Inside: 62/ 2019: the Year of the Legged Robots
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A Supplement to Design World - June 2018
Evolution of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot. page 68
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The Robot Report
Agility Robotics Cassie bipedal robot.
2019:
(Credit: Agility Robotics)
the Year of Legged Robots
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Steve Crowe • Editor, The Robot Report
2019 will be the year of commercial class legged robots. That was the message delivered by Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics during their respective opening and closing keynotes at the inaugural Robotics Summit & Showcase, produced by The Robot Report and WTWH Media May 23-24 in Boston.
Agility Robotics CEO and co-founder Damion Shelton updated attendees on its Cassie bipedal robot. Boston Dynamics co-founder and CEO Marc Raibert quickly discussed the wheel-leg hybrid robot Handle, which he said we’ll hear more about in 2019 with a real application, while focusing more on the Atlas bipedal and SpotMini quadruped robots. Raibert conducted a live demo of SpotMini where the robot traversed a small obstacle and picked up a soda can and handed it to Raibert.
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The Robot Report
Boston Dynamics will sell its SpotMini quadruped robot as a hardware and software platform starting in 2019. (Credit: Boston Dynamics)
Neither company has ever claimed legged robots are a fit for every application. “If we evolved with wheels, I’m sure our environments would be good for wheels, too,” Shelton said. Raibert and Shelton both described potential applications for their robots, including construction, delivery, disaster relief and surveillance, but the availability of commercial class legged robot platforms to build upon will lead to innovative ideas.
2019 will be the year of commercial class legged robots. Cassie is gearing up for its second production run in July 2018, while SpotMini is in pre-production preparing for commercial availability in 2019. SpotMini will be the first robot Boston Dynamics commercialized in its 26-year history. Raibert would not disclose the price of SpotMini, but he said the latest prototype costs 10 times less to build than the iteration before it. Boston Dynamics is working with contract manufacturers to build 100 SpotMinis over the next year, then it hopes to build 1,000 each year going forward. Agility Robotics recently raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Playground Global, which was founded by Android co-creator and ex-Google robotics head Andy Rubin. The company is hiring mechanical, electrical, and
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controls engineers at its Oregon headquarters. It’s also adding employees for perception, business development and apps engineering at a facility in Pittsburgh. Legged robots have long been challenging and expensive. The prices are finally coming down, but challenges such as agility, control laws, emergency stop, power consumption and stability will persist. Getting these platforms out into the masses is the only way to expedite their development. The Dynamic Legged Locomotion Lab at the University of Michigan, for example, recently had Cassie riding a Segway to test custom controls. The University of British Columbia used deep reinforcement learning in simulation to test feedback control. Shelton said Agility Robotics is just starting to explore how deep learning can help bipeds. SpotMini will be sold as a hardware and software platform, Raibert said. The robot is flat on top with mounting plates for companies to hook into. SpotMini has a network connection and API so third-party software can talk with its software to develop apps. Boston Dynamics is building its own apps, including a surveillance package, that it’ll use as reference designs going forward. There’s an optional manipulator arm sold separately. Skeptics have often wondered what has taken Boston Dynamics so long to commercialize a robot. And it appears the company’s mentality has changed since the Softbank acquisition in 2017. As Raibert said at the Robotics Summit,
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Boston Dynamics’ long-term goal has been solving “the hard problems in robotics, leading to major new functionality.” Its new goal is developing products for real-world applications. Raibert admitted it’s challenging to balance both the short- and long-term goals simultaneously. But he isn’t shy about asking for help. “I hope half of you quit your jobs and come join us,” Raibert said jokingly to the audience. “Because we’re hiring.” RR
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The Robot Report Philadelphia startup Exyn Technologies is developing scalable, full-stack AI that enables robots to navigate unmapped environments without human intervention.
AI Helps Drones Navigate Unmapped Environments
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exynAI uses multiple sensors to perceive its environment – cameras, LiDAR, radar, and RGBD – and late-stage sensor fusion that, in real time, estimates a drone’s position and orientation relative to where it started. (Credit: Exyn Technologies)
Steve Crowe • Editor, The Robot Report
One of the biggest challenges in robotics is developing autonomous systems that can reliably operate in unmapped environments. This is why, for example, leading self-driving car company Waymo only tests in areas it’s spent countless hours at creating detailed 3D maps.
Exyn Technologies, a spin-off of the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP lab, is making inroads in advanced autonomous navigation and realtime mapping of unmapped, infrastructureless environments that don’t have beacons, GPS or ultrawideband technology. The technology works just as well in environments equipped with infrastructure, but that’s old-hat at this point. The Philadelphia startup, which took part in WTWH Media’s inaugural Robotics Summit & Showcase, is developing scalable, full-stack software called exynAI that enables autonomous navigation and real-time mapping for Autonomous Aerial Robots (A3R) in complex commercial environments. At the moment, Exyn is focusing on indoor drone applications, including construction (data capture), logistics (inventory management) and mining (surveying). The technology alsos work on ground-based robots. Exyn is currently working with a legged robotics company, but it can’t publicly disclose the name of its partner just yet. How exynAI works Exyn co-founder Nader Elm said the key to enabling autonomous navigation starts with these questions: • Where am I in the environment? • Where am I trying to go? • How do I get there optimally?
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Exyn uses multiple sensors to perceive its environment – cameras, LiDAR (Velodyne VLP-16), radar, and RGBD – and late-stage sensor fusion that, in real time, estimates a drone’s position and orientation relative to where it started. Exyn has demo videos that show a drone autonomously navigating mines and warehouses. According to Exyn, the routes were not pre-programmed, human pilots did not intervene, and processing was done onboard the drone. The VLP-16 is the primary sensor for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and for part of state estimation. “Each sensor gives state estimation, then we fuse it,” Elm said. “Depending on the confidence level of each sensor, we’ll use it. If it’s low confidence, we consider it bad data and get rid of it.” The difficult part, Elm said, is building the AI that helps the A3R understand the 3D environment. Exyn uses machine learning and deep neural networks to do so. “This is the hard part Google has been working on for a decade. What Google is doing to make cars driverless, we’re doing for drones. Exyn has an advantage of leveraging a decade of research from UPenn.”
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“As the drone is moving and obstacles dynamically appear in its path — a forklift or a person — you need to dynamically change the path. We can do that in real time with onboard processing,” Elm said. “But now, using machine learning, we can identify what’s in front of the drone and change the behavior of the drone based on what it is. If it’s a forklift, for example, go around it and complete mission. If it’s a person, come to a stop and stay a safe distance away. These are new and exciting things we’re integrating into our stack – semantic labeling of objects in the drone’s path.” exynAI software can be customized to be mission-specific, support swarms, and provide a “sliding scale” of autonomy. Exyn’s technology is a fit for various outdoor drone applications, too. But on-going battles over outdoor, commercial drone regulations have been a turnoff for the company. “Regulations don’t really exist for indoor drones. Indoor drones are unregulated, but not unrestricted.” RR
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The Robot Report
Evolution of
Boston Dynamics’ Altas Robot A look at how Atlas became the running, jumping, backflipping humanoid it is today.
The closing keynote at the 11th International Fluid Power Conference was an all-too-short talk by Aaron Saunders, VP of Engineering of Boston Dynamics. Even non-engineers know about the Waltham, Mass.-based company due to its famous YouTube videos that feature bipedal and animal-like robots that jump, run, balance and even do backflips.
By Paul J. Heney
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Saunders talk focused on building “the world’s most dynamic” humanoid robot — the famed Atlas, which has been through a redesign in recent years. Saunders noted that Boston Dynamics is a very small company, with only 100 engineers. For the last 15 years, he said that his team has been focusing on basic principles of the mechanics of the locomotion of robotics. Their goal has been on changing people’s idea of what robots can do. “I’m always asked, ‘What’s the purpose? Are you making any money with this?’ The answer is no,” Saunders said, to laughs from the audience. “This robot’s [purpose] is really to drive innovation inside our group, to push us to understand how to marry controls on complex machines. It is also to create an impression of what robots can do. As we move toward the future, we’re getting closer and closer to when we’re going to turn these things into products.” People also ask Saunders why they are making robots perform tasks such as making them jump. He explained that it forces his team to face a lot of pragmatic problems. In
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tasks such as jumping, there is a lot of coordination happening—in the upper body, in the legs and the feet. His videos showed the robot’s hands and arms moving to better stabilize itself, and its legs wobble when it landed on soft ground, far different than laboratory conditions. This is on purpose, he said. “The other thing we do with a lot of the robots at Boston Dynamics that’s kind of unique is we put them out in the real world. Robots in their history have almost always been in the lab environment.” “In these environments, the robots have to autonomously navigate the terrain,” he said, as another video showed a robot walking up an uneven set of stone steps in a parklike setting. “The only inputs that this robot is getting right now from the operator are simple
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The Robot Report joystick commands, like go forward, go left or right, and everything else comes autonomously from the control system.” Sawing a quadruped in half The journey that Boston Dynamics took in getting to this robot did not happen overnight. They started in 2009, literally sawing one of their quadrupeds in half to make an early biped robot, as they worked on a government project that used pneumatics. This robot was tethered for power and cooling. “In 2012, there was a big competition started in the U.S. to use mobile robots to use in disaster response scenarios, and the government asked them to build 10 robots to give to universities to learn how to access these difficult trends,” he said. Boston Dynamics used a lot of off-the-shelf components to put this hydraulic robot together, which was a 2-m tall robot that was selfcontained and weighed nearly 200 kg. “In 2013, we got the opportunity — when we were acquired by Google — to really look inside and focus on things that we thought were important. We used the opportunity to redesign this humanoid robot from the ground up, and we ended up with a robot that’s very similar. It has all the same strength and range of mobility.” This newer Atlas model is about 1.5 meters tall and weighs 80 kg. It has an increased strength density to near human levels, is completely power autonomous (running between 30-60 minutes, depending on what it is doing) and has 28 degrees of freedom. Valves were a problem to source. They found, as their scale got smaller and smaller, and moved down to the human scale, there really weren’t many choices to purchase a high-performance servovalves that they could use to do control. So, they developed their own, which features multiple modes, for traditional servo, braking (negative work) and coasting (chamber to chamber). The valve, he said, has a fast response time and extremely low bypass leakage. 3D printing lends a helping hand 3D printing technology has also been key to this version of Atlas.
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“When we started the program, I’d read a lot of glossy magazine ads about how 3D printing was here. You could use it, you could print and go. That’s not quite true, but it is a very promising technology and it’s evolving rapidly,” Saunders said. The robot’s leg makeup was, he said, “probably our biggest undertaking. We learned a lot of lessons … we integrated the structure, the manifold and the fluid routing and actuator cylinders all into one structure.” “We were able to reduce limb inertia significantly, which is a big deal for a walking robot—most of the power in the system goes to swinging the legs through the air and accelerating and stopping them. You do very little work on the world when you’re a biped and you’re walking — you’re actually very efficient. But you need a lot of power to swing legs, especially when they’re heavy, so this [reduction] was a big deal,” he said. “We have a saying in our company called the bleeding edge. A lot of people talk about leading edge technology and the leading edge for us is when you’re going too far. The leg was very challenging because there was a lot of stuff integrated into it. Just finding a company to hone an actuator cylinder in a 3D printed material that had never been qualified before is a massive challenge. The number of close processing steps you have to go through as opposed to traditional machining really started to erode some of the benefits. In the end, we still saw that benefit in the inertia, but the effort to get this part out was quite significant,” Saunders said. “It’s approaching a Kilowatt per kg of density, it’s pretty scalable,” he said. “It sits in the center of the robot. It has everything it needs to collect electrical power and put hydraulic power out … All the homeostasis, sensing, filtration, dump valves, everything we need for the power plant is integrated into a printed part. This lets us wrap everything really tightly around the reservoir—and uses empty space that’s otherwise not used.” Atlas’ manifold has 18 valves, which service the upper body of the robot. “This is where we are getting close to
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This newer Atlas model is about 1.5 meters tall and weighs 80 kg. It has an increased strength density to near human levels, is completely power autonomous (running between 30-60 minutes, depending on what it is doing) and has 28 degrees of freedom. a sweet spot in printing,” Saunders said, “so we can make very organic structures and minimize pressure drops—get rid of a lot of excess components. It’s kind of exciting, the things that can be done in printing manifolds.” But, he reiterated, he wants to see component manufacturers come forward and expand their offerings for uses like this. “For us, I think one of the big things is the availability of small components. I would love to be able to come to a group like this and find more components on the human scale for mobile applications,” Saunders said. “Developing that valve was really fun, but we’re a robotics company - and we’d like to do more robotics and less component development. So, finding places that work with people to develop these small components on the timescales that are relevant is an area that it’d be great to see more of.” RR DESIGN WORLD
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The Robot Report
Self-Driving Cars take on unmapped roads Companies like Waymo only test self-driving cars in major cities where they’ve created precise 3-D maps.
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Autonomous driving has the potential to drastically improve lives. To date, the vast majority of fielded autonomous vehicles focus on one of two scenarios: lane following on well-marked highways; By Steve Crowe | Editor Robot Report
and urban navigation using extremely precise and manually annotated detailed global maps. But more than one third of the roads in the United States are unpaved, and 65 percent do not possess reliable lane markings, according to the Federal Highway Administration. While the detailed global mapping approach becomes impractical as the maps grow prohibitively large, the lane following approach is also infeasible since lane markings and road curb geometry are frequently unavailable for reliable road lane following.
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A team of MIT researchers tested MapLite on a Toyota Prius outfitted with a range of LIDAR and IMU sensors. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL
June 2018
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The Robot Report MapLite uses perception sensors to plan a safe path, including LIDAR to determine the approximate location of the edges of the road. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL
“More than one third of the roads in the United States are unpaved, and 65 percent do not possess reliable lane markings, according to the Federal Highway Administration.”
Navigating roads less traveled in self-driving cars is a difficult task. One reason is that there aren’t many places where self-driving cars can actually drive. Companies like Waymo only test their fleets in major cities where they’ve spent countless hours meticulously labeling the exact 3-D positions of lanes, curbs, offramps, and stop signs. “The cars use these maps to know where they are and what to do in the presence of new obstacles like pedestrians and other cars,” says Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “The need for dense 3-D maps limits the places where self-driving cars can operate.” Indeed, if you live along the millions of miles of U.S. roads that are unpaved, unlit, or unreliably marked, you’re out of luck. Such streets are often much more complicated to map, and get a lot less traffic, so companies aren’t incentivized to develop 3-D maps for them anytime soon. From California’s Mojave Desert to Vermont’s White Mountains, there are huge swaths of America that self-driving cars simply aren’t ready for. A map-less approach One way around this is to create systems advanced enough to navigate without these maps. In an important first step, Rus and colleagues at CSAIL have
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developed MapLite, a framework that allows self-driving cars to drive on roads they’ve never been on before without 3-D maps. MapLite combines simple GPS data that you’d find on Google Maps with a series of sensors that observe the road conditions. In tandem, these two elements allowed the team to autonomously drive on multiple unpaved country roads in Devens, Massachusetts, and reliably detect the road more than 100 feet in advance. As part of a collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute, researchers used a Toyota Prius that they outfitted with a range of LIDAR and IMU sensors. “The reason this kind of ‘map-less’ approach hasn’t really been done before is because it is generally much harder to reach the same accuracy and reliability as with detailed maps,” says CSAIL graduate student Teddy Ort, who was a lead author on a related paper about the system. “A system like this that can navigate just with on-board sensors shows the potential of self-driving cars being able to actually handle roads beyond the small number that tech companies have mapped.” The paper, which will be presented in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Brisbane, Australia, was co-written by Ort, Rus, and PhD graduate Liam Paull, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Montreal. DESIGN WORLD
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The Robot Report
MapLite can navigate without physical road markings by making basic assumptions about how the road will be relatively more flat than the surrounding areas. | Courtesy of MIT CSAIL
For all the progress that has been made with self-driving cars, their navigation skills still pale in comparison to humans. Consider how you yourself get around: If you’re trying to get to a specific location, you probably plug an address into your phone and then consult it occasionally along the way,
like when you approach intersections or highway exits. However, if you were to move through the world like most self-driving cars, you’d essentially be staring at your phone the whole time you’re walking. Existing systems still rely heavily on maps, only using sensors and vision
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algorithms to avoid dynamic objects like pedestrians and other cars. In contrast, MapLite uses sensors for all aspects of navigation, relying on GPS data only to obtain a rough estimate of the car’s location. The system first sets both a final destination and what researchers call a “local navigation goal,” which has to be within view of the car. Its perception sensors then generate a path to get to that point, using a Velodyne HDL-64S3 LiDAR to estimate the location of the road’s edges. MapLite can do this without physical road markings by making basic assumptions about how the road will be relatively more flat than the surrounding areas. “Our minimalist approach to mapping enables autonomous driving on country roads using local appearance and semantic features such as the presence of a parking spot or a side road,” says Rus. The team developed a system of models that are “parameterized,” which means that they describe multiple situations that are somewhat similar. For example, one model might be broad enough to determine what to do at intersections, or what to do on a specific type of road.
“I imagine that the self-driving cars of the future will always make some use of 3-D maps in urban areas,” says Ort. “But when called upon to take a trip off the beaten path, these vehicles will need to be as good as humans at driving on unfamiliar roads they have never seen before. We hope our work is a step in that direction.” RR
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Modeling techniques MapLite differs from other map-less driving approaches that rely more on machine learning by training on data from one set of roads and then being tested on other ones. “At the end of the day we want to be able to ask the car questions like ‘how many roads are merging at this intersection?’” says Ort. “By using modeling techniques, if the system doesn’t work or is involved in an accident, we can better understand why.” MapLite still has some limitations. For example, it isn’t yet reliable enough for mountain roads, since it doesn’t account for dramatic changes in elevation. As a next step, the team hopes to expand the variety of roads that the vehicle can handle. Ultimately they aspire to have their system reach comparable levels of performance and reliability as mapped systems but with a much wider range.
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The Robot Report
Robots Taking Over E-commerce Warehouses Flexibility and an ability to handle an increasing number of products has logistics operations around the world turning to robotics for help. By Frank Tobe
E-commerce sales for 2017 were $453.5 billion in the U.S. and $1.1 trillion in China, an increase of 16.0% and 32.6% respectively over 2016. This upward trend is projected to continue for the next many years. Consequently flexibility and an ability to handle an ever-increasing number of parcels is of concern to warehousing, fulfillment and distribution center (DC) managers around the world. Handling, distribution, transport and delivery – and the amortization of facility setup charges which often represent more cost than raw materials and manufacturing combined – are part of mounting challenges faced by today’s fulfillment executives. Accordingly, warehousing and material handling are a big business for hundreds of different types of companies that provide conveyors, rollers, racks, vision systems, hoists, shelving, electric motors, slides, barcode readers, printers, ladders, gantries, tugs, forklifts, skids, totes, carts, and software systems of all types. Most of these vendors provide products that serve the manto-goods model, ie, a person goes somewhere in the warehouse, finds the item, and either puts it into further play in the system or packs it himself. Kiva Systems shattered that model with their goods-to-person robots and dynamic shelving systems. Amazon was so enamored with Kiva’s robotic solution that it acquired Kiva and their robots. Since that acquisition Amazon Robotics (as Kiva Systems was renamed) has since produced over 130,000 Kiva robots and put them all to work in Amazon warehouses and DCs thus proving the efficacy of the method – a method which has been copied and also expanded upon by multiple vendors listed below. Bottom line: In warehouse and supply chain logistics focused on e-commerce fulfillment, whether third-party logistics service providers or e-retailers and their logistics arms, fixed and exorbitant front-end costs for conveyors, elevators and old style AS/RS systems have become anathema to warehouse executives
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worldwide who are clamoring to lower fixed costs while increasing flexibility and handling more goods. Comprehensive software and analytics — particularly predictive analytics — are on executives near-term agendas. Hence the need to invest in next-generation supply chain methods offered by the companies listed below.
Automating lifts, tows, carts and AGVs Human-operated tows, lifts, AGVs and other warehouse and factory vehicles has been a staple in material movement for decades. Now, with low-cost cameras, sensors and advanced vision and depth-sensing systems, they are slowly transitioning to more flexible autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that can autonomously tow, lift and carry and can work in either autonomous or human-operated modes. An AGV is an unmanned vehicle preprogrammed to move materials and rely on guidance devices (tapes, beacons, barcodes, laser paths) and stop and wait when an object or person obstructs their path. AMRs are autonomous vehicles without pre-programmed scripts to control steering, acceleration or braking which can move through DESIGN WORLD
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Aethon was a pioneer in developing and deploying autonomous robot tugs for hospitals. They were the first to develop a 24/7 remote command center to ameliorate any glitches. In recent years they’ve integrated their tugs into ERP and MES systems in factories and warehouses. Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+) is the leading Kiva-like robot provider in China and is this year bringing their tech to the US and Europe.
Fetch Robotics’ HMIShelf autonomous mobile robot delivering packages inside a warehouse. | Fetch Robotics
facilities based on an ever-learning map and vision system and point-to-point instructions. Of the top 20 industrial lift suppliers tabulated by Modern Materials Handling, only 5 offer kits or optional self-driving add-ons. Vendors providing kits and systems for existing forklifts and carts to convert them to Vision Guided Vehicles (VGVs, AMRs) for lineside replenishment, pallet movement, etc. include: • RoboCV is a Russian provider of autopilots for warehouse machines at Russian facilities for Samsung, VW and 3PLs. RoboCV also provides cloud-based task optimization and traffic control. • Balyo, a French provider of autonomous vehicle kits to forklift OEMs Hyster and Yale. • Seegrid, a Pittsburgh-based provider of vehicle autonomous kits for OEM Raymond, 3PLs and distribution centers of all types, also makes their own VGVs, and provides software and engineering systems to minimize human involvement and maximize VGV productivity.
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Vendors providing AMRs, VGVs and AIVs (Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles) for goods-to-person, point-to-point, load transfer and restocking. “The hardware and software systems that most warehouses use today were built for a world that is facing extinction. We live in an on-demand world and operations teams are struggling to keep up. A few leaders have adapted to this reality, but most need to modernize quickly for their business to survive,” said Jerome Dubois, 6 River Systems co-founder and co-CEO. Thus all of these vendors are also in the traffic, warehousing, vision systems and fulfillment software business as well as providing mobile robots outfitted with various shelving capabilities. 6 River Systems has raised $46 million in three funding rounds, the latest was $25 million in April, 2018. See quote from their CEO above regarding old and new tech in warehouses. 6RS was started as a direct result of Kiva Systems being acquired by Amazon and thereby depriving warehouse operators of Kiva technologies. www.designworldonline.com
Clearpath’s OTTO robots takes Clearpath’s history of providing mobile robot development platforms and, in their OTTO line, offer a light and heavy load self-driving platform for factory and warehouse material transport. Fetch Robotics is a well-funded Silicon Valley startup that has developed a line of 3 mobile robots in 10 configurations plus traffic management software that integrates with various WMS to provide point-to-point on-demand transport. Fetch is an approved vendor for 3PL warehouses managed by DHL around the world. They are also providing ~100 grasping robots (mobile manipulators) for researchers and academia to help close the technology gap in this area. Grenzebach specializes in mechanical engineering, integration and plant construction but also automation and robotic equipment. Having previously been a partner/investor in both Kuka and Swisslog, much of their product line is industrial. Grenzebach also offers a mobile manipulator, an autonomous tug and a series of driverless forklifts. Kuka is one of the world’s Big Four robot builders. They were acquired in 2016 by Midea, a Chinese consumer products conglomerate. Kuka’s mobility products are rugged and capable of moving heavy industrial goods either separately or in tandem. Their omniMove platform is solid and stable enough to put a lightweight robot arm on top with all controllers onboard to make a mobile manipulator possible (albeit expensive). June 2018
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The Robot Report Locus Robotics is a story of a satisfied Kiva user and early adopter being frozen out of upgrading and adding additional Kiva robots to his warehouses. So he founded Locus, removed the Kiva’s and built an alternative that satisfied his needs, and has since offered Locus products (robots, WMS integration, traffic management software, etc.) to other warehouse managers. Locus is also an approved DHL vendor for their global network of 3PL warehouses. Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) just got acquired by Teradyne, the same testing equipment provider that acquired Energid and their Actin platform and Universal Robots and their line of one-armed collaborative robots. Robotnik Automation is a Spanish integrator and maker of mobile robots, localization systems, configuration and programming tools (HMI) and Fleet Management Systems (FMS) for autonomous indoor transport for hospitals, factories and warehouses.
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Seegrid filed for bankruptcy in 2014 but was reorganized and funded by their biggest client and backer: Giant Eagle which now owns 40% of the company. Seegrid provides pallet trucks, tow tractors and vision-guided kits for other lift manufacturers. They also provide supervisor software to manage, monitor and control the fleet in all aspects of material transferring – from parts-to-line to replenishment, putaway, kitting and picking, long hauls, sortation, and end-of-line. Swisslog sells three different types of mobile robots: (1) the omni-directional AutoStore robot that moves around on top of racks in high bay spaces and then lifts out pods for further processing; (2) PowerStore, a high density pallet shuttle system for warehouses with low ceilings; and (3) CarryPick, a modular and flexible Kiva-like shelf picking system without having to make any facility construction changes. A version of the CarryPick
robot, TransCar, is used in hospitals for their on-demand and routine material transport. Toyota offers autopilot vision systems for their forklifts and also offers automated carts for factories and warehouses. Their sister company Vanderlande also provides elaborate robotic AS/RSs. Vecna Robotics is a provider of mobile and remote-presence devices for healthcare has, in recent years, been expanding with a full line of 7 scalable mobile transport robots for industry and warehouses including a complete set of software for fleet management.
Grasping Where humans surpass machines is in the quick visual determination of what to pick, how to grasp, and then move the item to wherever it needs to go. Until recently, this has been the missing link in automated fulfillment and one of the
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The Robot Report biggest challenges in robotics acceptance. A few vendors are perfecting the science that enables high speed random grasping from moving conveyors or bins: RightHand Robotics, Universal Logic, Kinema Systems, Swisslog, Soft Robotics Vendors providing grasping capabilities in addition to autonomous mobility include: InVia Robotics, IAM Robotics, Magazino, Dorabot, GreyOrange
better products. better solutions. Regardless of what makes your conveyor and robot unique mk can provide a standard or custom solution — that meets your needs and keeps your business moving.
Indoor navigation Navigation systems have changed along with all the other technological improvements and often don’t require floor grid markings, barcodes or extensive indoor localization and segregation systems such as those used by Kiva Systems (and subsequently Amazon). SLAM and combinations of floor grids, SLAM, path planning and mapping systems, indoor beacons, and collision avoidance systems are adding flexibility to swarms of point-to-point mobile robots and enabling traffic control and dynamic inventory placement.
Kiva look-alikes In March 2012, in an effort to make their fulfillment centers as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house, leaving a disgruntled set of Kiva customers who couldn’t expand and a larger group of prospective clients who were left with a technological gap and no solutions. I wrote about this gap and about the whole community of new providers that had sprung up to fill the void and were beginning to offer and demonstrate their solutions. Many of those new providers are listed above. Recently, another set of competitors has emerged in this space. Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD (JingDong), VIPShop, Tencent and others have funded companies who copied the Kiva Systems formula to provide Kiva-like goods-to-person robot systems and dynamic free-form warehousing for their in-country fulfillment and distribution centers. Now some of those companies are braving the prospect of IP infringement proceedings from Amazon and are expanding outside of China and SE Asia to Europe and America: Grey Orange Robotics has sites using their systems in Japan and Europe and exhibited at Europe’s Logimat trade show where they launched PickPal, an autonomous picking robot which can pick a wide variety of SKUs using machine vision and a scalable gripper system specifically suitable for high-volume order fulfillment.
Aluminum framed conveyors Pallet-handling conveyor systems Stainless steel conveyors Extruded aluminum t-slot framing
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Stepper Motors
Piezo Motors
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The Robot Report
Soft Robotics’ SuperPick combines soft robotics and artificial intelligence to enable automation of highly unstructured tasks like bin picking, sorting, and order fulfillment.
Beijing Geekplus (Geek+) Technology also has sites using their systems in Japan and Poland and had booths at MODEX and CeMAT trade shows to introduce Geek+ to the West. Xinyi Logistics Science & Technology (Alog) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia. Shanghai Express Warehouse (Quicktron / Flashhold) – this company is funded by Alibaba which is placing their robots in new Alibaba warehouses.
cycloidal reduction gears
Did you mean: DieQua Corporation?
Hanzhou Hikrobot Technology (HIK) – has not yet ventured beyond China and SE Asia.
vision-enabled forklifts and trucks and Egemin, a provider of AGV systems. Locus Robotics described above.
Kiva alternatives Swisslog described above.
Fetch Robotics described above. RR
Dematic (acquired in 2016 by KION Group) is a well-funded supplier of integrated automated technology, software and services to optimize the supply chain. The KION Group also owns Linde Robotics, a maker of
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The search is over! The Spinea high precision cycloidal reducers provide unmatched performance, durability, and design flexibility. Look no further than DieQua. • 1 size - TS50 at 50mm • Torque capacity up to 18 Nm • Ratios at 47:1 and 63:1 • Zero backlash • High torsional and tilting stiffness To find what you’re looking for, check us out on the web, or give us a call.
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Mechanical Drive Solutions For Robotic Applications EPL-H Inline gearbox, with hollow output design for easy mounting to linear actuators
DL-DC Right angle Dyna Lite gearbox with hollow output design for easy mounting to linear actuators. Includes output adapter tailored to the actuator
EDC Low cost elastomer distance coupling
DS-T Right angle Dyna Series gearbox with dual output shaft configuration
The New Gearbox Standard in Robots • High tilting rigidity and 3 times longer life than cycloidal boxes • Patented system guarantees backlash will not increase over time with backlash ≤ 0.1 arcmin • Many versions available from sub-assembly to right angle in both shaft and hollow options • Torque Range from 500 Nm – over 4000Nm
Everything Between the Motor and Actuator Mechanical Drive Solutions include gear reducers, couplings, and mounting kits designed to interface specifically for robots. We don’t make the robots... We make them better. Toll Free 888.GAM.7117 | www.gamweb.com/robotics | info@gamweb.com
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BIMBA Bimba, a part of IMI Precision Engineering, is a forward-thinking innovator providing industry-leading pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric motion solutions that are easy to use, reliable and ready for all engineering solutions. Bimba markets an extensive line of industry-leading products including pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric actuators; valves; fittings; vacuum products; air preparation and a variety of safety and production solutions. In addition to its broad line of standard catalog products, the company’s business develops many custom and semi-custom products designed for specific customers and applications. These products, used in machinery and automation, are sold to original equipment manufacturers and end-users throughout the world in an expanding variety of industries.
University Park Headquarters 25150 S. Governors Hwy University Park, IL 60484 Phone: 708-534-8544 Tech Support: 800-44-BIMBA www.bimba.com
DieQua Corporation Robotic Joints Need High Rigidity and Torque Density Robots and robotic positioners are required to provide precise movements to achieve their task. With cantilevered loads and quick movements, mechanical play and material torsion are enemies of accuracy. To maximize load capacity and increase cycle times you need a reduction unit with high torque density, zero backlash, and high rigidity for it’s size. The Spinea Twinspin is the solution. This revolutionary design has zero backlash along with high transmittable torque and the best rigidity for their size. 3 models are the smallest cycloidal reducers in the world, down to 50 mm diameter, which provides 3 times the end of arm performance over flex spline alternatives. 7 larger models, up to 300 mm diameter, are ideal for controlling axis motion in the other joints of robots with multiple degrees of freedom.
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Contact Info: DieQua Corporation 180 Covington Drive Bloomingdale, IL 60108 Phone: 630.980.1133 www.diequa.com
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FESTO Corporation Ready-to-Install 2D and 3D Cartesian Handling Systems Festo offers a range of Cartesian handling systems to fit the needs of your assembly and material handling operations. An economic and energyefficient alternative to conventional 4- to 6-axis industrial robots, you can easily adapt Festo’s 2D and 3D systems to linear and rotational applications. Each system is ready to install and comes with a matching motor and controller. Choose from: • Single-axis systems, which feature a 3,000-mm stroke and include an energy chain for cable and hose routing. • 2D linear gantries for two-dimensional vertical movements. This system boasts high dynamic response and short cycle times. • 2D planar surface gantries for two-dimensional horizontal movements. This option can handle larger work spaces and loads up to 6 kg. • 3D gantries for three-dimensional movement. Suitable for heavy loads, this system combines three horizontal gantry axes and a vertical axis.
Festo Corporation 1377 Motor Pkwy. Ste 310 Suffolk County Islandia, NY 11749 Phone: 631.435.0800 Web: www.festo.com E-mail: customer.service.us@festo.com
GAM The New Gearbox Standard in Robots Our new robotic gearbox offers a unique level of precision, lifetime and energy efficiency unseen from other gearboxes suppliers. Our planetary technology is based on a unique patented gear profile that remains backlash free at ≤0.1 arcmin for the lifetime of the gearbox. Our high tilting rigidity and 95% efficiency, allow us to achieve an impressive life of 20,000 hours, unheard of in today’s robotic gearboxes. We have 7 sizes up to 7000Nm with many versions available from sub-assembly to right angle in both shaft and hollow configurations. These features set this gearbox apart from all others in the market today!
Contact info: GAM 901 E. Business Center Drive Mount Prospect, IL 60056 888.GAM.7117 | 847.649.2500 http://www.gamweb.com
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HANNOVER MESSE USA Sept. 10-15, 2018 · Chicago, IL Industry 4.0 is changing industries, markets… and trade shows. For the first time in its 70 year history, the world’s leading industrial trade show, HANNOVER MESSE, will be produced outside of Germany. HANNOVER MESSE USA, co-located at McCormick Place with IMTS, expects over 115,000 buyers and 2,000 exhibiting companies to Chicago for unparalleled networking opportunities at one incredible event. Register for free show floor admission with code HMUSAWTWH
Website: www.hannovermesseusa.com Phone: (773) 796-4250
Harmonic Drive Extremely customizable supermini actuator Small enough to fit inside the finger of a robotic hand, these ultra-compact servo actuators utilize zero backlash Harmonic Drive® precision gears, a brushless servo motor and an incremental encoder. RSF supermini actuators are available in 2 sizes with ratios 30:1, 50:1 and 100:1. Peak torque .13~1.4 Nm, max speed 100~333 rpm. RSF Supermini actuators are remarkably reliable. Known for our expert engineering and manufacturing, Harmonic Drive® products are relied upon every day throughout the robotics industry. 247 Lynnfield Street Peabody, MA 01960 United States www.harmonicdrive.net
Harmonic Drive is a registered trademark of Harmonic Drive Systems
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Robotics Robotics
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igus Customize low-cost robotic joints and complete arm assemblies The new robolink designer is an online configurator tool from igus® that allows users to quickly and easily configure individual robotic systems. With the tool, users can select robolink components individually and configure a robotic arm step by step. They can also configure the length of the arm to match the dimensions a specific work environment, as well as simulate motion of the robot through rotating its joints. Furthermore, a parts lists can be saved for future reference, and a quote can be requested for the configured system. The digital design tool uses an intuitive CAD interface suitable for both desktops and tablets.
Website: www.igus.com Email: sales@igus.com
Try it for yourself at http://robolink-designer.igus.tools
Phone: 800.521.2747
Kollmorgen KBM™ Series Frameless Motors The KBM™ Series is designed to be directly embedded in a machine. With a vast selection of standard motors—plus Kollmorgen’s ability to create optimized modifications—design engineers can choose the exact-fit motor that yields the highest performance in the most compact space. • Direct load connection eliminates maintenance of gearboxes, belts or pulleys • Zero backlash and compliance provides more responsive system performance • Eliminates coupling devices, reducing overall machine size • Embedded motor enables compact machine design • Solutions for operating from 48 VDC to 600 VDC • Many standard windings for optimized motor performance • Standard thermal and hall sensor options • Industry-leading torque density Webpage for KBM: www.kollmorgen.com/kbm-motors
Contact: Gene Matthews 203A West Rock Road Radford, VA 24141 Phone: 1.540.633.3545 Email: www.kollmorgen.com
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maxon precision motors Drive Systems for Robotics Reliable, Powerful, Efficient A complete joint actuation unit. Includes a brushless DC motor, an internal high resolution encoder, planetary gearhead with absolute encoder and position controller with CAN and RS232 interface. Exoskeleton Joint Actuator • Compact Housing • Integrated Controller • Reduced Weight and Cost • For Use in Hip and Knee Exoskeletons maxon is your single source for motion solutions. When you choose maxon, you can expect outstanding service, creative options and quality without question. Want to get your ideas moving? Contact maxon today. Learn more about the maxon solutions and visit www.maxonmotorusa.com
101 Waldron Road Fall River, MA 02720 Phone: 508.677.0520 www.maxonmotorusa.com info@maxonmotorusa.com
MICROMO 24% More Torque Per Watt – in a Powerful 10 mm Package MICROMO launches the new FAULHABER 1016 SR series. At 10 mm in diameter and 16 mm in length, the 1016 SR series small dc motor delivers over 24% more torque per watt than competitive motors with the same dimensions. Additional strengths include low power consumption, high energy-efficiency and minimal vibration & low audible noise, making it well suited for applications with small dimensions and very high requirements such as those in autonomous robot systems, electro-mechanical systems, unmanned equipment, ROVs, and exoskeletons. As the exclusive provider of FAULHABER motion products to North America, MICROMO creates value through advanced design and engineering services.
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maxon precision motors, inc.
Contact Information: MICROMO 14881 Evergreen Ave Clearwater, FL 33762 Phone: (800) 807-9166 www.micromo.com
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Robotics Robotics
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Mitsubishi Electric FR Series Next Generation, High Performance Industrial Robots Integrate Seamlessly with iQ Platform Controllers for Advanced Cooperative Functions “FA-IT Integration Functions” with the full line of Mitsubishi Electric FA products such as PLCs, motion controllers, VFDs, HMIs, and CNC, as well as MES/SCADA packages provide a level of performance, functionality and ease of use unparalleled in the industry. In addition, the open platform architecture OS enables integration with 3rd party devices normally difficult or impossible to use on closed platforms. With such flexibility, capability and performance, increases to both productivity and maintainability can be achieved, resulting in a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). • With an extensive selection of arm sizes, configurations, protection ratings,
Website: us.MitsubishiElectric.com/fa/en Address: 500 Corporate Woods Pkwy Vernon Hills, IL 60061 Phone: 847.478.2100
backed with “Next-Generation” features, and options, the MELFA FR-Series line of robots are ready to handle all of your automation needs. Vertically articulated, horizontally articulated SCARA, ceiling mounted horizontal type, and dual arm high precision for micro-assembly • Industry’s best initial warranty - 3 year on-site for most models
mk North America Conveyors to Meet Your Needs mk North America, Inc. understands that no two material handling applications are the same; and as such no two solutions should be the same. mk offers a wide variety of standard and custom conveyors. And since all of mk’s aluminum-frame conveyors are constructed out of mk’s line of t-slotted aluminum extrusion; it is easy to integrated different conveyor types, and convenient to add guarding and workstations to them. mk provides better products and better solutions by: • Taking the time to understand each unique application • Working with customers to identify and address pain points • Bringing decades of design and integration experience to each application • Providing customer service and
Contact info: mk North America, Inc.
engineering support before, during, and after the sale • Assembling and testing all
Website: www.mknorthamerica.com
conveyors before shipping
Phone: 860.769.5500 Email: info@mknorthamerica.com
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New England Wire Technologies Advancing innovation for over 100 years Why accept a standard product for your custom application? NEWT is committed to being the premier manufacturer of choice for customers requiring specialty wire, cable and extruded tubing to meet existing and emerging worldwide markets. Our custom products and solutions are not only engineered to the exacting specifications of our customers, but designed to perform under the harsh conditions of today’s advanced manufacturing processes. Cables we specialize in are LITZ, multi-conductor cables, hybrid configurations, coaxial, twin axial, miniature and micro-miniature coaxial cables, ultra flexible, high flex life, low/high temperature cables, braids, and a variety of proprietary cable designs. Contact us today and let us help you dream beyond today’s technology and achieve the impossible.
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Posital-Fraba Upgrade Your Motor Feedback with POSITAL Absolute Kit Encoders POSITAL absolute Kit Encoders offer a great upgrade path for the traditional incremental kit encoders used for servomotors. Compact, rugged and cost effective, they provide accurate position feedback for precision motion control in robots, production machinery, autonomous vehicles and other motion and position control application. They can also be used to provide closed-loop feedback control for stepper motors. Rotational resolution is up to 17-bit (one part in 130,000) with a multi-turn range of
POSITAL-FRABA Inc.
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1800 East State Street, Suite 148 Hamilton, NJ 08609
Standardized compact form factors make POSITAL absolute kit encoder a straightforward replacement for US Digital or Broadcom incremental kit encoders in existing machinery or in new designs.
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Contact info:
USA Website: www.posital.com Email: info@fraba.com Phone: +1 609.750.8705
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VIONiC™ Encoder series The VIONiC digital incremental encoder series has been specifically designed with the machine builder in mind. Its enhanced ease of use, superior metrology capability and multiple configuration options all ensure optimal machine performance. VIONiC really has been designed for the designer.
Website: www.renishaw.com Email: usa@renishaw.com Phone: (847) 286-9953 Address: 1001 Wesemann Drive West Dundee, IL 60118 USA
Universal Robots Robotics Within Reach Universal Robots has reinvented industrial robotics with flexible, collaborative robot arms. Innovative forcesensing technology makes the robot stops operating when encountering an employee, eliminating the need for safety guarding in most scenarios. Unlike traditional industrial robots that stay hardwired in a cage, the lightweight UR Robots can be moved around, automating high mix low volume production runs. Programming is intuitive; simply grab the robot arm to teach the desired movement, or use the touch screen. The Polyscope GUI runs on a Linux OS platform for easy customization of specific tasks and tools. Product portfolio includes the UR3, UR5 and UR10 robot arms named after their payloads in kilos, they all feature 0.1 mm repeatability and span in reach from 19.7” in to 51.2”. Since the first collaborative robot was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. U.S. regional offices are located in Ann Arbor, MI, Long Island, NY, Irvine, CA and Dallas, TX.
www.designworldonline.com
Contact info: Universal Robots USA, Inc. 5430 Data Court, Suite 300 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 United States Phone: +1 844.462.6268 Email: ur.na@universal-robots.com
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