form factor and houses the core components of an embedded processing system on a single production-ready board for a fast time to market.”

Many factories have hundreds of motors powering robotics that drive assembly lines and other equipment. It is estimated that around 70% of the total global electrical use by the industrial sector is tied to electric motors and motor-driven systems_². As such, even a 1% improvement in the efficiency of a drive system can have a significant positive impact on operational expenses and the environment.

“The AMD Kria SOM portfolio has helped make robust hardware for robotics and industrial edge applications available to the masses and we’re excited to see the portfolio extended with the new K24 SOM and KD240 Starter Kit,” said Greg Needel, CEO of Rev Robotics. “With Kria SOMs we’re able to simplify development of even advanced control loop algorithms, adapt to changing software and hardware requirements, and build really cool things for both commercial and STEM educational customers.”

Simplified DSP Development and Accelerated Design Cycles

The K24 SOM features a custom-built Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC device and the supporting KD240 starter kit is a sub-$400 FPGA-based motor control kit. Enabling developers to begin at a more evolved point in the design cycle, the KD240 provides easy access for entry-level developers compared to other processor-based control kits.

The K24 SOM comes qualified for use in industrial environments with support for more design flows than any generation before it. That includes familiar design tools like Matlab Simulink and languages like Python with its extensive ecosystem support for the PYNQ framework. Ubuntu and Docker are also supported. Software developers can also use the AMD Vitis motor control libraries while maintaining support for traditional development flows.

With the launch of Kria K26 SOM, AMD introduced the first App Store for edge applications. By introducing the KD240 Starter Kit, AMD is now the first to offer pre-built motor control apps, allowing users to create power-efficient industrial solutions that are reliable, available, and with advanced security features.

The KD240 is supported by an optional Motor Accessory Pack (MACCP), with additional motor kits available in the future that can be purchased separately for an enhanced ramp-up experience for developers.

Access to a Family of Scalable SOMs

Kria SOMs allow developers to skip the substantial design efforts around the selected silicon device and instead focus on providing differentiated, value-added features. 

Connector compatibility enables easy migration between the K24 and K26 SOM without changing boards, allowing system architects to balance power, performance, size and cost for energy-efficient systems.

K24 SOMs are offered in both commercial and industrial versions and are built for 10-year industrial lifecycles. In addition to support for expanded temperature ranges, the industrial-grade SOM includes ECC-protected LPDDR4 memory for high-reliability systems.

The K24 SOM (commercial and industrial versions) and KD240 Drives Starter Kit are available to order now via direct order and worldwide channel distributors. The K24 commercial version is shipping today, and the industrial version is expected to ship in Q4.  

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Kria, Vitis and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

¹ Based on AMD internal analysis in August 2023, comparing the dimensions of the Kria K24 SOM versus the Kria K26 SOM. Power consumption was measured By AMD Labs in August 2023, using the xmutil platform utility tool running on a FOC sensor-based bistream on the K24 SOM and a Smart Camera bitstream on the K26 SOM. Results may vary.  (SOM-002).

² Source: Energy Efficiency 2022, International Energy Agency, December 2022

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Japan-based Mujin raised $85 million in Series C funding. The company hopes to use the fresh capital to enhance the accessibility of its MujinController to integrators and end users. 

SBI Investment Co. Ltd, from Japan, led the funding round. The round also included participation from Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, 7 Industries from the Netherlands, corporate investor Accenture, and renowned angel investor Dr. James Kuffner. 

“This Series C funding is a significant milestone for Mujin, a company that has pioneered intelligent automation technology since 2011,” James Kuffner, CEO of Woven by Toyota, said. “Mujin can accelerate and expand its delivery of truly state-of-the-art advanced industrial robotic solutions to customers globally, strengthening its position as the technology market leader.” 

The MujinController is at the heart of Mujin’s product line. The universal controller can transform industrial robots from any manufacturer into intelligent machines that can automate a variety of applications across manufacturing and logistics. 

“The MujinController introduces a unique approach to creating robotics applications, leveraging a real-time non-volatile digital twin and offering a suite of perception, planning, and control algorithms to digitize the real world and autonomously move robots and other industrial equipment through it,” Ross Diankov, Mujin’s co-founder, said. “We are excited to continue our journey toward perfecting the MujinController and getting it into everyone’s hands.”

With the MujinController platform, users can develop and deploy advanced automation systems faster and at a lower cost than traditional methods. It also provides more accurate, safe, and reliable performance. 

Currently, the controller works for palletizing and depalletizing for both single and mixed SKU orders, precise picking to streamline e-commerce order fulfillment, metal bin picking for parts in the automotive segment, unlocked truck trailer and container unloading, and the deployment of robot cells. 

Mujin made its North American debut in 2021 when it opened its first office in North America. The office is located in Sandy Springs, Georgia, north of Atlanta. It will house the company’s expanding engineering, sales and support staff, including Mujin co-founder and Mujin Corp. CEO Ross Diankov.

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Advantech’s rugged hardware is now integrated with MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform, making it easier to develop and deploy Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for businesses. | Credit: Advantech

Advantech announces a new partnership with MOV.AI. The goal of this collaboration is to streamline the creation of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) by providing robot manufacturers and integrators access to both cutting-edge industrial computing technology and a powerful software platform for building, deploying, and running intelligent robots.

Advantech’s rugged hardware can be integrated with MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform, making it easier to develop and deploy AMRs for businesses. This collaboration provides a solution to address the growing need for faster time-to-value, flexibility, improved efficiency, and higher productivity in manufacturing and logistics.

“Advantech is excited to cooperate with MOV.AI and we look forward to providing an advanced state-of-the-art AGV/AMR solution in the robotics segment worldwide,” David Jen, Associate Vice President of Advantech’s Industrial IoT Group, commented. “The key aspect of our collaboration is to ensure the interoperability of AMR ecosystem offerings and provide more comprehensive solutions to our customers.”

The MOV.AI ROS-based Robotics Engine Platform provides AMR manufacturers and automation integrators with the necessary enterprise-grade software and tools for advanced automation, including navigation, localization, and calibration. The platform features a visual Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on ROS, as well as off-the-shelf algorithms and integrations. Additionally, the platform offers interoperable fleet management, flexible interfaces with warehouse environments such as ERP and WMS, and cyber-security compliance.

Advantech offers edge computers that are optimized for computing performance, functionality, and ease of deployment. These computers are powered by the latest Intel processors and offer strong I/O flexibility to deliver optimal efficiency in multiple vertical markets, including automation, manufacturing, logistics, retail, and transportation. One such product is the UNO-238 V2, a compact IoT edge computer featuring a 12th Gen Intel Core i Processor and DDR5 SODIMM for high-speed multitask computing and data transfer. This device inherits the compact form factor and optimized I/O design of its predecessor, making it ideal for most factory scenarios. The UNO-238 V2 features a fanless and ruggedized design, making it suitable for challenging industrial environments.

It can withstand a wide operating temperature range of -20 to 60 °C (-4 ~ 140 °F), ensuring durability. With compatibility for terminal blocks, the UNO-238 V2 offers excellent flexibility for electrical wiring. Additionally, it incorporates CANBus and supports M.2 B/M/E-Key for storage and wireless communication. This enables seamless and zero-latency data exchange as well as a stable connection between edge devices and the cloud. The UNO-238 provides a robust and reliable solution for the AGV/AMR industry.

Another product, Advantech’s MIC-770 V3, is a compact fanless system powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core i socket-type (LGA1700) processor with the Intel R680E chipset. It provides high-performance computing, multiple I/O interfaces, and flexible expandability with the integration of i-Modules and iDoor technology. As an example, the MIC-770 V3 equipped with the MIC-75GF10 expansion module is compatible with the SKY-MXM-A2000 MXM GPU card. This provides machine vision and autonomous navigation capabilities for various machine automation applications, including wafer box handling, material handling, robotic arm operations, and more.

MIC-770 V3 also supports WISE-Edge365, which enables remote management for status monitoring and anomaly detection. With these features, the MIC-770 V3 can be deployed for various Edge AIoT applications as a data gateway or industrial controller.

“The growing demand for automation creates a need for secure interoperable systems that can be easily deployed and easily adapted to changing business needs,” said Motti Kushnir, CEO of MOV.AI. “We are excited about the collaboration with Advantech, as it provides our customers with comprehensive solutions that fit into a wider automation environment, providing continuing high value.”

Advantech and MOV.AI are speeding up the time it takes for service providers and manufacturers to deploy the most effective AMR solutions for a wide variety of applications. Advantech will contribute its competencies in hardware design and manufacturing, while MOV.AI will contribute its expertise in ROS-based software. This collaboration will expedite the AMR time-to-value, resulting in quicker and more efficient deployment.

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FORT Robotics, a company that builds products to help robot builders and users to increase productivity and accelerate innovation, has announced the launch of its Endpoint Controller. 

The Endpoint Controller is a versatile system that allows for safer, more secure control of robots and machines. It can bring safe, secure and dynamic wireless control to any machine by sending and receiving trusted safety commands over a variety of wireless networks. 

The Endpoint Controller gives users the ability to: 

• Send safety commands to up to 20 Endpoint Controller-equipped machines simultaneously, onsite or from a remote location. 
• Access industry-leading security protocols and tamper-proof hardware which help to mitigate cyber risks. 
• Minimize disruptions with easy integration, IP communication, cloud-based management tools, and API access. 
• Send and receive two different safety commands, like e-stop, crawl, rest, first response, and more, simultaneously. 

The controller can be mounted to a machine or machine attachment for remote control, and it can also be integrated with input devices to send up to two commands at once. 

Last year, FORT brought in $25 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global, bringing the company’s total funding to $41.5 million. Since then, it’s rolled out its FORT Platform, a machine communications platform. 

The FORT Platform is aimed at making autonomous machines safer and more secure. It allows for highly reliable communication to, from and between machines by fusing functional safety and cybersecurity principles. All messages sent with the platform are speedy, accurate and secure. 

The FORT Platform is the foundation for FORT’s hardware solutions, which are used by customers like Agility Robotics, Hexagon and Moog. FORT’s hardware solutions include a wireless e-stop that instantly stops machines from a distance, safe remote controls that take manual control of autonomous machines and a vehicle safety controller that can act as an input, output or bridge. 

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