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A better way to develop spatial intelligence
Developing SLAM systems is resource intensive, technically challenging, and expensive. In addition, the lack of common and shareable approaches for understanding the operational environment shared by robotics systems and humans has resulted in a multitude of system specific, spatial intelligence silos. Owen Nicholson • co-founder & CEO, SLAMcore
Today, the range of opportunities for robots and other autonomous machines is enormous. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen robots deployed for applications as diverse as UV cleaning of hospitals to last-mile delivery, for logistics and warehouse work, as well as for inspection services for offshore wind farms. Robots are demonstrating increasingly sophisticated autonomous skills – especially in the crucial area of simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM), the process of building and updating a map of an operational environment, while simultaneously maintaining the location of a system within it. Where am I? To operate effectively and safely in dynamic environments among people and other devices, robots must be able to calculate exactly where they are at all times. Using SLAM technologies and techniques, robots must be able to accurately, reliably and consistently answer the question ‘Where am I?’, without recourse to external systems like GPS or beacons and other way-point systems.
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November 2021
Spatial Intelligence 2021_11_Vs2_SC.indd 36
www.therobotreport.com
Bespoke Solutions Many robotics firms are already creating robots that can determine their position with high levels of accuracy. But each ‘sees’ the world around it in its own way, and in a manner completely incomprehensible to other machines or humans. Hardware and so ware setups are tailored for specific use cases and operational environments, and the systems will fail if the systems are used in any way other than what they were precisely engineered for. To illustrate, consider an automated cleaning robot and a hospitality robot working in the same shopping mall. The two robots perceive their operational environment around them completely differently. Each operates in a narrowly defined spatial silo engineered for THE ROBOT REPORT
11/3/21 2:05 PM
