The drive to bring manufacturing capacity back to the U.S. combined with a labor shortage making that more difficult created prime market conditions for a Columbus startup.
Ready Robotics Inc. spent the bulk of the coronavirus pandemic greatly expanding the capabilities of its software to help factories augment their workforce with automation – just as global supply chain weaknesses were laid bare.
"Even before the pandemic, factories struggled to find reliable labor for a variety of reasons," founder and CEO Benjamin Gibbs said. "In this new reality, what was before a struggle is now a crisis.
"We help them alleviate that shortage, to leverage their existing workforce to manage robot cells in ways that were previously not possible," he said. "They can be more productive without needing to hire as many people."
Ready's Forge/OS software allows robot operators to program tasks with simple flow charts, no longer needing to know how to code in the machine's brand-specific programming language. That opens up robotics to factories that couldn't use the tech before because they couldn't find those scarce programmers.
"It’s that fragmentation problem that creates a lot of complexity in the industry," Gibbs said. "What our platform does is get rid of that complexity. ... It makes programming the robot more accessible to anybody."
The latest version debuted in May, able to work with many more robot brands. The startup also rolled out an online repository of tutorials for workers to upskill themselves as robot operators.
"The response has been absolutely tremendous," Gibbs said.
Ready recently signed its 31st distributor. It had started the year with two. The startup has grown to 50 employees and is growing to accelerate sales in 2022.
The latest partner, Futura Automation, has committed the most resources to the deal. Arizona-based Futura designs robotic work cells – for example, loading boxes onto a pallet for shipping – choosing the machine, laying out the conveyors, sensors and other components of the job, and programming the machine. Now it adds Ready's operating system to the setup, so its clients across 16 Western states can update the program after the installation. The deal also expands the robot brands Futura works with.
"A robot arm can't do anything by itself," Gibbs said. "It’s just a dumb arm."
Unlike a huge auto assembly plant, most small to medium manufacturers frequently change the products they're making.
"This traditionally has been a big bottleneck for deploying robots," Gibbs said. "Our software enables them to do that quickly without a Ph.D. in robotics programming."
Gibbs and Kelleher Guerin founded the spinout from Johns Hopkins University in 2015. Ready moved to Columbus from Baltimore in 2018 after Drive Capital LLC led a $15 million funding round. It announced another $23 million round in February 2020.
"There are more factories in the Midwest than any part of the country; more robots are bought than in any other part of the country," Gibbs said. "Being here is a significant competitive advantage."
