Botsync Blog is a platform to share about our work in robotics, industrial automation solution, our contributions to ROS , as well as deployments/developments of our autonomous mobile robots.
The use of robotics in the automotive factory is not recent. In fiction, it traces back to 1921, in the play Rossum’s Universal Robots and in reality, to 1961 when the first application of robots was seen in the automotive industry.
Working from home during the COVID-19 lockdown period, we pondered over the idea of announcing our story to the world. In our make-do home offices, we finally thought of putting our crazy engineering ideas and their business implications into honest words. So welcome to the Botsync world!
When it comes to designing Copernicus and Volta, we chose to build it on the Robot Operating System (ROS). As a widely used open-source system, ROS provides plenty of software libraries and tools which will help users of our platforms build robot applications in a shorter time frame and allow for integration with other technologies.
As we work closely with our clients on the deployments of MAG, we see that there is a gradual increase in the use of mobile robotics across various industrial sectors such as logistics, manufacturing, military, and even hospitality. The impact of the ongoing pandemic stretches across all sectors and further proves that investment in robotics is the way to go to guard against future disruptions.
Regardless of what people say, building products for outdoor environments is a very challenging problem. Making the product resistant to extreme weather conditions while solving the navigational problems was turning out to be a nightmare. The slightest cloud cover or a building obstruction would cause the entire navigation system to fail and you are left with a blind robot. This gave us the insight that instead of fighting an expensive battle with the elements with our limited budget, we should instead choose our battles more wisely.
Our first product, Copernicus is an important part of our identity as a company. It laid the foundation for our product engineering processes as well as evolved our brand identity from the logo to our choice of colors. Back when we started building the product for the first time, we decided to name it Copernicus in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus. It has become a tradition since to name our products in honor of the scientists who we feel represent the values of the product.
A few months have passed since the launch of Volta and we are very grateful for the attention that it has received from the academic community. During this period, we managed to touch base with groups of educators to share about how Volta is designed to have core features in line with industrial AMRs, allowing students and learners to develop industry-relevant robotic skills through hands-on development.
