RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards 2024 – The Robot Report

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The RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards have honored industry leaders for the past 12 years. And now we’re taking the RBR50 to the next level.

We introduced three new categories in 2024 – Robot of the Year, Application of the Year, and Startup of the Year – and will be holding the inaugural RBR50 Gala on May 1 from 6-8 PM at the end of Day 1 of the Robotics Summit & Expo. The RBR50 Gala offers a chance to connect with the world’s leading robotics innovators. It’s also an evening of celebration to honor leading roboticists and their impressive achievements.

“The incredible work of this year’s RBR50 winners represents the cutting edge of robotics and raises the bar for the industry, said Steve Crowe, Executive Editor, Robotics, WTWH Media. “We look forward to celebrating all of the innovators at the inaugural RBR50 Gala during the Robotics Summit & Expo. Congratulations to the RBR50.”

Here are some highlights and trends from this year’s winners.

Digit is Robot of the Year

2023 was the year of humanoids, and Agility Robotics has taken an early lead with commercial trials. The company’s Digit humanoid stole the show at ProMAT, where it demonstrated its ability to pick up totes from a shelf, walk over to a conveyor, and place the totes onto the conveyor.

Later in 2023, Agility announced pilots with two major customers to perform a similar task: Amazon and GXO Logistics, which claims to be the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider. Digit is 5 ft, 9 in. (175 cm) tall, weighs 143 lb. (64.8 kg), and can carry up to 35 lb. (15.8 kg).

Digit’s potential flexibility gives it an edge over other types of robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) with top modules.

Autopicker wins Application of the Year

Cincinnati-based Brightpick, which spun out of Photoneo, was named the inaugural Application of the Year winner. In 2023, Brightpick unveiled Autopicker, which it said is the first commercially available AMR that can pick and consolidate orders directly in warehouse aisles.

Autopicker combines a mobile platform, a robotic arm, machine vision, and artificial intelligence for e-commerce fulfillment. The innovative system’s patented two-tote design enables it to retrieve orders from bins on shelving and pick items to one of its totes. This reduces the need for associates to spend time traveling with carts.

Electric Sheep named Startup of the Year

San Francisco-based Electric Sheep’s unique business model allows it to bring in revenue as it takes its time deploying its technology. This business model led to it being named Startup of the Year.

Electric Sheep develops autonomous robots for outdoor maintenance. Instead of selling or leasing the robots to commercial landscaping businesses, Electric Sheep is becoming vertically integrated by purchasing landscaping companies. This allows it to get to know how these businesses operate and where the robots can best be deployed while still bringing in revenue.

Since implementing this strategy, Electric Sheep said it has grown revenue by eight times. Last year, the company acquired four landscaping businesses.

RBR50 winners innovate in several areas

This year’s RBR50 demonstrated the growing relevance of generative AI to robotics. The availability of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT is making new breakthroughs possible. For example, Sereact released PickGPT, a robotics transformer that combines LLMs with the company’s computer vision technology to create unique pick-and-place robots that use natural language.

Other notable winners include Harvard University’s development of a soft exoskeleton that helped a 73-year-old man with Parkinson’s walk without freezing. And Seattle-based startup Glidance developed a robot that offers autonomous mobility assistance for the visually impaired.

To learn more about the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards 2024, peruse the winner profiles below.