Amazon Net Providers, or AWS, has formally discontinued RoboMaker, its cloud-based robotics simulation platform. This marks the top of a service that appeared to be misaligned from the beginning.
RoboMaker supplied cloud simulation at scale by means of the open-source Gazebo physics engine. The system made it attainable to spin up hundreds of randomized environments and generate move/fail metrics throughout them.
“When AWS decides to retire a service or characteristic, it’s sometimes as a result of its capabilities are higher addressed by newer AWS options or choices from our AWS Companion Community companions that higher meet buyer wants,” an AWS spokesperson instructed The Robotic Report. “In making such choices, our precedence is to offer prospects with steering on obtainable options—whether or not they’re options or accomplice choices—together with learn how to migrate their workloads seamlessly, making certain minimal interruption to their operations.”
RoboMaker customers have been inspired to pivot to AWS Batch. The firm instructed The Robotic Report Batch stands out as RoboMaker’s different with its multi-container assist, permitting a number of containers to run in a single job. AWS wrote a weblog for these trying to transition off of RoboMaker.
“This eliminates the necessity for monolithic containers and permits separate simulation parts, making it best for autonomous methods testing,” AWS mentioned by way of e-mail. “Batch gives higher price management by charging just for compute assets and supporting Spot cases.”
“In contrast to RoboMaker’s limitations, Batch handles any containerized workload and integrates easily with different AWS companies,” it added. “Its flexibility in supporting numerous compute environments and skill to scale from small to giant simulations makes it a extra versatile resolution for contemporary robotics improvement.”
AWS RoboMaker tied to iRobot
AWS launched RoboMaker in 2018. iRobot, developer of the Roomba robotic vacuum, was on the time certainly one of its largest robotics prospects. iRobot expressed curiosity in a scalable simulation service. It thought cloud-based simulation could be helpful for growing robots that function in numerous environments, like houses with totally different layouts, flooring, and lighting.
The Robotic Report spoke with a number of sources, who wished to stay nameless, about RoboMaker. They mentioned the product was misaligned with market want and clearly didn’t achieve sufficient traction. One supply who beforehand labored for RoboMaker mentioned the product was “spun up” basically for iRobot.
“It labored effectively for iRobot,” the supply mentioned. “However there wasn’t a lot due diligence to see if it was helpful for anybody else available in the market.”
For a corporation like iRobot, the flexibility to rapidly simulate in numerous environments was a worthwhile functionality. However most robotics firms didn’t want simulations at that scale.
“Most firms don’t have to simulate hundreds of various environments,” mentioned one supply. “They only want just a few.”
Amazon Robotics didn’t use RoboMaker internally
The supply mentioned the mismatch turned clear over time. The supply mentioned AWS underestimated how fragmented the robotics trade is, and assumed that it may discover “9 different iRobots” to scale RoboMaker adoption. If RoboMaker had been a startup, this supply mentioned, it doubtless would have failed quick. However inside Amazon, jobs and inertia stored the mission alive longer than the market justified.
Amazon Robotics, the most important robotics developer on the planet, having deployed greater than 1 million robots, by no means adopted the service internally, in response to a number of sources.
“The goal marketplace for RoboMaker was giant robotics firms that wished to do huge simulation initiatives,” one supply mentioned. “I don’t assume most of them discovered plenty of worth in it. As soon as your product principally works, are you actually going to spend six figures on Amazon to search out one or two edge instances?”
The shuttering of RoboMaker underscores a well-recognized lesson in robotics: what works for one firm doesn’t at all times scale. For AWS, which prides itself on constructing instruments that scale universally, RoboMaker’s discontinuation is a reminder that not each experiment pays off.
