How Calmantech Goals to Beat Low-cost Robots with Smarter Design

Within the high-stakes world of logistics, house is cash—and mobility is the whole lot. Conventional warehouse robots usually wrestle in tight areas, slowing down operations or forcing pricey redesigns. Calmantech, a Korean robotics firm, thinks it has a greater means ahead. At CES 2026, it should promote its new Ball Whell Expertise robotic sequence, the CMB Stream AI: a compact, omnidirectional cellular robotic platform constructed for the following technology of high-efficiency distribution facilities and manufacturing processes.

The issue Calmantech got down to clear up is evident: warehouses are getting extra crowded, and the demand for quicker throughput retains rising. Most legacy robots depend on fastened paths or huge turning circles, which doesn’t work nicely within the slim corridors and compact layouts of some achievement facilities. People can pivot and switch inside a three-foot-wide aisle—why not robots?

Sadly, there’s a extreme scarcity of (human) labor in lots of elements of the world, together with South Korea, and the necessity for robots has by no means been larger in some areas.

Enter the CMB-90 (picture above). This robotic stands out due to its “Ball Wheel Expertise,” which is analogous in idea to the ball mechanism utilized in old-school laptop mice with an precise ball inside. Slightly than rolling on fastened wheels, the CMB-90 glides throughout flooring utilizing friction-based ball wheels that enable for motion in any course—ahead, sideways, or a spin in place. This makes the robotic particularly nimble in confined areas, slicing down journey time and rising the quantity of usable warehouse ground.

The innovation doesn’t cease at motion. The CMB-90 helps a payload of as much as 90 kilograms. Whereas it could transfer in any course, the robotic is optimized for ahead movement, assisted by a sturdy imaginative and prescient system: a two RGB digicam module within the entrance, and extra cameras within the again, left, and proper. This setup offers it a large area of view for impediment avoidance and spatial consciousness, even in dynamic environments.

Like many fashionable warehouse robots, the CMB-90 communicates via a mesh Wi-Fi community, transmitting information repeatedly for real-time fleet administration. Nevertheless, Calmantech understands that the majority amenities can’t merely substitute their outdated infrastructure in a single day. That’s why the CMB-90 is constructed to co-exist with legacy robots, making it simpler for firms to improve steadily as an alternative of committing to a full system substitute.

Calmantech CEO, Jaehwan Choi (left)

A pure query is whether or not Calmantech’s ball-based mobility is perhaps liable to mud or particles. The corporate acknowledges that, like all friction-based system, cleanliness issues—however says the advantages far outweigh the trade-offs, particularly in new amenities designed with robotics in thoughts. The corporate says its Ball-Wheel may face up to industrial situations.

The enterprise problem is stiff. Calmantech is getting into a worldwide market the place Chinese language-made robots dominate on value. However the firm is betting that velocity, effectivity, and versatile deployment will win out in the long term, particularly in Europe and the U.S. Their technique focuses on new build-outs first, the place warehouses may be designed from the bottom as much as benefit from CMB-90’s compact footprint and superior agility.

The design lands itself to many adaptation, and Calmantech made positive this platform is customizable and plenty of several types of robots may be constructed based mostly on the wheel platform.

Based in Korea, Calmantech is not any stranger to tough environments. Its early work focused growing older industrial zones with declining populations and poor working situations. That historical past has formed its mission: to create robots that may do extra with much less—much less house, much less time, and in the end, much less value.

With the CMB-90, Calmantech isn’t simply making one other warehouse robotic. It’s providing a wiser, extra agile coworker that matches into the fashionable logistics puzzle with out asking the entire system to alter. And that is perhaps precisely what the trade wants.

Filed in Robots. Learn extra about CES, CES 2026, Korea and Robotics.