The concept of “cloudy” has been widely accepted in the technology industry because companies use different cloud providers for various types of cloud workloads. Now Amazon is preparing for similar results in robotics.
Amazon is integrating the technology originally developed for its warehouse into the new cloud service Robo runner, which can be used by other companies to manage and coordinate robot fleets from multiple suppliers.
The company separately announced the launch of a new AWS robot entrepreneurship accelerator in cooperation with massrobotics to help robot startups integrate Amazon’s cloud technology into their products and services.
AWS IOT robourunner was released by Amazon Web services at the re: invent conference in Las Vegas. It allows companies to connect robot fleets to the cloud, operate different types of robots as part of the same system, develop applications, and optimize the operation of automated fleets using real-time data from warehouses or factory workshops.
AWS robotics team provides cloud services for robots and has been working closely with Amazon’s internal robotics team. However, Eric Anderson, general manager of robotics and autonomous services of the American Welding Society, said in an interview with geekwire that the direct lineage of robots is unusual.
“The uniqueness of robourunner is that it is actually an internal project of Amazon, which helps our robot fleet reach today’s operation level and allows them to integrate more diversity into the types of equipment we actually deploy as part of our performance and material flow operation,” Anderson said.
This is a follow-up to the company’s AWS robomaker robot simulation service, which was launched in 2018 to help robot experts and software engineers build cloud applications and simulations. Amazon positions Robo runner in a different customer base: a large company that buys and operates larger robotic systems.
With this new service, Amazon hopes to be ahead of the long-term trend.
At present, most companies use a single robot platform. Dwight klappich, a Gartner analyst, wrote in a report on this trend in July that this situation will change with the proliferation of commercial and industrial robots in the coming years.
“As companies expand the use of robotics, most companies will eventually have heterogeneous robot teams from different suppliers to perform various tasks,” he wrote. “Integrating and coordinating the work of various robot fleets requires standardized choreography software that can be easily integrated into various specific robot platforms.”
Amazon is not the only company pursuing this market. Examples cited by Gartner include accelogix; Formant; GreyOrange； McGregor partners; Lapita robot; Robotics; Rocos; And SVT robots.