Ubica wins European robotics prize

The company is a spin-off from the University of Bremen. It aims to make robotics and artificial intelligence usable for the retail sector.

Bremen-based start-up Ubica Robotics, together with the University of Bremen and the IT subsidiary of drugstore chain DM, Dmtech, has received the Eurobotics Technology Transfer Award 2022. The university spin-off was awarded the prize for its outstanding success in transferring research results from European robotics research to industrial applications.

Ubica wants to use intelligent robots to enable more efficient logistics and more comprehensive customer service in stationary retail. The company was launched as a university research project in 2017, from which the start-up emerged three years later. The start-up creates a digital twin of the store, which provides a wealth of important information about the operation of the store. This ranges from replenishment requirements and product placement to the packing of pallets in the central warehouse. For example, the Ubica robots should now be able to navigate independently through a retail store and recognize the stock levels of products on the shelves.

"Our robots make it possible to significantly improve a store's internal processes," says Georg Bartels, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ubica. David Walter from Dmtech, who works with them, agrees. He says: "For example, individual product recommendations or the connection of delivery services are conceivable. We want to offer many of the advantages of online stores to the customers of bricks-and-mortar stores too."