GrayMatter Robotics, an AI-Robotics startup delivering smart robotic automation solutions for tedious and ergonomically challenging tasks, co-founded by Ariyan Kabir-a Buet graduate- has recently raised $20 million as series A investment.
The Series A investment round was led by Bow Capital and joined by B Capital Group, Calibrate Ventures, OCA Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Stage Venture Partners, 3M Ventures as well as Swift Ventures joining the financing round.
Last year, the company raised $4.1M in seed rounding funding led by Stage Venture Partners and Calibrate Ventures. B Capital Group, OCA Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures and 3M ventures were also investors in the seed funding round.
The latest funding will help GrayMatter Robotics in expanding the team and enhancing the product, support, services and fuel deployments of smart robotic cells, Ariyan told Dhaka Tribune.
"We are improving shop workers' lives by enhancing their productivity and enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks," he stated.
Ariyan believes that owing to the increasing labour shortage, the global economy benefits a lot from automated surface finishing and treatment - crucial roles in modern manufacturing industries.
Sanding is one of the critical surface finishing applications in most manufacturing plants and across manufacturing processes in facilities, parts are sanded for a number of reasons, ranging from preparation for coating or painting, adding functional or aesthetic texture to surfaces or shaping parts to specified geometric requirements.
Macroeconomic trends throughout the world have led manufacturers to an environment of a labour shortage - particularly felt in the functions of sanding and finishing.
Especially for high-mix manufacturers looking to automate, sanding can be the weakest link in production despite the automation of other parts of the production process, Ariyan explained.
Modern manufacturing relies heavily on the processes built around high-mix parts and advances in manufacturing processes and material science have unlocked the increasing value and efficiency for manufacturers who are able to incorporate increasing variety in their output.
Understanding these advances in sensor technology and recognizing the manufacturer’s challenges to automate sanding, GrayMatter Robotics pioneered Scan&SandTM – an Artificial-Intelligence based solution that enables robots to teach themselves in seconds to sand any part or a mixture of parts without prior programming.
According to the startup, the system is capable of identifying and planning the right sanding path of nearly any geometry, while regulating forces and changing tool motion patterns based on real-time inputs to deliver a truly consistent surface finish.
“The great economic drivers for Scan&SandTM are found in time efficiency, the best-in-class reductions in associated labour costs, and the most consistently high-quality levels achieved from all the various options available,” Ariyan stated.
“Until now, introducing sanding automation in high-mix manufacturing was ineffective on account of technological shortcomings and high costs – leaving manufacturers no choice but to continue with labour-intensive inefficiencies and plan around them.”
GrayMatter Robotics has developed a smart robotic cell that finally can address these shortcomings and can be used in a monthly service-based model for ease of adoption, Ariyan said: “The GrayMatter Scan&SandTM system is technologically revolutionary – it permits an industrial robot to scan any part in seconds and immediately start to sand that part at up to 1.5x-4x speed.”
On top of that, the requirements for operators are minimal – simply requiring someone who can securely put a part within the physical reach of a robot, press a single button, and remove the part to the next application minutes later.
Very minor changes in input can be coordinated to accomplish particularly desirable movements and patterns of motion, adding unsurpassed levels of quality and automation control.
GrayMatter Robotics had earlier received the RBR50 Robotics Innovation award, which recognises creative and influential robotic-based innovations.
The AI startup also received the NSF SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) phase 1 and phase 2 grants, which helped them develop the core technology behind their robotic tools.
Automating the task of sanding for high-mix applications would solve many serious shortcomings in dimensions of speed, cost and human quality of life, according to the AI robotics company.