United Robotics Group: Presentation of their companies 2/2

Am 18. Mai 2022 hat sich die United Robotics Group im Rahmen einer großen Veranstaltung vorgestellt. Sie bündelt das Wissen ganz unterschiedlicher Robotik-Firmen, deren Zusammenarbeit Mehrwert stiften soll. Im ersten Teil wurde die Gruppe vorgestellt sowie deren Mitglied Rethink Robotics. In diesem Artikel werden die – derzeit – sieben weiteren „Member“ dargestellt. Das Foto oben zeigt Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, Director Business Development North America bei United Robotics Group, und Tim Schuster, CEO der Humanizing Technologies GmbH. Beide moderierten durch die Veranstaltung.

Humanzing Technologies Ltd.

Das Unternehmen mit Sitz in Olpe und Büros in Köln und Wien entwickelt Software, die Roboter menschlicher machen soll. Hierfür werden verschiedene Software-Plattformen angeboten. Es wird die Zusammenarbeit bzw. die Interaktion mit Robotern, aber auch mit Avataren, ermöglicht. Ein bekannter Anwendungsfall ist der „Pepper“ (s.u.). Daneben werden auch Telepräsenz-Roboter wie auch Service-Roboter bedient. Dies gilt sowohl für die Gruppen-eigenen Modelle wie auch für die weit verbreiteten Gastronomie-Roboter von Pudu.

ENTRANCE Robotics GmbH

Based in Witten, ENTRANCE Robotics GmbH also develops software. In contrast to Humanzing Technologies, however, it is designed to support and relieve nursing care. The target customers are nursing homes. The hardware is largely the same as the robots developed by Humanzing and also the Sawyer. As is well known, the Sawyer is already being used in institutions for the disabled.

United Robotics Group Health & Food

Das bei Bremen beheimatete Unternehmen wird in der obigen Übersicht als „RobSolutions“ geführt. Es handelt sich um einen Prozessautomatisierer. Perfekt angepasste Hardware mit einfach zu bedienender Software zu kombinieren, um Roboterlösungen für nicht-industrielle Dienstleistungen und kollaborative Aufgaben aus einer Hand zu entwickeln, ist das Ziel. Ein Meilenstein dürfte die weltweit erste Automatisierung eines Krankenhauslabors sein. Diese erfolgte in Zusammenarbeit mit Siemens Healthineers.

RobShare GmbH

Recht bekannt ist die Frankfurter RobShare. Sie vermietet „soziale“ Roboter incl. ein Roboter-Café für Messen und andere Events.

GEENIAL - Society for Engineering and Industrial Automation Solutions mbH

GEENIAL is located in Dortmund and thus in the immediate vicinity of the group's headquarters and Rethink Robotics as well as ENTRANCE Robotics. Within the group, GEENIAL is responsible for individual automation solutions including software. The service focus of GEENIAL mbH is on industrial robotics, mechatronics and software in the production environment. From design to simulation to cell realization, services are offered across all development phases within the scope of automation projects. Customized software solutions include, for example, assistance, control and simulation systems as new developments or extensions for existing software.

SoftBank Robotics Europe/ Aldebaran

The Paris-based company is probably the best-known member of the group, along with Rethink Robotics. SoftBank Robotics Europe makes such well-known social robots as the Pepper, the Nao as well as the Whiz (vacuum cleaner robot for companies, on the market since 2019). United Robotics Group acquired the French company only in April. In return, SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. reportedly received a minority stake in United Robotics Group, according to the press release. This has not yet been entered in the commercial register. The number of employees alone - 500 worldwide - shows that SoftBank Robotics Europe should have a special position within the group. In the future, the company will again bear its old name, Aldebaran. That was the name until the takeover by SoftBank.

Conclusion/ Outlook

I think the group has great potential, especially if the new cobots from Rethink Robotics, which will probably be presented in the fall, are well received. In my opinion, the idea of strong social use of robots is most similar to the approaches of F&P Robotics (Switzerland) or Neura Robotics. The market is very large and can only be developed with staying power. Here, the United Robotics Group has clear advantages, thanks to its integration into the RAG Foundation. In general, I find it remarkable how early the former Federal Minister of Economics and later RAG Chairman Werner Müller recognized the potential of robotics, even at an advanced age. I find the consistent further development under his successor Bernd Tönjes equally remarkable.

There will certainly also be setbacks. A service robot of our own for the food service industry could be one such candidate. The Chinese market leader Pudu already has a good market position in Germany along with interesting references and should always have an advantage in this price-sensitive market simply because of its purchasing advantages. Regardless, there are innovations here as well, as the United Robotics Group has shown: Instead of manually entering the table to be operated (which is quick, however), their model can be spoken to.

Ultimately, it is important to be aware of what the speaker Karl-Heinz Land (photo below) pointed out in his very good presentation: technical progress is growing exponentially.

Are we networking? LinkedIn
-> To the Cobot group on LinkedIn (Link) .

In my own right/advertisement
The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises robotics companies and investors on market analysis and funding/subsidies. More about him can be found here.