Velodyne Lidar and Israeli firm MOV.AI are collaborating on automation solutions for robot manufacturers. These include mapping, navigation, obstacle avoidance and risk avoidance. The two companies have integrated MOV.AI’s Robotics Engine Platform with Velodyne’s lidar sensors to provide robots that can function safely in dynamic collaborative environments such as logistics, warehouses and manufacturing.

The Robotics Engine Platform helps autonomous mobile robot (AMR) manufacturers to develop robots able to operate alongside humans. The platform integrates Velodyne’s Puck sensor to allow mobile robots to travel outside controlled situations safely. The Puck’s compact form factor enables it to be embedded easily into robots.

“Adding MOV.AI and Velodyne technologies to TUGBOT.ai provided our robot with an off-the-shelf, high-accuracy navigation and localisation solution for the high and dynamic environments where we are deploying our AMRs,” said Fernando Freitas, CEO at RoboSavvy, manufacturer of the AMR TUGBOT.ai. “Using lidar-based SLAM enables TUGBOT.ai to navigate safely among people and other vehicles with accurate and consistent performance.”

“MOV.AI’s mission is to simplify collaborative robot development and to provide AMR manufacturers and integrators with everything they need to develop and operate great robots,” said Motti Kushnir, MOV.AI’s CEO. “Through the collaboration with Velodyne, we are able to offer our customers advanced SLAM navigation powered by the Puck, one of the world’s leading lidar sensors. Use of our Robotics Engine Platform allows AMR manufacturers to quickly implement state-of-the-art navigation, while leaving them the ability to customise it to their needs.”

“We are very excited about the collaboration with MOV.AI and integration of our lidar sensors into the Robotics Engine Platform, including future expansion to our solid state Velarray and Velabit products,” said Erich Smidt, Executive Director of Europe, Velodyne Lidar. “There is a growing demand for automation and integration of our sensors into collaborative robots. We see extensive potential in this space, with the global AMR market size is expected to reach USD 8.70 billion in 2028, with a CAGR of 23.7 percent from 2021 to 2028, according to Fortune Business Insights. Partnering with MOV.AI can enable us to bring safety, efficiency and sustainability into the industrial sector on a large, global scale.”