DaoAI is a Vancouver-based company carving its own path to become an industry leader in innovative solutions for the manufacturing industry. SFU VentureLabs spoke with Xiaochuan Chen, chief technology officer of DaoAI about their beginnings, robotics, and the impact of good leadership as a growing startup.

Xiaochuan’s motivation for founding DaoAI started when he came to Canada in 2014, eventually completing a Master of Science in Computer Science. After graduating, Xiaochuan met current DaoAI co-founder Xiang Ran in Vancouver. After numerous brainstorming sessions with Xiang, Xiaochuan realized there was an emerging market for using 3D vision and had the idea to incorporate that into robot arms to innovate the manufacturing industry. Xiaochuan acknowledges that they couldn’t have done it alone and the co-founders attribute their company’s success to the team they’ve been building over the years.

As the CTO, Xiaochuan is responsible for ensuring the DaoAI team has a clear vision of their tasks. “The daily morning meeting is important for everyone to refresh their mind,” says Xiaochuan. “We try to make sure it’s not just about reporting tasks.”

He mentions that team-building and creating strong bonds often occur outside of the workplace. For example, the entire team goes for lunch together every day, giving the DaoAI team members an opportunity to connect with one another on a personal level. Being in a work environment where everyone is comfortable with each other increases productivity and builds team chemistry.

Xiaochuan notes that their all-star team is why they were able to successfully launch two products in a short amount of time. The first is DaoAI’s 3D structured light camera which gives custom fields of view and is compatible with many industrial environments. Traditionally, cameras are 2D which make it difficult for robotic arms to tell distance and depth. DaoAI’s 3D structured light camera is unique because it can capture the distance and depth that a traditional camera can’t. This allows the robot to perform tasks with human precision and beyond. The camera works in many environments, including low light conditions where human eyes would not be able to see anymore. 

DaoAI’s second product is the 3D bin picking system. The 3D bin picking system offers a top-of-the-line solution for industrial pick-and-place workflows. For example, if there are three types of snacks that need to be sorted into separate bins, then the 3D bin picking system can identify the snack type and accurately place it into the correct bin. This is useful for companies who have to manually sort items in an assembly line or a warehouse, such as packing customer orders for e-commerce businesses.

“We can see a future where our technology at DaoAI can replace the cumbersome or potentially dangerous tasks that humans currently do in the manufacturing industry,” says Xiaochuan.  

It is projected by 2026 that the 3D vision-guided robotics industry will be worth around USD 15.5 billion. Xiaochuan realized early on that there was a large untapped market combining 3D vision and AI. He hopes DaoAI will one day become an industry leader in the field.

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Learn more about DaoAI at DaoAI.ca