Immervision and Halodi Robotics announce development partnership to create a next generation vision system for humanoid robots

Immervision, the world's leading developer of advanced vision systems combining optics, image processing, and sensor fusion technology, is proud to announce it was chosen by Halodi Robotics to provide their next generation vision system for their humanoid service robot platform, capable of handling both human and computer vision.

Robots are capable of performing a wide variety of tasks that are difficult or dangerous for humans to perform. To intelligently and accurately perform these tasks, they require mobility and the aptitude to explore, understand and function within various environments. For a robot to work autonomously, or problem-solve with human assistance, it requires sensor data to understand the human world and the ability to process the data and respond in a timely manner. The difficulty is that for certain applications, a robot needs to combine both human and machine vision capabilities. While performing independent tasks, machine vision suffices, but when functioning in partnership with a human operator, human vision capabilities are needed, hence, the need for a next generation vision system.

"Robots have incredible potential to expand human capabilities and performance in the real world," says Nicholas Nadeau, CTO of Halodi Robotics. "Immervision is able to help our EVE service robots create even greater value, by allowing human operators, via a virtual reality (VR) headset, to respond with human intuition capabilities to the anomalies that may arise as robots interact with their dynamic environment."

Immervision's next-gen vision system enables machines with both visual systems, for multiple sensors and wiring. Robots can now navigate within hospitals or dangerous workplaces, and the vision system can be customized to the environment and specific tasks. The vision system will enable Halodi Robotics robots to better perceive their environment, collect better quality vision data for AI/ML pipelines, as well as providing an immersive VR experience to the operator of the robots.

"Halodi Robotics approached us when searching for a fast, responsive, and immersive visual system capable of delivering wide-angle visual data simultaneously to both machine and humans," explains Patrice Roulet Fontani, VP of Technology at Immervision. "Increased responsive speed starts with a high-quality wide-angle lens and with our patented technology and AI algorithms, we are the natural choice to optimize the performance and situational awareness across Halodi Robotics entire vision pipeline."

Immervision has spent over 20 years adding vision to machines. The company's vision solutions are deployed into several markets, such as automotive, drones and consumer devices, to ensure whether a robot is picking up an object or performing a specific task, they have optimized hand-eye co-ordination. Immervision's dewarping algorithm enhances its dual next-gen vision solution, ensuring correct proportions are maintained for the entire image and real-time video for both human and machine vision.

Halodi Robotics already has multiple enterprise customer pilot programs underway in Europe and the U.S. for security, retail and logistics applications, with broader deployment planned for later this year.

About Immervision

With over 20 years of innovation, Immervision creates solutions that see beyond human vision. Its Deep Seeing technology and renowned experts in wide-angle optical design and image processing enable smart devices with superhuman eyes to capture high quality visual and contextual data. The company invents, customises, and licenses wide-angle lenses and imaging software technology for AI, machine vision and user applications, from capture to display, in the mobile, automotive, robotics, security, and other industrial and consumer product industries. For more information: www.immervision.com.

About Halodi Robotics

Halodi Robotics builds service robots to extend growing workforces in security, retail, logistics, and healthcare. Our roboticists design and develop affordable humanoid robots with the skill to operate in unstructured environments where people and machines must work safely together. Operating in near silence with human strength, our robots enable independent automation for everyday tasks. Halodi Robotics bases our global teams at our Norway headquarters with satellite offices in Canada, Italy, and the U.S. For more information about our mission and career opportunities, go to www.halodi.com.