Tag: BluHaptics

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Olis raises $4M for tech that keeps robots on track

Olis Connect monitoring an industrial robot
The Olis Connect system can monitor industrial robots securely via a mobile device. (Olis Robotics via YouTube)

Seattle-based Olis Robotics has raised $4.1 million to explore new markets for tools that make it possible to monitor and control industrial robots remotely and securely.

The funding round was led by PSL Ventures, Olis Robotics said today in a news release. Additional backing came from Tectonic Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures and several strategic angel investors — including Daniel Theobald, a pioneer in the field who played key roles in founding MassRobotics and Vecna Robotics.

Olis’ flagship product, Olis Connect, helps operators monitor and manage their machines remotely from anywhere via any browser-capable device. If a robot encounters a problem, Olis Connect sends out an alert via a secure connection to the operator’s device without connecting to the cloud — which is an added safeguard in environments where cybersecurity is a concern. Operators can then use the system remotely to execute error recovery actions, such as releasing the robot’s grip on a part, or moving the robot from its error position.

“Robot downtime can cost a large plant over $1 million per hour. When every minute counts, you need to leverage remote tools to react as quickly as possible no matter where you are,” Olis Robotics CEO Fredrik Ryden explained. “Our technology is ingeniously simple to use and intensely practical in terms of its impact.”

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Olis will lend a hand with Maxar’s lunar robotic arm

Maxar robotic arm
An artist’s conception shows the SAMPLR robotic arm working on the moon. (Maxar Technologies Illustration)

Seattle-based Olis Robotics says it’s been selected by Maxar Technologies to provide software that will prepare operators on Earth to control a robotic arm on the moon.

The software will be used in connection with a robotic-arm experiment known as SAMPLR (Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering and Probing of Lunar Regolith).

SAMPLR is one of a dozen payloads chosen by NASA to fly on commercial lunar landers in support of the space agency’s Artemis program to send astronauts to the moon by 2024.

The robotic arm is a flight spare left over from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Both of those rovers landed on the Red Planet back in 2004, and the mission was brought to a close this February.

SAMPLR will be attached to a lander to be named later, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. It’ll be NASA’s first robotic  arm sent to the moon in more than 50 years.

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Olis Robotics will lay out plan for space robots

Satellite-servicing robot
An artist’s conception shows one satellite extending its robotic arm to grasp and refuel another satellite in orbit. (NASA / Goddard Illustration)

Seattle-based Olis Robotics says it has received a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force to lay out a plan for using its AI-driven software platform to control satellite-servicing robots in orbit.

The initial Small Business Innovative Research grant could set the stage for as much as $1.5 million in future Air Force funding, depending on how the plan is received.

Olis, formerly known as Bluhaptics, is a five-year-old spinout from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory. It specializes in the development of semi-autonomous control software that’s suitable for underwater remotely operated vehicles as well as space robots.

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NanoRacks names its space outpost team

Orbital outpost
An artist’s conception shows a Centaur upper-stage booster that’s been outfitted to become an orbital outpost. (NanoRacks Illustration)

It takes a village to raise an space outpost, and NanoRacks’ array of villagers includes Stratolaunch as well as Olis Robotics, the startup formerly known as BluHaptics.

NanoRacks, which is headquartered in Texas, today listed those two Seattle-based companies among its partners for a NASA-funded study focusing on the future of commercial human spaceflight in low Earth orbit.

The study is one of 13 that were commissioned by NASA in August as part of its drive to commercialize orbital operations by 2025. That drive could involve handing over the U.S. segment of the International Space Station to private-sector management, or developing brand-new orbital platforms.

NanoRacks has proposed retrofitting the spent upper stages from United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rockets and its yet-to-be-built Vulcan rockets to create habitable outposts. The company unveiled its plan for the first outpost, dubbed Independence-1, in April.

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BluHaptics rebrands itself as Olis Robotics

Olis Robotics control system
Olis Robotics’ operating system is designed to provide added safety, efficiency and semi-autonomous smarts for remotely operated robots. (Olis Robotics Photo)

For five years, a University of Washington spin-out called BluHaptics has been building up a business focusing on robotic control software for underwater robots — and now the Seattle startup is stepping things up a notch under a new name: Olis Robotics.

Olis is also acquiring another Seattle startup, White Marsh Forests, which is expected add new machine learning capabilities to the company’s control system for remotely operated robots undersea, out in space and in other challenging environments.

“With the acquisition of leading-edge machine learning technology, we seized the opportunity to sharpen our vision of disrupting the emerging robotics operating system lindustry,” Olis CEO Don Pickering said today in a news release.

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NASA gives $750,000 grants for space innovations

BluHaptics work
Derek Martin and Ryan Cox work on robotic instrumentation with the BluHaptics team in Seattle. (University of Washington Photo / Conrado Tapado)

Space projects led by two small businesses headquartered in Washington state — Seattle-based BluHaptics and Bothell-based Tethers Unlimited — are among 128 proposals selected by NASA to receive grants of up to $750,000.

NASA today announced its selections for 2017 Phase II grants in the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

SBIR Phase II contracts provide maximum funding of $750,000 over 24 months for the further development of projects that support NASA’s future space exploration missions while also benefiting the U.S. economy.

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BluHaptics wins grant for subsea robot system

Image: BluHaptics control system
BluHaptics’ chief technology officer, Fredrik Ryden, controls a robotic arm using a haptic pen and an Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset. (Credit: BluHaptics)

BluHaptics has received a $747,197 grant from the National Science Foundation to work on a virtual-reality robotic control system that could transform underwater operations as much as drones have transformed aerial operations.

The project, which includes a subcontract to the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, will use 3-D data fusion and machine learning to develop safer, more intuitive ways to pilot remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. Such vehlcles can capture imagery and manipulate objects miles beneath the sea surface.

“Our technology will make subsea and underwater operations safer,” BluHaptics’ chief technology officer, Fredrik Ryden, said today in a blog posting announcing the NSF’s Phase II Small Business Innovative Research grant. “Divers can be replaced in hazardous situations by telerobots with improved control based on our products. The rate of untoward incidents, and their severity, will be mitigated for a large range of subsea activities.”

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