ABB Acquired Sevensense, a Provider of AI-enabled 3D Vision Navigation Technology for AMRs

ABB announced that it has acquired Swiss start-up Sevensense, a provider of AI-enabled 3D vision navigation technology for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).  Sevensense was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from Swiss technical University, ETH Zurich. The acquisition follows ABB’s minority investment in Sevensense in 2021, the same year ABB acquired ASTI Mobile Robotics. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Following pilot customer projects in the automotive and logistics industries, ABB will integrate Sevensense’s technology into the company’s AMR portfolio. Sevensense’s approximately 35 employees will continue to be based at its Swiss office in Zurich.

Sevensense’s navigation technology combines AI and 3D vision, enabling AMRs to make intelligent decisions, differentiating between fixed and mobile objects in dynamic environments. Once manually guided, mobile robots with Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (Visual SLAM) technology create a map that is used to operate independently, reducing commissioning time from weeks to days and enabling the AMRs to navigate in highly complex, dynamic environments alongside people. Maps are constantly updated and shared across the fleet, offering instant scalability without interrupting operations and greater flexibility compared to other navigation technologies.

This technology has the potential to impact robotics far beyond AMRs, leading to greater efficiency, flexibility and accuracy throughout production and intralogistics. The technology will also continue to be sold across segments including material handling, cleaning, and other service robotics fields under the product name Sevensense.