Key Insight

Cloud robotics and automation is a field in which physical robots share data and code and perform computations remotely via networks, rather than within their containers alone.

Examples

Autonomous vehicles are robots that use a network to access maps, index data, understand spatial information and more in order to make decisions. That data is shared on a network for optimization and later used by researchers and other vehicles. This is an example of cloud robotics, which is used within autonomous driving as well as in warehouse automation and logistics.

Amazon’s AWS RoboMaker is a cloud robotics service created to develop, test and deploy intelligent robotics applications at scale. Its partners include Nvidia, Qualcomm, and UP Squared, and it supports the most widely-used open-source robotics software framework, Robot Operating System (ROS). Google’s Cloud Robotics Core is an open source platform that provides digital infrastructure essential to building and running robotics solutions for business automation.

What’s Next

Using the cloud certainly offers advantages: greater efficiencies and opportunities for data sharing and insights, as well as collective learning across robotic networks and shared platforms. Soon, businesses will be able to take advantage of cloud-based robotics for a variety of uses, including strategic warehouse selection in anticipation of seasonal retail spikes, security in large buildings, and factory automation.

The Impact

There will be millions of implementations of RaaS over the next five years, which could generate billions of dollars of revenue.

Watchlist

Amazon AWS Robomaker, Anki, Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute Cobalt Robotics, Fetch Robotics, Google Cloud Robotics, Honda RaaS, InVia Robotics, Kuka, Microsoft, NASA’s Robotics Alliance Project, Tesla.