QBIT Robotics partners with Rethink Robotics and Sumitomo Heavy Industries to enter the service robotics market
Tokyo, Japan - QBIT Robotics Corp. a robotics service provider has announced its collaboration with Boston-based Rethink Robotics, Inc. a company that manufactures collaborative robots such as Sawyer and Tokyo-based Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. an exclusive distributer of Rethink Robotics in Japan. The parties have agreed to develop its marketing of robot implementation into the service market.
QBIT Robotics was founded by a team of members including engineers that developed the "Henna Hotel" of Huis Ten Bosch and "Henna Cafe" of H.I.S.Co.,Ltd., and members with many years of experience in the ICT industry. Working with Rethink Robotics and Sumitomo Heavy Industries, QBIT Robotics will establish the foundation to promote the use of cobots in the service market. The business will include consulting, robot service design, system integration, maintenance, and sales promotion.
For the time being, QBIT Robotics will develop plans for the food and drink industry with entertainment features with Rethink Robotics collaborative robot Sawyer.
In the next five years, QBIT Robotics plans to implement the robot systems to more than 1,000 locations including restaurants and theme parks and support its operations.
About Henna Cafe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J5G9E2Yr3g)
One of the representative projects conducted by QBIT Robotics' engineers is the "Henna Cafe" of H.I.S. in Shibuya Tokyo. This is a use case of using a combination of Rethink Robotics' one armed robot Sawyer and an automated pour-over coffee maker, Poursteady. This is the only commercial use case of serving an authentic drip coffee by a robot.
Process of purchasing a cup of coffee at the "Henna Cafe"
1.The customer purchases a ticket from the ticket machine.
2.The customer scans the QR code and places the cup into the specified box.
3.The robot grasps the cup and fills the cup with coffee. The estimated time for the cup of coffee to be prepared is three-four minutes. After the coffee has been served, the robot washes the coffee dripper.
The reason for implementing Sawyer at the "Henna Cafe" is because a non-engineer can easily teach the series of workflow and, if by any chance Sawyer has physical interaction with a human, it will stop immediately using its sensors. Implementing the collaborative robot into the "Henna Cafe" has reduced the labor costs greatly.
QBIT Robotics' Founder and CSO Masahiro Kano stated: We are very honored to partner with Rethink Robotics, which was founded by Rodney Brooks who was the founding Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), and known to be the father of AI. Although we have just started to enter the market of service robots, through the collaboration with Rethink Robotics we aim to expand globally.
About Rethink Robotics, Inc.
Rethink Robotics’ collaborative robots transform the way work gets done in manufacturing and distribution operations. Powered by the Intera software platform, its Sawyer and Baxter cobots can be trained and on the job in a matter of hours, and are designed to work safely alongside people, highly reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use. Deployed globally, Rethink Robotics’ cobots provide a cost-effective industrial automation solution to several of the toughest issues manufacturers face today, including a shortage of skilled labor, sustainable levels of quality and efficiency and an opportunity to automate a wide range of tasks on the factory floor.
https://www.rethinkrobotics.com/
About Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. has partnered with Rethink Robotics on an exclusive distribution agreement in November 2015 to market, service and sell collaborative robots to the Japanese Manufacturing community. Sawyer has contributed to the automobile, machine tool, medical care, electronic parts, and other various fields by improving the efficiency of work and attaining labor-saving.
https://www.shi-mechatronics.jp/sawyer
About QBIT Robotics Corp.
QBIT Robotics is a robotics service provider founded in 2018. It was founded by an engineer involved in the development of "Henna Hotel" of Huis Ten Bosch and "Henna Cafe" of H.I.S. and members with many years of experience in robot integration and information communication technology (ICT). QBIT Robotics seeks to find and offer the best form of communication with robots. Based on the customer's demands QBIT Robotics will procure fun, unique, exciting robots through tailored integration.
Company Name: QBIT Robotics Corporation
Address：9F Gotanda city Trust Building 1-23-7, Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Representatives：Masahiro Kano, Chairman ＆ CSO
Hiroya Nakano, CEO
Founded：January 2018
Business：Robotics System Integration and other related business
https://www.qbit-robotics.jp/en
Contact:
Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Mechatronics Division
Motion Components Group
Tel: +81-(0)3-6737-2530
QBIT Robotics Corp.
Tel: +81-(0)3-6691-9797
Contact：info@qbit-robotics.jp
