Next month Fizyr will host an event at their headquarters in Delft, highlighting a broad range of robotic solutions that use their AI vision software. Partners such as Yaskawa and Cognibotics will demonstrate best-of-breed solutions that are the cornerstone of Fizyr’s growth strategy. Rocking Robots, reporting as media partner from this event, sat down with CEO Ken Fleming for this preview.
The event is firmly rooted in a strategic vision for the robotics market. “In the industry right now, everybody is looking for their niche”, Ken Fleming explains. “What I find interesting is that most of the companies doing similar things to us have chosen a strategy which attempts to speed up the market by becoming integrators, meaning they build the robots to put everything together. We did not. We decided from the start that we are a software company and that we would remain one.”
He continues: “We want ‘Fizyr inside’ as the vision system for every robotic solution out there. For us, it is not about creating a parcel induction solution, a depalletization solution, or an item-picking solution. It is about providing vision systems to integration companies that need these types of solutions. Therefore, finding and enabling those partners was key.”
Best-of-breed
The strategy of Fizyr is based on this best-of-breed model. “For example, if someone calls Fizyr asking for depalletization, we recommend a partner that has built the best solution. If they are looking for a company doing picking, we recommend the best option for that use case. It’s all about finding the right partner for the right solution.”
“We are not just a software company though” adds Fleming. “We help companies build solutions. The event in October will feature nine different systems and partners, each specializing in something for the logistics industry—whether it’s kitchens, pallets, parcels or food—and all on display at a single event. “
The real thing
“We are showing partners and visitors that, regardless of the solutions they are looking for, the common element is Fizyr. And we will show it live. Often, when they see videos, companies say, ‘I want to see the real thing. But what we show on video is the real thing! All too often, things are considered proof-of-concept or conceptual, and at our event we’re trying to show the actual working solution.”
A case in point is DHL, which produced a video about the project. The robot can pick items from bulk, putting them onto a conveyor, and feeding them into the sorter. The brain behind the robot is vision software driven by AI that enables it to identify the shape and position of the parcels, and then give the instruction to the robot arm to pick the parcels one by one from the pile and place them on the takeaway conveyor. This solution, designed by Fizyr partner AWL, can achieve a cycle of over 1,500 parcels per hour with 99% accuracy.
Takeaway
Retailers, eCommerce companies and 3PL providers are visiting visit the event because they want to see what is possible. They are looking for robots to do things like depalletization, repalletization, and piece picking. “What we are trying to communicate is that all of this is possible. End users can see that it is real. And we are helping them to find the right hardware. Each of our partners is building something unique to their field.”
The second group that will be welcomed are the integrators. “They are coming to see what we’re doing—there are multiple camera companies out there, and not every camera can solve every problem. For example, we have collaborated with the best for each use case, such as Zivid’s 3D camera solutions, for picking and singulation, IDS for depalletization, Basler for pallets. That’s part of our approach—we’re testing, mixing, and matching cameras to suit the needs of each solution design.”
The goal
“We are expecting an almost immediate response. First, the end users that are attending—many of them are already involved in active projects with us, so this event is about enabling scale. For the partners, it is about motivating them to start building the next product. One of the key differences at Fizyr is the diversity of our use cases. If you bet on one use case and it does not take off or is delayed, you’re stuck. Our strategy, though, involves multiple partners and diverse use cases. The diversity of our product profile is a strength. ”
He concludes: “A great robot alone isn’t enough. You can build the best technology, but unless you know who needs it and how to market it, it is not going to succeed. That is the essence of our strategy. We provide the core vision system, but the advantage comes from how our partners package their solutions around it.”
