Reger also explains his vision for smarter, cognitive robots with built-in sensing paired with a robust software platform for safe robots that serve humans. He explains the added benefits cognitive robots bring to the shop floor when compared with traditional robotic counterparts. Additionally, they discuss the potential and limitations of humanoid robots and what it’s like to enter the robotics market as a startup today.

Winn Hardin: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to Manufacturing Matters, where we talk about the technology and trends reshaping the global manufacturing industry. I’m here today with my co-host Jimmy Carroll. How you doing, Jimmy?

Jimmy Carroll: [00:00:10] Doing well, thank you.

Winn Hardin: [00:00:12] Beautiful. And we are lucky enough to be with David Reger, founder and CEO of Neura Robotics. David, I can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your day. I know how insanely busy you are this week during Automate.

David Reger: [00:00:23] I am so thankful to be here. So, great, I’m excited.

Winn Hardin: [00:00:27] Appreciate it. So, you know, there’s so many things for us to talk about. One, of course, is that if you happen to be able to attend Automate this year, you realize that some of the biggest robotics companies in the world have a new competitor in Neura Robotics, not just in technology but also in the booth. That’s one of the most beautiful booths I’ve ever seen in my life. And it’s large in two different parts. The foot traffic through there has been insane. So you’ve probably seen the recent video clip. I think it was on Reuters and then picked up by USA Today, if I’m not mistaken. That was a kind of a great clip with one of your humanoid robots, but I’m getting too far ahead. So, David, would you start us off with why you founded Neura Robotics. What are the differentiators between you and the other cobot, industrial robot OEMs out there?

David Reger: [00:01:16] Yeah. I founded Neura, actually, because I saw there was a need, because before I started Neura, I was running three other companies in the field of robotics, automation. So in this field I simply found out, like by automating with my own robots that it was not the best thing. So pretty much since 70 years it was not a big change. It means, if you look at robotics itself, you see that a robot arm is just stupid. Does not do anything, and you need a lot of smart people to somehow make it work. And a lot of periphery. And that was actually the key where I simply got an idea of why do we put it every time again and again around the robot and somehow try to make it work, like safety or . . . 

Amanda Del Buono: [00:02:08] I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s really cutting out on him. I’d like him to at least start over.

Winn Hardin: [00:02:18] All right. We’re not going to start from the top. We’ll go back to, David, you founded Neura Robotics. Tell us a little bit about what makes it a unique player.

David Reger: [00:04:32] Okay.

Winn Hardin: [00:04:32] What made you launch Neura Robotics? I know you’ve got a lot of experience in the robotics field, but what did you see in the marketplace that told you it needed something new?

David Reger: [00:04:40] So pretty much I saw that how we were using robots at all to date was kind of limited in my opinion. And how I found out is actually because I was running a robotics company and also founded my own automation company to do bigger projects with the automotive industry. And there I simply saw that every time we are doing something like a simple bin picking application, it’s not that simple. I found out that we had to somehow reinvent the wheel every time, again and again. So it means even if I do exactly the same thing with the same safety periphery, the same let’s say vision system and the same robot, it was not the same result. So I had to all the time adjust because of the lights, because of the environment. And every time I change the whole thing and I take weeks to somehow make it work. And there I simply thought about how can we change that? How can we maybe change it this way that the robot itself gets a little bit more smartness and less of the human’s part. To make it happen the idea was simply that to put all the sensors which you normally put around the robot, just simply inside the robot arm and then put a brain behind and then have a platform which simply can start growing. So it means it can work with different lighting, because simply it learns. It’s a little bit like we humans do. If we put our eyes every day in a different position, we’ll figure out that our brain cannot really work with that or it will be difficult.

Winn Hardin: [00:06:20] Plus, I have to get a lot more pairs of glasses.

David Reger: [00:06:22] And that’s the same for everything, and to enable robotics also being safe next to humans you need to figure out what’s a human actually. So the robot should know what’s the human to react on a human. And these are the things which I just simply want to change.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:06:43] You know, I wanted to ask about the genesis of the company. “We serve humanity.” Tell me a little bit about that. It’s curious.

David Reger: [00:06:50] Yeah. It goes farther back because that’s why I’m so happy to be back here in the U.S. I was already living in the U.S. I was here in 2009 and 2010 in San Francisco and really serving by myself, like to work with homeless people and also people which came out of prisons to get them back to life because it was a tough time after the Lehman Brothers crisis. And there was a lot of people in the street. Simply I really want to help people. It was my ambition. But when I was here, I simply thought, okay, every time I’m doing that, it’s somehow exhausting me and somehow I’m just exchanging my life for them. And it makes sense. So I hope it doesn’t ever stop. But even if I go now back to San Francisco, I still see it. It has some effect, but maybe it just made something slower, but it was still not really helping.

Winn Hardin: [00:07:52] Especially the human level.

David Reger: [00:07:53] And for that I simply thought, okay, I need to find another way. And combining two things. One is like helping people. The other is doing technology, because I’m an engineer. And when I went back, I thought about it, and I thought robotics can be a big fit. Like if we enable robotics into every home, everywhere, we will have more time for exactly doing these things, like serving humans, doing this. What we are good in is like taking care of other humans.  I mean, like on different levels. And all the time, like from the first day. We were talking about serving humanity. It was very confusing for many people. It was like, “Hey, you’re stealing my job.” So you’re not really.

Winn Hardin: [00:08:38] Not really.

David Reger: [00:08:38] But this was exactly the thing where I had all the time to explain. But I loved it because we went into very deep conversations.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:08:48] It’s a really remarkable approach, and I love it. And I’m glad you brought up the idea of robots stealing jobs, because it kind of feels like we’ve gone past that hump now, and people are realizing that robots are actually improving people’s jobs in many ways and adding more jobs. It’s just categorically not an issue. I mean, if you look at all the reports.

Winn Hardin: [00:09:06] Yeah, productivity gains are helping companies to hire more people, handle more capacity, offer better salaries to the people and the employees they already have. So it’s across the board. It’s not like there’s three benefits and one con. There isn’t simply, and I think the world is starting to realize that.

David Reger: [00:09:21] Yeah, even if you’re looking right now into the world, we are lacking, let’s say, laborers, but we are also mostly lacking actually skilled workers. And this is also a key, let’s say, a key issue we are solving is basically if you look at your robotics until today, like every time a robotics player says, yeah, we are solving an issue of skilled worker shortages, it’s not true. Because if you look at a skilled worker, you will actually find out the skilled workers know something, understand something, and react in abnormal situations. And this is exactly also like in cognitive robotics actually the key for that. So it means you have eyes, ears, and the field of touch, which we brought into robots with sensors, and then a brain, which actually can learn things. And especially when you’re learning things, you are learning like how to react in abnormal situations. And also today we show applications in welding or in polishing or whatever. You show that it’s not about my knowledge, like how much I know about welding, because I don’t know anything about it, but how much the welding partners of ours actually bring the knowledge of this platform. And this platform is actually, let’s say, reactive enough and knowledgeable enough to actually do its own welding even by seeing these parts. And this is only enabled by sensors and also again combined with artificial intelligence.

Winn Hardin: [00:10:48] To me it’s like a visual illustrative example of your slogan of “We serve humanity.” Because it really takes humans to serve humanity. So you specifically are creating robotic solutions that combine the same sensor levels that humans use, as well as brains that can learn from their existing environment. And, you know, just a few years ago, we were to talk about integrated sensor suites, but every one of those required an engineer to balance the parameters, pull those sensor levels together, and make some sort of intelligent awareness. But when you put in advanced AI, pattern matching abilities, and the ability to optimize processes on the time and on the fly, I think basically robots are becoming more humanlike, which is finally they’re starting to live up to the potential that we’ve always hoped that they would achieve. You know, so to me, your technical approach actually matches the company’s slogan, which is not something you see every day, but slogans tend to be marketing elements. But with Neura Robotics, it really seems to be, there’s technology behind it, which for a geek like me is very exciting.

David Reger: [00:11:59] I think there’s even one more thing. I do believe we will solve and serve too. I do even believe that we will save a lot of marriages. I simply thought about bringing robots into your homes, making them cognitively smart so they can do all the chores we don’t like to do, will solve a lot of issues in marriages. Because simply if you mostly talk to people which are not happy with their partners, you will find out that mostly they’re saying like, yeah, it’s lazy. Yeah, it’s not taking care of something, whatever. It’s not taking the garbage out. My wife would probably talk about that. It’s my only chore I have at home. So it’s already a luxury. I have only one chore. But imagine like how many times I’m forgetting to simply take the garbage out. And this pressure is every day on me. So I’m coming back home super exhausted and coming home. Want to talk quickly to my kids. Talk with my wife. And then the first question is like, “Hey, did you take the garbage out?”

Winn Hardin: [00:13:15] I just sat down for 30 seconds. Let me just jump up and get that.

David Reger: [00:13:19] But that’s I think like the expectation on us humans, like the pressure we have in every home. So serving humanity, it’s pretty global. Like first, yes, solving this, let’s say, skilled worker shortage and like a labor shortage to actually make everything. I mean, we just heard it yesterday on the event here, and I simply again thought about a tractor. People were scared that it would take some jobs, and actually it did, but which jobs did it take? It gave us also the opportunity today to grow for this almost 8 billion people in the world. It was only possible because we had these tractors which are able to somehow industrialize it and to make it happen that we have enough food on this planet. And that’s exactly the robotics part. We would not have these nice cars. We would not have all these phones and all these nice things around us if you would not have automation and robotics.

Winn Hardin: [00:14:19] And even the most valuable thing in the universe, which in my mind is time. I mean, basically you’re freeing us up from whether it’s tasks in the home or tasks at work. Let’s be real, most of the engineers that we’re used to working with put in a lot of hours, and a lot of the solutions that you’re building are helping to simplify those programmings, those launches and commissioning tasks. So that’s super critical. We talked about the basic technologies, not human, not imaging-based human detection. We talked about, not yet, but we’ve got 3D vision systems which are allowing gesture-based programming, which is kind of the next level, well beyond the pendant, well beyond just taking it to point to point to point, extrapolating the path in between those points, connecting the dots, which is a pretty common programming approach, and then throwing in verbal commands in multiple languages, multiple dialects. What made you decide that you wanted to bridge the gap between your traditional cobot robot solution and the service robotics sector with MiPA, with the new humanoid that’s under development?

David Reger: [00:15:26] It’s a very good question. So basically I think the answer is because I’m German and I live in Germany, because, I mean, every engineer would love to just do humanoids, so every engineer would just say, “Screw the other robots,” you know, like just make some humanoids, and they’re just more fun. Let’s say there’s much more things to solve also as an engineer. So I’m super interested in that. But simply if you’re coming in Germany and saying, “Hey, I’m building a humanoid.” Good. Have fun. And look how you can somehow finance that or whatever. So you need a way there, like to make a multipurpose device, because I do believe that multipurpose tools in robotics will be also humanoid. But to get there is still a way to go. And what is the best way to go and how can you establish yourself as a company and at the same time also how can you finance that? I thought, if I take also the low-hanging fruits and change this market already significantly and bring impact to this market, like in a niche market I call it, like robotics today, like industrial robotics for me, it’s still a very small niche market, even if it works well. But this is how also Amazon started with books or like Tesla with a supercar, like a sports car, or Apple with a graphic designer computer, or so like everyone started actually with a big vision. But same also served in the level of low-hanging fruits, like where you could somehow prove that there is something better on your idea and you can bring an impact into it.

David Reger: [00:17:25] And this is basically why we started in the industrial sector. We bring the code. We brought it in a cognitive robot, which is a robot which you can talk to and whatever. And then we have the mobile manipulators next. Right now we are showing also with Omron together. And then there is the next household robot on wheels, which we are also showing on our booth, MiPA. And then the general purpose robot, which is a humanoid. It’s not like this one will take over this one. No. All of them somehow make sense. And I don’t believe that humanoids will be in these clean, nice, flat environments and just having more troubles walking or whatever. On wheels it’s just simpler. So it will not take over the others, but all of them make sense somehow. And if you control somehow the technology itself and then finding the right way to bring these technologies into the market, because this was the toughest thing. I think this one solved a lot also for the future. And everything has contributed to each other. So you see today like an arm is able to weld or to grind or to polish or to pick things or whatever. The same arms are actually on the humanoid. There’s just four arms. We have also an application where we use eight arms to pick things. So we control that. So it’s nothing super complicated.

Winn Hardin: [00:18:50] It actually makes so much common sense really when you think about it. Because basically selectively enhance existing product, give the market some successes, allow it to adopt these new technologies, whether it’s verbal commands, whether it’s gesture-based 3D program, visualization and programming, and then transition those to new platforms, you know, whether it’s a rolling platform, a walking platform. That also connects to another question I have for you, which is how difficult is it to bring a new robot company into the marketplace right now? Because, I mean, you’re going up against a lot of established players who’ve got a lot of capital. Let’s be real. But based on what we’re seeing here at Automate, you’re making amazing progress in a very short period of time. How tough is it to launch a new robot company?

David Reger: [00:19:38] So I do think, yeah, it’s super tough. But at the same time I think the market needed someone like us,  and it’s the same what we saw in the automotive industry. You saw there is established automotive car players of Germany or Japan or whatever. But how do they right now let’s say compete with Tesla or other startups? so the same happens actually right now in the robotics in my opinion. So it’s simply: they made it already for many, many years. They made it pretty good. But they somehow forgot to innovate and at the same time they forgot to be open. And the difficult part, not fair part to say, it’s like they were also unable to change a lot of things because of their customer base, which pressured them to stay where they are because that’s what they know and that’s how they understand and whatever. And this gives us also the chance. In the beginning, when I started, I got a lot of critics because everyone knew that I started my first robotics company. It was okay, we made the most accurate robot in the world with Siemens. We did very special things but very small niches. Let’s call it this way.

Winn Hardin: [00:21:02] Staying in that collective comfort zone that the automation industry has traditionally had.

David Reger: [00:21:07] Yeah. And actually I started thinking like no, it has to be smarter in its idea, and I have to do it now because if I don’t do it now, it’s like nobody will do it or I will be too late. This is also when I started and I was looking for money. I already figured it’s the craziest thing to do because everyone was just telling me, “Hey, David, just do what you did before. It was quite good. And then we do it for five years, and afterwards you can start innovating.” I said, “No, I don’t have this five years. In five years, it has to be different.” And today we prove it. We are a five-year-old company and we changed, and a lot, because we simply were stubborn. And the difference we also brought from the beginning is that we started on the white paper. So it means, when I started developing, I had my team of 12 people from the first day. So my 12 apostles, and I showed them the vision I have and then I told them, “Hey, you see all these robots?” The wall is still there. So in our meeting room, you see a lot of robot players. Every robot is there which is existing. It’s on the wall.

David Reger: [00:22:23] And then so I told them, “You see all of them?” And if we build our own hardware and robot, it’s not just about making them smart. That’s a thing we will innovate, yes, but to make sense also from the first day, we need to be faster, more accurate, and also more sensitive. You need also the three basic pillars, which everyone is asking you when you’re trying to get a robot, like you also need to be better. So then we figured out to be better, you cannot just use the same components as everyone. And that was also the key decision I would say, so like Tesla, they did not just buy standard ZF and Bosch or whatever components because they wouldn’t be better than others. Two years later, everyone would have it. And that was exactly the same in the robotics industry. Everyone is buying their encoders from them, the typical, I don’t want to call them. Motors, brakes, everything is coming from the same vendors, suppliers. And if you grab the same parts, you will not be better. So we design everything from zero. So it means we made our own motors, our own encoders, our own full stack sensors. We made our own protocol even for how to communicate. This is actually also enabling these eight robots, 12 robots working with each other in real time without lighting and things like that. It had to be innovated again. So that was a difficulty.

Winn Hardin: [00:23:44] Completely vertically integrated.

David Reger: [00:23:45] But also again, here the example of Steve Jobs. Why did he not just take a Nokia phone, I hope I am allowed to say that, and make a smartphone out of it? This is actually what the investors always ask me, like, “Why don’t you just make AI?” And I said simply, no, because I do believe we have to be much deeper integrated. We need to talk with every sensor. We need to build a new operating system which is actually talking to every sensor and then enabling, let’s say, the platform that everyone can build on and talk to every sensor, and this is actually these apps which we see today, like gluing, welding, or whatever. It’s much easier, like an easier language.

Winn Hardin: [00:24:28] I love to hear people talk about things they’re passionate about. So that’s a beautiful thing. And I think the Apple example is really interesting because Apple got a leg up by taking one of the best industrial designers and bringing them in and saying, “Okay, we’re doing consumer product goods, but let’s look at industrial design elements, and how do we make this easier, simpler, more rugged, reliable, as well as more powerful?” And you are seeming to be taking a lot of cues from what consumer products want. But putting it into an industrial environment, which is I think a fairly new approach if I’m not mistaken. I’ve been with this industry for 25-plus years now, and you don’t really hear much about that. I mean, object-based programming would be something where, you know, a lot of people stole that for robot programming from Microsoft in terms of, you know, machine vision. It was when we first went to a spreadsheet design, but we’re so far beyond that now, you know, wrapping everything into these application-specific wrappers. Define the application, talk about what the end goal is, and the system will program it for you. You know, basically hope you find the most efficient method, which is super cool. Let’s just be real.

David Reger: [00:25:38] Like today, have you talked to MAiRA? If you talk to MAiRA, you just tell her, like, “Hey, MAiRA, can you pick up the object,” and she will ask you which. Or if you tell her just, “Hey, pick up the mouse.” That’s what we’re showing here. She will simply not just pick the mouse. That’s required for the industrial world. It’s like: how to do it. It means the whole program will be written so you can actually go and adjust for your needs. And this is basically what we do. The same also for many other things, like gesture. You can say, “Take this cup out and put it there,” and the robot will actually understand that. It will take your finger and take your voice. And this is actually, I think, also required to make it simpler, because this is how we are used to communicating. And 99% of the world are non-programmers. And this is actually still, I would say, the limitation of robotics, even industrial robotics will be a mass market. It sounds like it’s a niche market, but it will be a mass market. I just recently talked to a very, very big warehouse company. And they have a lot of robots in the field already. And then you’re like, “Okay, so you have so many robots. You are like right now one of the leaders in that segment. So are you finished soon?”

David Reger: [00:26:52] They said, “If we could, we would have now 5 million more robots. And we will be probably still looking for robots.” And then I was like, “Yeah, okay, so what’s the limitation? So why can’t you just buy 5 million?” I mean there’s enough players right now in the market, if you tell them, “Hey guys, just build 5 million robots.” I mean, today we are building 500,000 robots for the whole world. So they will simply be happy because they will need ten years and not having other customers. But what’s the answer? The answer was no. It’s limited by also ourselves. Why? Because you need the program. We don’t have enough programs. We have a lot, but there are not enough. At the same time also, integrating takes too much time. And the sensors and everything, you have to build somehow. You have to put everything together and then you have to reference it to each other. You have to somehow, let’s say, commission the whole thing. This takes weeks. And this is actually the time we’re losing right now. And again, cognitive robots will solve exactly that. That’s what we are showing there with the plug-and-play, plugin interface which we have today, which gives all the information from the sensor. And then if you have already a base of sensors in your arm, you can actually tell MAiRa, “Look at this camera. I place it here and you connect it.” And MAiRA can reference the camera to itself. And this is actually the special thing. So you will have like minutes instead of weeks. And this is also what we’re doing right now in Japan with a very big customer. And it comes, but it’s still a way to go.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:28:37] Well, that very large company needs a lot of robots to be able to keep up with the pace of orders that my wife makes. So that’s very helpful. But I do want to ask you about humanoids, and you mentioned critics, and there’s a lot of critics and skeptics. Maybe skeptics would be the better term for humanoids. You were on a panel discussion yesterday or the day before, and unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to see it, but I wanted to and I was following some commentary online about it that was kind of picking out just different talking points. What were some of the takeaways there? And, you know, like you mentioned it earlier too, the idea of, well, what do we need a humanoid for, if factories are flat, what do we need a humanoid for? Well, I’ll stop there. I have a follow-up question, but I’ll stop there.

David Reger: [00:29:26] So I think one thing, a humanoid robot is actually graspable for all people. They want to understand what a humanoid robot can do and how it can help them. So the acceptance is much faster. Not really acceptance, but understanding at least. And this is also the comment I read yesterday, but like I said, my mother, since I showed her the humanoid robot, she understands what I’m doing. Before that I showed her all the robot arms on mobile platforms. Somehow she did not get it. And the difficulty is that my mother’s super smart. I’m sorry.

Winn Hardin: [00:30:09] He still loves you, Mom. It’s all good.

David Reger: [00:30:11] Yeah, I love you. Yeah, but the thing is, it’s more like that we robotics people, we think that everyone thinks like we do. No, they don’t. Mostly when I show them the arm, they will not understand what I do. So get acceptance — understanding — it’s very important in the humanoid sector, but we are not just building robot humanoids for understanding. I think a lot of environments are made for humans, ergonomically made for humans.

Winn Hardin: [00:30:43] Including nature.

David Reger: [00:30:43] Only the industrial fields they are actually made also for automation and whatever. So they’re made for not just humans. But the rest of the world, the biggest part of the world, is actually made for humans. And this is actually the place where we want to replace ourselves with humanoids. So it’s not that we are replacing the mobile platforms. It’s more like we’re having additions, like the next gen. And the interesting part is also that there’s still a lot of things to do. So that’s why we don’t have them today. And I heard it also on a panel, a question like, “When do you have real applications in the field, like where are you using them?” And I said, “I hear that some of them will be very soon,” you know, but in my opinion, it’s wrong. Like you shouldn’t buy because they are not that far, they’re not good enough. And this is okay. And this is why there is right now a lot of capital going into it. It’s not because everything is ready. It’s because actually you need to get ready. And this is also what we are doing. And this is also so important for us. Everything we do in the industrial sector, even the dual arm for households like this mobile platform, everything is contributing to the humanoid.

David Reger: [00:31:56] Until we are finishing this and solving some bigger, let’s say, challenges, until it will be smart enough, it will be helpful enough that we accept them, it is still some way to go. But it’s necessary. And that’s why I’m not understanding. Some are super negative. Some are super positive. I think it’s something in the middle. It’s like both. It’s still a lot to solve. We are showing also they are for anyone. It’s smart. You can do things or whatever, but we will show also much more in July, like with a big big big partner, where we show like real-case scenarios and whatever. But again, it’s still also pilots. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say it this way. But for us as pilots, we have to learn. We have to develop the whole thing further. It needs to have a skin like humans. You know, to be interactive next to humans. It has to be robust enough so you can actually let it fall and will not break all your gears or whatever. So there’s some things you need to solve, and I think it will come, but it will be soon.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:33:13] You know you mentioned it falling. That’s an interesting point. Like how do you address — did the topic of safety come up? Like if a robot fell down on top of a person, that’s going to hurt.

David Reger: [00:33:23] It’s a very good topic actually. So we do have some fall scenarios where we work on them. But the complexity in that is that first, okay, you need to solve one thing. It’s like sensing humans and knowing what’s a human and then being able to interact with it but never collide with the human. But there is not just one scenario.

Winn Hardin: [00:33:50] It’s an infinite number.

David Reger: [00:33:51] We worked on that, and safety is my big — I love safety because I’m a human safety expert and every product which we build it has redundancy, diversity. Everything what we do is on-site. And the humanoid sector, the difficulty is that at the end it’s actually the leg thing, you know. And this is again the issue. So because if you have wheels, you simply just will not fall down. You will have brakes, and you simply stop. That’s it. With the humanoid, you will fall down. And this is actually the scenario where we work on different behavior when it falls. Also different kind of coatings on the system itself. So it will not hurt you. And at the same time also reaction: how it will fall. So it’s the same as we humans. Like we might also fall, but these are things which need to be solved. We have some ideas. We’re working, but it’s still not the solution yet. So we can right now just stop before we are actually touching a human being, before we come too close or whatever. These are things which we can ensure. But everything else like, it still need to be.

Winn Hardin: [00:35:08] Now is that the 4NE-1, the humanoid?

David Reger: [00:35:12] For anyone. So it’s “4NE-1.” And why? Because simply we believe that this will be a body in every home. So it should somehow get a name. Because, you know, when I figured it out. Because when I walked into our AI lab and I say, “Hey, MAiRA,” all the robots are being like, “Hey, what can I do for you?” And then I have an issue like, which one? Everyone is listening to me, so it’s an issue. And that’s why 4NE-1 will be just like, you buy for anyone and you change the name however you want it. And as I told you before, on the way here, it even right now change the name by itself through AI.

Winn Hardin: [00:35:55] I was looking forward to going up there and having the conversation when we dropped by yesterday.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:36:01] You know, it’s rather obvious in some sense that ease of use would be a term or concept that gets thrown around a lot because, you know, things should be easier to use. But that’s something that’s been pushed a lot in the industry lately. And I just think it seems like you guys are really taking that seriously and pushing it to a new level of ease of use. Like Winn said before, it’s beyond the teach pendant.

Winn Hardin: [00:36:25] It’s bringing humanity into the discussion in a very real sense, you know, serving humanity is something I think gets talked about a lot. But you guys in your technology and your existing product line already are living examples of that. So that’s so cool. And from all of us both involved in it and the ones who monitor it and watch, you guys build amazing things, you know. I seriously thank you so much, David. And I can’t thank you enough for your time today. Before we cut loose and let you get on to your next event, is there any last message you’d like to share with the audience?

David Reger: [00:36:56] Yes, I’m super excited to tell we are today also in the U.S. I’m excited to be back in U.S. And as I said, like I was living in San Francisco and I really enjoyed the U.S., and today we will start building here robots. We will build a whole company for the U.S. because I think this will be also super special. I will not limit it to a sales office or whatever, because we’re not looking for sales. We have a partner. Like how we go to market is different than the others. And I think it’s also special but newer, and this is why we focus on core technologies, how to bring them farther, how to make them more useful, and at the same time also looking for all kinds of people. So if you want to join Neura, you have passion about robotics, you have passion about serving humanity with technology, so you’re welcome at Neura. And we are pretty much looking forward. So you can just simply go on our website and look at the openings. I think the U.S. has not a lot of openings right now because we are simply looking for the right leader for this market here. But pretty soon there will be all kind of openings.

Winn Hardin: [00:38:13] You can learn more at neura-robotics.com. And we’ll keep an eye out for the announcement of where the new North American headquarters is going to be located. And in the meantime, you can already access your products through two of the partnerships. I think you announced some partnerships this week. Is that correct?

David Reger: [00:38:28] Yes, yes. We announced the partnership with Omron. It means a lot to us because simply Omron is an industry-leading expert in the automation industries  and has a lot of periphery, which we put on Neura’s platform. And this is also how this whole platform gets even more alive. And at the same time also Kawasaki is one of our partners for cobots. It’s amazing how we work together, and the U.S. is also a very big focus in this segment. Let’s say big experienced players, successful players, which created a market for the last 40, 50 years, are now working with us. Together we are more like a speedboat. And I think there is a lot more things to come, and I’m excited about that.

Winn Hardin: [00:39:26] Wonderful. David Reger, thank you so much for giving us your time again today. It’s been a real pleasure.

Jimmy Carroll: [00:39:31] Greatly appreciate it.

Winn Hardin: [00:39:32] All right. If anybody’s got any questions for David or Neura Robotics, please reach out to them directly through their website. You can also ping us below and we’ll make sure we get any kind of questions you have over to David. In the meantime, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Manufacturing Matters. If you want to see any past episodes, go to Manufacturing-Matters.com or wherever you get your favorite podcast. Thank you so much for your time and we’ll see you soon.

David Reger: [00:39:58] Thank you.