Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics & Automation (IERA) Award 2024 for Realtime Robotics

Jakarta, INTI - The prestigious "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics & Automation" (IERA) Award 2024 has been awarded to Realtime Robotics. This Boston-based American company won the prize for its innovative fully automated motion planning tool for industrial robots. This solution develops optimized "choreography" for robots working together in a work cell without collisions. This year, for the first time, all four finalists are newcomers to the industry.

"The finalists stood out for their high quality and showed that the robotics industry has entered a new period," said Andra Keay, Chair and Vice President of the IERA Awards Board of Industrial Activities RAS. "For the first time, all the finalist companies are young and were formed in the last ten years. These newcomers have raised more than $500 million USD in investment and employ more than 1,300 people. We look forward to seeing more young robotics companies with major commercial goals in the future."

Finding the Most Suitable Choreography

This year's winner, Realtime Robotics, has pioneered the optimization of robot work cells to improve performance and cut cycle times. The tool accomplishes motion planning tasks at high speed, evaluating hundreds of thousands of solutions before providing optimized paths, sequences, and tool rotations for their robots to manufacturers.

Traditionally, work cell programming is a time-consuming job for engineers, and finding good choreography is a typical obstacle. Furthermore, when robot tasks change, the planning process has to start from scratch. This tool, developed by Realtime Robotics, is fully automated and develops good motion plans at high speed. Customers from manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics can benefit when they install work cells or if they want to enhance robot performance without disrupting production. The upcoming version of the tool can optimize energy consumption or floor space.

"It is an incredible honor to be recognized by a leading organization in the robotics industry," said Will Floyd-Jones, co-founder of Realtime Robotics. "This award is a validation at the highest level for our Optimization solution and the relentless efforts of our team to bring this vision to market."

IERA Award 2024 winners from left: Koji Kobayashi and Will Floyd-Jones, Realtime Robotics; Andra Keay, IERA Awards Chair, IEEE-RAS © IEEE-RAS

The Finalists

The other three IERA Award finalists are: Fourier Intelligence from Shanghai, China, with the Humanoid Robot "GR-1," a robot with human-like motion control capabilities. Youibot Robotics from Shenzhen, China, participated with the "OW12," a mobile manipulator robot used in semiconductor manufacturing automation. Neura Robotics from Metzingen, Germany, presented its Cognitive Robotics Platform. The award finals took place during the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Yokohama, Japan.

The IERA 2024 award marks a significant step forward in the world of robotics and automation. With the emergence of young and innovative companies like Realtime Robotics, the future of this industry looks increasingly bright and full of potential. Tireless efforts in developing more advanced and efficient technology will continue to push the boundaries of innovation and bring significant benefits to various industrial sectors in the future.