Inside the Industrial Technology Revival

IT/OT Convergence enables remote operations offerings and industrial AI apps for machine health and chip testing. Building the first internet-scale repository of robot actions.

Nov 17, 2024

Shop Talk

Capturing this week's zeitgeist

The fusion of AI and robotics is starting a new hype cycle. Manufacturing is transforming beyond basic automation to intelligent, adaptive systems. As the space heats up, venture capitalists are differentiating themselves through specialized industrial tech theses and strategic partnerships with research labs and corporations. To that end, Cybernetix Ventures has announced The Robotics Startup Playbook, an online guide for navigating the unique challenges of building and scaling robotics. In Europe, Invest-NL and Bpifrance initiated a multi-year partnership to support startups, scale-ups, and deep-tech innovations. Here on Substack, check out Robots & Startups to keep up with the latest happenings in the Silicon Valley robotics scene.

Assembly Line

This week's most influential Industry 4.0 media.

🧠 Inside the Billion-Dollar Startup Bringing AI Into the Physical World

✍️ Author: Will Knight
🏢 Organizations: Physical Intelligence

Physical Intelligence believes it can give robots humanlike understanding of the physical world and dexterity by feeding sensor and motion data from robots performing vast numbers of demonstrations into its master AI model. “This is, for us, what it will take to ‘solve’ physical intelligence,” Hausman says. “To breathe intelligence into a robot just by connecting it to our model.”

Our model uses Internet-scale vision-language pre-pretraining, open-source robot manipulation datasets, and our own datasets consisting of dexterous tasks from 8 distinct robots. — π₀ uses Internet-scale vision-language pre-pretraining, open-source robot manipulation datasets, and their own datasets consisting of dexterous tasks from 8 distinct robots. The model can then perform a wide variety of tasks, via either direct prompting or fine-tuning.

There is simply no internet-scale repository of robot actions similar to the text and image data available for training LLMs. Achieving a breakthrough in physical intelligence might require exponentially more data anyway.

Physical Intelligence hopes to gather a lot more data by working with other companies such as ecommerce and manufacturing firms that have robots doing a variety of things. The startup also hopes to develop custom hardware, such as the webcam-equipped pincer; it hasn’t said how this will be used, but it could perhaps enable crowdsourced training with people performing everyday tasks.

📶 IT/OT convergence: The 27 themes that define the future of industrial integration

✍️ Author: Anand Taparia

Convergence is driven by the need for a scalable, robust, and secure data exchange. IT systems manage business-critical operations, while OT systems control physical processes and generate key operational data. Companies recognize that converging these two domains is becoming essential as they seek to enhance operational efficiency and digital capabilities.

Industrial DataOps aims to enhance data quality by providing structure and context for accurate, logical data representation, ensuring usability by downstream applications. DataOps enables deeper alignment between data producers (e.g., sensors, machines, SCADA) and consumers (e.g., various IT applications, analytics applications).

🤝 Inside VW and Rivian’s $5.8 Billion Bet to Rescue Each Other

✍️ Authors: Stephen Wilmot, Sean McLain
🏢 Organizations: Volkswagen, Rivian

VW had spent years and billions of dollars trying to build a digital-first car like this, and Rivian had produced a promising prototype in less than three months. Car companies today want to make their vehicles as easy to connect and update as a smartphone. So far, EV startups—working without the mechanical complexity of traditional vehicles—have better integrated the new technology, which involves consolidating vehicle electronics around a much more powerful central computer.

The joint venture will be run by co-chief executives, whom the companies named on Tuesday. Rivian appointed Bensaid as the project’s leader with responsibility for technology, while VW put its chief technology engineer Carsten Helbing in charge of the operational side.

🖨️ How 3D Printing Aides Automation

Print more with less:

Renishaw helps with cost-effective 3D printing of the world’s most expensive metal - Renishaw
ArcelorMittal Powders & HP partner to extend material options for metal binder jetting - TCT
BASF to build additional production capacity for X3D® catalyst shaping technology in Ludwigshafen - BASF

💿 Machine Learning Might Save Time on Chip Testing

✍️ Author: Samuel K Moore
🏢 Organizations: NXP

Engineers at NXP have developed a machine-learning algorithm that learns the patterns of test results and figures out the subset of tests that are really needed and those that they could safely do without.

Shroff says the problem has certain similarities to the machine learning-based recommender systems used in e-commerce. “We took the concept from the retail world, where a data analyst can look at receipts and see what items people are buying together,” he says. “Instead of a transaction receipt, we have a unique part identifier and instead of the items that a consumer would purchase, we have a list of failing tests.”

Shroff and his colleagues analyzed data obtained from testing seven microcontrollers and applications processors built using advanced chipmaking processes. Depending on which chip was involved, they were subject to between 41 and 164 tests, and the algorithm was able to recommend removing 42 to 74 percent of those tests. Extending the analysis to data from other types of chips led to an even wider range of opportunities to trim testing.

New Product Introduction

Highlighting new and innovative facilities, processes, products, and services

🛎️ TRUMPF Introduces Remote Operations Support for Automated Laser Cutting in the U.S.

🏢 Organizations: TRUMPF

TRUMPF has introduced Remote Operations Support, a new service for automated laser cutting machine customers in the United States. The service connects experts in Germany with U.S.-based customers operating TruLaser Center machinery. Designed for autonomous production, TRUMPF’s TruLaser Center is a full-service laser machine that automates the entire laser cutting process from loading of sheet metal to laser cutting and then part removal and sorting. The Remote Operations Support service was created to assist customers with this automated laser cutting technology.

The average processing time to remotely resolve a TruLaser Center machine standstill is estimated at less than fifteen minutes. In addition, the experts at TRUMPF have found that more than fifty percent of machine downtimes can be resolved remotely.

🏗️ World’s strongest land-based crane passes test program

🏢 Organizations: Mammoet

Mammoet has officially completed testing of the SK6000 – the world’s strongest land-based crane. This process - overseen by maritime classification services organization Lloyd’s Register, certifies the crane’s safe operation to its specification.

After reviewing the SK6000’s engineering design earlier during its development, Lloyd’s Register confirmed that the test program was suitable to prove out its capacity charts. Testing was then carried out at Mammoet’s Westdorpe facility in the Netherlands over the last three months.

The SK6000 helps Mammoet’s customers across the energy sector to build on a larger scale than ever before, using modularized construction techniques to build in parallel and enhance the efficiency of assembly phases.

Augury Introduces the First Industrial-Grade, Edge-AI Native Machine Health Sensing Platform

🏢 Organizations: Augury

Augury, a leading provider of AI solutions that help industrial and manufacturing companies increase their productivity, efficiency, and reliability, today unveiled the next generation of its Machine Health sensing platform with the release of the Halo™ R4000 series of sensors. Advanced users of IoT-enabled solutions are familiar with the complexities of implementing new monitoring technologies, which often introduce challenges such as device management, network recovery, and other non-value-added tasks. Additionally, maintenance teams in more extreme environments often struggle to find solutions that can operate reliably in their specific conditions. Today’s release unveils the next generation of AI-enabled IoT sensors that helps solve these challenges. The Halo R4000 series, the world’s only true edge-AI-capable, industrial-grade machine health sensor, brings unparalleled smart diagnostics, self-healing connectivity, and protection to extreme environments – all in Augury’s smallest and lightest sensor yet.

Business Transactions

This week's top funding events, acquisitions, and partnerships across industrial value chains.

☢️ Radiant Secures $100 Million in Series C Funding, Plans Milestone Test at INL’s DOME Facility

🔖 Topics: Funding Event
🏢 Organizations: Radiant Industries, DCVC

Radiant Industries, Incorporated, a leader in advanced nuclear technology, announced a $100 million Series C funding round led by DCVC, a preeminent deep tech venture capital firm. The round included participation from a16z’s American Dynamism team, which led the Series B, and Union Square Ventures, and welcomed new investors Felicis, Washington Harbour Partners LP, and Chevron Technology Ventures. This investment comes on the heels of Radiant’s passive cooldown demonstration, a critical test of a full-scale, non-fueled reactor, and brings the company’s total venture funding to $160 million.

The funding will primarily be used to complete Radiant’s Kaleidos Development Unit, the same reactor design that will be manufactured and sold to customers. At INL, the unit will undergo a comprehensive testing program including rigorous evaluations of the reactor’s failsafe mechanisms and proprietary semi-automated control system, providing validation cases for regulatory analyses. Funds will also be used for factory siting and early construction efforts, breaking ground on the facilities that are expected to produce up to 50 microreactors per year.

🛰️ GITAI Raises an Additional US$15.5 Million in Funding

🏢 Organizations: GITAI, Maezawa Fund

GITAI USA Inc. (GITAI), the world’s leading space robotics startup, is pleased to announce that GITAI has raised an additional US$15.5M as part of its Series B Extension round in October 2024. This follows US$30M raised in May 2023 and US$15M raised in August 2023, bringing the total in the Series B Extension round to US$60.5M.

To reduce the cost of space operations by 100 times, GITAI is developing robotic satellites for on-orbit services, lunar robotic rovers for infrastructure construction, and inchworm-type robotic arms that can be used in both areas. All of these technologies are being developed in-house.

Vecna Robotics Taps Autonomous Vehicle Pioneer Karl Iagnemma as CEO, Secures Additional Funding to Drive Growth

🏢 Organizations: Venca Robotics

Vecna Robotics, the leader in flexible material handling automation solutions, announced it has brought on Karl Iagnemma as CEO and closed $14.5MM in additional funding from existing investors. Proceeds of the funding round are earmarked to accelerate technology and product enhancements to address the automation needs of operators in automotive, general manufacturing, and high-volume warehousing.

Before his industry career, Iagnemma directed the Robotic Mobility Group research laboratory at MIT, where he authored publications related to robotics and artificial intelligence that have been cited more than 20,000 times. Iagnemma is also an inventor with more than 50 issued or pending patents in robotics and autonomous vehicles. While at MIT, Iagnemma met Daniel Theobald, a fellow MIT alumnus and founder of Vecna Robotics. In 2020, Iagnemma made an angel investment in Vecna Robotics based on the company’s technology leadership and the potential for robotics to revolutionize material handling.

⚗️ Ecolectro Closes $10.5M Series A Round to Accelerate Next-Generation Green Hydrogen Electrolyzers

🏢 Organizations: Ecolectro, Toyota, Cornell

Ecolectro, an emerging leader in green hydrogen technology, announced the successful close of its $10.5M Series A funding round, led by Toyota Ventures with participation from Starshot Capital, DNX Ventures, Energy Revolution Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Banco Popular Impact Fund, and Techstars, among others. This funding brings Ecolectro’s total capital raised to $27.7M, including grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, New York State’s Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the National Science Foundation. These funds will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of Ecolectro’s groundbreaking Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolyzers, offering an affordable and scalable path to reducing carbon emissions through true green hydrogen.

Ecolectro, founded by Cornell PhD chemists Dr. Kristina M. Hugar and Dr. Gabriel G. Rodríguez-Calero, has developed a breakthrough AEM electrolyzer. At the core of this technology is a proprietary membrane chemistry that eliminates the need for rare earth materials like iridium and harmful chemicals such as PFAS, instead utilizing readily available, recyclable and eco-friendly materials. This membrane is highly durable, operating efficiently in high-temperature and alkaline conditions, and achieves over 70% efficiency (<47.5 kWh/kg) in typical operating environments, significantly outperforming comparable PEM and alkaline systems.

⚗️ Sunthetics Secures $4 Million Seed Round to Revolutionize Chemical Industry with AI-Powered Innovation

🏢 Organizations: Sunthetics, L'ATTITUDE Ventures

Sunthetics, a pioneering AI technology company, has announced the successful close of its $4 million Seed round, led by L’ATTITUDE Ventures and joined by S3 Ventures, Hearst Level Up Ventures, and the Global Impact Fund II. The funds will be strategically allocated to expand the Sunthetics team and enhance the company’s innovative machine learning platform, designed to accelerate the pharmaceutical and chemical research and development (R&D) process to drastically cut time-to-market and R&D costs.

Trusted by the world’s largest pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics companies, as well as leading research institutions, Sunthetics is quickly becoming the industry standard for AI-optimized process development. A top five pharmaceutical company saw 6x faster process development, a 75% reduction in expensive materials, and 12% higher efficiency with Sunthetics and other customers have seen similar results.

🤝 Rockwell Automation Brings Autonomous Operations to Life Using NVIDIA Omniverse

🔖 Topics: Partnership
🏢 Organizations: Rockwell Automation, NVIDIA

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, today announced it is integrating NVIDIA Omniverse application programming interfaces into its Emulate3D™ digital twin software to enhance factory operations through artificial intelligence and physics-based simulation technology.

Watch the live stream conversation on November 20th 👇

Rockwell Automation’s Emulate3D software uses the latest NVIDIA Omniverse APIs to create factory-scale dynamic digital twins based on OpenUSD interoperability and NVIDIA RTX rendering technologies. While visualization was previously possible, this enhancement enables true emulation and dynamic testing of multiple machines within a system. This integration, planned for early 2025, will enable improved visualization and simulation capabilities for manufacturing environments.

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