CHICAGO – Realtime Robotics, a Boston-based startup that recently outgrew its space at MassRobotics, announced at Automate 2019 it is now shipping its RapidPlan collision-free motion planning processor. RapidPlan is designed to enable industrial and collaborative robots to operate safely and collaboratively with people and other robots within workcells.

Realtime Robotics, named a 2019 startup to watch by The Robot Report, says RapidPlan enables robots to recognize and respond to changing environments. RapidPlan combines a hardware motion planning accelerator (MPA) with a software-based roadmap generation toolkit. It is robot-arm and sensor agnostic and can be integrated into new and existing workcells.

Realtime Robotics says users can load as many as 20 million motions into the MPA. Once stored, RapidPlan can evaluate up to 800,000 motions at 30 frames-per-second to ensure a robot continues to work regardless of interruption.

“Automation professionals know that more automation is the key to increasing productivity and lowering costs; they also know that today’s robots are limited in terms of speed and safety,” says Peter Howard, Realtime Robotics’ CEO. “Our collision-free motion planning solutions allow robots to perform safely in dynamic, unstructured, and collaborative workspaces, while instantaneously reacting to changes as they occur.”

Beta Release of RapidSense

Realtime Robotics also announced the beta release of RapidSense, which uses 3D sensors to collision check a work-cell at runtime. Any obstacles introduced to the defined workspace result in an instant replanning of the desired, collision-free path. RapidSense consists of a fiducial plate that is used for calibration, 3D sensors, and APIs.

Realtime Robotics says RapidSense can autonomously calibrate up to 10 depth-sensing cameras. Once running, RapidSense sends data gathered with the cameras to RapidPlan, making it possible for robots to dynamically replan to avoid a person, another robot or an object that moves into the workspace.

Together, RapidPlan and RapidSense allow people and multiple robots to work collaboratively and cooperatively within the same workcell.

Realtime Robotics Raises Funding

On March 28, Realtime Robotics filed a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $17.10 million in equity financing. The filing said that Realtime Robotics, which was a finalist in Automate’s startup challenge, had already sold $7.65 million or 44.73% of the financing offer. The fundraising still has about $9.45 million more and is not closed yet.

Check out The Robot Report’s ongoing investment coverage here and a recap of March robotics investments, which totaled at least $1.3 billion.