PickNik Robotics announces launch of MoveIt Pro Release 6 robotics software platform

PickNik Robotics, a Colorado-based developer of advanced robotic software offerings, announced the launch of MoveIt Pro Release 6, a platform the company says is “designed for the AI era.”

This latest release enables organizations to quickly tackle robotics applications that previously were not possible or economically feasible with previous generation systems. PickNik says that MoveIt Pro 6 has a new high fidelity simulation engine for digital twins, powerful real-time control algorithms and support for mobile manipulation.

Further funding, innovation from PickNik

The company, which received $2 million in a pre-seed investment round in October 2023, has expanded its MoveIt platform.

“The robotics industry has sorely needed a robotics manipulation engine - the equivalent of a ‘video game engine’ - to enable innovative companies to quickly apply robotics to their industries.” said Dave Coleman, PhD, founder and chief product officer at PickNik Robotics. "Out of the box, the MoveIt Pro Runtime includes real-time object identification, force control, dynamic motion planning, and multi-step processing. The suite of intelligent decision-making algorithms opens up a vast new set of opportunities.”

PickNik’s customers, according to the company, are benefitting from rapid development of their applications, with cost savings up to 75%.

“Partnering with PickNik was a strategic decision that brought not only advanced technology but also a team of dedicated experts into our development process,” said Rishab Patwari, CEO at Hivebotics

Bridging the gap from pre-AI to AI-driven robotics

Historically, robotics has been constrained by limitations such as expensive programing, limited flexibility, pre-planned movements and the need for highly structured environments. These constraints resulted in robots that could only perform simple, repetitive tasks and required significant expenses in adapting workspaces to suit the robot’s limited capabilities.

MoveIt Pro Release 6 removes these limitations, according to PickNik. The release introduces:

1. Real-time object recognition: Empowering robots to make intelligent choices and adapt to unexpected obstacles.
2. Dynamic path planning: Enabling the identification of optimal paths on the fly.
3. Force Compliant Controllers: Allowing robots to handle and interact with objects of varying sizes and weights with precision.

These advancements unlock a multitude of new use cases, including adaptive cleaning in commercial buildings, food processing plants, passenger trains and airlines; agriculture harvesting, planting, and weed removal; assembly and pre-assembly operations with mixed-part selection and placement in manufacturing; residential and commercial building construction.

Key distinguishing features of MoveIt Pro Release 6

In MoveIt Pro Release 6, the software also contains:

1. Intelligent Runtime Decision Making
   1. Facilitates complex, multi-step operations
   2. Overcomes unexpected obstacles, environmental changes and error conditions
   3. Handles variations in object characteristics including size, weight and orientation
2. Hardware Agnostic Design
   1. Supports a wide variety of hardware components - 100’s of robotic arms, end effectors, cameras and supporting components
   2. Allows matching of hardware to specific needs and budgets
   3. Leverages off-the-shelf hardware to lower project costs
3. Rapid Development
   1. High Fidelity Physics Simulation to accelerate developing of novel applications
   2. Enable powerful digital twins for rapid prototyping
   3. Speed up development efforts due to powerful debugging tools

“MoveIt Pro Release 6 is not just a software update; it's a catalyst for innovation across industries," said Dave Grant, CEO at PickNik Robotics. "We're enabling our clients to automate processes that were previously not possible, from adaptive manufacturing to agriculture and beyond. Clients are only limited by their imagination.”

Want to learn more about robots picking, packing and packaging? This article was featured in the October 2024 Robotics 24/7 Special Focus Issue titled “Robots picking and packing with precision.”