We carry the dynamism of our youth to our industry as well
Unirobotics, which was established to develop innovative mechatronic systems so that the weapon systems to be integrated into the platforms can be used more effectively, is a company focused on developing smart mechanisms that will assist and support the operators of weapon systems.
Stating that Unirobotics was established in Istanbul in May 2020 in order to produce products in this field as a result of R&D activities related to mechatronics and robotic systems for the defense industry, Ömür Baç, Founding Member and Managing Director of Unirobotics had a busy 2021. Noting that they are still a very young company, they intend to turn innovation into a culture in order keep up with the times, Baç explained their roadmap as follows:
How did you establish Unirobotics? What were the ideas and requirements that created your company?
Ömür Baç: The needs that the companies, who are the founding partners of our company, have identified so far as a entities operating in the defense industry had a significant impact. In particular, the need for stabilization on mobile systems and systems that are similar, created our foundational project. Unidef, one of the founding partners, is a company that has integrated weapons into many air, land and naval platforms. As a result of the emergence of different user needs during these integrations, the most important need in the works performed was stabilization. The need for stabilization is solved by remote-controlled towers in the sector, but this solution may not be suitable for every platform. For example, the placement of such towers on small offshore platforms presents difficulties in terms of both weight and space to be placed. In addition, operations with such platforms can be very fast and in close contact. For this reason, human perception and reflexes must be used in these operations. At this point, as a solution to all these processes, as Unirobotics, we have developed the Aktif Dengeleyicili Silah Mesnedi (Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer).
As Unirobotics, you are actually a young company. How has Unirobotics made a difference in its industry since its establishment?
Ömür Baç: Unirobotics was founded in 2020. The employees and managers of the company are both young, and our company has a very dynamic work team, and we have engineers and employees from different disciplines in our team. We work to reflect this dynamism and diversity in our products and to accurately identify the needs of end users. The age we live in is a period of great change for many sectors with the speed of communication, ease of access to information and technology. Firms are working on adapting themselves to this change and they are making structural changes in order not to fall behind this change. A different product, system or innovation may emerge every day, and this can be an innovation that can easily replace existing structures. In this sense, we intend to make the pursuit of innovation a culture in order not to lag behind the pace of our age.
CONTRACT MADE WITH HAVELSAN
Another important agreement we made in 2021 was the Remote Controlled Weapons Tower agreement for the Offshore Patrol Vessel (ADKG) project that we signed with HAVELSAN. As Unirobotics, we started to develop a remotely controlled weapon system for ADKG. With this system, which we will complete the design and R&D processes of next year, we will obtain a system whose qualification has been completed in 2023.
How was 2021 for you? What were the products and initiatives you realized for this year?
Ömür Baç: 2021 passed with an intense R&D process for us. We completed the critical design processes of our products this year. As of its establishment, our company started the Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer project and advanced the development processes of related software, electronic and mechanical systems. During this phase, our company went through an intense process both in terms of establishing the organization and managing our projects. With this R&D community, the number of our projects started to increase after the establishment. First of all, the Smart Firearm Systems (SFS) project was initiated with Samsun Yurt Savunma. With SFS, an environment is created where users can measure their performance and improve them with various training scenarios by using the sensor package placed on handguns. By keeping the sensor package inside the frame of CANiK handguns, compatibility with all existing CANiK handguns and accessories was ensured, thus creating an easily integrated solution for handguns that are already in use. With this product group, we will first introduce systems for civilian users, but it is a product with a wide range of military and law enforcement use.
What do you have on your roadmap for 2022?
Ömür Baç: In 2021, we matured our existing projects and moved them to qualification processes. We are planning our investments for the commercialization of these products and growth in our company in this sense for the year 2022. Therefore, sending our products to their end users for the first time is an important step in the commercialization of our products. That’s why 2022 is a very important year for us. In addition to this, the R&D processes of our projects that will expand our product family will continue in 2022. Within this scope, we are planning a process in which we will increase our R&D investments in terms of both personnel and infrastructure.
What kind of new approaches will we be seeing in the sector in the new period and where will be Unirobotics in this?
Ömür Baç: When we say robotics and mechatronics, we understand that many disciplines, especially mechanics, electronics and software come into play. From this, we understand that intelligent systems provide support to people, operations or tasks. In this sense, we foresee that the defense systems will be strengthened. We see that many companies in the sector are working on this issue. In this sense, Unirobotics deals with mechatronic approaches in weapon systems. When we examine the weapon systems, we can see that these systems work integrated with the human. Our foundation project, Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer, is a product directly related to how a robotic system will work together with the weapon operator. We continue our efforts to increase the efficiency of weapon systems together with weapon or system operators. In this way, stronger defense systems will emerge by obtaining systems with increased accuracy.
Do you cooperate with universities as Unirobotics?
Ömür Baç: Unirobotics has many doctoral and graduate personnel. We want our colleagues from other disciplines, especially engineers, who will take part in our R&D teams, to do master’s and doctorate degrees, and as a company, we support our employees. In addition, we also create internship programs for the 3rd and 4th year students who have just received university undergraduate education. Apart from this, our cooperation with universities continues beyond internship programs. By getting consultancy from universities, we provide an indepth examination of the studies we have done in many fields. We also work with university laboratories in testing and qualification processes.
How did you establish Unirobotics? What were the ideas and requirements that created your company?
Ömür Baç: The needs that the companies, who are the founding partners of our company, have identified so far as a entities operating in the defense industry had a significant impact. In particular, the need for stabilization on mobile systems and systems that are similar, created our foundational project. Unidef, one of the founding partners, is a company that has integrated weapons into many air, land and naval platforms. As a result of the emergence of different user needs during these integrations, the most important need in the works performed was stabilization. The need for stabilization is solved by remote-controlled towers in the sector, but this solution may not be suitable for every platform. For example, the placement of such towers on small offshore platforms presents difficulties in terms of both weight and space to be placed. In addition, operations with such platforms can be very fast and in close contact. For this reason, human perception and reflexes must be used in these operations. At this point, as a solution to all these processes, as Unirobotics, we have developed the Aktif Dengeleyicili Silah Mesnedi (Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer).
As Unirobotics, you are actually a young company. How has Unirobotics made a difference in its industry since its establishment?
Ömür Baç: Unirobotics was founded in 2020. The employees and managers of the company are both young, and our company has a very dynamic work team, and we have engineers and employees from different disciplines in our team. We work to reflect this dynamism and diversity in our products and to accurately identify the needs of end users. The age we live in is a period of great change for many sectors with the speed of communication, ease of access to information and technology. Firms are working on adapting themselves to this change and they are making structural changes in order not to fall behind this change. A different product, system or innovation may emerge every day, and this can be an innovation that can easily replace existing structures. In this sense, we intend to make the pursuit of innovation a culture in order not to lag behind the pace of our age.
CONTRACT MADE WITH HAVELSAN
Another important agreement we made in 2021 was the Remote Controlled Weapons Tower agreement for the Offshore Patrol Vessel (ADKG) project that we signed with HAVELSAN. As Unirobotics, we started to develop a remotely controlled weapon system for ADKG. With this system, which we will complete the design and R&D processes of next year, we will obtain a system whose qualification has been completed in 2023.
How was 2021 for you? What were the products and initiatives you realized for this year?
Ömür Baç: 2021 passed with an intense R&D process for us. We completed the critical design processes of our products this year. As of its establishment, our company started the Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer project and advanced the development processes of related software, electronic and mechanical systems. During this phase, our company went through an intense process both in terms of establishing the organization and managing our projects. With this R&D community, the number of our projects started to increase after the establishment. First of all, the Smart Firearm Systems (SFS) project was initiated with Samsun Yurt Savunma. With SFS, an environment is created where users can measure their performance and improve them with various training scenarios by using the sensor package placed on handguns. By keeping the sensor package inside the frame of CANiK handguns, compatibility with all existing CANiK handguns and accessories was ensured, thus creating an easily integrated solution for handguns that are already in use. With this product group, we will first introduce systems for civilian users, but it is a product with a wide range of military and law enforcement use.
What do you have on your roadmap for 2022?
Ömür Baç: In 2021, we matured our existing projects and moved them to qualification processes. We are planning our investments for the commercialization of these products and growth in our company in this sense for the year 2022. Therefore, sending our products to their end users for the first time is an important step in the commercialization of our products. That’s why 2022 is a very important year for us. In addition to this, the R&D processes of our projects that will expand our product family will continue in 2022. Within this scope, we are planning a process in which we will increase our R&D investments in terms of both personnel and infrastructure.
What kind of new approaches will we be seeing in the sector in the new period and where will be Unirobotics in this?
Ömür Baç: When we say robotics and mechatronics, we understand that many disciplines, especially mechanics, electronics and software come into play. From this, we understand that intelligent systems provide support to people, operations or tasks. In this sense, we foresee that the defense systems will be strengthened. We see that many companies in the sector are working on this issue. In this sense, Unirobotics deals with mechatronic approaches in weapon systems. When we examine the weapon systems, we can see that these systems work integrated with the human. Our foundation project, Gun Mount with Active Stabilizer, is a product directly related to how a robotic system will work together with the weapon operator. We continue our efforts to increase the efficiency of weapon systems together with weapon or system operators. In this way, stronger defense systems will emerge by obtaining systems with increased accuracy.
Do you cooperate with universities as Unirobotics?
Ömür Baç: Unirobotics has many doctoral and graduate personnel. We want our colleagues from other disciplines, especially engineers, who will take part in our R&D teams, to do master’s and doctorate degrees, and as a company, we support our employees. In addition, we also create internship programs for the 3rd and 4th year students who have just received university undergraduate education. Apart from this, our cooperation with universities continues beyond internship programs. By getting consultancy from universities, we provide an indepth examination of the studies we have done in many fields. We also work with university laboratories in testing and qualification processes.
