The Safety to Autonomy Curve
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Vecna Technologies is an automation company that focuses on applications in healthcare and logistics. The document discusses Vecna's mission to create robots that work safely alongside humans. It then outlines Vecna's proposed "Safety-to-Autonomy Curve" approach for introducing automation and robots into the workforce in a gradual, incremental way with an emphasis on safety first at each step of increasing autonomy. The approach is intended to overcome barriers to adoption by focusing first on improving safety to provide a clear ROI before adding more autonomous capabilities.
The Safety to Autonomy Curve
- 1. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. The Safety-to-Autonomy Curve an incremental approach to introducing automation to the workforce Daniel Theobald, CTO, Vecna RoboUniverse, May 13, 2015
- 2. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Agenda A little about Vecna Mass Robotics update Safety to Autonomy
- 3. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. •Privately funded automation company •Founded in 1998 by MIT engineers •Focus on advanced technology with applications in healthcare and logistics •Hundreds of implementations worldwide •Strong track record of commercializing R&D •10% working time devoted to community service About Vecna
- 4. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Vecna’s Mission To create robots that provide real economic value by working safely alongside humans
- 5. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 6. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Community Service Challenge For the past 17 years, Vecna has paid its employees to spend up to 4 hours of every work-week doing community service projects. To date, Vecna has provided nearly 100,000 hours of community service to communities around the world. Imagine what could be accomplished if every organization did this. The challenge: Convince yourself and your company leadership to adopt socially responsible practices and give back. The research is clear: people and companies that regularly engage in community service are healthier, happier, more productive, more prosperous, live longer, more respected, more fun to work with, and the list goes on.
- 7. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. MassRobotics Update...
- 9. The Opportunity Trillions of dollars of unmet market needs The ability to empower the human race to accomplish more than ever before The opportunity to create prosperity for all segments of society
- 12. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. McKinsey's Report: Twelve potentially economically disruptive technologies Advanced robotics across health care, manufacturing, and services could generate a potential economic impact of $1.7 trillion to $4.5 trillion per year by 2025, including more than $800 billion to $2.6 trillion in value from health-care uses Industrial robots with features such as machine vision and high- precision dexterity typically cost $100,000 to $150,000. These prices will come down substantially opening many new markets
- 13. The worlds largest robotics cluster
- 14. The Problem Lack of a strong support ecosystem for robotics/automation startups in Massachusetts and the US as a whole Results in poor startup performance and poor investor confidence
- 17. The Solution: MassRobotics 1 7 Independent non-profit industry association Designed with with input from investors to reduce risk Information sharing, standards and contract support Quality & cost-effective prototyping and testing facilities Curated business services & mentorship Introductions to strategic contacts & investors STEM education support To 'nurture' the world's largest robotics cluster.
- 19. MassRobotics: The Robotics Hub 1 9 Entrepreneurs Talent Mentors Service Providers Academia CorporationsInvestors & Funders Reputation & Boards Advice & Connections Research & education commercialization Exit Options & B2B Leads R&D & Acquisitions Cash & Connections ROI
- 20. The Business Model 2 0 Startups & Service Providers Sponsored Spaces Sponsorship Grants Rent & Services Capital Expenditures: •Build out & renovation •Office furniture & equipment •IT infrastructure •Prototyping equipment & Labs •Capitalizable labor Operating Expenditures: •Staff •Contractors •Consumables •Facility lease & Utilities •G&A
- 21. Initial Demand & Cash Sponsors Potential Initial Residents: 1.Acorn PD 2.Empire Robotics 3.Flextronics 4.LaxeeEye 5.MeetingOwl 6.Neurala 7.Panoptes 8.Paracosm 9.Rise Robotics 10.Sonzia 11.Panasonic 12.FoxConn 13.Amazon Robotics
- 22. Initial Board of Directors Ken Gabriel, Draper Labs Jay Ash, The Commonwealth CA Web, New England VC Society Colin Angle, iRobot Tim Rowe, CIC/LabCentral Daniel Theobald, Vecna Next Step: Hire Dedicated Leadership Team Please Help
- 24. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Safety to Autonomy
- 25. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Robots will instantly and dramatically change the way we work. Too much hype
- 26. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Barriers to Adoption •41% of manufacturing companies surveyed said they do not currently use robotics technology and they don’t intend to in the next three years •What they think about robots: –Robots are not cost effective –Robots will displace workers and affect morale –Staff are not skilled enough to run the robots –Robots break –Robots are not safe
- 27. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Workplace Fatalities •4,585 workers killed on the job in 2013 •$188.9 billion in productivity and wages are lost each year in the U.S. due to safety-related death and injury •Powered industrial trucks are #5 on OSHA’s list
- 28. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Forklifts injuries – by the numbers •110,000 major forklift accidents occur every year •Forklifts account for 1 in 6 workplace deaths and 34,900 serious injuries •90% of all forklifts will be involved in some type of serious accident during their useful life
- 29. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 30. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 31. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. The Safety-to-Autonomy Curve The glide path on which an organization successfully adopts robotic systems Focus on safety, add autonomy incrementally with safety always coming first.
- 32. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Manned Vehicles
- 33. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Forward collision avoidance Sideview assist
- 34. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 35. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Unmanned Vehicles
- 36. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 37. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 38. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc.
- 39. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Safety to Autonomy •Sensorize first, improved safety is something everyone can buy into. The ROI is clear. •Don’t just use sensors to sense the environment, actually make sense of the environment •Agility to address new applications quickly requires general purpose world models rather than 'hard coded' safety sensors •Work as an industry to establish reasonable standards •Buy time for industries and workforces to adopt and accept sensorized platforms, achieve early ROI and incrementally adopt autonomy
- 40. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Let's make safety a top priority •Avoid direct industry set backs •Avoid unnecessary interference and regulation •Avoid bad PR and public opposition to robotics •Most importantly, avoid hurting people and causing pain
- 41. Confidential and Proprietary © 2013 Vecna Technologies, Inc. Daniel Theobald theo@vecna.com