Category Archives: Robotics

SOLV Energy announced during the TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 Conference in San Francisco that it has invested in Swap Robotics. Swap Robotics is an autonomous robotics company that provides 100% electric vegetation management services for utility-scale solar PV facilities.

Swap Robotics autonomous vegetation management solution is one of the first products to be specifically designed and optimized for use on PV solar sites. The Swap team pre-maps each site during the initial teaching run, identifying the safest, most efficient cutting path through the project area. Once the robots have mapped out the area, they can run their routes autonomously with remote oversight by supervisory personnel. Swap robots are designed to traverse variable terrain with cutting decks suited to tackle thick grass and woody vegetation that can reach up to two inches in diameter. The company says its 100% electric rough cut cutting deck can cut thick vegetation that other robotic solutions cannot.

Applying smart solutions to the challenging task of vegetation management supports SOLV Energys commitment to creating better jobs and safer work environments for employees. Autonomous technology reduces maintenance costs and increases performance while lowering the risk of injuries resulting from repetitive and difficult tasks. Remote oversight reduces time spent outside in challenging weather by field technicians and allows for delegation of worker hours to support field teams in remote areas where employees are difficult to hire and retain. The use of all-electric Swap robots also aligns with SOLV Energys site decarbonization goals, eliminating the need for gasoline powered mowers on site.

Swap Robotics cutting decks demonstrate an impressive capability to navigate extremely uneven terrain and remove thick vegetation that has posed consistent problems for traditional mowers, said Tucker Ruberti, SOLV Energys director of corporate development & strategy. Swaps robot has been identified by our subject matter experts as the only sufficiently rugged and powerful solution for utility PV use based on over a decade of experience building and managing large-scale solar projects.

The partnership between SOLV Energy and Swap Robotics accelerates development of innovative technology essential to supporting rapid industry growth in the coming years. As part of a joint agreement, the companies will collaborate on new robotics use-cases on solar sites across the country. SOLV Energy is the largest affiliated O&M provider in the U.S., with over 10 GW under management in 26 states.

The solar industry is gearing up for huge investment resulting from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Driving the development of innovative technology is essential to optimizing our capabilities and preparing our workforce for the influx of new projects in a growing number of states, said George Hershman, CEO of SOLV Energy. While a partnership with Swap Robotics will allow us to better serve our clients, even more importantly, it supports our people here at SOLV Energy, providing them with additional tools to do their jobs more efficiently and in safer work environments.

Swap Robotics vegetation management solution is in use on one SOLV Energy O&M site now, with further sites starting in all operating regions over the next six months.

News item from SOLV Energy

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SOLV Energy partners with Swap Robotics to tackle thick vegetation on solar sites - Solar Power World

Kodiak Robotics truck in front of an IKEA store.

Source: Kodiak Robotics

Self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics said that it has begun a pilot program with IKEA in Texas.

A semitruck equipped with Kodiak's autonomous driving system is making daily delivery runs from an IKEA warehouse near Houston to a store close to Dallas, roughly 300 miles away.

The trucks have human safety drivers on board, but they're being driven by Kodiak's autonomous-driving system.

Kodiak's CEO, Don Burnette, said that he isn't looking to put truck drivers out of business in fact, he's aiming to make their lives easier.

"Adopting autonomous trucking technology can improve drivers' quality of life by focusing on the local driving jobs most prefer to do," Burnette said. "Together [with IKEA] we can enhance safety, improve working conditions for drivers, and create a more sustainable freight transportation system."

This isn't Kodiak's first self-driving rodeo. The company has been running freight in Texas with its autonomous test trucks since 2019, and recently opened a new route between Dallas and Oklahoma City. Kodiak has also conducted pilot tests with logistics giants Werner Enterprises and U.S. Xpress, running self-driving trucks on routes from Dallas to Lake City, Florida, and Atlanta, respectively.

Texas has become a hotbed for self-driving truck testing, in part because of favorable regulations -- and also because the long highway stretches between its cities are ideal for automation. Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary that grew out of the Google Self-Driving Car Project, has been testing a fleet of self-driving Freightliner semitrucks (with human safety drivers) on a route between Dallas and Houston for several months.

Self-driving truck startup Aurora Innovation has also been testing trucks in Texas.Aurora began a Texas pilot with Werner Enterprises in April, running on a 600-mile stretch between Fort Worth and El Paso. Another startup, TuSimple, has been testing its self-driving semitrucks in Arizona and is planning to expand to Texas next year.

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IKEA teams with self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics to test deliveries in Texas - CNBC

Rainbow Robotics CEO Lee Jung-ho speaks atThe Korea Herald Biz Forum held at Four Seasons Hotel in Wednesday. (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald)

In the near future, these machines will be applied to various sectors beyond the manufacturing and service industries, according to Rainbow Robotics CEO Lee Jung-ho, who spoke at The Korea Herald Biz Forum held at Four Seasons Hotel, Wednesday.

Rainbow Robotics' four-legged robot is displayed during The Korea Herald Biz Forum at Four Seasons Hotel, Wednesday. (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald)

Rainbow Robotics, a South Korean robot maker born at Humanoid Robot Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, boasts a versatile lineup of collaborative robots, which are built to work hand-in-hand with employees at work. Such robots focus more on repetitive tasks, such as inspecting and picking things up, allowing workers to focus more on tasks that require problem-solving skills. Its robots are categorized based on the weight it can hold and different arm reach capabilities.

To deal with an aging workforce, Lee said these machines will meet the increasing demand for work support. And the workplace is just one example of an arena where a group of diverse robots will provide help, he said.

Through the application of robots in everyday lives, Lee said he hopes to make his company becomes an all-around robotics company, manufacturing various types of collaborative robots comprised of locally-made components and technology, amid an influx of Chinese-made robots.

We are launching a mobile robot running on four wheels in the next year, and we will be prepared day by day to see opportunities in the fast-growing market, Lee said.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)

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[KH Biz Forum] Rainbow Robotics CEO sees future of robots in our everyday lives - The Korea Herald

Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com

The Brighton Robotics Team is benefitting from a big donation from a local business.

H.H. Barnum, a Brighton-based distributor of controls for factory automation, donated over $10,000 worth of products to the Brighton Robotics Team.

The in-kind donation consisted of a pallet of innovative products that will be used for educational training and future competitions to provide the team with exposure to the latest automation products being used globally.

The donation is part of the companys new initiative, Barnum Reach, which is dedicated to reaching out and giving back to high school and college robotics programs.

Brighton Robotics Team Head Coach Nathan Hogge said the donation and connection to H.H. Barnum gives students unique access to products and knowledge normally not available in classes. He said it also gives their team more options to be creative on how they design, construct, and compete with their robot this year.

Hogge added their students recently started incorporating pneumatics into their robot and are excited to see how they can expand on creating a world-class competition robot with the help of H.H. Barnum's donation.

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WHMI 93.5 Local News : Brighton Robotics Team Benefits From Big Donation - WHMI

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2022 / MassRobotics, an innovation hub and startup cluster focused on the needs of the robotics community, today announced it is collaborating with AMD to introduce and deliver technologies to robotics startups. Through the industrial suite of AMD tools, platforms and an accelerated app store designed for the robotics industry, robotics startups will be able to further develop innovative solutions around automation, mobility, AI and machine vision-related applications.

AMD, widely known for their FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and adaptive SoCs (system-on-chips), are bringing offerings, such as the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit and Kria Robotic Stack (KRS), which are focused on bringing easy-to-integrate hardware acceleration of ROS 2 to MassRobotics resident startups. The AMD Kria robotics starter kit, tool flows and accelerated libraries enable key functions, such as communication, control, vision, AI, safety, and security features in robotics systems to be targeted for intelligent factories, farms, warehouses, and hospitals.

As the development platform for volume production Kria K26 SOMs (system-on-modules), the KR260 is built for robotics and multiple industrial applications, complete with high-performance interfaces and native ROS 2 support for ease of development by roboticists and software developers. MassRobotics startups can leverage pre-built Accelerated Applications for Kria SOMs from the AMD Xilinx App Store as a starting point for their ROS-centric development. The Kria KR260 has Ubuntu 2022.04 support from Canonical as well as ROS 2 support from Open Robotics.

"Kria SOMs were developed to make the benefits of adaptive computing accessible to roboticists, software, and AI developers in small and medium-sized businesses," said Chetan Khona, senior director of Industrial, Vision, Healthcare and Sciences Markets at AMD. "Our close work with MassRobotics builds on that mission and we look forward to enabling their resident startups with scalable, low-latency and deterministic embedded computing technology as the de facto building blocks of next-generation robotics."

Deeply embedded in the robotics industry, AMD is also:

Based in the Boston area, MassRobotics is the first and largest independent nonprofit robotics startup escalator in the world whose mission is to grow and support robotics innovators and entrepreneurs. MassRobotics and its partners work together to enable robotics and related technologies to succeed as an industry.

About MassRobotics

MassRobotics is the result of the collective work of a group of engineers, rocket scientists, and entrepreneurs with a shared vision to create a strong, vibrant robotics and IoT ecosystem in Massachusetts. MassRobotics' mission is to help create and scale the next generation of successful robotics and connected devices companies by providing entrepreneurs and innovative robotics/automation startups with the workspace and resources they need to develop, prototype, test and commercialize their products and solutions. See https://www.massrobotics.org/ for details.

CONTACT:Mark OToole[emailprotected]

SOURCE: MassRobotics

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MassRobotics Announces Collaboration with AMD to Advance Adaptive Computing in Robotics - AccessWire

BT has unveiled a new robotics platform and management system to automate the agricultural industry and drive sustainability and operational efficiencies in the process.

The project comes as part of the Robot Highways initiative; established to develop novel ways of automating the soft fruit farming industry in ways that will cut costs and labor while promoting robotic and autonomous solutions.

BTs offering features environmentally friendly and sustainable robotic solutions, powered exclusively by renewable energy sources. They are designed to take on more labor-intensive roles such as picking and packing fruit, as well as monitoring and treating crops for any disease.

The companys solution also features sensor technology to monitor crop health and forecast potential issues, helping farmers to intervene before a problem arises, and avoid food waste and unnecessary labor further down the line.

BT has developed and tested the edge and cloud architecture to deliver the infrastructure these IoT services will harness.

Were delighted to be part of the Robot Highways project to demonstrate how BT can help the agricultural sector to automate by integrating robotics and other solutions on a single platform, said John Davies, chief researcher at BT. As a leader in network-based platforms and edge infrastructure, we are ideally placed to support advanced robotic farming operations.

The Robot Highways project was established in 2020 and is led by Norwegian R&D group Saga Robotics, alongside partners BT, the University of Lincoln, Berry Gardens Growers, Clock House Farm, the University of Reading and the Manufacturing Technology Centre. A joint initiative, the scheme incorporates scientists, engineers and technical experts to promote smart tech to drive sustainability and optimize production throughout industries.

Anne Dingstad, CEO of Saga Robotics said BT is well-placed to bring operational connectivity to the project, highlighting the key role of connectivity in advancing automation and precision agriculture to enable increased food production with fewer resources.

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Robotics Platform Uses IoT to Automate the Agricultural industry - IoT World Today

WILMINGTON, Mass., Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ Locus Robotics, the leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, will be the Platinum sponsor for 2022 at the upcoming ROSCon 2022 event happening 19-21 October at the Kyoto International Conference Center in Kyoto, Japan.

Locus Robotics is proud to be part of ROSCon as a first-time Platinum sponsor and to again be part of the program of technical talks and tutorials, this time in person, said Tracy Simek, Chief People Officer. As a strong participant and supporter in the ROS community over the years, we value the importance of fostering industry collaboration and technology development as a foundation for driving robotics growth in the region and around the world.

ROSCon is an international conference for ROS (Robot Operating System) developers. This years event will again be held as an in-person event after having taken place virtually for the past two years. Robot users and developers from all over the world will gather to spend an extraordinary three days learning from and networking with the ROS community in beautiful Kyoto.

In addition, Tom Moore, director of robotics software at Locus Robotics, will be moderating a speaker panel titled, The ROS 2 Developer Experience on Thursday, October 20th. The panel will feature experienced ROS 2 developers who will be discussing lessons learned in adopting ROS 2, highlight their favorite key features, and challenges they have faced in the adoption process.

Visitors at the Locus Robotics booth will be able to learn more Locuss innovative robotics technology and discover career opportunities with Locus all around the world. For additional career information, please visit https://locusrobotics.com/about-us/careers/

Event details:

Event: ROSCon 2022

Date: Wednesday, October 19th to Friday, October 21st, 2022

Location: Kyoto International Conference Center in Kyoto, Japan

Event website: https://roscon.ros.org/2022/

About Locus Robotics

Locus Robotics revolutionary, multi-bot solution incorporates powerful and intelligent autonomous mobile robots that operate collaboratively with human workers to dramatically improve piecehandling productivity 23x, with less labor compared to traditional piece-handling systems. Locus helps retailers, 3PLs and specialty warehouses efficiently meet and exceed the increasingly complex and demanding requirements of fulfillment environments. Easily integrating into existing warehouse infrastructures without disrupting workflows, Locus transforms productivity without transforming the warehouse.

Locuss European presence is centrally located in Amsterdam and we are expanding into the APAC region as well. In 2022, Locus Robotics was named to the Inc. 500 for the second year in a row, and winning over 13 industry awards including a 2022 IFOY Award for its Autonomous Mobile Robot Solution in the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV/AMR) category. For more information, visit http://www.locusrobotics.com.

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Locus Robotics Announced as Platinum Sponsor of ROSCon 2022 in Kyoto, Japan - TechNode Global

SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --A global leader in commercial service robot manufacturing, Pudu Robotics, recently appeared at the Gitex Global 2022 conference in Dubai. Running from October 10th to 14th, Gitex Global is one of the world's premier technology events and was an opportunity for Pudu Robotics to showcase its wide range of innovative products, including the cutting-edge PuduBot 2, which made its first public appearance at the event.

For 41 years, Gitex Global has grown into the world's largest and most influential Tech & Startup event, with exhibitors from over 170 countries and regions in attendance. The 2022 event at the Dubai World Trade Center saw close to 150,000 attendees connect with the world's leading technology brands, including Pudu Robotics, who marked their second consecutive year at Gitex.

For Pudu Robotics, Gitex Global 2022 was a chance to present the company's full range of commercial service robots, including the BellaBot, KettyBot, HolaBot, SwiftBot, and the PuduBot 2. Throughout the event, Pudu Robotics also demonstrated its self-developed PUDU VSLAM+ technology, which enables robots with superior positioning, environmental awareness, and navigation, improving mapping and adaptability by up to 75% compared to marker positioning technology. This improvement means Pudu products especially the PuduBot 2 outperform other leading solutions on the market, making them ideal for fast-moving restaurants, shopping malls, exhibition halls, factories, and more.

Speaking to Gitex Global 2022, Felix Zhang, founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics said, "This year marks our second attendance at the globally renowned event, and we are thrilled to share with the world our newest innovations. Gitex Global is an important event for us at Pudu Robotics, and this year it will be especially special as our PuduBot 2 makes its first public appearance and because of the location in Dubai, which we see as a key market moving forward."

Pudu Robotics attaches great importance to the Middle East market, with a number of key partnerships emanating from the region. In April 2022, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company ofJordan formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Pudu Robotics to use the company's high-end delivery robot BellaBot to promote and distribute its products at supermarkets and its in-person events throughout the country. Pudu Robotics identifies the Middle East as a region with much potential for growth and development and continues to invest resources to develop the Middle East and Gulf markets.

For more information, please visit http://www.pudurobotics.com

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About Pudu Robotics

Shenzhen-based and founded in 2016, Pudu Robotics is a world-leading tech-focused enterprise dedicated to the design, R&D, production and sales of commercial service robots, which aims to use robots to improve the efficiency of human production and living. Pudu Robotics has been rapidly growing in recent years to become a "leader" in the global markets with coverage of over 60 countries and regions worldwide.

SOURCE SHENZHEN PUDU TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD

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Pudu Robotics Showcases the Innovative PuduBot 2 at Gitex Global 2022 in Dubai USA - English - USA - English - PR Newswire

A group of students from four CMSD high schools are using their robotics experience to build prosthetic limbs for kids who need them.

CLEVELAND At the Great Lakes Science Center, a 3D printer whirs away, slowly but surely creating pieces and parts needed by high schoolers on a mission to make a difference.

Four high schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, alongside the Great Lakes Science Center, make up the Greater Cleveland FIRST Robotics Initiative, where students learn about robotics and build robots to compete while gaining greater exposure to careers in STEM. Now, the students are putting their robotics skills to use by helping others.

The group is creating prosthetic limbs for kids who need them, like 13-year-old Ernest Priester. He and his mother were attending a back to school tech fair when Ernest walked by the FIRST Robotics Initiative booth. It was there where he noticed a prosthetic arm.

Ernest was born without his right hand, and was eager to try on the arm they had on display. Within a few minutes, he was able to pick up a water bottle off the table of the booth. The students offered to make him his own arm, free of charge.

"This whole experience, its great, because it's letting him see who he is, what he can do, different options he has," Ernest's mom Carmen said. "All of this is great opportunity, great experience, I love it. Cheering for the robotics team!"

Carmen said her son now has an interest in robotics. For student Yariselle Andujar, a sophomore at Davis Aerospace & Maritime high school, learning how to use this technology and assembling a prosthetic arm for Ernest was rewarding.

"We were just so excited with joy because we finally came to an end product," Yariselle told 3News. "We're very excited to see it in action."

Andujar, who wants to be a pilot one day, said being able to build these prosthetics has been "mind-blowing." She also takes the opportunity as a way to encourage other young women to go into a career in STEM.

"I can push, empower other cultured students and girls and females to pursue in STEM and continue the career," she said.

From helping out a fellow student in Cleveland to reaching out as far as South America, the students are continuing to use their skills to impact lives. Their most recent project has been crafting a prosthetic for Samantha, a young woman in Ecuador who lost her left arm in a bus accident. The program is working with nonprofit IMAHelps, a group that leads and coordinates humanitarian medical missions globally but especially in South and Central America.

"When we learned of the robotics team here in Cleveland, we thought that would be phenomenal, because then we could have literally kids helping kids across borders," Jeff Crider, communications director of IMAHelps, explained. "The potential was just huge."

IMAHelps will be taking the prosthetic arm to Ecuador next week, and students are hoping to be able to Zoom with Samantha and her family. Ahead the meeting, Yariselle shared her excitement in getting to build this prosthetic for her.

"I hope that they enjoy what we did for their daughter," she said. "I know that they're probably very proud of her and very proud of us. We care a lot for everyone. We're there if they need anything else. We're always here for them."

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Cleveland robotics students use technology to build prosthetic limbs - WKYC.com

Skyline Robotics Michael Brown and Dursts Douglas Durst with Skylines Ozmo robot (Skyline Robotics, the Durst Organization, Getty)

New York is home to some of the most advanced high-rises in the world, but still relies on dangling men with squeegees to keep their glass facades clean. The Durst Organization and Skyline Robotics aim to change that.

The Tel-Aviv-based tech firm designs automated window-cleaning robots that look like Swiffers on steroids. The orange machines are shaped like arms with water jets and squeegee pads for hands. As they descend skyscrapers in metal baskets, they spritz and wipe like their human predecessors have for decades, but with no need for bathroom breaks or occasional rescues.

Still in the startup phase, Skyline has received a boost from Durst Ventures, the proptech and venture capital arm of the Durst Organization.

Durst and Skyline declined to disclose the size of the investment, but Skyline CEO Michael Brown said it comes with the intention of deploying Skylines technology across Dursts New York properties. Skyline is mapping out the firms facades, including at the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center.

The former Freedom Tower has dealt with cleaning difficulties in the past, including a 2014 incident in which two window washers were stuck for over an hour on a dangling scaffold at the 69th floor. Skyline, whose advisory board includes Silverstein Properties CEO Marty Burger, aims to start robotic cleanings there around March.

The deal is Skylines largest step in breaking into the citys highly regulated maintenance business. It still has a long way to go before the citys skyscraper facades are whizzing with robotic maids. Before the Durst investment, the company had raised a modest $9.5 million, including a $6.5 million seed round, according to Crunchbase.

A spokesperson for Durst, whose website lists 20 properties in the city, declined to comment.

Skyline faces the same hurdles as other proptech firms looking to change the construction business, notably organized labor and regulators. In New York, construction is a major business for unions, and any technology that could replace humans with robots is bound to trigger a conversation with them.

Skyline was not oblivious to that. In November, it signed a distribution deal with Platinum Inc., a New York construction services firm that claims to serve more than half of the citys Class A office buildings. As a union shop, it connects the robotics company to some of the citys most powerful unions. Last year, window cleaners represented by 32BJ SEIU reached a three-year deal with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations.

The traditional window cleaning team consists of two people in the basket working the squeegees and a third person on the roof. Skylines Ozmo requires a single human operator who earns a higher wage as a robot technician. A window cleaner moving to that role would need to be trained as a technician.

Brown said the robots will free up a dwindling cleaner workforce to take on other assignments.

Those two other people are not out of work [they] are picking up the jobs that [the union] cant fill, he said. A spokesperson for the union did not comment by press time.

Some window cleaners undoubtedly would not mind a different gig. They work out of baskets that dangle dozens of stories in the air a far hotter, windier and scarier workplace than the average.

While window cleaners are not particularly prone to accidents relative to other construction and maintenance workers, the consequences of one can be grave: More than half have been fatal, according to OSHA records of the 102 window cleaning accidents in the U.S. reported to the agency in the past 20 years.

New Yorks labor laws such as the so-called scaffold law, which covers gravity-related accidents include specific protections for window cleaners. That contributes to big lawsuit settlements and exceptionally high insurance costs for building owners and contractors.

You really have to prove very little to make out such a case, said Kenneth Wilhelm, a New York personal injury attorney. The window washer could be 99 percent at fault, but if the owner or manager is just 1 percent at fault, then the window washer can recover 100 percent of their damages from the owner or manager.

Subcontracting out the cleaning job does not spare an owner from liability, Wilhelm added.

If the window cleaning venture works out, Brown says Skyline wants to expand into polishing, masonry and inspecting.

Window washing for us is really only the beginning, Brown said. We want to own the whole facade.

Contact Joe Lovinger

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Durst invests in robotic window washer - The Real Deal