Title: YASKAWA's Next Generation Robot System Concept and Application of AI Technology

Biography:

He joined Yaskawa Electric Corporation in 2012 after completing a master's degree in computer science at Kyushu Institute of Technology. In the same year, assigned to the R&D Dept, where he was engaged in the technological development of intelligent robots using computer vision. From 2020, he has moved to Robot Technology Dept. Currently, he is mainly in charge of the architectural design of next-generation robot controllers.

Abstract

Conventional robot systems are used to make large quantities of products with the same standardized models and specifications. As machines that repeat predetermined movements at high speed and high precision, they have contributed to the automation of the manufacturing industry. However, with recent changes in consumer trends such as shorter product life cycles and customization, more flexible and intelligent robot systems are required. Yaskawa Electric Corporation advocates i3-Mechatronics as a solution concept for such next-generation robot systems. i3-Mechatronics proceeds in three "i" steps. (1) Integrated, (2) Intelligent, and (3) Innovative. Specifically, (1) integrate and manage information around the robot system, such as real and simulated data, then use the collected data for AI learning and analysis, and (2) make full use of the data in an intelligent manner. By doing so, we believe that we can (3) realize innovations such as robot system stabilization and intelligence, and as a result, solve management issues for the realization of next-generation robot systems that our customers require. We would like to offer our customers the i3-Mechatronics concept together with an open framework. This is because we believe that close collaboration on the software side with our customers' software assets and ecosystems is
crucial to making robots intelligent. From this perspective, we are developing a next-generation robot controller with a Linux module with
a GPU that can run an AI reasoner and an API that can access various types of information from robot controllers and simulators. In this
presentation, we will show examples of AI applications based on the i3-Mechatronics concept and the next-generation robot controller concept under development.