Siemens and Intrinsic to make AI-based robotics accessible to SMEs

Siemens is collaborating with Google parent Alphabet’s industrial robotic software firm Intrinsic to make AI-driven bots more accessible and usable for smaller manufacturing SMEs.

According to the German engineering giant, the current development process for AI-based robotics is hindered by a lack of seamless integration.

Deploying advanced robotic capabilities such as pose estimation, robot manipulation or automated path planning, for instance, are complex processes that typically require teams of domain experts to operationalise.

Siemens and Intrinsic hope to solve this by working on new methods that will bridge the gaps between robotics, automation engineering and IT development.

Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic claims that robotics is rarely decoupled from the production environment, where, she argued, most of the value is created.

“That’s why working with Siemens Digital Industries 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,” she said.

Siemens and Intrinsic plan to speed up the development process of flexible, AI-enabled robot work cells and facilitate a smoother operation.

According to Intrinsic, this will make industrial robotics more accessible and usable for businesses, entrepreneurs and developers.

The CEO of Factory Automation at Siemens, Rainer Brehm said: “We are impressed by Intrinsic’s open approach to industrial robotics, and we are excited to explore how coupling of AI-based robots and automation technology can be further accelerated.

Earlier this year TechInformed reported on underwater farming start-up Nemo’s Garden, which used Siemens digital twin technology and AI to keep track of its herbs, vegetables, and plants that are growing in its completely-submerged domes.

Siemens has also made a digital twin of its own factory that simulates its production line and produces a completely accurate real-time twin so that it can keep track of any faults and evaluate out any proposed changes before making decisions.