ABB is strengthening its position with the Zurich-based company Sevensense Robotics, which was founded in 2018. The energy and automation group had already invested an undisclosed amount in the spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in November 2021 as part of an “innovation ecosystem”. The complete takeover now underlines ABB's “strategic investment focus on innovative AI solutions transforming industries, such as logistics and manufacturing”, according to a recent statement from ABB.
Last year, the group announced that it was equipping its autonomous mobile robots (AMR) with Visual SLAM technology from Sevensense. The company combines this 3D vision navigation technology with artificial intelligence. Using cameras mounted on the AMR, 3D maps of all objects in the vicinity are continuously created in real time and shared directly with the entire fleet. The technology can distinguish between fixed and moving objects such as people, thus allowing the robot to dynamically adapt to environments in which people work, such as in the automotive and logistics industries. According to ABB, this “revolutionary technology” has the potential to change robotics far beyond AMR. It will continue to be marketed in various segments such as material handling, building cleaning and other areas of service robotics under the product name Sevensense.
According to Sevensense CEO Gregory Hitz, this is a significant moment “as we introduce our home-grown technology to a wider range of markets and sectors”. He describes ABB as “the ideal home for us to continue scaling our versatile platform for 3D visual autonomy”.
