Software Engineering Intern

PickNik Robotics gives MoveIt Pro 9.0 enhanced perception-to-motion, teleop capabilities. MoveIt Pro 9.0 enables robots to operate effectively in environments where geometry changes and surfaces vary, PickNik says. Source: PickNik Robotics PickNik Inc. today released MoveIt Pro 9.0, the latest update for its platform for developing robotic arm applications. The latest version of MoveIt comes with enhanced perception-to-motion capabilities and a redesigned teleoperation and training data collection system. With these improvements, the Boulder, Colo.-based company said its platform will help developers tackle high-mix, low-volume applications that robotics traditionally struggles with. "We're recognizing a couple of trends in the industry. One is agentic coding. It's getting faster and easier to do robotic demos," Dave Grant, the CEO of PickNik, told The Robot Report. "If you want to create a bad demo that will never see the light of day, you can do that faster than ever today. So, we're really shifting our focus to the reliability of the platform, and executing with as close as possible to 100% reliability." MoveIt Pro 9.0 can better handle surface-driven tasks. The latest MoveIt Pro release includes: * Automated contour extraction and rasterized Cartesian path generation from point clouds * AI-driven 2D mask filtering and bounding box analysis for improved perception reliability * ICP-based point cloud alignment for merged surface scans * Whole-body motion control with built-in collision checking and joint limit enforcement * Native support for mobile manipulation robots that coordinate arms and wheels * A simplified and modernized user interface for debugging and introspection PickNik Robotics said these capabilities allow robots to better tackle surface-driven tasks that require scanning an object's geometry in real-time and generating safe, collision-aware toolpaths across variable contours. This means the system can be used for a range of manufacturing applications, including cleaning and painting, and a range of tasks. In the vehicle-care sector, Denver-based Autowash applies MoveIt Pro to automate surface-aware washing across varying vehicle shapes and sizes. "Every vehicle presents different contours and surface conditions," said Dennis Dreeszen, co-founder and CEO of Autowash. "MoveIt Pro's perception-to-motion pipeline allows us to generate consistent coverage while maintaining safe operation around unpredictable geometry." Grant said that with MoveIt Pro, Autowash was able to cut its energy and water use by around 40% because the company could create car wash plans specific to each car. Editor's note: Dave Coleman, founder and chief product officer of PickNik Robotics, will be in a panel on "Productionizing AI in Robotic Systems" at the Robotics Summit & Expo next month. Registration is now open. Teleoperation presents faster go-to-market opportunities. In addition to the perception-to-motion capabilities, PickNik redesigned its teleoperation and training data collection system. It now features integrated collision checking, multi-arm support, and coordinated mobile manipulation control. "We've built in some rudimentary teleoperation capability since Day 1, because the initial funder for MoveIt Pro was NASA," Grant said. "NASA will not allow a robot to do anything in space without also having the ability to teleoperate pre-approved things. So, it's part of our core DNA to have that teleoperation." When PickNik first created its teleoperation system, the company didn't know that the technology would eventually be used for robot training. "We built in and enhanced more things because there's a big growing area here for robot training and collecting data, training information," Grant said. "My impression is that the industry got overly focused on 100% autonomy somewhere along the way," he continued. "Coming from outside the robotics industry, if I hired a new employee, would I expect that new employee to be 100% independent always, or would I be okay if nine times out of 10 they're independent? Once out of 10 times, they have to phone home for some help, or ask some questions." According to Grant, some PickNik customers are more interested in getting people away from dirty and dangerous jobs than they are in reducing headcount. This means teleoperation offers a great opportunity. "You can do real production work to actually gather robot training data. So then, you'll get a higher level of autonomy, and you can start thinking about fanning out," Grant said. "It's the same FTE [full-time equivalent], but maybe a month later, that person is controlling two robots, then maybe it's three, or four." PickNik includes interface upgrades in latest release. PickNik is also rolling out a fully refreshed user interface that improves debugging, visualization, and workflow configuration for robotics development teams. Many of improvements in the user interface were driven by customer feedback, according to Grant. "A lot of these things are seemingly simple, like you used to be able to open up four window panes in MoveIt Pro as you're doing development, and now you can open up six. You can also change the size of the window panes," he said. "Also, even just cutting down the number of keystrokes and the number of mouse movements and things like that. It's all about just helping our customers be more productive." Customer reactions to MoveIt 9.0 are positive. In addition to Autowash, PickNik has already rolled out MoveIt 9.0 with a few other customers, including Hivebotics, a developer of autonomous mobile restroom cleaning robots, and CleanBotix, which focuses on food processing plant sanitation. "These three companies, what they're focusing on is solving the business problem. The tech is secondary," Grant said. "They want to solve the business problem, and they want to solve it in a reliable way." "Hivebotics was embarking originally on their own custom stack, and then also experimented with open source technologies to do that," he continued. "They just determined that if they did that, it was going to take too long and cost too much money, that they would miss the market window. So that's the biggest thing, I would say, that our customers have found. Speed to implementation and speed to production are the key metrics for them." Now, Singapore-based Hivebotics uses MoveIt Pro to manage adaptive surface coverage across varied restroom geometries. "Restroom environments are highly variable - from fixtures to partitions to layout changes between facilities," stated Rishab Patwari, CEO of Hivebotics. "MoveIt Pro enables us to convert perception data into reliable, surface-following motion without rebuilding workflows for every new location." Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CleanBotix, on the other hand, uses MoveIt to address the challenges of cleaning complex industrial equipment with strict safety requirements. "Sanitation in food plants demands precision, repeatability, and adaptability," said Adam Jacques, founder and president of CleanBotix. "The enhanced scan-and-plan and motion safety capabilities in MoveIt Pro 9.0 help us automate tasks that traditionally required manual intervention."

PickNik Inc. recently partnered with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, to change how the International Space Station handles cargo and equipment.