robotics – AC Demo

September 28, 2016

Welcome to 44 Gaukel: Accelerator Centre Launches New Hardware Innovation Lab

An incredible mix of art and technology in a groundbreaking new facility

Today we’re thrilled to announce the official opening of our new hardware innovation lab in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Located at 44 Gaukel St., this newest expansion offers hardware startups 10,000 square feet prototyping and lab space, access to tools and resources, including 3D printers, as well as a freight elevator and loading dock for shipping and receiving.

The facility is run in partnership with ArtsBuild Ontario, an organization dedicated to supporting local artists by providing tools, training and resources that support the development and sustainable creative spaces. The facility is also supported in part by the City of Kitchener.

“We’re very excited to work with the City of Kitchener and ArtsBuild Ontario as we expand our world-class incubation offering, helping innovative hardware and IoT companies grow and scale their businesses here in Waterloo Region, ” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre. “Expanding into Downtown Kitchener allows the AC to support our clients who want to be in a central, urban environment, while continuing to bring the same excellence in programming, mentorship, and experience that we’re renowned for.”

“We are thrilled to partner with the Accelerator Centre and the City of Kitchener in providing creative space for our community’s artists and arts organizations,” added Lindsay Golds, Executive Director, ArtsBuild Ontario. “We are so pleased to offer those in need of rehearsal or administrative space an affordable and suitable location for their important work in Downtown Kitchener. We are excited by the potential for collaboration opportunities between the tech and the arts sector that this location can provide.”

The historic building, originally built as a Canada Post depot, also houses the University of Waterloo’s Critical Media Lab and part of Conestoga College’s School of Media and Design on the first floor. Joining the Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild on the second floor is MyShop, an industrial makerspace, offering an array of industrial prototyping tools, as well as training, allowing Clients at the AC to rapidly design and build their products right inside the building.

“Being a part of the new hardware lab at 44 Gaukel Street is an important and exciting move for us. The Accelerator Centre’s support has been pivotal for our business and we’ve already developed new customers through people visiting the facility. Being in the business of 3D printing, InkSmith is right at home in a space where art and technology collide.”
Jeremy Hedges , President, InkSmith

“There are so many great things happening in hardware and advanced manufacturing right now in Waterloo Region,” says Josh Kubassek, President at MyShop. “It’s important for us to be a part of the AC’s lab at 44 Gaukel, helping to empower startup companies to design and prototype these amazing new technologies.”

The Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild Ontario invite the community to celebrate the opening of 44 Gaukel on Tuesday, October 4 at 4:00 – 8:00 p.m., on the second floor. Tenants from both the arts and technology sectors will be showcasing their work at the event.

The space is filling quickly, however both the Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild Ontario are currently accepting applications for tenancy. Apply to the AC.

April 26, 2016

Clearpath Named 2016 Edison Award Winner

Clearpath wins Silver at New York Ceremony for OTTO 1500 self-driving vehicle

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – April 26, 2016) Clearpath, provider of self-driving vehicle technology and services, was named a Silver Winner for their OTTO 1500 self-driving vehicle by the prestigious Edison Awards. The award program celebrates 29 years of honoring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services. The announcement was made at an annual award gala on April 21^st at The Capitale in New York City.

“The OTTO self-driving vehicles leverage new technologies to enable factory operators with a more cost-effective, safe, and efficient method of moving materials in their facilities. We’re thrilled to be named a winner and to see that the Edison Awards recognizes the potential of our OTTO solution,” said Simon Drexler, Director of Industrial Solutions at Clearpath.

The ballot of nominees for the Edison Awards™ was judged by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives including past award winners, academics and leaders in the fields of product development, design, engineering, science and medical.

“Our judges recognized the OTTO 1500 self-driving vehicle as a true innovation out of the many products in its category,” said Frank Bonafilia, Executive Director of the Edison Awards.

Being recognized with an Edison Award has become one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business. The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements literally changed the world, garnered him 1,093 U.S. patents, and made him a household name around the world.

April 21, 2016

Clearpath To Provide GE Healthcare Repair Center With Self-Driving Vehicles

A fleet of OTTO self-driving vehicles will automate just-in-time parts delivery within Milwaukee facility

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – April 21, 2016) Clearpath, the developer of OTTO – a self-driving vehicle designed exclusively for material transport – has been selected to automate just-in-time parts delivery in a GE Healthcare repair facility being expanded near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“The OTTO fleet will optimize GE Healthcare’s just-in-time manufacturing process to help enable repair cells operate at full capacity,” said Matt Rendall, chief executive officer at Clearpath Robotics.

This GE Healthcare facility is a Repair Operations Center (ROC) that repairs medical equipment, tests functionality, recycles retired equipment, manages warranty service programs, and ships qualified high quality parts to field services to maintain a high level of customer fulfillment at locations in the United States and around the world. The fleet of OTTO self-driving vehicles will be used to load and deliver parts to work cells for repair. Once restored, OTTO will dispatch materials to shipping for return to customers.

“Clearpath’s OTTO self-driving vehicle and intelligent technology will help us serve our customers with speed, flexibility and accuracy, and gives us the ability to scale our operations going forward,” said Patricio Espinosa, director of Repair Operations for the Americas at GE Healthcare.

OTTO enables customers to improve throughput, reduce costs, and to stay flexible with the changing needs of their material flow process. The solution provides infrastructure free navigation, obstacle avoidance, human-safe collaboration, and a payload capacity of 3000 lbs. Customers using OTTO self-driving vehicles typically experience a return on investment in 18-24 months. For more information about OTTO, visit www.ottomotors.com.

March 28, 2016

Clearpath Expands Line Of Self-Driving Vehicles For Industry

OTTO 100 provides light-load material transport for today’s modern factories and warehouses

Clearpath Robotics expanded the OTTO line of self-driving vehicles with OTTO 100. The vehicle is designed for autonomous light-load material transport in factories and warehouses.

“The OTTO 100 takes the high quality and reliability of the OTTO 1500 and puts those advanced capabilities into a smaller form factor.” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer at Clearpath. “This enables new self-driving services in distribution, e-commerce, and manufacturing.”

The OTTO 100 system delivers dynamic and efficient light-load transport in increasingly congested industrial operations. Traditional material handling systems require costly and rigid changes to infrastructure, cannot adapt to a changing environment, and are not safe for collaboration with warehouse personnel. OTTO does not rely on external infrastructure for navigation, making implementation hassle-free and highly scalable. OTTO 100 uses Clearpath’s self-driving OS to provide autonomous transport up to 220lb loads at speeds up to 4.5mph, while tracking along optimal paths and safely avoiding collisions.

OTTO 100 can be configured with a lift, bin carrier, or cart and integrates directly with ERPs via the OTTO enterprise fleet management system.

The OTTO family of self-driving vehicles includes OTTO 100 for light-load material transport and OTTO 1500 for heavy-load material transport. The entire OTTO material transport ecosystem will be showcased at MODEX 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia April 4-7 at Booth 3771.

For more information about the OTTO 100 self-driving vehicle, visit www.clearpathrobotics.com/otto-100.

February 24, 2016

Clearpath Robotics Joins John Deere Supply Base

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – February 23, 2016) Clearpath, developer of OTTO – the self-driving vehicle designed exclusively for material transport, has been chosen to supply self-driving vehicles for assembly line conveyance to John Deere’s operation in Horicon, Wisconsin.

“Clearpath’s goal is to redefine manufacturing with OTTO self-driving vehicles,” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer at Clearpath Robotics. “John Deere is a pillar of America’s manufacturing economy and we are thrilled to supply them with OTTO vehicles to drive productivity.”

About Clearpath Robotics

Clearpath Robotics Inc. develops self-driving vehicles for industrial material transport. The company provides hardware, software and services to enable enterprise self-driving vehicle development, deployment and fleet operation. Clearpath works with over 500 of the world’s most innovative brands in over 40 countries, serving markets that span industrial materials handling, mining, military, agriculture, aerospace and academia. Clearpath is an award-winning company with recent awards, including Robotics Business Review Top 50 Company, Edison Award for Innovation, Business Insider Top 40 under 40, and Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Visit Clearpath Robotics at www.clearpathrobotics.com.

February 9, 2016

Clearpath CEO Joins Robotic Industries Association (RIA) As A New Board Director

Matt Rendall selected as one of RIA’s four at-Large Directors

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – February 9, 2016) Clearpath Robotics’ Chief Executive Officer, Matt Rendall, has been selected to join the Board of Directors for Robotic Industries Association (RIA) as one of four at-Large Directors.

“I am honored to take on the position of Director at-Large within RIA,” said Matt Rendall, Chief Executive Officer at Clearpath Robotics. “RIA is an indispensible resource for the robotics industry, an industry that is entering a hyper-growth phase. I’m hoping to bring a fresh perspective on emerging technologies like self-driving vehicles and mobile manipulation, as well as start-ups and venture capital.”

The Director At-Large positions were announced at RIA’s Annual General Meeting on February 2, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The RIA board is comprised of 22 directors who meet four times per year to plan the strategic direction of the association.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Matt Rendall to the RIA Board of Directors. Matt has the experience, insight and expertise to represent the mobile robotics community on our board,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of Robotic Industries Association.

Robotic Industries Association drives innovation, growth, and safety in manufacturing and service industries through education, promotion, and advancement of robotics and related automation technologies. The organization has a staff of 18 people working at the association’s headquarters office in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently serves over 375 organizations around the world. RIA is part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the umbrella association for RIA, AIA, and MCMA. For more information about RIA visit www.robotics.org.

About Clearpath Robotics
Clearpath Robotics Inc. develops self-driving vehicles for industry. The company provides hardware, software and services to enable self-driving vehicle development, deployment and fleet operation. Clearpath works with over 500 of the world’s most innovative brands in over 40 countries, serving markets that span industrial materials handling, mining, military, agriculture, aerospace and academia. Clearpath is an award-winning company with recent awards, including Robotics Business Review Top 50 Company, Edison Award for Innovation, Business Insider Top 40 under 40, and Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Visit Clearpath Robotics at www.clearpathrobotics.com.

Clearpath Robotics graduated from the Accelerator Centre in 2008.

September 23, 2015

Clearpath Announces Shift Into Self-Driving Vehicles For Industry

Canadian robotics manufacturer releases new warehouse robot with GE Ventures as strategic investor and GE as first customer.

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – September 23, 2015) Clearpath Robotics, a global leader in field and service robotics, today announced its first self-driving warehouse robot: OTTO. The announcement was made at RoboBusiness 2015 in San Jose, California. OTTO is designed for intelligent heavy-load transport in industrial environments and delivers improved throughput and decreased operating costs.

Introducing OTTO – The Self-Driving Vehicle for Heavy-Load Transport

Modern factories and warehouses need to be reconfigurable, responsive, and efficient to survive. Designed to address these conditions, OTTO uses the same underlying self-driving technology popularized by the Google self-driving car. The system delivers dynamic and efficient transport in increasingly congested industrial operations. Traditional material handling systems require costly and rigid changes to infrastructure, cannot adapt to a changing environment, and are not safe for collaboration with warehouse personnel. OTTO does not rely on external infrastructure for navigation, making implementation hassle-free and highly scalable. It can transport 3300 lb loads at speeds up to 4.5 mph, while tracking along optimal paths and safely avoiding collisions.

“North American manufacturers are constantly under pressure to find new ways to gain an edge against low-cost offshore competition. Traditional automation is saturating. But what about the more complex tasks too difficult or expensive to automate?” said Matt Rendall, CEO and Co-Founder of Clearpath Robotics. “We created OTTO to reinvent material transport and give North American manufacturers a new edge.”

Applications for OTTO include moving pallets in a warehouse or cross-dock, and for kitting or assembly line delivery. OTTO units are currently deployed in five test facilities, the first of which belonging to GE.

Partnership with GE

GE has collaborated with Clearpath on service robot development since 2013 and recently became one of Clearpath’s first OTTO customers. Today Clearpath also announced GE Ventures has become a strategic investor in the company for an undisclosed sum.

“We believe robotics will drastically improve the industries that GE serves,” said Ralph Taylor-Smith, Managing Director of GE Ventures. “We look forward to further partnering with Clearpath and exploring the role large-scale service robots may play for us and for our customers in the future. This Clearpath investment from GE reflects a deepening of the industrial partnership in advanced manufacturing and field service operations with self-driving vehicles and service robots.”

“GE is one of the world’s most powerful and innovative brands,” said Rendall. “We are honored to partner with GE and we look forward to shaping the industry with them.”

A video of OTTO and a webinar invitation to learn more about the technology is available here:

http://www.clearpathrobotics.com/introducing-otto/.

About Clearpath Robotics

Clearpath Robotics Inc. develops self-driving vehicles for industry. The company provides hardware, software and services to enable self-driving vehicle development, deployment and fleet operation. Clearpath works with over 500 of the world’s most innovative brands in over 40 countries, serving markets that span manufacturing, logistics, mining, agriculture, aerospace and defence. Clearpath is an award-winning company with recent awards, including Robotics Business Review Top 50 Company, Edison Award for Innovation, Business Insider Top 40 under 40, and Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Visit Clearpath Robotics at www.clearpathrobotics.com.

February 18, 2015

Robotics Business Review names AC Grad Clearpath Robotics to their list of top 50 companies to watch in 2015

Kitchener, ON, Canada – February 16, 2015 – Robotics Business Review (RBR) has unveiled its fourth annual RBR50 list, naming Clearpath Robotics as one of the most noteworthy companies in the global robotics industry for 2015.

RBR50 companies are recognized based on their innovation, groundbreaking application(s), commercial success and potential, and represent many different levels and facets of the robotics ecosystem.

“We’re thrilled to have made the RBR50 list; the entire Clearpath team is very proud of the company we’ve built,” said Ryan Gariepy, Chief Technology Officer at Clearpath Robotics. “We’re incredibly grateful to see that our efforts to accelerate robotics development continue to be acknowledged and that a growing number of organizations are now making robotics a critical part of their long term strategy.”

Read the full announcement here.