Iris Ohyama to acquire service robot maker Smile Robotics

-

Iris Ohyama, a Japanese maker of appliances for the home, has made plans to acquire Smile Robotics, according to reporting from NikkeiAsia. Iris Ohyama hopes to use Smile Robotics’ technology to develop robots in-house.

Smile Robotics was launched out of the University of Tokyo in 2019 by Takashi Ogura, now the CEO of the company. The company is known for developing its Autonomous Clear Up Robot called ACUR-C. 

ACUR-C is a mobile manipulator for restaurants, clinics, nursing homes, and other service settings that clean serve and clean up dishes. Unlike other serving robots, which are typically mobile robots with shelves for humans to place and pick up food on, Smile Robotics’ system has an autonomous robotic arm that allows the robot to transfer the dishes on its own.

The robot is able to collect dishes up to 1 meter away from it and can carry multiple trays of food at once on its shelves. It can see 360ยบ around itself using two laser sensors and four 3D cameras. 

The companies entered into an acquisition agreement early on Monday. Iris Ohyama plans to acquire all outstanding shares of the company. The acquisition is expected to cost Iris Ohyama around 1 billion yen, or $7 million, although an official figure has not been disclosed.

This isn’t Iris Ohyama’s first foray into robotics. In 2020, the company collaborated with SoftBank Robotics, a part of SoftBank Group, to create cleaning and catering robots. The companies sold these robots to more than 4,000 companies by modifying the specifications of Chinese products for the Japanese market. 

Now, Iris Ohyama hopes to continue to grow within the robotics sector by developing its own in-house robots using Smile Robotics’ technology. The company aims to tailor its machines to the needs of individual customers using Smile Robotics’ operating system. Iris Ohyama also hopes to develop more sophisticated technology, like the ability to operate multiple robots remotely, with Smile Robotics’ technology. 

It’s likely that Iris Ohyama’s first product that it will develop will be a cleaning robot for corporate customers, according to NikkeiAsia. 

The post Iris Ohyama to acquire service robot maker Smile Robotics appeared first on The Robot Report.



from The Robot Report - Robotics News, Analysis & Research https://ift.tt/pQgoZfw
via artificialconference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chipotle testing avocado processing robot in test kitchen

-
Image
Chipotle Mexican Grill announced Autocado, an avocado processing cobotic prototype that cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create the restaurant’s famous guacamole. The prototype, developed in collaboration with Vebu , is currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine , California.  How Autocado works  A team member loads Autocado with a full case of ripe avocados and selects the size setting. Autocado can hold up to 25 lbs. of avocados at once. One at a time, avocados are vertically oriented, then transferred to the processing device. The avocados are sliced in half. Their cores and skin are automatically removed, and the waste is discarded.  The fruit is safely collected in a stainless-steel bowl at the bottom of the device.  A team member removes the bowl of avocado fruit and moves it to the counter where they add additional ingredients and hand mash the avocados to make Chipotle’s signature guacamole.  How the Autocado idea s
Read more

Inside Comaus testing of Intrinsic Flowstate

-
Image
Intrinsic tested its latest platform and Flowstate with Comau , an Italian-based robot manufacturer and global systems integrator. Comau has been working with Intrinsic for several years now to validate Intrinsic’s platform technology and developer product, Flowstate, through real-world use cases.  Flowstate, announced earlier this year in May , is a robotic software development platform. It’s Intrinsic’s first developer product built on the Intrinsic platform. Comau was also introduced as the company’s first industry partner in May.  The Intrinsic Flowstate software  adds a layer of abstraction to traditional robotic software tools with the goal of reducing the development skillset required while making it easier than ever before to program a robot in simulation. “Partnering with Comau over the years has brought our team a tremendous amount of expertise, knowledge, and real-world use cases to focus our efforts on. We’re excited for what’s next and what it will mean to the solutio
Read more

ABB launches Flexley mobile robots, completing rebranding of ASTI AMRs

-
Image
Rebranded ABB Flexley autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) completes the integration of ASTI into ABB Robotics business. | Credit: ABB ABB launched its first range of rebranded Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) following its acquisition of mobile robot leader ASTI Mobile Robotics in 2021 for $190M . ASTI Mobile Robotics’ solutions are now rebranded and integrated into ABB’s portfolio, grouped under the Flexley name, indicating the flexibility of operations that the AMRs offer. The first rebranded models to be released, Flexley Tug and Flexley Mover, cover applications including towing, trolley transportation up to 5,350 lbs (2000 kg), as well as lifting and transporting racks, containers and pallets of 4,000 lbs (1,500 kg). The ABB Flexley Mover (l) and ABB Flexley Tug (r) become the first rebranded ABB AMRs to be released. | Credit: ABB ABB joins OMRON corporation as the second automation solutions company to offer a complete lineup of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), industrial robo
Read more