ABB buys company specialising in mobile robots

ABB has bought a company specialising in boosting industrial robot mobility using artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D vision to move around factories and warehouses.

Buying Swiss start-up Sevensense is ABB’s latest robotics investment, based on rising demand for industrial robots that move and work independently.

Zurich-based Sevensense develops and makes sensor and AI systems that effectively give factory robots that deliver components to production lines the eyes and brains to navigate plants.

“In the past, robots which supplied production lines usually followed fixed magnetic strips. They took a long time to install and weren’t very flexible,” said ABB head of robotics and discrete automation Sami Atiya.

“Now we have robots that can go all over the factory, but with eyes and a brain.”

Each robot equipped with six cameras can shift two tonnes of materials at speeds of 1.5m a second.

“Under the old system when you needed to change a production line of 100m, adding a new production cell for example, it was impossible to divert the robot,” he said.

“Now we can do that easily,” Atiya said.

The market for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) is expected to grow about 20% a year up to 2026, according to ABB estimates, expanding from $5.5bn in 2023 to $9.5bn by 2026.

This rate is faster than the one expected for conventional fixed robots, where ABB sees annual growth of 8%.

The deal to buy Sevensense is the latest investment by ABB, which competes with Japan’s FANUC and Germany’s Kuka in industrial robots. It comes after expansion of its US factory in 2023 and the purchase of ASTI Mobile Robotics in 2021. Acquisition terms were not disclosed.

The group’s technology is now being integrated into ABB’s products. Customers include carmaker Ford, which bought 300 robots for its Tennessee plant, and French tyre maker Michelin.

ADDING A NEW PRODUCTION CELL FOR EXAMPLE, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO DIVERT THE ROBOT. NOW WE CAN DO THAT EASILY