Olis Robotics' Olis Connect
Fredrik Ryden, CEO of Olis Robotics
At the end of August, Manufacturing Quality reported that Olis Robotics had secured $4.1 million in funding, with the investment expected to help with the development of the Olis Connect technology. Following the news, Olis Robotics CEO, Fredrik Ryden, sat down with us to talk through the development of Olis Connect.
Ryden went on to provide insightful knowledge on the cultural challenges related to remote robot control and safety, how metrology and automation can help solve labour shortage issues, and the current impact of remote robot control in the manufacturing industry. Additionally, Ryden also provided a brief outline of what we can expect from Olis Connect in the future.
MQ: What are the biggest challenges relating to remote robot control technology?
FR: From a technical standpoint, remote robot control solutions are well-defined and understood. Plus, end users understand and appreciate the value of reduced downtime and improved diagnostics.
However, there is a cultural challenge around robot safety. The industry is used to computers moving robots remotely, but it’s not used to people moving robots remotely. By enabling people to remotely control their robots in a way that is both easy to operate and safety-compliant, Olis Connect overcomes this cultural challenge for integrators and end-users.
Additionally, concerns about cybersecurity have traditionally acted as a barrier against the adoption of all types of remote technologies. The pandemic changed those perceptions as companies deployed remote monitoring systems to meet labour challenges and social distancing requirements.
Olis Connect reduces cybersecurity risk by avoiding the cloud. When a problem occurs with a robot cell, the edge-hosted device sends out an alert via a secure connection to the user’s device, compliant with a wide range of IT policies. All the user has to do is install a simple plug-and-play device near the robot and configure that secure remote access connection.
This one is as much an opportunity as a challenge, but getting more integrators to understand the great value that can be unlocked for their businesses by providing remote monitoring and control to their customers is an important area of focus for Olis.
Our current integration partners expect all new robot installations to come with remote control technology as a standard feature within 2-5 years. And with labour shortages placing extraordinary strain on the industrial sector, also expect a large number of existing, legacy robot cells to be retrofitted with our technology in the same time period.
Handling rapid growth could become a challenge for a company our size, but we’re looking forward to building new relationships with many integrators worldwide as the global industry adopts remote robot control technology as standard.
MQ: What were the key considerations Olis Robotics had in mind while developing the Olis Connect?
FR: Ease of setup and integration were always front and centre. In some cases, we even decided not to incorporate certain features into the final product because we felt it would have made the system too complex to configure for most users.
Another key design consideration was our mission to enable remote-control retrofits of already deployed robot cells. This meant that we had to be able to integrate with the robot cell as is with only the most minor modifications being made to settings and programs on the controller.
We also wanted to allow advanced integrators to build remote control into their existing HMIs/fleet management software. Olis Connect enables this via simple drag and drop or by using the system’s built-in APIs.
That we managed to build a system that is incredibly intuitive and easy to use without sacrificing anything in terms of key functionality and safety is something we’re very pleased about in terms of engineering design. Of course, our customers appreciate the system’s usability most of all.
MQ: With Olis Connect utilising remote robot control technology, how does the system maintain or improve accuracy and quality levels?
FR: To improve any process, you need data. Olis Connect watches a robot 24/7 and provides detailed video recordings and telemetry logs whenever an issue occurs. This process provides data that feeds into analytics and can be used to improve KPIs such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The result is continuous process improvements and improved quality, even months or years after the robot cell was first deployed.
Olis Connect can also be used as a remote training tool to improve performance on quality and metrology applications.
MQ: It was mentioned in the press release that automation adoption has hit "record-breaking numbers," from your perspective, what role do you think automation can play in metrology and inspection processes?
FR: Considering the dramatic labour challenges faced by global industry, it is vital that we increase the number of robots deployed. This is key to continued growth and innovation worldwide.
Many metrology and inspection tasks are perfect targets for automation since they tend to be unergonomic, repetitive tasks. In this sense, automation can both address labour shortages in quality roles and help to spur further growth and innovation in metrology and inspection applications.
However, automation will always need humans in the loop to handle robot downtime and fault conditions. This is where a safe, remote connection to the robot cell can play a pivotal role in quick robot recovery.
MQ: How significant has the implementation of remote robot control technology been in manufacturing? And how have you measured the difference it has made?
FR: We have already seen service calls in the manufacturing sector that would traditionally take 24-48 hours being resolved in 20 minutes thanks to remote monitoring and control technology, so that is really encouraging.
The intriguing thing is how remote technology can get entire new market segments excited about automation. Many small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs), for example, haven't traditionally been exposed to much automation – and the complexity of maintaining that automation has been a huge barrier to adoption. Automation that is fully remotely supported is a complete game changer for these customers and is something that we and our partners believe will become the norm across industrial automation deployments within the next few years.
MQ: What does the future hold for the Olis Connect technology?
FR: Without laying out our entire technical roadmap, Olis Connect will continue to push the boundaries for speedy robot deployments. We plan to quickly scale up integration with leading robot brands over the coming quarters. And we also have a team of engineers working on the provision of easier integration with enterprise software suites to enable even more effective management of large numbers of remote-controlled robots.