CONYERS, GA--(Marketwired - Sep 24, 2015) - GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (
"Unfortunately, we have recently learned and wish to acknowledge to our shareholders that our press releases have not been as widely distributed as they have been in the past. Consequently, due to that reality, we are using a new PR distribution service to better, and more timely, inform our 1300+ shareholders," apologized Martin Spencer, CEO, GeckoSystems Intl. Corp.
Presently, due to the portability of GeckoSystems' WCET AI technology (See discussion below.), it is slated for migration to two dramatically different mobile platforms. One is the Pepper personal mobile robot by SoftBank Robotics (formerly Aldebaran Robotics) for which we are presently hiring key employees. The other is for an off road 4x4 combat vehicle. We are negotiating a $1,200,000+ contract with a major defense contractor such that we may upgrade their ground combat vehicle to a high level of mobile autonomy. This is a non-trivial challenge because their off road 4x4 combat vehicle was not designed to be unmanned, driverless, or self driving.
The first meeting with the defense contractor last week at their advanced product development facility was to allow for a hands on review of their vehicle such that GeckoSystems's roboticists can better ascertain upgrade extent needed and cost feasibility. The contractor graciously presented the merits of their off road 4X4 ground combat vehicle to be upgraded with GeckoSystems' proprietary AI SafePath™ technologies to "self-driving." Here, that capability would include automatically "going home" with little or no human control and/or intervention.
To enable this meeting a Proprietary Information Agreement (PIA), prepared by the defense contractor's legal personnel specifically for this meeting, was agreed to by all parties. The defense contractor is amongst the five largest in the world producing manned and unmanned vehicles for air, land, and space. Due to the now executed PIA, the name of the contractor cannot be revealed until a contractual agreement is signed.
Nonetheless, Spencer's initial reaction to the mechanical, electronic, and software sophistication of the vehicle is that it is more robust than anticipated. Using modern CAN automotive data communications to the many engine, drive train and steering was unexpected, but a definite plus. As a key contract negotiating term, the contractor has committed to reliable "reach back" (to enable prompt tech support) as a fundamental commitment to GeckoSystems to ensure success.
"As a result of our recent meeting, we now believe that this first tier defense contractor shares our perception that they would enjoy dramatically increased sales since their upgraded product would be in extremely high demand by governments all over the world with an automatic 'go home' self driving capability. This is like a pioneer medical doctor's horse taking him home 'automatically' after he delivered a baby late at night for a rural farm wife. In a combat zone setting, none of the wounded soldiers on board would have to guide GeckoSystems' AI augmented ground combat vehicle to safe refuge, nor would any outside human intervention be needed. We have that technological framework and motivation to do so," reflected Spencer.
On another, but related note, 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™ self-guidance mobile robot software on SoftBank Robotics' personal robots to all Pepper users in Japan.
"We have now retained a PhD in physics to translate our WCET discussion from English to Japanese (and later Chinese) to assist our Special Project Team (SPT) in its integration of GeckoSystems' SafePath™ AI navigation technologies with the Pepper mobile personal robot. The now agreed upon licensing allocation schedule with Fubright 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 Spencer.
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")
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.
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 the top five position in the world of this US defense contractor we recently visited and are now negotiating with, it is very satisfying to make this announcement and provide 'reason to believe' for the basis of their sincere and genuine interest in entering into a contractual agreement with us to substantiate the viability of our AI mobile robot solutions for their present and future products. This is occurring as we continue to make progress in Japan establishing the joint venture by hiring key employees to assist Fubright and our Special Project Team to migrate our AI robot self navigation software to SoftBank's Pepper personal mobile robot. Our shareholders can be assured that management continues to work daily to maximize their investments in GeckoSystems," concluded Spencer.
Worst Case Execution Time (WCET) Discussion:
In order to understand the importance of GeckoSystems' breakthrough, proprietary, and exclusive AI software and why this top five defense contractor desires to enter a contractual relationship with GeckoSystems, it's essential to discuss some basic realities for all forms of automatic, non-human intervention, vehicular locomotion and steering to be deemed "self driving" and/or "driverless."
1. Laws of Physics such as Conservation of Energy, inertia, and momentum, limit a vehicle's ability to stop or maneuver. If, for instance, a car's braking system design cannot generate enough friction for a given road surface to stop the car in 100 feet after brake application, that's a real limitation. If a car cannot corner at more than .9g due to a combination of suspension design and road conditions, that, also, is reality. Regardless how talented a NASCAR driver may be, if his race car is inadequate, he's not going to win races.
2. At the same time, if a car driver (or pilot) is tired, drugged, distracted, etc. their reflex time becomes too slow to react in a timely fashion to unexpected direction changes of moving obstacles, or the sudden appearance of fixed obstacles. Many car "accidents" result from drunk driving due to reflex time and/or judgment impairment. Average reflex time takes between 150 & 300ms. http://tinyurl.com/nsrx75n
3. In robotic systems, "human reflex time" is known as Worst Case Execution Time (WCET). Historically, in computer systems engineering, WCET of a computational task is the maximum length of time the task could take to execute on a specific hardware platform. In big data, this is the time to load up the data to be processed, processed, and then outputted into a useful distillations, summaries, or common sense insights. GeckoSystems' basic AI self-guidance navigation system processes 147 megabytes of data per second using low cost, commercial off the shelf (COTS) single board computers (SBCs).
4. Highly trained and skilled jet fighter pilots have a reflex time (WCET) of less than 120ms. Their "eye to hand" coordination time is a fundamental criterion for them to be successful jet fighter pilots. The same holds true for all high performance forms of transportation that are sufficiently pushing the limits of the Laws of Physics to require the quickest possible reaction time for safe human control and/or usage.
5. GeckoSystems' WCET is less than 100ms, or as quick, or quicker than most gifted jet fighter pilots, NASCAR race car drivers, etc. while using low cost COTS and SBCs
6. In mobile robotic guidance systems, WCET has 3 fundamental components.
a. Sufficient Field Of View (FOV) with appropriate granularity, accuracy, and update rate.
b. Rapid processing of that contextual data such that common sense responses are generated.
c. Timely physical execution of those common sense responses.
More about GeckoSystems' proprietary SafePath AI technologies:
Due to the quickness of GeckoSystems' WCET, nearly all forms of all vehicles can achieve the ability to real time sense and avoid of moving, and/or unforeseen (unmapped) obstacles. This is the fundamental reason this major defense contractor wishes to have a proposal submitted from GeckoSystems. Not only can their land-based vehicles be safer and more autonomous (nearly no emergency human intervention), but also all forms of drones including boats, aircraft, undersea vehicles, and more.
Those organizations and firms that do not have videos portraying that their robotic vehicles' (drones, driverless cars, self driving cars, etc.) abilities to timely sense and avoid moving obstacles, simply cannot do so, as GeckoSystems can: http://t.co/NqqM22TbKN
All mobile robotic vehicles are therefore unsafe for human usage unless the AI "driver" is jet fighter pilot reflex quick and not "drugged, distracted, or lacking good enough vision" to be allowed to drive in public, people congested areas.
As a result of GeckoSystems worldwide preeminence in this essential WCET parameter, for several years running now, GeckoSystems has been identified many times as one of the top five to top ten mobile service robot companies in the world. Several internationally renowned market research firms, such as Research and Markets, have named GeckoSystems as one of the key market players in the mobile robotics industry.
Recent third party market research:
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.
Worldwide Service Robot Market 2018 Analysis & Forecasts Report
The report recognizes the following companies as the key players in the Global Service Robot Market: GeckoSystems Intl. Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., iRobot Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.
From Forbes:
Investors Take Note, The Next Big Thing Will Be Robots
BusinessInsider makes some key points:
* 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 eighteen years. It is CEO Martin Spencer's dream to make people's lives better through robotic technology.
An overview of GeckoSystems' progress containing over 700 pictures and 120 videos can be found at http://www.geckosystems.com/timeline/.
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™ 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.
GeckoSystems, Star Wars Technology
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.
Kinect Enabled Personal Robot video
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.
More information on the CareBot personal assistance robot:
http://www.geckosystems.com/markets/CareBot.php
GeckoSystems stock is quoted in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) markets under the ticker symbol GOSY. http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/GOSY/quote
Here is a stock message board devoted to GOSY recommended by us:
http://investorshangout.com/board/62282/Geckosystems+Intl+Co-GOSY
GeckoSystems uses LinkedIn and Twitter as its primary social media site for investor updates.
Spencer's LinkedIn.com profile
Spencer tweets as @GrandpaRobot
Telephone:
Main number: +1 678-413-9236
Fax: +1 678-413-9247
Website: http://www.geckosystems.com/
Safe Harbor:
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.
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Martin Spencer
678-413-9288
mspencer@geckosystems.com