About

Progressive Robotics is a university spin-off of AUTH that has developed a patent-pending solution to easily teach robots how to perform packing and palletizing tasks in the manufacturing industry with AI, in just a few seconds.

Solution & Product

Based on our research on robotics and deep learning, we are bridging the best of two worlds to make robots smarter for the entire manufacturing industry, including SMEs. Currently, when a factory wants to automate their end-of-line production (packing & palletizing), they refer to a robot integrator who will build a custom solution. This solution includes a robot arm, its programming, and plenty of fixed hardware (such as conveyors to feed products into the robot, guides to align the products, etc). Programming can take a long time and the cost of the fixed hardware can even exceed the cost of the robot arm, without offering any flexibility because the robot is “blind”. As a result, only large-sized factories with fixed production can afford this cost and SMEs keep struggling with manual labor.

Innovation & Scalability

Following the recent boom of AI, we have managed to combine a state-of-the-art 3D perception system with robot teaching by demonstration and on-line motion generation, allowing robots to “see” the environment and adapt autonomously. Our tech is the result of intensive research over the past 5 years that has been extensively tested in our lab and is mature enough for the real world. Our software is sold with as an all-in-one kit from off-the-shelf components (a small computer with our software pre-installed, cameras, and cables). The kit will then be plugged to a supported robot arm of their choice and give to this robot exciting new capabilities, reducing the setup time and associated costs of robot automation.

Traction & achievements

We have developed a modular prototype that can handle packing and palletizing tasks. It is hardware agnostic and can already operate with many different off-the-shelf hardware (cameras, robots, sensors). It also includes a beautiful web-based touch interface for configuring the robot through a tablet.

Team & Why Us

Our founding team consists of three members. Fotis Dimeas (CEO) has a PhD in human-robot collaboration, excellent knowledge of the industry and has demonstrated leadership skills by coordinating a team of 5 full-time researchers and engineers over the past 3 years with a strong ambition to bring the technology into the market. Marios Kiatos (CTO) has a PhD in robot learning with AI and is leading the AI that drives Progressive Robotics. Finally, robotics professor Zoe Doulgeri (scientific advisor) is the academic co-founder and our scientific advisor.

Funding Needs

Progressive Robotics raised its pre-seed funding round in the summer of 2023.