Key Points
- Thanks to the generic interface between Advanced Navigation solutions, Robotics Systems was able to accelerate time-to-market and quickly develop custom systems.
- With the constant support of Advanced Navigation’s application engineers, Robotics Systems developed custom-made robots in a matter of days.
Robotic Systems, Australia
Robotic Systems is a complete systems integration design and manufacturing engineering firm servicing a range of clients across mining and agriculture. They work to help businesses turn their practical real-world experience into profitable new machines that they can own and sell.
With humble beginnings in 2012, the Robotic Systems team was assembled in response to the need for a diverse company who could provide complete solutions from concept to replication; as a one-off or in batch on-demand production, by providing expert service, design and guidance at every step of the development process.
Their engineers span disciplines in mechanical, electrical and software development specialising in; real-time data acquisition and image processing, test and measurement systems as well as sensor integration, advanced automation and control.
4 Challenges Robotic Systems had to solve
With an impressive suite of solutions, Robotic Systems required a range of inertial navigation systems (INS) to help support and accelerate their time-to-market.
Furthermore, given the custom solutions Robotic Systems create, they needed a suite of reliable navigation solutions that shared the same interface in order to service the varied, specific criteria of each of their clients.
Reliable navigation is crucial for Robotic Systems as the solutions they develop for the farming and mining sectors require little margin for error once they’re active in the field. Having a navigation system that is compatible with the solutions they develop to provide accurate real-world insights was critical for the success of Robotic Systems’ products.
“For Robotic Systems every job and customer is different” says Adam Amos, Director of Robotic Systems. “To remain competitive, we needed to ensure that they weren’t required to reinvent the wheel for each project. We sought a reliable supplier for navigation solutions that we could trust”.
Specifically, there were four key challenges that had to be overcome:
- The navigation solutions needed to be cost-effective
- The solutions needed to be easily integrated into different systems
- Find a navigation solutions partner with a broad range of performance to cater to different applications and guarantee exceptional product performance
- Reliable technical support to enable the Robotic Systems team to confidently develop new products
The Solution: A fluent suite of navigation solutions for bespoke projects
To meet the core challenges posed by different projects, Adam and his team sought an inertial navigation partner that could provide accurate navigation systems that would be easy to integrate so their production timeline wouldn’t be hindered.
“We use the Spatial, Spatial Dual and Kinematica” says Adam. “Each one of the products is a different horse for a different course. Kinematica has got good PPK. The Spatial is good for lower cost, lower heading accuracy solutions. The Spatial Dual is good for when you need high heading accuracies and lower roll and pitch”.
While the high performance of those navigation solutions met the needs of the Robotic Systems products, Adam reflects that the feature that has had the most positive impact is the generic communication interface between them.
Using this feature gave Robotic Systems an advantage to complete products and take them to market without unnecessary delay.
”The generic communication interfaces gives us the ability to scale the products up and down depending on the application without having to redo lots of blocks. So for us as systems integrators we can specify the right piece of hardware for the job that’s being done - as in accuracy, heading etc - whilst not having to change fundamental software integration building blocks. We can basically swap out the products.
Adam AmosDirector, Robotic Systems
The Robotic Systems team
The Outcome: A seamless navigation integration
With the help of Advanced Navigation’s versatile navigation solutions, Robotic Systems was able to accelerate time-to-market and go from customer consultation to a field trial in two days.
Minimising time to market was paramount for the business. “As a consultancy, it’s so important to us to know that integration time is dependable and predictable, and that’s what we are getting with Advanced Navigation products”, says Adam.
Robotic Systems found the product integration was clear and easy to navigate. Their internal developers were able to work on different products without having to bridge large gaps of information, reducing training time and further accelerating time to market.
“The team at Advanced Navigation have provided ongoing support during the course of our relationship”, said Adam. “The Robotic Systems team feels confident knowing that we can rely on the Advanced Navigation support team whenever we need, so there aren’t any major delays or setbacks during development”.
Spatial
Spatial is a miniature GPS-aided inertial navigation system and AHRS that provides accurate position, velocity, acceleration and orientation under the most demanding conditions. It combines temperature-calibrated accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and a pressure sensor with an advanced GNSS receiver. These are coupled in a sophisticated fusion algorithm to deliver accurate and reliable navigation and orientation. It is available in both OEM and rugged packages.
