Several companies have expressed interest in Techman Robot Inc’s (達明機器人) new humanoid robot, TM Xplore I, which would be first tested at the company’s plants before being offered to customers, the robotic arm partner of Nvidia Corp said yesterday.
Techman, a subsidiary of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), mainly produces artificial intelligence (AI) collaborative robots (cobots), featuring user-friendly systems with integrated vision capabilities.
The company began the TM Xplore I project last year, and is developing a prototype of the machine and testing applications with partners, vice president William Wang (王偉霖) said on the sidelines of the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The company plans to launch the robot in the second half of next year if mass production proceeds smoothly, Wang said.
TM Xplore I is equipped with Nvidia’s Jetson Orin platform, which enables advanced AI inference and edge computing, Techman said.
Mounted on wheels and fitted with 22 switches, it can perform more complex actions that resemble human movements, it said.
Techman produces cobots and robots at the company’s plant in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), where the utilization rate is about 50 to 60 percent, Wang said.
In the first half of the year, shipments of cobots integrated with autonomous mobile robots for medical device maker Advantech Technologies Japan accounted for about 30 percent of the company’s sales, while cobot shipments to chipmakers made up about 25 percent, Techman said.
The company reported revenue of NT$891.33 million (US$29.22 million) in the first half of this year, up 16.35 percent year-on-year.
The US accounted for less than 5 percent of total sales in the first half, while China contributed about 30 percent and Europe about 20 percent, Wang said.
However, the company posted a net loss of NT$29.48 million in the first half of the year due to the sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar.
In the US, the company operates a hub that stores finished products and spare parts, mainly providing after-sales services, and is considering establishing a similar facility in Mexico, Wang said.
The company would consider establishing a production center in the US or Mexico if needed, given manageable US tariffs and setup costs, he added.
Techman chairman Ho Shih-chih (何世池) said that several customers delayed plans for new plants and capital expenditure increases last quarter due to tariffs, which have indirectly affected Techman’s shipments.
However, demand has begun to recover as related policies have begun to stabilize and customers finalize plans to set up plants in the US, Mexico, Vietnam and Thailand, boding well for Techman’s business outlook, he said.
Revenue in the second half of this year is expected to surpass last year’s NT$715 million as growth momentum continues, Ho said.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
About 1,000 participants, including more than 200 venture capitalists, joined the Taiwan Demo Day in Silicon Valley on Saturday, the largest iteration to date of the event held ahead of Nvidia Corp’s annual GPU Technology Conference which runs from today to Thursday. Taiwan Demo Day, co-organized by the Taiwan Next Foundation and the Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley Hub, took place at the Computer History Museum in California, showcasing 12 teams focused on physical artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic AI technologies. Katie Hsieh (謝凱婷), founder of the Taiwan Next Foundation, said the event highlighted the strength of the Taiwan-US start-up ecosystem, with
DOMESTIC COMPONENT: Huang identified several Taiwanese partners to be a key part of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin supply chain, including Asustek, Hon Hai and Wistron Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), addressing crowds at the company’s biggest annual event, unveiled a variety of new products while predicting that its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) processors would help generate US$1 trillion in sales through next year. During a two-and-a-half-hour keynote address, Huang announced plans to push deeper into central processing units (CPUs) — Intel Corp’s home turf — and introduced semiconductors made with technology acquired from start-up Groq Inc. The company even said it was developing chips for data centers in outer space. At the heart of Huang’s speech was the message that demand for computing power
RSS