Mantis Robotics Certifies Fenceless High-Speed Industrial Robot
Pleasanton-based Mantis Robotics announced that its MR-1 robot has become the first fenceless, high-speed industrial arm to receive safety certification to ISO standards. The certification allows the robot to operate at high speeds alongside human workers without physical safety cages. The company stated this is a foundational step for safely deploying humanoid and AI-driven robots in industrial settings.
- The safety certification for the MR-1 robot complies with ISO 10218-1 for industrial robot safety and ISO 13849-1 for the safety of control systems. This allows it to be marked with the CE designation for compliance with European Union regulations. - Mantis Robotics was founded in 2020 by Gerry Vannuffelen and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, with additional offices in Belgium and Taiwan. The company's founders are industry veterans who have collectively deployed tens of thousands of robotic systems globally. - The company has raised a total of $12.2 million in funding. Notable investors include the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Emerald Technology Ventures, and Sabancı Ventures. - The MR-1 robot utilizes a proprietary sensor suite to create a 360° "safety bubble" and what the company calls "Physical AI" to perceive its surroundings in 3D. This allows it to adjust its motion in real-time to avoid collisions with people and moving objects. - The robot is capable of speeds up to 10 meters per second, a significant increase over many collaborative robots, and it has a payload capacity of 5kg. This enables it to perform tasks like pick-and-place and quality inspection at high speed without the need for traditional safety fencing. - Mantis Robotics claims that by eliminating the need for physical safety infrastructure, the MR-1 can reduce the footprint of a robotic work cell by up to 80% and cut deployment costs by as much as 75%. - The system includes a software platform called Mantis Studio, which features a real-time 3D "Digital Twin" for code-free programming and simulation of the robot's environment. The company states that most applications can be programmed in under an hour without requiring specialized robotics expertise.
