One of the best ways to learn from mistakes is to examine the shortcomings of others. With over 20 years of experience, our APAC Regional Director Koji Takaba has worked with over 50 robotics manufacturing companies, ranging from startups to leaders in the industry. Here, we are delighted to share 7 of the most common mistakes he has seen from the industry, directly from his perspective.

Mistake #1: Failing to Invest in Software

Many robotics engineering organizations, especially startups, focus all of their attention on hardware. This can make sense for a company looking to create cutting-edge technology ahead of the competition but often leads to a poor end-user experience without effective software tools.

A good comparison to draw is with the satellite navigation system in a car – with a poorly designed, unintuitive navigation system, a vehicle that is otherwise best-in-class may fail to sell simply because of poor software.

I have seen plenty of robotics manufacturers provide no software application with their product whatsoever, or low-quality homemade robot simulators. This is where some reached out to me directly, sharing that they could not compete without the professional-level applications users expect.

Tech Soft 3D provides a series of toolkits that allow robotics engineers to quickly build professional-level software applications enough to win in a highly competitive market. While many engineers think of software as a bonus or add-on, plenty of their end users refuse to buy the metaphorical car without state-of-the-art navigation.

Mistake #2: Not Simulating Robot Motion Before Execution

Tech Soft 3D offers a variety of tools to streamline the process of building a visualization application. From high-end desktop and mobile to support for web-based application and even Extended Reality (XR), we offer more ways to support the specific visualization demands of the robotics market.

Mistake #3: Companies Do Not Fully Leverage the 3D Data in a CAD File

I once worked with a partner working on a deburring tool path, and they confided it had taken them 2 weeks to establish the pathing of a 30-second job. They had been trying to manually direct the robot arm to the position where it needed to be for each stage of the process. In this case, this required a tolerance of 1 mm, requiring a huge investment of frustrating busy work.

The solution for this partner and others in the robotics industry was to take better advantage of the 3D data already present in the work model sent by the user.

HOOPS Exchange can read data directly from over 30 file formats, offering you access to more of the information present in the original format. For robotics teams, this can allow better analysis of the spatial relationship between the robotic arm and the toolpath, automatic toolpath generation, offline simulation, collision checking, and more. This information can be seamlessly transferred from your robotics program to the hardware. When the team I referenced above took advantage of this technology, they cut out roughly 80% of the manual work of this process.

Mistake #4: Using Generalist 3D CAD to Generate Tool Paths and Simulations Offline

Mistake #5: Using Different Kinematics Between Hardware and Software

I have seen many robotics hardware manufacturers make the mistake of offering their product alongside bundled 3rd party software or software applications developed independently of their robot's hardware controller. As discussed earlier, many robotics companies fail to invest in their software and operate under the outdated idea that a customized software application is a “nice-to-have" option rather than a priority.

Off-the-shelf, general-purpose robotics control software cannot accurately simulate specific robot behavior, because the controller algorithms (inverse kinematics, singularity avoidance, etc.) can be slightly different than the actual hardware. This creates different cycle times and is extremely frustrating for your eventual customers.

Tech Soft 3D toolkits allow the robotics manufacturer to integrate their own robot-controlling algorithm into the software application because the toolkits are flexible and provide a variety of APIs a large collection of workflows. As a result, we see our partners create innovative solutions that have 100% consistency between hardware and software. This results in an advanced virtual factory environment that empowers engineers to properly test and simulate their ideas.

Mistake #6: Neglecting Visualization Quality

I worked with a leading robotics manufacturer, one with a strong reputation for good hardware and offline software with tremendous functionality. The latter fully covered the specialized demands that come with the robotics industry, such as offline programming, cable simulation, and clash avoidance.

Despite all this, users found their application’s visualization quality lacking., Their graphics had not able to keep up with advances in computer graphics. They found they needed to increase their visualization quality through realistic shading and reflections, anti-aliasing, and better large model performance. Despite the strong core of robotics functionality, their previous visualization standard was letting them down.

This company explored the source of their competition’s visualization functionality and found they were all licensing HOOPS Visualize from Tech Soft 3D. They contacted me, evaluated the product, and migrated from their graphics to HOOPS Visualize. This story clearly shows that even with core strong robotics features, visualization quality is key to success in a competitive market.

Mistake #7: Failure to Fully Take Advantage of Material that Could Be Shared with Prospect

As I have touched on, many robotics manufacturers are successful in developing and distributing their own offline software application with Tech Soft 3D toolkits. In fact, one top manufacturer shared that they used their software in sales as well, as an introduction of their robots to an end user's factory.

The problem arose when the tool they were using was proving difficult for salespeople to learn. They struggled with data preparation, operating the software, installing the latest version, and answering follow-up questions from prospects. The same people needed to share data with prospects, including screenshots, reports, and spreadsheets. While they offered a 2-day training program, this was impractical or insufficient for some.

This company came to me for help, and I was able to point them to HOOPS Exchange, which allowed them to export 3D PDFs with all the robot motion, sequences, bill of materials, charts, and more in one convenient page. With this capability, salespeople did not have to learn a technical program built for engineers to provide their prospects with the best pitch possible. The client’s users also benefited, being able to open these files in the free version of Adobe Reader. The file can be shared by email and with various security options provided by Adobe Acrobat.

Learn More

As anyone working in the robotics industry knows, the markets present a unique, dynamic set of challenges. I have personally helped Tech Soft 3D support 50 companies navigate this unique space. The toolkits we offer can help you gain a competitive advantage while saving time and money. I encourage you to reach out to learn more, ask a question, and see what Tech Soft 3D can do for you.