There was confusion after the acquisition whether Kiva would continue providing DCs with Kiva robots. Although Kiva said that they would continue selling their technology to other retailers it soon became clear that Amazon was taking all Kiva’s production and that, at some future date, Kiva would stop supporting their existing client base and focus entirely on Amazon – which happened in April 2015 when Amazon renamed Kiva to Amazon Robotics and encouraged prospective users of Kiva technology to let Amazon Robotics and Amazon Services provide fulfillment within Amazon warehouses using Amazon robots.

Consequently, there has been a scramble of new providers to fill the void left by Kiva’s technology, warehouse software systems and robots being removed from the marketplace. Many of these startups were showing their robotic systems at MODEX 2016 held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. MODEX is a big material handling equipment, technology and systems show with 850 exhibitors, 250,000 sq ft (23,225 sq mt) of expo space, 100 informational seminars and over 25,000 attendees.

Kiva’s robots and inventory management system were breakthrough technologies in 2011 and 2012 enabling items that were to be shipped to be brought to the packer near the truck door, instead of the more traditional method of the picker/packer going out into the warehouse, picking the goods, and returning to pack and ship them. At the time Kiva started operations, robotic picking was still a premature science. Consequently Kiva focused on managing the rest of the process: receiving, de-palletizing and storing items and bringing dynamically-stored shelves containing ordered items to the picker/packer to pick, pack and ship while the Kiva robot returned the shelves to the most appropriate area in a free-form dynamic warehouse and autonomously went off to bring the next shelf to another picker/packer.

Although vision systems and grasping technologies have improved since then, they still aren’t fast and flexible enough to replace humans so, instead, most new systems attempt to augment humans by reducing what they have to carry and the distances they have to travel to get the items that were ordered.

Source: Locus robotics

Fulfillment systems

• Iam Robotics, a Pittsburgh startup founded by a couple of CMU grads, is the only vendor that uses a robot arm to grip goods. It 3D scans and identifies items to be picked into a cloud library and then uses a mobile picking robot to go to and pick items, place them in a tote, and then place the completed tote on the nearest conveyor to a packing station.
• Locus Robotics, a Massachusetts-based company founded specifically in answer to the Kiva situation by a Kiva-using DC owner, uses a fleet of robots integrated into current warehouse management systems to provide robotic platforms to carry picked items to a conveyor or to the packing station thereby reducing human walking distances and improving overall picking efficiencies.
• 6 River Systems, a Massachusetts startup comprised of ex-Kiva execs, had a booth but wasn’t even showing a photo of their solution. VCs have seen the 6 River System, however, and value it highly: 6 River just got $6 million in financing from a group of VCs including iRobot.
• Fetch Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup that uses two different robots: one to pick and the other to assist workers as they pick by carrying the items and taking completed orders to the shipping station – autonomously.
• Magazino, a German startup that was not at MODEX, has a mobile picking system that has a retractable and rotatable column with a gripper system and a removable shelf. It is able to grasp rectangular objects from small softcovers to shoeboxes up to heavy cases. The robot stores items in its built-in shelf and delivers it to a shipping station.
• Grey Orange, an Indian startup that was also not at MODEX, has a system and product line strikingly similar to Kiva’s original offerings except that their robot is square and Kiva’s is round. GreyOrange has over 300 employees and its robots provide service to India’s e-commerce giants Flipkart, Jabong and Mahindra and has been signing distribution partners in Japan and throughout Asia and the Pacific.
• InVia Robotics, also not at MODEX, a Southern California startup with two robots very similar to Fetch Robotics’ except InVia’s method of picking is similar to Magazino’s. It grabs items and slides them onto a platform which then slides the item into a bin and, when the order is complete, slides it onto an autonomous mobile delivery robot.

Mobile platform systems

Mobile platform systems are designed to work across multiple environments – DCs, warehouses, factories – and are autonomous mobile platforms that can be fitted with special-purpose payloads such as for receiving, restocking, inventory, moving material from work cell to work cell, picking, supporting human pickers, packing and palletizing. Many vendors have provided AGVs, carts, lifts and tows, and have done so for many years. The older versions of these systems use markings, tapes, beacons, sensors and other things on the floors and ceilings to provide location information. Newer systems use the latest 3D vision systems, collision avoidance and mapping software to easily enable autonomous point-to-point navigation.

• Clearpath Robotics is offering 2 transporters: one for heavy loads of up to 3,300lbs and the other for light loads of up to 220lbs. Both can be fitted with a carrying cart, bin carrier or a plain flat plate, and both have an intuitive lighting system similar to white headlights in the front, red in the rear. Clearpath is an established provider of robotic utility vehicles for the military and academia and are taking that experience to provide solid mobility platforms for customers to do their own thing.
• MiR Mobile Industrial Robots, a Danish startup headed by Thomas Visti (who was VP at Universal Robots of collaborative robots fame), has begun to sell a small transport for logistics and healthcare. It operates as both a tug and/or a platform. It has 2 scanners and a 3D camera to make sure that it sees people and obstacles.

Next-gen AGVs: Vision guided robots

Seegrid calls today’s vision guided vehicles the next generation of AGVs. Many vendors have, for years, provided material handling AGVs used to tow carts and pallets around warehouses, hospitals and factories. They depend upon beacons or floor and wall markings for their navigation and are efficient but klutzy.

Erik Nieves, who previously headed US Yaskawa Motoman and is now in stealth mode with his startup Plus One Robotics, said:

“Perfecting perception and grasping have been major holdups – particularly for the applications that most factory and warehouse executives crave: autonomously loading and unloading trucks and containers, and ‘each picking’ (the automated means to handle and package goods). The development of these technologies has been hindered by the acquisition of Industrial Perception (IPI) by Google in 2013. IPI was at the forefront of clever AI combined with ranging sensors and cameras in being able to quickly identify, categorize and instruct the robot how best to grasp random objects. Since their acquisition, their technology is no longer visible to the market.”

Armed with lower-cost LiDARs and Kinnect-like infrared 3D camera systems, new players like Aethon and Seegrid entered the market with new capabilities – including being able to autonomously unload containers: vision guided robotic lifts, tugs and platforms.

• Aethon is a Pittsburgh-based provider of autonomous tugs used in hospitals and factories. Some of their AGVs (they have more than 400 in the field) have been outfitted for secure medication delivery, and all of their robots are assisted with their Cloud Command Center, a 24/7/365 remote monitoring service to get the tug out of whatever unplanned situation in which it finds itself.
• Seegrid, also based in Pittsburgh, has focused their vision guided kits and lifts on the distribution center marketplace (their main investor/partner is Giant Eagle, a large East Coast grocery chain supported by multiple distribution centers). Seegrid has also partnered with forklift manufacturer Raymond to integrate their vision guided system onto Raymond lifts. Most recently Seegrid unveiled a monitoring system likened to a subway platform display showing when the next train is coming, to provide awareness to approaching devices and also to provide human assistance when needed.
• Balyo, a French manufacturer of handling robots has recently partnered with Linde and Hyster Yale to integrate and provide their vision guided systems onto forklifts and tows manufacturered by Linde and Yale.

As an aside, Seegrid recently held a contest to acknowledge journalists covering the materials handling industry and they awarded The Robot Report third place at an Awards Celebration event held after hours at MODEX in Atlanta. First place went to John Hitch, a staff writer at New Equipment Digest; second place went to Bob Trebilcock, Exec Editor at Modern Materials Handling. Thanks very much.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to read:

• Meet the drone that already delivers your packages, Kiva robot teardown
• Alan Winfield on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Co-founders of GreyOrange: Akash Gupta and Samay Kohli

GreyOrange, an India and Singapore-based materials handling startup, has received $30m in equity funding to ramp up production of their Butler shelves-to-picker robot system.

Big Butler

GreyOrange currently has more than 300 employees, a number it plans to double with this new funding. The company has two products: a package sorter and Butler.

Butler is a square version of the circular orange-colored robotic system that Amazon acquired from Kiva Systems in 2012. The Kiva process had proven invaluable in speeding up the transportation of goods from the warehouse, dynamically storing them for best access and shuttlling them to pick and pack work stations — all reasons why Amazon evaluated and then purchased Kiva for their internal use. The Butler version purports to do the same set of tasks. GreyOrange’s list of clients are distribution center-based and include Flipkart, the Indian version of Amazon, Amazon India and Delhivery, an integrator and provider of distribution center systems throughout India.

Two questions come to mind about the GreyOrange funding:

• Why was it needed?
• Does their technology infringe upon Kiva’s and Amazon’s?

Kiva Systems and Universal Robots were, and still are, two robotics stars robotics. They both sold for phenomenal amounts and they were both predominantly funded from their rapidly growing sales.

• Kiva Systems, which sold to Amazon for $775m in 2012, had previously received $18.1m in three rounds of funding. An ex-Kiva employee said, “it was simply growth: new customers provided partial payments for their systems upfront, and that was used to grow the company.  As long as you are growing quickly, you can actually have positive cash-flow.  Eventually profits kick in.”
• Universal Robots was initially funded by a Danish semi-governmental group but was subsequently self-funded, in a similar manner to Kiva, up until they sold to Teradyne for $350m earlier this year.

Recently, Farhad Manjoo wrote in the NY Times about the propensity of startups to stay private. He cited executives not wanting to give up control or subject themselves to regular scrutiny by those that don’t really understand the business. This trend is causing valuations to differ for private as opposed to held publicly held companies (privately held valuations are higher). It is also causing public investors to miss out some of the successful companies in this new growth industry.

In John Markoff’s new book Machines of Loving Grace he describes the principle on which the Kiva system was developed:

Kiva Systems had the insight that the most difficult functions to automate in the modern warehouse were ones that required human eyes and hands, like identifying and grasping objects. Without perception and dexterity, robotic systems are limited to the most repetitive jobs, and so Kiva took the obvious intermediate step and built mobile robots that carried items to stationary human workers. Once machine perception and robotic hands become better and cheaper, humans could disappear entirely.

Finally, a word about IP (intellectual property, in the form of patents and copyrights): GreyOrange has to be on Amazon’s radar for possible IP infringement. I am presuming that GreyOrange has vetted their IP versus Kiva/Amazon and concluded that they are unique enough to not cause legal problems.

As sales via online retailers steadily increase, so too does the speed with which customers want their goods delivered. Amazon, eBay, and Google all have massive and speedy warehousing operations attempting to meet those needs.

Amazon Robotics (previously Kiva Systems)

Amazon changed their warehouse pick and pack operations from man-to-goods to goods-to-man using robots in their attempt to speed up operations. Kiva Systems and their orange robot fleet had been thoroughly field tested and became a winner in Amazon’s eyes, so much so that in 2012 they paid $775 million to acquire the company. Since that time Kiva has been busy supporting Amazon’s growth with thousands of Kiva robots populating Amazon’s many new distribution centers.

Amazon recently announced three interesting items: (1) that Kiva Systems would be renamed to Amazon Robotics, (2) that it was soliciting to hire a Head of Robotics, and (3) that it was sponsoring a challenge to pick items one at a time and package them. It was not clear whether the new Head of Robotics would also head Amazon’s Prime Air operation or the winning pick and pack effort but the Boston-based Head of Robotics will lead Amazon’s largest research and development center which has been “growing faster than at any time in the company’s history, opening additional facilities and expanding our technology charter.”

Amazon’s challenge is to use computer-vision and machine deep-learning technologies to pick items one at a time and package them. This contest has about 30 teams from around the world taking part in the finals to be held at ICRA in Seattle May 26-30. “Participating robots will earn points by locating products sitting somewhere on a stack of shelves, retrieving them safely, and then packing them into cardboard shipping boxes. Robots that accidentally crush a cookie or drop a toy will have points deducted. The team whose robots earn the most points will win $25,000.”

Amazon isn’t the only game in town for picking and packing of business-to-business and consumer goods nor are Kiva’s orange shelf-moving robots the only methodology. There’s Gray Orange, Hi-tech Robotic Systemz, Swisslog, Grenzebach, CIM Corp, Vandrlande, Bastian, Dematic, Adept Technology and most recently Fetch Robotics.

Fetch Robotics

Just the other day Fetch Robotics announced that they will demonstrate their new Fetch and Freight robots at ICRA in Seattle May 26-30.

The San Jose-based startup comprises a team that has a colorful history first as a spinoff from Willow Garage called Unbounded Robotics charged with making a low-cost version of Willow Garage’s PR2 robot. They succeeded with an orange, white and gray one-armed mobile robot that they could build and sell for $35,000 compared to the PR2’s $250,000 cost. That operation failed to get agreeable funding terms and folded but the team went on to found FYS Systems (fetch your stuff) which they recently renamed to Fetch Robotics.

The Fetch Robotics system is comprised of a mobile base (called Freight) and an advanced mobile manipulator (called Fetch).  Fetch and Freight can autonomously find and use a charging dock for continuous operations. In addition, the system includes accompanying software to support the robots and integrate with the warehouse environment.  Both robots are built upon the open source robot operating system, ROS.

The robots are designed to work autonomously alongside workers, performing repetitive tasks such as warehouse delivery, pick and pack, and more.  Fetch and Freight used in tandem are capable of handling the vast majority of most items in a typical warehouse.

From their videos and press materials, Fetch robots fulfill the Amazon challenge requirements. If Fetch is able to match the build cost formula that enabled Unbounded Robotics to offer their robots at $35,000 and come up with a similarly competitive pricing scheme, they will soon become a formidable competitor in the fast-paced distribution center pick-and-pack race.

Swisslog, Grenzebach and Kuka

Swisslog’s CarryPick system is very similar to Kivas. It uses automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and mobile racking units feeding ergonomic workstations all running under Swisslog’s WarehouseManager control system. Like Kiva’s system, the CarryPick system is scalable and can quickly adjust to changing requirements.

The CarryPick AGV has four clamp-on devices to lift and move shelves unlike Kiva’s single screw-on mechanism. But similar to Kiva, which uses barcoded spots on the floor, the CarryPick AGVs follow white lines on the floor.

Swisslog is 96+% owned by KUKA AG, one of the big four of global robot manufacturers. Swisslog has two division, healthcare and materials handling. Both are mobility-based in their solutions. Their hospital vacuum-delivery tubes business has morphed into a focus on AGVs for material handling and medication management.

Grenzebach, a large family-owned industrial automation provider, used to own 25% of Swisslog and also 25% of KUKA. Although they have recently sold both holdings, some of their AGV products are very similar to Swisslog’s AGVs. Grenzebach’s Carry AGV can transport up to 1.2 tons at a speed of up to 60 meters per minute backwards and forwards and can also turn on the spot. Their Snox AGVs are much more heavy-duty and include AGV-forklift trucks and industrial-grade car-manufacturing tugs.

KUKA’s strategy regarding competing in the warehouse material handling space seems to be through acquisitions and trading-partner agreements such as those with Swisslog and Grezebach plus its normal industrial robot arms – arms which Amazon uses to move heavy goods between floors in their new multi-story distribution centers and heavy goods in their case-packing and skid container centers.

Gray Orange, Hi-tech Robotic Systemz, CIM Corp, Vanderlande, Bastian, Dematic, Adept Technology and others

Two Indian firms are just beginning to market products and systems very similar to Kiva’s. Gray Orange, a 2012 startup, has a factory and offices near Delhi and a team of 120 working on what they call a Butler System, i.e., a mobile robot which picks up and moves a portable shelving system to a Put Station where goods are assembled and packed. Hi-tech Robotic Systemz, an established systems integrator of industrial robots in India, had a booth at Promat showing their AGVs being used for picked-goods mobility. This is similar to Adept Technologies mobile transporters which are used for a variety of purposes including the delivery of goods and materials within dynamic environments. In 2010, Adept Technology acquired MobileRobots, an AGV platform provider that sold their AGVs to others who relabeled them as theirs (Swisslog was one of those firms).

There is another whole world of gantry robot technology for goods-to-man order picking and shuttle systems. CIMCORP is an established Finnish provider of everything from car assembly lines to postal automation. Their goods-to-man shuttle system creates stacks of goods from the receiving dock. “When a particular SKU is required to fulfill an order, a robot retrieves the corresponding tote and deposits it on the shuttle device. The shuttle travels along the gantry and transfers the tote to the outfeed conveyor, which then transports it to a conveyor line that feeds the picking stations. Once picking from a tote is complete, it is conveyed back to the entry point to the storage area.” Vanderlande is a similar company in The Netherlands. It’s automated order picking/fulfillment systems can handle pallets, cases, and totes. Dematic GmbH (not to be confused with Australian Demantic) also provides a structural mobility system to move totes from place to picking station and back.

Bastian Solutions is an integrator specializing in material handling solutions for automated storage and retrieval systems and represent many of the larger providers as distributor, reseller and integrator.

There are many other companies in this space. I apologize for not including as many as I could find but….

Software

Underlying all the hardware, robots and robotics is an amazing array of software: navigation software, collision avoidance software, software to control the robots, send them off to recharge, and software to integrate into product ordering and fulfillment systems, to name just a few.

Kiva Systems attributes much of its success to their complete material handling solution which not only handles, schedules and operates their orange robots but also includes a custom wireless network and a server-based back-end system to stock, restock and position their portable dynamic reconfigurable free-form shelving system.

eBay is working on a different solution: finding product close to customers in local stores and warehouses and then arranging to deliver things quickly without the costly automated distribution centers that Amazon operates.

Bottom Line

The Kiva concept of bringing the shelves to the picker packer, the goods-to-man concept, has been copied internationally and relentlessly with many similar systems already in the marketplace. Changes at the picker-packer station, using follow-me devices such as the new Fetch mobile base, and new picking methods based on the results of the Amazon Challenge culminating at ICRA at the end of May are sure to enhance the process. As the controlling software gets better and more comprehensive, the ever-improving equipment component will become less important than the overall capabilities of the software system.

Raffaello D’Andrea’s robots can do amazing things: play soccer and ping-pong, perform complex choreographed acrobatics in the air, build towers brick by brick, and move pallets around warehouses. (See the video at his Web site, and check out his TED Talk.)

He also cofounded Kiva Systems, which was acquired by Amazon.com in May 2012 for $775 million with the hope of using the company’s orange robots to move items around warehouses, get products to consumers faster, and lower costs. Robots have reportedly been deployed in Amazon warehouses around the country.

Massimo Russo, a senior partner and managing director in the Boston office of The Boston Consulting Group and the regional leader of the Technology Advantage practice in North America, recently spoke with D’Andrea about the future of robotics. 

Edited excerpts from their conversation follow.

You’ve developed some amazing robots that play soccer and ping-pong. What novel potential uses for business and society do you see for robots in the future, and where are we liable to see robots next?

In the short term, the biggest impact is going to be from how we make things—how we extract things from the ground (mining, agriculture), how we make things (manufacturing), and how we distribute them. We’re going to see a lot of that innovation find its way into these sorts of realms in the next three to five years.

I still think we’re a ways away from the general-purpose robot in your home that’s going to do your bed, do the dishes, and so on. But I think we will also see in the medium-to-long term an infiltration of automation and robotics in the home.

A lot of your research has been around learning systems and learning robots. Do you see applications of learning algorithms for products such as the driverless car?

One of the biggest advantages of learning and adaptation is that it allows you to create powerful systems that are inexpensive to make. If you try to make a very precise robot, it costs a lot of money. If, however, you relax that requirement to make a machine that right off the bat is high performance, and let it learn and adapt tobecome high performance, it becomes economically viable to deploy such a machine. I think learning and adaptation will have a huge impact on how we make machines.

What has changed over the past few decades, either in terms of the underlying technology or in the economics of robotics, and how do you see robotics changing going forward?

A lot of it is probably best thought of as reaching tipping points. Let’s say you make a robot that could do something and that it costs $1.25 for it to do that, and a person could do the same thing for $1. You’re not going to use that robot. But next year, let’s say it takes 5 cents less to do it, so it becomes $1.20, and then $1.15, and then $1.10. From an outside perspective, you may say there’s no progress being made in this technology. Yet when that tipping point comes, when this robot can do the job for $1 or less, all of a sudden it becomes economically viable and everybody jumps in to adopt it. I think that there has been steady progress in the development of robotics and automation, but I think we’ve just reached various tipping points that will make them, all of a sudden, economically viable to deploy.

What kinds of systems innovations are you seeing? And if you think about this from a company perspective, are there interesting startups or maybe lessons even for the more established robotics players?

One of the neat things that big companies are doing is using robots in a cooperative fashion. A lot of people think that’s been going on for a long time, but actually that’s not true. For example, having multiple robot arms work together to manipulate objects for manufacturing, for installations, and so on—that’s a pretty new development. A lot of the big robotics companies are exploring these ideas—also integrating different types of automation technologies together. I think that’s an exciting development that big companies are mainly undertaking.

With startups, what really gets me excited are the folks who are looking at new ways to think about location and navigation. If we really want robots or autonomous systems to be pervasive, they need to know where they are—not just outdoors but also indoors. A lot of startups are trying to solve this problem by using advances in computer vision—and advances in inexpensive sensors, accelerometers, gyros, magnetometers, you name it—and in the algorithms to fuse all that information together and provide a local awareness for autonomous systems that just doesn’t exist right now.

Your startup, Kiva, was acquired by Amazon. What’s the long-term potential you see for warehouse logistics and management, distribution, and operations going forward?

What’s interesting about Kiva was that in the original business model, the key value that we thought Kiva was bringing to the space was cost. We thought, “Here’s a system that will allow us to reduce the cost of filling orders.” But it turns out that it was many of our secondary value-adds that were really exciting to customers: flexibility, adaptability, and a reduction in human errors. There was the fact that you could set up a warehouse in six weeks instead of two years, and the fact that if you wanted to reconfigure the warehouse, it was easy to do—which you couldn’t do with existing automation. The lesson was that businesses really want flexibility and adaptability.

Do you see applications of Kiva’s technology outside of warehouses, perhaps in more of a manufacturing environment?

Absolutely. We always thought about manufacturing when we were growing the company, but we were really focused on distribution. There was just so much opportunity in distribution that we said, well, manufacturing will come later—maybe we will spin off another company, maybe we will start another division. That still may happen. The underlying ideas can certainly be brought to manufacturing.

There’s been a lot of discussion about big data and companies hiring decision scientists. Are the underlying skill sets very similar, or should companies be thinking about hiring control engineers as well?

The right answer is somewhere in between. You can try to model absolutely everything and never look at data, and try to predict. This is what the Greek philosophers used to do—sit around and try to think of how the world works and forget about observations: “There should be a way to think things through.” That’s one extreme. The other extreme is, “Forget about trying to have any understanding of the physical world, we’re just going to look at data, and the data is going to tell us what causal relationship should take place and how the world works.”

We like to do things in between. We like to have physical models. We like to sit on the shoulders of the giants who have developed all of this understanding about how the world works. But we also like to use real physical data to augment our models, to refine our models, to tell us where our models have deficiencies. The more data you have, the better you can do that. I think there’s a lot to be gained by combining those two approaches. Folks who are only focused on big data—I think that’s limiting. Folks who can only do modeling—I think that’s limiting. You need people who can do modeling and who can work with big data.

Systems are inherently unpredictable and complex when you start connecting them. Do you have any cautionary tales for business leaders about how behaviors could be unpredictable around business systems?

There are many examples of when feedback or interactions with the environments can cause things to go wrong. One example that comes to mind is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. When this bridge was designed, people didn’t really take into account the interaction of the bridge with a constant flow across the bridge. That caused the bridge to become unstable, and it collapsed. There was Chernobyl, which was basically a system that ran wild and became unstable because of various feedbacks that caused a positive runaway cycle.

Feedback is very powerful, but it’s also very dangerous. You have to be very careful when you start feeding things back without some sort of supervision, because you get unpredictability. It’s a two-edged sword: you want to harness the power, but at the same time you don’t want things to go wrong.

How do you get around that? One, try to understand things before you connect them together and try to predict what could go wrong. You can do that by simply trying to understand the system and trying to reason through it, but also you can make simulation models, agent-based models, you name it. I think that’s the first point. Second, just be cautious. Try things out, and see how it works. For really complicated things, it’s very difficult to prove that something is going to work when interconnected. A lot of times you just have to try it out.

In September 2014 Amazon announced the Amazon Picking Challenge, a new robot manipulation contest as part of the ICRA robot challenges. The idea was to take a difficult problem from the warehouse order-fulfillment industry and see how far contestants can get applying innovative robotics research. The challenge is centered around a problem the robotics community has been chipping away at for decades: picking various, distinct items off of a shelf under uncertain conditions. The location of the item is only known within a few dozen centimeters, and only vague high-level information is known about the item itself. The challenge description has obvious roots in warehouse fulfillment, but this is clearly a generic task robots need to get better at to be useful in a variety of everyday contexts.

When inventory comes into an Amazon warehouse it is singulated (pulled apart into individual items a customer might purchase) and stocked into shelves, and the location of the item is tagged in a warehouse management system. Later, when the item is ordered, a person is directed to the shelf that contains this item and picks it off. Shelves are often stocked as densely as possible to maximize the value of the warehouse. In a system that handles millions of different products, it is economical to store a variety of items in the same space. The resulting mixed and cluttered bin is relatively easy for a human to work with, but poses a challenge for traditional automation systems.

We might have an idea of what the item ordinarily looks like beforehand, but perhaps this time the packaging has changed color, the manufacturer has added an extra plastic bag to protect it, or it is folded in half inside the bin. Products in an Amazon warehouse have a wide range of visual and physical properties. A real product is rarely just a simple brown cardboard box. It could be a large stuffed animal, a floppy bag of rice, a package of cookies (cookies are more appetizing in their un-crushed state), a necklace, or a small USB stick. The goal in creating this challenge was to clearly define a simplified but applicable version of the real world problem.

The ICRA challenge lists 27 different items that will be randomly stocked inside of a pre-defined shelf structure. The challenge carefully avoids putting constraints on the solution space. The goal of this first challenge year is not to drive toward any one specific software or hardware architecture, but to provide the robotics community with a difficult, real-world problem. The human arm has 7 degrees-of-freedom, but is this really the best configuration to complete such a task? Robot end-effector designs are undergoing a renaissance (as evidenced by the variety of new gripper companies appearing each year), but which design fits well in tight spaces? Perhaps calling this the ‘Picking’ challenge was misleading. Pick and place is a convenient categorization for robotics, but observation of human strategies in these tasks has shown that human manipulation is far more nuanced than the simple approach-grasp-retreat paradigm we traditionally see in a robot. Humans take advantage of many different environmental constraints to perform the task effectively.

The response from the community so far has been fantastic. Over 150 people have signed up for the contest email list, and three robot distributors have agreed to bring base platforms if necessary for teams that can’t bring their own bot (Rethink Robotics with the Baxter Research Robot, Clearpath Robotics with the PR2 Robot, and Olympus Controls with the UR5). We hope this is the beginning of a fun and fruitful event that helps bring together subdomains of robot manipulation to accomplish some very cool tasks. We look forward to seeing everyone at ICRA in 2015!

The first deadline for the challenge is to submit a video this year to receive free challenge supplies in the mail (items and a shelf). Learn more at: http://amazonpickingchallenge.org.

At previous MODEX events – trade shows exhibiting the latest manufacturing and supply chain equipment and technologies – Kiva had their own boothes. Big boothes with lots of people marveling at their orange robots. Today at MODEX, those orange robots were moving to a different drummer.

Amazon was marketing their full-service distribution service – and also doing some recruiting. Kiva was in the background playing a support role – which is what Amazon was marketing.

At day 1 of MODEX, one could see lots of joint ventures involving robotics:

• Adept provides a mobile platform for Demantic’s AGVs
• Yale provides a driverless lift for Seegrid’s new autonomous forklift
• Seegrid provides the navigation and vision systems for Yale’s new autonomous forklift

Also shown were many products meant to ease ergonomic strain on human workers.

• Caster and wheel companies were showing new technologies to reduce push and pull strain
• Coiled vacuum lifts for lifting boxes onto tables or conveyors
• Forklift companies were adding rollers on their forks to reduce torque needed to squeeze under a skid

PS: This may help explain why Google acquired Holomni, the creator of high-tech powered casters for omnidirectional motion … mobile consumer products in the future?

When you’re shopping for the best online deals you’re probably not thinking much about the massive distribution network required to bring that pair of shoes to your doorstep. Is your quest for the best possible deal helping to usher in the next wave of automation?

Internet giants like Amazon and Google have an obligation to stay competitive and are going head-to-head over the online shopping space. Customers choose to purchase the lowest priced product, without loyalty to any online e-tailer, and expect fast shipping and handling. Amazon and Google appear to have two strategies for staying competitive: improving their search experience and decreasing inefficiencies in their supply chain. For the latter strategy, both companies have publicized their interest in robotics – and have invested heavily.

The manufacturing sector has relied on robotics and automation for several decades. In many sectors, productivity has increased while employment levels diverged, leading many people to assume “robots kill jobs.” Technology has been displacing workers for the past century, but I have not heard of a customer who has voluntarily purchased a more expensive product in order to reward a company for their inefficient operations. Robotics and automation are the link between data and the physical world, and automation technology is required for the production of complex products, but the hypocrisy between “having our cake, and eating it too” has put robot companies in an awkward position: automation has advanced the human race with wonderful products, but many people say they would rather throw that productivity away in order to keep their jobs.

Humans live in a physical world: we touch, hold, and eat physical things – so society needs to accept that as long as we demand inexpensive goods and services, companies will choose to automate a process the moment a technology becomes available. This strive for efficiency is constant, ongoing, and cannot be stopped  – even if jobs are displaced in the process.

New robotics companies are finding it difficult to attract investors – especially if their robot can’t be put under a Christmas tree. The online storefronts that Silicon Valley investors have fallen for are subject to market commoditization, and the only way to compete is to make the physical world, production and distribution, more efficient. Due to rising wages and physical limitations on the human body, this cannot be achieved with pure manual labor. In my experience, investors have noticed Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva Systems and are beginning to realize that the backbone of internet shopping lies with automating factories and warehouses.

According to a recent New York Times article: “Google’s robotics effort is not something aimed at consumers. Instead, the company’s expected targets are in manufacturing — like electronics assembly, which is now largely manual — and competing with companies like Amazon in retailing, according to several people with specific knowledge of the project.” In fact, Google just announced a partnership with Foxconn for electronics assembly.

Fuel and labor costs are having a direct effect on Amazon Prime’s pricing, and Amazon announced a rise in prices that provoked a negative reaction by shareholders. I stretch to suggest a large percentage of customers who enjoy Amazon Prime’s free or inexpensive shipping also complain about robots taking jobs – a counter-productive opinion for a society that wants lower priced products but cannot accept the employment ramifications.

Amazon and Google are in competition and both will use robots for a more efficient supply chain. All companies will automate processes when the appropriate technology becomes available. Technical improvements are constantly sought after, manual labor is not, so companies will always demand robots as an alternative to having a less efficient workforce. Folks who choose to educate themselves and gain the necessary skills will always find a job. My wish for all people is they get to spend their lives instigating the projects they find most meaningful and do what people (not robots) are best at: imagining a better world, designing the future, and making amazing things happen.

Perhaps when Google and Amazon has elimiated shipping and handling costs, we can find some room in our wallet to donate $1 of every internet purchase back to our education system.

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in:

• Big deals: What it means to have the giants investing in robotics
• 7 consumer robots to look out for from CES 2014
• The economic impact of the robotic revolution
• The death of search (or, My dysfunctional relationship with Siri)
• Foxconn and Google cooperating to make robots

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

If the world outside the robotics community didn’t know about Boston Dynamics, Kiva and Nest, they do now. Recent robotics acquisitions and investments by major-league players like Google, Apple and Amazon have generated a blitz of headlines in the robotics world and beyond. Are we witnessing a power play in the making? What does it mean for the future of robotics? And is all the hype beneficial or harmful to the robotics community?

This month’s Robotics by Invitation will serve as a launch for Robohub’s newest focus series on how big time corporate attention effects the culture of robotics. In the coming weeks we will be bringing you insight from the likes of Steve Cousins, Dan Kara, Valery Komissarova, Avner Levin, Chad Partridge, Gill Pratt, Erin Rapacki, Frank Tobe, and Rob Wilson.

Today, RBI panelists Mark Stephen Meadows, AJung Moon and Alan Winfield weigh in …

Alan Winfield on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”

Judging by the levels of media coverage and frenzied speculation that has followed each acquisition, the short answer to what does it mean is: endless press exposure. I almost wrote ‘priceless exposure’ but then these are companies with very deep pockets; nevertheless the advertising value equivalent must be very high indeed. The coverage really illustrates the fact that these companies have achieved celebrity status …

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Mark Stephen Meadows on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”

Google, is the wild card for me.  With more acquisitions than Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft combined, the GOOG looks to be rigging up a kit that would offer excellent image recognition + navigation + mobility.   A robot that can roam around your home or maybe your city, and offer a helpful service. My bet is that these Googlebots (perhaps they will be cars) will have sharp eyes, simple yet helpful demeanors, and we’ll trade that robotic service for our personal info …

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AJung Moon on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”

It’s exciting for the robotics community that the giants (Google, Apple, and Amazon) are actively investing in robotics. Large scale investments by giant corporations, regardless of what their actual plans are, can have a positive impact on the job market for roboticists, increase competition between the giants and push robotics forward. But I began to feel uneasy when Google acquired Boston Dynamics …

Read more →

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in:

• Robohub focus: Dealing with the ‘jobs’ question
• Robohub focus on frontier robotics: High risks, high rewards
• Robotics by Invitation: Is open source a good business model for robotics?

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Moreover, the secondary impact is the potential limitation of outside sales of Kiva to other key retailers and impact on existing Kiva customers over time. We continue to believe AMZN is poised for strong volume growth and market share gains (3P, Prime, digital, etc.) and believe margins should improve slightly in FY14. Our 3 key driver thesis of: 1) 30-40% volume growth, (2) service fee growth of 40-50%, and (3) expanding GM appears intact as AMZN cycles through easier unit comps. We reiterate our BUY rating and $425 FV based on 1.7x FY15 EV/Sales, as we believe AMZN is poised for strong unit growth and market share gains in FY14.

Key Points

Key commentary from Q3 – Kiva rollout begins. On 3/19/12, AMZN announced the $775M cash acquisition of Kiva Systems. The plan at the time of the acquisition was to incorporate Kiva’s fulfillment technology into AMZN’s FC’s; however, since then there was little commentary around integration until the Q3 earnings release, when CEO Jeff Bezos noted that they had “deployed 1,382 Kiva robots in three FCs”. Based on our previous work with Kiva and other covered eCommerce companies, and recent discussions with Fulfillment experts, we believe this could be a significant opportunity to drive higher operating efficiency across AMZN’s massive FC network.

Kiva can potentially drive 20-40% improvement in cost per order (CPO). Within a fulfillment center direct labor (pick, pack, sort) remains one of the most expensive tasks in fulfillment. Within that direct labor cost, travel time (i.e. moving around and picking items) will likely be the most expensive and largest cost component. The leverage that Kiva can provide lies in reducing the amount of product “touches” and pick times that a pick worker must perform, or going from multi-touch to single touch where pick rates can improve by 2x. Based on discussions with industry sources which have indicated that Kiva can reduce a company’s CPO by 20-40%+, we have constructed a CPO and Kiva efficiency analysis on the following pages to help quantify the potential margin impact.

Potential for $450-900M in cost savings or 60-120 bps accretive to CSOI margins. For our analysis, we focused on AMZN’s NA fulfillment operations which are further along in development and worked to isolate the direct labor component (see figure 1), or the costs associated with pick/pack/ship. By our math, we calculate AMZN’s NA CPO to be in the $3.50-3.75 range in FY13 (see figure 2), which we estimate has gone up given rapid FC build out. We believe this is fairly consistent based on discussions we’ve had with industry professionals who have commented that large scale fulfillment operations have CPO’s in the ~$3 range. Assuming a 20-40% reduction in our calculated CPO based on Kiva implementation (see figure 3), we estimate that Kiva could drive fulfillment cost savings in the $450-900M range or be 60-120 bps accretive to CSOI margin.
View the full report.

People appear willing to pay more to get the extra features of an iPad or tablet. Thus e-readers were a device for a particular moment in time that has been replaced by a newer technology. This process is analogous to secretaries being replaced by word processing machines and then by PCs, WordStar and Microsoft Word.

Temporary, Incremental and Transitional Solutions

CyPhyWorks new EASE drone.

A great example of a temporary solution is CyPhy Works‘ new pair of drones (EASE and PARC): timely, innovative and providing solutions for specific needs with a transitional solution: a tether.

CyPhy Works began with funding to research methods to view and analyze bridges and other potential security targets but soon concluded that conventional drones couldn’t handle the payload of cameras and instruments, sensor processing, security, and flight duration needed to get the job done.

“The biggest problem with [surveillance] robots today is they send them inside a building, they go down the stairs, no communications; they go around the corner, no comms. You go into a bunker and it’s got some rebar and you don’t get comms,” CEO Helen Greiner says.

“The problems are power and communications. It all comes down to that.”

“When you have a flying vehicle of a size, a diameter that can fit through a door comfortably, it will last for, you know, 20 minutes. And then the customers will want to carry something else, and that something else requires power, and it weighs the robot down and it ends up lasting 15 minutes, and somebody else puts something on and it ends up lasting 10 minutes, and none of it’s acceptable. You would have to be small and fly for at least a few hours to make it useful. With the filament, basically you get high-definition video images all the time, and then it has the added advantages in that it can’t be jammed, it can’t be spoofed, it can’t be intercepted. And it has unlimited power.”

Hence the tether, a clever adaption to today’s limitations enabling the drones to fly for as long as necessary, stream high-def images and sensor data to the base station for processing (instead of onboard), and with security assured (from the device at least) to the base station. [As an aside, the tether is enhanced by having the spooler autonomously controlled by the drone instead of the base station thereby reducing the chances for entanglement. Should it happen to snag or break, the vehicle can use its battery power to fly back to its point of origin.]

An example of an incremental product is the slow but steady movement toward autonomous cars. First there was adaptive cruise control (2001) which automatically adjusts your speed depending on the car in front. Next came active braking (2004), which could detect if a crash was imminent and apply the brakes if necessary. This was followed by lane assist (2008) and self parking systems. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S Class by Daimler AG (ETR:DAI), will be the first car capable of fully driving itself (under certain minor limitations) by adding new rear-end sensors, pedestrian awareness and driver alertness cameras. The system will rely on 26 separate sensors, including radar and stereo cameras, to monitor traffic and pedestrians up to 650 feet in front. “Steering Assist” will steer in stop-and-start situations and at speeds up to 124 mph; it will slow entering curves but stay in its lane until the driver takes over. [This is just the beginning folks!]

Other incremental and transitionally useful consumer products include CaddyTrek‘s follow-the-golfer carts, Zodiac Marine & Pool‘s Polaris pool cleaners, Husqvarna‘s lawn mower (STO:HUSQ-B) and iRobot‘s (NASDAQ:IRBT) family of floor care products – all examples of early-adopter products for the tech savvy offering some level of utility for their stated tasks. 3D printers also fall into this category with a range of products from $300 on up to $1 million. The stocks of these companies have been highlighted by many of the analysts in recent months as great buys: Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) (which just acquired competitor Objet), 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) and Arcam AB (STO:ARCM). All three stocks have doubled in the last year. Alas, MakerBot, the do-it-yourself (DIY) phenom, is still privately held.

Really Great Inventions

The da Vinci surgical system by Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG), Kiva’s warehouse robots and goods-to-man concept (Kiva was acquired by Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) earlier this year), and Liquid Robotic‘s wave gliders are present-day robotics stars. Each is unique and disruptive to the way things were done and each is just a precursor to how things will be in the near future.

Less well known inventions are the inroads the larger industrial robot makers have been making with lightweight single and dual-armed robots capable of working alongside their human counterparts – without a protective barrier between them. Yaskawa Electric (TYO:6506), ABB (NYSE:ABB), KUKA (ETR:KU2), ST Robotics and Universal Robots all have new products making waves in the industry. Rethink Robotics‘ Baxter is the newest player in this trend toward robotic co-workers.

Toys, Kits and Academic Training Bots

WowWee’s Femsapien, Parrot’s AR.Drone quadcopter and Aldebaran’s Nao.

Toys like Parrot‘s (EPA:PARRO) AR.Drone quadcopter (a present-day global hit) and WowWee‘s line of robotic toys and pets (Robosapien, Roboraptor, etc.) have sold millions of units. Aldebaran‘s Nao robots have a large following in high schools and colleges partly because of their enticing humanoid form, their involvement in robotic soccer games, and their high functionality for low cost.

But there are also toys and other robotic items that whither because the developer didn’t want to be diverted into a business when all he/she wanted was to build something fresh and fun. Many of the tele-presence devices getting crowd-funding in recent months are fun-tech gimmick products with no long-term business plan or even interest in having one.

Don’t get me wrong. Robotic toys are likely to be the precursor to more useful robotic inventions – perhaps from the same inventors. But there is definitely an explosion of this kind of robotic toy – SWIVL, Autom, Sphero, Romo and Botiful being examples.

Within academia, industrial robot companies have donated and made available low-cost robots and teacher’s guides for high schools, junior colleges, tech schools and universities for years to help stimulate STEM careers and robotics in particular. Staubli’s Robot House at SCI-Arc, a leading architectural school in Southern California, is an example. But in recent years, more humanoid and open source robots are becoming affordable. Also helping speed up development are open source software resources such as Willow Garage’s ROS.

Healthcare Robotics

In a few recent articles in robotics and healthcare media, including one by the editor of Robotics Review, there has been a call for leadership – for national direction in strategic areas of the robotics industry, particularly in the area of healthcare. Henrik Christensen and the team involved with the publication and presentation of “A Roadmap for U.S. Robotics: from Internet to Robotics” began the process and it has slowly gained momentum.

Early last year President Obama established the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative which included a section for robotics. The initiative was funded with $500 million, 10% earmarked for robotics. The scope of his directive was to insure that critical (defense and security) products were manufactured by Americans in America. Tom Clancy’s new book “Threat Vector” shows just how critical this can be in his fictional account of a virus planted on a foreign-made hard drive component installed in an American-made disk integrated into a high-security American defense installation.

Other countries – the EU, Korea and Japan in particular – have public-private consortiums working on difficult problems for which solutions are in the national interest, hence the reason why they are funded. Other than the American Manufacturing Initiative, American doesn’t have any such strategically-funded national interest projects (except military and defense).

To my way of thinking, advancements in healthcare shouldn’t be held up or otherwise thwarted because of patents, research funding or other corporate or personal (selfish) rationalizations. Patient care should be paramount, profits and profitability secondary. But that’s not the way it is at present nor will it change without political intervention.

I’d like to suggest a change similar to what Henry Ford did when confronted with a similar situation 100 years ago.

In the early years of automobile development, a group owned the rights to a two-cycle gasoline engine patent. By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize the industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands or risk a lawsuit. In 1911, Henry Ford won a challenge to the patent. The result was that the patent became virtually worthless and a new association – which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association – was formed. The new association instituted a cross-licensing agreement among all U.S. auto manufacturers: although each company would develop technology and file patents, those patents were shared openly and without the exchange of money between all the manufacturers. By the time the U.S. entered WWII, 92 Ford patents and 515 patents from other companies were being shared between these manufacturers, without any exchange of money – or lawsuits. The best braking system was shared by all as was the best window wiper, and many, many other inventions passed freely from one car company to the others. The result was that the user – the car driver – benefitted with the safest and best cars, no matter the brand – and the auto industry flourished as a result.

If an association like the MVMA – with a charismatic and visible leader – were to be launched in the medical robotics arena, perhaps the wonderful new inventions we’ve all read about would become available quicker and with less constraints, patents, and other hold-ups. Patients – you and I – care-givers and healthcare systems would all share in the benefits and lives saved which would come from focused development speed-ups in the robotics-related healthcare marketplace.

Our colleagues at the LSRO at Switzerland’s EPFL have sent a great video of their robot Thymio converted into a sushi-go-round for their XMas party:

Colleagues at the AI Lab’s Robotics and Perception Group also sent a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT_UISs6Vgw

Imina Technologies brings us a choir of miBot micromanipulators.

Previously featured on Robohub, General Motors and Kiva Systems feature high-tech robots pretending to be “Santa’s little helpers”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHwGCiUOfgs&feature=share&list=PL5UWrgmuniqLsszErT_s9Gm74MGhx5AyA

Kiva’s video can be found here:
http://www.kivasystems.com/santas-high-tech-helpers/

While the industrial robots work away, Nao has been busy with his xylophone and well wishes.

Aisoy robotics brings us this fun video showing the challenges when filming robots with “personality”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYfXxlNZhGM&feature=share&list=PL-NcJDWCD71gWi4Oc1nxGHfpUePcPEP7v

And in case you missed the holiday video from ETHZ featuring balancing, flying and legged robots, here it is.

For more holiday videos, have a look at the ROBOTS Podcast’s Annual Holiday Season Video Special Youtube Playlists. To submit your own, just send us a message at christmas@robotspodcast.com!

This time, General Motors and Kiva Systems feature high-tech robots pretending to be “Santa’s little helpers”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHwGCiUOfgs&feature=share&list=PL5UWrgmuniqLsszErT_s9Gm74MGhx5AyA

Kiva’s video can be found here:
http://www.kivasystems.com/santas-high-tech-helpers/

While the industrial robots work away, Nao has been busy with his xylophone and well wishes.

Aisoy robotics bring us this fun video showing the challenges when filming robots with “personality”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYfXxlNZhGM&feature=share&list=PL-NcJDWCD71gWi4Oc1nxGHfpUePcPEP7v

And in case you missed the holiday video from ETHZ featuring balancing, flying and legged robots, here it is.

For more holiday videos, have a look at the ROBOTS Podcast’s Annual Holiday Season Video Special Youtube Playlists. To submit your own, just send us a message at christmas@robotspodcast.com!