A new autonomous mobile robot from a prominent warehousing logistics operator is being released due to a partnership with and tech made by a budding Pittsburgh robotics company.
On Monday, Lombard, Illinois-based Big Joe Forklifts formally unveiled its new autonomous Pallet Mover at ProMat 2023 in Chicago, the company's first commercial autonomous offering that's being made possible as a result of collaboration with Lawrenceville-based robotics firm Thoro.ai.
With Lidar and other sensors, the self-driving device can transport and drop pallets to locations autonomously following instructions given to it by an operator. That operator can then spend time completing more difficult tasks instead of moving warehouse items around on a machine.
The machine, which can also be used by a human manually, will retail for $65,000, Big Joe Forklifts said.
Its existence is the result of the latest collaboration for Thoro.ai, which employs about 22 workers and is actively looking to hire several more. Founded in 2020, Thoro.ai is a spinoff of Carnegie Robotics. The company has previously partnered with Nilfisk, a cleaning equipment company, to build an autonomous floor cleaning robot, some of which are deployed at Pittsburgh International Airport for regular use.
"We've historically been known as an autonomous cleaning company, but we're really an autonomous platform. Our technology enables industrial equipment to operate without supervision or intervention," Patrick Mondi, CEO of Thoro.ai, said. "We've really been emphasizing the versatility of our technology and that it is applicable in numerous verticals. Anything that is indoors and performs manual, repetitive tasks; we're able to help manufacturers and OEMs to make autonomous versions of their products or to make new products that happen to be autonomous."
Mondi said the Pallet Mover is unique compared to products from competitors for several reasons, one of which is the claim that it only takes 15 minutes to learn how to operate the robot. It can also map a 100,000-square-foot facility on its own and continue to operate independently without the need to have any on-site servers or equipment. In fact, it doesn't need to be connected to the internet to operate at all.
"It shows really the versatility of what our team is able to accomplish," Mondi said. "Our tech has utility beyond just cleaning, and we're really excited to show the world that."
Thora.ai has raised about $4.1 million in funding since its launch, Mondi said.
