A Glimpse into The Robotics Universe: Where Innovation is Birthed
The 21st century has housed life-changing innovations in the robotics world. Living near Silicon Valley, these innovations have been part of my life growing up. From Roomba vacuums cleaning up my elementary schoolroom to current friends' self-driving cars on the road today, it is fair to say that I have witnessed the epic transformation and scale of technology. Recently, I bore witness to the revolutionary innovation in models of the multi-modular robot.
A multi-modular robot (MMR) can perform many tasks. For example, an MMR would be able to store company data and vacuum the floor simultaneously. Advancements in these functions have increased due to growth in specific market segments. Facilities management and indoor farming are two growing verticals that have housed the most recent MMR innovation. In fact, the facility management market should exceed $2 trillion by 2026, signifying an unprecedented "Compound Annual Growth Rate of 5-20%" (PR Newswire 2020).
To prepare for this growth, companies have begun to look for microevolutions within their structure and production to remain afloat in a growing and changing market. Accordingly, CEOs have found their answer in investment in new and better technologies, naturally resulting in MMR-creating companies like TRC Robotics and Anduril innovating their products. MMR has even developed to act as rolling security, equipt to roam around the property "with facial recognition and a taser device" (Control Solutions 2017). One that most interests me are the developments made in the indoor farming market.
As a market, indoor farming is growing as fast as facilities management. According to Future Farming, the indoor farming vertical should "grow at a CAGR of 9.4%" (Claver 2020), almost double America's average market growth (6.5%). Like facilities management companies, indoor farming companies have begun to look for robotic innovation to support new development. The most efficient recent innovations have related to vertical farming within indoor farms; vertical farming "produces food on vertically inclined surfaces. This method produces foods in vertically stacked layers commonly integrated into other structures like a skyscraper, shipping container, or repurposed warehouse" (LeBlanc 2020). MMR are programmed with modules monitoring sunlight, air temperature, and plant health, essentially tending to the vertical, decreasing the need for manual labor and workers. TRC Robotics offers efficient solutions to facilities management and indoor farming companies to help them sustain healthy growth (in addition to many other markets).
According to Consulting Vice President of TRC Robotics, Matthew Schwab, "TRC is pioneering the service robotics industry's migration from the limited purpose robot to multi-purpose modular robot" (Matthew Schwab 2021). TRC has created an MMR (TRACi model) with four modules: hospitality, disinfection, banking, and factory management (TRC 2021). The hospitality module "provides guest services, sanitization, body temperature scanning, and security" (TRC 2021). TRC's disinfectant mode utilizes UVC light to "deconstruct the DNA of deadly pathogens, potential viral contamination, and common infection culprits" (TRC 2021). The banking module revolves around the robot's ability to store data, perform line management, and connect the NUUO camera ecosystem and cloud. Lastly, the factory/facilities management module revolves around the robot's ability to manage and sort through company data/transfer all data to the cloud. In addition to these four modules, the company is working on creating a specific indoor farming module that will allow the robot to monitor the health of the plant and the condition of the surrounding room. From these modules, TRC's MMR is attractive to companies looking to maintain growth on the pace of the facilities management and indoor farming industries. Schwab agreed, ending his interview with the prediction that "In the not too distant future, everything that can be done by a robot will be done by a robot" (Matthew Schwab 2021). Companies within these quickly growing markets will look to scale through MMRs like TRACi, a machine more efficient than manual laborers.
Although MMR innovation is one of the most popular advancements in robotics, humanoid robots also have been sharing the spotlight. Humanoid robots are AI-based robots that resemble human movement and action (Hanson Robotics 2021). Sophia, Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot, is "able to mimic human emotion, answer questions, and even engage in small discussions" (Kelly 2021). She is even programmed to get smarter over time and with more conversation. It is as if our childhood dreams of robots taking over the world are slowly and slowly becoming more realistic.
Sophia is just one of many humanoid robots currently engineered, as Hanson Robotics pledges to make thousands more social robots like Sophia. These social humanoid robots will all be able to "read human emotion and respond…the robots are built with tools to help them develop their own form of social and emotional intelligence over time" (Learning English 2021). As technology continues to advance, so will these intricate humanoid robots. Similar to multi-modular robots, humanoid robots will play an integral part in the success of American companies. Recognizing the value of these two robotic innovations, venture capital firms have been investing heavily in companies creating these products.
Venture capital firms are dumping funding into companies creating MMR and humanoid robots. According to TechCrunch, recent years have seen an average of $5 billion investments into these robotic companies across the board (Tabatabai 2019). Shahin Farshchi, CEO of VC firm Lux Capital, explained that he was most excited about investing in robotic companies that "increase productivity to enhance creativity leading to new products and businesses" (Tabatabai 2019) and "eliminate undesirable, dangerous jobs in manufacturing" (Tabatabai 2019). MMR and humanoid robots perform these precise tasks. When describing how much time and funding his firm is spending on these robotic innovations, Farshchi answered that it spends a mighty 75% of its time and funding on these mechanical innovations.
Farshchi's response is indicative of the average response of Venture Capital firms, pointing to the popularity and relevance of MMR and humanoid robots in the current industry. I am excited to see the innovation of these robots as their companies' funding increases.
References
Claver, Hugo. 2020. “Indoor Farming Tech Market Worth $24.8 Billion by 2026.” Future
Farming. https://tinyurl.com/2wa7vpee.
Control Solutions, Inc. 2017. “Robots, Drones and New Technology for Facilities Management.”
Control Solutions, Inc. https://tinyurl.com/49sjwdbj.
Hanson Robotics. 2021. “Sophia.” Hanson Robotics. https://www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/.
Kelly, Jack. 2021. “Sophia--The Humanoid Robot--Will be Rolled Out This Year Potentially
Replacing Workers.” Forbes. https://tinyurl.com/esd9tf5s.
Learning English. 2021. “Company Aims to Produce Thousands of Humanoid Robots in 2021.”
Learning English. https://tinyurl.com/28f7s47c.
LeBlanc, Rick. 2020. “What You Should Know About Vertical Farming.” The Balance SMB.
PR Newswire. 2020. “Facility Management Market to Exceed USD 2 Trillion by 2026.” PR
Newswire. https://tinyurl.com/fxez6j7n.
Tabatabai, Arman. 2019. “Leading Robotics VC’s Talk About Where They Are Investing.”
TechCrunch. https://tinyurl.com/4pfaw62d.
TRC Robotics. 2021. “Hospitality.” TRC Robotics. https://tinyurl.com/9vzmmm22.
TRC Robotics. 2021. “Use-Cases.” TRC Robotics. https://trcrobotics.com/category/use-cases.
TRC Robotics. 2021. “UVC Disinfection.” TRC Robotics.