Merrimack, NH USA and Bedford, NH USA – Stanley Innovation, an advanced development company specializing in mobile robotics solutions, and Segway Inc. (Segway), the world’s leading provider of electric personal transportation, announced they’ve signed a technology collaboration agreement to continue the development of Segway® RMP (Robotic Mobile Platforms).

SI and Segway Relationship

The founders of Stanley Innovation are former Segway employees and lead engineers in the advanced development group that created the newest Segway® RMP architecture. They will continue to collaborate with Segway to deliver Segway® RMPs with advanced capabilities, and developing new solutions for robotics research and industry partners.

“We continue to work with Stanley Innovation because they share Segway’s values in regard to safety, quality and customer service, which is important to our brand,” said Mary Savage, Chief Operating Officer, Segway. “We collaborate with them to deliver the best mobile robotic product for commercial and research customers.”

“The missing link in robotics is access to scalable, low-cost, high-reliability, high-quality, and high-performance components. Segway® RMP dual purposes as a flexible architecture for research and is the key to true commercial viability for mobile robotics applications.” said Patrick Hussey, Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Stanley Innovation. “Robotics is all about collaboration and creating new technology. This relationship, and others we are forming, not only further our vision of creating state-of-the-art research and commercial robotic solutions; it will also contribute to the industry’s advancement as a whole.”

The agreement allows each company to focus on their strengths. Stanley will focus on application centric technology development, custom integration and sales while Segway will focus on manufacturing, distribution and global service.

“On a fundamental level, we and Segway are leveraging a $200MM investment, a 12+ year development effort, manufacturing, supply chain, global service and support infrastructure for the core propulsion system components shared between the Segway® RMP and Segway® PT; that’s very unique in robotics at this stage” says Hussey. “This especially resonates with commercial customers because it enables successful research projects to move seamlessly into the product development cycle. Think of the advantage our customers are afforded when soliciting funding; having the manufacturing, global service and parts logistics established sets our customers up for success before they get started.”

ROS Integration With RMP

Stanley has started delivering a number of advanced prototypes for industry leaders to address applications in mobile manipulation, manufacturing material handling, and computer vision. In Q2 2015, a new line of Segway® RMP platforms empowered with Stanley Innovation’s Robot Operating System (ROS) package will be released. “We will change the perception that only experts can pursue the robot of their dreams and abstract the complexity to get up and running by providing a system fully capable of autonomous navigation and application level development out-of-the-box, with the safety, reliability and quality inherent in Segway products” says Hussey. “The ROS community is impressive. They are changing our industry at a rapid pace, we see a great opportunity to contribute to that effort going forward by offering it as a standard feature in our products.”

Four ROS-integrated Segway® RMP solutions will be offered initially, each with unique mobility architectures to allow the line-up to span the gamut of indoor and outdoor applications. Each ROS-integrated Segway® RMP will include a fast 1-2Hr charging system, 400Wh smart auxiliary power system, Segway inertial sensor set with proprietary state estimation algorithms, base sensor set required for application development, and an onboard computer pre-loaded with feature rich capabilities and configured to start all of the core software at power-on to reduce the learning curve for the end customer. The ROS-integrated Segway® RMPs boast top speeds of 8m/s (18mph), max payloads of 450kg (1000lb), ranges up to 50km (30mi), and redundant propulsion system with fail-over protection depending on the model.

“We hope to contribute to the robotics community by giving customers what they need for success; an incredible robotic research platform that can seamlessly transition into higher volume commercial products” says Hussey. Stanley is currently working with commercial and research partners, creating customized solutions for requirement specific applications. Segway and Stanley will also release a lower cost Commercial Segway® RMP in 2015, with a feature set tailored to address the needs of higher volume commercial applications.

About Stanley Innovation Stanley Innovation specializes in advanced robotic development and works with companies, developers and researchers to make the seemingly impossible possible, by developing advanced custom robotics on the Segway® RMP platform. For more information about Stanley Innovation, please visit www.stanleyinnovation.com

Media Inquiries should be directed to: info@stanleyinnovation.com

About Segway Segway Inc., based in Bedford, New Hampshire is the world’s leading provider of personal electric transportation. The Company also manufactures a comprehensive line of Robotics Mobility Platforms (RMPs). Its international network currently includes more than 250 distributor, dealer and experience center retail points in 80 countries. For more information about Segway, please visit www.segway.com Media inquiries should be directed to media@segway.com

Segway is a registered trademark of Segway Inc.