Yesterday, Clearpath Robotics of Kitchener, Ont., Canada (and Clearpath’s mobile-logistics robotic division OTTO Motors), introduced that it was being acquired by Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation for an undisclosed quantity.
The press launch (which comes from Rockwell, not Clearpath) is targeted completely on robotics for industrial functions. That’s, on OTTO Motors’ Autonomous Cellular Robots (AMRs) within the context of manufacturing logistics. In case you check out what Rockwell does, this is smart, as a result of as an automation firm, they’re not usually doing what most of us would consider as “robotics” within the sense that the mechanical methods that they automate don’t do the type of dynamic decision-making that (for my part) distinguishes robots from machines. So, the OTTO Motors AMRs (and the individuals at OTTO who get them to autonomously behave themselves) present an necessary and forward-looking addition to what Rockwell is ready to supply in an industrial context.
That’s all high quality and dandy so far as OTTO Motors goes. What worries me, although, is that there’s zero point out of Clearpath’s well-known and far liked household of yellow-and-black analysis robots. This contains the Husky UGV, arguably the usual platform for cell robotics analysis and growth, in addition to the marginally much less yellow however simply as impactful Turtlebot 4, introduced barely a yr in the past in partnership with iRobot and Open Robotics.
With iRobot, Open Robotics, and now Clearpath all getting partially or wholly subsumed (or consumed?) by different firms which have their very own priorities, it’s onerous to not be involved about what’s going to occur to those {hardware} and software program platforms (together with Turtlebot and Robotic Working System) which have supplied the basis for a lot robotics analysis and schooling. Clearpath particularly has been a pillar of the ROS group since there’s been a ROS group, and it’s unclear how issues are going to vary going ahead.
We’ve reached out to Clearpath to hopefully get just a little little bit of readability on all these things, and we’ll have an replace as quickly as we are able to.
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