by Do you remember the IkeaBot? The robot went viral for its ability to build Ikea furniture as well (or better) than humans. The team behind the project founded Eureka Robotics, which announced today that it has raised a $4.25 million Series A pre-round, led by The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC), one of the largest investments in technology. deep Asia. companies, with the participation of Touchstone Partners of Vietnam and the recurring investor ATEQ.
Eureka Robotics products are based on research from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and MIT. It focuses on software and robotic systems to automate tasks that require high precision and high agility (HAHA). Its robots are used for handling, assembly, inspection, drilling and other precision tasks.
High-precision calibration of the Eureka controller synchronizes the robot and camera reference frames with high precision, enabling sub-millimeter accuracy in vision-guided tasks, while Force Control gives the robot the ability to perform assembly and insertion tight, with a clearance of up to 50 microns. Meanwhile, its high agility involves computer vision that allows robots to recognize and locate randomly placed objects. Once the robot finds the position of an object, real-time motion planning helps it move towards it.
An example of how the Eureka controller can be used is the Archimedes, which implemented technologies originally developed for the Ikea robot in a workshop for the first time. It is capable of handling lenses and mirrors of various sizes and loading those delicate items into a tray for coating. Eureka co-founder Dr. Pham Quang Cuong told TechCrunch that Archimedes is currently operating out of a factory in Singapore, serving a US laser lens manufacturer, and that the company has received multiple follow-up orders. of the robot.
The funds will be used to accelerate the development of Eureka Controller, the company’s flagship product, which enables factories to implement HAHA tasks in system integrators and factories. Dr. Pham, co-founder of Eureka, said, “While the core technologies are mature and have already been deployed in production, we want to make those technologies really easy for system integrators to use. Making advanced technologies easy to use by engineers who are not programmers is really hard.” Some of the funding will be used to grow Eureka Robotics’ software engineering team and product teams to work on the Eureka controller.
Eureka Robotics also plans to expand its marketing in Singapore and China, and new markets such as Japan and Vietnam, with the help of UTEC and Touchstone, respectively. It currently has offices in Singapore and France and distribution partners in China, Japan and the US.
