ABB Expands Leadership in Mobile Robotics

ABB announces acquisition of Sevensense. The acquisition follows ABB’s minority investment in Sevensense after it joined the company’s innovation ecosystem in 2021, the same year ABB acquired ASTI Mobile Robotics. Following pilot customer projects in the automotive and logistics industries, ABB will integrate Sevensense’s technology into the company’s AMR portfolio, offering an unprecedented combination of speed, accuracy, and payload.

“This marks a significant step towards our vision of a workplace where AI-enabled robots assist people, addressing our customers' needs for greater flexibility and intelligence amidst critical skilled labor shortages,” says Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation. “Each mobile robot, equipped with vision and AI, scans a unique part of the building; collectively these robots complement each other’s view to form a complete map, enabling them to work autonomously in a rapidly changing environment.”

Key Takeaways:

• The market for mobile robots is expected to grow at 20% CAGR through 2026, from $5.5B to $9.5B.
• Sevensense’s pioneering navigation technology combines AI and 3D vision, enabling AMRs to make intelligent decisions, differentiating between fixed and mobile objects in dynamic environments. Once manually guided, mobile robots with Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (Visual SLAM) technology create a map that is used to operate independently, reducing commissioning time from weeks to days and enabling the AMRs to navigate in highly complex, dynamic environments alongside people. Maps are constantly updated and shared across the fleet.
• Today, this AI-enabled navigation technology is already transforming the automotive manufacturing and logistics sectors, delivering value through faster and more efficient operations.
• The Sevensense partnership highlights the success of ABB’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of innovations. Through its partner ecosystem and collaboration with start-ups and universities, ABB develops technology for the benefit of global businesses.