Manufacturing popular items like iPhones and Teslas requires precise, expensive machines and highly skilled people. Reforge Robotics is reducing the cost of manufacturing by augmenting lower-cost robotic systems with software algorithms that make them as accurate as conventional machines with little to no increase in price.
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Nosa Edoimioya
Nosa Edoimioya is the Founder and CEO of Reforge Robotics, a company that uses software and computation to improve the performance of robotic systems in manufacturing. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, where he was a National Science Foundation research fellow. His mission is to make robots move as fluidly as humans, leading to symbiotic relationships between humans and robots.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Manufacturing in America is understaffed. There aren’t enough people to fill the industry’s highly technical but often repetitive and hazardous jobs. There are currently half a million unfilled jobs in U.S. manufacturing. That number is expected to surpass 2M by the end of the decade as the movement to re-shore gains momentum and a generation of workers retires. Solving the personnel shortage is critical for two reasons: 1) it would bolster the self-sufficiency of the United States, making the nation less reliant on overseas manufacturing, and 2) it would increase the GDP and grow the economy.
Technology Vision
Robots are used in many industries to automate tedious and dangerous tasks, allowing humans to focus on work that requires judgment and ingenuity. However, robots have had little impact on manufacturing because they do not have the precision required for core manufacturing tasks. Robots vibrate in the presence of the large contact forces required to form and shape metal into useful products, causing unacceptable imperfections in end-use products. Reforge Robotics creates vibration and force control software that enables robots to be used for all manufacturing tasks, especially tasks done by expensive, hard-to-use machinery.
Potential for Impact
By using software, Reforge Robotics can expand the performance and productivity of robotic systems at a lower cost than conventional manufacturing machines. In doing so, Reforge Robotics aims to 1) bolster American industrial self-sufficiency by increasing accessibility to manufacturing machines, 2) improve personnel safety on the factory floor by delegating the most dangerous tasks, and 3) reduce the cost of manufacturing everyday products like iPhones and Tesla cars, leaving more money in people’s pockets.
Website
Reforge Robotics
Twitter
@nosa_dot_edu