August 1, 2014

Mujin, Inc., a Japanese robotics start-up developing intelligent system solutions for industrial robots, announced today that it has raised Yen 605 million (approx. $6 million) in a Series B financing from JAFCO and UTEC ? The University of Tokyo Edge Capital.

Mujin’s mission is to automate robots with software systems to increase worldwide manufacturing productivity. In order to achieve this, Mujin has created a platform called the Mujin Controller that all its automation products are based on; it supports most robots on the market, can optimize offline motions for complex robot constraints, and fully integrate into complex real-time systems with machine vision and programmable-logic controllers (PLCs). Mujin is aiming to create the best robot motion planning controller in the market and revolutionize commercial turn-key applications that require a high level of automation.

Mujin was co-founded in 2011 by Dr. Rosen Diankov, a world-renown roboticist and developer of the open-source motion planning framework OpenRAVE, and Issei Takino, a manufacturing business expert. The decision to base Mujin in Japan has given them a huge advantage to work with the best and most rigorous manufacturing companies in the world.
The team consists of robotics and software engineering experts from all around the world who know how to apply the state-of-the-art robotics technologies and plan to leverage the Japanese manufacturing power to expand their business.

The Japanese government has placed robotics as one of the key areas of focus in the “Japan Revitalization Strategy”. By the year 2020, it targets to increase the size of the robot market to 2.4 trillion yen ($24 billion USD), three times the current size. Mujin’s real-time control technologies allows manufacturers to implement industrial robots more efficiently and make complex systems more affordable. For the government, this means operating in a new unexplored market, which will push the industrial sector to grow even faster.

Mujin will use the new capital to enhance the sales and engineering resources of their current product, Mujin Controller SIM (released in 2013), and accelerate their go-to-market strategy with their two new innovative products: Mujin Pick Worker and Mujin Laser Worker.

Mujin’s Products:

1) Mujin Controller SIM is the world’s first solution that replaces traditional human teaching by automatically planning efficient, fast, collision free robot programs that have guaranteed accuracy when executing on the real robot. With minimal teaching, a user can optimize the robot’s task time while avoiding collisions with obstacles. It can dramatically reduced a robot systems’s implementation cost and improve manufacturing productivity.

2) Mujin Pick Worker is the world’s first bin-picking system with real-time obstacle avoidance and grasp-planning technologies. It is based on the Mujin’s highly acclaimed motion planning technology. Just by detecting the 3D CAD model of the part using machine vision and specifying ideal grasp points, the Mujin Pick Worker can immediately start moving any robot to grasp cluttered parts in a bin the place them at a customer’s desired position.

3) Mujin Laser Worker is the world’s first 3D laser cutting system that employs motion planning to simplify the teaching process of the laser cutting applications. Laser cutting machines can now automatically avoid self-collisions and the part being cut. The system uses the 3D CAD data to predict where the part surface is and how to cut along it. The system can be used for any custom-built machine to deliver the same motion planning quality for 3D laser cutting.

About Mujin:

Mujin, Inc. was founded at the University of Tokyo in 2011 to develop automation solutions for industrial robots in order to simplify factory automation and increase worldwide manufacturing productivity. The engineering team led by Dr. Diankov have more than 8 years of experience moving robots autonomously and are leveraging the sate-of-the-art software technologies like OpenRAVE to offer a new platform for industrial robotics called Mujin Controller.
For more information, please access 　http://mujin.co.jp

Inquiries:

Mujin, Inc.
E-MAIL：info@mujin.co.jp
TEL：+81-03-5812-4496
FAX：+81-03-5812-4497