Speaker 0 00:00:00 Together in robotics, our safe, flexible, and open architecture, robotics solutions, ensure simple and successful adoption on the factory floor, in hospitals and in homes.
Speaker 1 00:00:18 Hello
Speaker 2 00:00:18 Everyone and welcome to the Robot Industry Podcast. We're glad you're here. And thank you for subscribing. I'm Jim Beretta, and our guest today is Steven Green. I've known Steven for many years and it's fun to catch up with him recently. And I invited him onto the podcast just prior to the Automate 2023 show. And I'm just gonna read a short bio about Steve. He's well known in the industry of robotics and automation in North America. And thanks to his diverse career of 28 years, he's a graduate of mechanical engineering from Queens University and has had leadership roles in several well-known contributors to our industry, including Promax Automation and Cka Robotics, to mention a few. Steve's also an advocate and a promoter of the next generation of automation specialists by working collaboratively with colleges on curriculum and student lab modernization projects, and has also been privileged to sponsor many high school level robotics teams. Steve's a fellow Canadian, but he's currently working south of the border in Michigan. Most recently, Steve has joined Canova Robotics based outta Montreal, Quebec as their VP of industrial markets responsible for canva's industrial market strategy and deployment. Steve, welcome to the podcast. I'm glad to have you.
Speaker 0 00:01:28 Thanks, Jim. Uh, I'm really looking forward to the discussion and it's gonna be great to catch up with you.
Speaker 2 00:01:33 You've joined Canova. Can you tell our audience a little bit about the company?
Speaker 0 00:01:38 Canova is one of the most forward-thinking robotics companies on the planet, in my opinion. It's a privately held, uh, Canadian technology company headquartered in Boz Brand Quebec, which is just outside of Montreal. We were founded in 2006 by two young engineers, uh, inventor type guys, Charles Deguire and Louis Joseph Leia, uh, both graduates of the technical college, uh, ets. And they, they launched this company with, uh, a very clear mission and, and that was really to change a paradigm of robotics with a goal to create safe technologies with a human-centric purpose. And just a few years after they started this company, they were already selling robot arms as attachments to wheelchairs to help people with, um, uh, mobility issues due to muscular dystrophy. And it did not take long for the, uh, for their technology to evolve into solutions for medical applications and most recently moving into the industrial markets.
Speaker 2 00:02:42 So you've worked for other robot companies and, uh, what do you like about Canova?
Speaker 0 00:02:47 I like that we are a customer first customer-centric organization. And anyone listening to this podcast who's maybe worked for a very large in investor focused organization, um, as I have and knows the how it feels to get buried in the reporting and financial targets and boardroom strategy meetings. Um, and, and if you have ever found yourself in that kind of a situation, all you wanna do is just break free and go and talk to your customers. And Canova is a, a company where we talk about how we're going to provide better solutions to our customers every day. Um, and so an example, Jim, like, like most organizations, you know, we have our, our monthly town hall forum, and we just did one earlier this week. And the communication materials are, are not full, actually not full of, but not present at all. Um, in terms of financial reporting and year to date performance. Instead, um, we're talking about our customer solutions and, uh, showing pictures and telling stories about how our products are being incorporated into innovative applications, which are actually changing people's lives. Um, pictures of people with muscular dystrophy who have greater independence in their daily lives because of a can over robot, uh, hospitals who can function more efficiently because of our technology and manufacturers, uh, who can more efficiently leverage their limited labor resources thanks to our links six robots. So I really love that environment and, and of course, the kind of people that come with it.
Speaker 2 00:04:22 I totally get it, having worked for some of the big companies as well. Uh, and totally understand. So Montreal is a bit of a technology hotspot these days with robotics and automation, and can you give our audience a little bit of a, uh, ecosystem in Montreal?
Speaker 0 00:04:38 Um, yeah. Uh, there's lots of great automation companies in the Montreal area. Um, obviously Canova, uh, academic, uh, robot, robo, DK, hypotherm, uh, just name there's lots more. Um, and, uh, I've always been a big fan of Montreal, although I've never lived there, so I I can certainly speak to it a little bit. Um, you know, Jim Isman said that diversity breeds creativity and Montreal has plenty of that. You know, first, first of all, it's, it's a very beautiful city. So if you've ever been there, and it attracts a lot of talented people to live there, public transits great. Um, it, and of course the poutine is absolutely addictive. Um, but more to the point, um, you know, there's great connections both physically, uh, with travel roots and also culturally because it's a, a multilingual city. Um, so connections into, into Europe, uh, the, uh, the talent pool's quite bountiful.
Speaker 0 00:05:39 There's a lot of great technical colleges, uh, McGill, ets, and there's other technical schools in se sege throughout the province. Um, if you look at the geography, Montreal's actually very close to other North American business hubs like Toronto, Boston, uh, New York. And in addition to all that, the operating costs are very, uh, competitive in relation to most other tech hubs in North America. And maybe the most importantly is that there's a very strong support system in place for startups, um, to encourage innovation. There's, uh, the S A G J E Montreal Center Foundation, Montreal, uh, investi, Mount Quebec, and the provincial government also offers a lot of tax credits to help out small businesses, uh, to sustain. So, um, it's, it's actually a very, very healthy and inspiring ecosystem in Montreal.
Speaker 2 00:06:32 I'm a big fan as well and love to hang out in the old part of Montreal especially. So we always stick downtown cuz it's just steps away. Uh, can you tell our audience about collaborative robots and some of the advantages to using collaborative technologies in manufacturing operations?
Speaker 0 00:06:48 Um, absolutely. Yeah, we talk about this stuff every day. Um, i, I always say flexibility and speed of deployment. So in, in my view, these are the two prevailing benefits to the use of a collaborative robot technology. And, and some people like to start off the conversation with ease of use and safety when we talk about cobots. Um, but, and for me, these are maybe more inherent characteristics of a collaborative robot. And so for our clients, I like to talk about the measurable performance benefits that come from a cobot. So for example, um, because they can be deployed safely without fixed guarding, and because they're easy to reprogram, they're very flexible and can be quickly relocated, uh, and redeployed in accordance with, you know, fluctuating production orders and things like that in a, like a high, uh, high mix, low volume environment. Um, and for similar reasons, cobots, they're a really great technology to incorporate in standardized solutions.
Speaker 0 00:07:51 And we see a lot of these gym, um, in the marketplace now palletizing with cobots machine tending with cobots, welding with cobots. And the reason for this is because the machine builders solution isn't constrained by custom fence lines and, uh, elaborate site-specific safety integration requirements. So we can provide pre-engineered, pre-manufactured process solutions, which can literally be rolled off a truck and, uh, and started into a production environment within a few minutes. So, so for me, it's flexibility and speed of deployment, and I might offer, um, comp comparatively low cost as a, as a close third.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 And it's a very competitive market, uh, today in collaborative robots. And I'm excited to hear what some of the differences are that Canova offers.
Speaker 0 00:08:41 What we have done is to provide a, a very high powered processor coupled with a flexible and open system architecture. So our, our goal here is to provide a safe robotics technology that plays really well with this growing ecosystem of application solutions which are being developed on the market. There's, there's lots of great development partners who are working in the industrial space on software solutions that, you know, they're trying to make difficult applications or applications that we couldn't do before. And we're trying to make them easy and then take the easy applications and make them even easier. And so these companies are, are taking advantage of, uh, advanced 3D vision technologies, um, deep learning algorithms, and in, in many cases, uh, they want high level control or low level control over the robot, um, in order to, to fulfill their application task. So our architecture, uh, is pushing the limits to try to accommodate the ambitions of those kinds of partners.
Speaker 2 00:09:50 Thank you for that. And how many people are at Canova?
Speaker 0 00:09:53 Uh, we currently employ about 270 people globally. The, the majority of those employees are based in, in Montreal and Quebec. Um, and so that would include our product development teams, uh, and our production staff of course. And then our market facing teams are a little more distributed as we cover other parts of Canada, um, in the United States. And, and we've got about, uh, maybe a dozen people also based in Europe.
Speaker 2 00:10:20 And so what robotic applications are you and the team at Canova focusing on
Speaker 0 00:10:24 All applications? Um, I, I hate to narrow it down through, through conversation. Um, but honestly Jim, I mean the proliferation of of cobots into the manufacturing space is massive and especially with, uh, small to medium sized businesses. Um, I, I just, I hate to suggest that we have any bias or constraints on our application solutions because we're really only limited by the creativity of, um, of our partners and our customers. But, but in, from a deployment perspective, it, it's like the following material handling applications has always been the, the largest part of the market. So if, if you look at our portfolio of, uh, plugin process tools, what you'll see is a, a bunch of different gripper configurations, um, coupled with vision technology, which, uh, which is evidence of our intentions to address that market first, right? Um, but with our partner network, we're also covering a lot of ground very quickly with, uh, machine tending applications, inspection, fastening dispensing, sanding woodworking, and um, and of course welding. So, but what, what I would like to emphasize in relation to your question is that our, our core business is enabling application solutions with our ease of use platform and open architecture. So that, that's kind of my pitch. So if there's integrators and, and serial machine builders listening, please call me.
Speaker 2 00:11:46 Thank you for that. And what's a, what is the gen three cobot, cuz that's one of your, uh, flagship products?
Speaker 0 00:11:52 Yeah, absolutely. The gen three, uh, is an incredible robot. Um, now just for clarity, like this is, this is not our industrial grade robot, but it, it is an advanced piece of technology and as you say, it's the showpiece of philosophy and technology. So it is, um, designed for advanced applications and, uh, it, it's received a very high level of adoption in the medical industry and is very popular also among, uh, researchers. So, I'll, I'll preface my next comments by saying that anyone who's working on advanced robotic applications really needs to check out the Gen three robot because it's extremely advanced in open architecture and it, it just, I think it provides a resume, uh, of what Canova technology is capable of. Jim. Um, so just to touch on a few, you know, one killer Hertz closed loop, low level control, infinite rotation on all axes, um, integrated torque sensors, open API software, um, you know, MATLAB hardware support packages, Ross packages advanced c plus plus and and Python programming. Um, I could go on and on. Um, but, you know, in, in addition to all of this hightech stuff, the form factor is also very, very compact. This robot has a total weight of about 16 pounds, and, um, that includes the controller, which is actually embedded in the base of the arm. So, um, it's a really, really advanced package and provides a lot of power for, for people who know how to use
Speaker 2 00:13:25 It. And can you tell us about the other flagship product that you have, which is the Link six cobot?
Speaker 0 00:13:30 Yeah, for sure. Um, that's why I'm here. It's, um, we're very, very proud, uh, of this robot. And, uh, the initial reception that we've received from the industrial markets is, is fantastic. This is a robot that was, um, I wanna emphasize this conceived, designed and, and built in North America with the needs of this, you know, our, our labor shortage and reshoring trends in mind. And as I've said, we, we've, we, we, we think we have a philosophy, uh, and an architecture, which is gonna be very appealing to our partners. Um, so the links six is a fully collaborative robot, uh, built-in force torque control cent center, very easy to, uh, use programming interface, uh, flexible API programming environment. And I don't know, Jim, maybe I'm getting too technical here, but I just, I really want the listeners to know that, um, we've, we've tried really hard to strike a great balance between highly advanced technology and simplicity of use.
Speaker 0 00:14:34 And so, and on that point, you know, anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a programmer. Um, and, um, I would say probably the last time I tried to program anything was, uh, in my Pascal programming course, which was like 30 years ago. Um, but a Link six demo did show up at, at my doorstep here at my house about a month ago. And, uh, and I had it up and running in my office within about two hours, uh, running a sequence. And that includes unpacking. So that's, uh, <laugh>, that's I guess a testament to the, the simplicity of use, uh, balanced with, uh, the high-tech features that I mentioned.
Speaker 2 00:15:10 I'm laughing at your, uh, your, your, your, your background in programming, cuz I'm thinking about Fortran and Basic, which is, uh, uh, running a few years earlier than you
Speaker 0 00:15:20 <laugh>. Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time. I think you and I are, are, uh, similar vintage here, Jim <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:15:26 <laugh>, and you're gonna be exhibiting at automation show in Detroit and it's 2023. And can you tell us what you're bringing to the show and what you hope to accomplish there?
Speaker 0 00:15:35 Yeah, I'd love to. Um, yeah, we're super excited about automate. Um, just for me personally, it's actually, it's one of my favorite trade show events, especially now that it's, you know, it's returned to my backyard here in, uh, in Detroit, in Michigan. Um, and so, I mean, you know, Jim, that, uh, uh, you've been in the industry a long time like I have. So after 28 years in the industry, you get to know a lot of people really well. And, uh, the, the trade shows now kind of become a bit of a, have a bit of a reunion feeling to them, right? Um, so, so that's a big part of, of my excitement in going to the show. Um, and so in terms of what we wanna accomplish, I, I, I can't deny that I'm looking forward to catching up with some, some longtime friends, so that's a big part of it.
Speaker 0 00:16:22 But from a more focused business perspective, we're, we're there to network with prospective partners, um, for tech technology partners and distribution partners, um, obviously to show our, our flexible and fast deployment solutions to the most important people who are at the show, at which are the end users, um, the manufacturing companies that we'll be attending. Um, so we have a, we have a 30 by 40 booth, so it's not huge, but it's, uh, it's more than enough space for us to showcase, um, six different applications that we're gonna have on the floor, uh, including several partner solutions, uh, for machine tending, sanding, uh, bin picking, and we have a box erector solution as well. So plus some of our own application products, uh, showcasing vision in our cloud-based process, metrics, tools. So, um, the whole team's quite excited and to interact with the, the customers, the end users, the manufacturers, and I'm, I'm very confident that they will be impressed to see what we're showcasing at the Canova booth in conjunction with our partners.
Speaker 2 00:17:25 Thanks for that, Steve. And tell me a little bit about the partners,
Speaker 0 00:17:28 Right? Um, you know, really in, in many respects, the, the, the cornerstone of our, our business, at least from a go-to-market perspective, um, you know, as a robotics technology company, we can't be everything to everyone at, at least not from an application solution perspective. So we're doing everything we can with our technology and our business processes to enable the success of our partners solutions, making their success our number one priority. So as we said already, we're very, very fortunate to be located where we are in Montreal and Quebec, Canada. Um, because of that vibrant community of technology companies that we were talking about a few minutes ago, lots of mach manufacturing companies, um, lots of machine builders and we're, we're privileged, uh, to have recently partnered with some great companies like Venture System X, pci, F Men, uh, Bero Box Von, um, and also many partners throughout Canada and usa. And, you know, having said that, it's, it's a big industrial world, and, um, for sure we've got room for many more distribution and value add partners. So, so once again, if you're listening right now and you fit that description, uh, gimme a call.
Speaker 2 00:18:41 And what's your booth number at Automate?
Speaker 0 00:18:43 Uh, we are gonna be in booth number 1, 3 3 9 13 39.
Speaker 2 00:18:49 And Steve, what do you see, kind of, if you get the crystal wall out for a minute, what do you see as the future for collaborative technologies?
Speaker 0 00:18:56 Yeah, that's, that's a fun question. Um, so, and, and, you know, I just, I'll, I'll, uh, before I answer the question, it's, uh, another point that's, that's really great about the company that I'm with right now, because we do have all the r and d and manufacturing under one roof. Um, you know, I have an opportunity to, to collaborate with the, the visionary teams at our office as well. So this is another thing I have the privilege of talking about with the team all the time. Um, and, and it's an exciting topic, right? Because the industry moves so fast now, um, and it's, it's hard to say what will be in the future versus what's already here in a sense. Um, so it, it's interesting to think already that what was recently the game changer of like a easy to use and fastest setup is kind of just the, the minimum fees to robotics now, right?
Speaker 0 00:19:47 In a sense. Um, but having said that, I do believe that the, the momentum's gonna, uh, continue to be even easier to use. Um, so in the short term, this I think will manifest in, um, more standardized automation solutions. Like, like I was saying, things that can be purchased off the shelf with short lead times and, um, can be started up in a, in a factory within a few minutes. A lot of these exist now, um, and for a variety of applications, we'll continue to, to mature in scope and availability. And then, um, if I think about the medium to long term, I think we'll see advancements, more advancements in situational awareness and, and cognition enabled by, uh, things like advanced lidar, um, 3D vision, voice recognition, and of course application specific AI and deep learning models. And so, uh, what the meaning of all that is that, in other words, I think we see a future where this word collaborative, um, might actually mean that, um, you know, we're actually teaching a robot potentially by, by showing it with our hands or talking to it like we would with, uh, another human being, which would be a whole nother level of, of collaboration and interaction with robot technology.
Speaker 2 00:21:07 So one of the big advantages and one of the value propositions behind Canova is these robots are made right here in North America. And, uh, I think that's really huge. So what about service and support?
Speaker 0 00:21:18 Yeah, yeah, great question. Um, we probably haven't talked enough about service and support when it comes to the, the cobot industry. Um, you know, we've, we've got spare parts, uh, available for our customers right out of stock in, in Montreal. Um, you know, we, we all hear horror stories about people waiting a long time for spare parts, especially when we're talking about, uh, controls hardware and things like that. It's a challenging time with supply chains. Um, but, uh, for our architecture, we've got a lot of, uh, very standardized components, especially in the controller, which makes it a lot easier to ensure supply chain robustness. Um, the, the mechanics are very, very easy to repair, but I, I think one of the, um, the best things about what's evolving in support and service from a cobot perspective is, um, cloud-based computing and, and remote login and diagnostics.
Speaker 0 00:22:11 And so we're also, we have available, uh, some tools for that, and we're, we're working to develop that even further. So I, I actually see a day where, um, you know, our customers are, are supported instantly via remote login. Um, and if it's a, a mechanical issue, you know, they've got parts within a few hours and they can repair them themselves. So this is a highly evolving part of the industry as well. And, um, you know, it all comes back to that, that ease of use and ease of deployment and the same philosophy is really starting to build out in the services support side of the business as
Speaker 2 00:22:44 Well. Um, and how can people, uh, reach out to you? Um,
Speaker 0 00:22:48 Find me on LinkedIn for sure. Uh, I, I, I'm posting pretty regularly, so I'm pretty easy to track down. Uh, Steve Green at Canova Robotics, and, and please visit our website. It's uh, canova robotics.com or you can send us an email at our inside sales, um, response
[email protected].
Speaker 2 00:23:08 And, um, when you're not marketing and selling robots, uh, what do you like to do? Do you have any big hobbies?
Speaker 0 00:23:15 <laugh>? Well, I've got two teenage girls, so, um, <laugh> in a sense, that's a big part of my, my hobby is, uh, is keeping track of them. I mean, I'm at that, uh, Uber dad stage, uh, driving them around everywhere, but, uh, when they give me a little bit of a break, you know, it's, uh, it's a step away from the technology. Um, Jim, I'm, uh, you know, I, I'm trying to say it sometimes cuz it sounds a little bit weird, but, uh, it's kind of that old guy persona. You'll find me out my, my garden, um, with a shovel just digging up weeds, <laugh>. It's just taking in the fresh air and, and the plant. So just, uh, step away from the technology and get back to the basics.
Speaker 2 00:23:52 Well, thanks for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it and we will see you at Automate.
Speaker 0 00:23:56 Really looking forward to it, Jim. Yeah, we'll definitely see you there, uh, and all the guests and thanks again, uh, for the opportunity to talk to you on the Robot Industry Podcast.
Speaker 2 00:24:05 And I'd like to acknowledge a three, the Association for Advancing Automation. They are the leading 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 recognize Painted robot, painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions. They're a web development firm that offers SEO and digital social marketing and can set up and connect c r m and other e r p tools to unify marketing, sales, and operations. And you can find
[email protected]. And if you'd like to get in touch with us at the Robot Industry Podcast like Steve, you can 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 recognize, uh, Chris Gray for the music. Jeffrey Bremner for audio production, my business partner Janet, and our sponsor and partner, a three, the Association for Advancing Automation.
