San Diego-based Brain Corp., which in July 2017 raised $114 million in a Series C round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, has partnered with Tennant Company, a developer of commercial cleaning solutions. The companies will collaborate on autonomous floor cleaners that operate in commercial and industrial environments.

Tennant’s first autonomous floor cleaner, the T7 Micro-Rider, is expected to be available in North America later in 2018. Global expansion is expected to happen shortly thereafter. The T7 will use Brain’s AI platform, BrainOS, that transforms manually-operated machines into autonomous robots.

BrainOS uses computer vision and AI libraries to give machines the ability to autonomously navigate their environment. According to the company, BrainOS employs multi-layer sensor redundancy for safety, object avoidance technology, adaptive learning by demonstration, and the ability to map its environment in a single pass. BrainOS also features a cloud-based reporting suite that captures performance analytics and diagnostics information.

“With advances in robotics technology and our customers’ desire to operate their cleaning programs more productively, we are thrilled to combine the Tennant best-in-class cleaning equipment with the best-in-class autonomous navigation operating system from Brain,” said Chris Killingstad, Tennant Company President and CEO. “Our customers are continually looking for enhanced productivity, reliability, exceptional service and performance, and a reduction in the cost of ownership.”

---

Engineering the Future of Robotics

Register for the Robotics Summit and Showcase (May 23-24, Boston) by April 20 and save 20% with early bird registration. Learn from and network with the best minds in robotics and unlock the keys to developing next-gen commercial robotics systems.

Agenda | Keynotes | Speakers | Sponsors | Register

---

Commercial floor cleaning is the initial application for BrainOS. Brain also has partnerships with other industrial floor cleaning companies, including International Cleaning Equipment, Minuteman International, and NSS Enterprises. Brain plans to roll BrainOS out to other markets as it continues to develop the technology.

“We are very excited to be working with the Tennant team as we integrate our BrainOS technology into their floor care cleaning products,” Dr. Eugene Izhikevich, CEO and co-founder of Brain, said in a statement. “When customers choose Tennant products they expect advanced innovation and technology. BrainOS-powered Tennant floor care products deliver on that promise while simultaneously providing higher performance, increased productivity and greater reliability.”

Learn About BrainOS at the Robotics Summit

Increasing the level of navigation autonomy in mobile robots confers measurable business benefits to those companies employing them. But for the technical professional building autonomous mobile robots, or converting manually-operated systems into autonomous systems, the task can be daunting.

Phil Duffy, VP of Innovation for Brain, will be speaking at the Robotics Summit and Showcase, which takes place May 23-24 in Boston. In a session called “Developing Autonomous Mobile Robots for Human Populated Environments,” Duffy will describe cost-effective methods and technologies that speed and ease the development and deployment of self-navigating mobile robots in indoor and outdoor environments.

Here is the complete agenda for the Robotics Summit, an educational forum and showcase dedicated to addressing the technical issues involved with developing commercial robotics and intelligent systems. Register by April 20 to save 20% with early bird registration.