Welcome to our interview series with the partners running Better Factory. Today we are lucky to be joined by one of our all-star team, Jan Guhl, to learn more about Gestalt Robotics and their role in the project!
Jan Guhl is a Project Manager and Developer at Gestalt Robotics. Until 2014, he studied Mechanical Engineering at Technische Universität Berlin, and from 2014-2021 he was a Research Assistant at TU Berlin in Automation Technology Group, with focus on Human Robot Interaction using Augmented and Virtual Reality.
Thank you for joining us today! Please could you give us a short introduction to Gestalt Robotics in your own words, as a software and solution provider focusing on intelligent industrial automation, and what is your role here?
We, Gestalt Robotics, are a company funded in 2016 in Berlin, Germany. We focus on intelligent production automation. Through Artificial Intelligence, we support the transformation of production facilities, workplaces and processes towards efficient and flexible systems.
Our role in Better Factory is providing technology and software for intelligent robotics and adaptive assistance systems. With the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence, our software is capable of analysing and assessing the ergonomics of labour processes. By computing the pose and stress for the workers, we are able to compute an ergonomics score and suggest an adaption of the workplace according to the workers need.
Thank you! To someone reading this who has never heard of Better Factory before, how would you describe it in simple terms, and why do you feel it is significant?
Better Factory is about bringing digitalization to the factories. Once having this digital information about the shop floor, the processes and the materials ready, data analysis can be applied to help the people focussing on their main tasks and activities, get useful insights in the business or optimize material flows.
Better Factory can help small and big production facilities in each of these steps and different phases of digitalization. We can assist with the collection of data with a unified sensing layer and data model, store your data and setup intelligent algorithms finding hidden patterns or generating in-depth understanding about what is happening and what can be optimized in the factory.
This is important, since small and medium sized companies are mainly experts in their application field but neither in data acquisition nor in applying optimization or evaluation algorithms. With the help of Better Factory these companies get the chance to implement state-of-the-art technology to improve the daily life of their employees and their business.
With the help of Better Factory, these companies get the chance to implement state-of-the-art technology to improve the daily life of their employees and their business.
Gestalt Robotics has a significant role working on the development of the RAMP platform. How do you see the impact of RAMP on SMEs in Europe and beyond, after the project end?
RAMP platform has the unique selling point of being a single point of contact for data acquisition along with its processing and analysing. By combining tools, documentation and training into one platform, RAMP can become the leading market place for automation and digitalization solutions.
The impact of RAMP platform on SMEs in Europe can be fundamental, since gaining insights and awareness of the processes will help their business grow. Providing an overview of the factory’s data and discovering possible issue, optimizing process flows or plant layouts will be essential to offer competitive products.
How do you see the future of intelligent industrial automation in Europe as a whole, over the next 5-10 years? And how do you think Better Factory can contribute to its development?
The future of intelligent automation in Europe is strongly connected to the development of digitalization and sharing knowledge across different factories, enterprises and countries. And by knowledge I mean the abstracted and compact representation in the form of machine learning models and artificial intelligence algorithms. Additionally, I believe that intelligent automation needs to serve people’s needs should be applied to improve the working day.
Better Factory contributes to this by providing the platform for exchange between all stakeholders – from factories to integrators and solution providers. Using the RAMP platform enables companies and operations to optimize their products and workflows while supporting steady improvement of daily work and processes.
No doubt there will be some readers that are keen to meet you to talk more about the project and your role in it. Which events can people find you at in 2022, and beyond?
We will be at two main events, where you can meet us:
- AUTOMATICA 2022 – 21-24 June in Munich
- Achema 2022 – 22-26 August in Frankfurt am Main
See you there!
If you’d like to learn more about our partners or KTEs, just head back to the Insights section to read more interviews!
