Sesto Robotics – The Rise of the Robots BFM 89

SESTO ROBOTICS

THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS

SESTO ROBOTICS

SINGAPORE-BASED SESTO ROBOTICS IS EXPANDING ITS REACH, OFFERING AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTICS SOLUTIONS FOR EUROPE’S SMART MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS PROJECT MANAGED BY: TIMOTHY GARWOOD

Established only five years ago, SESTO Robotics has become a leading provider of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) and applications that automate the delivery and material handling processes in manufacturing, healthcare and commercial facilities.

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ESTO Robotics’ AMRs are fully developed and manufactured in-house and are powered by the company’s proprietary operating system bringing cutting edge intelligence and tasking capabilities to customers’ intralogistics needs.

CEO Chor-Chen Ang says: “Our customers rely on our robots to enhance productivity. SESTO’s robust hardware is designed and built to comply with international safety standards, ensuring safe usage among people and machines. At the same time, our intelligent software system merges edge, fleet and business intelligence to enable our clients to achieve optimal outcomes.”

He points out that SESTO Robotics is one of the few deep tech companies that have managed to commercialise its technology, specifically in the semiconductor industry.

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In a US semiconductor plant based in Singapore, 20 units of SESTO PRIME with a 7-axis robot arm are deployed to autonomously swap Front Opening Unified Pods (FOUPs) between the stocker, multi-tier rack and tooling machines within a limited space, significantly improving productivity, safety and traceability within the plant, allowing operators to be freed up to focus on more value-added tasks.

SESTO’s AMRs have also been deployed for automated transportation of heavy tote boxes in a large semiconductor manufacturing plant in China, travelling over long distances of up to 40 kilometres per day, thereby reducing tedious delivery tasks for plant workers whilst ensuring cycle times for parts handling are met.

Mazher Anwar, CTO (left), Chor-Chen Ang, CEO (right) & SESTO Magnus with lifter module.

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SESTO ROBOTICS

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AUTOMATED FLEXIBILITY FOR MOBILE VEHICLES AND CARTS.

Industry 4.0 is picking up speed. Our modular solutions portfolio for mobile platforms now makes it possible to implement line guidance, navigation, positioning, environmental recognition, security and load handling with ease. And allows them to adapt to your requirements with flexibility. Putting your processes on the right track.

We think that’s intelligent. www.sick.com/mobile-platforms

Authorized distributors of SICK Singapore

SESTO ROBOTICS

SICK Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and systems (AGVS) are nowadays used in practically every industry. Whether for production supply, as a transport platform in flow production or an integrated component of warehouse logistics, the potential applications for AGVSs and their status as flexible, economical, future-proof solutions have grown considerably in the last few years.

Other AMR deployments include a hospital laboratory, a clean room facility, bus depot office canteen and various manufacturing plants.

SICK is an independent, world-leading developer and manufacturer of intelligent sensor systems and offers the largest portfolio of products for automating various types of mobile platforms. Our sensor solutions make transport tasks safer, quicker, and more transparent. SICK uses its extensive expertise in sensor and systems technology to provide impressive solutions for all phases of the production and logistics process, whatever your industry.

From navigation to positioning, environment perception of safety and load handling, SICK sensor solution allow mobile platforms to move automatically from different points in the production environment, making their way and navigating through the floor with safety sensor that enable the mobile platforms to be able to perceive their environment. This prevents collisions with objects or people and ensures safe and reliable process operations.

SICK LAUNCHES THE NANOSCAN3 – THE ULTRA-COMPACT SAFETY LASER SCANNER: EASY INTEGRATION AND ECONOMICAL RELIABILITY FOR MOBILE PLATFORMS, AUTONOMOUS CARTS, AND COBOTS. The nanoScan3 has been designed specifically for use in small mobile platforms. Its high-precision measurement data are ideally suited for accurate localization and safe navigation of mobile assistance systems, service robots, autonomous transport platforms as well as collaborative robots (cobots). This ultrasmall safety laser scanner from SICK delivers reliable safety and precise localization for your application.

The extremely space-saving sensor, which boasts an overall height of just eight centimeters, is used wherever machines and vehicles require maximum performance but have minimal mounting space. This 2D safety sensor is characterized by programmable and dynamically adapting protective fields, measurement data output for navigation support and proven scanner and evaluation technologies that guarantee maximum detection reliability even when subject to challenging ambient conditions such as dust or dirt. Being only 101 x 101 x 80 mm in size, the nanoScan3 opens up potential applications where space is extremely critical; in particular, these include mobile intralogistics and mobile assistance and service robotics with autonomous transport platforms and carts, as well as collaborative robots (cobots). What’s more, the nanoScan3 is setting a new standard in this market segment with its price-performance ratio.

With intelligent sensors, SICK delivers exactly what the customers need. In application centers in Europe, Asia, and North America, system solutions are tested and optimized in accordance with customer specifications. All this makes SICK a reliable supplier and development partner. Comprehensive services round out the offering: SICK LifeTime Services provide support throughout the machine life cycle and ensure safety and productivity. That is “Sensor Intelligence.”

Actics Singapore is the authorized distributor for Sick products in Singapore, actively covering Singapore market. With more than 20 years of experience in the automation industry, Actics Singapore team works on individual applications, providing samples for testing and evaluation and thereafter, proposed value-added and cost-effective solutions to customers across Singapore. Actics Singapore also stocks products and provide on time delivery to meet customers project schedule. www.sick.com

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Chor-Chen Ang with SESTO Prime.

THE COMPACT SOLUTION

Mr Ang acknowledges that the company’s flagship product – launched last year – is the SESTO Magnus AMR for material handling - a bi-directional, compact autonomous mobile robot able to carry loads of up to 300 kilogrammes.

He says: “With the world easing into the Covid-19 “new normal”, there is an accelerated urgency for manufacturers and non-manufacturing industries to quickly automate their processes while ensuring safe management measures such as

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SESTO ROBOTICS

a staggered workforce or spilt team arrangements. SESTO Magnus’ small and low profile is designed with manufacturing, healthcare and commercial facilities in mind. Its intelligent software controls enable it to operate safely in narrow passageways and amongst people.”

SESTO Magnus is highly versatile and can be configured with limitless applications of autonomous material transport, deployed using a tablet or laptop. The robot provides high uptime of up to ten hours on a single charge and fast battery charging in three hours.

“Current manual handling and transport processes are often time-consuming and errorprone. In addition, repeated manual handling of heavy loads can lead to workforce injuries and accidents. SESTO Magnus reduces the dependency on manual labour which has become a priority for many companies in recent months, as Covid-19 caused major disruptions to the availability of on-premise employees,” Mr Ang points out.

“OUR ROBUST HARDWARE IS DESIGNED AND BUILT TO COMPLY WITH INTERNATIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS, ENSURING SAFE USAGE AMONG PEOPLE AND MACHINES.” DESTINATION EUROPE

Given the increasing penetration of robotics and automation in every industry, it is no surprise that SESTO Robotics is set to

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capture emerging opportunities in the developed world. In 2021, the company has targeted the German, Austrian and Swiss markets - the most advanced in Europe in terms of automation and digitisation.

Earlier this year, SESTO partnered with Germany-based automation specialist Baumüller to bring SESTO Magnus AMR to the Germanspeaking countries, as the first Singaporebased robotics company to offer autonomous mobile robotics solutions focused on smart manufacturing in Europe.

“Through our partnership with Baumüller, we will bring our Singaporedesigned AMR solution to the manufacturing, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors in Europe.

With Magnus, Baumüller will help businesses automate material transport for a wide variety of applications, including intralogistics, machine assembly, testing and diagnostic technology,” says Mr Ang, noting that SESTO Robotics is the only robotics company providing AMRs to Baumüller.

“SESTO Magnus’ versatility enables limitless configurations on one single autonomous platform. By adding valuable customisation options such as collaborative robots, UV and ozone disinfection equipment, scissor lift tables, intelligent racking systems and other individually implementable payloads to Magnus, we will help industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical and healthcare achieve the benefits of automation,” he explains.

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SESTO ROBOTICS

“SESTO MAGNUS’ VERSATILITY ENABLES LIMITLESS CONFIGURATIONS ON ONE SINGLE AUTONOMOUS PLATFORM.” PROGRESSING TOWARDS THE NEXT STAGE

He admits that the company will eventually be looking at other west European countries with a developed manufacturing industry base such as Italy and France, and potentially some countries of eastern Europe.

“We need to work with local partners that are specialised

in particular industries to be able to reach out to customers beyond the German-speaking countries.”

At the moment, however, it is the German-speaking region that is the focus of SESTO Robotics. The company has just recently become a Technology Partner at the Siemens Advance Manufacturing Transformation Centre (AMTC) in Singapore, one of its two centres that aim to provide guidance, support and training to companies striving to adopt advanced manufacturing.

“We are the only company in this partnership specialising in mobile robotics, and will address companies in SouthEast Asia that are looking for advanced technologies and solutions,” affirms Mr Ang.

Speaking about the next stage of the company’s development, he explains that most of SESTO Robotics’ resources are focused on product development and looking at further product extensions. A new version of SESTO Magnus is set to be released early next year, as the company sees opportunities for different classes of robots.

Reflecting on the past year, Mr Ang says: “We are happy that despite the pandemic and the difficult year and a half, we were able to forge ahead and make progress because of the support of our customers, suppliers and partners. To thrive and flourish, any business needs to adapt in order to grow. That is what we have been doing and that mindset will guide us into the future.”

Teammate working on SESTO Magnus.

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