New business development support case study: From business planning to company launch (design support): PLiBOT Co., Ltd.

BIRD INITIATIVE supported the development of new businesses, from business planning to company launch (design support), and successfully carved out PLiBOT Co., Ltd. from Obayashi Corporation. In this case study, we visited the Aoto office and spoke with Representative Director Masaaki Sato about how the company overcame various challenges to launch as a new company, and its outlook for the future.

01Forming eco-partners

BIRD INITIATIVE: As part of the preparations for the new company's launch, Eco Park formed an Eco Partner. Were there any difficulties in collaborating with overseas manufacturers?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:Recently, overseas business trips have been restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this time, aiming to ease the COVID-19 restrictions, I traveled to Europe to see the overseas partner company, factory, products, and organization in person, and confirmed and formed the direction of the partner company. Although it was difficult not being able to discuss things face-to-face, we have been able to hold repeated meetings online and have come to this day.

02To achieve "connectivity" and "flexibility"

BIRD INITIATIVE: One of the principles of PLiBOT is "connectivity" and "flexibility," but did you encounter any technical difficulties in realizing this?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:The most important thing is navigation. This time, we placed importance on integration, and selected an AMR equipped with BlueBotics (Note 1) navigation. Although the manufacturer is different, the navigation is the same, so there are no issues with integration. However, integration with equipment will require individual adjustments as we work with customers in the future. If the customer's equipment is new, integration will be easy, but when connecting to older equipment, we believe there will be technical difficulties, such as using a PLC. Flexibility allows us to combine equipment according to customer requests, so as long as integration is possible, there will be no technical issues.
Note 1: Swiss autonomous driving navigation system provider

BIRD INITIATIVE: You mentioned BlueBotics, but will you offer a system in Japan that allows different robots to work together, like PLiBOT, as a service?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:In Japan, manufacturers are expanding their product portfolios in order to sell their own products, but because they also want to sell their own robots, collaboration between different robots has not progressed.

BIRD INITIATIVE: When you think about it, PLiBOT is quite advanced in the sense that it has started a company based on the concept of a platform.

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:To get there, Obayashi Corporation used machines from a variety of manufacturers, and the fact that PLiBOT connects a wide variety of manufacturers ties into collaboration, which is one of PLiBOT's philosophies.

BIRD INITIATIVE: I see. In that sense, the fact that you are a venture that emerged from a large corporation is very significant. It emerged from your experience at Obayashi Corporation and partnerships with customers, and has been further refined. What kind of support did you receive from Obayashi Corporation?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:Obayashi Corporation's New Business Promotion Department (Business Innovation Promotion Office) took the lead in coordinating with each existing business department when moving forward with the business, and supported the PLiBOT team in deploying their technology and know-how in the business.

03About our involvement with BIRD INITIATIVE

BIRD INITIATIVE: Could you tell us how our company, BIRD INITIATIVE, came to provide support?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:Obayashi Corporation launched a project called "MAKE BEYOND: Pioneering Creation" as an open innovation initiative to commemorate the 130th anniversary of its founding. As part of this project, Horii, who heads the New Business Promotion Department, had a close relationship with then-President Kitase, and asked BIRD to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of a business utilizing AGVs and AMRs. As a result, BIRD determined that the business had potential, and a business feasibility study team was formed in July of last year, which began operations as a project team. At that time, an advisory agreement was signed with President Kitase regarding comprehensive business development, and business considerations began.

BIRD INITIATIVE: What are some of the benefits of BIRD's support?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:As Obayashi Corporation is a construction company, not a company that sells products, there were many aspects that were beyond the common sense of Obayashi Corporation. For this reason, we asked BIRD INITIATIVE to use their various connections and add an objective perspective to the materials we created, which helped us narrow down the direction of our business. Also, to help the project grow faster and bigger, we asked Fukushima from the Marketing & Design Team for design support, which we believe was extremely helpful in creating the concept.

04The future and possibilities of transportation

BIRD INITIATIVE: When I read another interview article, the phrase "converting real-world information into digital language" really resonated with me. What kind of future vision and possibilities do you see for transportation?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:I think the smart city of the future that everyone envisions is one in which various robots operate based on a unified common language. However, looking at the current situation in Japan, each robot manufacturer unilaterally creates its own language, resulting in different management systems for each manufacturer, so I believe it will still be a long way off before various robots can come together in one place. Therefore, I envision a future in which navigation and APIs will be unified or standardized, allowing various robots to work together. The elevator industry is currently working on a common API for robot-elevator collaboration interfaces, known as robot flexibility. I believe that once APIs are standardized for both the equipment and robot sides, a wider variety of robots will be able to come together and work together, but I think it will still take some time.

BIRD INITIATIVE: Is there anything you have in mind in terms of standardizing, standardizing, and creating common standards for APIs?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:When a standard is eventually established, we just need to be ready to accept it. We have created a platform called PLiBOT by utilizing APIs. Once a standard is established, all we need to do is input the standard as a protocol, which will make PLiBOT easier to use and expand the integration of robots and equipment.

BIRD INITIATIVE: Continuing on from what we've just discussed, what kind of future do you envision when humans and robots can work together?

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:I think smart cities are a vision of the future, but I don't think people have yet established a clear understanding of robots. When you have a pet, like a dog, you can change the environment of your home to accommodate it, but if you wanted to keep an armadillo, you would ask someone with knowledge about armadillos and change the environment in your home so that it could be kept there. In fact, our business is the same. If we ask people with knowledge and the environment for robots and can create an environment where those robots can work with people, I think we will see robots and people working together in the not-too-distant future. We started our company to provide our customers with the platform we've been given, PLiBOT, and by creating the right environment, we can create a robot-friendly environment.

BIRD INITIATIVE: It's truly a platform that connects people and robots. Finally, please tell us about your immediate plans and future developments and plans.

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:A comprehensive exhibition (OBAYASHI VISION SHOWCASE 2022), an event celebrating Obayashi Corporation's 130th anniversary, will be held at the International Forum from October 19th to 21st, and a similar event will be held at the Condensation Center in Umekita, Osaka from November 30th to December 2nd. As at the International Logistics Exhibition, a demonstration of AMR operating on a single platform will be held there as well. A preview was held at PLiBOT's Aoto office after the International Logistics Exhibition, and was visited by customers from various manufacturers. Following the comprehensive exhibition, we will continue to provide more in-depth explanations to customers who attended the preview.

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Postscript to the interview

Masaaki Sato, President and CEO:Even during the interview, we were constantly responding to customers. As the saying goes, "seeing is believing," so if you have the opportunity, we hope you will visit the PLiBOT Aoto office.