Wandelbots: TU Start-up enables flexible use of automation technology

Robots, automation, industry 4.0 - in the Dresden start-up "Wandelbots" the core business revolves around the interaction between man and machine. The young company was founded in 2017 as a spin-off of the TU Dresden (Chair of Software Technology and Chair of Communication Networks). Previously, the six-member founding team had won the innovation competition of the robot manufacturer KUKA and was able to present its invention at the Hannover Messe 2016. The positive response from the industry and the great demand finally led to the founding of the company. In 2018, the company secured 6 million euros from Paua Ventures, the EQT Ventures Fund ("EQT Ventures") and existing investors in a Series A financing round.

The invention of Wandelbots is based on a sensor jacket that allows industrial robots to be programmed more intuitively, quickly and efficiently than ever before. The combination of intelligent textiles and software technology is the company's core product. The idea: A device (textiles, TracePen, 3D mouse etc.) records the human movement and transfers it to the software, which in turn designs a movement model that can be transferred to any robot. This teach-in procedure enables even laypersons to program the robot in the shortest possible time.

The success of the start-up idea is shown by the demand from the industry: the partners already include large companies such as VW and Infineon as well as Midea from China. In just two years, the number of Wandelbots employees has grown from six to 35 and the company continues to look: "We are primarily looking for software developers in Java and IOS as well as robotics engineers," says Christian Piecknick, managing director of Wandelbots. The aim of the spin-off is to make robotics more flexible for companies and, above all, more independent of robot companies. Workers can use the devices to guide the robots and directly pass on their expert knowledge for certain motion sequences. A major concern of the start-up, which has already received several awards, is the involvement of small and medium-sized companies. Due to falling hardware prices, SMEs that produce smaller quantities will in future also be able to benefit from the innovative software and use automation in their operations. "This offers SMEs the opportunity to remain competitive through automation," explains Christian Piechnick. "We are also happy to receive enquiries from smaller companies who would like to try out our technology.

Over the next two years, Wandelbots is looking for other industry partners to test the product and help the start-up to further improve it and meet the many different requirements of the industry. The human-machine interaction of the future realistically sees the potential for change: "There will certainly be jobs that will be replaced by robotics. However, these are often very monotonous jobs in production. In this work, concentration inevitably diminishes at some point and errors occur. However, a robot can work constantly without errors and meet the demands of production to work consistently in terms of quality. Employees benefit from robots by relieving them of physical strain or by designing work processes in such a way that humans work together with robots. If work processes are made more efficient, companies can become more productive and invest in new equipment."

Relations with the TU Dresden continue to be very intensive, joint research projects are underway, and the exchange of knowledge is appreciated by change agents: "The 5G topic in particular is highly exciting for us, we are working here together with Professor Fitzek. In the future, it will be possible to make robot control even more precise through a low latency, and customers will be able to use our software from the cloud and control and maintain the robots. Wandelbots presented its technology at the "Long Night of Science" at the HTW and TU Dresden on June 14th. The company is also nominated for the Saxon Founders Award 2019.

Contact for journalists:

Wandelbots GmbH                                                                                                                       Christian Piechnick                                                                                                                 Phone: +49 351 86264 000                                                                                                        e-mail:                                                                  http://www.wandelbots.com/