Pollen Robotics wins 2nd place at ANA Avatar XPRIZE
At the end of November, the final of the ANA Avatar XPrize was held in the United States, an international competition considered as the “Olympic Games of science”. On this occasion, our Bordeaux partner Pollen Robotics distinguished itself by winning the 2nd place. Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet, who founded the company in 2016 are thus demonstrating the relevance of their robotic solutions on a global scale.
The Axis team is very proud of this result as we supported the team in the development of Reachy, the big winner for us. Made with our HP MJF technology and painted by us, it’s obvious that its look helped it charm the jury.
Reachy is an open-source expressive humanoid platform programmable with Python and ROS. He is particularly good at interacting with people and manipulating objects. Find out more information on theteam‘s websitehere.
Multi Jet Fusion technology is often used with PA 12 thermoplastic to create ultra thin layers of 80 microns. This material has a high density and low porosity. The objects manufactured are resistant to abrasion, scratches, but also to light, ultraviolet rays and temperature changes. Our teams of experts have long mastered this technology to offer our customers prototypes and mini-series that exceed their expectations.
But it is especially the talent of the Pollen Robotics team that made the difference because the contest puts the avatars’ skills to the test. As you can see in the video, the robots must complete a number of events in a minimum amount of time to be the first.
Do you know Reachy from Pollen Robotics?
To reach this level Matthieu explains: “The key to success was to put the very first prototype of our next Reachy on the starting line. New generation arms that are agile, light and able to handle heavier loads, an adaptive 3-finger hand with sensors to convey the mass and texture of the objects picked up, a redesigned and even faster software architecture, a 3D camera to perceive the environment in all its depth and move easily within it, and a binaural audio system that locates the sounds in space
Our goal now, to finalize these promising developments within our roadmap for Reachy, and offer them to our research community in the spirit that allowed us to shine in this competition: simplicity and accessibility.”
If you have any questions about the project or about our HP MJF technology and our capabilities for prototype and mini-series finishing, please contact our experts.