Identifying Opportunities Track

Starting a robotics company, as well as growing and scaling, has many challenges. The Robotics Startup Boot Camp will provide “tips of the trade” and include discussions around: legal formation, stock options and patents, dilutive and non-dilutive investments, path to manufacturing, best practices in accounting, and when to bring on marketing, sales, & HR experts, and fundraising & exits.

In this session, Maryanna Saenko, Co-Founder and Partner of Future Ventures will review the questions she asks herself about founders and their companies before she decides to invest in them such as:

– Are they uniquely positioned to create this company? How and why and they are uniquely motivated?

– Are they a reluctant founder? Founders could be doing many other things with their lives, but take on the challenge of starting a company because they believe the technology must exist and that they are one of the only ones capable of bringing it to life.

– Are they capable of hiring? Can they articulate their mission in a way that makes people leave their stable jobs and come work at a risky new company?

The global autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) market is expected to reach $14 billion by 2026, with more than 270 vendors leading the manufacturing and logistics space and over 50,000 warehouses worldwide expected to leverage robots by 2025. However, fleets of robots from multiple vendors work on different operating systems and historically have had no standard way to communicate, share information or coordinate activities – until now.

This presentation will explore the first open-source AMR interoperability standards, developed by the MassRobotics AMR Interoperability Working Group, and how they enable robots from multiple vendors to integrate and work together seamlessly to support safe and efficient operations in global factories, warehouses, distribution and fulfillment centers.

During the presentation, Daniel will discuss the industry challenges that brought about the introduction of these standards to simplify the adoption of autonomous mobile robots into the market. He’ll also share his front-line insights from the working group about how these standards are a huge step forward for a more successful and smarter warehouse and how they promote a realizable future of cooperation between various vendors and, in turn, humans and robots too.