Amazon Net Companies, or AWS, has formally discontinued RoboMaker, its cloud-based robotics simulation platform. This marks the tip of a service that gave the impression to be misaligned from the beginning.
RoboMaker provided cloud simulation at scale via the open-source Gazebo physics engine. The system made it attainable to spin up hundreds of randomized environments and generate cross/fail metrics throughout them.
“When AWS decides to retire a service or characteristic, it’s usually as a result of its capabilities are higher addressed by newer AWS options or choices from our AWS Accomplice Community companions that higher meet buyer wants,” an AWS spokesperson instructed The Robotic Report. “In making such choices, our precedence is to offer clients with steering on accessible alternate options—whether or not they’re options or accomplice choices—together with the best way to migrate their workloads seamlessly, making certain minimal interruption to their operations.”
RoboMaker customers have been inspired to pivot to AWS Batch. The firm instructed The Robotic Report Batch stands out as RoboMaker’s different with its multi-container help, permitting a number of containers to run in a single job. AWS wrote a weblog for these seeking to transition off of RoboMaker.
“This eliminates the necessity for monolithic containers and allows separate simulation elements, making it superb for autonomous methods testing,” AWS stated through e-mail. “Batch supplies higher price management by charging just for compute assets and supporting Spot situations.”
“In contrast to RoboMaker’s limitations, Batch handles any containerized workload and integrates easily with different AWS companies,” it added. “Its flexibility in supporting varied compute environments and talent to scale from small to giant simulations makes it a extra versatile resolution for contemporary robotics growth.”
AWS RoboMaker tied to iRobot
AWS launched RoboMaker in 2018. iRobot, developer of the Roomba robotic vacuum, was on the time one among its largest robotics clients. iRobot expressed curiosity in a scalable simulation service. It thought cloud-based simulation could be helpful for growing robots that function in numerous environments, like properties with completely different layouts, flooring, and lighting.
The Robotic Report spoke with a number of sources, who wished to stay nameless, about RoboMaker. They stated the product was misaligned with market want and clearly didn’t acquire sufficient traction. One supply who beforehand labored for RoboMaker stated the product was “spun up” primarily for iRobot.
“It labored effectively for iRobot,” the supply stated. “However there wasn’t a lot due diligence to see if it was helpful for anybody else available in the market.”
For an organization like iRobot, the flexibility to shortly simulate in several environments was a precious functionality. However most robotics corporations didn’t want simulations at that scale.
“Most corporations don’t must simulate hundreds of various environments,” stated one supply. “They only want a couple of.”
Amazon Robotics didn’t use RoboMaker internally
The supply stated the mismatch turned clear over time. The supply stated AWS underestimated how fragmented the robotics business is, and assumed that it may discover “9 different iRobots” to scale RoboMaker adoption. If RoboMaker had been a startup, this supply stated, it seemingly would have failed quick. However inside Amazon, jobs and inertia saved the mission alive longer than the market justified.
Amazon Robotics, the biggest robotics developer on the planet, having deployed greater than 1 million robots, by no means adopted the service internally, in keeping with a number of sources.
“The goal marketplace for RoboMaker was giant robotics corporations that needed to do huge simulation initiatives,” one supply stated. “I don’t assume most of them discovered a variety of worth in it. As soon as your product largely works, are you actually going to spend six figures on Amazon to seek out one or two edge circumstances?”
The shuttering of RoboMaker underscores a well-recognized lesson in robotics: what works for one firm doesn’t all the time scale. For AWS, which prides itself on constructing instruments that scale universally, RoboMaker’s discontinuation is a reminder that not each experiment pays off.
