OhmniLabs Inc. this week announced the availability of its new Ohmni Modular Robotics Platform, which it said enables customers “to design their robots—from the base to the brains.” The San Jose, Calif.-based company said that its mobile robot base and software platform will help businesses add accessories and functionality for tasks such as disinfection, conducting virtual real-estate tours, or conducting security patrols.
“With the Ohmni Modular Robotics Platform, we can offer hundreds of robot variations for a fraction of the time and cost,” stated Thuc Vu, co-founder and CEO of OhmniLabs. “The market for service robots is a trillion-dollar opportunity once it reaches ubiquity, and our mission from Day 1 has been to democratize robotics and accelerate the adoption of robotic solutions around the world. This new platform is one way we are working towards that goal.”
Founded in 2015, OhmniLabs said its on-demand model allows it to design, engineer, and manufacture custom robots based on customer needs. The company produces all its robots in the U.S. using proprietary 3D printing processes and offers portfolio of modular accessories. It deploys and manages robots through a cloud-based platform. OhmniLabs claimed that its robots are used daily by multinationals and small businesses, hospitals, schools, and major sports teams in more than 40 countries.
Modular Robotics Platform includes software, accessories
Since its first Ohmni Telepresence Robot, OhmniLabs said it has developed technologies for autonomy, ease of design, and manufacturing at scale. The Ohmni Modular Robotics Platform is composed of extensible base robots, a library of tech modules, and proprietary development and manufacturing processes. These allow the company to develop and iterate quickly through different robotics products just like a software company, according to OhmniLabs.
The company's autonomous cloud robotics platform is built on a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) infrastructure and uses a blend of lidar, depth cameras, and computer vision to generate maps that are shared across robot fleets. With OhmniLabs' computer vision at the edge, robots can recognize the people and objects around them and understand the environments they're navigating, even without an Internet connection, the company said.
OhmniLabs added that its Modular Tech Library includes more than 200 robotic components spanning hardware, engineering, software, and cloud robotics. Examples include brushless motors, sensors, acoustically tuned speakers, and self-docking charging systems. Every tech module has been tested and proven in the real world, said the company, with patents pending on key technologies.
In addition, the Ohmni Modular Robotics Platform enables the fabrication of new designs in a matter of hours in OhmniLabs' 3D printing facility. Traditional molding can take up to three months, the company noted. This rapid-prototyping process significantly lowers the barrier to entry so customers can bring new robots to market faster than ever before, all while de-risking the entire development process, OhmniLabs said.
“Our manufacturing process has been perfected over the last five years, and we are quickly becoming industry leaders in making smart, functional, and low-cost robots a reality,” said Vu. “We couldn't find a 3D printer that was capable of running for long periods of time, so we built our own production-grade 3D printers that are optimized for 24/7 operation and quickly manufacture production-ready, functional prototypes.”
OhmniLabs supports manufacturing at scale
OhmniLabs said its design and production professionals can work side by side with customers and resellers to conceptualize, engineer, prototype, manufacture and deploy a fleet of custom robots quickly, without sacrificing usability and quality.
This end-to-end development process allows customers to assess risks and make decisions at each stage, with a specific goal in mind. For example, a client can begin with an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for mapping and navigation and then add various tech modules depending on their needs. During the process, the client is able to control costs and adjust for potential changes.
“The new Modular Robotics Platform from OhmniLabs makes developing specialized robots easier and faster than we could have ever imagined,” said Tetsuro Morimoto, Ph.D., who manages the Business Creation Department and Insights Lab at Toppan Printing Co. “The modularity allows us to experiment with different applications and functionalities that allow us to better serve our customers, employees, facilities and communities.”
The Ohmni Robot platform was recently awarded as a 2021 TMCnet Remote Work Pioneer for its exceptional flexibility. The company said it is working with many leading technology companies and universities to develop custom robotics for a variety of applications.
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