Realtime Robotics' RapidPlan software automates the programming, deployment and control of industrial robots. Realtime Robotics and Siemens have partnered to integrate Realtime's RapidPlan software with Siemens Process Simulate. RapidPlan will be offered as part of Siemens' Tecnomatix portfolio. The partnership will allow Siemens customers to use Realtime's robot motion planning and control software, RapidPlan, without leaving Siemens Process Simulate. The integration enables users to visualize, prioritize and simulate robot task plans.

Greetings from Cupertino, California, where the temperature has cooled down to a far more reasonable 101 degrees. It's a nice change from the 109 degrees we hit here on Tuesday. There was no robotics news to speak of, but that's why we're coming to you a day late with Actuator. I'll try not to make a habit of it. We've got an interesting selection of robotics news this week. It's a testament, really, to how broad this field has become in recent decades.

Ask Peter Howard SM '84, CEO of Realtime Robotics and MIT Sloan School of Management alumnus, what he thinks is the biggest bottleneck facing the robotics industry, and he'll tell you without hesitation it's return on investment. "Robotics automation is capable of handling almost any single task that a human can do, but the ROI is not compelling due to the high cost of deployment and the inability to achieve commensurate throughput," he says. But Realtime Robotics has developed a combination of proprietary software and hardware that reduces system deployment time by 70 percent or more, reduces deployment costs by 30 percent or more, and reduces the programming component of building a robotic system in the industrial robot space by upwards of 90 percent. In other words, Realtime Robotics is making robot adoption well worth the investment. On some level, people are always planning -- even the most spontaneous among us.

In this episode, we hear from Luca Colasanto, Senior Robotic Scientist at Realtime Robotics, about real-time robot motion planning in dynamic and complex environments with human-robot collaboration. Realtime Robotics focuses on accelerating conventional motion planning through optimization of algorithms and hardware to allow safe use of robotic tools in work areas with humans. Luca spoke to our interviewer Kate about Realtime Robotic's fast motion planning technology, including key aspects, such as perception, algorithms and custom hardware. Luca Colasanto is a Sr. Scientist at Realtime Robotics focusing on AI-based grasping and multi-robot optimization. Luca completed his PhD in Humanoid Robotics at Italian Institute of Technology, focusing on control systems for bipedal walking machines and compliant actuators.

Realtime Robotics, a provider of responsive motion planning for industrial robots and autonomous vehicles, says it has raised $11.7 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Sparx Asset Management, and included participation from Mitsubishi Electric, Hyundai, and Omron Ventures, alongside existing investors Toyota AI Ventures, Scrum Ventures, and the Duke Angel Network. The new capital will be used to accelerate the development of more commercial product releases and expand the team to support key customers and partners across the globe. The interest in the round reflects Realtime Robotics' first-mover advantage in the market for solutions that eliminate the obstacles to widespread adoption of advanced automation in industrial, agriculture, food service, construction, healthcare, and consumer settings. Despite the growing demand for automation, today's robots are not safe or smart enough to navigate in dynamic, unstructured environments, without costly safeguards and oversight.

It's been two years since the last time I judged the Automate Startup Competition. More than any other trade show contest, this event has been an oracle of future success. In following up with the last vintage of participants, all of the previous entrees are still operating and many are completing multi-million dollar financing rounds. As an indication of the importance of the venue, and quite possibly the growth of the industry, The Robot Report announced last week that 2017 finalist, Kinema Systems was acquired by SoftBank's Boston Dynamics. Traditionally, autonomous machines at the ProMat Show have been relegated to a subsection of the exhibit floor under the Automate brand.