ABB recently announced that it has acquired Swiss start-up Sevensense, a leading AI-enabled 3D vision navigation technology provider for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Sevensense was launched in 2018 as a Swiss technical University ETH Zurich spin-off.
This acquisition follows ABB’s minority investment in Sevensense after joining the company’s innovation ecosystem in 2021, the same year ABB acquired ASTI Mobile Robotics. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Following pilot customer projects in the automotive and logistics industries, ABB will integrate Sevensense’s technology into the company’s AMR portfolio, offering an unprecedented combination of speed, accuracy, and payload.
Sevensense’s pioneering navigation technology combines AI and 3D vision, enabling AMRs to make intelligent decisions – differentiating between fixed and mobile objects in dynamic environments. And once manually guided, mobile robots with Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (Visual SLAM) technology create a map to operate independently, reducing commissioning time from weeks to days and enabling the AMRs to navigate in highly complex, dynamic environments alongside people. Maps are constantly updated and shared across the fleet – offering instant scalability without interrupting operations and greater flexibility than other navigation technologies.
This AI-enabled navigation technology is already transforming the automotive manufacturing and logistics sectors, delivering value through faster and more efficient operations. For automotive manufacturer Ford, Visual SLAM-enabled ABB AMRs will create efficiency gains in production sites in the US, while Michelin will use the technology in intralogistics at its factory in Spain. Other automotive manufacturers will roll out the technology in the UK, Finland, and Germany.
This technology has the potential to impact robotics far beyond AMRs, driving greater efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy throughout production and intralogistics. The technology will also continue to be sold across segments, including material handling, cleaning, and other service robotics fields under the product name Sevensense.
Sevensense’s partnership highlights the success of ABB’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of innovations. Through its partner ecosystem and collaboration with start-ups and universities, ABB builds leading technology to benefit global businesses. Sevensense’s approximately 35 employees will continue being based at its Swiss office in Zurich.
KEY QUOTES:
“This marks a significant step towards our vision of a workplace where AI-enabled robots assist people, addressing our customers’ needs for greater flexibility and intelligence amidst critical skilled labor shortages. Each mobile robot, equipped with vision and AI, scans a unique part of the building; collectively these robots complement each other’s view to form a complete map, enabling them to work autonomously in a rapidly changing environment.”
— Sami Atiya, President of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation
“Offering more autonomy and cognitive intelligence, ABB’s unique market-proven technology paves the way for a shift from linear production lines to dynamic networks. Intelligent AMRs autonomously navigate to production cells, tracking stock inventory as they go and sharing this information with other robots, while collaborating safely side-by-side with humans. With the acquisition of Sevensense, ABB becomes the leader in next-generation AMRs, offering Visual SLAM in Autonomous Mobile Robots, together with an integrated portfolio covering robots and machine automation solutions, all managed by our value-creating software.”
— Marc Segura, President of ABB’s Robotics Division
“This is a significant moment in our shared journey, as we introduce our home-grown technology to a wider range of markets and sectors. ABB is the ideal home for us to continue scaling our versatile platform for 3D visual autonomy, serving OEMs across the automated material handling and service robotics industries. Together, we will redefine the limits of AI-enabled robotics.”
— Gregory Hitz, CEO of Sevensense
