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MobileRobots Inc. of Amherst, N.H., has been acquired by California industrial robotics firm Adept Technology Inc. for an undisclosed amount. MobileRobots specializes in making core robotics systems that can be used in an unstructured environment by having the robots learn their environments and respond to obstacles in their path.
According to Jeanne Dietsch, CEO and co-founder of MobileRobots, the company had for years after its founding in 1995 been selling mainly to research institutions that would use its core technology as the basis for their own research robots. In the past few years the company has gained traction in the warehouse and distribution industry, where its robots can navigate a crowded and changing space.
“We have robots with more miles under difficult industrial conditions than any other robotics company in the world that I am aware of,” Dietsch said.
MobileRobot’s customers include Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., BAE Systems, and MIT, among others, Dietsch said. The company has an annual revenue of approximately $5 million, according to Adept. MobileRobots’ units can pay for itself in under a year, Dietsch said, mainly because you save on infrastructure cost because you don’t need to reconfigure your existing space for the needs of a robot.
With 25 employees, MobileRobots has been profitable “pretty much since day one,” Dietsch said. According to both Dietsch and Adept, getting access to Adept’s global sales force will significantly increase its penetration into the production logistics markets. Adept, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has approximately 140 employees. Following the purchase, MobileRobots will operate as a subsidiary of Adept, which will get a presence on the East Coast. Dietsch said that staff levels at MobileRobots will be slowly increased. While she did not have her official title, Dietsch said she believed it would be something like vice president of emerging technologies.
“Our companies are very compatible,” Dietsch said. “This is definitely a ‘more than a sum of its parts’ sort of merger.”
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