AI-Driven Innovations Unveiled for Manufacturing, Robotics

Vention, the Montreal-based industrial automation developer, unveiled AI-powered enhancements to hardware and software components of its cloud-based Manufacturing Automation Platform (MAP) at its annual product-launch event, Demo Day 2024.

On the hardware front, the third generation of its MachineMotion controller for factory robotics applications, MacineMotion AI, was introduced. The new device, designed to control automated-manufacturing applications, such as robots, conveyors and computer-vision systems, “bridges the gap between traditional programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and modern robot programming environments,” the company said in an announcement. 

The new AI-powered unit is available for pre-order and will be delivered in early 2025. It runs on the Nvidia Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics and is designed to simplify the development and deployment of factory robots for manufacturers of all sizes, Vention said. 

"MachineMotion AI brings Vention's hallmark simplicity to AI-based robotics applications,” Chief Technology Officer Francois Giguere said. “This democratized access to AI-motion-controlled technology will help benefit all manufacturers, from small to large.”

MachineMotion AI gives AI-enabled robots with Nvidia graphics processing unit-accelerated path planning the ability to run 2D/3D perception models trained in synthetic and physical environments, thus simplifying the development process. 

Related:Industrial Automation, Cybersecurity Insights Enhanced by New AI Chatbot

As the keystone of Vention’s hardware and software products, MachineMotion AI is compatible with most robot brands currently in the field, including Universal Robots, Fanuc and ABB, and can be outfitted with a variety of Vention’s plug-and-play sensors and motion devices, such as conveyors, actuators, safety devices, computer-vision systems and telepresence cameras.

MachineBuilder, MachineLogic Get AI-Powered Updates 

Vention also announced updates to two of its MAP software programs: MachineBuilder, which is used to design industrial machines, and MachineLogic, which is used to program them. 

The MachineBuilder update includes a generative-AI-powered design assistant, which can automatically add the right component to a robot cell when the developer hovers over an area of the mechanical design, while the Machine Logic upgrade includes a Python programming assistant that uses generative AI to help the programmer generate code.