Rapid robotics creates mechanical arms that undertake the uninteresting, unclean, and unsafe work a human would otherwise have to do, according to the company’s chief marketing officer, Kim Losey. Numerous manufacturing facilities have challenging labor environments, such as meat-packing facilities, where employees are subject to near-freezing temperatures. Robots can replace people in those jobs.
“The robotic arms do simple operations and tasks that are repetitive or challenging for humans because they’re so boring, no one wants to do them or they’re challenging in other ways,” Losey said. “What I have seen is that there is so much work that could be done and if we can make robots more accessible and less expensive, then we start to see manufacturing grow.”
Deploying robots can increase manufacturing output, which can lead to an overall rise in associated employment, she asserted.
“They’re doing more value-added work instead of putting plastic on pieces,” she said. “If humans are doing thinking work and high dexterity work, and robots are doing the dull, dirty, and dangerous work, that’s a good combination.”
The brainchild of Jordan Kretchmer and Ruddick Lawrence, Rapid Robotics seeks to solve manufacturing labor shortages by creating robotic arms to eliminate the high expense, lack of flexibility, and long lead times that’ss pervasive in robotic automation. Traditionally, developing focused-purpose robots has required a large initial investment. It can take upwards of five months to install automation, be challenging to move to a new location or re-program to accommodate novel parts.
Before Rapid Robotics, Kretchmer founded Livefyre, the web’s largest cloud-based content and community platform for marketers and publishers, which he sold to Adobe in 2016. Through various subsequent advisory and board roles he found himself immersed in the world of manufacturing. He asked himself, “Why are robots so advanced but the manufacturing process so antiquated?”
Rapid Robotics was born in 2019 when Kretchmer teamed with Lawrence, who has spent his career working in robotics, hardware, and manufacturing. They settled on Hooper Street for the company’s location because Potrero Hill is centrally located and easy for people to access from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Also, the building is cool and has great light,” Losey added. “And parking is relatively reasonably good. There are some fun restaurant spots and access to food trucks too.”
Rapid Robotics is near other companies engaging in robotics hardware work, for instance, mobile CT scanning, which makes it easier to network with people in the mechanical space and spurs new ideas.
One of Rapid Robotics’ new ideas is using an AI vision system to undertake image-related tasks, such as inspecting modules for serial number and barcode verification, as well as missing components. Traditional systems require separate reviews for each of those tasks; with AI it can be done simultaneously.
“The AI vision system allows us to deploy robots even faster, and that ultimately drives down the cost of doing these robot deployments so manufacturers have more access to them,” Losey said. “That’s why it’s great to be in the Potrero Hill area and centrally located because it allows us to bring in the best machine-learning talent in the area.”
Talent helps Rapid Robotics maintain what it dubs the three S’s: speed, service and support, and savings. Losey said by focusing on speed, the other two S’s invariably follow, along with a fourth: scale. Speed means offering 24/7 support to customers, solving issues with robotic arms in a half-hour 98 percent of the time. Using cloud connectivity Rapid Robotics can check data logs to find anomalies and diagnose what’s wrong without being onsite, dispatching someone if required. Traditionally, the repair process is slowed because companies have to send a technician to the site, diagnose the issue, order a part, and shutdown the assembly line for the overhaul.
“It takes time and no manufacturer has that kind of time,” Losey said. “If a line in the production is down, it’s stressful for everyone involved.”
Rapid Robotics shortens that timeframe and reduces stress for manufacturers, which Losey hopes will translate into more sales and scale.
“As we expand, we are strengthening our core vision and expanding to new tasks or capabilities for robotics to help manufacturers close the labor gap and meet demand for their products,” Losey said. “And we have a lot of fun along the way.”
