Last week’s announcement from Boston Dynamics, featuring the Logistics-focused Handle robot, was a fascinating development for industrial robotics users keeping an eye on the seemingly R&D-focused company. However, the most recent announcement from the company sheds more light on the strategy behind Logistics Handle.
Boston Dynamics has announced the acquisition of Kinema Systems, a Menlo Park-based company that enables industrial robotic arms with deep learning technology to locate and move boxes on complex pallets.
Using a combination of vision sensors and deep learning software, Kinema Systems’ Pick technology works with leading commercial robotic arms to move boxes off pallets to conveyors or build stacks of boxes on pallets. Pick enables logistics, retail, and manufacturing companies to achieve high rates of box moving with minimal set up or training for both multi-SKU and single-SKU pallets.
This video from Kinema shows Pick:
Kinema Pick Deep Learning 3D Vision System for Industrial Robots from Kinema Systems on Vimeo.
“Bringing the Kinema team into Boston Dynamics expands our perception and learning capabilities while the Pick product accelerates our entry into the logistics market,” said Boston Dynamics Founder and CEO Marc Raibert. “Beyond being a powerful tool for industrial robotic arms, Kinema technology will help our mobile manipulation robots tackle a wide variety of complex real-world tasks.”
Pick joins Boston Dynamics’ recently upgraded Handle platform in addressing the logistics industry. Last week, Boston Dynamics released a video of Handle performing both multi-SKU palletizing and depalletizing to conveyor tasks.
While development continues on Handle, Boston Dynamics plans to sell and support Pick for interested customers starting now.
Sachin Chitta, founder of Kinema Systems said, “Boston Dynamics’ reputation for innovation fits perfectly with our mission of developing the next generation of vision-enabled warehouse robots.”
The team at Kinema Systems will establish Boston Dynamics’ first office in Silicon Valley. With plans to expand the team in the Bay Area this year, they will focus on developing and selling advanced robotics products for the logistics market as well as researching, developing and applying deep learning and vision to the Boston Dynamics family of robots.
The Boston Dynamics team will run live demos of Pick at Promat, a leading trade show for supply chain and manufacturing automation, from 8 - 11 April in Chicago at Booth S3347a.