Seegrid Corporation announces a new research and development group called Blue Labs. The new group consists of in-house experts who will build upon Seegrid’s proprietary artificial intelligence technologies, with the goal of accelerating Seegrid’s expanding footprint throughout the manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics sectors it serves.

This announcement comes on the heels of recent product announcements that include a new lineup of Palion AMRs. Seegrid has also invested in software development for its cloud-based data analytics platform. On their website, Seegrid has more than a dozen openings for engineering related positions, proof that they are serious about the future technology roadmap. The Blue Labs team is composed of world-class automation experts, many with Ph.D. level expertise in robotics and computer vision systems.

“Blue Lab’s team of talented researchers anticipate quickly revealing additional pathways to transform material handling for incorporation into Seegrid AMR and software solutions,” said Todd Graves, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Seegrid. “With a team of the best innovators in mobile automation, we have the vision, ambition, and expertise to make our customers even more competitive in their ability to meet demand.”

Here’s how the company describes the needs for an ML engineer for the new group on their career page:

“Blue Labs is tasked with both long-range speculative research and risk mitigation for shorter-term projects that involve significant uncertainty.  This role is highly dynamic and variable, with projects ranging across our stack, from low-level robot control & analysis to fleet coordination & optimization to enterprise-wide analytics & recommendation generation.  Due to our broad scope, Blue Labs team members are expected to be generalists with a specialty: we all bring unique skills and perspectives to the project, while contributing in any way we can.  If you are the team’s expert on machine learning, you will bring your expertise and point of view to all of your team’s projects.  However, there will be times when machine learning is not the appropriate tool for the job, and you will bring your other skills to bear.  The successful [Blue Labs] candidate will have a deep background in machine learning, have applied ML tools in depth in multiple domains, and be conversant in general software engineering.  Adaptability is key, as projects and domains will change regularly.  We can guarantee a zero probability of boredom in this role!  If you’re interested in everything, enjoy solving hard problems, and are looking for a challenge, this is the job for you!”

In October 2020, Seegrid acquired the assets of Box Robotics. The leadership team from Box Robotics, Tom Panzarella and John Spletzer, continue to lead the separate perception group at Seegrid. So it appears that the Blue Labs group will work on skunkworks projects that are experimental in nature but with an eye towards practical application.

“Seegrid is more than a technology company—we are an automation partner for our customers,” said Graves. “Blue Labs is about ingenuity with an entrepreneurial approach, ensuring continued strategic exploration and visionary discovery, leading the company and our customers into the future of intelligent mobile automation.”

Seegrid, along with the rest of the AMR market, is seeing rapid growth and demand, especially over the last year as e-commerce experienced an increase in consumption. Autonomous mobile robots offer solutions that fill labor shortages, increase throughput, and help improve overall material flow. Seegrid helps businesses in the supply chain network remain agile while ensuring flow of goods is both steady and safe: the collective fleet has driven more than 5 million miles at customer sites without a single personnel safety incident.

Takeaways

It is notable that Seegrid is making a big deal about the creation of a separate “Labs” engineering group. This announcement is sort of along the lines of a “Bell Labs”, where innovation is encouraged and team members will be expected to “fail fast and pivot quickly”. Research of this type is a luxury, it’s not something that a company invests in if they are living hand to mouth. Thus, this investment points to the fact that Seegrid is likely doing well with their long term investment and revenue plan and seeks to achieve a “step-wise” innovation to help move forward as a market leader.