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Building Robotics Solutions

Josh KernAnalyst

Shriram Ramanathan, Ph.D.

Director

Katrina Westerhof

Director

Lead Analyst:

Contributors:

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

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Organizations across a wide variety of industries are using robotics to improve their operations, but many fail to understand what is currently possible with today’s technology and which vendors to turn to for help.

We outline the key capabilities of robots, the different types of vendors that build them, and an Autonomy Maturity Model that ranges from the simplest to the most advanced solutions. Armed with this knowledge, readers can walk through our framework to make decisions around choosing the right vendors to work with.

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Executive Summary

Off-the-shelf platforms are generally only available for common use cases in robotically mature industries like logistics and manufacturing. The least robotically mature industries like chemicals and energy will need to look toward robotics contractors and research organizations to solve their applications. We anticipate this will change in the coming years because of increased pressures faced by these sectors from rising cost pressures and an aging work force.

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Organizations are rapidly adopting robotics to improve efficiency, safety, and quality in their operations

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The main reason we see companies turning toward automation is to deal with labor shortages, which are common in industries with dull, repetitive tasks and manual labor. Robots can save money over time, not just by directly eliminating human labor, but by cutting out worker training and turnover. Robots can work around the clock, sometimes replacing three separate shifts.

Many organizations see dangerous tasks as a good area to innovate with robotics. Usually, these tasks aren’t under the same scrutiny to achieve a quantitative ROI as productivity-based tasks, lending themselves as good targets for experimentation. Robots can also perform certain tasks better than humans, such as automotive assembly. The same reasoning can be applied to tasks like inspection and lab automation.

0100200300400500600700

Global Annual Installations of Industrial Robots

Thousands ofUnits

Source: World Robotics 2019

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Before embarking on a robotics initiative, organizations should try and answer some crucial questions

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Although robotics is becoming widespread, robotics solutions are still fragmented and far from being plug-and-play solutions. To successfully embed robotics in their operations, organizations should try and answer some crucial questions at the outset:

• What key capabilities are important for this robotics solution to have?

• How advanced do those capabilities need to be?

• What solutions or vendors are available to help me build a solution with those capabilities?

• What can I expect when working with specific vendors in terms of time, cost, and expertise?

The full report aims to answer these questions and more by first providing an overview of the state of the art in different robotics capabilities and then providing an overview of different types of vendors and case studies for each. Readers can use our robotics framework to guide themselves through answering the above questions.

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There are many different types of robotics solutions, but they all can be described using five key capabilities

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Precision and Accuracy

Autonomy

User Interface

Scalability

Safety

Can the robot repeat the same action in an expected way?

Can the robot perform without human intervention?Can it operate in new and unpredictable environments?

How simple is it to set up the robot and reconfigure it?

How easy it to deploy many instances of the same robot?

Can the robot safely operate near humans?

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Off-the-shelf platforms can be deployed very quickly but lack customizations options

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RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS

ROBOTICS CONTRACTORS

SEMICUSTOMIZED PLATFORMS

OFF-THE-SHELF PLATFORMS

CUSTOMIZATIONLEVEL

Very High High Medium Low

TYPICAL PROJECT PRICE

$1 million to $5million

$100,000 to $1 million

$25,000 to $200,000 $10,000 to $150,000

TYPICAL PROJECT TIME

Multiple years Months to years Days to months Hours to days

EXAMPLE VENDORS

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Research Organizations

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Most of the state-of-the-art robotics technologies come out of research labs. Some labs are dedicated to fundamental research in subcategories of robotics like soft robots and grippers, control dynamics, and learning algorithms. These labs can offer components that will satisfy the most challenging requirements, but may not offer a full solution. Other groups are focused on application areas like healthcare, construction, or agriculture. In this case, the lab is more likely to offer a full solution.

Industry players can engage with researchers through sponsored research or consortium projects but should be prepared to invest longer amounts of time in developing a solution – on the order of a few years. These partnerships can result in significant IP advantages, either through licensed patents or through know-how that is hard to reproduce.

Source: MIT

Source: Stanford

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RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS

Consortium project led by University of Seville explores aerial manipulators for maintenance and inspection tasks

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REQUIREMENTS LEVEL

PRECISION/ACCURACY High

AUTONOMY High

USER INTERFACE Nonexistent

SCALABILITY Low

SAFETY Low

Researchers leading the AEROARMS project developed a drone that integrated lightweight robotic arms, allowing the system to install eddy current sensors and perform contact inspections using ultrasonic sensors. These tasks were performed autonomously with advanced perception methods and control dynamics. The drones were successfully tested at industrial sites like the HES Wilhelmshaven refinery in Germany.

Source: Commercial Drone Professional

This example represents one of the most complex robotics solutions we’ve seen. The ability of the overall system to keep the end effector in a precise location in potentially windy conditions makes the control dynamics especially challenging. There is no need for a user interface or safety considerations, as there are no humans working near the robot. Researchers generally don’t design for scalability either, but once the technology is ready for productization, its not uncommon for spinouts or larger organizations licensing the technology to make it scalable.

LUX TAKE

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Our robotics framework includes four steps that allow for down-selecting vendors to work with

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Step 1: Understand Key Capabilities

The first step is to get a clear understanding of which key capabilities are going to be important for your particular robotics application.

Step 2: Identify the Primary Function

Robots are generally used for four primary functions. Identify which functions you’ll need in your solution.

Step 3: Find Autonomy Maturity

We’ve described solutions that vary in levels of autonomy, categorized by the primary function of the robot. Find the level that most closely matches what you are looking for.

Step 4: Evaluate Vendors

The last step categorizes specific vendors in terms of primary functions, level of autonomy, and type of vendor. Once you’ve identified some vendors, you may want to go back to slide 25 to understand how other key capabilities may be affected by the type of vendor you have selected.

Identify the Primary Function

Find Autonomy Maturity

Evaluate Vendors

Understand Key Capabilities

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STEP 3: FIND AUTONOMY MATURITY

Find the autonomy maturity level that most closely represents the solution you are trying to build

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MovingGoods and materials are moved completely by humans

Human-operated vehicles like forklifts or tractors are used to move goods and materials

Facilities are retrofitted with technologies like AMRs to accomplish a single task

AMRs are used as fleets to accomplish multiple tasks, optimizing usage of each individual robot

Facilities like microfulfillment centers are purpose-built for robots; advanced robotics technology like legged robots may be used

PickingGoods and materials are manually picked by humans

Industrial robot arms are used to pick an object of a given size/shape/material with a fully predictable pickup location

Collaborative robot arms are used to pick an object of a given size/shape/ material with a fully predictable pickup location

Robot arms can pick various objects never seen before and/or in an unexpected pickup location or orientation

Robot arms can pick objects in extremely unstructured environments; some may be able to intentionally manipulate the orientation of objects

Assembling

Goods and materials are assembled or manufactured using human labor and/or industrial machines

Some process automation, such as conveyors, is used to move or sort components between stations

Introduction of industrial robotic arms to manufacturing and assembly lines for some tasks

Parts are built using a combination of automation technologies, including conveyors, CNC machines, and industrial robots

Full products can be manufactured with a combination of automation technologies

Inspecting

All maintenance and inspection is done completely manually by human workers

Some nonautomation technologies like cameras and other sensors are used for inspection

Remote control robots like drones and crawlers are used for inspection

Use of partially autonomous robots in complex environments like outdoors or use of fully autonomous robots in simpler environments

Use of fully autonomous robots in complex environments; can reconfigure to complete different tasks without any human intervention

Autonomy Maturity Level 1 2 3 4 5

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STEP 4: Evaluate Vendors

Evaluate vendors across the primary function, level of autonomy, and type of vendor

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Research Organization Robotics Contractor Semicustomized Platform Off-the-Shelf PlatformVendor Type

LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5

MOVING

PICKING

ASSEMBLING

INSPECTING ANYbotics

Agility Robotics

Covariant.ai

OpenAI

Energid

COMANOID

AEROARMS

RE2 RoboticsE.Piaggio

Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics

Vecna RoboticsBrain Corp

Mech-Mind

XYZ Robotics

Houston Mechatronics

6 River Systems

Wandelbots

Outfield Technologies

Brisa Robótica

Inuktun

Universal Robots

Mecademic

Ready Robotics

Universal Robots

Ready Robotics

OnRobot

OnRobot

Apellix

Apellix

Sweeper

Growcer

Growcer

Sweeper

These companies are just a representative sample of the 45 total robotics companies we analyzed; Lux clients can access the Excel file for even more vendors. Only vendors with Level 3+ autonomy were analyzed, as Lux only researches emerging technologies.

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In industries that include field service, such as energy, chemicals, and agriculture, cost savings and labor shortages are the biggest drivers for implementing robotics. The problem for these industries is that “field” environments are inherently unstructured and therefore require Level 5 robotics solutions.

That includes things like reinforcement learning, which robots can use to teach themselves how to deal with new environments. It also includes legged robots like those made by ANYbotics and Agility Robotics, which have designed their robots to walk around in rugged environments where AMRs can’t operate. Many of these solutions are five to 10 years away from making significant impacts to these industries, but forming relationships early could influence these startups to focus on certain applications first.

The industries with low robotics maturity will need to invest in advanced technologies

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Source: ANYbotics

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