The Boston Robotics Summit: The U.S. Robotics Community Showcases Breakthroughs in Mobility, Increased Optimism, and the Underlying Strength of the Industry

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2Q 2018 | IN-5152

ABI Research was present at the inaugural Robotics Summit and Showcase in Boston. The aim of this foresight is to take in the trends highlighted in the summit, and evaluate where this leaves the wider commercial robotics industry. The greater Boston area is a key hotspot for American technological innovation and for robotics in particular. Alongside companies dedicated to specific verticals, Boston Dynamics (of SoftBank Holdings) and Agility Robotics represent two attempts to expand the scope of robotic mobility and sophistication.

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Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics Show Their Wares

NEWS


ABI Research was present at the inaugural Robotics Summit and Showcase in Boston. The aim of this foresight is to take in the trends highlighted in the summit, and evaluate where this leaves the wider commercial robotics industry.

The greater Boston area is a key hotspot for American technological innovation and for robotics in particular. Alongside companies dedicated to specific verticals, Boston Dynamics (of SoftBank Holdings) and Agility Robotics represent two attempts to expand the scope of robotic mobility and sophistication.

Agility Robotics is focusing on the significant challenge of acquiring effective bipedal motion for robots. The applications for bipedal walkers over other mobility technologies are varied; for example, they can be used for mobile telepresence or patrolling hard-to-reach areas. While Boston Dynamics has been effective in creating quadruped robots, more legs tend to require more actuators, greater expense, and significant technical complexity. Wheeled Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) are limited to roads and structured environments, and the Agility Robotics founder suggested tracked vehicles suffered from a military aesthetic (ABI questions whether this is a strategic issue).  Bipedal movement avoids all these pitfalls and opens applications for robots in unstructured environments where humans walk but do not drive, like parks, sidewalks, or outside of urban areas. On the downside, bipedal motion remains a tough technology to master in terms avoiding falls and its limited payload.

In showcasing its signature quadruped SpotMini, Boston Dynamics was highlighting the capabilities of what it hopes will be its first successful commercial product. In 2019, the company hopes to sell 1,000 SpotMinis to a range of market verticals, including construction, security, delivery, and home assistance. Of those, security is the market best suited to SpotMini as its payload is limited (for use in delivery and construction) and there remain questions about the enthusiasm to adopt it in the home at this time.

A further challenge arises from the fact that other companies that have developed more rudimentary robots have already targeted these markets and are enjoying success, for example, Knightscope and Cobalt Robotics in security. Given that these companies are in the early stages of their deployment and have already faced some backlash from municipal bodies, it is an open question as to how successful they will initially be. Regardless of Boston Dynamics’ commercial arm, the SpotMini represents an excellent technological showcase, and its bipedal Atlas robot, though more expensive, is perhaps, from a purely physical standpoint, the most impressive robotic demonstrator in the industry.

Both Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics represent the hopes and anxieties of the industry as a whole. While both companies show promise in terms of providing excellent technology and solutions to complex hardware-centric problems, the excitement surrounding their deployments is tempered by the need to find a viable commercial solution with a clear and vital use case.

Robotics Use Cases Set To Expand

IMPACT


There were a number of talks related to investment trends, and ABI’s corresponding evidence points to greater risk-taking among Venture Capitalists (VCs) and private actors, not just relating to robotics in traditional settings like manufacturing, but in other verticals as well.

Currently, ABI Research’s figures show that the majority of nonconsumer-related robotic shipments are heavily concentrated in industry, with the same being true of revenue. However, based on the patterns of funding laid out in ABI Research’s recent 2017 investment monitor (PT-1840), this will not represent the future of robotics. Among the areas of highest investment were health, AMRs, construction, agriculture, and hospitality.

The increase of robotic shipments related to warehouse logistics and non-traditional verticals like security and hospitality is being driven by a number of factors, including cheaper sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) improvements, better hardware, and it is being facilitated by tight labor markets across the developed world. While there remain high barriers to entry, these are being mitigated by the adoption of Robotics as a Service (RaaS). Though predictions about future adoption rates across different markets should be mindful of overhype, the underlying trends are all in place to suggest sufficient demand exists to see a real broadening of the industry outside of process and discrete manufacturing.

The Robotics Industry and the Wider Discussion Is Getting More Sophisticated

RECOMMENDATIONS


A few key trends are developing in robotics:

Firstly, logistics (particularly in the warehouse), has displaced collaborative robotics as the key topic of interest; representatives from both Seegrid and Vecna Robotics were present at the Summit. Both possess significant market share in the robotics provider market for the logistics space, and both are established players that have existed in some format for decades. Seegrid and Vecna Robotics are both, to varying extents, developing hardware-agnostic autonomy and navigation solutions that are not limited by bespoke hardware. Both of these companies also provide solutions for larger vehicles with payloads reaching up to 10,000 pounds.

By contrast, companies like Locus Technologies, Fetch, IAM Robotics, and Invia are developing hardware-specific platforms, generally with more limited payloads, but often with higher levels of modularity and manipulation capability. It is to be determined whether these new players will be able to challenge Seegrid and Vecna Robotics, which between them have enjoyed profitable relationships with large companies like FedEx, Amazon, and General Motors.

While many of these companies are in the embryonic stages of deploying RaaS, Vecna Robotics is among those leasing their logistics vehicles, and most players acknowledge the shift to a service-based model to be critical for the logistics market and for the robotics industry in general.

There is a concomitant level of excitement in the industrial robotics market, but for the first time, this is not centered on articulated arms or robotic platforms. Rather, the Summit was attended widely by system-agnostic third-party suppliers in software (like Energid Technologies and Neurala), end-effector solutions (Soft Robotics, RightHand Robotics, Plus One Robotics), and drives (Harmonic Drive). ABI Research contends that competition will heat up over the coming years before any clear consolidation takes place.

In summary, the first Robotics Summit & Showcase at Boston highlighted an industry still coming to terms with the increased exposure and expectations its recent success has placed on it. There will be a lot more disruption in the months leading up to the next iteration, but in broad terms, the robotics community has never been so optimistic.

By ABI Research’s estimates (see AN-2527 Commercial and Collaborative Robots for e-Commerce and Robotics-as-a-Service), the e-commerce market and RaaS are going to become central to the robotics industry over the next 10 years, with RaaS revenue reaching US$34 billion by 2027. Much of that revenue will come from warehouse fulfillment and last-mile delivery robotics. Other verticals are promising but have not seen anywhere near the level of robotic adoption, and an issue in the robotics industry that remains is that of products that are not assigned to any specific task struggling to generate value.