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Q&A: Matt Rendall, co-founder, OTTO Motors
OTTO Motors is a Kitchener, Ontario-based spin-off of Clearpath Robotics. Clearpath is a developer of autonomous cellular robots (AMR) for analysis and improvement functions based in 2008.
Matt Rendall, CEO and Co-founder, OTTO Motors
Round 2013, Clearpath observed patterns that R&D was beginning to decide up in materials dealing with. The sample turned too arduous to disregard round 2014, when it began to construct the primary enterprise plans for OTTO Motors.
Quick ahead to right now, OTTO Motors is a number one autonomous materials dealing with firm serving world markets centered primarily in automotive, in addition to meals and beverage, shopper packaged items and different heavy industrial purposes.
We not too long ago sat down with OTTO Motors co-founder and CEO Matt Rendall to debate the present state of the autonomous cellular robotics market and the significance of simulation in serving to clients deploy AMRs.
Editor’s Be aware: This interview was excerpted from Rendall’s current look on The Robotic Report Podcast. It has been edited for size and readability. To catch all the dialog with Rendall, try the newest episode of The Robotic Report Podcast.
Oitzman: Your portfolio right now for OTTO has developed to incorporate three totally different configurations: a 100 kg payload, a 750 kg payload and a 1500 lg payload. Inform us just a little bit concerning the evolution of your AMR portfolio and the kind purposes which can be vital for every of these totally different payload configurations?
Rendall: Determining the best payloads and kind elements was one thing that we spent fairly a little bit of time early on fascinated by. In the end, as we began researching materials dealing with, one of many issues that turned very clear to us very early on was simply how deep the area experience of fabric dealing with actually is, and the way diversified it’s not solely from business to business, however even from automotive plant to automotive plant throughout the identical firm.
We additionally knew that we have been autonomous car folks, we have been roboticists, we knew a ton about autonomy, however not quite a bit about materials dealing with. So, we determined if we’re going to take a crack at this, let’s begin with the closest factor we are able to determine to a common commonplace for materials transport.
That’s how we zeroed in on the pallet. We figured if we created an autonomous pallet mover, that may open up essentially the most doorways for us in very starting.
And even nonetheless right now, we have a tendency to steer within the heavy payload AMR class, it’s a really totally different technical drawback to unravel (from the smaller payload options). Once you’re transferring that a lot mass at pace, the inertia within that system creates a really totally different security drawback to deal with inside manufacturing environments.
OTTO Motors portfolio consists of three totally different sized AMRs, every engineered for a particular class of fabric dealing with. | Credit score: OTTO Motors
And from there, the closest common commonplace for materials transport is definitely human motive energy. There are simply very sensible higher bounds on how a lot weight a human can push earlier than they faucet out. The OTTO 100 tends to be very well served to human scale, payload transportation.
Then you might have the Goldilocks drawback the place the OTTO 100 is just a little bit too small for some duties, and the OTTO 1500 is just a little bit too massive for some duties. So the OTTO 750 matches proper within the center.
Now we have the OTTO 100 that may transfer human scale hundreds, the OTTO 750 that may transfer pump truck scale hundreds, and the OTTO 1500, which may transfer forklifts scale hundreds. These actually are the three commonest strategies employed in materials dealing with for transporting materials. That’s how the portfolio got here to be.
For industrial robotics, the combination channels are very sturdy, but, I’ve seen only a few of these corporations put money into promoting cellular robotics. What’s your tackle utilizing integrators to assist promote and set up AMR options?
Rendall: For us, it’s additionally been a studying course of for the business. Techniques integrators are, usually talking, all the time searching for differentiation and aggressive benefit. So with the ability to provide a brand new type of automation that not all of their friends are providing is one thing that always will get us a primary dialog (with a brand new associate).
Most methods integrators are within the enterprise of manufacturing discrete course of automation. The manufacturing world has spent the final 40 years investing, putting in, optimizing, and perfecting machines that do one factor or two or three issues very quick.
The flexibility to attach islands of automation with autonomous materials dealing with provides you a extra streamlined and automatic circulate, and a extra utterly automated worth chain.
Materials dealing with is without doubt one of the least automated issues within extremely automated companies. That’s a part of what we’ve been investing in during the last three or 4 years to simply make sure that we encompass our licensed companions with the instruments and folks wanted to efficiently compete and win initiatives to attach these islands of automation.
We (at The Robotic Report) are excited to have you ever as a keynote speaker on the upcoming Robotics Summit in Might, 2022, in Boston. You’re on the hook to speak about simulation. Are you able to give us a style of how you’re utilizing simulation in your corporation right now?
Rendall: Simulation is such an vital a part of not solely the planning course of for designing an autonomous materials dealing with system, however the ongoing operation of it as nicely.
It wasn’t one thing that we got down to do on the very starting once we have been creating the OTTO 1500. Simulation got here on account of bumps and bruises within the first deployments that we have been experiencing in 2015-2016.
Half of the issue was asking ourselves what occurs if the car strikes just a little bit quicker or slower than we count on? What does that do to our fleet rely? How does that influence productiveness?
We skilled some initiatives within the 2015-2016 timeframe the place clients would develop a enterprise case with us, we’d set up an AMR fleet, solely to reveal a course of bottleneck barely upstream. And if you happen to expertise a course of bottle necking barely upstream, it doesn’t matter how nice the ROI case is for what you’ve put in, you’re not going to comprehend it.
It turned existential for us to unravel extra of a holistic course of design to make sure that the upstream and downstream bottlenecks, whether or not it’s hunger, or accumulation of products, isn’t going to impede the success of the AMR program.
Clients would ask: “Oh, what if I did this or that to my AMR fleet?”
So we’ve been investing in constructing our simulation capabilities as a strategic differentiator for our enterprise since about 2016. We’ve obtained a mixture of business commonplace, discrete occasion, course of simulation instruments. There’s a pair that industrial engineers and course of engineers depend on, we’ve been constructing out our libraries of AMR processes for about 6-7 years, so we’ve obtained a reasonably subtle portfolio that we’re capable of pull from.
There’s all the time going to be one thing you didn’t anticipate. So with the ability to fuzz the simulation to simply perceive how resilient your resolution is to no matter supply of chaos is launched. that that “measure twice, lower as soon as” or “an oz of prevention is price a pound of remedy” kind of mentality is a part of the explanation why right now nearly all of the work that we do is enterprise crucial 24 by 7 operations the place seconds matter within the supply chain.
A great guide course of doesn’t make for automated course of by default. So we actually attempt to zoom out and determine the most effective course of. And by attempting to determine the most effective course of, we will help our clients determine the best state or the best resolution.
So I feel what I heard you describe for us is that there’s three huge use case buckets for simulation: first, there’s the use case for gross sales and software engineers to make use of and in the course of the gross sales course of. Second, the use case to your engineering group, to truly run simulation about product adjustments to the product, to know how that’s gonna influence the general efficiency traits of the of the robots. And third, the fleet administration use case the place tweaking issues throughout manufacturing and validating precise efficiency earlier than pushing parameter adjustments to the fleet?
Rendall: There’s one modifier that I’d provide to the primary bucket on the sale, resales or, the idea improvement aspect of issues: there are brownfield initiatives and there are greenfield initiatives.
The overwhelming majority of initiatives are brownfield. You’ve obtained a facility that’s been on-line for 40 or 50 years. As a part of the continual enchancment program, there’s an automation mandate to do new issues with materials dealing with. So the duty at hand is: “how can we fee an AMR fleet to unravel supply routes A, B, C, D?”
Then on the opposite aspect of the equation, you’ve obtained greenfield alternatives. A greenfield alternative is a clean web page. Once you encounter a greenfield, you might have this outstanding alternative to rewrite the playbook for manufacturing or rewrite the playbook for warehousing.
That is the place the manufacturing unit or distribution middle of the longer term idea rubber hits the street. And when you might have a extremely, actually sturdy competence in simulation and course of design, really, I’d say course of design, first after which simulation to validate the processes that you just’re considering. You possibly can associate on the blueprint stage of the manufacturing operation.
We’ve collaborated with clients to redefine how vegetation are laid out, how aisle methods are sized, what the arteries appear like for transportation and we’ve been capable of obtain higher productiveness per sq. foot by rethinking how vegetation are laid out the place the first mode of transportation is materials dealing with.
In order that’s a really, very totally different drawback to unravel than a brownfield and goes thus far past your sort of typical definition of software engineering for a brownfield program. However once you do sort out these initiatives, the influence you can have as an AMR supplier, and what we validated in a few of the early inexperienced fields that we’ve been concerned in, is you possibly can obtain productiveness features that brownfield websites may by no means obtain.
It’s profound, and it’s all enabled by simulation.
Earlier than I allow you to go, I wished to seize your ideas about a few of the numerous AMR acquisitions over this previous yr?
Rendall: I’m an enormous supporter of the transactions which can be taking place. It’s only a large validator, that the market traits that we began selecting up on in 2015 are materializing to the purpose the place mainstay automation manufacturers are placing severe {dollars} on the desk to amass a strategic functionality.
I feel it’s solely going to serve to speed up the market. The final 5 years, I’d nonetheless say we’re within the early adopter section. The stakes are excessive in automation. So the tolerance for failure is low and that results in a danger averse mentality in business.
So if ABB is providing an AMR functionality, it’s going to convey extra risk-averse consumers to the desk. That’s factor for the business.
I’d nonetheless say we’re within the early days. I feel there’s going to be much more acquisitions on the horizon from a market consolidation perspective. I’m simply usually actually excited concerning the patterns which can be beginning to unfold.
Editor Notes: You possibly can hearken to the full interview with Matt Rendall on the most recent episode of the The Robotic Report Podcast.
To catch Matt’s keynote on the state of simulation in robotics, you should definitely register for the upcoming Robotic Summit and Expo in Boston, on Might 10-11, 2022.
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