ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION NEWS
Issue 26 June 2019
T he m ont hl y m ag az i ne for t he roboti cs and autom at ion indus t r y
The reinvention of farming A listing of the leading players in vertical farming
RE.WORK The leading global events company in AI and deep learning. We create and organise globally renowned summits, workshops and dinners, bringing together the brightest mind in AI from both industry and academia. At each RE-WORK event we combine the latest technological innovation with real world applications and practical case studies. Learn from global pioneers and industry experts, and network with CEOs, CTOs, data scientists, engineers and researchers disrupting their industries with AI. We also provide an analysis of current trends and innovations, through podcasts, white papers and video interviews. We also have an extensive ondemand video library of presentations from world-leading experts in AI.
Voted #1 Best Artifical Intelligence Conference for Business Leaders in 2018
➤➤➤ Upcoming events
Robotics & Automation News
Urban farmland
Editorial
Contents
F
Robot Operating System: A look at one of the most widely used platforms for robotics in the world today
Abdul Montaqim, Editor or the first time in human history, there are more people living in cities than in rural areas. That’s globally, in the aggregate. In industrial countries, especially in the west, this may have been true for some decades, but now, it’s almost all significant nations around the world. While the social and economic implications of this are many and varied, one of the things that perhaps most people may not have predicted is the effect this would have on farming. It would be easy to think that people’s move to urban areas would effectively lead to the death of agricultural society, and this is somewhat true everywhere. But we haven’t yet been converted to eating lab-grown produce – synthetic versions of what farms have continued to supply. Certainly, there are fewer people who live on farms and in farming communities. They still exist, but agriculture is not the “mainstream” of society anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time. What’s probably “mainstream” now, apart from finance, is “tech” – anything to do with computers, technology and so on… even beyond what could be called “traditional industry”, by which people usually mean manufacturing and so on. Nowadays, it’s all about virtual things, almost of which live inside computing systems. However, through the emergence of what’s called “vertical farming” – referring to farms set up inside buildings and on many levels – the agricultural sector looks set to make something of a comeback. Vertical farming brings together the old rural culture of farming with the latest technology. And fittingly enough, the ideal locations for these types of vertical farm buildings probably halfway between urban centres and the rural areas, because high rents make urban centres unaffordable and anyway, there’s more space available outside of town. In this issue of the magazine, we have listed a number of vertical farming companies which we have found to be the most active and show most promise. It’s still a very new market, so it will be interesting to see how they develop. It’s difficult to see them failing, mainly because the demand for leafy greens and herbs – the main produce of vertical markets – is growing all the time. But it’s still a market that is unproven at scale. Meaning, there’s a possibility that a lot of people might end up buying individual, small-scale growing “pods” – if they can be called that – for the home, like the one Samsung recently demonstrated. But that, too, would be a new market, and worth looking into. l editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Conference The world-leading robotics conference, ICRA, has made its Canada debut Vertical farming: A listing of companies prominent in this new business sector
News: Finns develop autonomous snow removal vehicles News: Samsung moves into the vertical farming market
Operating systems: The rise of the Robot Operating System Space robotics: The race into space
Cockpit testing: RoCCet steps into the cockpit for testing role Drones: DHL starts last-mile drone service in China
Driverless trucks: Einride and DB Schenker launch driverless truck Aircraft painting: Xyrec brings a world of colour to aircraft
Driverless trucks: US Postal Service tests driverless trucks Cars: Omron robotics envisages cars building themselves
Sensor Readings magazine
Editorial & Production
Managing Editor Anna Schmidt Editor Abdul Montaqim
Art Editor Mark Allinson
Email annaschmidt@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Email abdulmontaqim@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Marketing & Advertising
Email markallinson@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Advertising Manager Maria Santiago Email mariasantiago@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Advertising Executive Sam Francis
Email samfrancis@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Marketing Director David Edwards Email davidedwards@roboticsandautomationnews.com Monsoon Media, London, United Kingdom Subscriptions: £10 per year (digital only) Single issue: £1 (digital version)
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
News
RIA publishes new technical report on collaborative robots
The RIA R15.06 Standards Committee has finalized Technical Report R15.8062018 to address the test methods and metrics for measuring pressure and force associated with quasi-static and transient contact events of collaborative applications. A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a type of robot intended to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace. Collaborative robots are experiencing rapid market growth. According to Markets and Markets research, the collaborative robots market is expected to reach a value of $4.28 billion by 2023, growing at an astounding 56.94 percent compound annual growth rate. As new automation technologies emerge, new safety standards are critical. Carole Franklin, RIA director of standards development, says: “One of the benefits of combining human and automated processes is increased flexibility and diversity of applications. “But this can also increase safety hazards if a collaborative robot system is not designed and tested accurately. This new standard outlines the optimal testing methods for power and force in powerand-force-limited cobot systems.” The test methods and metrics are brand new to the automation industry. They determine conditions of the test measurements, measurement devices, and accurate testing methods. This document is supplemental to the R15.06-2012 and enhances the R15.6062016. RIA now offers a Collaborative Robot Safety Bundle featuring both R15.606-2016 and R15.806-2018. Franklin says: “This is an important milestone in standards development because it shows how to test whether or not the PFL collaborative robot is operating within the pain threshold limit values of R15.606-2016.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Autonomous vehicles
Finns develop autonomous snow removal vehicles
R
obotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers are already reality, but can the same idea be applied to a 7ton machine clearing snow from an airstrip? To show it can, Valtra and Nokian Tyres partnered up with three other Finnish companies in March 2019 for a joint proof-ofconcept project at the European Union’s northernmost airport. Two Valtra T254 Versu equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta TRI tyres and each pulling a 4.5 m wide sweeper blower autonomously cleared the runway at Ivalo airport in Finnish Lapland. Winters in Finland can be very long, with many parts of the country covered permanently in snow for 150 and up to 200 days a year. “As an airport operator we need to create summer conditions on Finnish runways even if it’s the middle of the winter,” said Henri Hansson, Technical Director of Finavia, the organisation responsible for maintaining the majority of Finnish airports. “To meet this challenge, we are constantly searching for new solutions that support our world-class snow-how.” This is how the idea for the project ‘Runway Snowbot’ was born between a group of Finnish top experts, each specialists in their own field, and each with a deep understanding of Nordic climatic conditions: Valtra, Nokian Tyres, airport sweeper blower manufacturer Vammas (Fortbrand), the energy company Neste and Finavia. “Runway Snowbot is a proof of concept, showing that by combining the know-how of
five Finnish companies, airport runways can be cleared in a new way – more safely, more sustainably, more economically and more comfortably,” said Matti Tiitinen, Senior Brand Business Manager, Valtra Scandinavia, Baltics & Western and Central Europe. Tractor specialist Valtra has been working on auto-guided tractors for several years. Together with Nokian Tyres, both brands set the speed record for unmanned snowploughing in 2018 with an autonomous T254 Versu equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta TRI tyres. For project ‘Runway Snowbot’ Valtra SmartTouch features such as auto-guidance with centimetre-level precision, Isobus implement control provided the technology needed for the controlled clearing of predefined routes. With Nokian Hakkapeliitta TRI tyres, the world’s first tractor winter tyre, the autonomous snow-clearing project has got the grip and accuracy needed for safe driverless tractor operation – while also being gentle to the tarmac.
wisslog, a warehouse automation company, has received a major order from Ikea Supply in Malaysia. The contract is valued at approximately €43 million. The project comprises of 215,000 pallet locations of clad-rack, 21 warehouse pallet stacker cranes Vectura, the pallet conveyor system ProMove, the electric Monorail
System and the core of the system, the Swisslog software SynQ. Dr Christian Baur, CEO Swisslog Logistics Automation, says: “Swisslog is one of the leading providers of data and robot-based intralogistics solutions. This project will further strengthen Swisslog's position in Southeast Asia.”
Swisslog wins major Ikea order
S
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Vertical farming
Features
News
Samsung moves into the vertical farming market
A
gricultural innovations are essential for feeding our ever-growing global population. Especially these days, as industrialisation and global warming continue to negatively affect soil fertility and reduce the amount of arable land. According to the United Nations, the world’s population is set to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. Such a large population would require approximately 1.7 times more food than is available now. One potential solution for addressing the world’s need for more healthy and abundant food production is vertical farming – a process that’s growing increasingly popular in places like Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and involves food being grown indoors in vertically stacked layers. What makes vertical farming such an efficient and viable means to produce food are the facts that it (1) saves space, and (2) allows farmers to grow crops all year round, regardless of climate or season. Interest in vertical farming has been rapidly growing in recent years. Market research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that the global market for vertical farming will
be worth $18.4 billion by 2022, twice as much as the market was valued in 2016 ($9 billion). The movement for healthy, sustainable food production is spreading across the world, and Samsung is committed to driving innovation in this area. Last spring, Samsung announced the launch of a wide range of horticulture LED offerings that produce a broad spectrum of light to support healthy plant growth. In April, Samsung introduced an update to the LM301H, which features the highest photon efficacy among today’s mid-power white LED packages.
he Eclipse Foundation has launched the openMobility Working Group, which will focus on open and shared collaboration around one of the major issues in urban planning around autonomous vehicles and future transportation requirements – traffic simulation and modelling. The Eclipse Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community. Based on the cutting-edge Eclipse Simulation of Urban Mobility project that
originated at the German Aerospace Center, the openMobility Working Group brings together researchers and industry to create a common simulation platform for urban areas in a shared collaboration, open source environment. This framework will provide the tools for a detailed simulation of the movement of people and vehicles as well as their communication systems. It will be critical in testing driver assistance systems, predicting and optimizing traffic as well as evaluating new business concepts such as Mobility-asa-Service.
Eclipse Foundation launches openMobility group to plan future of autonomous cars
T
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Microsoft developing new robotics platform
Microsoft is developing what it describes as “an end-to-end toolchain to help make it easier for every developer and every organization to create autonomous systems for their own scenarios”. The tech giant offered a glimpse into one of the components of the new robotics platform at the company’s recent Build conference for developers. The “limited preview” talks about autonomous systems, motion control, machine teaching, and smart buildings and homes, among other things. The plan is to enable developers to work with its experts to build intelligent agents using Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, and tools such as Microsoft AI. Developers can also utilize a version of the open-source Robot Open System – specifically, ROS for Windows – through the Microsoft platform. All these computing tools can be set up to autonomously run physical systems, says Microsoft. That team building the solution includes longtime Microsoft researchers and engineers and experts from Bonsai, which Microsoft acquired last year. Bonsai is a Berkeley, California-based startup which has developed a method that abstracts the low-level mechanics of machine learning, so that subject matter experts can more easily train autonomous systems to accomplish tasks. A key feature of the platform Microsoft highlights is its simulation capabilities, offered in the toolchain in the form of the open-source AirSim. Originally developed by Microsoft, AirSim was designed to use AI to teach drones, self-driving cars, or robots to learn in simulated environments. The company says simulation is vital since no real-world factory can afford to make a lot of mistakes, while simulations can be used to analyze thousands or even millions of scenarios. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
All’s well that ROS well Features
Robot Operating System: The open-source collection of frameworks for robot software development is one of the most widely used platforms for robotics in the world today
I
“
The key challenge for roboticists in the industrial sector is to try and develop robots that are versatile, or at least have new applications
f aliens from beyond our solar system or even our galaxy were to land on Earth and wanted to communicate with intelligent machines that can move around and shake hands, chances are that one of the first in line to greet our otherworldly visitors will be a robot with a brain built using the Robot Operating System. The simple reason for this is that ROS is one of the most ubiquitous platforms for robotics in the world today, helped largely by the fact that it is an open-source project, in contrast to the majority of robot operating systems which are proprietary and closed. Described as a collection of frameworks for robot software development, ROS was originally developed in 2007 at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. ROS was then extended by Willow Garage, and that’s when it really started taking off. ROS was always developed with multi-platform interoperability in mind, and is currently available on all major operating systems – Linux, Windows and Mac, although the macOS version is still a “work in progress” by the admission of the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which currently manages the libraries. Hundreds of apps and robots have been built using ROS, most famously perhaps the PR2 robot created by Willow Garage which was subsequently taken over by Clearpath Robotics, the maker of mobile robots.
Yes, but what’s in it for industry? ROS also has an industrial arm, if you pardon the pun on more than one level. ROS-Industrial was started around five years ago, when engineers realised there was a widening gap between the advanced research being carried out at universities and the technology being applied in industry. The competitive nature of industry meant a lot of
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Robot Operating System
knowledge was fragmented, with each company developing its own technologies and going off in its own direction. This situation often created situations where one project, even within one manufacturer for example, would require hundreds of hours of working on a variety of operating systems for many different robots. If there was only one operating system, or if at least the different operating systems could talk to each other, the time spent on the project could be significantly reduced. So the ROS-Industrial Open Source project was established as a collaborative endeavour of Yaskawa Motoman, Southwest Research Institute and Willow Garage. Now, the ROS-Industrial Consortium has a presence in the Americas and in Europe. The first demonstration of ROS on industrial hardware was a pick-and-place application performed on a Motoman SIA10D, developed in the fall of 2011 by Shaun Edwards, of the Southwest Research Institute.
Yes, but what about the aliens? The key challenge for roboticists in the industrial sector is to try and develop robots that are versatile, or at least have new applications. At the moment, the majority of robots have narrowly defined tasks, with the biggest number of industrial robots being used in welding and material handling; a large number are also used in dispensing and coating. But what the ROS-Industrial Consortium wants to do is to look into what entirely new applications robots can be put to. As ROS-Industrial points out on its website, the diversity of robot tasking remains “utterly stagnant”, adding that “for more than 20 years, industrial robots have been limited to roughly the same set of tasks – welding, material handling and dispensing”. At the same time, says the Consortium, governments and research institutions have spent more than $1 billion on robotics research and great advances have been made in perception, mobility, collaborativeness, and general behaviours. Yet not many of these advances have found their way into industry. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Robot Operating System
As ROS-Industrial says: “This research investment is largely languishing in labs in part because the limited software architectures of current industrial robots present a barrier to the transition of research products.”
Tell us more about the aliens Virtually all the leading robot makers in the world have cooperated with ROS-Industrial and have made ports available to enable ROS. ABB, Fanuc, Universal, and of course Yaskawa Motoman are all part of the ROS-Industrial initiative. And Rethink Robotics’ Baxter was built using ROS. Industrial robotics is opening up to the outside world and learning the language of other machines. What this means for the proprietary systems still being used by editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
most of the leading robot manufacturers is too early to say for sure. And now, with the launch of the Hardware Robot Operating System, robot technology is likely to get cheaper and more sophisticated as more software and hardware developers build peripherals and applications that can be added on to industrial systems in modular fashion. What this means for aliens seems obvious. In an article on IEEE.org, Brian Gerkey, CEO of Open Source Robotics Foundation, suggests that around 10 million ROS applications are downloaded every month. So, if the aliens take a few more years getting here, the line of robots waiting to greet them will probably all be using ROS of one sort or another. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Conference
World-leading ICRA makes Canada debut
“
Conference: The world’s largest robotics conference took place in Canada for first time during May ICRA brings together the world’s top researchers and most important companies to share ideas and advances in the robotics field – Gregory Dudek, conference chair
I
CRA, the world’s largest robotics conference, was held in Canada for the first time, offering insights into the future of robotics across the globe. ICRA, short for International Conference on Robotics and Automation, is organised by the IEEE, the world’s largest engineering association. Specifically, the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. With global spending on robotics systems and drones forecast to total $115.7 billion this year alone – an increase of 17.6 percent over 2018 – the world’s largest robotics conference got under way in Montreal, unveiling the latest and greatest in robotics research and innovations from 71 countries under one roof. ICRA 2019 took place from May 20-24 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, also known as the Montreal Convention Center, marking the first time that the conference – now in its 35th year – has been held in Canada.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
It was the world’s largest, most prestigious and most significant robotics event, with more exhibitors, scientific papers and participants than any prior robotics event anywhere, said Gregory Dudek, ICRA 2019 conference chair and head of Samsung Montreal AI Center, and James McGill, professor at McGill University. The five-day event featured 100 exhibits, live demos, research poster displays, conference sessions, robotics competitions and a unique robotic art exposition. All 1,200 research papers presented novel neverbefore-published results. Dudek says: “ICRA brings together the world’s top researchers and most important companies to share ideas and advances in the robotics field. “Many of the most important developments in robotics and automation have historically been first exposed at ICRA, and 2019 will continue this trend.” Highlights of ICRA 2019, which attracted about 4,000 academic and industry representatives, included: l Cutting-edge robotics research currently under way that is poised to benefit consumers and industry worldwide. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Conference l A large exhibition featuring the world’s most impactful robotics companies, working in domains including selfdriving cars, factory automation, voice assistance, and underwater vehicles. l Live and pre-taped demos of robots that walk, talk, swim, fly, drive and perform multiple tasks – from selfdriving cars and smart appliances for the home and workplace, to mobile robot healthcare assistants and breakthrough medical technologies, to the latest in legged robotics, aerial robotics and factory automation. l Conference sessions on such topics as biologicallyinspired robots, humanoid robots, medical and rehabilitation robotics, and field and aerial robotics. l Robotics competitions focused around AI for selfdriving cars, fully-autonomous robotic “pilots”, and mobile manipulation and navigation. l Prestigious awards that will be presented to industry representatives globally for best research projects and papers. l An innovative robotic art exposition, featuring pieces by robotics artists and addressing the importance of artistic contributions to the field of robotics research, and its social and cultural impacts. Creations by local and international art students will also be on display. An international art expert panel and guest speakers, including artists that are presenting their works, will round out the exposition.
The ICRA 2019 plenary and keynote speakers included: l Yoshua Bengio, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the Université de Montréal and recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and deep learning, who will speak about Challenges for Deep Learning Towards AI. l Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, who will address the topic of Opportunities and Challenges for Autonomy in Micro Aerial Vehicles. l Anouk Wipprecht, leading Dutch FashionTech designer and Innovator, who will shed light on Robotic Dresses and Emotional Interfaces (May 21, 9:45 am). l Raquel Urtasun, Chief Scientist of Uber ATG, Head of Uber ATG Toronto and Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, who will speak about A Future with Affordable Self-Driving Vehicles. l Arianna Menciassi, Full Professor of Biomedical Robotics at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Pisa, Italy) and team leader of the “Surgical Robotics & Allied Technologies” Area at The BioRobotics Institute, who will address the topic of Robotic Technologies and Targeted Therapy: Challenges and Opportunities. l
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
The rise of the Robot Operating System
Nearly 55 percent of total commercial robots shipped in 2024 will have at least one Robot Operating System package installed, according to ABI Research The Robot Operating System, or ROS, is a flexible and collaborative open-source framework for building operating systems for robotics. As its adoption continues to grow, ROS is aiming to become the industry standard for robotics middleware. According to ABI Research, a market research company, nearly 55 percent of total commercial robots shipped in 2024 – over 915,000 units – will have at least one ROS package installed, creating a large installed base of ROS-enabled robots. The data is gleaned for ABI’s OpenSource Robotics Projects application analysis report. The development of any robotic operating system requires a thorough understanding of systems engineering techniques, knowledge of design goals, and adherence to a rigorous development process. As such, early robotics developers and implementors would struggle to finance such development without investment and support of large academic or corporate entities. The emergence of open-source robotics projects has since enabled robotics developers and implementors to develop proprietary robotics systems based on in-house skills and publicly available robotics middlewares, simulators, libraries, and toolkits. Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at ABI Research, says: “The success of ROS is due to its wide range of interoperability and compatibility with other open-source projects. ROS 1.0 leverages Orocos for real-time communication and OpenCV for machine vision models.” Sensing the needs of the robotics industry, Open Robotics launched ROS 2.0, the successor to ROS 1.0, and
incorporated supports for multi-robot systems, real-time communications, non-ideal networks, and computing capabilities. This makes ROS 2.0 not only more user-friendly, robust, and real-time, but also makes it readier to be accepted as an industry standard. Su says: “A key example is the launch of Robotics Middleware Framework (RMF) for Healthcare by the Singapore government in partnership with Open Robotics. Using ROS as a common platform, the healthcare institutions in Singapore were able to onboard and integrate various robotics systems based on the same framework thereby extending interoperability to proprietary systems and protocols.”
Expanding support Moving forward, ROS needs to ensure it continues to expand support from OS vendors such as Microsoft, cloud vendors such as Amazon and Google, component vendors such as Robotiq, and system integrators and implementers in order to become a widely accepted industry standard. In the case of RMF, regulatory bodies and policymakers play important roles in the adoption of ROS. That said, this will not spell the end of proprietary robotics systems. “In fact, there will be co-existence of both open-source and closed robotics systems. Aside from niche systems that may be better served by proprietary systems, ROS will serve as the fundamental building block for interoperability, with customization and enhancement introduced on top by different robotics system vendors,” adds Su. The success of ROS has also driven more investment into hardware related open-source robotics project. In recent years, major industry players like Comau and Nvidia have launched ROS-based, open-source robotics hardware platforms. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
v
Features
Space robotics
The race into space
Space robotics: The space robotics market is set to boldly go beyond $3 billion by 2025, according to a new report
T
he global space robotics market is set to grow from its current market value of more than $2 billion to over $3.5 billion by 2025, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights. In the space robotics market, near space exploration & transportation segments are gaining popularity due to several missions working on asteroid survey missions, which are near to the Earth’s surface.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
The need for continuous maintenance & servicing of the existing satellites is creating a huge demand for this segment, adding up to the market growth. The near space transportation segment utilizes advanced transportation systems that support transporting of heavy cargos to the existing objects for repairing and other purposes. Various companies are gaining huge investments to carry out their near space transportation projects. For instance, in May 2018, zero 2 Infinity, a near space transportation company announced that it has gained an investment of $1.3 million from Crowdcube in support of its space accessibility project.
Technical advances Commercial applications in the space robotics market are growing due to technical advancements and various exploration missions adopted by governments along with companies. In March 2019, SpaceX announced the launch of Crew Dragon’s demonstration mission, which was intended for demonstrating the company’s capabilities including safety of astronauts to fly to and from the International Space Station. The spacecraft is America’s first one to autonomously dock along with the orbiting laboratory. The segment includes companies that include satellite www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Cockpit testing operators and private owners, launching service providers, and exploration companies, which aid in the proper functioning of spaceflights, adding up to the market growth. The space robotics market is experiencing a rapid technical development owing to the integration of AI technologies into the systems developed for space exploration. Several companies are developing AI-based robots that provide enhanced mobility and manipulation benefits. These machines can perform highly-complex tasks for a longer duration and offer minimal human dependence. The integration of AI offer 3D perception and proximity GNC to robots, which will support resistance against environmental conditions and offer high flexibility, accuracy, and control. Space conversation In November 2018, an AI-based robot, CIMON started its first conversation with the spacefaring crew. The robot is designed by DLR Germany in collaboration with IAM and Airbus. Moreover, the increasing experiments & projects related to space exploration by government agencies globally are attributing to the market demand. North America is a leading participant in the market owing to the presence of national organizations, including NASA and CSA, that are actively working toward the industry development. The US and Canada are investing huge amounts in R&D and technology enhancement to achieve space exploration initiatives. The Asia Pacific space robotics market is also growing at a rapid pace in countries including India, Japan and China due to several on-going and upcoming space projects. In September 2018, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced that its two rovers had successfully landed on an asteroid named Ryugu and started a survey on its surface. These robots are efficiently working in the low gravity environment, allowing them to gain knowledge on Ryugu’s physical aspects. The key companies operating in the space robotics market include Oceaneering International, Maxar Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Astrobotic Technologies, Motiv Space Systems, Altius Space Machines, and so on. These players are investing heavily on R&D activities to develop new solutions related to exploration and transportation in both deep & near spaces. Strategies such as partnerships and contracts, with other companies and government organizations including NASA, ISRO and so on, are strengthening their position in the market. In November 2018, Northrop Grumman announced that its Cygnus spacecraft completed berthing operations with the ISS. The spacecraft carried about 7,400 pounds of supplies, cargos, and other scientific experiments. l
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
RoCCet steps into the cockpit for testing role
Cockpit testing: Lufthansa Technik has shown off the ‘world’s first’ plane cockpit-testing robot
L
ufthansa Technik has been showing off what it claims is the world’s first airplane cockpit panel testing robot, which it calls “RoCCET”. RoCCET checks the functionality of LED lights and switches, says Lufthansa Technik, which is part of the Lufthansa Group. The Robot-based procedure is currently in the integration phase. Lufthansa Technik says the robot provides “the first fully automated tests of cockpit controls in the world”. The test procedure is called RoCCET, which stands for Robot Controlled Cockpit Electronics Testing. In the future, RoCCET will be used to check the functionality of LED lights and switches on the basis of concrete, standardized measurement data. The robot-based procedure is currently in the integration phase. The robot has integrated sensors to measure the forces that occur when switches are activated. In addition, it is equipped with several industrial cameras with which it captures all display instruments and any outer damage. With another camera, it measures the brightness of all displays from various angles. The robot is able to check all switches and LEDs just as
well as a human and perform defined functional tests. Florian Sell, senior engineer automated test equipment systems at the aircraft component services division and manager of the RoCCET project, says: “This fully automated procedure allows us to ease the burden on our colleagues in the workshops and reduce the testing effort by one to two hours per component. “At the same time, the new procedure provides concrete measurement data in accordance with uniform standards. “For example, we now have physical threshold values for the brightness of LEDs. And with the help of data mining, we can determine exactly when an LED has to be replaced.” The robot-based test procedure will initially be used for cockpit controls on Airbus A320 and A350 as well as Boeing 787 aircraft. In the future, its use may also be extended to other cockpit and cabin controls on all aircraft types at various locations. Meanwhile, Lufthansa Technik has won contracts to provide maintenance, repair and operating supply from two drone makers – SwissDrones and Matternet. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Driverless trucks
DHL starts last-mile drone service in China
Einride and DB Schenker launch driverless truck
Autonomous electric vehicle developer Einride and logistics giant DB Schenker have launched a driverless electric truck in Sweden. The vehicle – called “T-Pod and intended for logistics operations – is believed to be the first cab-less electric truck to go into operation on a public road. The world premiere and inaugural run took place at DB Schenker’s facility in Jönköping, Sweden. The Tpod will transport goods between a warehouse and terminal at the facility, as part of a commercial flow. Robert Falck, founder and CEO of Einride, Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB Schenker, and Mats Grundius, CEO of DB Schenker Cluster Sweden, Denmark, Iceland hosted the inauguration ceremony. Robert Falck, CEO and founder of Einride, says: “This day represents a major milestone in Einride’s history, and for our movement to create a safe, efficient and sustainable transport solution, based on autonomous, electric vehicles, that has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from road freight transport by up to 90 percent. “I can’t begin to describe how proud I am of our team that made this happen in collaboration with our great partner and customer DB Schenker.” Jochen Thewes, CEO of DB
Schenker, says: “Autonomous trucks will become increasingly important for the logistics sector. “Together with Einride, we have now introduced autonomous, fully electric trucks to a continuous flow on a public road – a milestone in the transition to the transport system of tomorrow.” In November 2018, the Swedish startup Einride and leading logistics firm DB Schenker initiated the first installation of an autonomous, allelectric truck or “T-pod” at a DB Schenker facility in Jönköping, Sweden. The companies claimed it to be the first commercial installation of its kind in the world. On March 7, the Swedish Transport Agency concluded that the T-pod is able to operate in accordance with Swedish traffic regulations. Then on March 11, the agency approved Einride’s application to expand the pilot to a public road. The permit applies to a public road within an industrial area – between a warehouse and a terminal. The permit is valid until December 31, 2020. Einride and DB Schenker entered into a commercial agreement in April 2018 that includes the pilot in Jönköping and an option for additional pilots internationally. l
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Drones: DHL becomes the first international express company to provide such a service in China
D
HL Express has partnered with autonomous aerial vehicle company EHang to jointly launch a fully automated and intelligent smart drone delivery solution to tackle the last-mile delivery challenges in the urban areas of China. The launch ceremony was held at the EHang Command and Control Center in Guangzhou, with the attendance of senior executives from both companies. This cutting-edge solution took its inaugural flight for a DHL customer, making DHL the first international express company to provide such a service in China. It marks a new milestone in both companies’ continuous efforts to bring innovative and intelligent solutions with greater automation to the market.
Innovation milestone Wu Dongming, CEO, DHL Express China, says: “We are delighted to be partnering with EHang to set a new innovation milestone with this new fully-automated and intelligent drone logistics solution, which combines the strength of the world’s largest international express company together with one of the leading UAV companies in the world. “This is an exciting time for the logistics sector, with continued growth of the Chinese economy and crossborder trade, particularly in South China and the Greater Bay Area, which is home to an increasing number of SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises] and startups. “This means there is a tremendous volume of logistics needs, which in turn creates new opportunities for implementing innovative solutions that can continuously drive growth with greater efficiency, sustainability and less cost.” The new customized route, which has been exclusively created for a DHL customer, covers a distance of approximately eight kilometers between the customer premises and the DHL service center in Liaobu, Dongguan, Guangdong Province. Using the most advanced unmanned aerial vehicle in www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Drones
EHang’s newly-launched Falcon series, featuring the highest level of intelligence, automation, safety and reliability, the new intelligent drone delivery solution overcomes the complex road conditions and traffic congestion common to urban areas. It reduces one-way delivery time from 40 minutes to only eight minutes and can save costs of up to 80 per cent per delivery, with reduced energy consumption and carbon footprint compared with road transportation. Hu Huazhi, founder and CEO of EHang, says: “Together with DHL we are very glad to bring the first smart drone delivery service route to China in Guangzhou; this marks a new beginning in building air logistics for smart cities. “Riding on today’s launch, we expect smart drone delivery as an innovative logistics solution to be expanded and realized in more areas, and we look forward to working with DHL in building the eco-system for a multidimensional urban air transport system.” The EHang Falcon smart drone, with eight propellers on four arms, is designed with multiple redundant systems for full backup, and smart and secure flight control modules.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Its high-performance features include vertical take-off and landing, high accuracy GPS and visual identification, smart flight path planning, fully-automated flight and realtime network connection and scheduling. As a fully-automated and intelligent solution, the drones, which can carry up to 5 kg of cargo per flight, take off and land atop intelligent cabinets that were specifically developed for the fully autonomous loading and offloading of the shipment. High-tech functions The intelligent cabinets seamlessly connect with automated processes including sorting, scanning and storage of express mail, and will feature high-tech functions such as facial recognition and ID scanning. This smart drone delivery solution will enhance DHL’s delivery capabilities and create a new customer experience in the logistics sector that opens up even more opportunities for sustainable growth and greater economic contribution. Given the growing prominence of B2C business operations and delivery in China, employing drones in express delivery services offers an innovative solution for meeting the increasing demands for time-sensitive delivery, particularly for last mile delivery in urban areas. Building on the launch of its first fully automated, intelligent drone delivery solution in China, DHL will continue to identify new routes that can be developed for clients in need of tailored customer services and logistics solutions and will work closely with EHang to create a second generation of drones in the near future that will further improve capacity and range in drone-operated express delivery. l
“
We expect smart drone delivery as an innovative logistics solution to be expanded and realized in more areas, and we look forward to working with DHL in building the eco-system for a multidimensional urban air transport system. – Hu Huazhi, EHang
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Aircraft painting
Xyrec brings a world of colour to aircraft Aircraft painting: A new and solution for coating aircraft uses inkjet technology instead of paint.
“
The demonstration today marks the beginning of a new era in aircraft painting – Peter Boeijink, Xyrec
D
utch robot manufacturer Xyrec has successfully demonstrated a breakthrough in aircraft painting technology by printing a large digital image on an Airbus A320 fuselage. The demonstration took place in Hamburg, Germany. This new and unique solution for decorating aircraft uses inkjet technology for digital printing and ink instead of paint. The printer will be introduced in Xyrec’s Automated Paint Robot for aircraft, and will be the largest robot in the world, says the company. The robot is capable of handling an entire aeroplane, which up until now has not been possible. Xyrec developed this technology in cooperation with Southwest Research Institute, Airbus and Marabu. The development of this revolutionary printer addresses a growing demand from airline operators to paint more intricate designs on their aircraft. The technology consists of an automated process that enables operators to decorate the full body of an aircraft
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
in every design and all colours fast and efficiently in a fixed amount of time. The new technology means airlines can be much more creative, because current painting techniques make use of manual masking and spray guns, and result in complicated and lengthy processes. Branding flexibility This of course severely limits creativity in decorating airplanes. The new technology will offer new and fast opportunities for branding and advertising on airplanes. Peter Boeijink, CEO of Xyrec, says: “The demonstration today marks the beginning of a new era in aircraft painting. Our partners have done a great job. “This remarkable technology is the outcome of an international industrial collaboration of the best in class.” Adam Hamilton, CEO of Southwest Research Institute says: “Southwest Research Institute solves difficult problems and I am pleased that our research efforts provided an elegant and innovative solution for applying high-fidelity graphics.” Mr Boeder, CEO of Marabu, says: “We are very pleased that our unique ink development led to this result and looking forward to see a bloom in beautifully decorated aircraft.” l
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
outdoorSca an3: TA AKE YOUR AGV OUTDOORS
SICK‘s outdoorScan3 revolutionizes the world of AGVs, allowing you to take your automation processes outdoors to connect multiple production sites.
is tested and proven to work as ef fectively in harsh conditions as it does in ideal conditons. Clear your path to the Smar t Factor y of the future. We think that’s intelligent. w w w.sick.com/outdoorscan3
Top 26 Features
Vertical farming
vertical farming companies Vertical farming: A listing, in no particular order, of some of the companies prominent in the new business sector of growing fruit and vegetables in stacked layers
T
he phrase “vertical farming” probably doesn’t need to be explained even though it’s quite new. But anyway, vertical farming refers to the practice of producing fruits and vegetables vertically, in stacked layers, perhaps on many floors inside a building, using artificial lights instead of the sun, and a whole range of relatively new technologies. The two main reasons why it’s a much-discussed topic now is because: l there are a number of startup companies emerging in the sector and attracting tens of millions of dollars in investment; and l more people live in cities than do in rural areas, a global trend which seems irreversible, and this means that the demand for fresh produce will increase in urban areas, and bringing the production closer to the consumer would make sense. The third thing we could have added is that there is the range of new technologies available now that make vertical farming in urban areas cost-effective and possibly profitable. But we already mentioned that. Some of these technologies have been available for some time, decades even, but they were probably too expensive in the past to make vertical farming a viable business proposition. The key technologies in vertical farming include: l perception technologies – cameras and other sensors which can monitor for colour and other factors, such as disease; l artificial intelligence – which can process the data from the sensors and formulate solutions; l automated and even autonomous mechatronics – robots and other automated machines which pick the editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
produce when it is ready for market, or apply cures to ailments during their growing. The above list is a very simple breakdown of the fundamental technologies that will be required to, basically, reduce to a minimum or even eliminate the need for human involvement. If vertical farms are run like traditional greenhouses, there would be too much human input required and it probably would not be profitable. It’s the new automation technologies that will make it work. Carnegie Mellon University is among a number of organizations which have developed integrated systems for vertical farming. CMU’s version is called ACESys, short for Automation, Culture, Environment, and Systems Model for Vertical Farming. An academic paper probably worth checking out is called Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture. In their introduction to the paper, the authors note: “Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from simple covered rows of open-fields crops to highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture facilities that projected the image of plant factories for urban farming. “The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted the scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings.” So the interest in the field is strong and most people seem to think it’s a viable business proposition. And to underline the positivity about the sector, Research and Markets forecasts the vertical farming market will grow to a value of $3 billion by 2024, from virtually nothing now. However, not everyone is convinced, and some people have dismissed the whole idea as a scam. They say it won’t work, will be too expensive and not be able to yield enough to provide adequate returns on investment. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Vertical farming
But in some sectors, such as marijuana production, indoor farming is providing a strong foundation for healthy profits, although we are not encouraging that sort of thing – this article is more about produce such as lettuce and other healthy vegetables and fruit, usually found in greengrocers. Anyway, whatever we or anyone else thinks of the prospects, there are a large number of companies which have entered the field and we thought it would a good idea to make a list of them. It’s a very new business sector, so this list is not ordered on any scientific basis – just 26 companies that are notable and active. We’re not going to include Samsung for now even though it’s been on this website recently for demonstrating a home vertical farming product. The reason is that vertical farms are currently not central to Samsung’s business by any stretch of the imagination, editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
“
The vertical farming market will grow to a value of $3 billion by 2024, from virtually nothing now. – Research and Markets
although the company may have a contribution to make to the sector going forward. 1. AeroFarms This company has won many plaudits for its operation and uses its own patented “aeroponic technology… to take indoor vertical faming to a new level of precision and productivity with minimal environmental impact and virtually zero risk”. The company has raised at least $138 million in funding since launch in 2004, according to CrunchBase. Some of its backers are quite impressive, as this article in Ag Funder News reports. The term “aeroponic” farming refers to the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or any earth-like material, which is known as “geoponics”. Aeroponic systems enable the production of plants www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
“
Features
Plenty is probably the biggest company in terms of the amount of money it has raised in funding – approximately $226 million, according to CrunchBase.
AeroFarms uses its own patented aeroponic technology
Vertical farming using 95 percent less water, which is what AeroFarms says it does.
2. Plenty Although Plenty doesn’t make seem to mention aeroponics on its website, it’s difficult to see how it can reduce the water consumption of its vertical farms by 95 percent, as it claims to do, without the air-and-mist system as described above. Like the other big vertical farming companies on this list, Plenty is another one that retails its produce, which include kale and other greens, as well as some exotic herbs. Plenty is probably the biggest company in terms of the amount of money it has raised in funding – approximately $226 million, according to CrunchBase.
3. Green Spirit Farms Green Spirit Farms started raising money as early as 2013, but has not disclosed the amounts. Area Development reported that the company was investing $27 million in a vertical farm system in Pennsylvania, which would suggest it’s well financed. However, given that it doesn’t seem to have a website of its own, it’s difficult to say what its current and future activities are with full confidence. Owler estimates its annual revenues to be $1.2 million.
4. Bowery Farming You’d think any farming startup of any kind would steer clear of everything that’s genetically modified, but the fact that Bowery makes a point of saying it uses “zero pesticides and non-GMO” seeds might suggest that some vertical farming companies don’t have the same ideas. Having raised more than $140 million in investment since inception in 2015, Bowery has carefully developed a distribution network in the US. Its leafy greens are available to buy in Whole Foods Market and Foragers. It also supplies a number of restaurants and sells online. It doesn’t look like Bowery supplies its platform to other companies, even though some might be interested in its claims, such as: 95 percent less water usage than traditional agriculture; 100 times more productive on the
same amount of land; and from harvest to shelf “within a few days”.
5. BrightFarms Another of the big-money startups, BrightFarms has so far raised more than $112 million since its establishment in 2010, according to CrunchBase. But unlike some of the other big companies, it isn’t into aeroponics as much. It seems more interested in hydroponics, which refers to growing plants with water, or, to be more accurate, mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. Neither aquaponics nor hydroponics use soil. How each one compares in terms of quality, efficiency and profitability will probably only become clear a few years from now when we see how well these companies have done. Chances are they’ll all probably use a mix of systems. BrightFarms has a long list of impressive-sounding partners, including Giant, Walmart and Metro Market, among others. 6. Gotham Greens This company is one of many which have started up in the New York area. Strange to say it about such a new sector, but the market for vertical farming produce may be saturated – in that city at least. Gotham Greens has so fair raised at least $45 million since its launch in 2011. It has four production-scale facilities, in New York City and in Chicago, and plans for more in several other states. And, like BrightFarms, it’s more of a proponent for the hydroponic method, although it may well eventually mix it all up and try different approaches in different facilities.
7. Iron Ox This company appears to use robotics perhaps more than the others, in the picking process at least, and claims to operate fully autonomous indoor farmings. It too is a proponent of hydroponics, and is a retail-oriented company. Its products are similar to the others’ – leafy greens such as lettuce and kale or things like that. It’s one of the newer startups on the list so a lot might change. Iron Ox has only recently started supplying its products to local markets in California. The company has so far raised over $6 million in funding, according to CrunchBase. 8. InFarm Most of the above companies are US-based, but there are also numerous vertical farming startups in Europe and Asia. InFarm is based in Berlin, Germany, and has so far raised approximately $35 million in investment. The company appears to be going into the exotic herbs market, including Thai basil, Peruvian mint and such like. But it’s also growing fairly common herbs such as dill,
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Vertical farming
Features of the amount of the water required by traditional agriculture, using a hydroponic system. It’s also big on big data, with “millions of data points collected each day” about its plants, which are mainly edible leafy greens.
11. Illumitex Halfway through this list, and we feel the need to chill out, and what better way to relax than write about Illumitex, which supplies LED lights – light emitting diodes – which are popular among cannabis growers. Of course, all sort of other companies uses LED lights, but Illumitex’s biggest customers are probably in the dope sector. LED lights are claimed to use 90 percent less energy than incandescent lighting and 60 percent less than fluorescent lighting. This energy efficiency – and, therefore, lower cost – is a critical factor in the likelihood of making profits in vertical farming being quite high. Lights supplied by Illumitex, founded in 2005, are installed in some of the world’s largest vertical farms. basil, sage and so on. It doesn’t say on its website whether it uses hydroponic or aeroponic systems, but it does claim to use 95 percent less water, which would suggest it uses at least one of those. However, it says it uses 75 percent less fertilizer, which might suggest it mixes earth-based processes into its technology. Most likely, it uses a hydroponic system.
9. AgriCool French vertical farm startup uses an aeroponic system to grow fruit and vegetables. It appears to like strawberries more than other produce. Not a bad idea since strawberries are hugely popular in France, which has a massive traditional agriculture industry. AgriCool says its aim is to be within 20 km of its customers and offers a program called “Cooltivator”, through which customers can learn how to use its technology and possibly become producers and distributors themselves. So far, AgriCool has more than $41 million in funding since its launch in 2015, according to VentureBeat. The company also uses shipping containers as “Cooltainers” in which its aeroponic farms can be set up.
10. CropOne While we couldn’t immediately find how much funding CropOne has raised, we did find that it has signed a $40 million joint venture agreement with Emirates Airlines to build what is described as “the world’s largest vertical farming facility” in Dubai, UAE. It follows, perhaps, that it will eventually supply a lot of its produce to Emirates Airlines for its flight passengers. CropOne, founded in 2011, claims to use just 1 percent editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
Iron Ox uses robotics more than most in the picking process at least,
“
Freight Farms provides shipping containers modified as hydroponic indoor farms – the Greenery.
12. PodPonics Not much information is immediately available about this company, but according to the Angel investment website, it raised almost $5 million in 2014, which is a long ago in startup terms. The company constructed a vertical farming facility in and is said to be doing something similar in the Middle East. However, without being able to find the company’s website, we can’t really say much more.
13. Surna Getting even closer to the “demon weed”, this company specializes in providing water-efficient solutions for indoor cannabis cultivation, and counts more than 800 grow facilities as clients and partners. The company appears to use hydroponic systems in the main, but given its long client list, it probably installs a variety of technologies, depending on the customers’ requirements. Surna is based in Boulder, Colorado, one of the first states to decriminalize cannabis, now at the centre of a flourishing industry. However, the company says it can grow anything anywhere, including “potatoes on Mars”.
14. Freight Farms Rather like AgriCool, Freight Farms manufactures a product called the “Greenery”. As its name suggests anyway, Freight Farms provides shipping containers modified as hydroponic indoor farms – the Greenery. In fact, Freight Farms claims to be the world’s leading manufacturer of container farming technology, and provides ready-made or “turnkey” container farms. Or plug-and-play maybe. As you might expect, these farms can be managed through smartphones. The company has a whole range of tech solutions built around its central product. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
“
Features
SananBio provides vertical farming solutions which mainly involve the hardware, such as the lights and the platforms.
Big-money startup BrightFarms has so far raised more than $112 million since its establishment in 2010
Vertical farming Freight Farms has so far raised almost $15 million in funding since its founding in 2010, according to Owler.
15. Voeks Inc Voeks Inc, a US company, appears to have no connection with a similarly named company, called Voeks, in the Netherlands, Europe – that one seems to be for former employees of Shell. Voeks Inc provides a range of services including for vertical farms, mostly in the areas of heating and irrigation systems, as well as nutrient delivery. Its client list includes some big names, such as Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bayer, which is in the process of taking over Monsanto. 16. SananBio SananBio provides vertical farming solutions which mainly involve the hardware, such as the lights and the platforms. Backed by a significant scientific research and development unit, the company is one of the leading suppliers of vertical farm systems in Asia and is expanding in the US. It emphasizes hydroponic equipment on its website, but it’s likely that it customizes its solutions depending on its clients’ requirements. Interestingly, Sanan claims to be the largest LED chip manufacturer in the world, and we’ve already mentioned how crucial LED lights are to indoor farming.
17. HelioSpectra Talking about LED lights, which basically replace sunlight, HelioSpectra is one of the leading suppliers in the indoor farming market, with a big client base from the cannabis growing sector. But HelioSpectra aren’t all into growing cannabis, however. The company’s lights are also used to grow a variety of lettuce types, tomatoes, and peppers, among other fresh produce. 18. Agrilution Back to a complete vertical farming systems supplier, but with a couple of slight differences. Not only because
Agrilution is European – German, to be more precise – but also because it supplies what it describes as a “personal vertical farming ecosystem”. In other words, its “PlantCube” product can be installed into the average home, taking up a similar amount of space as a dining table or large fish tank. Perhaps similar to the product being tested by Samsung, Agrilution’s PlantCube uses a hydroponic process.
19. Altius Farms Specializing in aeroponic systems, Altius provides what it calls “tower gardens” among its products. Just imagine a multi-level plant pot and you’ll get the idea. The company integrates its farms into a variety of urban spaces, from schools to urban youth centres and veterans’ homes, sometimes on rooftops, sometimes at ground level. Altius looks more like a social venture than a private enterprise, and we couldn’t immediately find whether it has raised any equity finance.
20. Badia Farms Vertical farms are the culmination of emerging technology in a relatively new market, so there’s bound to be many companies claiming to be the “first” or “biggest”, and of course “revolutionary”. Badia Farms claims to be building the Middle East’s Gulf states’ first indoor vertical farm, in readiness to supply “micro-greens and herbs” to top restaurants in places such as Dubai. The company’s multi-story greenhouse will use the hydroponic method for growing, and already boasts a prestigious client base.
21. Intelligent Growth Solutions Another vertical farming specialist, also with an eye on the Middle East, Intelligent Growth Solutions is actually a Scottish company. Interestingly, IGS claims to be increasing LED efficiency by a further 50 percent, which would give it a big advantage since lighting is probably the single biggest cost in indoor farming systems. The company also emphasizes automation in its solutions, saying that its towers and overall system uses robotics and is reducing labor costs by up to 80 percent.
22. FarmOne FarmOne’s main facility is installed in the basement of a posh restaurant in Manhattan, the two-Michelin-starred Atera. The company has used this as a platform to launch across the US and now partners with numerous fine restaurants in many states. FarmOne uses the hydroponic method and provides smartphone apps for managing the facility, which can either be a ready-made, off-the-shelf solution or tailormade for the individual customer. The company has raised at least $5 million since 2017.
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Vertical farming
Features Among its projects is one called “Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District”, covering an area of approximately 100 hectares, located between Shanghai's main airport and the city center. The development is said to designed to integrate vertical farming systems which could provide products such as spinach, kale, bok choi, watercress and so on.
23. Sky Greens This company is headquartered in Singapore, which about the size of Manhattan and yet has huge influence in the South-east Asian economy. The city-state may have one of the busiest seaports in the world, but its residents would probably prefer to buy locally-grown leafy greens and herbs if available. Sky Greens uses a patented system which integrates a range of hydraulics to build very tall structures – 9 meters with 38 tiers of growing troughs – which can use hydroponic or soil-based processes.
24. Spread This Japanese company was one of the first vertical farming startups covered by Robotics and Automation News when we started three years ago, and the company’s latest projects include what is described as “the world’s largest plant factory”. It has big-time partners as well, including telecommunications giant NTT, with which it jointly developed an internet of things platform for its facilities, which inevitably use artificial intelligence as well. The company actually started in 2007, which makes one of the older vertical farming companies. The financing at the time amounted to just $1 million, which is small in comparison to newer startups. 25. Sasaki More of a property developer than a vertical farming company. However, this company does at least attempt to negate the effect of taking over arable farming land by constructing buildings that provide indoor farming opportunities. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
In Farm claims to use 95 percent less water
“
Urban Crop Solutions develops tailor-made indoor vertical farming solutions... that are turnkey, robotized and able to be integrated into existing production facilities or food processing units.
26. Urban Crop Solutions This Belgian startup, specializing in “leafy greens”, offers ready-made solutions for indoor farming, and compares its process to “traditional” methods, in which the growth process takes 70 days, and “greenhouse”, which takes 4050 days. The company’s “urban” solution grows crops in just 21 days. It also provides custom solutions to meet clients’ requirements. The company hasn’t disclosed how much investment it has received, but there certainly has been enough for it to market and sell its solutions, and its first solutions were sold in Belgium, the US, Canada and Sweden. It also made its first sale in China last year. The company contacted Robotics and Automation News directly and described itself as follows: “Urban Crop Solutions develops tailor-made indoor vertical farming solutions for its clients. These systems are turnkey, robotized and able to be integrated into existing production facilities or food processing units.” High on life We’re not the only ones enthusiastic about vertical farming. The US Department of Agriculture is offering grants to research initiatives in the sector. We’ve tried to concentrate on companies that provide complete solutions in this list, rather than individual components, such as lighting or watering systems and so on, although some of them are included. However, it’s difficult to say how the above companies will evolve over the next year or two. Some of them may find that it’s more feasible for them scale down and provide components rather than complete systems. Hopefully, they won’t disappear completely because it seems like a good idea to have indoor farms in urban areas so that healthy leafy greens are within reach for city dwellers who are currently on a diet of greasy fast food. Perhaps the availability of fresh produce will provide a platform for new types of healthier fast food joints. And speaking of joints, dude… l It’s been brought to our attention by the good people at Future Crops that their vertical farm is “probably one of the largest 10 in the world in terms of growing and producing surface” – their words. The Dutch company appears to use a combination of hydroponic and aeroponic systems to grow popular herbs such as dill, parsley, oregano and others. l www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Features
Driverless trucks
US Postal Service tests driverless trucks
Driverless trucks: The US Postal Service is testing driverless trucks from TuSimple in a two-week pilot program.
T
uSimple, a self-driving truck company, says the USPS has awarded it a contract to perform five round trips during the trial, hauling USPS trailers more than 1,000 miles between the Postal Service’s Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas distribution centers. The truck will have a safety engineer and driver on editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
board for the duration of the pilot to monitor vehicle performance and to ensure public safety. This new route is an important milestone as TuSimple scales its autonomous operations beyond Arizona and marks the company’s self-driving debut into Texas. TuSimple will run a series of its self-driving trucks for 22 hours each, which includes overnight driving, along the I-10, I-20 and I-30 corridors to make the trip through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The freight that flows along I-10 corridor accounts for 60 percent of the total economic activity in the United States. www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Cars TuSimple expects this to be a central route for the company because there is already strong demand from other customers for runs between Arizona and Texas. Dr Xiaodi Hou, founder, president and CTO, TuSimple, says: “It is exciting to think that before many people will ride in a robo-taxi, their mail and packages may be carried in a self-driving truck. “Performing for the USPS on this pilot in this particular commercial corridor gives us specific use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress.” Long-haul routes with short turnaround times, such as this 22-hour journey, are well suited for self-driving trucks because they are normally accomplished with driving teams of two.
Recruitment Driving teams are challenging to recruit due to overnight driving requirements, the need to share close quarters with another person and a significant truck driver shortage. According to the American Trucking Association, the driver shortage could reach 175,000 by 2024. TuSimple is on its way to achieving its milestone of first driverless operations which is intended to free human drivers to focus on the shorter, more dynamic and closer to home routes. The Postal Service is exploring the feasibility of utilizing autonomous delivery vehicle technology to reduce fuel costs, increase safe truck operation and improve its fleet utilization rate through longer hours of operation. The Postal Service provides the nation with a vital delivery platform that enables American commerce, serves every American business and address, and is part of critical infrastructure which has played an indispensable role in connecting the nation over its 240 years of service. TuSimple is aiming to boost the $800-billion US trucking industry by increasing safety, reducing carbon emissions and transportation costs and optimizing logistics for fleet operators. With a 1,000-meter vision range, TuSimple autonomous trucks are safer because they can see more and react faster than humans – rain or shine, day or night. l
Features
Omron robotics envisages cars building themselves
A
senior executive at industrial giant Omron foresees a time in which cars virtually build themselves in factories. (See interview below.) Bruno Adam, director of Omron’s mobile robot business director in Europe, says that in the future, factories will operate completely differently. The current process sees car bodies moved along a linear, straight production line where different robots and people work on their assembly. But in future, says Adam, the electronics of the car – including the autonomous driving functionality – could be installed first. This would enable the base to drive itself around from individual robotic work cells in order to become progressively complete. Adam makes the comments in an interview with Robotics and Automation News (see video below). And it’s not just speculation on the
part of the Omron boss, these are production processes that are being researched and developed by the automotive industry at the moment. Adam also provides an overview Omron and some detailed insights into its autonomous warehouse robots. Omron is a global industrial automation company which manufactures a variety of robots and other industrial machines and components. In fact, it is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial robots. The company has a market capitalization of more than $11 billion, and employs approximately 40,000 people. Better known for its delta robots, Omron recently agreed a partnership with TechMan Robot, which produces a collaborative robotic arm. The two companies will develop technologies together and combine their marketing efforts. https://youtu.be/tTYz-w-tOIo
“
The Postal Service is exploring the feasibility of utilizing autonomous delivery vehicle technology to reduce fuel costs, increase safe truck operation and improve its fleet utilization rate through longer hours of operation. editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com
Robotics & Automation News The monthly magazine for the robotics and automation industry
Out every month
Available on Issuu.com and in all good app stores soon
editorial@roboticsandautomationnews.com
www.roboticsandautomationnews.com