Taiwan-based Lanner Electronics and Israeli company MOV.AI have announced the integration of Lanner’s Edge AI computing appliance, MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform^TM, and NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform. Specifically, the integration provides autonomous mobile robot (AMR) manufacturers and automation integrators with a robust platform that speeds up development, improves operational efficiency, and optimizes robot performance in dynamic industrial environments.

Robotics’ Role in Digital Transformation

Digital transformation has been picking up speed in industrial automation and logistics, with robotics playing a unique role in the automation of these markets. Research firm ABI Research estimates that the market for industrial robots will reach $27 billion in 2030. The number of units will double from 406,000 in 2021 to 815,000 in 2030.

Modern warehouses pose unique challenges for automation. Physical repetition, lack of distinctive features, or frequently changing items are a challenge for perception and navigation systems. However, multiple robot types performing different tasks create synchronization and fleet management challenges and numerous integrations are required between management systems and IoT devices. Humans introduce uncertainty while new connected systems require security measures, policies, and update methods that are not engrained in traditional robot systems.

Integrated Solution for Robot Developers

The new integrated solution solves all these issues by leveraging Lanner’s EAI-I130 NVIDIA Jetson-based edge AI computing appliance and MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform that incorporates NVIDIA Isaac ROS GEMs. They are hardware-accelerated packages for perception, SLAM navigation, image processing and more. The joint offering provides robot developers with fully integrated high-performance hardware, hardware-optimized robotics software development kits (SDKs) and a visual integrated development environment (IDE) that wraps it together to speed up development. The solution speeds robot time to market and ensures high-performance robots.

Optimized for AI functionality, performance, and ease of deployment, Lanner’s Edge AI appliances are NVIDIA NGC-ready with NVIDIA GPU Compatibility. The appliances are integrated with the MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform that offers developers a visual IDE for faster development and deployment. Developers can drag and drop the NVIDIA Isaac ROS GEMs directly in the MOV.AI development tools to quickly build high-performance robots.

“Our expertise in creating NVIDIA-optimized edge computing servers, combined with MOV.AI’s state-of-the-art AMR software powered by NVIDIA edge AI and robotics technologies, provides an off-the-shelf platform to build enterprise-grade autonomous robots for today’s challenging industrial environments,” said Jeans Tseng, Chief Technology Officer of Lanner Electronics. “We are confident that our AMR platform will enable service providers and manufacturers to quickly deploy the top-performing AMR solution to the industrial IoT applications.”

Motti Kushnir, MOV.AI’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “This is exciting on several levels. First and foremost, the integration allows fast time to market for a superior product that meets the needs of today’s warehouse automation challenges. Logistics is a $9 trillion industry, and automation is playing an important role in its optimization. We are excited to integrate with NVIDIA Isaac ROS GEMs as part of our strategy to improve operational efficiency and accelerate deployment of AMRs in warehouses and industrial manufacturing environments.”

“Second, from MOV.AI’s perspective, this is a huge achievement. NVIDIA, with its Isaac platform, is a major force in the robotics industry, continuously driving it forward. Together with Lanner, we are honored to partner to provide the robotics community with the tools they need to create robots that deliver value quickly and continuously,” Kushnir continued.