OTTO Motors Wins OCE Mind to Market Award

(Kitchener, ON, Canada – October 19, 2017) – OTTO Motors is proud to announce their win of the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) 2017 Mind to Market Award. The award was presented at the OCE Annual General Meeting on October 18, 2017 by Dr. Tom Corr, OCE’s President and CEO, Janet Ecker, OCE Board member and former President and CEO for Toronto Financial Services Alliance, and Jane D. Allen, OCE Board member and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation for Hydro One Limited. Addresses were delivered by the Honourable Reza Moridi, Minister of Research, Innovation and Science, and the Honourable Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development and Growth at the AGM.

"I congratulate each Mind to Market Award finalist for outstanding research collaboration," says Reza Moridi, Minister of Research, Innovation and Science. "Companies like these are putting Ontario on the map in a highly competitive global economy as a leading destination for research, innovation and collaboration."

Watch this video from OCE on the three finalists for the Mind to Market award.

The OTTO self-driving vehicle is designed exclusively for material transport in industrial environments. It is an evolution of the automated guided vehicle (AGV) and uses advanced sensors and artificial intelligence to provide flexible automation that does not require fixed infrastructure (no beacons, magnetic tape or pre-defined laser paths).

“If you’re a manufacturer in Canada, you have to be very advanced or you’ve already been shut down,” said Matt Rendall, CEO of OTTO Motors. “When you study what people do inside a manufacturing operation and understand how people’s time is dissected into the various tasks that they do, a good percentage of that time is spent walking from one place to another. Walking is one of the lowest value activities you can do. OTTO applies autonomous vehicle technology to the manufacturing environment and outsources the low-value activity of walking.”

On hand to accept the award for OTTO Motors was Simon Drexler, Director of Product for the company.

“The OCE Mind to Market Award is important to OTTO because we want to continue our focus on ensuring our neighbors throughout Ontario know about the tools being developed in their own backyard that they can take advantage of to improve their operations,” said Drexler. “Ontario can be an advanced manufacturing hub for the world because of the unique blend of research, skilled resources, and industry partners that are available in our community. The Mind to Market award highlights our commercialization of world leading autonomy systems in the industrial market and increases awareness of OTTO in our home market.”

The award honours the best OCE-supported research collaboration, between business and research communities, resulting in effective commercialization of leading ideas and solutions. OTTO Motors, along with their parent company Clearpath Robotics, has been supporting research at the University of Waterloo throughout the lifespan of the company. Dr. Richard Waslander, Professor at the University of Waterloo has worked on research collaboration with the team at both Clearpath and OTTO for over a decade.

"Thank you to the Mind to Market judging panel, Richard Worsfold from OCE, Professor Waslanger, our incredibly brilliant and hard-working team at OTTO Motors, and of course, the Ontario manufacturers who are welcoming OTTO onto their shop floors," said Drexler. "We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration with the OCE, University of Waterloo and all our contributors and supporters - OTTO is just getting started."

About Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Inc.

OCE drives the commercialization of cutting-edge research across key market sectors to build the economy of tomorrow and secure Ontario's global competitiveness. In doing this, OCE fosters the training and development of the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs and is a key partner with Ontario's industry, universities, colleges, research hospitals, investors and governments. A champion of leading-edge technologies, best practices and research, OCE invests in sectors such as advanced health, digital media and information communications, advanced manufacturing and materials, and cleantech including energy, environment and water. OCE is a key partner in delivering Ontario's Innovation Agenda as a member of the province's Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE). Funded by the Government of Ontario, the ONE is made up of regional and sector-focused organizations and helps Ontario-based entrepreneurs rapidly grow their company and create jobs.

About OTTO Motors

OTTO Motors designs, manufactures and operates self-driving vehicles to automate material movement inside busy factories and warehouses. Using self-driving technology much like the Google Car, the easy-to-use OTTO vehicles move inventory in a safe and flexible manner throughout the indoor supply chain. Customers include Fortune 100 brands like General Electric, John Deere, and Toyota. For more information, visit www.ottomotors.com.

Media Contact:
Rebecca Mayville
Marketing Communications
press@ottomotors.com
www.ottomotors.com