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Changing the Face of Robotic Automation

Posted on by Erin

Realtime Robotics’ motion planning technology enables robots to make intelligent decisions, and it’s transforming how robots work together. Robots are now able to work together safely and productively. So what does this look like in a manufacturing setting such as chassis welding?

Developing multi-robot welding applications has traditionally been a very time intensive endeavor.  Welds must follow a set sequence, and minimizing cycle time is critical. Implementing a spot welding cell with upwards of 10 robots has traditionally taken weeks of programming and simulation, and months of on-site testing and tuning. With our RapidPlan solution, the implementation is significantly quicker and delivers a highly efficient, coordinated cell slashing the need for extensive testing and programming. Our technology also introduces advanced flexibility, allowing robots to pick up another robot’s work in the event that it malfunctions.

Conventional

  • Robots operating “blindly”
  • 100’s of hours for initial programming
  • 1000’s of hours for deployment, test and evaluation
  • Inefficient cell operation due to programming complexity
  • If one robot goes down, then the entire cell is down for hours

Using Realtime Robotics

  • Up to 10x reduction in initial programming and development time
  • Optimized cell operation
  • Guaranteed collision-free operation
  • No need for PLC interlocks
  • Immediate adjustment for robot failures

By integrating Realtime Robotics RapidPlan organizations can finally realize the long-promised productivity gains from robots working together in harmony. If you would like to find out more about how our motion planning technology is transforming the way industrial robots work together, then take a minute and complete the form reach below.

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Why Intelligent Robots Require More Than AI

Posted on by Erin

Robots are touted as the solution to multiple manufacturing problems from increasing productivity to solving the labor shortage. However, the promise of autonomous machines currently lags the underlying technology. One of the key constraints with robotic automation is the risk of collisions. Robots need a way to work in harmony with other machines and humans. AI is lauded as the answer to all automation woes; however, when it comes to creating a workforce of smart robots, motion planning is essential.

So, what is motion planning?

Motion planning is a multi-step process that can be used by a robot to position itself to perform a specific task. Motion planning relies on deterministic decision-making as it can’t afford even occasional failures because failures lead to collisions.

Here at Realtime, we have designed a custom hardware and software solution that makes rapid motion planning decisions allowing robots to work safely and productively with humans and other robots. Our collision-free motion planning platform is versatile and continuously accommodates changes occurring in a workcell. Robots can evaluate millions of alternative motion plans to avoid collisions and choose the optimal path, all within milliseconds. This allows users to operate single or multiple robots safely at full speed without the risk of collision. The combined features in the platform empower robots to function seamlessly across many deployments with minimal programming and reprogramming during implementation.

Where does AI fit?

AI, unlike motion planning, relies on probabilistic decision-making as some failure can be tolerated. AI and Machine Learning (ML) are perfect for many robotic tasks that accompany motion planning. For example, AI is a vital part of computer vision algorithms that process data from cameras, identify objects, and predict future object behaviors. It’s also critical for determining how to grasp objects. With these tasks, occasional failure is acceptable.

Our rapid motion planning technology allows a robot to see moving obstacles in its environment and immediately update the trajectory to avoid the obstacle, while still achieving its goal. The technology essentially opens the eyes of robots.

Rapid motion planning is essential to accelerate and expand robotic automation, as it creates intelligent robots that can operate at speed without the risk of collision. The technology, coupled with AI and ML, will be instrumental in delivering on the promise of autonomous machines.

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MassTLC Announces Realtime as a Finalist for Robotics Technology of the Year Award

Posted on by Erin

BOSTON, July 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Leaders of the Massachusetts innovation community gathered last night at Foley Hoag in Boston for a reception where the state’s leading technology industry association announced finalists for the 2018 Mass Tech Leadership Awards. The 15 award categories highlight the vitality, innovation and importance of the region’s internationally respected technology industry.

“Massachusetts is an innovation powerhouse. We develop and attract visionary leaders and cutting-edge companies that drive the growth of our economy,” said MassTLC CEO Tom Hopcroft. “From cybersecurity and machine learning to consumer tech and connected products, the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Awards draws attention to the deep pool of talent, innovative spirit and determination that thrives in the region.”

Finalists were selected from hundreds of nominations that were judged by panels of industry leaders in each of the 15 categories. The pool of finalists will be further narrowed during the coming weeks. Winners will be announced at the Mass Technology Leadership Awards Gala on October 3rd at Boston’s Seaport World Trade Center. More details, advance registration and sponsorship information are available at https://www.masstlc.org/leadership-awards/.

Finalists in each of the 15 categories include:

CEO of the Year

Mohamad Ali, Carbonite
Peter Bauer, Mimecast
Jamie Ellertson, Everbridge
Bill Wagner, LogMeIn
Mike Zani, The Predictive Index

CMO of the Year

John Bigay, iZotope
Gordon Burnes, Bullhorn
Norman Guadagno, Carbonite
Ed Macri, Wayfair
Lawrence Schwartz, SoftwareONE

CTO of the Year

Stephen Boyer, BitSight Technologies
Dan Bricklin, Alpha Software
David Lakatos, Formlabs
Bill Ledingham, Black Duck Software
Daniel Theobald, Vecna Robotics

Emerging Executive of the Year

Gerald Beuchelt, LogMeIn
Rob Gonzalez, Salsify
Jessica Meher, Notarize
Sunanda Patuasarthy, Wayfair
Jane Price, Interactions

Massachusetts Company of the Year

CarGurus
Everbridge
iRobot
LogMeIn
Wayfair

Massachusetts Emerging Company of the Year

BitSight Technologies
Cybereason
LevelUp
Flywire
Kyruus

Building a Better Workforce

HubSpot
FormLabs
Mimecast
The Predictive Index
Wellist

Influential Consumer Tech of the Year

Coravin for The Coravin Model Eleven
Cybereason for RansomFree
iZotope for Spire Studio
Sheprd for Sheprd
Root Robotics for Root

Machine Learning in Action

Crimson Hexagon for BrightView
Data Robot for DataRobot
Edgewise for Edgewise
Sophos for Intercept X
Spotify for “This Is” Playlists

Connected Product of the Year

Coravin for Coravin Model Eleven
Signify for Interact Landmark
Tive for Tive
Vesper for VM1010

Innovative Tech of the Year: Robotics

6 River Systems for Chuck
Ori for Ori
Realtime Robotics for Rapid Plan MPA
Waypoint Robotics for Vector
Vecna for Tote Retrieval System

Innovative Tech of the Year: Sales & Marketing

Allego for Allego
clypd for clypd
Crayon for Crayon
Interactions for Interactions Digital Roots
WEVO for WEVO Platform

Innovative Tech of the Year: Security

Appsulate for Appsulate
Edgewise for Edgewise
IBM Resilient for IBM Resilient
Mimecast for Mimecast Targeted Threat Protection
ThreatStack for Threat Stack Cloud SecOps

Cutting Edge Technology of the Year

Coravin for The Coravin Model Eleven
iZotope for Spire Studio
Formlabs for Form Cell
Markforged for Metal X
Vesper for VM1010

Technology for a Better Tomorrow

Clear Ballot for ClearVote
eMotionRX for EMotionRx
The Learning Corp for The Constant Therapy
LogicManager for LogicManager
Wolters Kluwer for UpToDate® Pathways

The full list of finalists and registration for the Mass Technology Leadership Awards Gala can be found here.

Awards Program Platinum Sponsors: Microsoft, Marsh & McLennan Agency, PwC, and Salesforce

About Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, Inc.

With 500+ member companies, the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) is the region’s leading technology association and the premier network for tech executives, entrepreneurs, investors and policy leaders. MassTLC’s purpose is to accelerate innovation by connecting people from across the technology landscape, providing access to industry-leading content and ideas and offering a platform for visibility for member companies and their interests. More at www.masstlc.org.


Media contact:
Sara Fraim
sara@masstlc.org
617-869-5425

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Why AI Will Augment Rather Than Replace Workers

Posted on by Erin

You can’t escape the debate around the future of work and the way that AI and automation will change how we work and live. This podcast from Invested explores how AI will augment people rather than replace them. The discussion covers the benefits, challenges and insightful comments from our very own Co-Founder and Sr. Director of Robotics, Sean Murray and Advisor, Stefie Tellex.

Sean states that “..the more I learn about the robots that are currently deployed, the more I realize how far away we are from the hype of robots taking away everyone’s job. The robots deployed today are very simple machines doing very simple tasks. Almost every task that involves any amount of fine dexterity or manipulation is being done by a human, and I don’t see that changing in the near future.”

From Stefie’s perspective, “it’s a conversation we need to have—how are we going to adopt this technology?”

Listen to the full discussion and understand more about how automation will augment rather than replace humans.

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Realtime Robotics Extends Relationship with Mitsubishi Electric

Posted on by Erin

Will unveil its motion planning technology coupled with robots at iREX

BOSTON (DECEMBER 12, 2019) – Realtime Robotics, the inventor of responsive motion planning for industrial robots and autonomous vehicles, announced that it is working with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to develop a custom integrated solution that pairs Realtime Robotics’ smart motion planning technology with Mitsubishi Electric’s industrial and collaborative robot product lines.  The intelligent robots will be on display at iREX later this month and there will be a series of demonstrations showcasing the motion-planning technology in action.

Despite the growing demand for automation, multi-robot work cells continue to require complicated, time-consuming, and costly programming, which prohibits the automation of new tasks. The custom Mitsubishi Electric seamless stackable solution significantly reduces work cell development time and costs while reducing cycle time with interlock-free, collision-free autonomous planning.  The joint solution delivers the productivity and efficiency gains that increased automation has promised but failed to deliver as yet.

Incorporation of Realtime’s technology enables industrial robots to work safely in dynamic, unstructured environments, allowing the robots to evaluate millions of alternative motion paths to avoid a collision and choose the optimal route before making a move, all in milliseconds.

The integrated robots will be demonstrated at Mitsubishi Electric’s booth (S1-03) at iREX in Tokyo (December 18-21) and will be commercially available in 2020.

“Our shared vision with Mitsubishi Electric is to help robots realize their potential in industrial settings. We are excited to unveil our motion planning technology coupled with Mitsubishi Electric’s robots at iREX, removing many of the boundaries to greater robotic automation.”

– Peter Howard, CEO, Realtime Robotics

“Smart manufacturing requires productive and safe robotic systems. With Realtime’s innovative motion planning technology, together, we will be able to transform industrial automation.”

– Satoshi Takeda, Senior Deputy General Manager of Nagoya Works, Mitsubishi Electric

About Realtime Robotics

Realtime Robotics has developed a specialized processor to generate safe motion plans in milliseconds for industrial robots and autonomous vehicles. Its solution enables robots to function together in unstructured and collaborative workspaces, as well as react to dynamic obstructions the instant changes are perceived. Its solutions expand the potential of automation. Learn more about Realtime Robotics here and connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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3 Reasons Why Autonomous Vehicles Need to be Able to React Like a Human

Posted on by Erin

As the age of automation continues to gather steam, car manufacturers are racing to achieve the ultimate goal: full autonomy of vehicles. However, before this becomes a reality, there are many hurdles to navigate. As an earlier post outlined, rapid motion planning (RMP) is an essential component for autonomous vehicles (AVs) to realize their potential.

To date, motion planning software has been constrained by general-purpose hardware. Here at Realtime Robotics, our RMP incorporates both specialized software along with, for the first time, dedicated hardware for motion planning, allowing the performance to be transformed.

So what are the benefits of rapid motion planning?

1. Speed it matters

Our technology supercharges response rates. For example, at 35mph, a car with RMP can react after traveling only half a foot.  (The car travels 1 foot every 20msec.) Compare this with traditional motion planning software where the same vehicle requires 100msec to generate a plan, meaning it can only react after traveling 5 feet. This ability to respond quickly is transformative as it allows more time to react and respond to risks, thus increasing safety.

2. Risk-aware planning

RMP can compute multiple possible behaviors of the other agents in the environment, such as cars, bikes, and pedestrians, all within the desired reaction time of 10msec. Before this, motion plans relied on a sole plan at each planning interval and hoped it was good. As a result of this, in urban environments where there is more uncertainty, the cars drive very slowly. RMP generates multiple scenarios simultaneously and creates the best plan within the defined risk tolerance.

3. Power play

Power usage is another key advantage as our technology uses significantly less power than motion planning utilizing general-purpose hardware. Hardware designed for a specific application is always more efficient than general-purpose hardware.

Our RMP supercharges the ability of AVs to recognize and respond to unforeseen events that will help deliver a new age of smart automation. For example, it’s able to accommodate a bicyclist who veers out of the bike lane and the pedestrian who suddenly steps off the sidewalk into the road. RMP enables AVs to react like a human without incurring any of the human’s flaws, such as being distracted by the radio or driving when tired.

The three key benefits outlined above will rapidly accelerate the reality of fully autonomous vehicles navigating urban environments. So, in a nutshell, risk-aware, rapid motion planning is the future of AVs.

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The Future of Robotic Automation in the 2020s

Posted on by Erin

The new decade is now upon us and media, academics, and analysts are buzzing with predictions for what we can expect from automation in the coming years. At Realtime, we believe that robotic automation will move from vision to reality. In the 2020s and beyond, I think we’ll see robots become part of our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Here are four predictions that we can expect to see come to fruition throughout this decade.

Robots as we know them have peaked

Demand for power and forced limited robots (cobots) has peaked due to reduced functionality and capabilities. By 2025 manufacturers will no longer be investing in these systems, and traditional cobots will be replaced by better technology for the human-robot workcell.

Slashing the programming burden will drive the adoption of industrial robots

Industrial robots will become more pervasive as they will become significantly easier to program. As robotic automation expands into new industrial areas like logistics and electronic assembly, this will be essential to facilitate widespread adoption. The shift in programming from script-based to graphical-based will be the catalyst behind this.

The regulatory environment will slow down the pace of progress

In the 2020s, the AI and ML technology landscape will move from the ‘Wild West’ where almost anything goes to a more controlled regulatory environment. The introduction of mandatory legislation will inevitably slow down the pace of progress, and this will impact robotic automation. For example, AI and ML algorithms will face safety regulations, and this will hamper the speed of development of vision systems that are the key to autonomous vehicles along with industrial robots taking on more complex tasks such as kitting or parcel sorting.

Robots will look very different, but functionality will remain limited

Human service robots will become much more prevalent; however, they will look completely different. Robots will transform to resemble small, cute pets so that they are less threatening to people. However, despite looking very different, they will still be relatively limited in terms of functionality. Despite the array of personal robots unveiled at CES, the days of robots being the answer to the grind of household chores is a long way in the future, so for now, people will still have to fold their laundry!

Robotic automation will be a crucial driver behind Industry 4.0 in the coming years, with robots ultimately becoming commonplace in both the workplace and homes. There will be some hurdles to overcome but it’s clear that the reliance on robotic automation will continue to grow as the decade progresses.

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Smart Robots Starring Realtime Robotics at iREX2019

Posted on by Erin

Every December, the robotics industry gathers in Japan to showcase the latest innovations at iREX, the world’s largest robotics trade show.  At the event, we were excited to unveil for the first time, Realtime’s technology integrated with various partner’s robotic systems.

For those who were not able to make it to Japan, then check out the videos below, showing how we are making smart collision-free autonomous motion planning a reality, removing many of the boundaries to broader robotic automation.

Mitsubishi Electric with Realtime Robotics

First up is our smart motion planning technology embedded into Mitsubishi Electric’s industrial and collaborative robots.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bhGOD0Z3hvo

JOHNAN and Realtime Robotics

Working with our partner JOHNAN, we were able to integrate our technology with Yutaka’s robots to demonstrate collision avoidance.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RHGICUdUDfI

Nachi and Realtime Robotics

Finally, a video of our hardware and software running a Nachi picking application.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xQKSWckLL1I

Realtime’s innovative motion planning technology empowers end-users to transform industrial automation. To find out more about how to deploy collaborative workcells without compromise for your application, reach out to us here:

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Five Career Questions With Our CEO

Posted on by Erin

Although Peter has been traversing the globe meeting with customers, partners, and prospects, we managed to track him down to answer five questions on how to prepare for a career in a robotic automation company.

Peter Howard

What do you wish you had known at the start of your career in robotics?

How primitive robotics really was and how long it would take to overcome fundamental limitations in basic technologies like motion planning…  And that it would take the promise of autonomous vehicles to finally attract enough money to propel robotics to the next level.

What’s something that you didn’t learn at college?

The difference between making a proof of concept that works once, and a commercially viable product that always works. The academic world typically doesn’t prepare you for this challenge!

What skills should kids develop to be successful in our new, automated world?

Focus on working in groups on school projects and helping everyone to contribute. Also, play as much as possible to hone your creative problem-solving skills.

What do I wish I could tell my 21-year-old self?

Trust your instincts, but use your head.

How did you end up as CEO?

Based on a repeated track record of building teams of capable, dynamic people who continuously develop and realize visions for how technologies can change industries in positive and profitable ways.

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Mitsubishi Electric and Realtime Robotics Bringing Motion Planning to Life

Posted on by Erin

Rather than telling you about our amazing technology, we wanted to share a video with our partner and investor, Mitsubishi Electric. The video below shines a spotlight on how we are enabling multi-robot workcells to operate safely at a productive pace.

With Realtime’s software and hardware embedded into the Mitsubishi Electric robots, they can now see and avoid any obstacles. The robots are smart enough to adjust or stop their motion if necessary, without any additional programming required.

Check it out for yourself!

https://youtu.be/ygrMxdpLQEY

The video shows how robots can collaborate together quickly and precisely. If you want to find out more about how to increase throughput and simplify programming then contact us below.

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