How AI Is Making Robots More Autonomous and Adaptable

Two things that have been hard to miss lately when it comes to industrial automation technologies are artificial intelligence (AI) and Nvidia. Not surprisingly, the two are closely connected as Nvidia is now tightly linked with emerging AI tech as the company grows beyond its GPU (graphics processing unit) roots, while extending its GPU tech into the digital twin space. 

Automation World recently reported on Nvidia’s collaboration with several industrial automation companies such as Aveva, Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Schneider Electric as well as Teradyne Robotics and its MiR and Universal Robots companies. At the Automate 2024 event Chicago, we had the opportunity to meet with Ujjwal Kumar, president of Teradyne Robotics, and Gerard Andrews, director of product marketing—robotics at Nvidia, to get insights into Nvidia’s AI-based mobile robot stack, how it’s being applied on MiR’s new 1290 Pallet Jack and how Nvidia’s Jetson Edge AI module is used with Universal Robots’ cobots and vision systems for quality inspections. 

Pallets in industrial use have a lot of variation. They have paint and stickers on them as well as chipped or broken wood in places. Testing of automated pallet jacks, however, is typically done on new, near perfect pallets, which doesn’t reflect the reality of most plant floor conditions. Kumar said industry has largely been accepting of this and uses human resources to deal with the pallets that the automated pallet jacks haven’t been able to handle.

“But we didn’t want to launch just another autonomous pallet jack,” said Kumar. “We wanted to bring a fully autonomous solution to the customer. But to do that the robot needed advanced cognitive abilities—that's what we work with Nvidia on and that’s how this AI-based pallet detection system allows us to deliver this high level of pallet detection and safety based on how it detects, responds and moves.”