GeckoSystems Finalizing Joint Venture Agreement with Fubright to Improve SoftBank's Pepper Robot
ACCESS Newswire
CONYERS, GA / ACCESSWIRE / August 26, 2015 / GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (http://www.geckosystems.com/) (GOSY), announced today that the company has reached mutually acceptable joint venture terms not only with Fubright Communications Co. Ltd., but also with their long time Japanese representatives, Mssrs. Katsuji Fujii and Hajime Yasumatsu. This joint venture's strategic focus is to enable use of GeckoSystems' GeckoNav(tm) self guidance mobile robot software on SoftBank Robotics' personal robots to all Pepper users in Japan. For over eighteen years GeckoSystems has dedicated itself to development of "AI Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service(TM)."
"The now agreed upon licensing allocation schedule sets the royalty stream to GeckoSystems and Mssrs. Fujii and Yasumatsu. It is nearly an order magnitude greater than what Microsoft receives from OEM's per PC. It differs in that it is on an annual, per year basis to fit SoftBank's pricing strategy in Japan," stated Martin Spencer, CEO, GeckoSystems.
Fubright won SoftBank's Pepper robot software contest against several dozens of competitors late last year with an app known as Ninnin Pepper. Ninnin allows the Pepper robot to assist in waking up dementia patients and take their scheduled medicines on time. Pepper also reports to a doctor via Internet if the patient did not consume their pills. On a daily basis, the robot communicates with the patient by asking about their family to stimulate memory and the touch screen tablet on its chest has the capability to send and receive pictures and messages from a family member. ("Japanese humanoid robot called Pepper gets its own app")
Recently, Fubright witnessed a live demonstration in Japan of GeckoNav and received training from another Japanese partner of GeckoSystems, iXs Research, in its operation. GeckoNav is portable and very little R&D will be required to migrate and integrate the Company's flagship real time sense and avoid self-driving artificial intelligence (AI) software to the Pepper robot. This proprietary AI software enables the robot to move about rooms and hallways safely for errand running, etc., gracefully while avoiding any unforeseen objects.
No other AI mobile robot company in Asia, the US, or Europe is known to have mobile robot solutions with this level of automatic self-guidance with dynamic obstacle avoidance movement that is "jet fighter pilot" capable in complex, fluid environments. Those that suggest they do have this capability require tens of thousands of dollars of computer and sensory systems hardware to achieve what the Company does for a few hundred. GeckoSystems was founded over 18 years ago and over $8,000,000 has been spent to develop their low cost, breakthrough, proprietary AI technology. The company developed their SafePath(TM) AI mobile robot navigation technologies to address those very important linchpin requirements for any mobile robot to be truly utilitarian (convenient like a home appliance), while being cost effective for a compelling value proposition.
SoftBank is encouraging and seeking apps for their Pepper robot just as they seek apps for the smart phones they sell in Japan, and as Apple does for its smart phones. GeckoSystems alliance with Fubright enables greater credibility, and acceptance by Japanese users for GeckoSystems and consequently enhances sales growth and licensing revenues.
Presently the Pepper robot lacks the fundamental and necessary functionality to safely run errands and automatically follow the care receiver. Again, real time sense and avoid moving of unmapped obstacles is a functional deficiency that precludes the Pepper from fully exploiting Fubright's win of SoftBank's Pepper software contest with their "Ninnin Pepper" for aiding those challenged by dementia. This need coupled with the robustness, maturity and ease of migration of GeckoNav to the Pepper is why Fubright is partnering with GeckoSystems.
SoftBank is fully aware of the reality that the Japanese heath care insurance system decreed over a year ago that their insurance program would pay 90% of the monthly costs of providing personal mobile robots for eldercare. SoftBank has a billion dollar market opportunity to sell millions of Pepper robots in the next few years. Foxconn wishes to manufacture those millions of Pepper robots for the Japanese and Chinese markets. Alibaba wishes to distribute a Chinese version of the Pepper in China.
At this time, there are approximately 2,200,000 million Japanese over 65 living alone. Their greatest fear is to die alone and that their demise not be known to others for a few days. With the AI software upgrades that Fubright and GeckoSystems are migrating to SoftBank's Pepper personal robot and the Japanese government paying 90% of the cost of personal robots used for eldercare, that concern would be well addressed.
Presently, SoftBank is selling out the 1,000 Pepper robots per month that Foxconn is producing in their pilot manufacturing line within 2 to 3 minutes of online availability. At that low rate, by year's end, there should be about 7,000 Peppers "in use."
Recently, Foxconn has publicized that they are preparing to assemble 15 Peppers per hour (per assembly line). No doubt SoftBank and Foxconn wish to achieve 50% penetration of the present, minimal pent up demand, or 1,100,000 households, within the next 3 years, or by end of 2018. One may assume that SoftBank is paying Foxconn about $3,500 for each Pepper and that Foxconn expects a Net Profit After Taxes (NPAT) on this joint venture with SoftBank of no less than 5%.
Given those foregoing probabilities, our revenue forecasts provide some rather startling financial insights. As a result of Foxconn's venture with SoftBank, Foxconn should see Direct Gross Sales (DGS) of:
- 7,000 in 2015 with DGS of $24,500,000 and NPAT of $1,225,000; - 132,000 in 2016 with DGS of $462,000,000 and NPAT of $23,100,000; - 489,600 in 2017 with DGS of $1,713,600,000 and NPAT of $85,680,000; - and 518,400 in 2018 with DGS of $1,814,400,000 and NPAT of $90,720,000.
It is now readily apparent why Foxconn purchased 20% of SoftBank Robotics from SoftBank for $118,000,000.
GeckoSystems' Japanese joint venture, with Fubright and others, should see gross licensing revenues of:
- $25,920,000 in 2016; - $176,670,000 in 2017; - and $409,230,000 in 2018.
GeckoSystems and their Japanese joint venture partners want to have their proprietary AI robotics software on every Pepper sold in the world.
"Due to Fubright's preeminent position and relationship with SoftBank Robotics, and now inclusion of our Japanese representatives, it is very satisfying to make this announcement and present these revenue forecasts to all our stockholders, both present and future. As would be expected at this time, we have other ongoing negotiations, not only in Japan and China, but also in the U.S. After many years of patience by our current 1300+ stockholders, they can be assured that the present management continues to work to maximize their investments in GeckoSystems whether by organic growth or being acquired at a rewarding premium," concluded Spencer.
Robotic systems are looked at as the future assistants that are designed to help people to do what they want to do in a natural and spontaneous manner. Moreover, with the emergence of ubiquitous computing and communication environments, robots will be able to call upon an unlimited knowledge base and coordinate their activities with other devices and systems. Additionally, the growing spread of ubiquitous computing will lead to robot technologies being embedded into ubiquitous ICT networks to become human agents of physical actions, enhancing and extending the physical capabilities and senses.
The report focuses on giving a detailed view of the complete service robotics industry with regards to the professional and personal applications as well as the geography market. Apart from the market segmentation, the report also includes the critical market data and qualitative information for each product type along with the qualitative analysis; such as Porter's five force analysis, market time-line analysis, industry breakdown analysis, and value chain analysis. The global service robotics market is estimated to reach up to $19.41 billion by 2020 growing at a CAGR of 21.5% from 2014 to 2020.
The report recognizes the following companies as the key players in the Global Service Robot Market: GeckoSystem Intl. Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., iRobot Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.
* The multibillion-dollar global market for robotics, long dominated by industrial and logistics uses, has begun to see a shift toward new consumer and office applications. There will be a $1.5 billion market for consumer and business robots by 2019. * The market for consumer and office robots will grow at a CAGR of 17% between 2014 and 2019, seven times faster than the market for manufacturing robots.
Note: BusinessInsider.com 's forecasts do not include pent up demand for family care social robots anywhere in the world.
About GeckoSystems:
GeckoSystems has been developing innovative robotic technologies for over fifteen years. It is CEO Martin Spencer's dream to make people's lives better through robotic technology.
These videos illustrate the development of the technology that makes GeckoSystems a world leader in Service Robotics development. Early CareBot prototypes were slower and frequently pivoted in order to avoid a static or dynamic obstacle; later prototypes avoided obstacles without pivoting. Current CareBots avoid obstacles with a graceful "bicycle smooth" motion. The latest videos also depict the CareBot's ability to automatically go faster or slower depending on the amount of clutter (number of obstacles) within its field of view. This is especially important when avoiding moving obstacles in "loose crowd" situations like a mall or an exhibit area.
In addition to the timeline videos, GeckoSystems has numerous YouTube videos. The most popular of which are the ones showing room-to-room automatic self-navigation of the CareBot through narrow doorways and a hallway of an old 1954 home. You will see the CareBot slow down when going through the doorways because of their narrow width and then speed up as it goes across the relatively open kitchen area. There are also videos of the SafePath(tm) wheelchair, which is a migration of the CareBot AI centric navigation system to a standard power wheelchair, and recently developed cost effective depth cameras were used in this recent configuration. SafePath navigation is now available to OEM licensees and these videos show the versatility of GeckoSystems' fully autonomous navigation solution.
The company has successfully completed an Alpha trial of its CareBot personal assistance robot for the elderly. It was tested in a home care setting and received enthusiastic support from both caregivers and care receivers. The company believes that the CareBot will increase the safety and well being of its elderly charges while decreasing stress on the caregiver and the family.
CareBot has incorporated Microsoft Kinect depth cameras that result in a significant cost reduction.
Above, the CareBot demonstrates static and dynamic obstacle avoidance as it backs in and out of a narrow and cluttered alley. There is no joystick control or programmed path; movements are smoother that those achieved using a joystick control. GeckoNav creates three low levels of obstacle avoidance: reactive, proactive, and contemplative. Subsumptive AI behavior within GeckoNav enables the CareBot to reach its target destination after engaging in obstacle avoidance.
Statements regarding financial matters in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, technology efficacy and all other forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbors created thereby. The Company is a development stage firm that continues to be dependent upon outside capital to sustain its existence. Since these statements (future operational results and sales) involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from expected results.
