The Evolution of Robotics Engineering

Welcome to Take Five, I’m Stephanie Neil, and I recently attended the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston, which is really focused on the engineering techniques that will define the future of robots. Two of the trends that I quickly picked up on for manufacturing had to do with simulation and 3D printing. Otto Motors is a maker of autonomous mobile robots, referred to as AMRs. These robots are highly collaborative and are designed to bring materials to and from people, equipment, and racks in a free-moving manner. But figuring out how to deploy them can be tricky. So much of this is often done on a spreadsheet. But if estimates are wrong—either too many or too few robots on the floor—then a company is either not getting the productivity they require, or they could be spending more than they should. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Matthew Rendall, gave a presentation on the use of simulation as a critical first step for large fleet implementations. The reason is that you have the ability to be highly granular and cater to the details of the layout.