During our first product keynote earlier this year, we explained how we’re working to make advanced robotics and AI simple to use, for experts and non-experts alike. When we announced Intrinsic Flowstate — our intuitive, web-based developer environment — we received more than 1,000 applications to our first private beta program. Applicants included today’s hardware and software automation experts as well as software developers and business builders around the world.

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We’ve been particularly encouraged by the breadth and variety of interest we’ve seen from the applicant pool. Across businesses, functional roles, verticals, and geographies, there’s a lot of interest in tools that make robots easier, faster and more seamless to build with.

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• By industry: In-house teams from robotics, manufacturing, and automation companies were highly interested in Flowstate, alongside researchers, system integrators and automation software providers. It was exciting to see so many applications from solution builders in industrial design, construction, logistics, and biotech too.

• By company size: In addition to some of the world’s leading manufacturers in electronics, robotics, automotive, aviation, and aerospace, more than 60% of applicants reported working at small or medium-sized businesses (SMEs) who build their own automation solutions to sell, or want to use robotics to improve their existing operations.

• By functional roles: A wide variety of hardware and software professionals expressed interest in the beta for Flowstate. Their engineering specialties included robotics, application, software, controls, automation, and systems. PLC and robot programmers also applied in high numbers.

• By experience: We welcomed team members from OSRC (the commercial subsidiary of Open Robotics) to Intrinsic late last year, so we were happy to see 2 of every 3 applicants had experience with ROS, Gazebo, or Open-RMF. The Intrinsic platform and Flowstate are being developed with deeper ROS and open-source integrations, planned over time.

As we wrap up our first private beta program, we’re taking stock of the insights and suggestions we received. Our next beta release will include many new features as a result. During this summer beta program, participants were able to access Flowstate through their web browser and design end-to-end robotic solutions as part of our interactive tutorials. These solutions didn’t just work in simulation.

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More than half of participants chose to run their self-built solutions on physical robotic work cells located in Intrinsic labs, remotely controlling real hardware, live and with only a web browser. From design to deployment, sim to real and Munich to Mountain View - we are off to a flying start!

Thank you again to those who are investing their time, expertise and creativity into making Flowstate better. We’re looking forward to welcoming more beta testers in the coming months. If you’re interested in early access, you can learn more and apply for the beta of Intrinsic Flowstate here.