Vecna Robotics

Vecna Robotics originated as a division of Vecna Technologies, [4] which had been founded in 1998 by MIT engineering alumni, Daniel Theobald.[5] According to a December 2017 profile of Theobald by Forbes contributor, Frederick Daso, the company name ‘Vecna’ is derived from the Czech word věčný, fem. věčná, meaning ‘eternal’.[6] Vecna Technologies focused primarily on health-care software development, while the robotics division engaged in research for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Airforce and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.[7][8][9]

The company was later based in Cambridge, MA and supported efforts to build the Massachusetts Robotics Cluster.[1][10][11]

In the mid-2000s era, Vecna Robotics received funding from the U.S. Army, DARPA and other government agencies to develop the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR).[12][13] The humanoid robot was originally designed to rescue wounded soldiers from the battle field, but as the company refined and adapted its robotics software, other commercial applications became evident.[12][14][15] In turn, Vecna Robotics abstracted its autonomy software or "brain" from the BEAR's physical hardware and utilized the same methodology to develop a range of logistics robots.[14][16] In April 2012, the QC Bot, a robotic courier, was piloted in hospitals to distribute medicine and food.[17] The company's product expansion continued in April 2017 when additional logistics robots became generally available to the industrial sector.[2] Concurrently, Vecna Robotics was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Vecna Technologies.[18][19] The separation positioned Vecna Robotics to seek outside investment as well as specialize in autonomous mobile solutions for manufacturing and warehouse applications.[18][19]

In January 2018, Daniel Patt, the former Deputy Director of DARPA's Strategic Technology Office (STO), joined as CEO.[20][21] The same year, Vecna Robotics spun out from former parent, Vecna Technologies.[1] 60 existing employees transferred to positions in the new company.[1] According to a filing with the SEC, Vecna Robotics reincorporated in Delaware and raised $13.5 million in a funding round that began August 14, 2018.[22] The round was led by Columbus, Ohio-based venture capital firm, Drive Capital, and marked the first outside equity investment in the new company Vecna Robotics.[20][23] In January 2020, an additional $50M in investment was announced along with a change of leadership as Theobald took over as CEO. [24]

Vecna Robotics’ automated material handling product line includes the RC20 Conveyor, RC500 Conveyor, RL350 Lifter, RL3600 Pallet Truck, RT4500 Tugger and the Tote Retrieval System (TRS).[25][26] As of October 2018, the company's RL3600 Pallet Trucks were deployed at Milton CAT's Milford, Massachusetts distribution center to increase fulfillment speed.[27] The RL3600 addressed the problem of retrieving slow-selling items stored at long walking distances.[27] In March 2018, a fleet of six RT4500 Tuggers were profiled by Cade Metz in The New York Times as new “robotic colleagues” at the FedEx industrial shipping hub in Kernersville, North Carolina.[28] In this warehouse application, the tuggers pull trains of carts with bulky goods such as car tires or canoes to manage a growing percentage of eCommerce orders for items unable to fit on conveyor belts.[28] In addition to Vecna Robotics’ hardware line, the company also developed artificial intelligence (AI) software designed to integrate warehouse management systems, robotics and human workflow.[18][29]

• Official website