CES 2025 didn’t disappoint, with robots of all sizes and shapes designed for numerous purposes. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
The annual Shopper Electronics Present brings collectively the newest in expertise product bulletins. Final week, Las Vegas was as soon as once more filled with robotics and AI-based methods. Whereas CES 2025 catered primarily to client electronics and robotics, we hunted down the industrial robotics merchandise sprinkled all through the occasion.
The week began with a demo trip across the Las Vegas strip in an autonomous Zoox robotaxi. Zoox is now in non-public beta with the service open to native Zoox workers and visitors. The 45-minute trip across the Las Vegas Strip was snug and uneventful, with the leisure being watching bystanders and different drivers take photos of the automobile.
The Zoox Robotaxi is a bidirectional, four-wheel drive four-seater with no steering wheel or driver. | Credit score: Zoox
SiLC reveals accuracy and vary
SiLC Applied sciences had a set on the prime of the Westgate, the place it privately demonstrated its silicon photonics-based expertise. The corporate is launching a brand new 3D laser digital camera later this 12 months known as the Eyeonic Hint, focused at warehouse purposes.
The brand new 3D scanning gadget can scan a shifting conveyor and produce a submillimeter-accurate 3D picture of something coming down it, together with bins, totes, and pouches. From that information, the gadgets will be scanned for high quality or quantity, akin to earlier than palletizing. SiLC mentioned the Eyeonic Hint is its first turnkey, absolutely built-in providing.
SILC additionally demonstrated its long-range lidar by resolving a constructing 9 km (5.5 mi.) away with centimeter accuracy. Final 12 months, the corporate introduced the identical expertise, solely at a 2 km vary.
The Eyeonic Hint is a Class 1 Laser Line Scanner able to precisely dimensioning objects, even from distances as much as 10 m (32.8 ft.). | Credit score: SiLC Applied sciences
Eureka Park options worldwide startups
Eureka Park at CES is the place younger expertise firms exhibit their merchandise. That is probably the most attention-grabbing a part of CES yearly, and The Robotic Report devoted a complete day to strolling the ground at Eureka Park, searching for new and attention-grabbing robotics displays.
Pollen Robotics demonstrated the newest era of its Reachy cellular manipulator. This teleoperated platform options one or two arms on a cellular base. Reachy 2 targets analysis labs as a data-acquisition platform for coaching AI basis fashions.
Reachy is a modular humanoid platform designed for analysis. | Credit score: Pollen Robotics
4D1 launched what it calls “indoor GPS”, a ceiling-mounted navigation system for automated guided automobiles (AGVs) and autonomous cellular robots (AMRs).
The ceiling-mounted sensors emit ultrasonic waves which are picked up by an affordable sensor mounted on the cellular gadget. The system will also be mounted on tooling to trace the operations of human staff.
2023 RoboBusiness Pitchfire winner Glidance was in attendance, demonstrating the newest prototype of its assistive gadget for folks with sight impairments.
The corporate is planning the pilot manufacturing launch later this 12 months. I had the chance to check this newest era, and the gadget has developed based mostly on suggestions from the sector trials in 2024.
Glidance demonstrated the newest working prototype of its steering gadget for sight-impaired people on the 2025 CES occasion. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
Sitting down for a chat with ElliQ
The Robotic Report had a personal exhibiting of the newest ElliQ social robotic and a dialogue with Instinct Robotics co-founder and CEO Dor Skuler. The corporate lately launched the ElliQ Caregiver Answer.
The little tabletop robotic is partaking and designed to be a companion for aged people. Throughout the assembly, ElliQ remembered components of our dialog because it discovered extra about my pursuits. The gadget is designed to be interactive and randomly solicits dialog about subjects which are related to the consumer.
Customers can play video games with the robotic, be alerted to imminent occasions on their calendars, and obtain light reminders to take their medicines. Accountable caregivers will be alerted to healthcare occasions akin to taking medication or different therapies.
ElliQ can even simply provoke a video name with family members by way of the companion display. Instinct Robotics mentioned the system permits customers to retain company of their lives.
ElliQ, from Instinct Robotics, is designed to be a social companion for aged people. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
Humanoid robots scatter throughout CES 2025
There have been loads of humanoid robots on the present, though it was a scavenger hunt to seek out a number of of them. Unitree Robotics had the most well-liked pure robotics sales space on the present flooring. The centrally situated sales space was regularly mobbed by attendees and content material creators who wished a selfie with the Unitree G1 and robodogs, which had been up on a platform.
In the meantime, Agility Robotics‘ Digit demonstrated how humanoids can carry out real-world duties with warehousing demonstrations on the Schaeffler and Accenture cubicles.
Apptronik‘s Apollo was hidden away within the Texas Devices suite however wowed the group with interactive demos. Startup Open Droids confirmed off each of its cellular manipulators in Eureka Park, together with the single-arm R1D1 and the dual-armed R2D3.
Enchanted Instruments additionally had a preferred sales space on the CES 2025 present flooring, with its Mirokai robotic charming guests. The corporate is making ready to launch and promote its pilot era of robots later this 12 months.
Cell manipulator developer Cobionix is within the technique of acquiring U.S. Meals and Drug Administration approval for its teleoperated system for distant ultrasound imaging. The corporate had a static show of its robotic in Eureka Park.
Massive names launch automation at CES 2025
A number of acquainted manufacturers additionally demonstrated their improvements in industrial automation. John Deere launched 4 autonomous methods on the present. Kubota additionally launched a number of new agriculture-related autonomy platforms, together with the CES Innovation Award-profitable KATR tractor.
Kubota launched a novel tractor known as KATR, and four-wheel steering and adaptive four-corner wheel struts, the autonomous robotic can preserve a stage platform on any terrain. | Credit score: Kubota
OshKosh, a producer of commercial automobiles akin to rubbish vans, hearth vans, excessive lifts, and jetways had one of many extra attention-grabbing cubicles at CES 2025. It supplied a glance on the subsequent era of refuse assortment, hearth combating, and airport tarmac automation.
The spotlight of OshKosh’s sales space was a brand new expertise demo known as HARR-e, an electrical AMR designed to gather refuse on-demand from deliberate communities, liberating householders from taking their trash to a central dumpster.
Suzuki has created a brand new inside division centered on autonomy, and it launched the primary era of a small autonomous platform appropriate for sidewalk supply or different autonomous automobile purposes.
The corporate provides an entire cellular robotic chassis, together with the motors, battery, controls and onboard compute. Clients merely want so as to add a sensor bundle crucial for the meant utility.
Suzuki is actively looking for improvement companions to construct payloads on prime of the platform.
The brand new Suzuki e-mobility platform provides an entire cellular robotic chassis. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
Autonomous racecars present an exciting end
At CES 2025, the Indy Autonomous Problem (IAC) featured a progressive, tiered competitors format designed to permit college groups at various ranges to compete and showcase their AI driver improvement. 9 groups competed in three race occasions.
In a show of cutting-edge AI expertise, the Autonomous Tiger Racing – Auburn College group claimed victory within the Tier 1 single-car time trials with a blistering quickest lap common of 163.6 mph. The competitors was fierce, with the IU Luddy – Indiana College’s group clocking in with a quickest lap common of 158.0 mph and the Caltech Autonomous Methods and Applied sciences Racer group – California Institute of Know-how reaching a lap common of 144.3 mph.
The day culminated with a historic multi-car exhibition race with 4 autonomous racecars:
- UNIMORE Racing from the College of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy
- Cavalier Autonomous Racing from the College of Virginia
- PoliMOVE-MSU from Politecnico di Milano from Milan, Italy, with Michigan State College and the College of Alabama
- KAIST, the Korea Superior Institute of Science and Know-how
They competed in an open-format 20-lap race together with 5 overtakes, demonstrating the evolution of AI’s means to handle multi-agent, high-speed autonomy. The multi-car race additionally demonstrated the primary use of autonomous push-to-pass, the place the AI drivers needed to strategically decide when to make use of the 30-second 25 mph increase throughout the race.
The dramatic end to the 20-lap race had UNIMORE overtake KAIST to win by two automobile lengths on the line.
Probably the most progressive robotics product at CES 2025
The Absolute Magnetics encoder design options an embedded magnetic wire and a novel sensor orientation to ship < 0.1-degree precision. | Credit score: Absolute Magnetics
Probably the most noteworthy robotics discovery at CES 2025 has to go to Absolute Magnetics, a Swiss startup that has developed a novel and patented absolute encoder. As boring because it is likely to be to speak about encoders at CES, particularly with the entire flashy tech gadgets elsewhere within the present, absolute encoders will be important to designing a robotics axis the place calibration to a tough cease isn’t possible.
The corporate’s magnet-based absolute encoder has a singular design. The in-booth demo was spectacular and promised to ship accuracy to <0.1 levels whereas rejecting stray magnet fields from the motor.
Absolute Magnetics is launching the expertise this 12 months and mentioned it will probably customized design an encoder for particular motor and axis necessities.
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