ABB buys Swiss tech company to boost industrial robots

ABB bought Sevensense, a Swiss start-up specialising in boosting the mobility of industrial robots, in the latest robotics deal by ABB, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The deal follows growing demand for industrial robots which can move and work on their own.

Sevensense works on developing sensors and AI systems give factory robots eyes and brains to manoeuvre around plants.

“In the past, robots which supplied production lines usually followed fixed magnetic strips, they took a long time to install and weren’t very flexible,” ABB’s head of robotics and discrete automation, Sami Atiya, told Reuters.

“Now we have robots which can go all over the factory, but with eyes and a brain.”

According to Atiya, every robot is equipped with six cameras and has the capacity to shift two tonnes of materials at a speed of 1.5 metres per second.

Reuters reported that the autonomous mobile robots (AMR) market is set to grow by approximately 20 per cent by 2026.

ABB also told Reuters that it expects growth from $5.5 billion in 2023 to $9.5 billion by 2026.