The Robot Report Podcast
00:44:20 · Aaron Nathan, Eugene Demetri
And now that gives you a high degree of confidence to make a safe decision about should I change lanes or exit the highway or any of these, you know, actions. So, yeah, I guess, like, I'm a little bit of a broken record, but it's always about how do I use all the things together as opposed to be in competition with a different technology. [00:44:43] S3: Well, and you mentioned the absolute frame concept. What happens when many robots or systems are working from the same map? Does it work across platforms like drones that are moving at one speed and cars moving at another and delivery robots moving at yet another? Like, how how does that work together?
00:45:01 · Aaron Nathan
[00:45:01] S2: Yeah. So our technology is agnostic to the platform, but I need to be a little bit careful in how we say that because we do actually take advantage of the fact that we know that, you know, we're locating a drone or we're locating a tractor or a car, whatever the actual physics of the underlying thing is. The important part is this absolute frame is like a grid that we all agree on that defines the location and also things like the speed and direction of things. And the reason that's kind of a cool concept is if you think about, like, a port where you have, like, a bunch of, let's say, forklifts driving around, and they're all moving these big containers, they may not have, like, great visibility about where they're about to go. So your camera, your LIDAR may be blocked. There's this whole world where they actually can communicate in real time their positions and their directions and actually say, oh, I'm gonna slow down because I can see, quote, unquote, this collision happening purely just by observing, like, the almost video game view of the world. And I think that this is where, you know, the current state of robotics is that each robotic company goes to a site and builds a map. And that's, like, needed because we're so early. Right? And so the eventual solution, though, is there will absolutely be interop between these things. And I don't think it's gonna be just because, like, it's nice to have. I think it's actually going to drive, like, the core thing that robotics are supposed to do, which is to drive efficiency and throughput and all these things. So, yeah, I mean, in my mind, that's an inevitable future, and it's why, location to me, it's like it has to be on this shared common grid, and it can't be, you know, each robot company figuring out its own thing. It's just inherently less efficient.
00:47:07 · Mike Oitzman
[00:47:07] S1: Let's let's talk a little bit about some of the markets then that you're serving. We've we've dropped a few of them already. Tell us some of the other interesting use cases for for the technology. I don't know if you're able to share some of the companies that have deployed Point One Nav into their platforms.
00:47:24 · Aaron Nathan
[00:47:24] S2: Yeah. I mean, so we are... You know, the investor pitch is point ones in everything that moves. And we're we're trying to really actually make that the case. So when we look at our markets, you know, there is the traditional things you mentioned like survey. What we do is so at scale that we've started to disrupt that market even. So we have some customers there. One of them is MLID, and we just announced, you know, those survey polls that you see. They just come directly with Point One from the factory. So it's like you don't really need to do anything. It's like a batteries included experience, highly disruptive to that market. The other markets we see are in, like, consumer. So you're starting to see these autonomous lawn mowers that you'll be able to buy in, like, Pumbico and Lowe's. They're gonna have our technology on them, and it's gonna be mowing your lawn, like, next year. It's kind of a a wild capability. In agriculture, you know, we have lots of different customers doing everything from, you know, planting seeds to taking weeds out. One of the ones I I really like is Burro. They've almost built, like, a platform that is a physical platform. And so their robot, you know, will move around and do all kinds of different tasks on the farm, follow people around, and, you know, they use us, obviously, to make sure that that robot is able to stay right in between, you know, the rows of crops or wherever it is it's advocating. Drones is a big one. We see that in two major use cases. One is really in the world of public safety, so companies like Skydio to use our drones. And then in delivery, you know, we have customers there, several delivery customers. You know? People, I'm sure, heard of, like, Zipline, and they're using us for that delivery function. And it's... I think the coolest thing about it is just how many different markets we end up seeing this. Construction and mining is another one that we have lots of customers in, and the number of use cases just keeps growing. Production on motive, we're even gonna be launching motorcycles next year. Just... It's it's... I mean, that notion of everything that moves is becoming true.
00:49:47 · Mike Oitzman, Aaron Nathan, Steve Crowe
[00:49:47] S1: I mean, I'm curious. You talked about disintermediating the surveying. Does it mean that you don't need to deploy a total station on-site anymore to to get the accuracy you need? [00:49:59] S2: I mean, the total stations specifically serve, like, the millimeter market, which, like, that's a little bit, you know, beyond where we wanna go. [00:50:08] S1: So there's still a use case for for total stations? [00:50:10] S2: Stations. Yes. But but Yeah. What's funny is, like, people will actually use our technology with the total station because the total station technically is a [00:50:18] S1: Okay. [00:50:18] S2: Gives you millimeters relative to wherever you put it, and then, like, you know, now you get millimeters to that point. Right. But how do you know, like, if that point is correct? So as another example, we have a customer, Civ Robot, and they literally have a robot that runs around, and it just, like, puts a stake in the ground where they're supposed to drive a pylon to put building. You know? So, like Mhmm. [00:50:39] S0: You [00:50:39] S2: really wanna make sure you get that right. And those are the kinds of things where, I guess, technically, that's like a survey stroke construction application, but it's it's also bringing robotics. And I think this is really... We're starting to see a convergence of these these technologies, and I think it's super exciting.
00:50:39 · Aaron Nathan, Mike Oitzman
[00:50:39] S2: really wanna make sure you get that right. And those are the kinds of things where, I guess, technically, that's like a survey stroke construction application, but it's it's also bringing robotics. And I think this is really... We're starting to see a convergence of these these technologies, and I think it's super exciting. [00:51:00] S1: Now a lot of teams get it... Can get a pilot working and... But, you know, when they get... Start to scale... And we were we were... You and I attended the RobotCon last week. And so very, very interesting to to talk about situations with scale. What are some of the things that that that, you know, sort of need to happen when you go from that initial pilot to a production with with Point One Nav or or other sorta location technologies?