Aiming for quick optimization and cycle time reduction, the partnership teams Realtime Robotics’ Optimization-as-a-Service with HLS Engineering Group’s expertise in mechanical engineering and automation.

BOSTON—Realtime Robotics recently partnered with HLS Engineering Group to strengthen its push to quickly optimize manufacturing processes and reduce cycle times, the companies said in a release.

Realtime Robotics is a developer of automatic, collision-free autonomous motion planning technology for industrial robots. Its Optimization-as-a-Service offering uses a combination of proprietary optimization software and experienced robotics and application engineering insights to improve a manufacturer’s overall productivity. HLS Engineering Group is a specialist in the field of integrated engineering, with wide-ranging expertise in the fields of manufacturing, mechanical engineering, and robotic automation.

The partnership will bring together Realtime Robotics’ Optimization-as-a-Service with the HLS team’s experience as a trusted engineering partner to industrial manufacturing customers in the automotive, aerospace, and other industries. The companies’ combined capabilities will allow manufacturers to analyze and optimize their automation cells, improving efficiency and productivity within weeks instead of several months, according to the release.

“Our optimization solution has already delivered proven results for customers in the automotive manufacturing industry, and the partnership with HLS creates an even stronger value proposition for customers,” said Peter Howard, CEO of Realtime Robotics, in the release. “Our combined expertise and technology can help manufacturers find additional productivity and efficiency improvements in their existing automation cells, without forcing their teams to spend countless hours manually testing different combinations until they achieve their goals.”

HLS’s advanced scanning technology will be used to virtualize a customer’s cells, collecting data and creating a digital twin of their manufacturing operations. That information will be used with Realtime’s Optimization-as-a-Service to analyze and identify any bottlenecks within production. The service rapidly generates and tests hundreds of thousands of potential robot paths, determining the best motion sequences based on target assignment, robot reach, and any other customer-desired parameters, the release said.

This process can be completed without causing any delays in ongoing production. Once the results are completed and validated, they can immediately be transferred to the production floor, according to Realtime Robotics.