Robo Sync: Robot Control Platform Designed to Be Handled Without Special Expertise

One day in 2022, a Panasonic Connect Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Connect) engineer was visiting a small factory in the suburbs of Osaka. There he found a number of production robots sitting unused. The robots had been acquired by the factory to promote DX, but the technical hurdles that followed initial installation proved too high. What the engineer saw made it eloquently clear: the factory was realizing no benefit from its investment, as the robots could not be properly operated and kept running.

Panasonic Connect’s Robo Sync platform grew out of that engineer’s experience. Already launched in Japan and with global deployment in sight, it is designed to be operated without special expertise, making robot operation and management more accessible and enabling more flexible human–robot collaboration.

Japan’s population is shrinking rapidly. Amid a severe and worsening labor shortage, demand for robots in logistics and manufacturing will only rise further. Diversifying needs and changing economics are also leading manufacturers to demand greater flexibility in support of high-product mix, low volume manufacturing that requires more, and more frequent, setup changeovers. Yet many production facilities lack personnel with the knowledge and expertise not only to integrate robots into their manufacturing, but also to manage and adjust their operations as changeovers are made. The need to rely on such personnel is a major barrier to practical robot utilization, especially for small- to mid size facilities, and this challenge is not unique to Japan. Many manufacturers globally are facing the same challenge.

In October 2025, Panasonic Connect launched its Robo Sync platform to address this challenge in Japan. Robo Sync enables control of robots from multiple manufacturers on a single platform. This lowers barriers to deployment and operation, and delivers enhanced automation and operational flexibility to the factory floor.

Many small and mid size manufacturers have yet to take advantage of robots, because deployment and ongoing operation are major technical challenges. Deployment requires expertise in programming and an understanding of individual robot maker control specifications. Even with support from system integrators, several months are often required for planning and initial installment.

But the real difficulty in deploying and using robots extends well beyond deployment. Even small changes like product updates or process adjustments require programming skills. This can lead to extended operational stoppages as the factory waits for system integrator support. Now, the Robo Sync platform can empower frontline personnel to handle complex, advanced tasks themselves, without relying on specialists.

Robo Sync offers three significant value propositions. First, it allows for multi-manufacturer robot setups. A wide range of commercially available robot related devices, from arms and grippers to cameras and sensors, can be controlled through a single interface. Robo Sync also offers image recognition, an important but technically advanced feature, using general purpose cameras as a standard capability. Now, because they no longer need to cope with specification differences between manufacturers, frontline personnel can handle hardware changeovers and frontline setup changes flexibly, at short notice.

Second, Robo Sync uses visual programming. By arranging blocks representing functions like movement and detection, users can create operation scenarios easily, with no coding skills needed. Even sophisticated settings can be handled by frontline staff without special expertise.

Third, Robo Sync provides standardized setup templates based on Panasonic Connect’s robot control expertise and technology. On-board templates for frequently used key actions, such as picking and placing, allow for immediate system testing of even complex control tasks. Templates can be revised and adapted easily for new applications and uses.

While large-scale mass production lines typically rely on industrial robots, small- and mid-sized manufacturing environments often include “collaborative robots” (also known as cobots, to distinguish them from industrial robots) that are designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces. In such settings, Robo Sync is expected to significantly ease the burden of collaborative robot deployment and ongoing operation. Enhanced operational standardization will lessen the need for system integrator involvement in changeovers, freeing such specialists to allocate more time to installation. Panasonic Connect is already seeing strong interest in Robo Sync from robot system integrators, manufacturers, and vendors.

At the time of the Robo Sync launch, Panasonic Connect also began offering its Robot Deployment Planner on a preliminary basis for robot system integrators. This tool offers quantitative visualization of the expected benefits from adopting cobot setups. By supporting the entire upstream process, from concept planning to specification definition and design, and by projecting performance, productivity, and costs, the planner provides the input needed for automation studies and management decision-making, thereby speeding feasibility evaluations. Internal testing has already demonstrated that the planner can reduce the time required from initial study through to deployment by half, compared with conventional approaches. Nation-wide rollout of this tool in Japan is expected to begin by the end of March 2027.

Panasonic Connect embarked on Robo Sync development in 2022. A product launch turnaround in the range of three years, despite the complex nature of the challenge, was possible thanks to a number of factors that are unique to Panasonic Connect.

First is the Panasonic Group’s long history and proven track record in manufacturing. And since the Group manufactures an extensive lineup of products and operates numerous production sites, Panasonic Connect was able to accelerate development with extensive testing and platform refinement in a wide range of internal settings.

For example, Panasonic Connect’s Kobe Plant succeeded in configuring a standard small articulated robot to carry out label application for laptop PCs. Using the robot’s native software made laptop model changeovers difficult. But with Robo Sync, a simple barcode scan is all that is required for automatic changeovers. By adopting Robo Sync, production line engineers were able to replace external system engineers in building the system, reducing the labor involved and boosting production speed and efficiency. As of January 2026, Robo Sync has been deployed in six Panasonic Group production facilities, bringing enhanced operational efficiency to commercial-product touch panel inspection as well as consumer-product label application.

The fact that Panasonic Connect does not manufacture cobots is actually another advantage. It allows the company to take a product-neutral approach and connect a wider range of cobot vendors and manufacturers under a single platform. As of October 20, 2025, a total of 26 robotics related partners were supporting the Robo Sync initiative. These included seven robot equipment manufacturers and 19 system integrators, as well as trading companies and other entities. Panasonic Connect plans to keep expanding this partner ecosystem as an open platform.

Another essential factor was Blue Yonder, a wholly-owned Panasonic Connect subsidiary and leading provider of end to end digital supply chain transformation solutions. To enter the rapidly evolving software industry with a SaaS* business meant fundamentally rethinking traditional hardware based operations and development processes from the ground up. By collaborating closely with Blue Yonder and flexibly adopting its software-centric expertise, including management style, product management, and nimble development methods, Panasonic Connect was able to develop and launch its new system with unprecedented speed.

* SaaS (Software as a Service, pronounced “sass”): A business model in which users access cloud-based software on a fee basis.

As AI technology advances, there will be an increasing need for Software Defined Robots, a design and operation model in which robotic functions are decoupled from hardware, and instead defined and updated through software. Panasonic Connect believes that, in this context, solutions that leverage Robo Sync can serve to elevate the entire industry. In the same way that collaboration with Blue Yonder has expanded possibilities, Panasonic Connect aims to evolve Robo Sync through AI to ultimately realize AI Defined Robotics, a more flexible form of AI-powered robot operation.

At the intersection of a wide range of robotics related industry players, Robo Sync can realize its full frontline potential. And by continuing to expand its partner ecosystem and leverage synergies with Blue Yonder, Panasonic Connect aims to expand its platform to international logistics and manufacturing sites.

Robo Sync’s goal is to realize a society where humans and robots operate side by side. A concept gleaned from sidelined robots in a small factory, Robo Sync has the potential not only to transform frontline operations management, but to redefine the structure of entire supply chains. Its value will be further verified going forward, through real world implementation.