The Carter Pro robotic loader is able to safely interact with warehouse workers

Robust AI from the USA presented the Carter Pro robot, designed for work in warehouses. A key feature of the new system is its ability to safely interact with people, including manual movement of the robot.

Image source: Robust.ai

One of the key challenges that Carter Pro solves is ensuring safety during human interaction with robots. It is known that many electric forklifts, which have been around since the 1930s, still regularly cause injuries in the workplace, and in the case of industrial robots, they generally have to be isolated behind iron structures to protect people. Carter Pro represents a completely new approach in this regard.

Image source: Robust.ai

The system is based on the principle of joint work between a person and a robot, which can “feel” the force applied to it and adapt to new conditions of interaction with the environment. A special feature is the use of cameras instead of lidars for navigation. Although expensive, this approach is becoming increasingly popular among manufacturers of autonomous mobile moving robots (AMR), as cameras offer advantages over lidar in warehouse environments.

Image source: Robust.ai

Carter Pro is already being tested by a number of partners, and the first production version recently rolled off the production line. The first major client was DHL, but Robust AI will not limit itself to this cooperation. “We don’t plan to work only with DHL,” said CTO Rodney Brooks, emphasizing that the company intends to diversify its customer base to avoid dependence on one large customer, as has happened with some other robotics companies. “We’ve made it clear to DHL that they only get a certain percentage of our robots because we want a broader customer base,” Brooks added.