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Realtime Robotics, a producer of collision-free autonomous motion planning for industrial robots, has brought in $9.5 million in funding to meet increased demand for its RapidPlan technology, less than a year after bringing in $14.4 million in funding.  

RapidPlan was released in June 2022 and aims to reduce the annual cost of robotic automation by two-thirds and make the robot programming process up to five times faster. The software calculates robot paths and avoids collisions during operation. With the software, users create a digital twin of their robotic work cell in simulation and then point and click on robots are target points to create task plans. 

“Manufacturers need to accelerate their adoption of robotics – and quickly realize a return on that investment – in order to improve their ability to adapt and compete in today’s industry,” Peter Howard, CEO of Realtime Robotics, said. “RapidPlan perfectly complements these efforts, enabling the programming, deployment and robot control to be optimized. Our intelligent tools dramatically reduce complexity and the potential for human error, both of which can rapidly increase the cost of deploying and operating industrial robots. We’re thrilled to apply this funding to our scaling and development efforts as we grow to meet the increased market demand.”

Realtime’s additional funding will help pave the way for streamlining additional time-to-value for customers, drive other product enhancements incorporating feedback from customers and partners, and scale to support additional go-to-market efforts. The funding was from Shinhan GIB and Kyobo Life Insurance. 

“There is currently a perfect storm of economic and employment pressures within the manufacturing space. This is driving an industry-wide need to embrace new technologies and approaches to longstanding problems, to become more efficient and improve cost structures, while still delivering the products that consumers demand,” Damian S. Kang, Executive Director & Team Lead, Global Equity Team, at Shinhan GIB, said. “Realtime’s technology is a perfect fit, allowing organizations to digitally plan robot usage while making the programming process faster and less complex.”

Realtime is a former resident startup of MassRobotics. It moved out in 2019 after it grew to 30-plus employees. You can read more about the founding of Realtime Robotics in this profile written by MIT.