Jennifer Apicella (left) of the PRN and Fady Saad (right) of Cybernetix Ventures have announced a strategic partnership. | Source: Pittsburgh Robotics Network

Cybernetix Ventures yesterday announced a strategic partnership with the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. The early-stage venture capital firm said it is part of its long-term robotics cluster engagement efforts. 

The partnership is a joint initiative to set Pittsburgh’s robotics startups up for success, and bring more of the cluster’s investable robotics opportunities to global markets. The Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering innovation and growth in southwestern Pennsylvania. 

“The Pittsburgh Robotics Network is one of the top robotics clusters in the U.S., with a powerhouse team and strong robotics innovators emerging,” stated Fady Saad, founder and general partner of Cybernetix Ventures. “Like our firm, the PRN is focused on markets-driven, actionable, scalable use cases for robotics. We are excited to amplify their efforts and connect the cluster further with the larger investment community.”

Founded in 2021, Cybernetix focuses on robotics, automation, and industrial AI investments. The venture capital firm works with robotics clusters around the world to elevate the most promising robotics founders and startups to the global stage. 

Cybernetix expands robotics focus

Cybernetix aims to connect the PRN’s startups with the firm’s diverse ecosystem of potential customers, later-stage investors, financial institutions, and acquirers. The company will join forces with the PRN as a Leader Premier Partner to provide advice to startups. 

“Cybernetix Ventures is a premier investment firm for robotics, and this partnership represents a unique opportunity for not only robotics companies, but for accelerating the commercial adoption of robotics solutions overall,” added Jennifer Apicella, executive director of the PRN.

“Both Cybernetix Ventures and the PRN share a set of aligned values that promise to bring significant benefits to robotics companies on the path to commercialization,” she said. “We admire their unique expertise and understanding of how robotics will directly contribute to the advancement of specific industries, both now and into the future.”

The partners announced their collaboration at the Agriculture & Robotics Summit, where the PRN welcomed innovators, investors, and industry to Pittsburgh to explore the future of smart agriculture. Cybernetix, which has focused on vertical robotics applications in manufacturing, logistics, construction, and healthcare since its inception, participated in the event as a launchpad for its expanded focus on agriculture and climate robotics.

“The new use cases and overall necessity for robotics innovation in agriculture have accelerated the sector’s investment potential, and we will explore investments in agriculture and climate robotics to add to our solid portfolio,” Saad said.

PRN head to speak at the Robotics Summit

Apicella will be taking part in a panel discussion at the 2024 Robotics Summit & Expo, which takes place on May 1 and 2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. She will be joined by Stephen M. Muck, executive chairman of Advanced Construction Robotics; Brandon Contino, CEO of Four Growers; and Andy McMillan, chair of the board of directors at Cirtronics.

During the session, “Paving the Road to Success in Robotics Commercialization,” attendees can learn how the four industry leaders have conquered obstacles, scaled operations, and transformed ideas into viable products. 

This will be the largest Robotics Summit ever. It will include more than 200 exhibitors, various networking opportunities, a Women in Robotics breakfast, a career fair, an engineering theater, a startup showcase, and more! The PRN is also a sponsor of the Robotics Summit. Registration is now open for the event.

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Electric Sheep is vertically integrating its field operations team with autonomous mowers. | Credit: Electric Sheep

This year, the annual RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards added new categories: Application of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Robot of the Year. We received numerous submissions for some incredible startups innovating in some interesting markets. The Robot Report‘s team chose autonomous landscaping company Electric Sheep Robotics as the inaugural RBR50 Startup of the Year.

The San Francisco-based company has a novel business plan that is immediately bringing in revenue while it takes its time to evolve the underlying technology. This is different from many robotics businesses, which simply sell or lease systems to integrators and end users.

“We are honored to be recognized by WTWH Media’s Robotics Group with this inaugural award. I want to also acknowledge our dedicated team at Electric Sheep that are passionate about creating the most advanced robotics that can change an often overlooked industry,” stated Nag Murty, co-founder and CEO of Electric Sheep. “We are doing things differently than other robotic companies by using AI and ML at a higher level for localization and high-level control. We are scaling physical agents across the country to care for our outdoor spaces.”

Founded in 2019, Electric Sheep has grown to over 100 employees, and it has raised more than $25 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase.

You can also learn more about Murty’s entrepreneurial philosophy and Chief Technology Officer Michael Laskey’s design principles on a recent episode of The Robot Report Podcast.

Acquisitions add data for autonomy AI

Electric Sheep develops autonomous robots for outdoor maintenance. Its flagship robot is an autonomous mower backed by the company’s ES1 foundation model.

Based on recent advances in generative AI, ES1 is a learned-world model that enables reasoning and planning for the Verdie robot. ES1 powers both the RAM robot for mowing and now Verdie for edging and trimming lawns and bushes and blowing leaves.

In addition, Electric Sheep acquired four landscaping companies last year and said that this is a key part of its long-term plan. This strategy isn’t just about revenue. The businesses it acquires can also use ES1 and provide crucial data to make the model more effective.

This information can help improve Electric Sheep’s operations, enabling its robots to start working as soon as they arrive at a job site. 

Since taking this two-pronged approach to development and business, the company reported that its sales have grown eightfold. Electric Sheep has set itself apart from other startups by making sure it always has money coming in and by finding a unique way to get important data about its business.

Meet Electric Sheep at the Robotics Summit & Expo 

This year’s RBR50 award winners will be celebrated at the Robotics Summit & Expo, which will be on May 1 and 2 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Electric Sheep will be demonstrate its newest robot powered by ES1, Verdie, the RBR50 showcase on the expo floor.

Attendees at the 2024 Robotics Summit and Expo at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center will have an opportunity to meet members of Electric Sheep’s executive team. Co-founder and CEO Nag Murty will present a session titled “Startup Survival Guide to Lean Times” at 2:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 2.

Murty will be joined by Oliver Mitchell, partner of ff Venture Capital; Fiona O’Donnell McCarthy, principal of True Ventures; and Steve Crowe, executive editor of robotics at WTWH Media. This panel will share tips from experienced investors and robotics companies on what they’re looking for and attendees will learn how organizations can navigate the challenging path to commercialization.

In addition, tickets are available for the first RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala, which will be at the end of Day 1 of the event. The Robotics Summit & Expo will be the biggest yet, with keynotes and sessions from leading companies, more than 200 exhibitors, up to 5,000 attendees, a Women in Robotics Breakfast, and a Robotics Engineering Career Fair.

Co-located events include DeviceTalks Boston, which focuses on medical devices, and the inaugural Digital Transformation Forum. which will focus on manufacturing. Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit.

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MassRobotics recently hosted a Robotics in AgTech event, bringing together innovators and industry leaders to explore challenges and solutions in the agriculture industry.

The event served as a catalyst for discussions and offered a glimpse into the transformative potential of robotics for farming, said the Boston-based organization.

Danfoss discusses AgTech industry challenges

The event kicked off with a presentation by Peter Bleday, senior director and head of the Autonomy Business Unit at Danfoss, who provided strategic insights into the challenges and opportunities shaping agricultural technologies and markets.

From precision agriculture to sustainable farming practices, Bleday delved into the industry’s evolving landscape and highlighted the pivotal role of technology in driving innovation and addressing pressing agricultural challenges.

Bleday led a discussion with the following panelists:

• Katie Stebbins, executive director of the Tufts Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute
• Patrick Varley, the product marketing manager for robotics at Mitsubishi Electric
• Otto Gryschek, global director of strategy and operations for chemicals and agriculture at McKinsey & Co.
• AJ Perez, founder and CEO of Grow Clean Group

The speakers shared experiences, from entrepreneurship to food sustainability, and talked about how robotics can address many of today’s agriculture challenges. They also discussed issues of trust, innovation, and the evolving landscape of agricultural technology, offering insights for stakeholders across the agricultural value chain.

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Building trust and partnerships

One of the central themes of the event was the importance of trust in agricultural partnerships. The panelists highlighted the challenge of gaining the trust of farmers, who are inherently risk-averse due to the unpredictable nature of their profession.

Traditional channels of government outreach and recommendations were deemed insufficient, with community-driven approaches and farmer-to-farmer networks seen as more effective in building trust.

The discussion underscored the value of collaboration between established industry players and startups. While startups bring agility and innovation to the table, established companies offer brand trust and resources to scale effectively.

The panelists emphasized the need for open dialogue and partnerships to drive meaningful change within the agricultural ecosystem.

Integrating AgTech and overcoming barriers to adoption

The panelists acknowledged the critical role of technology in driving innovation within agriculture. They identified startups as more nimble and capable of developing and deploying cutting-edge solutions rapidly than established companies.

However, the panel also emphasized the need for startups to understand the unique needs and challenges of farmers, as well as the importance of case studies and testimonials in showcasing the value of their offerings.

While technological advancements hold immense promise for the agricultural sector, barriers to adoption remain. Farmers often require significant changes to their existing workflows to fully use new technologies.

The panelists also discussed the need for systems that seamlessly integrate into farmers’ operations and highlighted the importance of large-scale test farms for validating innovations at scale.

Panelists discuss challenges at the Signature Series event on Robotics in AgTech. Source: MassRobotics

Startup showcase: Innovations from the ground up

Several AgTech startups showcased their technologies aimed at revolutionizing agriculture. 

• Tyler Niday, the co-founder and CEO of Bonsai Robotics, brought a wealth of experience in robotics and agriculture to the discussion. Having led the development of innovative vision-based and autonomous solutions at Blue River Technology and John Deere, he highlighted the significance of startups in advancing precision agriculture. Niday also discussed Bonsai Robotics’ focus on creating affordable and high-performing autonomy systems tailored for smaller and mid-sized farms. By using monocular cameras and deep learning models, the company aimed to address the challenges of orchard farming and similar environments. Niday emphasized the importance of customer feedback, strong relationships, and iterative testing in navigating the cyclical nature of agriculture and ensuring product-market fit.
• Carl Palme, founder of Boundless Robotics, presented his mission to enable effortless home food cultivation. With AI and automation, the startup’s system addressed urban dwellers’ challenges by offering easy-to-use, sustainable solutions. Initially targeting cannabis cultivation, Palme said it aims to provide pesticide-free, consistent strains inaccessible in urban settings. Priced at $1,500, Boundless Robotics’ system promises a quick return on investment. Palme stated that the company is committed to sustainability and legalization, aiming to disrupt the black market while addressing food scarcity issues.
• Matt Rosen, founder of Haystack Ag, introduced its innovative soil-carbon measurement system tailored for growers and carbon markets. Addressing the challenge of costly and labor-intensive soil-carbon verification, Haystack Ag said it can reduce costs and increasing throughput. The company claimed that its technology can provide highly accurate data crucial for carbon-offset markets. Its business model focuses on selling carbon testing services to carbon market intermediaries, contributing to the scalability of carbon sequestration initiatives globally. 
• Kent Cavender-Bares, founder and CEO of Rowbot, presented its row-crop farming robot tailored for large-scale agriculture. Inefficient use of nitrogen fertilizer poses a challenge, so the company plans deliver nitrogen fertilizer at the right time for the crop. Its patented technology allows for precise application between rows with minimal clearance, optimizing plant treatment. With advanced prototypes tested on hundreds of real fields and a recent agreement with a major cooperative in Iowa, Rowbot said it is poised for commercialization, signaling significant market potential.
• Onder Odemir, founder CEO of Ubiros Inc., introduced soft grippers tailored for the food industry, addressing the challenge of delicate item handling without the need for human labor. With a focus on affordability and versatility, Ubiros offers a solution to the labor shortage in food packaging. The company’s grippers are electric-powered, lightweight, and capable of handling items such as peaches, tomatoes, and cucumbers with care, making them suitable for a range of agricultural and food industry applications. Odemir noted the importance of dexterity and affordability in robotic end effectors, positioning the grippers as a valuable tool for farmers and food processors seeking efficient and gentle handling solutions.
• Ahmad Zameli, CEO of Untill, introduced its indoor vertical farm, which he said can reduce the food supply chain from eight days days to under 24 hours, extending product shelf life and cutting carbon emissions by over 30%. The proprietary technology enables high-density planting, resulting in six times the productivity of traditional vertical farms. Untill plans to scale through partnerships and franchising, aiming to improve access to fresh produce.

Matthew Rosen, CEO of Haystack at AgTech event. Source: MassRobotics

See MassRobotics at the Robotics Summit

The Robotics in AgTech event provided a platform for stakeholders to gain valuable insights into the latest advancements and emerging trends in the agriculture industry. The event fostered collaboration, paving the way for future partnerships and initiatives aimed at driving innovation in AgTech.

MassRobotics said it remains committed to driving innovation in agriculture and leveraging the power of technology to create a more sustainable and resilient food system. 

At the Robotics Summit & Expo, MassRobotics will host a pavilion with the 10 startups in its Accelerator Program. They will exhibit on the show floor and discuss their experiences in a session on May 1 at 4:15 p.m. ET.

For the second year in a row, MassRobotics Form & Function Robotics Challenge participants will show their prototypes on the expo floor. In the Engineering Theater at noon on Thursday, May 2, the organization will name the winners from among the university teams from around the world.

In addition, MassRobotics will also be holding a Robotics Engineering Career Fair from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. on May 2 in Boston. The career fair will draw from the general robotics and artificial intelligence community, as well as from Robotics Summit attendees.

Past co-located career fairs have drawn more than 800 candidates, and event organizers said they expect even more people at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center this year. MassRobotics is a strategic partner of WTWH Media, which produces the Robotics Summit and The Robot Report.

The Robotics Engineering Career Fair welcomes recent graduates and seasoned engineers, computer scientists, vision specialists, mechatronics experts, AI professionals, and more, said MassRobotics. Candidates can register here for $15.

The Robotics Summit will be co-located with DeviceTalks, an event focused on medical devices, and the inaugural Digital Transformation Forum. Registration is now open for the event.

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Four experts plan to share their unique insights on commercializing robotics products during a panel discussion at the 2024 Robotics Summit & Expo. They have diverse backgrounds in agriculture, construction, and entrepreneurship and will share their tips on how to find the right product-market fit.

Attendees can discover firsthand how these industry leaders have conquered obstacles, scaled operations, and transformed ideas into viable products. They can also gain valuable insights to pave the way for their own commercialization journeys.

The session “Paving the Road to Success in Robotics Commercialization” is slated for 11:30 a.m. on the first day of the Robotics Summit & Expo, which will be in Boston. During this panel, hear from:

Jennifer Apicella is the executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. There, she has overseen the growth and development of the Pittsburgh region’s commercial robotics cluster, one of the top robotics business ecosystems in the world.

Apicella has more than 15 years of experience working in advanced technologies and currently serves on the National Board of getWITit (Women in Tech), Women in Robotics Pittsburgh Chapter. She has spent most of her career helping clients succeed with enterprise technology adoption.

Brandon Contino is the co-founder and CEO of Four Growers, an agricultural analytics and robotics company in Turtle Creek, Pa. Four Growers is using AI to analyze and autonomously harvest specialty crops. The company has units running in commercial customer operations across North America and Europe.

Before founding Four Growers, Contino developed neural networks for neurosurgery, wrote custom maximum power point algorithms for photovoltaic cells, created low-cost IoT water-quality sensors, and developed autonomous robots that won numerous competitions.

Stephen Muck is the chairman and CEO of Brayman Construction Corp. in Saxonburg, Pa. He is also the founder and executive chairman of Advanced Construction Robotics (ACR), which develops autonomous robots for rebar installations.

Muck has started or acquired over 20 businesses throughout his career and currently operates a portfolio of several companies focused on heavy civil construction. In construction-related endeavors alone, Muck oversees around $200 million in revenue. He obtained a B.S. in finance from Ohio University and an M.B.A. from Penn State University.

Cirtronics chair to moderate

Andy McMillan, the session’s moderator, is the chair of the board of Cirtronics Corp., a Milford, N.H.-based contract manufacturer of robotics, medical equipment, and other products requiring high quality and precision. He is an experienced executive with a history of strategic innovation in products, technologies, and business models.

McMillan has founded several companies, holds a dozen patents, and has spoken on automation and open systems worldwide. In addition to strategy consulting assignments, he is chair of the advisory board for Cirtronics and president of a global data communications trade association. McMillan’s formal education includes engineering and business degrees from the University of Michigan.

The session will focus on the essential elements of successful commercialization, how to simultaneously assess problems and technology awareness, and how to determine the best time to outsource manufacturing. Attendees can also find Cirtronics at Booth 206 on the event’s show floor.

About the 2024 Robotics Summit & Expo

This will be the largest Robotics Summit ever. It will include more than 200 exhibitors, various networking opportunities, a Women in Robotics breakfast, a career fair, an engineering theater, a startup showcase, and more!

New to the event is the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala. The event will include a cocktail hour, plated dinner, photo opportunities, and the chance to hear from the Robot of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Application of the Year winners.

Each RBR50 winner will receive two complimentary tickets to the Robotics Summit and RBR50 gala. A limited number of tickets is available to attendees, but they’re selling fast!

The Robotics Summit & Expo will be co-located with DeviceTalks, an event focused on medical devices, and the inaugural Digital Transformation Forum. Registration is now open for the event.

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The new production line doubles the production capabilities of the company. | Credit: Scythe

Scythe Robotics, a Colo.-based company developing autonomous lawnmowers for commercial landscapers, this week opened its expanded headquarters and manufacturing facility in Boulder County. It said the expansion comes in response to the demand for its Scythe M.52 – the company’s all-electric, fully autonomous commercial mower that it said has a waitlist thousands of units long.

More than double the size of the original space, the 28,000-square-foot facility signals the company’s continued growth. It will build and deploy more than 100 mowers in the coming months, it said, ramping production to 8 units a week. Increased production volumes are projected in the second half of the year when Scythe debuts the next generation of M.52.

To accommodate its 80 employees, 60 of whom are based in Colorado, the larger headquarters also provides ample office and meeting areas that will support increased company activity and forecasted headcount growth.

The M.52 autonomous mower is Scythe’s flagship product. | Credit: Scythe

“The opening of our state-of-the-art robotics facility accelerates our ability to deliver high-quality, game-changing machines to our customers for the upcoming mowing season,” said Jack Morrison, co-founder and CEO of Scythe. “We are proud that our growth is generating meaningful job opportunities within Colorado’s burgeoning cleantech sector and advancing our state’s culture of collaboration and creativity. Boulder County’s diverse talent pool and inspiring landscape make it the ideal place for Scythe to innovate and lead the way in robotics.”

Scythe said the strategic location in Longmont offers proximity to esteemed universities, a vibrant and expanding robotics community, and the allure of Colorado’s outdoor lifestyle. With special recognition from the State of Colorado and the City of Longmont, Scythe will continue to create high-quality jobs in Boulder County for individuals across a wide range of skills and backgrounds.

“Colorado is leading the nation in the industries of tomorrow, and we are thrilled to see Scythe Robotics expand in Colorado, creating 394 good-paying jobs and helping to pioneer the future of robotics. Colorado’s highly educated workforce, pro-business environment, and commitment to innovation make us the best place to live, work, and do business,” said Governor Polis.

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“Colorado ranks fifth in the nation as a cleantech hub, and companies like Scythe Robotics play an important role in advancing this key industry,” added OEDIT executive director Eve Lieberman. “We are pleased to see the company expand in Longmont, creating new good-paying jobs while contributing to our state’s ongoing leadership in cleantech.”

Scythe will be speaking at the Robotics Summit & Expo, the world’s leading event for commercial robotics developers, that takes place May 1-2 in Boston. Nathaniel Czarnecki, Scythe’s lead test engineer, will be talking about how the company is “Building a Scalable Testing Program to Drive Robot Reliability.” Czarnecki will share the company’s philosophy behind and framework for building highly effective robotics testing programs that can grow in scope and impact without becoming burdensome to the business. This involves prioritizing which facets of the product need the most in-depth testing, identifying meaningful metrics to measure them by, and using the findings to rapidly iterate on and improve the product – all with typically limited resources and an eye toward seriously expanded testing operations.

Redesigned and optimized production workflow

In the design of the production line, Scythe implemented a unidirectional movement system that it said empowers the manufacturing team to monitor progress visually, minimize waste, and operate at peak efficiency. This ensures that each M.52 robot meets stringent quality standards and delivery schedules.

The upgraded warehouse and production line also feature raising platforms, agile cranes, and dedicated assembly stations. These additions prioritize the comfort and productivity of Scythe’s assembly technicians, it said, reducing the time and effort expended in the assembly of a complex machine.

The company recently adopted the ‘Tesla charging standard’ for its mowers. By standardizing on this charging interface, a mower can be recharged quickly in the field from any Tesla Supercharger.

“Ensuring a quality product that is delivered in a timely manner hinges on our ability to proactively optimize workflows throughout the manufacturing process,” said Kip Atkinson, senior manufacturing engineer at Scythe. “Through the adoption of lean manufacturing principles, we swiftly pinpoint and rectify any production or testing errors before the mower leaves our facility. Our rigorous criteria during the production process guarantee that our customers receive machines of the utmost safety and reliability, consistently delivering superior outcomes.”

Scythe CEO Jack Morrison gives a toast at the production line launch party. | Credit: Scythe

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Afara Agricultural Technologies Inc. has developed AFARA-COTTON, an autonomous mobile robot designed to collect cotton spilled on the ground after the mechanical harvesting process. The Turkish company has also developed automation for seeding, irrigation, disinfestation, and weeding.

According to Afara, 5% to 20% of annual cotton yields are unpicked by mechanical harvesters or are dropped to the ground during harvest. This valuable resource is currently either wasted or must be gathered by hand, it said.

The company said AFARA-COTTON is an all-electric, self-driving platform to address this waste. It is currently selling its systems only in Turkey and select European countries.

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AFARA-COTTON cleans two rows at once

Computer engineer Ömer Muratlı, the son of a farmer, invented the Afara Agricultural Robot in 2019. His family, which harvested cotton, had asked him to build a robot to collect remaining cotton. He patented the agricultural platform and brought it to the working prototype stage.

Afara Agricultural Technologies was established in 2023 with investment from the crowdfunding platform Fonlabüyüsün. The company is continuing work on a mass-production model.

The video animation above shows that the robot has four cameras, two lidar sensors, and ultrasonic sensors. Cameras scan the ground looking for the stray seed cotton.

An AI-based perception model identifies the seed cotton and deploys a suction cup to vacuum up the seed cotton and collect it in a central bailing area in the middle of the machine. The startup said it is targeting a 90% efficiency rate.

AFARA-COTTON autonomously traverses the field, avoiding obstacles as it cleans up two rows at a time. Currently, as the robot completes a row, the operator needs to manually realign it onto the next row and reinitiate the collection process.

The robot can accumulate up to 200 kg (440 lb.) before it needs to be emptied. While collecting the cotton, the picker drives up to 3.2 kph (2 mph), and it can operate for up to six hours on a single charge. The current two-row model will be available for €120,000 to €130,000 ($131,275 to $142,231 U.S.).

AFARA-COTTON is designed to clean up cotton wastage from the field after the harvest. | Credit: AFARA

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Nag Murty, CEO and cofounder of Electric Sheep, and Michael Laskey, CTO of Electric Sheep join the show this week to discuss how Electric Sheep is disrupting the commercial landscaping industry with autonomous mobile robots and a unique business model. The company is leveraging AI to enable autonomous mowers to cut the grass while simplifying the deployment process in the field.
Electric Sheep is also vertically integrating the market segment through the acquisition of commercial landscaping businesses, then training the field workforce and integrating the autonomous mowers in the daily workflow for the field teams while learning and adapting the product.

Episode Timeline

18:10   Interview with Electric Sheep CEO and cofounder Nag Murty, along with CTO Michael Laskey.

In the news this week

• The January investment report is out and robotics companies raised $578M in January 2024.
  • Robotics investments totaled $578 million in January 2024 as the result of 46 funding rounds. This figure was substantially lower than the trailing twelve-month average, but in line with January 2023’s figure of $523 million.
  • The largest robotics investment in January 2024 was a $100 million round secured by Norway-based 1X, a developer of humanoids (See Table 1 below). Chinese humanoid developer Robot Era raised $14 million in February.
  • Makers of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for agricultural operations were well represented among February’s robotics investments. Examples include Bluewhite ($39 million), Burro ($24 million), Saga Robotics ($11.5 million), farm-ng ($10M), and Ant Robotics ($2 million).
  • Companies based in the United States raised $154 million in January 2024, while Norway, buoyed by the $100 million 1X investment, placed third among countries with $113 million in funding.
• Anyware Robotics announces new add-on conveyor for Pixmo unloading robots
  • The patent-pending articulating conveyor simplifies
• Waymo robotaxis approved for fared rides in LA, also significantly expanded operating area around the SF peninsula, including a reported route to the airport.
  • Also launches fully driverless rides for employees in Austin; will begin shuttling employees around 43 square miles of the Texas capital.
• Veteran tech exec Peggy Johnson named Agility Robotics CEO
  • Agility Robotics co-founder Damion Shelton has served as CEO since the company’s founding in 2015. Shelton will now be the company’s president and part of Johnson’s leadership team.

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Eric Adamson, CEO and co-founder of Tortuga, joins us in this episode to discuss agricultural robotics. Tortuga is one of the agtech companies leading the charge to transform greenhouse farming with their autonomous harvesting robots. Eric discusses the difficulties and successes of developing robots for use in greenhouses, shedding light on the processes involved in harvesting strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes. This episode offers an intriguing look into how technology and agriculture are influencing the future of food production, from overcoming design limits to investigating creative alternatives.

Episode Timeline

26:15   Interview with Eric Adamson, from Tortuga AgTech

In the news this week

• • Figure AI raises whopping $675M to commercialize humanoids
    • With the Series B funding, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is now valued at $2.6 billion. Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest were among the investors. Qatalyst Partners provided strategic and financial advice to Figure.
    • Figure AI said it will work with OpenAI on the next generation of AI models for humanoids. This will be done by combining OpenAI’s language research with Figure’s robotics hardware and software expertise.
    • Figure said it will use Microsoft Azure for AI training, storage, and servers.
    • This is shot across the bow for Tesla and the Optimus team, but it really adds fuel the race to commercialize humanoids.
  • Electric Sheep Robotics launched Verdie, a new robot using its proprietary artificial intelligence and software.
    • Electric Sheep aims to be the first large-scale outdoor maintenance company powered by AI and robotics.
    • Verdie uses AI to understand the lawns around them and efficiently care for them, said Electric Sheep. Based on recent advances in generative AI, ES1 is a learned-world model that enables reasoning and planning for both robots.
  • One more update: On last week’s show, the Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus had just successfully landed on the moon, but what we didn’t know at the time was that it tipped over in the final moments of the landing procedure.
    • It was supposed to survive for 14 days, before the lunar night, but it only lasted a week, and stopped transmitting yesterday.

The post Harvesting innovation: The story behind Tortuga’s autonomous harvesting robots appeared first on The Robot Report.

In late 2019, after years of studying aviation and aerospace engineering, Hector (Haofeng) Xu decided to learn to fly helicopters. At the time, he was pursuing his PhD in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, so he was familiar with the risks associated with flying small aircraft. But something about being in the cockpit gave Xu a greater appreciation of those risks. After a couple of nerve-wracking experiences, he was inspired to make helicopter flight safer.

In 2021, he founded the autonomous helicopter company Rotor Technologies, Inc.

It turns out Xu’s near-misses weren’t all that unique. Although large, commercial passenger planes are extremely safe, people die every year in small, private aircraft in the U.S. Many of those fatalities occur during helicopter flights for activities like crop dusting, fighting fires, and medical evacuations.

Rotor is retrofitting existing helicopters with a suite of sensors and software to remove the pilot from some of the most dangerous flights and expand use cases for aviation more broadly.

“People don’t realize pilots are risking their lives every day in the U.S.,” Xu explained. “Pilots fly into wires, get disoriented in inclement weather, or otherwise lose control, and almost all of these accidents can be prevented with automation. We’re starting by targeting the most dangerous missions.”

Rotor’s autonomous machines are able to fly faster and longer and carry heavier payloads than battery powered drones, and by working with a reliable helicopter model that has been around for decades, the company has been able to commercialize quickly. Rotor’s autonomous aircraft are already taking to the skies around its Nashua, New Hampshire, headquarters for demo flights, and customers will be able to purchase them later this year.

“A lot of other companies are trying to build new vehicles with lots of new technologies around things like materials and power trains,” said Ben Frank ’14, Rotor’s chief commercial officer. “They’re trying to do everything. We’re really focused on autonomy. That’s what we specialize in and what we think will bring the biggest step-change to make vertical flight much safer and more accessible.”

Building a team at MIT

As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, Xu participated in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange Program (CME). His year at MIT apparently went well — after graduating Cambridge, he spent the next eight years at the Institute, first as a PhD student, then a postdoc, and finally as a research affiliate in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), a position he still holds today. During the CME program and his postdoc, Xu was advised by Professor Steven Barrett, who is now the head of AeroAstro. Xu said Barrett has played an important role in guiding him throughout his career.

“Rotor’s technology didn’t spin out of MIT’s labs, but MIT really shaped my vision for technology and the future of aviation,” Xu said.

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Xu’s first hire was Rotor Chief Technology Officer Yiou He SM ’14, PhD ’20, whom Xu worked with during his PhD. The decision was a sign of things to come: The number of MIT affiliates at the 50-person company is now in the double digits.

“The core tech team early on was a bunch of MIT PhDs, and they’re some of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with,” Xu said. “They’re just really smart and during grad school they had built some really fantastic things at MIT. That’s probably the most critical factor to our success.”

To help get Rotor off the ground, Xu worked with the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), and the National Science Foundation’s New England Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program on campus.

A key early decision was to work with a well-known aircraft from the Robinson Helicopter Company rather than building an aircraft from scratch. Robinson already requires its helicopters to be overhauled after about 2,000 hours of flight time, and that’s when Rotor jumps in.

The core of Rotor’s solution is what’s known as a “fly by wire” system — a set of computers and motors that interact with the helicopter’s flight control features. Rotor also equips the helicopters with a suite of advanced communication tools and sensors, many of which were adapted from the autonomous vehicle industry.

Rotor Technologies retrofits its autonomy stack onto existing helicopters. | Credit: Rotor Technologies

“We believe in a long-term future where there are no longer pilots in the cockpit, so we’re building for this remote pilot paradigm,” Xu said. “It means we have to build robust autonomous systems on board, but it also means that we need to build communication systems between the aircraft and the ground.”

Rotor is able to leverage Robinson’s existing supply chain, and potential customers are comfortable with an aircraft they’ve worked with before — even if no one is sitting in the pilot seat. Once Rotor’s helicopters are in the air, the startup offers 24/7 monitoring of flights with a cloud-based human supervision system the company calls Cloudpilot. The company is starting with flights in remote areas to avoid risk of human injury.

“We have a very careful approach to automation, but we also retain a highly skilled human expert in the loop,” Xu said. “We get the best of the autonomous systems, which are very reliable, and the best of humans, who are really great at decision-making and dealing with unexpected scenarios.”

Autonomous helicopters take off

Using small aircraft to do things like fight fires and deliver cargo to offshore sites is not only dangerous, it’s also inefficient. There are restrictions on how long pilots can fly, and they can’t fly during adverse weather or at night.

Most autonomous options today are limited by small batteries and limited payload capacities. Rotor’s aircraft, named the R550X, can carry loads up to 1,212 pounds, travel more than 120 miles per hour, and be equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks to stay in the air for hours at a time.

Some potential customers are interested in using the aircraft to extend flying times and increase safety, but others want to use the machines for entirely new kinds of applications.

“It is a new aircraft that can do things that other aircraft couldn’t — or maybe even if technically they could, they wouldn’t do with a pilot,” Xu said. “You could also think of new scientific missions enabled by this. I hope to leave it to people’s imagination to figure out what they can do with this new tool.”

Rotor plans to sell a small handful of aircraft this year and scale production to produce 50 to 100 aircraft a year from there.

Meanwhile, in the much longer term, Xu hopes Rotor will play a role in getting him back into helicopters and, eventually, transporting humans.

“Today, our impact has a lot to do with safety, and we’re fixing some of the challenges that have stumped helicopter operators for decades,” Xu said. “But I think our biggest future impact will be changing our daily lives. I’m excited to be flying in safer, more autonomous, and more affordable vertical take-off and-landing aircraft, and I hope Rotor will be an important part of enabling that.”

Editor’s Note: This article was republished with permission from MIT News.

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Small Robot Company (SRC) is shutting down as it failed to get the funding needed to reach its next phase. The company has entered liquidation after an extended battle for survival. Despite having a signed term sheet, the awaited investment failed to materialize before the company’s financial runway ran out.

“We were the victims of the valley of death,” SRC told The Robot Report. “We just don’t have the funding ecosystem for hardware (or indeed any tech!) that [companies] have in the US. Or the appetite for risk. Agriculture is perceived as very risky. Government funding only covers [development] to prototype.”

As of February 1st, Kroll has been appointed as administrator to oversee the sale of assets. Collaborating with Kroll, efforts are being made to identify potential acquirers to secure a future for some of the team and the technology, which continues to offer benefits to farmers and the environment.

Tom, Dick and Harry at your service

The Salisbury England-based company developed an autonomous platform for agriculture applications. The company was also famous for the everyday names of its robots. “Tom” was the first mobile robot released by SRC and was a weeding platform. “Dick” was designed to be a weed-zapper, but the robot didn’t make it out of early trials. And “Harry” was designed to be a planting robot. The company’s AI to identify the weeds was called “Wilma.”

Founded in 2017, by Ben Scott-Robinson, Sarra Mander, and Sam Watson Jones, the company raised a total of $13.18 million over 6 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, and grew to over 50 employees. The latest funding round was in September 2022.

Agtech is a competitive market

Several global startups are competing in this market for smaller format agtech mobile robots. These autonomous mobile robots are designed for smaller farms, and especially for high-value crops. These companies include Burro, farm-ng, Naio Technologies, and SwarmFarm. farm-ng recently closed a $10M series A, and Burro recently announced the launch of its newest model, the Burro Grande.

This news comes on the heels of other recent bad news for some robot companies in January, including the RoboTire bankruptcy, the termination of Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot, and layoffs at Locus Robotics, Vecna Robotics and other companies.

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Kodama turns heavy equipment used for forest thinning into autonomous or remotely operated machines. | Source: Kodama Systems

The U.S. is currently facing a wildfire crisis. In 2022, wildfires burned over 7.5 million acres of land, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency has estimated that wildfires have caused $81.6 billion in damage from 2017 to 2021, a nearly tenfold increase from 2012 to 2016. Kodama Systems Inc. is one company offering a possible solution.

Several factors have contributed to the current crisis. These include a warming climate and a growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service. But you might be surprised to learn that overgrown forests are also a key contributor, especially in the Western U.S.

Historically, forests in the West were much less dense than they are today. Overstocked forests have resulted in greater competition for resources among plant life in these areas, making them more vulnerable to drought and other stressors.

Scientific consensus also suggests that these overgrown forests are a key contributor to the current wildfire crisis. An abundance of smaller, often weaker, trees is ready to burn.

Forestry is labor-intensive

Many government agencies and private landowners are now focused on removing material from the forests to reduce potential fuel loads. They are turning to forest-thinning methods that use machines to remove excess and hazardous vegetation. Their goals are to improve forest health conditions and keep wildfires from spreading out of control.

Forest thinning isn’t a simple task. First, foresters are required for project planning and environmental review. Next, they create prescriptions for logging crews to cut select trees and other vegetation.

Then, a crew of workers hauls this material out of the forest and loads it onto trucks to head to various destinations like sawmills or processing facilities. A single project cycle could take months, or even years.

It’s a labor-intensive and physically demanding job, and there aren’t enough organizations to meet state and federal treatment goals. There are even fewer using robotics.

Kodama Systems, a Sonora Calif.-based startup, is introducing technologies including teleoperation and automation to improve forest management operations.

“Our mission is to restore forests for future generations, help promote forest health for the long term, and accelerate the work that the state and federal agencies are calling for right now,” James Sedlak, co-lead for operations and communications at Kodama, told The Robot Report.

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Kodama works to prevent wildfires from burning out of control

While several companies are using robotics and artificial intelligence to detect and suppress wildfires, Kodama is one of the few taking a more proactive approach by focusing on forest thinning. 

“My background is in robotics and agriculture, and I’ve seen a lot of technology adoption in the agriculture space,” said Merritt Jenkins, co-founder and CEO of Kodama. “And when I started exploring forest management, I did not see the same rate of technology adoption.” 

Forest thinning at scale requires various types of heavy machinery. In one approach called “whole-tree” thinning, a feller buncher cuts down trees and bunches the logs together in a bundle. Once they’re bunched together, a skidder comes along and drags the bundle of logs from the cutting site to a landing.

At the landing, a processor delimbs and cuts the logs into merchantable lengths. After this, a loader uses a grapple to sort, stack, and load the logs onto a truck for transportation. Once the trees are cut down, a few things could happen, according to Jenkins.

“If you are within an economical transport distance from a sawmill, and it’s solid, quality material, then you take that material to a sawmill,” he explained.

However, if the materials have imperfections, or the diameter of the tree is too small, a sawmill won’t accept them. If the company is working within an economical transport distance of a biomass power plant, it can take this material there.

But most of this small-diameter material ends up being piled and burned. This is why Kodama is developing a project to store this material as carbon storage, said Jenkins. The state of California recently estimated that approximately 84% of material is left in the woods.

“We are developing what we call a ‘wood vault,’ which is a method of storing that material underground for hundreds of years in dry, anaerobic storage,” Jenkins said. “With pile burning, almost all of that carbon that’s stored in the biomass ends up going into the atmosphere as CO2 emissions. Instead, you can lock that carbon away for hundreds of years.” 

Kodama said its key differentiator is also aboveground. It is developing remote-controlled and autonomous technology for machinery in the woods to improve the safety and productivity of forest operations. 

“Our goal is to have semi-autonomous processes throughout a forest-thinning operation,” Jenkins said. “The initial focus is the skidder.”

“Whole-tree” thinning requires a feller buncher, a skidder, a processor, and a loader. | Source: Kodama Systems

Kodama Systems builds an autonomous skidder

“The skidder is generally traveling along the same trails many times,” Jenkins said. “That is an opportunity for automation because you can map it and then follow within a map.” 

The Kodama team equips its semi-autonomous skidders with two primary kinds of sensors: cameras and lidar. As the skidder travels through the forest, it builds a 3D map of its surroundings.

“We’re introducing automation for those lower-hanging, tedious tasks so that we could free up those very skilled operators to do other high-value work on the project sites,” said Sedlak.

“The skid trail navigation is autonomous, and there are certain more dexterous aspects of the operation where we take over teleoperation,” Jenkins said. “And that teleoperation is still local, so you’re at the project site when you’re teleoperating.” 

Kodama integrates its technology with the machine’s controls. Anything an operator can control from within the cab, the company can control remotely, Jenkins said. 

Labor is a major challenge for this industry, he added. There aren’t a lot of young people looking to go into the field, and operating heavy machinery can be hard on the body, observed Jenkins. 

Kodama said it’s also working to enable teleoperation from offsite locations to eliminate long commutes to sites and expand the operator workforce. According to the team, some workers drive up to two hours to get to the work site every day. 

So far, the Kodama team has successfully demonstrated its semi-autonomous skidder in commercial forest-thinning settings. While the winter is a slower time for the company, particularly when it starts to snow in the Sierras, they’re gearing up for a busy spring. 

Kodama said its focus extends beyond the skidder, with plans to automate processing and loading operations.

The controls for Kodama’s teleoperation systems. | Source: Kodama Systems

Forest thinning moving to the forefront of government policy

In recent years, government agencies have established initiatives aimed at preventing catastrophic wildfires, and many of them include forest-thinning goals. 

In 2020, California and the U.S. Forest Service established a shared long-term strategy to manage forests and rangelands targeting 1 million acres of vulnerable forest land per year starting in 2025. 

The strategy aims to reduce wildfire risks, restore watersheds, protect habitat and biological diversity, and help the state meet its climate objectives. It cited a transition toward unnaturally dense forests as a risk factor. 

Two years later, in January 2022, the Forest Service launched a 10-year strategy to address the country’s wildfire crisis. It plans to carry out reduction work on 21 landscapes across 134 “firesheds” in the Western U.S.

All of this means that there is more work than manual labor can accomplish alone. Kodama claimed that its systems are more crucial than ever. 

“I used to be a wildland firefighter. I spent three seasons out in the front lines on some of the biggest fires in California state history,” Sedlak said. “I saw a trend that emergency response resources can only do so much, and in order to really address the wildfire crisis, we need to not only sustain that suppression workforce. We [also] really need to focus on the wildfire mitigation work.”

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News of the week

• • Locus Robotics layoffs
    • The mobile robot maker last week confirmed that it had a “small, targeted RIF,” or reduction in force.
    • North American robot orders dropped last year, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Warehouse construction also declined by 25% in 2023, reported Interact Analysis, but demand for mobile robots did increase.
    • While relatively few robot providers shut down last year, the AMR space faced challenges. For example, Shopify sold 6 River Systems to Ocado at a loss.
    • We’ve gotten confirmation of layoffs at more companies, and we wish the best to those affected by such actions. Resources for job seekers include RoboticsCareer.org, RoboticsJobs.com, Robots.Jobs, and The Apprenticeship Playbook.
  • Recent humanoid announcements 
    • BMW is testing a Figure 01 humanoid at a South Carolina automotive plant in another significant commercial trial after Agility Robotics’ announcements last year of Digit at Amazon and GXO Logistics
    • Elon Musk said 1 billion humanoids are coming soon, as Tesla continues developing Optimus and there is speculation about stock maneuvering.
  • General AgTech news in addition CNHI:
    • farm-ng raised $10 million in Series A funding to scale the Amiga robot and AI for small to midsize farms.
    • John Deere and SpaceX to bring satellite connectivity to farmers and robots.
  • New MIT CSAIL study
    • A new study from MIT CSAIL, MIT Sloan, The Productivity Institute, and IBM’s Institute for Business Value provided more insight into how artificial intelligence could affect the job market. Its findings challenge the common belief that AI will put vast numbers of people out of work.
      • The study found that only about 23% of wages paid for tasks involving vision systems are economically viable for AI automation.
      • If development, deployment, and running costs decline, and the industry transforms to provide AI systems as a service, businesses could adopt AI more quickly, the researchers noted. All of these things lower the cost of investment for companies to deploy AI, making the technology more financially viable. This could lead to more rapid changes in the job market.
      • With more AI systems in place in the workforce, jobs could open up to maintain those systems, it said. As some jobs are automated, businesses will need more people to manage, maintain, and improve AI and robotics. 

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Bluewhite creates autonomy packages that convert a standard tractor, like this John Deere 5125ML, into a fully autonomous solution. | Credit: The Robot Report

Bluewhite this week announced that it secured $39 million in Series C financing. The Tel Aviv, Israel.-based company said it already works with more than 20 of the leading permanent crop growers in the U.S. It plans to use the funding to further scale its autonomous tractor and other agricultural systems and to expand into new markets worldwide.

“Having already proven the commercial success of our solution with growers, this new round of funding will enable us to continue providing sustainable autonomous innovation to more markets and work with different types of partners across the ecosystem to impact every level of the food supply chain,” said Ben Alfi, co-founder and CEO of Bluewhite, in a release.

“This next phase of our growth will help provide unprecedented transparency throughout the food supply chain and ensure healthier, safer, and more sustainable food production and consumption,” he added. “We are thrilled to have forward-thinking investors and amazing customers who share our vision to make sustainable, autonomous farming a reality worldwide.”

Ben Alfi, Yair Shahar, and Aviram Shmueli founded the company in 2017. Formerly known as Blue White Robotics Ltd., Bluewhite said it combines sensors, AI algorithms, and a user-friendly experience to help growers manage their fleets and “produce more with less.”

Bluewhite, which has offices in Fresno, Calif., was one of The Robot Report‘s top picks for new automation providers at the 2023 World Ag Expo.

Bluewhite provides tractor retrofit kit 

Bluewhite said its standardized perception and autonomy system can be retrofitted onto any compact or midsize tractor, converting it into a fully autonomous driving platform and enabling growers to upgrade their existing fleets. The Pathfinder autonomy package includes all of the onboard sensors necessary for obstacle avoidance and path planning.

Included with Pathfinder is an onboard computer that processes all of the sensor data and controls the tractor operation. Depending upon the make, model, and age of the tractor, additional actuators can be fitted to control steering, throttle, and brakes, said Bluewhite. 

The autonomy kit can also control any agricultural implement as needed across permanent crop types, including nuts, berries, apples, grapes, hops, and stone fruit, said Bluewhite. The package provides new functionality, but it also allows a tractor to be driven manually when necessary.

Bluewhite added that its Compass software-as-a-service (SaaS) component, collects data from the field, analyzes it, and provides real-time dashboards, reports, and insights to help growers better manage their farms, thus increasing yields and profitability.

The company claimed that it has already helped execute more than 50,000 hours of autonomous farming activity across 150,000 acres in California and Washington state.

Bluewhite retrofits its perception stack, including multiple sensors, onto existing tractors. | Credit: The Robot Report

Investors plant capital for further growth

Insight Partners led Bluewhite’s Series C round, with participation from new investors Alumni Ventures and LIP Ventures, among others. Existing investors Entrée Capital, Jesselson, and Peregrine Ventures also participated. 

“Particularly in these challenging times, we’ve been excited to see Bluewhite defy the odds and successfully deploy its solution while also raising this next round of funding so it can continue to scale,” said Daniel Aronovitz, a principal at Insight Partners and a Bluewhite board member. “The combination of Bluewhite’s unique autonomous technology and incredible team have led the company to rise above the pack, and we’re thrilled to be working with them as they move into this next critical phase.”

As of August 2023, Insight Partners had over $80 billion in assets under management. The New York-based firm has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide, with over 55 achieving an initial public stock offering.

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RaaS model could boost agricultural robotics adoption 

Bluewhite offers its systems through a robot-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. This enables it to remotely help farmers manage the platform, update software features, and actively offer customer support.

The company said it shares data gathered from the tractor operations with the growers, enabling them to optimize operations over time. As agronomy science evolves, growers can make better decisions while reducing costs for chemicals, fertilizers and seed, said Bluewhite.

After installation of the Bluewhite package, the tractor is still fully functional as a manually driven tractor, but the automation controls are easily accessible. | Credit: The Robot Report

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Robotics competition teams can use the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit. Source: AMD

From students and startups to the world of entertainment, interest in robots is everywhere these days. In visiting with roboticists of all types across the globe, Advanced Micro Devices found that successful robotics design generally comes down to three key considerations: Timing is everything, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and distribution beats centralization.

Timing is everything in robotics

Just as location is everything in real estate, timing is everything in automation. If you’ve ever been on a video call, they are typically done using a “best-effort” Internet connection.

You may have even experienced a temporary situation where audio and video fall out of sync with each other. This is because the data connections we are all so accustomed to, whether it be a hardwired Ethernet connection, Wi-Fi, or mobile, are not the same as those used in the world of robotic automation.

Automation demands synchronization above all else. Synchronization is the result of determinism in communications and action. In other words, it’s when the brains of the robot tell its arm to move a piece of sheet metal to a specific position or multiple robots work together on a joint task such as rotating and spray painting a piece of sheet metal.

Things should happen when they’re supposed to, without fail. This dance occurs with millisecond-level precision because, in the world of automation, time is money.

If determinism is half of the timing equation, latency is the other half. Latency enables you to go fast because latency relates to the amount of time it takes for something to happen. Latency refers to the time of sensor input from a camera or gyroscope to the time it takes to react to the data the sensors share.

Increasingly, robots are being used around people in collaborative situations. Humans are infamously unpredictable, and obstacle avoidance is an example where time from sensor input to reaction makes a critical difference.

Timing requires both determinism and low latency, and if you have both, it’s often generically referred to as being “real time.” Rapidly cultivating the chain of events from sensor inputs to data processing to mechanical action has significant value in industry, as the temporal value of data can slip by you like a fish in water if you aren’t quick enough to react to it.

No one knows this better than Robert Huber, co-founder of Radmantis. The aquaculture startup is developing a system that uses vision AI to grade salmon as they swim and a series of underwater mechanical gates to sort similar fish together before shipment to restaurants, based on weight, health and other factors.

“Salmon can get stressed out easily and stress levels are reflected in the quality of the end product,” said Huber. “Using real-time vision AI in conjunction with real-time controls, the fish are unassuming participants in ensuring restaurant orders are fulfilled to spec and at the highest quality.”

Build things greater than the sum of their parts

Many roboticists found their start with FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology — a nonprofit offering hands-on, STEM programs for over half a million students in over 90 countries. FIRST students quickly learn the concept of the whole needing to be greater than the sum of the parts, and they learn it in more ways than one.

“To maximize productivity, we split the team into four focused groups,” recalled Alex Van Aacken, a former FIRST Robotics Competition participant and current mechanical engineering student at Ohio State University.

“We had a design sub-team, a prototyping and manufacturing sub-team, an assembly sub-team, and a testing sub-team,” he said. “The robot itself also needed to be divided up into the base chassis, the robot arm, and the frame connecting the robot arm to the base chassis.”

Van Aacken was quick to note that the development software his team used also needed to support this modularized approach.

Robots can be among the most complex of systems, so they must be split up into multiple subsystems with multiple teams working on those individual subsystems and yet another team assembling the systems together to do the intended task. Just like an orchestra is made up of individual musicians and a conductor organizes them to play together, the integration step is critical in accomplishing the final robotic outcome.

Distribution beats centralization

In some robots, the subsystem has some level of autonomy by offloading processing from the main controller. The benefit of this distribution of processing is often both simplicity and performance.

For example, a main robotic controller may tell a robotic arm subsystem to do a task but not how to do the task. If the arm has the freedom and capability to do said task more efficiently because it has access to information that the main controller may not have, it is considered an example of decentralization of controls. A good illustration is from the hit international TV show, BattleBots.

Parker Holloway and Greg Needel are members of Team Switchback, featured in the last two seasons of the show. They explained the benefits of the main articulating arm on their robot being an offloaded control subsystem separate from the main controller to do rapid and independent calculations such as matrix multiplications.

“All of that matrix multiplication allows us to do motion profiling so that we know that we’re always exerting the maximum torque of the arm that is safe for the trajectory that it’s on,” said Holloway.

“The main controller just has to specify where it wants the arm to be, and the subsystem takes care of moving the arm to that location as fast as it can go given the position and condition the arm was in,” Needel added.

In contrast, a centralized environment may require fewer electronic components. That approach may carry a lower initial bill-of-materials, but it often sacrifices quality with substantial wire harnessing leading to a single point of failure that can only be solved by replacing an expensive centralized module or debugging a labyrinth of wiring connections.

An added benefit, modularity enables the developer to complete frequent asynchronous technology refreshes of individual subsystems versus less frequent and more complex, complete top-to-bottom redesign in the centralized case.

The things that are true in robotics development are often true in everyday life. Interest in robotics is annually setting new records among youth. Developing robotics is teaching them the importance of being timely and dependable, teamwork, and breaking up problems into pieces and assembling those chunks into a finished solution.

Robotics is also teaching young innovators to diversify and empower each piece of the system to handle its tasks. This can translate to all aspects of society, no matter if they continue their pursuit of robotics development or not.

About the author

Chetan Khona is the senior director of industrial, vision, healthcare, and sciences at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Captivated by the creative potential of programmable devices to solve embedded design challenges in a fundamentally differentiated and efficient manner while a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Khona has been involved in the embedded devices industry for more than 30 years.

AMD is a sponsor of the MassRobotics Form and Function Challenge, whose winners will be announced at the Robotics Summit & Expo in May in Boston.

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Amiga is designed to be adaptable to different crops and terrains. Source: farm-ng

Since the first industrial revolution two centuries ago, workers have moved into cities, even as population growth has challenged farmers to be increasingly productive. Today, farm-ng said it has completed its Series A funding round, raising more than $10 million to further develop the Amiga robot for agriculture.

“Growers face significant labor challenges,” noted the startup in a release. In the U.S. alone, $90 billion is spent on repetitive and hazardous manual farm tasks, and reduced immigration and rising wages exacerbate labor shortages, according to farm-ng. In addition, climate-related costs are thinning profit margins, and farm managers lack the data they need to make precise decisions and scale operations, it said.

Watsonville, Calif.-based farm-ng said its modular electric robot and onboard AI computer are intended to be affordable and adaptable, helping small to midsize farms be more productive, profitable, and sustainable. Amiga is built for multiple environments, tasks, and crops, and its open and extensible software allows for integration into farming applications and customization through developers and partners.

Amiga promises to boost farm productivity

farm-ng said it “is squarely focused on addressing the issues the farming industry experiences.” The company added that it “aims to deliver three game-changing outcomes” for customers with its mobile robot:

1. Productive, resilient operations: With cost-effective systems, farms can significantly reduce manual labor, maintenance, and fuel costs. With automation, they can be more productive and resilient to labor shortages, economic shifts, and climate shocks.
2. Inclusive, sustainable farming practices: The Amiga is simple for anyone on the farm to operate, asserted farm-ng. With automation of labor-intensive tasks, farms can operate more efficiently, increase yields, and invest in sustainable practices that deliver more profit to growers and healthier food to more people.
3. Quick ROI with appropriate robotics and AI: Because the farm-ng platform is open and modular, farmers can easily customize it for various crop types, said farm-ng. Not only can the Amiga provide a quick return on investment, but it can also evolve with the operation over time, farm-ng said.

The Amiga won the 2023 Small Farm Innovation Challenge and was selected as a 2024 Top 10 New Product by World Ag Expo. In less than 18 months, farms have deployed more than 100 Amigas. They execute tasks ranging from seeding, precision spraying, pest management, and compost spreading to phenotyping and geo-tagged data collection, visualization, and analysis, said the company.

Amiga features include onboard AI. Source: farm-ng

farm-ng harvests capital

Acre Venture Partners led farm-ng’s Series A round with participation from Xplorer Capital, HawkTower, and 10 other institutional and individual investors. “This investment reflects the confidence and support of the investor community in farm-ng’s vision, strategy, and the potential for transformative impact on sustainable agriculture,” stated farm-ng.

“farm-ng has sold more robots in a short amount of time than nearly any other agtech startup, a testament to the quality of their robotics and AI solutions,” said Lucas Mann, co-founder and managing partner at Acre Venture Partners. “The company is led by a stellar team who deeply understand these technologies. Their strategy of collaborating with growers, researchers, developers, and partners to define their offerings has put them on farm with incredible speed.”

Ethan Rublee, founder and CEO of farm-ng, thanked the investors for their support.

“This Series A funding will enable us to accelerate manufacturing to meet market demand, fund the development of more autonomous farm capabilities, scale our go to market, and develop an ecosystem of applications that help farms thrive for generations to come,” he added. “At farm-ng, we are committed to cultivating a future where everyone has access to healthy food grown in an ecologically and economically sustainable way.”

“We made a seed investment in farm-ng because we saw its potential in transforming the farming industry in an immediate way,” said Jonathan McQueen, co-founder and managing partner at Xplorer Capital. “Ethan and his team didn’t prove us wrong. We are excited about the company’s momentum and the success it will realize with this Series A.”

The global market for agricultural robotics could expand from $14.97 billion in 2024 to $27.71 billion by 2029 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1%, predicted Mordor Intelligence. It named North America as the largest market.

Similarly, Expert Market Research forecast a CAGR of about 16.7%, from $7.21 billion in 2023 to $28.96 billion by 2032. It cited robotics applications in field farming and the management of dairy farms, other livestock, soil, and crops. 

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