月份：2023年1月

The past few years have seen many organizations implement tech-driven changes at a rapid pace. As society becomes more digital, embracing technology and effectively managing new processes is key to the success of almost every business.

With rapid workplace transformation evident across industries, whether that’s moving to hybrid working or adopting new technologies, what can we expect from 2023? Here are five predictions for the coming year.

1. Turnkey solutions will make automation more accessible than ever

In recent years we have witnessed the development of many different types of sophisticated technologies. Advances in robotics, machine learning and other technologies have increased the pace of this change tenfold. While these promise to change or revolutionize the business world, all technology companies suffer from the same problem – they can’t be good at everything.

In the world of robotics, this is no different. Creating a robotic system requires hardware development, software development, application development, sensors, and interfaces to name a few. That’s why 2023 will be the year of turnkey solutions.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) – companies creating new applications and products around existing technologies – will lie at the heart of this. They are able to drive innovation by combining technologies to deliver complete solutions for the most common applications, such as welding and palletizing. The result? Automation will become more sophisticated yet more straightforward to use than ever before.

Enabled Robotics, an OEM based in Denmark, is a great example of how this works. Since 2016 the company has been working to combine two types of cutting-edge technology by mounting collaborative robot arms (cobots) onto autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). This hybrid technology is now operating in industry, warehouse management and production and bringing robotics to service applications and hospital intralogistics.

Ultimately, these out-of-the-box solutions make it easier for companies to integrate crucial technologies and there is no limit to the imaginative ways companies will find to bring robots alongside humans in the world of work.

2. Manufacturers will turn towards modular production

Traditional industrial robots remain important in some parts of manufacturing, but we are seeing a trend towards deploying more flexible models of production. This is largely down to the fact that traditional industrial robots are typically large and fixed and entail complex deployment.

In contrast, cobots can perform a similar range of activities to traditional industrial robots but are smaller, lighter and much easier to deploy. They are designed to work alongside humans so pose less risk to safety and are better suited to environments that require flexibility and adaptability. On top of this, they are most cost-effective for businesses looking to deploy automation – a key consideration as we move into 2023.

The cobot industry is projected to grow to USD 2.2 billion by 2026 (The Collaborative Robot Market 2022 Report, Interact Analysis). As cobots continue to change the way work is done in applications such as packing, palletizing, welding and assembly, in 2023 we will see even larger companies turning to lightweight cobots to increase modularity in their production. Robot weight and versatility will be key specifications for those looking for new automation solutions and we will see more reconfigurable robotic work cells than ever before.

3. Higher payload and longer reach cobots will change the landscape for some applications

As more companies move towards cobot automation, many will still want to handle heavy payloads. The good news is that we have recently seen the introduction of several higher payload, longer reach cobots. In 2023 these will continue to transform parts of the manufacturing industry, improving the working lives of many employees.

This year, Universal Robots presented a new cobot, the UR20, which is built for higher payloads, faster speeds, and superior motion control all within a lightweight, small footprint system. The 20 kg payload capacity will transform industries such as palletizing while its 1750 mm reach is eagerly anticipated for use in welding. Manufacturers looking for that extra flexibility will find the robot light enough to be unbolted and relocated or attached to a heavy base with wheels. This will create new possibilities for applications and will drive innovation across the board. The UR20 will be delivered to customers in 2023.

Annual installations of industrial robots worldwide. | Source: IFR

4. Despite global uncertainties, long-term increases in industrial robot installations will continue

The recent IFR World Robotics Report showed industrial robot installation reached an all-time high in 2021 increasing by 31% over the previous year. Overall, worldwide annual robot installations between 2015 and 2021 have more than doubled. Although growth in 2022 seems to be slower across the sector, this is largely down to global uncertainties triggered by the pandemic and scarcity of electronic components.

We expect the upward trend of cobot automation to resume in 2023. Why? Because businesses across the world are facing labor and skills shortages and, despite the day-to-day challenges facing industry right now, we are in the midst of transition towards industry 5.0 where working alongside robots will create more human-centric, sustainable and resilient businesses.

5. Customers will be found at the heart of product development

Although we talk extensively about robot collaboration in the workplace, human collaboration is what drives innovation.

Customers understand their own needs better than anyone else and, as the automation market has matured, are better placed than ever before to offer valuable input on their requirements. This means robotics companies will involve customers much more in product development. It is why Universal Robots has reorganized its product creation teams and is focusing heavily on understanding the problems customers are facing before designing solutions.

Co-development projects where robotics companies and customers work together in developing specific solutions are also bound to increase in 2023 and beyond. Ultimately these allow customers to directly influence the product they are buying, while at the same time delivering valuable feedback for the robotic companies – meaning they will be able to launch a product to the benefit of the whole market.

Now more than ever, businesses need to innovate constantly and remain adaptable in order to survive and expand. As we head into 2023, they will rely ever more on technology and innovation to break new ground with turnkey solutions at the heart – all of which make the year ahead an exciting time for automation.

About the Author

Anders Beck is the Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Universal Robots, a leading developer of collaborative robot arms. Prior to his time at Universal Robots, he held a number of positions at the Teknologisk Institut in Denmark, including head of industrial robotics and automation.

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Ellen Roche with the soft, implantable ventilator designed by her and her team. | Source: MIT, M. Scott Brauer

Researchers at MIT have designed a soft, robotic implantable ventilator that can augment the diaphragm’s natural contractions. 

The implantable ventilator is made from two soft, balloon-like tubes that would be implanted to lie over the diaphragm. When inflated with an external pump, the tubes act as artificial muscles that push down the diaphragm and help the lungs expand. The tubes can be inflated to match the diaphragm’s natural rhythm. 

The diaphragm lies just below the ribcage. It pushes down to create a vacuum for the lungs to expand into so they can draw air in, and then relaxes to let air out. 

The tubes in the ventilator are similar to McKibben actuators, a kind of pneumatic device. The team attached the tubes to the ribcage at either side of the diaphragm, so that the device was laying across the muscle from front to back. Using a thin external airline, the team connected the tubes to a small pump and control system. 

This soft ventilator was designed by Ellen Roche, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and her colleagues. The research team created a proof-of-concept design for the ventilator. 

“This is a proof of concept of a new way to ventilate,” Roche told MIT News. “The biomechanics of this design are closer to normal breathing, versus ventilators that push air into the lungs, where you have a mask or tracheostomy. There’s a long road before this will be implanted in a human. But it’s exciting that we could show we could augment ventilation with something implantable.”

According to Roche, the key to maximizing the amount of work the implantable pump does is by giving the diaphragm an extra push downwards when it naturally contracts. This means the team didn’t have to try to mimic exactly how the diaphragm moves, just create a device that is capable of giving that push. 

The implantable ventilator is made from two tubes that lay across the diaphragm. | Source: MIT

Roche and her team tested the system on anesthetized pigs. After implanting the device, they monitored the pigs’ oxygen levels and used ultrasound imaging to observe diaphragm function. Generally, the team found that the ventilator increased the amount of air that the pigs’ lungs could draw in with each breath. The device worked best when the contractions of the diaphragm and the artificial muscles were working in sync, allowing the pigs’ lungs to bring in three times the amount of air they could without assistance. 

The team hopes that its device could help people struggling with chronic diaphragm dysfunctions, which can be caused by ALS, muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular diseases, paralysis and damage to the phrenic nerve. 

The research team included Roche, a former graduate student at MIT Lucy Hu, Manisha Singh, Diego Quevedo Moreno, Jean Bonnemain of Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland and Mossab Saeed and Nikolay Vasilyev of Boston Children’s Hospital. 

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A robotic painting system developed for a leading aerospace manufacturer. | Photo Credit: Aerobotix

When it comes to operating and controlling robots, there are a variety of options that engineers can consider. These include robotic simulation software, artificial intelligence (AI), and a host of other off-the-shelf software packages that have been designed for specific applications.

When clients present our robotics company, Aerobotix, with challenging problems, we often decide to use an open-source middleware option such as Robot Operating System (ROS). ROS has been built on a framework focused on automation, reliability and flexibility. The benefit of using an open-source framework is that it includes a large contributing community, which is continuously developing and improving.

Why my team chooses ROS

ROS provides a dynamic backbone for creating new systems with a whole host of sensor packages. This freedom is perfect for our company’s robotic systems, as we use sensors like motors, lasers, LiDARs and safety devices. We’ve been able to find manufacturers that have developed their own hardware drivers and interfaces to easily pair with ROS.

Pairing these drivers with our custom solutions is a complex process due to the dynamic framework on which ROS is built. Some of these solutions were developed in short timelines so we looked to the ROS community for support and contracted individuals skilled in ROS development. These contractors helped us achieve understanding in areas such as point cloud manipulation and automated navigation.

Related: Intrinsic acquires ROS maker Open Source Robotics Corp

Traditional robot set-up vs. ROS setup

The building blocks of robotics automation traditionally include: a human-machine interface (HMI), a programmable logic controller (PLC) and the robot itself. In this basic setup, the PLC acts as the main interface layer — or middleman — for the control system, and all communication goes through the PLC. If you have a request from the HMI or the robot, the PLC answers it. The main constraint with this setup is that you’re stuck with “simple bits and bytes” and more advanced problems can’t be solved.

Using ROS alongside a traditional setup introduces additional capabilities to these bits and bytes. These additions include advanced devices, such as LiDAR, which may be used to create your own vision system. For example, LiDARs create “point clouds” that can be used for navigation, part detection and even object recognition.

Case study: collaborative mobile robot for Air Force maintenance depots

Our company’s first application of ROS was while working as the robotics partner on what became an award-winning project — an adaptive radome diagnostic system (ARDS). This introduced the use of a collaborative mobile robot in U.S. Air Force maintenance depots.

This system uses sensors that transmit microwave signals to non-destructively evaluate (NDE) aircraft radomes and identify defects such as delamination or water ingress in the composite structure. We developed a system integrating a FANUC CRX-10iA collaborative robot, a LiDAR vision system and a custom automated guided vehicle (AGV). This robot scans the warehouse with the LiDAR, navigates to the part, orients normal to the part, creates an inspection path, and outputs a detailed part analysis.

As this was our first application of ROS, we went through a steep learning curve to better understand the various ROS components—services, nodes, publishers and topics. This experience was demystified by online documentation and vast community support.

Case study: robotic painting system for leading aerospace manufacturer

This client was looking towards the future and wanted a more dynamic solution than traditional robotics methods could achieve. The request was for an automated part detection system with a laundry list of features including a non-contact, non-robotic motion that detects and finds multiple aircraft components within a hazardous C1D1-rated paint booth to ±0.50-inch accuracy — all from a single click.

ROS is at the core of the vision system we developed. This system begins with a recorded point cloud containing the robots and the aircraft components. By associating 3D models – provided by the customer — with the point cloud, we were able to locate the parts in reference to the robot. This relationship grants us access to change robotic motion paths for the newly loaded parts in the paint booth, pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

ROS works for you

Every project has its own unique challenges, which means each must be assessed and solved using a customized solution. Delving into the ROS ecosystem has aided my team in expanding beyond traditional robotics and furthered our understanding of advanced sensor technology.

We would encourage any engineer to add ROS to their toolkit and start exploring its unique applications.

About the Author

Aaron Feick is a lead software engineer at Aerobotix, an innovative leader in robotic solutions for the aerospace and defense industries. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, the company specializes in the creation of cutting-edge automated robotic solutions for high-value, high-precision components, aircraft and vehicles.

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Australian-based robotics company Lyro Robotics creates an autonomous packing robot. | Source: Lyro Robotics

Ed Husic, Australia’s Minister for Industry and Science, appointed a National Robotics Strategy Advisory Committee. The committee will help to guide Australia’s strategy for emerging automation technologies. 

The committee will develop a national robotics strategy to help the country harness robotics and automation opportunities. The committee will examine robotics from every industry, from advanced manufacturing to agriculture. 

“We have brought together some of the nation’s leading robotics and technology thinkers and practitioners to guide the way we develop and use robotics,” Husic said. “Australia has a lot of the key elements that can help in the development of national robotics capabilities: our people, research and manufacturing skills. And while we’re recognized as possessing strength in field robotics, we can do better, across a wider range of activities.”

The National Robotics Strategy Advisory Committee is chaired by Professor Bronwyn Fox, the Chief Scientist of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. 

Other members of the committee include:

• Catherine Ball, an associate professor at the Australian National University 
• Andrew Dettmer, the National President of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union 
• Hugh Durrant-Whyte, the NSW chief scientist and engineer 
• Sue Keay, the founder and chair of the Robotics Australia Group
• Simon Lucey, the director of the Australian Institute of Machine Learning 
• Julia Powels, the director of UWA Minderoo Tech & Policy Lab
• Mike Zimmerman, a partner at Main Sequence Ventures

“Australian-made and maintained robotics and automation systems have the potential to boost local manufacturing, open up export opportunities and create safer and more productive work environments,” Husic said.

Husic also said that the National Robotics Strategy Advisory Committee will aim to develop robotic strength while also developing human skills so that Australians still have access to secure, well-paying jobs. Husic asked for the strategy to be finalized by March 2023. 

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This year, we covered nearly 50 mergers and acquisitions worth billions of dollars. The SPAC craze of 2021 seemingly came to a crashing halt, but there was still plenty of M&A activity.

Below are 10 robotics acquisitions, in chronological order, that stood out to us in 2022 and two notable mergers. Take a look back at the notable acquisitions of 2021.

Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter or listen to The Robot Report Podcast to stay updated on the robotics stories you need to know about. For all the mergers and acquisitions, check out our special section.

Aptiv acquires Wind River

Date Announced: Jan. 11, 2022
Amount: $3.5B

Aptiv kicked off the year with a bang, announcing it was acquiring Wind River for $4.3 billion. The deal just closed on Dec. 23, but at a lower price point of $3.5 billion. The companies said the price was amended because of certain changes in Wind River’s operating structure required to bring the regulatory approval process to a satisfactory conclusion.

Aptiv, a global mobility company, in 2019 along with Hyundai Motor Group formed the autonomous driving joint venture now known as Motional. Wind River is a global leader in developing software for the edge. Its software is used on more than two billion edge devices across more than 1,700 customers globally. Wind River generated approximately $400 million in revenue in 2021. Intel acquired Wind River in 2008 for $884 million. Intel sold Wind River to TPG Capital in 2018 for an undisclosed amount.

Aptiv said the acquisition allows it to execute against the large software-defined mobility opportunity and expand into multiple industries. Aptiv said it will combine Wind River Studio, a cloud-native intelligent systems software platform, with its SVA platform and automotive expertise.

Zebra Technologies acquires Matrox Imaging

Date Announced: March 15, 2022
Amount: $875M

Zebra Technologies acquired Matrox Imaging for $875 million. Matrox Imaging develops machine vision components and systems and generates annual sales of approximately $100 million.

Matrox offers platform-independent software, software development kits (SDKs), smart cameras, 3D sensors, vision controllers, input/output (I/O) cards, and frame grabbers which are used to capture, inspect, assess, and record data from industrial vision systems in factory automation, electronics and pharmaceutical packaging, semiconductor inspection, and more.

Zebra Technologies in 2021 acquired Adaptive Vision, a machine vision software company, and launched its own line of fixed industrial scanning and machine vision systems. Zebra said the Matrox Imaging deal will complement the aforementioned products.

The deal expanded Zebra’s presence in the automation market. In 2021, Zebra acquired Fetch Robotics, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of autonomous mobile robots for $290 million.

Bosch Rexroth acquires cobot maker Kassow

Date Announced: March 21, 2022
Amount: Undisclosed

Kassow Robots is developing 7-DOF cobot arms. (Credit: Kassow Robots)

Bosch Rexroth acquired the majority stake in Kassow Robots, a Denmark-based developer of 7-axis collaborative robotic arms. Bosch said the acquisition enables it to offer one-stop solutions, especially for the consumer goods and mobility industry including battery production as well as for semiconductor production. Kassow has five cobots in its portfolio, including reaches from 850mm to 1800mm and payloads from 5kg to 18kg.

Kassow Robots exited stealth mode at Automatica 2018. It was co-founded in 2014 by Kristian Kassow, the former co-founder of Universal Robots, which is the leading developer of cobots. Founded in 2005 by Kassow, Esben Østergaard and Kasper Støy, Universal Robots was acquired a mere 10 years later by Teradyne for $285 million.

Sarcos buys RE2 Robotics

Date Announced: March 28, 2022
Amount: $100M

Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation acquired RE2 Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based developer of autonomous and teleoperated mobile robotic systems, for $100 million. The deal consists of $30 million in cash and $70 million of Sarcos common stock. Both companies have had long-term success with military and defense customers, but they never collaborated.

The combined company now offers an extended product portfolio, which will enable it to target a much broader spectrum of customer needs across the commercial (aviation, construction, medical and subsea) and defense sectors. For example, the company has been working with Changi Airport Group to develop an outdoor-based baggage loading system that can automate the loading and unloading of loose passenger bags from a narrow-bodied aircraft.

American Robotics acquires Airobotics

Date Announced: July 5, 2022
Amount: Undisclosed

American Robotics acquired Airobotics, an Israeli developer of autonomous unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The acquisition is intended to accelerate American Robotics’ technical development and regulatory roadmap and expand the breadth of applications, use cases and vertical targets.

Combining American Robotics and Airobotics also means bringing together leading engineering and aviation talent and two world-class technology platforms. In January 2021, Marlborough, Mass.-based American Robotics became the first company approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to operate fully autonomous drones without visual observers on-site. Before this approval, waivers and certifications awarded by the FAA required visual observers to be stationed along the flight path to monitor a drone’s airspace.

Amazon buying iRobot

Date Announced: August 5, 2022
Amount: $1.7B

Amazon agreed to buy consumer robotics giant iRobot for $1.7 billion back in August, but the deal is under review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The antitrust investigation is focusing on whether the data provided by iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum gives Amazon an unfair advantage in the retail industry. The FTC is also analyzing how the line of robot vacuums would fit in with Amazon’s existing smart home products.

Amazon and iRobot have had a relationship dating back to 2005 before iRobot went public. iRobot listed Explore Holdings LLC as an investor and named Elizabeth Korrell as its manager. Explore Holdings was another name for Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos’ personal investment firm at the time, and Elizabeth Korrell was an attorney for Bezos. Beyond that, iRobot uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) and developed voice integration between Alexa and the Roomba.

Both companies could seemingly benefit from this deal. Amazon has struggled to enter the consumer robotics market and underwhelmed the industry with its Astro robot. iRobot’s second quarter revenue fell 30% this year due to weak demand and cancellations from retailers in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa. The company also warned of weaker growth going forward. iRobot has diversified its product portfolio in recent years with non-robotics products, including a handheld vacuum and air purifiers.

Walmart acquires ASRS maker Alert Innovation

Date Announced: October 6, 2022
Amount: Undisclosed

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, agreed to acquire Alert Innovation for an undisclosed price. Alert Innovation is a North Billerica, Mass.-based developer of robotic e-grocery fulfillment technologies.

Walmart began working with Alert Innovation in 2016 to build custom technology for its micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs). Walmart piloted its first MFC in Salem, N.H. in late 2019 using custom technology from Alert Innovation. The autonomous robot, named Alphabot, can store, retrieve and dispense orders by moving horizontally, laterally and vertically across three temperature zones without any lifts or conveyors.

At the time of the deal, Walmart said that “bringing the best of Alert’s technology and capabilities in-house will enable us to reach more customers quicker by deploying MFCs with greater speed, providing both an unmatched shopping experience and a competitive advantage in omnichannel fulfillment.”

Intrinsic acquires Open Source Robotics Corp

Date: Dec.15, 2022
Amount: Undisclosed

Intrinsic, a software company that launched out of the X moonshot division of Alphabet in mid-2021 to simplify the use of industrial robots, acquired the Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC). The OSRC is the for-profit arm of Open Source Robotics Foundation, which is the developer of the popular Robot Operating System (ROS). Intrinsic is also acquiring Open Source Robotics Corporation Singapore (OSRC-SG), the division of the company that led directly to the release of Open-RMF for interoperability.

To be clear, Intrinsic did not acquire the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), the non-profit that has and will continue to be responsible for the day-to-day activities and development of ROS, Gazebo, Open-RMF and the entire ROS community.

Here’s why this deal is important going forward.

“As a small independent company at OSRC, it’s become increasingly challenging for us to meet the diverse needs of our large and growing user community and continue the commercial business of OSRC,” said Brian Gerkey, co-founder and now-former CEO of Open Robotics, who is joining Intrinsic along with many of his colleagues. “Greater institutional support from Intrinsic and the resources from this transaction allow our team to focus on what we do best and accelerate the development of ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF in a sustainable way.

“Together we will give the robotics community great new features in ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF, while also building new products and services on top. We will continue to improve ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF so that they can be used in even more domains, with ever-higher demands for software quality, testing, and platform support.”

Notable mergers

There were also several notable mergers during 2022. Teradyne companies Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and AutoGuide Mobile Robots merged to become a single supplier of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). At the end of September 2022, the integrated company officially became known as Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR).

Prior to the merger, MiR offered a range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3,000 lb. (1350 kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high payload AMR tuggers and forklifts that will operate on the MiRFleet software.

Another notable merger took place between LiDAR makers Ouster and Velodyne. At press time, this merger wasn’t complete, but the combined company plans to leverage the complementary customer base, partners and distribution channels to accelerate LiDAR adoption. Combined, Ouster and Velodyne have 173 granted and 504 pending patents, and a cash balance of approximately $355 million as of the end of September 2022.

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Pony.ai robotaxi in Beijing. | Credit: Pony.ai

Pony.ai and Baidu announced that they have been issued a fully driverless autonomous vehicle road test permit by the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone.

With this new permit, Pony.ai will test ten driverless robotaxis in the pilot zone in Yizhuang, Beijing, over an area of 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles). The Pony.ai robotaxis will be tested in difficult traffic situations in cities. The autonomous vehicles will be tested without anyone in the vehicle; a safety officer will monitor the test vehicles remotely. As with the other regulatory approvals in Beijing over the past year, Pony.ai is one of only two AV companies to get approval in the first group.

In addition to receiving the driverless permit in Beijing, Pony.ai received a permit in April 2022 to begin testing fully driverless vehicles in Guangzhou, laying the groundwork for future driverless applications and commercial operations.

Over the past year, the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone has announced a number of industry-leading autonomous driving policies in succession. In October 2021, the pilot zone opened up autonomous driving unmanned road tests for the first time and divided “autonomous” testing into three stages:

1. Nobody behind the steering wheel but there is a safety operator in the passenger seat
2. Nobody in the front row, but with a safety operator in the back row
3. “Fully driverless” – this covers the permit for autonomous testing in Beijing

To enter this third stage, AV test vehicles need to have met strict technical and operational requirements such as test mileage and disengagement rate; Pony.ai’s ten test vehicles successfully passed the tests without any safety issues.

This authorization builds on other recent autonomous driving milestones for Pony.ai in Beijing. In November 2022, Pony.ai got approval to test with a safety operator in the back seat (stage two of the three stages). Pony.ai acquired permission to offer fare-charging robotaxi services in 2022. It became the first and only AV firm to acquire a taxi license in China in April 2022.

The SAIC Marvel R model will be equipped with the latest generation of Pony.ai’s autonomous driving technology. | Credit: Pony.ai

Pony.ai recently announced that it is collaborating with SAIC AI Lab, a division of SAIC Motor (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), China’s largest auto manufacturer to jointly explore and advance driverless technology. Together with SAIC AI Lab, Pony.ai launched a concept vehicle based on the SAIC Marvel R model and will build out a fleet of autonomous vehicles equipped with Pony.ai’s L4-level driverless solutions, over time. 

Baidu wants to become the largest robotaxi provider in the world

Apollo Go Fully Driverless Robotaxi Running on Wuhan Public Road in Evening Hours

Baidu has been offering ride-hailing services with no human drivers since August 2022 in the cities of Chongqing and Wuhan, where they can operate over hundreds of square kilometers. Baidu will keep growing its operational area into 2023 as it plans to create the largest service area for fully driverless robotaxis in the world. The company is planning to add 200 vehicles to its fleet in 2023.

A total of 10 fully driverless test vehicles will travel across a 20 square kilometer area in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, covering a series of complex urban road scenarios.

Baidu’s Apollo Go covers more than 10 Chinese cities, including all first-tier cities. Apollo Go conducted 474,000 rides in Q3 2022, up 311% year over year and 65% from the previous quarter. In first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, each Apollo Go robotaxi can give 15 rides a day on average. Apollo Go had given 1.4 million rides by Q3 2022. As Baidu expands robotaxi service, it is one step closer to providing autonomous driving services to more people and consolidating its leading position in the worldwide autonomous ride-hailing market.

Earlier this week, Baidu also announced a major expansion of its commercialized fully driverless robotaxi service in Wuhan, tripling the size of its operation area, increasing the number of robotaxis in service and expanding operating time to include key evening hours.

“Backed by its solid AI technology, Baidu Apollo has created a safe, intelligent and efficient autonomous driving technology system, bringing robotaxi services from designated zones to open roads at scale,” said Jingkai Chen, Baidu’s autonomous driving technology expert at the event. The generalization ability of Baidu’s autonomous driving technology has progressed at a more advanced pace than expected. Now, the lead time to deploy autonomous driving technology in a new city is only 20 days.

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The Overture Maps Foundation, created by the Linux Foundation, aims to help developers who build map services or use geospatial data. | Source: Overture Maps Foundation

The Linux Foundation announced it formed the Overture Maps Foundation, a collaborative effort to create interoperable open map data as a shared asset. The Overture Maps Foundation aims to strengthen mapping services worldwide and enable current and next-generation mapping products. These mapping services could be crucial to robotic applications like autonomous driving. 

Currently, companies developing and rolling out autonomous vehicles have to spend massive amounts of time and money meticulously mapping the cities they’re deploying in. Additionally, those companies have to continuously remap those cities to account for any changes in road work or traffic laws. 

The foundation is founded by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft and TomTom. Overture hopes to add more members in the future to include a wide range of signals and data inputs. Members of the foundation will combine their resources to create map data that is complete, accurate and refreshed as the physical world changes. The resulting data will be open and extensible under an open data license. 

“Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage. Industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all,” Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation, said. “We are excited to facilitate this open collaboration among leading technology companies to develop high quality, open map data that will enable untold innovations for the benefit of people, companies, and communities.”

The Overture Maps foundation aims to build maps using data from multiple sources, including Overture members, civic organizations and open data sources, and simplify interoperability by creating a system that links entities from different data sets to the same real-world entities. All data used by Overture will undergo validation to ensure there are no map errors, breakage or vandalism within the mapping data. 

Overture also aims to help drive the adoption of a common, structured and documented data schema to create an easy-to-use ecosystem of map data. Currently, developers looking to create detailed maps have to source and curate their data from disparate sources, which can be difficult and expensive. Not to mention, many datasets use different conventions and vocabulary to reference the same real-world entities. 

“Microsoft is committed to closing the data divide and helping organizations of all sizes to realize the benefits of data as well as the new technologies it powers, including geospatial data,” Russell Dicker, Corporate Vice President, Product, Maps and Local at Microsoft, said. “Current and next-generation map products require open map data built using AI that’s reliable, easy-to-use and interoperable. We’re proud to contribute to this important work to help empower the global developer community as they build the next generation of location-based applications.” 

Overture hopes to release its first datasets in the first half of 2023. The initial release will include basic layers including buildings, road and administrative information, but Overture plans to steadily add more layers like places, routing or 3D building data. 

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