THE ROBOT REPORT - DESIGN WORLD MAY 2019

INSIDE:

A Supplement to Design World - May 2019 www.designworldonline.com

• The Robotics Summit 2019 takes a close look at mobile robots .............................62 • What Amazon’s acquisition of Canvas Technology means for mobile robots ...........66 • Augmenting SLAM technology with deep learning .............................................71 • Expert roundtable: mobile robotics challenges and opportunities ..........................82 • Integrating AI with fleet management software advances collaboration for autonomous mobile robots .............................88 • How 5G will impact mobile robots ................95

Mobile robotics matures

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INSIDE:

A Supplement to Design World - May 2019 www.designworldonline.com

• The Robotics Summit 2019 takes a close look at mobile robots .............................62 • What Amazon’s acquisition of Canvas Technology means for mobile robots ...........66 • Augmenting SLAM technology with deep learning .............................................71 • Expert roundtable: mobile robotics challenges and opportunities ..........................82 • Integrating AI with fleet management software advances collaboration for autonomous mobile robots .............................88 • How 5G will impact mobile robots ................95

Mobile robotics matures

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The Robot Report

june 5-6, 2019

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S U M M I T

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Robotics Summit & Expo 2019 takes a close look at mobile robots Engineers can learn about recent developments in mobile robot technology from speakers, exhibitors, and peers at this conference in Boston in June.

Eugene Demaitre • senior editor The Robot Report

| Humatics

Last year’s Robotics Summit & Expo was a rare opportunity to see Boston Dynamics CEO Mark Raibert describe his company’s groundbreaking work on mobile robots. Attendees at this year’s event will have the opportunity to learn from more robotics experts.

Robotics developers, suppliers, and users can attend keynotes, sessions, and panels on everything from sensing and machine learning to safety and commercialization. Here’s a preview of some of the programming at the summit, which will be held on June 5-6, 2019, at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

Sessions to see at the Robotics Summit Deepu Talla, vice president and general manager of autonomous machines at NVIDIA, will discuss various types of robots and emerging applications in his opening keynote on “Bringing AI-Powered Robots to Life” on Wednesday, June 5.

In “The Growing Pains of AGV Navigation,” David Mindell, CEO of Humatics, will explain how there is no “one size fits all” solution for automated guided vehicles

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The Robot Report

More about mobility

The expo hall will include several companies supporting mobile robots, including Harmonic Drive, Humatics, IDS Imaging, Kollmorgen, and Sick, as well as AMR provider Waypoint Robotics

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(AGVs) and Industry 4.0. In this session in the “Systems, Design, and Development” track, Mindell will look at how new sensors and microlocation technologies are affecting mobile robots.

One way in which autonomous mobile robots can deliver value to users is from the data that they collect. Tim Rowland, CEO of Jabil unit Badger Technologies, will explain “The Cerebral Side of Robotics,” as data analysis becomes just as important to the connected enterprise as materials handling.

What is “sole agent syndrome,” and what can mobile robot designers do about it? In his session on “Machine Learning for Human-like Behavior,” Russell Toris, director of robotics at Fetch Robotics, will show the dangers of over-optimization and the best techniques for getting robots to move smoothly and efficiently.

Current industrial robot safety standards are mature, but they are not enough to support certain types of robots, according to Joe Gelzhiser, safety application specialist supervisor at Sick. In “Navigating Mobile Robotics With 2-D Safety Lidar,” he will examine the proper application of such technology for “safe detection of persons.”

VSLAM, or vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping, has matured, enabling robotics developers to improve visual positioning for robots. In his session, Dominick Vanthienen, vice president of technology innovation at Intermodalics, will talk about how VSLAM can help robots be more aware of their surroundings. He will also discuss problems that still need to be solved.

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As with many technologies, the U.S. Department of Defense has been an initial supporter of much mobile robot research and development.

In “Transitioning From Defense to Commercial Markets,” Parag Batavia, president of the Neya Systems Division at Applied Research Associates, will explain how government funding can help robotics startups on the road to commercialization.

In his Day 2 keynote, Henrik Christensen, the Qualcomm chancellor’s chair of robot systems at the University of California, San Diego, and leader of the U.S. National Robotics Roadmap, will discuss R&D challenges and emerging use cases for robots of all kinds.

In “Service Robots for Commercial Spaces: The Path From Autonomous to Intelligent Robots,” attendees can learn how mobile service robots are gaining new levels of autonomy. Marcio Macedo, co-founder and vice president of product and marketing at Ava Robotics, will describe how AI and the cloud are helping robots to function better in human environments.

Expo shines spotlight on components, suppliers The expo hall will include several companies supporting mobile robots, including Harmonic Drive, Humatics, IDS Imaging, Kollmorgen, and Sick, as well as AMR provider Waypoint Robotics.

Robotics innovators, investors, and adopters can also participate in networking events, the AWS RoboMaker Immersion Day (on June 4), the Future of Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering Workshop, and the MassRobotics career fair. RR To learn more about and register for the Robotics Summit & Expo 2019, visit the website: https://www.roboticssummit.com/

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The Robot Report

What

Amazon’s

acquisition of

Canvas Technology

means for mobile robots Amazon’s latest robotics purchase demonstrates the importance of safe navigation for developers and users of supply chain automation.

Eugene Demaitre • senior editor The Robot Report

The number of autonomous mobile robot providers has grown in the past few years, as e-commerce order fulfillment and other warehouse operations benefit from improving navigation and safety systems. Amazon.com Inc. last month acquired Canvas Technology Inc. for an unspecified amount. How will this affect the development and demand for autonomous mobile robots?

When Amazon acquired Kiva Systems Inc. for $775 million in 2012, it took one of the early leaders in mobile robots for logistics off the market. It rebranded North Reading, Mass.-based Kiva as Amazon Robotics. The online retailer had rolled out more than 100,000 robots internally by 2017.

As a result, the so-called Amazon effect prompted other startups to develop and offer automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to retailers and third-party logistics (3PL) companies. Many of them, such as Canvas Technology, were at Automate and ProMat 2019 in Chicago in April.

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| Canvas Technology

Goods to people and robots with people Amazon uses more than just the Kiva robots, which bring shelves of goods to human pickers. The choreographed movement of multiple robots takes place on purpose-built warehouse floors. Amazon recently added safety vests to warehouse worker gear, so Canvas Technology’s systems could help Amazon in existing and smaller facilities.

In January, Amazon signed a seven-year commercial agreement with Balyo, a French company working on navigation modules to automate pallet jacks, tractors, and lift trucks. Amazon could acquire as much as a third of Balyo’s capital.

Boulder, Colo.-based Canvas Technology previously raised seed round investment from Visionnaire Ventures in 2015 and 2016 and $15 million in Series A funding from Playground Global in late 2017. AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures, and Xplorer Capital have also participated. Canvas’ staff includes Kiva Systems alumni.

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“This acquisition makes a perfect addition to the Amazon portfolio,” said Mike Oitzman, managing editor at The Mobile Robot Guide. “The Canvas Technology solution will augment the person-to-goods workflow in Amazon warehouses.”

Amazon’s purchase of Canvas Technology is part of a wave of recent transactions around mobile robots. In March 2019, there was approximately $183 million in investments in lidar and mobile robot companies. In February, Amazon participated in a $530 million Series B round for Aurora, which is developing self-driving technology.

Canvas Technology uses “spatial AI” to enable mobile robots to navigate safely around people in dynamic environments. It claimed that its combination of sensors and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) software can enable AMRs to

Amount Unspecified acquisition $530M Series B investment Up to $346M operate without relying on a prior map.

The robots can continuously update a shared map, according to the company.

Canvas said its 3-D cameras and navigation technology can be applied to autonomous indoor and outdoor systems, and the Canvas Autonomous Cart is used in warehouses and factories.

Amazon could also apply Canvas’ safety systems to its Scout delivery robots, which are in trials in Washington state, and its Vesta home robot project.

Amazon responded to a request for comments with the following statement: “We are inspired by Canvas Technology’s innovations and share a common vision for a future where people work alongside robotics to further improve safety and the workplace experience.

We look forward to working with Canvas Technology’s fantastic team to keep inventing for customers.” RR

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Augmenting SLAM with deep learning

By Andrew Davison • co-founder • SLAMcore

Some elements of the Spatial AI real-time computation graph. | SLAMcore

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of a robot’s location within it. SLAM is being gradually developed towards Spatial AI, the common sense spatial reasoning that will enable robots and other artificial devices to operate in general ways in their environments.

This will enable robots to not just localize and build geometric maps, but actually interact intelligently with scenes and objects.

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The three levels of SLAM, according to SLAMcore. | SLAMcore

Enabling semantic meaning A key technology that is helping this progress is deep learning, which has enabled many recent breakthroughs in computer vision and other areas of AI. In the context of Spatial AI, deep learning has most obviously had a big impact on bringing semantic meaning to geometric maps of the world.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained to semantically segment images or volumes have been used in research systems to label geometric reconstructions in a dense, elementby-element manner. Networks like Mask-RCNN, which detect precise object instances in images, have been demonstrated in systems that reconstruct explicit maps of static or moving 3D objects.

Deep learning vs. estimation In these approaches, the divide between deep learning methods for semantics and hand-designed estimation methods for geometrical estimation is clear. More remarkable, at least to those of us from an estimation background, has been the emergence of learning techniques that now offer promising solutions to geometrical estimation problems.

Networks can be trained to predict robust frame-to-frame visual odometry; dense optical flow prediction; or depth prediction from a single image.

When compared to hand-designed methods for the same tasks, these methods are strong on robustness, since they will always make predictions that are

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similar to real scenarios present in their training data. But designed methods still often have advantages in flexibility in a range of unforeseen scenarios, and in final accuracy due to the use of precise iterative optimization.

Building in the right assumptions

The role of modular design

• Basic geometry of 3D transformation as a camera sees the world from different views • Physics of how objects fall and interact • The simple fact that the natural world is made up of separable objects at all • Environments are made up of many objects in configurations with a typical range of variability over time which can be estimated and mapped.

It is clear that Spatial AI will make increasingly strong use of deep learning methods, but an excellent question is whether we will eventually deploy systems where a single deep network trained end to end implements the whole of Spatial AI. While this is possible in principle, we believe that this is a very longterm path and that there is much more potential in the coming years to consider systems with modular combinations of designed and learned techniques.

There is an almost continuous sliding scale of possible ways to formulate such modular systems.

The end-to-end learning approach is ‘pure’ in the sense that it makes minimum assumptions about the representation and computation that the system needs to complete its tasks.

Deep learning is free to discover such representations as it sees fit. Every piece of design which goes into a module of the system or the ways in which modules are connected reduces that freedom. However, modular design can make the learning process tractable and flexible, and dramatically reduce the need for training data. www.designworldonline.com

There are certain characteristics of the real world that Spatial AI systems must work in that seem so elementary that it is unnecessary to spend training capacity on learning them. These could include:

By building these and other assumptions into modular estimation frameworks that still have significant deep learning capacity in the areas of both semantics and geometrical estimation, we believe that we can make rapid progress towards highly capable and adaptable Spatial AI systems. Modular systems have the further key advantage over purely learned methods that they can be inspected, debugged and controlled by their human users, which is key to the reliability and safety of products.

We still believe fundamentally in Spatial AI as a SLAM problem, and that a recognizable mapping capability will be the key to enabling robots and other intelligent devices to perform complicated, multi-stage tasks in their environments. RR May 2019

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The Robot Report

Mobile robot

trends

from Automate/ProMat 2019 Incremental improvements, big new models took a spin in Chicago.

CHICAGO -- Attendees at Automate and ProMat 2019 here last month saw numerous autonomous mobile robots, automated guided vehicles, and accessories. From robots that can take shoeboxes from shelves to platforms for pick-and-place and machine-tending operations, suppliers started to fulfill the promise of mobile manipulation.

Eugene Demaitre • senior editor The Robot Report

Even as the sizes and types of mobile robots have grown for the supply chain and manufacturing industries, this year was one of incremental improvements rather than rapid innovation, according to analysts, engineers, and exhibitors at the show. Still, there were some significant mobile robotics trends and new models worth noting.

Mobile robots can reduce infrastructure reliance A major driver for the growth in mobile robots is the need for greater flexibility in factories and warehouses. From autonomous forklifts and tote conveyors to heavy-lift platforms, mobile robots can enable users to work with existing, non-standardized facilities. They can also help avoid the costs of bolted-down infrastructure such as stationary conveyors, multi-layer racks, and positioning systems.

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“In Asia in particular, companies don’t want to invest in more infrastructure,” said Jurgen von Hollen, president of collaborative robot leader Universal Robots. “We need to serve customer requirements.”

Cobots and AMRs were two of the best-represented types of robots in McCormick Place. More than 50 mobile robot vendors had booths at Automate/ ProMat 2019, observed Mike Oitzman, founder of Mobile Robot Guide.

While there were still plenty of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), particularly at ProMat, several suppliers touted the more advanced navigation and obstacle avoidance of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

Mobile carts for e-commerce order fulfillment were joined by a new wave of accessories. For instance, 6 River DESIGN WORLD

5/3/19 1:14 PM

Systems added Mobile Sort to its product line. The system combines machine learning with mobile sort stations and 6RS’s Chuck mobile robots. The company also featured demonstrations in which attendees could race with the robots.

ROEQ, a partner of Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), showed off its TR500 roller for the MiR500. “We are designed for the 10 standard pallet sizes in the U.S.,” said Peder Grejsen, technical sales manager at ROEQ. “Our nonskid rollers are collaborative and safe.”

Another MiR partner, Nord Modules, displayed its modular system for lifting and loading payloads onto MiR’s mobile robots. Relative newcomers to the U.S. market for AMRs included GreyOrange and Geek+.

On the navigation side, Humatics and Vecna Robotics’ partnership and

DESIGN WORLD

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Amazon’s recent acquisition of Canvas Technology are examples of how companies are collaborating to improve and spread their offerings.

“We’ve worked directly with Vecna and MiR, and our APIs [application programming interfaces] are simple and can provide 2cm [0.78 in.] precision,” said Sean Lorenz, director of product marketing at Humatics. “GPS fails in urban canyons, and we can help mobile robots and cranes in noisy environments.”

6 River Systems’ Mobile Sort includes sort stations and its Chuck mobile robots. | 6 River Systems

Bases get bigger Several mobile robot vendors displayed larger platforms at Automate/ProMat 2019, including Clearpath Robotics, Fetch Robotics, MiR, and Waypoint Robotics.

These larger robots are a far cry from the carts that follow (or lead) warehouse workers. Not only are they able to move www.designworldonline.com

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The Robot Report More new mobile robots Geek+ self-driving forklift The new Geek+ Autonomous Forklift features SLAM navigation and is capable of automated storage and retrieval. Its sensors detect goods on the shelves, locate pallet slots and carry goods to the appointed area.

Brain Corp. autonomous cart Brain Corp debuted AutoDelivery, a proof-of-concept autonomous delivery robot designed to work in retail stores, warehouses, and factories. Brain Corp isn’t providing the hardware, but will partner with manufacturers to turn their tugs into autonomous robots by retrofitting BrainOS into the product.

autonomously through more dynamic environments, thanks to cheaper lidar and more sophisticated software, but they can also serve as mounts for multiple collaborative robot arms.

Some are big enough to carry a car chassis, leading to visions of more flexible manufacturing. Imagine, instead of a car moving down an assembly line to be worked on by single-purpose machines, a swarm of robots moving around the vehicle. Such heavy AMRs could also be useful in construction and agriculture, growing applications for robotics.

Waypoint Robotics MAV3K MAV3K (pronounced Māy-vick) carries up to 3,000 lb. and has omnidirectional mobility. It weighs 1,000 lb. and complies with safety standards being developed at the Robotic Industries Association. It includes three layers of security measures: decelerate to slow, decelerate to zero, and safety stop.

Imagine, instead of a car moving down an assembly line to be worked on by singlepurpose machines, a swarm of robots moving around the vehicle. Such heavy AMRs could also be useful in construction and agriculture, growing applications for robotics.

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Mobile manipulation arrives The combination of mobile and cobots seems obvious, but the challenges of power, safety, and precision have taken time to overcome. Several mobile manipulators were demonstrated at Automate/ProMat 2019, but there have been relatively few use cases so far.

As part of its “smart production” demonstration at Automate (which it also showed the week before at Hannover Messe), Stäubli International showed its HelMo mobile robot, which carried a cobot arm.

“Our smart production cell is ideal for small-batch manufacturing,” said Sebastien Schmitt, North American division manager at Stäubli.

KUKA’s KMR iiwa is a cobot mounted on a mobile robot, using SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping).

“We have experience in missioncritical markets such as satellite manufacturing and life sciences,” said Michka Tosan, a sales application engineer at KUKA Robotics. “The mobile shop floor will drive down ergonomic costs.”

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IAM Robotics last month demonstrated expanded capabilities for its Swift mobile picking robot, as well as Bolt, its new tote-transport robot.

Coming to the U.S. is Magazino’s Toru robot, which is designed specifically for picking and placing shoeboxes on shelves. It’s able to do so from the lowest shelves and from beneath other boxes, explained Florian Wahl, public relations manager.

In Europe, returns are usually free within two weeks, so goods there have a 40% return rate, he said. Magazino is expanding its mobile manipulation with

Soto, which has a bigger gondola for totes.

One of the flashier debuts of the past week was Boston Dynamics’ Handle robot, a wheeled, ostrich-like mobile manipulator for reaching and moving large boxes. While mobile version wasn’t at the show, the company did have demonstrations of the industrial arm and suction grippers.

On a larger scale, Honeywell Intelligrated, which recently partnered with Fetch Robotics, introduced its robotic unloader, which can operated autonomously to empty a truck. RR

IAM Robotics’ Swift has been redesigned for a smoother lift and to exchange totes with its Bolt mobile robot. | IAM Robotics

Fast and easy installation with factory-friendly alignment tolerances Low sensitivity to dust and moisture Good resistance to shock and vibration

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The Robot Report

Expert roundtable:

mobile robotics challenges and opportunities A3 chats with leading mobile robot providers about the differences between AMRs and AGVs, addressing customer concerns, and novel applications.

By Jeff Burnstein • president •

Association for Advancing Automation

The market for autonomous mobile robots continues to thrive, with Technavio predicting a 24% compound annual growth rate for 2018 to 2022. New players continue to enter the fray, and innovative applications and proven use in large fleets are contributing to these vendors’ success.

To better understand the growth, the challenges, and the opportunities of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) turned to several market leaders. This excerpted virtual roundtable discussion includes Jeff Christensen, vice president of product at Seegrid; Ed Mullen, vice president of sales, Americas at Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR); Matthew Trowbridge, vice president of marketing at OMRON Automation Americas; and Jason Walker, CEO of Waypoint Robotics.

How do you help your customers weigh the pros and cons of AMRs with respect to other material transport options such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs), pallet trucks, conveyor systems, etc.?

Jeff Christensen, Seegrid: The key to automation decisions is not just thinking about what you need today, but also considering what you will need tomorrow.

Selecting technologies that will adapt with your material flow over time is crucial to supporting long-term efficiencies.

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As an example, traditional infrastructure-based AGVs—those that need wires in the ground, tape, laser reflectors, or other physical infrastructure to navigate—require costly installation of permanent landmarks, which adds rigidity to a facility’s processes.

No one can predict all of the things they’re going to need down the road, so it’s important to future-proof your system by incorporating technologies that are adaptable to unforeseen changes so that your infrastructure will not be a bottleneck to productivity.

AMRs like Seegrid’s self-driving vehicles use camera-based vision guidance for navigation, making them highly adaptable to changing needs and allowing customers to instantaneously redeploy a vehicle to perform a different function, shift, or even to an entirely new facility.

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| Waypoint Robotics

Ed Mullen, MiR: There are several aspects that customers need to take into consideration when choosing their system: which material handling processes they want to automate, what distances materials should be transported, the environment they drive in, if there should be any integration to communications systems such as ERP, etc.

In respect to the other material transport options, AMRs are the new, flexible, and user-friendly alternative to systems that have been existing for years and that in many cases cannot live up to the requirements of companies today.

What we see in general is that companies are looking into how they can automate their material handling which is non-value-adding, but they have been missing a logistics system that can fit into their setup. Companies today are facing shrinking product lifecycles with frequently changing customer demands, so they need agile production and factory layouts that can easily be changed.

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AGVs and conveyor systems are not flexible at all, but AMRs only require simple changes in their internal map, which make them the perfect match for agile companies.

Matthew Trowbridge, OMRON Automation Americas: AGVs, pallet trucks, and conveyor systems are the technologies we are trying to replace, as they are cumbersome, heavy, and stationary.

Our mobile robots run off of enterprise software packages, which can coordinate up to 100 mobile robots in a single facility. Additional enterprise software packages are available to increase the mobile robot fleet size.

They are completely autonomous and need no other guidance system, which saves businesses money by not requiring the installation of predefined routes.

Jason Walker, Waypoint Robotics: We encourage our customers to think about the more difficult-toquantify aspects of the ROI calculation in addition to the measurable ones when adopting AMRs. Examples include higher job satisfaction when workers can focus on valuable tasks they are proud

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The Robot Report The market for autonomous

Seegrid GT10 Series 6 vision-guided tow tractor. | Seegrid

mobile robots continues to thrive, with Technavio predicting a 24% compound annual growth rate for 2018 to 2022.

of, more energy at the end of the day, and a longer, more productive career.

These benefits make it easier to attract and retain talent in a competitive job market.

What are customers’ main concerns in implementing mobile robots and how are you addressing those concerns?

Christensen, Seegrid: The unknowns of new robotic technology can sometimes create concerns for companies regarding workplace safety. However, these concerns are often misplaced on automation—whereas the real danger is inherent in the tasks and jobs these technologies perform.

Our self-driving AMRs are proven to make workplaces safer and reduce the number of human-involved accidents over time. By removing human involvement from dangerous tasks, it reduces the chance they will be injured on the job and allows them to take on higher-level roles in the organization.

Mullen, MiR: Our robots are collaborative and completely safe, but customers are not used to this technology, and as our robots are transporting materials up to 500 kg among people that are walking around without any safety measures, safety is definitely a topic that comes up.

Companies need to be absolutely sure that our robots are actually safe.

At MiR, our robots speak for themselves, and an onsite demo can help customers understand the navigation and collaborative aspect of our robots. Our robots are loaded with safety features, and we live up to the relevant safety standards – safety is our main priority.

Trowbridge, OMRON Automation Americas: Much like the challenges any newer technology faces, we are overcoming the initial thought process of what it is, how much it costs, how it can be used, and the return on investment.

We want to have these conversations with people. Most customers find that the return on investment for mobile robots like ours can be as soon as six months or less, with the longest we have seen hit only two years.

Safety is a key consideration for AMRs. | Seegrid

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Walker, Waypoint Robotics: Customers are challenged with the risk of effort and expense in changing processes, the loss of productivity while making the change, and not feeling confident that the robots are going to work as promised.

Another risk is negative perception of the workforce.

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The Robot Report

MiR mobile robot with a UR cobot arm and Robotiq gripper. | MiR

Applications for AMRs will increase over time, says Ed Mullen. | MiR

Mullen, MiR: We see many innovative solutions. There is a big focus on adding mobility to more industrial robots, and many customers and integrators are working on solutions with collaborative robot arms on top of the MiR robots.

What are some of the most innovative ways you’ve seen mobile robots implemented?

Christensen, Seegrid: First, let’s debunk the myth that being innovative with mobile robots has to be complex and expensive. One of the real benefits of automated technology is that it can be leveraged effectively at both small and large scales. If you’re a regional supplier and thinking about how to operationalize a mobile robot for your warehouse, it is most effective when done incrementally, starting with a few vehicles that can lighten the load on your workforce.

For larger operations who have implemented and realized the effects of automation on a micro level, the addition of each new machine gives rise to interoperability benefits that come as a result of having a fleet of automated technologies self-coordinating movement and maximizing productivity.

We see many fully automated solutions, for example, where our robots serve as the flexible link between production lines or fixed conveyors, and our robots can take an elevator and open doors and lift entire shelves.

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Trowbridge, OMRON Automation Americas: One of our favorite uses we have seen has been in hotels. The robots can sync up to function with the elevators, effectively enabling them to go in and out of the elevators to deliver items to proper rooms and return to their starting destination for the next delivery. With the technology being so new, customers are finding new ways to capitalize on the vast capabilities of the mobile robots.

Walker, Waypoint Robotics: Feeding and watering crickets in an industrial cricket farm. RR

OMRON’s AMRs can be used in a variety of environments. | OMRON

May 2019 www.designworldonline.com

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

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The Robot Report

Integrating

AI

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autonomous mobile robots Developers and users of mobile robots can gain new levels of efficiency and safety with AI. Ed Mullen • Mobile Industrial Robots

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Manufacturers today are recognizing the significant benefits that autonomous mobile robots can offer. AMRs can automate repetitive and injury-prone material transportation without requiring expensive and disruptive reconfiguring of their infrastructure. Conventional logistics solutions like forklifts and conveyor belts -- as well as traditional automated guided vehicles -- haven’t allowed this level of flexibility or adaptability. Manufacturers and logistics companies trying to accommodate ever-changing customer demands will have difficulty if they rely solely on AGVs and other solutions.

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As a result, manufacturers satisfied with one mobile robot have started to implement multiple AMRs in hopes of expanding them to internal logistics applications they hadn’t realized could benefit from their use.

To facilitate the process, they are using fleet management software, which offers centralized control of the robots from a single station. The most advanced tools are able to eliminate any bottlenecks and downtime with 24/7 mobile robot operation.

Once an AMR is programmed, the fleet management system manages the priorities and selects the most suitable robot to the operation that needs to be carried out, based on position, availability, and top module.

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The Robot Report

Today, mobile robots use sensors and software both for control (to define where and how the robot should move) and perception (to allow the robot to understand and react to its surroundings).

The system also monitors robot battery levels and automatically manages recharging. In addition, it can control the robots’ traffic patterns by coordinating critical zones with multiple robot intersections.

Sounds smart, right?

These robots and the fleet management software that manage them are becoming even smarter with new artificial intelligence capabilities, coupled with strategically placed cameras that function as an extended set of sensors.

Today, mobile robots use sensors and software both for control (to define where and how the robot should move) and perception (to allow the robot to understand and react to its surroundings).

Data comes from integrated laser scanners, 3D cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes, wheel encoders, and more to produce the most efficient decisions for each situation.

These technologies give AMRs many of the capabilities similar to those being developed for automobiles. Mobile robots are able to dynamically navigate using the most efficient routes, have environmental awareness so they can avoid obstacles or people in their paths, and can automatically charge when needed.

How AI is changing the game Without AI, however, the robots react the same way to all moving obstacles, slowing and attempting to navigate around the person or object if possible, or stopping or backing up if there is no safe way to maneuver around it. The AMR’s standard approach is appropriate for many situations, but just as AI is powering new capabilities for self-driving cars and intelligent drones, it is also poised to dramatically change robotics.

AI for collaborative robots today is focused primarily on machine learning and vision systems, which are dramatically extending earlier sensorbased capabilities. In addition, AMRs are benefiting from advances such as smaller and more powerful sensors, cloud computing with broadband wireless communications, and new AI-focused processor architectures. These advances are widely available at lower costs, making it easier than ever to pull data from a robot’s immediate, extended, and anticipated environment as well as internal conditions.

Using these capabilities, fleets of robots are able to learn while they are online, like a group of online students, and then perform without constant

| MiR

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The Robot Report Mobile robot market growing While estimates vary on the value of the global market for mobile robots, industry associations and analyst firms agree it will continue to grow.

This is largely driven by the need for speedy e-commerce order fulfillment, the demand for more flexible operations in existing warehouses without adding new infrastructure, and improvements in sensors and software.

“Advancements in machine vision, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), swarm intelligence, and sensor fusion are making it possible for mobile robots to operate in unstructured environments such as the factory warehouse and the assembly area,” said Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at ABI Research. “These technologies are being supported by many cameras and sensors, such as lidar and radar.

Moving forward, the robots can benefit from the integration of deep-learning algorithms with sensor fusion and swarm intelligence.”

The autonomous mobile robot market will experience a 24% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2018 and 2022, predicts Technavio. Transparency Market Research expects the market to grow from $8.58 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 15.6% to $30.96 billion by 2025.

Similarly, BIS Research projects a CAGR of 19.67% between 2018 and 2023, with the mobile market reaching $9.9 billion in 2023. These numbers vary depending on whether defense robots, aerial drones, or other subcategories are included, but industrial platforms are still significant.

access to online content. Low-power, AIcapable devices, and efficient machine learning techniques support new robotic systems with low latency and fast reaction times, high autonomy, and low power consumption—all key elements for success.

AI improves AMR path planning, environmental interaction The new AI capabilities in mobile robots help maintain the robots’ safety protocols and drive improved efficiency in path planning and environmental interaction.

With MiR’s MiRFleet, for example, new advanced learning algorithms are implemented in the robot’s software as well as in remote, connected cameras that can be mounted in high-traffic areas or in the paths of fork trucks or other automated vehicles. The cameras are equipped with small, efficient embedded computers that can process anonymized data and run sophisticated analysis software to identify whether objects in the area are humans, forklifts, or other mobile devices, such as AGVs. The cameras then feed this information to the robot, extending the robot’s understanding of its surroundings so it can adapt its behavior appropriately, even before it enters an area. The AI-capable network helps the robot avoid high-traffic areas during specific times, such as when goods are regularly delivered and transferred by fork truck, or when large crowds of workers are

Other factors that could increase mobile robot adoption include the rise of mobile manipulation, a trend toward reshoring production in reaction to trade and labor concerns, and the proliferation of providers.

Where is mobile robot demand the strongest?

“North America is currently dominating the global mobile robot market,” said Rahul Papney, an analyst at BIS Research. “However, the geographical analysis of this market unveils a great potential for the growth in the Asia-Pacific region.”

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present, such as during breaks or shift changes.

For example, the robots will continue driving as usual if they detect a person but will park if they detect an AGV so the AGV can drive by. The robot can also predict blocked areas or highly trafficked areas in advance and re-route instead of entering the blocked area and then rerouting.

While the robots’ built-in safety mechanisms will stop it from colliding with an object, person, or vehicle in its path, other vehicles like forklifts may not have those capabilities, leaving the risk of one of them running into the robot.

With the AI-powered AMRs able to detect high-traffic areas before they arrive and identify other vehicles and behave appropriately to decrease the risk of collision, they are improving their own behavior and adapting to other vehicles’ limitations. With these smarter and more collaborative mobile robots, manufacturers should find it even easier to optimize the transportation of all types of materials as they strive to succeed on a global scale. RR

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Connect and discuss this and other engineering design issues with thousands of professionals online

About the author: Ed Mullen is the vice president of sales in the Americas at Mobile Industrial Robots. The Danish manufacturer of collaborative autonomous mobile robots recently launched its MiR1000, along with the industry’s first AI-based navigation capabilities for its entire fleet of mobile robots.

For more information, visit https://www.mobileindustrial-robots.com.

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The Robot Report

How

will impact 5G mobile robots The robotics industry could be a major beneficiary of 5G, the fifth generation of wireless communication.

If 5G meets its advertised median speeds of 1 Gbps, 5G will have a speed 20 times faster than 4G. Combine that increased speed with lower latency (about 1ms) and next-generation, 5G-powered robots should be more reliable and efficient.

The consensus is 5G will help robots take better advantage of compute resources, enabling robots to process more data in real-time, learn new skills, and better communicate with other robots and humans.

5G will also reduce the cost of robots by offloading Steve Crowe • Editor some of the processing responsibilities to the cloud.

The Robot Report “Higher bandwidth and lower latency enable advances in computer vision, edge computing capabilities, better localization, and other types of technologies that have been restricted by a wired connection or pared down based on their usage,” Joshua Ness, senior manager of 5G Labs at Verizon, recently told The Robot Report. “If you can run localized computer vision algorithms so cameraand sensor-enabled robots can better understand what they see and make better decisions, that’s a big benefit to industry.”

Carriers didn’t play much of a role in the development of new technologies with 4G. Ness said carrieres don’t want to make that same mistake again with 5G. “Nobody could have predicted the technologies, industries, and economies that were born out of 4G, which was an incremental upgrade from 3G,” he said. “That pales in comparison to the leap in connectivity to what 5G represents.”

The Robot Report asked leading robotics companies how they see 5G impacting autonomous mobile robots.

Here’s what they had to say.

Smaller size, smarter fleets Ava Robotics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based spinoff of iRobot, showed a telepresence robot and a customer service robot prototype at the recent Verizon 5G Challenge Demo Day. Marcio Macedo, co-founder and vice president of product and marketing at Ava Robotics, said 5G could help lower the overall cost of commercial robots.

“With the robots doing no processing and just transferring the data and receiving commands, you could offload a lot of computing to the cloud,” he said.

“We’re talking an order of magnitude reduction in what the robot needs to do.”

“In robotics, you create this vicious circle once you set the requirements,” Macedo added. “The weight drives the motor, the motor drives consumption, which drives the battery, which increases

Above: An intimate crowd watches a demo about how 5G could improve robotic manipulation during Verizon’s demo during Verizon’s 5G Demo Day. | MassRobotics

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5G could make it easier to deploy fleets of mobile robots, including Ava Robotics’ telepresence robots. | Ava Robotics

The Robot Report 5G Robotics Challenge

the weight. Breaking that cycle and cutting by an order of magnitude allows us to get to a price point that is significantly lower than commercial robots are today.”

Macedo said 5G will also make it easier to deploy fleets of robots. With 5G, one network can control multiple robots. It makes it easier for robots to share knowledge and navigate on each other’s awareness of the space.

Fleets of robots could potentially share collision avoidance data without having to go to the map, he said. If one robot learns about obstacles, the other robots can path plan. It’s easier to do that if the processing is all together instead of processing on each of the different robots.

To discover more ways 5G-powered robots can disrupt industry, Verizon and the Mass Tech Leadership Council, in partnership with Ericsson, held a 5G Robotics Challenge in the greater Boston area.

After a slew of submissions, the challenge was narrowed down to winners from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, as well as four startups: Ava Robotics, GreenSight Agronomics, RealBotics and Southie Autonomy.

The winning teams each received $30,000 to create insights, develop new use cases, and conceive innovative products that will advance the robotics industry by leveraging the speed, bandwidth, and latency benefits of 5G.

Dynamic obstacle avoidance Team Microgrid from UMass Lowell used two LiDAR sensors, four infrared sensors, and GPU on the edge to demonstrate dynamic obstacle detection and avoidance with a small mobile platform. Jumping in front of the robot and having it stop would not have been possible with 4G, the team said.

The teams had 12 weeks to create solutions in three key areas: industrial automation, collaborative robotics, and warehouse automation. The challenge ended with a Demo Day in late April at the Verizon 5G Cambridge Lab.

Enabling tele-operation RealBotics is using tele-operation and virtual reality to enable people to learn how to use complex robots, said Chris Quick, founder and CEO of the Pittsburgh-based company.

“We’re going from the camera and the computer on the edge to user via 5G for low latency and back to the device,” he said.

They had access to dedicated 5G networks at Verizon’s 5G Cambridge Lab and 5G Waltham Lab, as well as 5G training and mentorship from Verizon and Ericsson.

Waypoint Robotics also created a mobile manipulation platform for the teams to use.

The system included Waypoint’s flagship Vector autonomous mobile robot and its quick-swappable UR5 payload.

Waypoint Robotics provided a mobile manipulation platform for Verizon’s 5G Challenge, combining its flagship Vector autonomous mobile robot and quickswappable UR5 payload. | Waypoint Robotics

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Infrastructure within warehouse Melonee Wise, co-founder and CEO of Fetch Robotics, a California-based logistics robotics company, said 5G is a great solution to use within the four walls of a warehouse.

“If you have a customer without Wi-FI and want to get wireless set up very quickly, 5G is potentially a great solution for that,” she said. “You put up a 5G antenna in the building, all the robots have 5G modems and it’s a quick way to stand up Wi-Fi infrastructure.”

“But it’s not clear to me how you’d move large amounts of data around.

If you have one or two robots in a location, you can go straight to the cellular towers. If you have hundreds of

www.designworldonline.com

robots in one location, you might not want to be throwing that kind of data of cellular towers.”

Outdoor robots to benefit most Sean Lorenz, director of marketing at Humatics, which is working on microlocation technology for a variety of robots, said 5G will be more valuable once outdoor mobile robots become more commonplace.

“Wi-Fi works pretty well for those in a factory,” he said. “Until more real-time data is pushed off the robot and into the cloud or a fog infrastructure, 5G doesn’t have much value. Customers won’t put mission-critical apps on 5G given the maturity of the tech. Several 5G providers have talked about private 5G networks, which would appeal to some customers.”

“But as mobile robots move outdoors, such as ports, we’re seeing rail-mounted gantries and AGVs,” said Lorenz. “On the consumer/business side, you’re seeing food and package-delivery robots. You’ll see a point were 5G will be more ubiquitous, and that’s what we’re pretty excited about.”

Of course, 5G-enabled robots won’t happen overnight. “To productize a robot that takes advantage of 5G requires a different processor,” Macedo said.

“It requires less batteries on board to make the robots lighter. It’ll take time for 5G to be available and for robotics companies to truly redesign the products for 5G.” “A lot of teams said that what they’re trying to do -- in terms of increasing capacity from more sensors or improving the customer experience -- wasn’t possible before 5G,” said Taru Jain, product development lead for the 5G ecosystem at Verizon. RR

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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.

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Corporate Headquarters 29 Hanover Road Florham Park, NJ 07932 Toll Free: 1-800-774-3539 Tel: 973-660-9700 Fax: 973-660-9330 www.lappusa.com Email: sales(at)lappusa.com

maxon precision motors High Performance Motion Controllers

maxon’s EPOS4 series offer a reliable and extremely versatile platform of high-performance motion controllers. It addresses the needs of system integrators and fulfills the requirements of a variety of applications, such as industrial automation, apparatus engineering, and robotics.

These positioning controllers are scalable and consistently support a uniform set of functionalities and connection options. Modularity with different designs (module, compact, or encased version) ensures optimal integration in a wide variety of applications. The controllers offer excellent dynamic properties, control quality, and power density while requiring only minimal installation space. In addition, their automatic controller setting makes them ideally suited for easy control of both brushless (BLDC) and

maxon precision motors, inc.

125 Dever Drive

brushed DC motors.

Taunton, MA 02780

Learn more about the maxon solutions and visit epos.maxonmotorusa.com

Phone: 508.677.0520 www.maxonmotorusa.com info@maxonmotorusa.com

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MICROMO Power in New Dimensions: New BXT Flat Brushless Motor New winding technology, optimized design, & impressive performance make the new FAULHABER BXT Flat Brushless DC Motor Series ideal for applications in robotics, exoskeletons, & automation.

The external rotor BXT motors are designed for continuous output power up to 100 W, and deliver torques up to 134 mNm. • Flat design for space-critical applications • Outstanding ratio of torque to weight & size • Available in 22mm, 32mm, 42mm diameter • Available with or without housing • Matching encoders, gearheads & controls available Since 1961, MICROMO has been the micro DC motor

MICROMO

expert, serving OEM engineers to deliver outstanding service

14881 Evergreen Ave Clearwater, FL 33762 USA

and the highest quality products. As the exclusive provider for FAULHABER micro motion products to North America, MICROMO

www.micromo.com

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

May 2019 www.designworldonline.com

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Phone: (800) 807-9166

creates value through advanced design and engineering services.

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mk North America Enhance Your Automation with Pallet-Handling Conveyors Pallet-handling conveyors utilize pallets to transport workpieces asynchronously between stations. Pallets range in size from 10x10 inches to 48x48 inches, and are capable of carrying loads of nearly 1,000 lbs.

Pallet-handling Conveyor Benefits Are Delivered By: • Continuously moving materials from point to point • Handling every item in the same fashion with no variance • Removing production inefficiencies and wasteful delay by streamlining and standardizing the movement of material • Consistent material handling routines, ultimately reduces work in process and allows greater throughput • Eliminating bottlenecks and operations that require labor but, do not add value

Contact info: mk North America, Inc.

• Easily adapt to changing demands and production requirements

Website: www.mknorthamerica.com

• Efficiently handle changes to work flow by adding in new stops, locates or transfer components

Phone: 860.769.5500 Email: info@mknorthamerica.com

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.

NEW ENGLAND WIRE T E C H N O LO G I E S

www.designworldonline.com

Contact info: New England Wire Technologies www.newenglandwire.com 603.838.6624

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NSK Precision For Maintenance Free Operation Choose NSK  K1TM Lubrication Unit NSK’s K1TM is a uniquely designed system that not only lubricates but also helps minimize contamination. K1 material composition consists of 70% mineral

oil

and 30% polyolefin resin which ensures long-term, maintenancefree operation even under tough lubrication environments. K1TM offers no maintenance for up to 5 years or 10,000 km operational distance. K1 is ideal for environments where the lubricant is hard to replace or is easily washed away. Available in ball screws, linear guides, monocarriers and tough carriers.

NSK Americas www.nskamericas.com

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.

more than 8 million revolutions.

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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USA Website: www.posital.com Email: info@fraba.com Phone: +1 609.750.8705

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Renishaw Inc. QUANTiC™ Encoder series Our QUANTiC encoder series features exceptionally wide installation and operating tolerance, in addition to enhanced diagnostics compatibility. QUANTiC read heads incorporate our wellestablished filtering optics that averages the contributions from many scale periods and effectively filter out on-periodic features such a dirt. Also, featuring a third layer of signal filtering from a new detector design, which helps to eliminate non-harmonic signal frequencies that can occur due to contamination on the scale. These signal conditioning features combine to ensure low Sub-Divisional Error (SDE) and minimal signal variation over contamination. QUANTiC encoders will help to increase the throughput of high-volume production lines and offer potentially significant time and cost savings for OEM customers.

Contact Info: 1001 Wesemann Drive West Dundee IL 60118 Website: www.renishaw.com Phone: 847.286.9953

•

Email: usa@renishaw.com

ROLLON Extend Your Robot With A Seventh Axis Adding a seventh linear axis to a robotic system provides all the benefits of six-axes plus another degree of freedom for maneuverability during complex tasks. This flexibility lets designers of a pick-and-place system, for instance, “shuttle” a robot — or multiple robots — and parts back and forth along a rail. A seventh axis provides a host of advantages, including: • Extended operating area. Multiple robots or heavy loads can travel over long distances and to several workstations.

• Greater robotic output. An additional linear axis expands the work envelope to the point that companies can use smaller, less- expensive robots to perform the same amount of work as larger robots.

• Flexibility. Seventh-axis robot systems can accommodate lightweight or heavy loads, even at high speeds.

• Efficiency gains. More machines and processes can be serviced with one robot.

• Reduced capital costs. The combination of increased range of motion, greater output from smaller, more economical robots and the ability to service more workstations means greater cost savings for automated operations.

Contact info: Rollon Corporation 101 Bilby Rd. Hackettstown, NJ 07840 www.rollon.com Phone: 973.300.5492

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SICK, Inc. The Safety Laser Scanner for Outdoor Automation SICK has developed the world’s first safety laser scanner for outdoor use – the outdoorScan3. Certified in accordance with ISO 13849 and IEC 62998 for protecting people indoors and outdoors, it facilitates simple and safe outdoor automation in entirely new dimensions.

Your benefits • High productivity due to safe human-machine cooperation in outdoor areas • Incredibly durable, even in harsh weather conditions, with outdoor safeHDDM® scanning technology • Flexibility for safe, customized automation processes with field range of 4 meters and up to 128 freely configurable fields • Precise localization due to highly precise measurement data • Continuous material flow due to intralogistics process between buildings • Safe networking with Flexi Soft safety controller

May 2019 www.designworldonline.com

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SICK, Inc. 6900 West 110th St. Minneapolis, MN 55438 USA www.sick.com info@sick.com

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