What’s new in Apera Forge: advanced cell design, EOAT camera mounting, and de-racking training!
We’re excited to share the latest release of Apera Forge—our no-code, no-hardware, browser-based AI vision design studio for 4D vision-guided robotics. Along with new de-racking training, we’ve drastically expanded what a Forge scene can include, with new camera placements, FOV options, and flexible search regions.
What is Forge?
Your design studio to streamline 4D vision-guided robotics automation projects.
Powered by AI, Apera Forge drastically reduces the time and risks involved in developing vision-guided robotic cells for bin picking, material handling, and now de-racking. Industrial manufacturers can achieve in hours what once took weeks or even months, significantly shortening implementation time while ensuring the success of vision-guided robotic (VGR) automation projects.
You start by simulating your application, including parts, gripper, robot, and cell environment—this takes minutes, not days. Then Forge trains an AI neural network through a million digital cycles to achieve >99.9% reliability in recognizing objects and performing tasks—delivering a complete vision program within 24-48 hours, ready to deploy on-site!
Apera Forge helps build and validate your bin picking and de-racking cells and train your AI vision program in a simulation environment—eliminating the need to invest in hardware upfront while giving you the confidence your robotic cell will perform to spec.
What’s new in Apera Forge?
In this release, we’re introducing major upgrades that expand Forge’s simulation capabilities and make it even easier to design and validate real-world applications like de-racking and EOAT mount vision setups. Whether you’re an integrator, automation professional, or vision specialist, this update puts more flexibility and power into your hands.
Design More Advanced Robotic Cells
Forge now supports advanced cell design with greater flexibility—tuning camera placement, bin positioning, and multiple obstacles—to better match your real-world layouts and improve simulation results. Take advantage of these capabilities today and simulate more diverse applications!
- Increase Cell Accuracy | Arbitrarily position cameras and bins and use reference cell CAD files to achieve more accurate visualization and scaling.
- Use Obstacle Autopilot | Apera Forge now supports integrated autopilot obstacles for enhanced robot navigation and collision avoidance in simulations.
- Import from Vue Configuration | You can now import your complete Vue cell setup, including bins, search regions, obstacles, tables, and calibrated cameras.
Mount cameras on EOAT for de-racking
In addition to Fixed Mount (Eye-to-Hand) configurations, Apera Forge now supports EOAT Mount (Eye-in-Hand) vision configurations. You now have the tools to design and validate setups where cameras are mounted directly on the robot’s end-of-arm tooling (EOAT).
- Determine Camera Placement on EOAT | Visually determine ideal camera placement on end-of-arm tooling by previewing camera views, ensuring clear, unobstructed vision of parts.
This simplifies the design process by allowing you to preview and refine camera positioning directly in Forge—bridging the gap between simulation and real-world de-racking deployments so you can feel confident before setting foot on the plant floor.
Simulate and train assets for de-racking
Forge now supports full simulation and AI-powered training for de-racking applications. Simply define structured part layouts, simulate picks, and train vision models for faster deployments, with complete self-serve training and validation inside Forge!
- Define De-Racking Parameters | You can now precisely specify initial positions, rack axes, part spacing, and part count.
This capability is designed for racked parts—where consistent spacing, orientation, and rack structure are critical to effective part recognition and picking. Train robust AI vision models right in Forge without contacting Apera engineers—a major time-saver for integrators and industrial manufacturers.
Get started today!
Already using Forge? Log in now to explore the new features.
New to Forge? Request access or join us on Tuesday, July 29th for our live webinar:
📅 Tuesday, July 29th
🕚 11 AM PT | 2 PM ET
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to make robotic 4D vision-guided robotic automation smarter, faster, and easier than ever imagined!