R2 Labs builds robotic control and monitoring systems to help companies address skilled worker shortages, increase operational efficiency, and decrease time-to-market for newly introduced equipment. Their disruptive technology and tailor-made turnkey solution development services empower businesses to solve the most demanding robotics applications.
HISTORY
R2 was founded in 2021 by its future CEO, Dr. Roby Lynn. He was at a critical point in his career after having spent years in corporate roles as a robotics engineer. He kept coming across a familiar problem, one that had plagued him in graduate school at Georgia Tech: his work was getting bogged down by proprietary and outdated automation modalities. He knew that something needed to change and, with that in mind, he reached out to trusted Georgia Tech colleagues Sulisay Phonekeo and Rebecca Peterson. What if they started a company that empowered the next generation of engineers by providing robotic and industrial control systems that were better suited to modern expectations? Not only was this a fresh idea, but a market-disrupting one. R2 Labs was then founded in the spirit of innovation and excitement for changing the status quo.
REVOLUTION
When roboticists and control system engineers complain that cutting-edge automated systems are held back by hardware and software straight out of the 1980s, they are not joking. It has become clear that the product marketplace for robot and machine control systems can no longer be dominated by legacy players with 20th-century methods. Our modern world demands more and more advanced cyber-physical systems and this will only increase with time and further adoption of AI technologies.
In order to meet these demands, R2 Labs has developed a suite of robotics control system products and services that provide out-of-the-box functionality for AI and hardware integration; conform to modern open-source software standards and practices; and most importantly, can be placed in the hands of a software engineer and readily used to control a physical system without a steep learning curve and hours of manufacturer-specific trainings. Businesses will no longer have to worry about finding workers with niche and specialized automation skill sets: R2 Labs’ solutions allow any modern software engineer to control equipment through code alone.
The centerpiece of R2 Labs’ solution range is the “RAC,” the R2 Autonomy Controller. Released in mid-2023, it has assisted software engineers to navigate the complex automation challenges of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 because it’s a tool built specifically with them in mind. The RAC is programmable with popular mainstream programming languages and open-source tools, extensible, and has the computational power to manage motor control, I/O control, machine vision, and more. This enables companies to develop robotic solutions for global challenges without the drag of proprietary environments, black-box hardware, and phalanxes of sales representatives.
APPLICATION
R2 Labs’ broad range of technical competencies allows the company to serve a wide variety of customer verticals. Some recent standouts include the development of an AI-powered agricultural robot for Padma AgRobotics and a carbon capture automation system for breakthrough climate change startup Seabound. R2 Labs has recently deployed the new RAC Rover, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that performs navigation, detects objects, and responds accordingly, all thanks to the RAC’s plug-and-play control capabilities.
R2 Labs is proudly partnered with both Arduino, a global leader in open-source hardware and software that enables innovation from prototyping through production, and with multiple American engineering universities. The company takes part in webinars, case studies, conferences, and other exciting movements in the robotics and automation space. Additionally, R2 Labs was named one of the top 40 most innovative companies in Georgia by the Technology Association of Georgia in March 2024.
TOMORROW
What does the future hold for R2 Labs? R2 Labs will continue to pursue further applications for the RAC in warehouse automation, manufacturing, biotechnology, and agriculture. The company will also expand into the industrial IoT space with the “RAM,” the R2 Autonomy Monitor. This new industrial IoT tool uses AI models to predict outcomes using measurements on currently deployed assets, allowing companies to make better decisions with full data on their operations.
R2 Labs understands that the next-generation engineering workforce will need innovative robotic and industrial control solutions. The industry demands control system solutions that allow software engineers to become roboticists and automation engineers, and R2 Labs’ innovative technologies will continue to be a key component of this transformation.
