Bellwether plan your automation project yourself

Where most projects stall

You have a process you think robots and AI could take on. Then the questions pile up. Where do you start? How would the work actually get done? Which robots, grippers, cameras and AI models would you need, and what would they cost?

Today the usual answer is to pay an integrator before you know what to ask for, or to jump between separate AI tools and vendor sites trying to piece it together. Many good ideas stop there. Bellwether works through those questions with you, one step at a time, in one place.

Tell us the process

Start by talking or typing. Describe the work the way you’d explain it to a new hire, then upload whatever you already have:

• videos of people doing the job
• training manuals and standard operating procedures
• photos of the process and the machines involved
• machine specs, product specs and tolerances
• safety documents
• simulations or models you already have

Bellwether then asks about what you didn’t think to mention. What kind of Wi-Fi does the site have? What power is available at the station? Is the space temperature controlled? What’s the lighting like? Those details decide whether a plan works on a real floor, and they’re easy to forget.

Review your workflow

Bellwether turns what you shared into a workflow you can check step by step, as a storyboard or a Petri net. Each task shows who or what does it best: a person, AI software or a robot. Each one also lists what it needs. A robot picking oranges, for example, needs an arm, a soft gripper, a camera, and a model that knows what an orange is and how hard it can be squeezed.

At every task, Bellwether checks whether someone has already built something similar. If they have, you can pull it in instead of starting over. If you know something Bellwether doesn’t, like a custom gripper already sitting in your shop, add it and the workflow updates.

Watch it run

Bellwether simulates every robot task in NVIDIA Isaac Sim, using physics-based objects and environments. You can bring in photos of your own facility and objects, so the simulation looks like your floor. Click any task to watch its simulation, or watch a lifelike video of the whole workflow, with people, AI software and robots each doing their part.

Bellwether also grades each simulation against the job the task actually has to do. A weak grade comes with suggestions, such as a better scan of an object or more detail about the space. The distance between a simulation and its target is part of the sim-to-real gap, which is the core science 3GEN works on. Read how the Sim-to-Real Engine approaches it.

Take the plan with you

You leave with a complete plan: every step, every component, the simulations of each robot task, and any gaps still to solve. Along the way you’ve also learned what’s on the market, what the project involves and roughly what it would cost, before committing to anything.

Leadership

A clear case for funding, with the workflow and simulations to show what the money buys.

An integrator

A head start on the build. They can quote from your workflow, parts list and simulations instead of a discovery phase.

A robot or tooling maker

Exactly what you need from them, down to the step it’s for.

Start from what others built

The Bellwether marketplace holds workflows and tasks other people have built, sorted by field: manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, higher education, and so much more. Reuse a whole workflow or a single task, the way developers reuse code on GitHub or models on Hugging Face. While you build, Bellwether keeps looking for new tasks that fit yours, and forums connect you with people who have automated similar work.

See what’s in the marketplace.

Who Bellwether works for

Companies with a process to automate

Plan it yourself, and learn what’s on the market, what’s involved and what it might cost before you commit.

Integrators

Use Bellwether on a client’s behalf, or start a project with the workflow, simulations and parts list already done.

Robot and component makers

Bellwether recommends your hardware at the step where a user needs it, and users can buy it through Bellwether.

Plugin and model developers

List add-ons that make simulations closer to real life, such as one that teaches a robot to handle a dog in its workspace, or tools for difficult lighting.

3D object creators

Sell scanned objects, with or without physics, to people building simulations.

Universities

Plan and simulate automation projects for courses and research, then publish them for the next class or lab to build on.

What comes next

The first version of Bellwether ends with the plan and its simulations. The next steps turn those simulations into training data, run thousands of times under changing conditions, and then into a model on the robot that keeps learning from real runs. From plan to working robot lays out that path and what is available today.