Marvelmind List
A list of companies operating in the fields of autonomous robotics, drones and precise indoor positioning and navigation with the focus on the industrial applications.
Autonomous robots
Industrial delivery
- https://6river.com/ – robot “Chuck” – boxes delivery in warehouses
- https://clearpathrobotics.com/ – different robots, including autonomous delivery. Probably, they deliver other people’s robots (Jun.2021)
- https://locusrobotics.com/ – autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for warehouses (Jun.2021)
- https://twinny.ai/home – autonomous delivery robots for logistics/manufacturing. S.Korea (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.vecnarobotics.com – tugs. Not much is known (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.forwardx.com/ – very well-funded Chinese autonomous delivery company (Dec.2021)
- https://1mrobotics.com/ – last-mile delivery, fulfillment, and arm robots. For dark stores. Raised to the moment – 25 MUSD. (Sep.2022)
Outdoor delivery
- https://eliport.com/ – lesser-known 4-wheeled small grocery delivery robot
- https://www.nuro.ai/ – prominent autonomous 4-wheeled mini-cars for grocery delivery. Uses a LIDAR. (Jun. 2021)
- https://robby.io/ – another small 6-wheeled delivery robot for groceries. We know little about it (Jun.2021)
- https://www.starship.xyz/ – notable player with a small 6-wheeled grocery delivery robot. Estonia/USA (Jun. 2021)
Research and university
- https://www.cogniteam.com/ – seemingly small company producing several small robots for R&D, including ROS robots (Sep.2022)
- https://www.leorover.tech/ – a research robot-rover. Also, have built-in integration and support of Marvelmind Indoor “GPS” (May. 2022)
- https://www.agilex.ai – different types of autonomous robots and parts (chassis, etc.). China (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.donkeycar.com/ – an open-source DIY self-driving platform for small-scale cars
- https://robotnik.eu/ – several types of robots. But it looks like primarily suitable for research
Service robotics (cafe, hospitals, advertising and similar)
- http://www.aethon.com – a more traditional and established player with autonomous delivery robots focused on hospitals (Jun. 2021)
- https://promo-bot.ai/ – advertising robot-guide. Russia (Jun.2021)
- https://pudurobotics.uk/ – robots for cafes and restaurants. Est. 2016 in Shenzhen (Nov. 2020). Works very well. I saw them in several countries.
- https://www.savioke.com/ – old friends with hotel delivery robots (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.segwayrobotics.com – several types of robots, from personal mobility to industrial delivery
Autonomous drones
- https://en.dmduav.com/ – drone light show solution provider. Indoor and outdoor. UWB-based drone positioning. (Jan.2023)
- https://en.hg-fly.com/ – seemingly large swarm and show drone supplier (indoor and outdoor), (Jan.2023)
- https://infiniumrobotics.com/ – an autonomous, self-flying drone system that can fly across a warehouse and scan goods (Jan.2023)
- https://www.litebee.com/ – seemingly small drone solution provider. Indoor and STEM drones (Jan.2023)
- https://skymagic.show/ – drone show company, outdoor. They don’t seem to have their own drones produced (Jan.2023)
Components and other parts
There are many important components for autonomous robotics: cameras, LIDARs, MEMS, motors, batteries, etc.
Arms
- https://www.universal-robots.com – well-established robot arms vendor (Jun.2021)
INS
- https://www.kvh.com – precise inertial solutions for marine, industrial, robotics (Jun.2021)
Other parts
- https://www.taoglas.com – An interesting provider of antennas for UWB, connectors and other IoT solutions in general (Nov.2020)
- https://ainstein.ai/ – Microwave radars for drones, robots, obstacle detection, and positioning (Oct.2022)
Indoor Positioning
There are several technologies relevant for precise indoor positioning and autonomous robots, drones for industrial applications. Our highest focus is on the most applicable ones – UWB. Much less – on BLE or WiFi or Lora or ZigBee. We may list some players in those fields as well despite, but mostly because they stand out from the crowd by something.
BLE, WiFi and other
- https://www.esri.com – large maping player that is buying other IPS companies (Jun.2021)
Optical
- https://antilatency.com/ – inside-out tracking for VR/AR, filming (Jun.2021)
- https://www.optitrack.com/ – well-known optical tracking (outside-in?) for VR/AR, filming, drones indoor (Jun.2021)
Other types and special
– http://magnettrack.ru/en – reels-based positioning for industrial applications (Jun.2021)
Ultrasound
– https://zerokey.com/ – the first direct competitor we found online (Nov.2022). Claims millimeter-level accuracy. Friendly website, but not many details about the actual performance and pricing. They seem to be just starting because they have many beautiful 3D images – much fewer details of actual products. We have been commercially offering our solutions since 2014.
The technology is there. The need is there. We welcome both partners and competitors to the field.
Our customers from S.Africa pointed them to us during the call, saying: “We are impressed with your (Marvelmind Robotics) pricing because their pricing is out of our range.”
About the accuracy: sure, you can do millimeter-level accuracy easily by more averaging. You can do it today using the Marvelmind Indoor Positioning System. See more.
To improve the accuracy even further, if you need it, we can do for you IMU+Ultrasound sensor fusion. We have done sensor fusion to increase the update rate to 100Hz. But the same approach can be made to achieve even sub-millimeter accuracy for positioning. Limits before further optimization there are about 0.2-0.5mm. So, for special cases, it is achievable – request.
Ultra Wideband (UWB)
- https://www.sewio.net/ – looking good UWB solution (Jul.2023)
- https://www.airfinder.com – not entirely clear what their solution actually is (Jun.2021)
- https://www.decawave.com/ – de facto, the main UWB chip supplier for the majority of the UWB players. Now part of qorvo (Nov.2020)
- https://eliko.ee/ – UWB solutions moving more to general IoT (Jun.2021)
- https://estimote.com/ – A former BLE solution vendor turned to UWB solution vendor as well (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.indoorway.com/ – UWB solutions… Not clear which hardware (Jun.2021)
- https://www.infsoft.com/ – active player in Indoor Navigation and Positioning – UWB and several other technologies (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.inpixon.com/ – mostly BLE and WiFi, but listing UWB as solutions as well (Jun.2021)
- https://kinexon.com – UWB for industry and sport. Not so clear (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.nxp.com/ – Potentially, a very big UWB chip player. But their business model in regards to UWB is not clear (Nov.2020)
- https://pozyx.io/ – popular small UWB player. Arduino-friendly
- https://real-trac.com/en/ –
- https://www.redpointpositioning.com/ – UWB solutions. HW+SW. USA/China/Ukraine (Jun.2021)
- https://rtloc.com/ – A seemingly small UWB player (Jun. 2021)
- https://www.ubitrack.com – UWB solutions with reasonable product prices (Jun. 2021)
Forums, communities, lists
- https://www.marketsandmarkets.com – A report on UWB by MarketsandMarkets, an analytics company (Nov.2020)
- https://www.rfcafe.com – A list of Ultra Wideband (UWB) Manufacturers & Services by RF Cafe (Nov.2020)
- https://robohub.org/ – a non-profit online communication platform for robotics (Jun.2021)
Outdoor positioning
GPS and RTK GPS
- https://www.trimble.com/ – a very large GPS player. Surveying. (Jun.2021)
- https://www.u-blox.com/ – a large GPS (chips, modules) and wireless (BLE modules, etc.) modules provider (Jan.2022)
Shopping
- https://www.getfpv.com/ – an impressive shopping list for drones from ready to flying to tiny boards (Jun.2021)
- https://www.robotshop.com/ – presumably the largest online robotics store and our good long-term partner (Jun.2021)