Speaker 0 00:00:00 There is no time to waste time when developing robot
Speaker 2 00:00:11 Hello, everyone. Welcome to the robot industry podcast, and I'm pleased to have you. Huda El Malia and area yacht keel from cognitive team and welcome both of you to the podcast today.
Speaker 0 00:00:23 I thank you.
Speaker 3 00:00:24 Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here
Speaker 2 00:00:26 Just to give our listeners a little bit of a, an example. How did you get started and, and how did you get where you are today at cognitive team?
Speaker 0 00:00:35 First amatory in the academy we learned together and we been together in the same lab, eh, developing in autonomous robot, doing our research under computer science, eh, in robotics. Uh, then we established cognitive team company. Uh, 2010, we focused on the way of co-creating was at the beginning, focus on developing project to robotics companies. So mostly we have been a project based company and it was a bootstrap. We didn't raise money at all at this time. At those time, it's 10 years to develop different robots in different environment. And all over those years, we really learn a lot on the industry and how to develop not only at them for robotics, but also to develop products that running every day and are robust in a different environment, in different scenarios for, for clients all over the world.
Speaker 2 00:01:36 So what are, do you feel are the industry's biggest challenges right now? Um, certainly time to market,
Speaker 0 00:01:42 Absolutely say time to market because the main issue, because everybody now will speak on the robotic revolution. There will be robots all over the way and you look around and you find some vacuum cleaners, some robots that clean the pool, but we don't really see all the robotic revolution that everybody talk about it. But if you are look deeply and you see that there is, there are a lot of startups that building different solutions. And actually we are really starting this revolution. But what we realized over the years of the tech over the 10 years of doing projects to different companies, that it really take time. And most of the companies, for example, you take founders that raise money and now they need to develop a robot and to deploy it, it's take around six years to do that, to do a demo it's half a few months, as half year, and you have a demo and you go to press and you say, whoa, amazing robot.
Speaker 0 00:02:37 But until you deploy the robots, it takes X time. But if you look on, on, on your friends, you know, from the software industry wide and a half year to two years, and they are in production. So I take so much time because, you know, in robotics, we are in hardware, we are developing hardware. And this is actually one of the well understanding over those year. And we really understand that this is a problem in robotics, and that's why we, we, we built a solution called Nimbus to shorten all the time of development, developing robot, and also not only by developing, but also deploying a habit. Okay. When you are now ready and you sell the robots, actually you sell a hardware, you sell a house all over the world, okay. And now you need to maintain this software for this out there to fix problems box, to be able to enter from remote, to get analytics about the fleet of robots that are moving all over the world.
Speaker 0 00:03:34 Okay. And those are really well well learned at all of our, uh, you know, from the day cognitive was established and who developed this system called nibbles that shorten the time of development and deployment and really help companies to focus on their IPS. An additional thing, sorry that the answer is too, too long. So additional thing that we learned that if you, you take a company, for example, 20 engineers, and even, you know, 20 software engineers that not focusing on the hardware part of the robot, but developing the autonomy for the robot from those 20, you will find one or two no more than that. That really focus on the main problem of the company, the main IP, the navigation in the specific environment, when the robot is moving okay. And all the rest is trying to build in, you know, the infrastructure for the robot. And that's why we see this repeated repeatedly on different companies and find, oh, this is a really important layer that should be used by any companies that we are we're really familiar with and learn their needs. So this is for us, this is what we learn. It's there is a robotic revolution. We are in a golden age of a single mission robot and it takes too much time. And we wanted to share shorten this time.
Speaker 3 00:05:00 Yeah. And, uh, just to reiterate a few things. So the thing with the six years story, you know, that it takes to develop a robot in respect to the one, one and a half years. So it, it, it's also an issue that, uh, you know, makes raising money for robotic companies harder and in respect to software companies. And then also it's something that affects. So we see a lot with companies, you know, the company when it starts, it's not the same company when it grows. So initially it's about a few engineers, the stories about a few engineers that they build the robot, you know, the test, their application, when eventually, if they re raise money for the company, then they will grow to be a different company. And that company will have a lot of people that are not all of them engineers. And there are not all of them specialize in robotics and they have different roles in the company and they, they need to be able to contribute to the development of that platform and to be able to maintain it and to manage it and not, not all of them would be the same people that built the robot.
Speaker 3 00:06:17 So they, there is really an importance of building the right infrastructure to enable those companies to grow and then to become these robotic companies that can sell globally and can maintain the robot and maintain the updates and everything.
Speaker 2 00:06:34 Thank you, aria. Um, I think that's such a really interesting value proposition because you're right. If you take 20 robot startups, all hiring 20 or 30 or 50, you know, programmers, and they likely have never done this before. And so they have a steep, steep learning curve for sure. Can I ask, uh, who some of your, uh, bullseye customers are
Speaker 0 00:06:56 So mostly are the direct, uh, the companies that develop robots, okay. Developing cell robots, but you know, those companies are in a different stages. Some of them are startups, some of them already deployed and, and they need a specific lead. For example, they need how to be able to upgrade the software from remote in all of those others want to learn when, when they are in a allowed scale, they want analytics to understand better. So in our solution, we give her a one-stop shop that for the startups, give them what they need for the development. When you are in deployment, you want the tools for deployment and that's the, the O over OTAs updates, et cetera. And when you are in large scale, the analytics, if you see on the growth of a company, when they need the additional tools, they buy this specific tool. Okay. And then they go to the next age and they buy the specific stage. And here we give them, you know, a full suite that you from the beginning, enter in, get all what you need to know what you will need.
Speaker 2 00:08:00 Nice.
Speaker 0 00:08:01 So it's companies in different stages.
Speaker 2 00:08:04 Nice. Thank you. And can you tell us, uh, maybe some of the challenges in use cases that you're getting involved with?
Speaker 3 00:08:13 Yeah, so, eh, so when we, you know, w when we started to work with companies, then we noticed that we had an idea of what those companies of what this company needed. One, but eventually when we, when we actually start to do the integration and using the system, then we discover a lot more that, eh, and, and sometimes refine those, eh, those needs. So one of the things, for example, that we learned is that a lot of those companies need support in defining in their architecture. Sometimes, sometime they need to understand, you know, better how to make some specific functionality of autonomy work with the whole of the rest of the system. So, so that's one thing that we noticed a lot, especially with small companies, that something, sometimes they need help in the guidelines of how to build autonomy and how to compose correctly, those components, so that when they will compose them together on the robot, they will work well.
Speaker 3 00:09:23 Eh, so we, our system is also built. It has their notion of how you build modules that are correctly composed, correctly defined. So when you deploy them and when you containerize them, and then when the, they are used together, the interfaces between them are well-built and they enable you to maintain them over time. So that's one thing, for example, that we noticed a lot of time, eh, you know, helping companies to develop a platform when they're not on site. That's something that we, it's something that is clear when you have an infrastructure, like the one that we built, but it's not something that is so common as a method of work. But now with COVID in a lot of people working outside the office, then the ability to work remotely, but not only manage the road, I actually do some heavy lifting of coding and testing software and do the whole development where you're not in front of the robot.
Speaker 3 00:10:28 That's something that's really interesting. And we have a few teams that are working in, in that manner that they are not at all near the robot. The robot is in some other country and still they develop software for that robot. And they test that in a live setting and they are able to continue and develop and add new functionality. So that's something that was totally new. We had a few clients that, that something that we didn't even thought about where, eh, eh, for example, built some, we built with them something and went on onsite to test some new functionality. And that functionality was fine. And it was really working and, and everything was going well. And then we finished that integration and we closed everything. And we went on to develop something else that we wanted to test in the same day. And because news takes time to travel.
Speaker 3 00:11:30 Then some, someone came a few hours later while we were in the middle of testing, some other different functionality and said, you know, this, this feature was really nice. Maybe you can demo it for me. And that's something that you really don't want to do when you're usually developing something else on a robot that all your focuses on else. And now you have to reconfigure everything and reset the robot and take care of everything and roll back some parameters and updates and Gaetz and other things. And the ability to just say, okay, no problem. I've tested this at 1245. Let's go back to that configuration and let's run it and have everything instantaneously roll back and have that same configuration and the ability to return to that exact configuration of sensor calibration parameters, the whole system and everything. So that was something that was really interesting. We didn't experience it. And it was really nice that we were able to do that because it's not something that we were thinking as a use case that we would test with usual clients.
Speaker 2 00:12:45 So you were able to pull it off in a demo, which is always the most frightening part right. Of robotics and automation. Um, so, uh, so how do you sell it? Is, do you sell through a partners or integrators or do just start up companies just find you,
Speaker 0 00:13:03 So, so we, we, we sell in different, eh, abilities okay. Or different channels. Okay. One of them is a direct, you know, there are companies that we directly, uh, in contact with them and meet them and show them, do a short demo as then start the process. Okay. Others are it's through our partners. We have different partners and using their visibility. Okay. And, and, and sometimes with specific partnership to their clients. Okay. For example, we made an amazing webinar together with Aidan that producing, give computers to robots and robots, and also for IOT devices. And, and there was amazing, eh, exposure of, uh, our solution to their client. And then we get some clients that we will now in, in, in a progress with them, for migration to Nimbus and eh, so different. Eh, also with Nvidia that we have, eh, partnership and running, supporting their GM's in India, Isaac SDK for Jetson the platform. So those are, eh, example of partnership with companies and also a direct direct sale.
Speaker 2 00:14:16 And I guess I was, I had a question about, has the pandemic changed the new normal, but you kind of already talked a little bit about that, or are you did about everybody working from everywhere now, and it's really become part of your workflow because it's part of your customer's work for as well.
Speaker 0 00:14:31 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And actually, you really see that in robotics company, because if you are now in development, somebody need to be in the lab to, you know, to turn on, to, to charge, to fix problems of the robots that you are really developing on. The amazing thing that we bring to our client, we, most of them are independent, can stay at home and walk exactly like they are in the lab. Okay. Actually what they do, they also connecting a camera, a top camera that they can see from a different, from a side view, the robot, not only from the robots, I, what, what it is doing. Okay. But also side view. And, and in our system, you can, you know, you can decide that the camera is actually a smart, additional agent in, in the system. So you can also see it and see the other, the robot, and you can debug it in a real time, anything in the robot. And this is one part of the development. The additional issue is if they have some problem and they need our help. So it's easy. We tell them, just share the over daddy's ability to share what it was. One click the robot. And we sit in our, eh, in our, uh, screen and we can also help from any place. And it was amazing, you know, what to do, support it in client that sits in United state and we are in Israel and we can easily work together on the same robot.
Speaker 0 00:15:55 And you see that also in developing, not only in deployment, you can, you can work for remote in robotics.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 Yeah. That's, uh, you're exactly right. Right. It's really hard to change out a sensor when you're not in the room with the robot. For sure. So you, you're kind of on a bit of a growth plan. We talked before the podcast, uh, that you're looking at expansion into, uh, into north America.
Speaker 0 00:16:17 Yep, absolutely. Yeah. In about two months, we are going to open offices also in north America and, and, uh, start also the, do the customer success and work with companies and with client using our solution.
Speaker 2 00:16:34 The robot investors must love you guys because, uh, when you can take a story that tends to be like six years long and compress it into one or one and a half years, it really can be impactful in the difference between a robot companies actually succeeding and just maybe taking a long, long time to succeed. So, uh, w uh, do you know where your offices are going? Are we saying that yet, or no. No,
Speaker 0 00:16:58 We can. We can, we are, there are a few places that we are now. We didn't decide that yet.
Speaker 2 00:17:05 Excellent. Well, that's and that's good. So, uh, what do you guys do when you're not a programming robots, airy and, uh, Yehuda,
Speaker 0 00:17:13 Uh, what I'm doing, you know, the regular thing, regular sport, but running, et cetera. But the main sport that I really like is a free diving. Okay. Yeah. But it's only in, in summer. So I can only think about it now.
Speaker 2 00:17:30 Yes. How would you area?
Speaker 3 00:17:32 Yeah, so I'm a, so first of all, I say that to you, that has some amazing footage, like very, you, you get some amazing view of free diving, just amazing to see it and what I, what I like to do in my spare time. So I'm a hobbyist herbologists. So I like to dismantle dismantle clock in the service them and rebuild them. That's like a hobby of mine.
Speaker 2 00:18:01 I'll have to send you a picture of my clock that I've got working, not working on my mantle. Uh, so how do, uh, uh, did we forget anything in the podcast today, gentlemen?
Speaker 0 00:18:10 Well, I think
Speaker 2 00:18:13 We're, and so how do people get ahold of you if they are, maybe they're starting a robot company or they're stalled in, um, in, in getting to where they need to go, how do they, uh, uh, uh, get connect with you?
Speaker 0 00:18:25 Just sending an email, we are fully responsive sending email. We will return back and easily set the meeting, do demo and help them what they need. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:18:38 And so is it a, at cock and your website is cognitive team.com like C O G N I T E a m.com.
Speaker 0 00:18:45 Yeah. And the product itself is Cognium booze that combat, you can enter from cognitive and then arrive to their product it's effort for the numbers.
Speaker 2 00:18:53 Great. And I'll put a link to your company and your information on the show notes. So, um, uh, with that, I want to thank you both for coming onto the, uh, onto the podcast.
Speaker 0 00:19:05 Thank you, dude. This was great.
Speaker 2 00:19:08 Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart automation systems at heart builds and commissions turnkey solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturer, they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing, and project management, delivering world-class custom automation on time and on budget contact one of their sales engineers to see what Earhart can build for you and their
[email protected] and Earhart is spelled E H R H a R D T. And I'd also like to thank our partner 83, the association for advancing automation. They're the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging motion control and motors, and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies visit automate.org to learn more. And I'd like to thank her painted robot painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions. There a web development firm that offers SEO and digital social marketing, and can set up and connect CRM and other ERP tools to unify marketing sales and operations. So there are painted robot.com and if you'd like to get in touch with us at the robot industry podcast, you could find me Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by customer traction, industrial marketing, and I'd like to thank my nephew, Chris gray for the music, Chris Colvin for audio production, my partner, Janet, our partners, a three painted robot and our sponsor Earhart automation systems.
