YinHang and Newsight Imaging collaborate for mass production of service robots

The first batch of 1000 robots are already on the market, while YinHang (Shanghai, China) will launch a series of robots for warehouses by the end of this year.

Ness Ziona, Israel and Shanghai, China, May 3rd, 2022 — Shanghai YinHang, a leading manufacturer of service robots and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) based on its own Machine Version Algorithm, and Newsight Imaging, an innovative semiconductor company that develops 3D machine vision sensors and spectral vision chips are making an announcement today about reaching a milestone of mass production of YinHang service robots for restaurants. The robots provide an innovative service experience in restaurants but have applications in the much larger warehouse market. The following link provides a short video demonstrating the product based on the joint technologies (https://youtu.be/-hH05nmuPV4). YinHang’s robot is equipped with double driving wheels and a laser SLAM (Simultaneous localization and mapping) based on Newsight’s sensor, which enables autonomous operation around a restaurant.

One of the robots’ most important features is the ability to successfully navigate in a challenging environment. Its capabilities include the ability to navigate around objects such as furniture and equipment and sensing and avoiding customers as they move around the restaurant. YinHang’s engineers worked closely with Newsight’s engineering team in China and in Israel to incorporate long-range, accurate 3D vision capabilities. The technology enables the robots to see distances of over 30 meters in different lighting conditions. Newsight’s sensors can support multi-triangulation and enhanced-Time-Of-Flight (eTOF™) on the same chip, providing up to 100,000 frames-per-second (fps) for a single line and 3125 fps for full resolution 1024×32 depth imaging.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, which led to dramatically reduced social contact, the service robot market thrived in 2021 and is expected to continue its significant growth. According to IFR (International Federation of Robotics https://bit.ly/3OTxnSD), “The market for professional service robots reached a turnover of 6.7 billion U.S. dollars worldwide (sample method) – up 12% in 2020. At the same time, turnover of new consumer service robots grew 16% to 4.4 billion U.S. dollars”. The leading applications, according to IFR, are Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR), professional cleaning robots, medical and rehabilitation, hospitality robots, and automated restaurants.

YinHang CEO, Sun Yuan, said: “Our core technology is the research and development of our own machine vision algorithms and robot products. We do all the PCB, software, algorithm, mechanical structure design and production of the whole robot so that it can provide the best performance at the lowest cost. At present, we are implementing robots in warehouses and other robots that can better assist humans to improve work efficiency. In robotics, Newsight’s vision sensors play an important role, and with its new generation of chips enhance the robot’s capabilities and performance.”

Eli Assoolin, Newsight Imaging CEO, added: “Our great collaboration with YinHang  demonstrates Newsight’s unique approach to its customers. We work closely with the customer to understand their application’s need and deliver sensors of the highest quality to support their mass production. Newsight’s sensors have already been successfully deployed in hundreds of thousands of robots so far, and we expect that our market share will grow significantly in the coming years.”

About Shanghai YinHang

Shanghai YinHang Information Technology Co., Ltd. (info@friendui.com) has focused on machine vision and robotics research & development for the past ten years. The goal is to use robots with robotic arms to help people work better in production. The current product focus is on warehouses, where robots can help people pick up goods from boxes according to instructions. The overall price of 60 such robots will be less than $160,000, and the cost will be further reduced to 50% with mass production. The company independently develops and produces robots, and uses DSP chips to implement self-developed various algorithms and software in robot products, such as SLAM algorithm, machine vision algorithm, motor drive, and visual positioning algorithm. The company’s goal is to assist customers in completing innovative products with powerful functions but at an affordable price, from scratch to mass production.

About Newsight Imaging

Newsight Imaging (www.nstimg.com) develops advanced CMOS image sensor chips for 3D machine vision and spectral analysis. Newsight’s depth camera sensors for machine vision serve verticals such as Mobile & Metaverse, Robotics, Industry 4.0, Automotive Safety, etc. The company recently launched its one-of-a-kind solid-state LiDAR reference design, the eTOF™ LiDAR, based on the NSI1000 sensor. In addition, Newsight has developed a spectral chip backed by AI technology, demonstrated in SpectraLIT™. SpectraLIT™ offers a unique and affordable solution for remote healthcare, real time diagnosis, and quality inspection solutions for water, food & beverage, etc. The company has US and EU patents and has received multiple grants by the Israeli Innovation Authority.