Acutronic Robotics
About: Carlos Uraga Pastor - CEO
Carlos Uraga Pastor is the CEO of Acutronic Robotics, a company that he co-founded in 2016. Acutronic Robotics is invested by SONY, Acutronic Holding. He served as the investor and CEO of Erle Robotics in 2015 and received funds from DARPA and three rounds of investment. Having startup co-founder with business profile, engineering background, Carlos Uraga Pastor focused on new technologies from idea generation to product placement in the market. His major motto is ‘creating the next generation of standard tools for robotics.’ He had acquired international experiences developing skills on engineering, business strategy, financials, entrepreneurship, business development and new technologies research and development. He developed technical know-how in robotics, improving knowledge in the whole process from the scientific research and development until market implementation from the perspective of the financial analysis and market strategy.
1. Acutronic Robotics strives to build the next generation of artificial robotic brains. Mention some of your accomplishments so far.
The project H-ROS was initially funded by DARPA (2015), later invested by the Acutronic Holding Group (2016), and after creating Acutronic Robotics out of this investment SONY Corp. joined this vision (2017) and also invested the company in order to create the next big standard for robots construction.
OS is the first software and hardware infrastructure that allowed to create a completely modular robot by using plug and play components. The robots built based on H-ROS are now smart units able to use self-training AI techniques while it can be used to create almost any kind of robot, from industrial arm robots to self-driving cars.
2. Describe H-ROS and what are its standard components?
OS is a software and hardware infrastructure that allows different components from different manufacturers to interoperate in a plug-and-play mode.
Every part needed to build a robot (actuators, sensors, cognition units, communications, etc.) is under the spectrum of compatibility of H-ROS. We took into account every kind of component to build an autonomous system. Thanks to the ROS libraries, there’s an unlimited range of end effectors, actuators, sensors and other units available for H-ROS to be used.
3. Regarding the integrated robot operating systems, how would you describe H-ROS building robots beneficial to its users?
OS reduces the complexity and development time of the robot construction since it turns every single component into a modular and smart unit. This way, the robot can detect the modules implemented and configure itself based on those modules without the need of a complete configuration and parameterization process, allowing using AI techniques for self-learning capabilities.
4. What are the sectors H-ROS is serving? And how efficient is HROS in terms of industrial standards?
OS serves to every autonomous system (robot), from self driving cars to industrial robots and humanoids. Every new robot or system being developed for automated tasks can use H-ROS, taking advantage of the modularity, intelligence and the AI techniques it provides.
With regard to the industrial standards, H-ROS complies with all the ISO standards and certifications (CE, FCC, etc.) since it were designed based on those. Some members of the H-ROS team are indeed active members of the ISO Standards Groups, taking part on the development of these standards and making sure every step taken in H-ROS is compliant with the main worldwide standards, both in industrial and commercial environments.
5. What is the scope for HROS in robotics industry? What are your future strategic plans to overcast your competitors?
H-ROS is nowadays being deployed in several robotic niches such as collaborative robots, domestic robots, and self-driving cars. The scope is to be present on every single robot in the world, providing a horizontal underlying technology that allows to build any verticals upon it, much easier than it has been done ever before.
There are several companies developing modular robots or parts with different approaches than H-ROS, some of them from the mechanical approach, or just reduced to software tools, etc. As of now, H-ROS is the only standard taking into account not only mechanical or software aspects but also computational, communication aspects, etc. both software and hardware-wise. The SOTA is nowadays where H-ROS is, same as ROS2 and other initiatives are doing, pushing the development of this new era in robotics.