Automation technology and robotics don’t always play together easily in an industrial production environment, where it takes domain expertise to integrate robotics into a machine or work cell’s control. To explore integration and interfacing between the two, Siemens is collaborating with Intrinsic’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based robotics software, together with Siemens Digital Industries’ automation portfolio for industrial production.
Siemens hopes to combine its automation technology know-how with Intrinsic’s strong footprint in advanced perception, machine learning and reinforcement learning.
Integrating AI-based robotics and automation components can be cumbersome due to significantly different development and runtime environments. For example, deploying advanced robotic capabilities such as pose estimation, robot manipulation or automated path planning are complex processes that typically require teams of domain experts to operationalize. The two companies will investigate new methods to seamlessly bridge the gaps between robotics, automation engineering and IT development.
Flexible, AI-enabled robot work cells that incorporate seamlessly into an operation will depend on bridging those worlds together. The two companies hope that this will make industrial robotics more accessible to more users, particularly for new market segments and small and medium-sized companies.
“Intrinsic’s mission is to democratize access to robotics. However, robotics is rarely decoupled from the production environment, where the most value is created today,” said Wendy Tan White, CEO at Intrinsic. “That’s why working with Siemens Digital Industries, an industry leading automation expert, is an exciting opportunity to bring joint solutions to the market in the future, so many more businesses can benefit from the value that robotics and automation can offer.”
“Siemens is dedicated to bringing IT and OT closer together—the key principle of our Industrial Operations X portfolio,” says Rainer Brehm, CEO of factory automation at Siemens. “We are impressed by Intrinsic’s open approach to industrial robotics, and we are excited to explore with Intrinsic how coupling of AI-based robots and automation technology can be further accelerated.”
