Keywords
Citation
(2005), "Innova Holdings, Inc. forms new subsidiary Service Robots Inc.", Industrial Robot, Vol. 32 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2005.04932fab.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Innova Holdings, Inc. forms new subsidiary Service Robots Inc.
Innova Holdings, Inc. forms new subsidiary Service Robots Inc.
Keywords: Robotics
Innova Holdings, Inc. has announced that it has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Service Robots, Inc. Innova Holdings will leverage its technology assets already proven in the industrial robot market through its wholly-owned subsidiary Robotic Workspace Technologies Inc. (RWTe) to the emerging service robots industry. RWT has two pioneer utility patents for its proven and successful technology and Innova is offering this technology to the non-industrial market through Service Robots, Inc.
“Through the RWT subsidiary, Innova Holdings has more than 30 years experience in robotics”, says Walter Weisel, Innova Holdings Chairman and CEO. “RWT successfully brought to market the first PC robot controller, the Universal Robot Controllere (URCe) and the first universal robot programming language, RobotScript®”, he explains. “Because of this expertise, innovators in the service robot industry have been contacting us as a resource for product and application development. Formally entering this market through Service Robots, Inc. is in direct response to market demand”.
The rapidly growing service robot industry comprises robotic devices used in medical, underwater, surveillance, demolition, and other tasks in the professional market segment as well as robotic devices like vacuum-cleaning and lawn-mowing robots that are aimed at the consumer market segment.
According to a report released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in cooperation with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the value of professional service robots in use is estimated at $2.4 billion. It is estimated that all types of consumer robots have a value of $2.7 billion. Analysts predict the market to grow to more than $8 billion by the year 2007.
The new Innova Holdings subsidiary is created specifically to focus on the service robot industry.
“The purpose of Innova Holdings is to seek out, acquire, and develop technology-based market opportunities that can be leveraged across industries”, Weisel says. “Service Robots, Inc. is a perfect example of this strategy in action. The new subsidiary will leverage and build upon the successes of RWT in the industrial robot market to achieve its own successes in the service robot market”.
Service Robots, Inc. offers the RobotScript universal robot programming software to OEMs, researchers, applications developers, and customers through licensing agreements. The company provides a software development kit (SDK) that supports integration of several technologies and the development of new robot applications. Service Robots, Inc. intends to develop strategic relationships within the service robot industry specifically to innovate new technologies needed to realize fully the potential of this emerging marketplace.
The UNECE report forecasts that in the coming years service robots will not only clean floors, mow lawns and guard homes, but also they will assist the elderly and handicapped with sophisticated interactive equipment, increasingly carry out surgery, inspect pipes and hazardous sites, fight fires, and dispose of bombs. Today there is a significant worldwide military investment in service robot R&D that is expected to spur spin- off products for both the consumer and professional markets.