Two yellow blaze African cichlid fish, the ones at the center of the University of Bristol team’s research for underwater robots. | Source: University of Bristol

A research team led by the University of Bristol is studying fish sensory organs to better understand the cues they give to determine collective behavior. These researchers think these same cues could be used in swarms of underwater robots. 

The team’s research is focused on the lateral line sensing organ found in African cichlid fish, but it can also be found in most fish species. This lateral line-sensing organ helps the fish sense and interpret water pressures around them. These organs are sensitive enough to detect external influences, like neighboring fish, changes in water flow, nearby predators and obstacles. 

On fish, the lateral line system is distributed across the head, trunk and tail of the fish. It is made up of mechanoreceptors, or lateral line sensory units called neuromasts that are either within channels under the skin or on the surface of the skin. 

“We were attempting to find out if the different areas of the lateral line – the lateral line on the head versus the lateral line on the body, or the different types of lateral line sensory units such as those on the skin, versus those under it, play different roles in how the fish is able to sense its environment through environmental pressure readings,” Elliott Scott, lead author on the paper and a member of the University of Bristol’s Department of Engineering Mathematics, said in a release. “We did this in a novel way, by using hybrid fish, that allowed for the natural generation of variation.”

Robotics Summit & Expo (May 10-11) returns to Boston

The researchers found that the lateral line system around a fish’s head has the most influence on how well fish are able to swim in a group or a shoal. Additionally, when many neuromasts are found under the skin, fish tend to swim closer together. Many neuromasts found on the skin mean the fish will likely swim further apart. 

The researchers then took to simulation to demonstrate how the mechanisms behind the work the later line does are applicable both in smaller cases, like for groups of fish, and at larger scales. These mechanisms could be mimicked using a type of easily-manufactured pressure sensor for underwater robots. The sensor would help these robots navigate dark or murky environments that traditional sensing systems struggle with. 

“These findings provide a better understanding of how the lateral line informs shoaling behavior in fish, while also contributing a novel design of inexpensive pressure sensor that could be useful on underwater robots that have to navigate in dark or murky environments,” Elliott said.

The University of Bristol team plans to further develop this sensor and eventually integrate it into a robotic platform to demonstrate its effectiveness.

The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). 

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There are many reasons robotics companies fail. From an ill-conceived idea to poor execution or the inability to raise funding, building and running a sustainable robotics company is challenging.

This is never a fun recap to write. We don’t want to see startups fail, but inevitably many do. The last couple of years have been especially difficult thanks to a global pandemic, economic uncertainties and ongoing supply chain issues. But perhaps some lessons can be learned from those that couldn’t survive a global pandemic or supply chain issues.

Here are some of the robotics companies we’ll, unfortunately, remember losing in 2022.

Argo AI (2016-2022)

Argo AI, the self-driving company previously backed by Ford and Volkswagen, abruptly closed its doors in October. For most, this will be the most surprising shutdown on the list. When news broke about the shutdown, Ford said its plan was to shift its focus away from funding Argo AI’s development of Level 4 autonomous driving technology and towards creating its own Level 2 and Level 3 driving systems.

“We still believe in Level 4 autonomy that it will have a big impact on our business of moving people,” Ford’s CEO and President Jim Farley said at the time. “We’ve learned though, in our partnership with Argo and after our own internal investments, that we will have a very long road. It’s estimated that more than $100 billion has been invested in the promise of Level 4 autonomy. And yet no one has defined a profitable business model at scale.”

Farley continued, “Deploying L4 broadly, perhaps the toughest technical problem of our time, will require significant breakthroughs going forward in many areas: reliable and low-cost sensing, it’s not the case today; algorithms that can operate on limited compute resources without constraining the operating time and domain of an electric vehicle; breakthroughs in neural networks that can learn to operate a car more safely than a human, even in very complex urban environments.”

“We’re optimistic about a future for L4 ADAS, but profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off and we won’t necessarily have to create that technology ourselves.”

Argo AI spun out of Carnegie Mellon in 2016 and came out of stealth in 2017 with a $1 billion investment from Ford. Since then, it raised another $2.6 billion, primarily from Ford and VW, and secured partnerships with Walmart and Lyft.

Kitty Hawk (2010-2022)

After more than a decade of trying to make autonomous flying cars, Kitty Hawk closed its doors in September. The company was founded in 2010 by Sebastian Thrun, who previously founded and led Google’s self-driving car project, which we now know as Waymo.

Kitty Hawk built a number of different aircraft, and in 2021 demonstrated a beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight in Ohio. In June 2021, Kitty Hawk acquired 3D Robotics, a drone company that was once a competitor to DJI. As part of the acquisition, 3D Robotics co-founder Chris Anderson became Kitty Hawk’s chief operating officer. Kitty Hawk said at the time its new focus was on developing a remote-piloted electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

After the company shut down, Thrun said that “no matter how hard we looked, we could not find a path to a viable business.”

Local Motors (2007-2022)

Local Motors, which was building Olli the autonomous shuttle, shut down in early January. Local Motors was founded in 2007, but didn’t start dipping its toes into the world of autonomous vehicles until 2016 when it launched Olli. The company closed due to a lack of funding.

Olli 1.0 was a low-speed pod that could drive for 60 miles on a single charge. The shuttle was designed for environments like hospitals, military bases and universities. In 2019, Local Motors upgraded to Olli 2.0 with a top speed of 25 miles per hour and the ability to run for 100 miles on a single charge.

In October 2020, the company announced it would be testing Olli on the streets of Toronto. Olli hit the streets in 2021, but would only carry out tests until December, when an Olli 1.0 shuttle collided with a tree, resulting in the attendant being critically injured. After the collision, the City of Toronto stopped its trials of the self-driving shuttles. An investigation by the Durham Regional Police Service found that the shuttle was being operated manually during the accident.

The company raised a total of $15.3M in funding over 6 rounds. (Crunchbase)

Perceptive Automata (2015-2022)

Perceptive Automata was a Boston-based developer of human behavior understanding AI for autonomous vehicles and robots. According to co-founder and CTO Sam Anthony, Perceptive Automata went “kablooey” after it failed to close Series B funding.

Anthony said that the shutdown snuck up on him and the staff. “The part that was lousy was how it went down for the staff. There was a sense that we were blindsided by it falling apart,” he said. “That said, I’m not sure we should’ve been blindsided by it. Part of being a VC-funded company is that you have fairly specific marks you have to hit. If you don’t hit them, the path is cloudy at best. Combined with other factors outside of our control, we were in a tough spot.”

Perceptive Automata raised $20 million since it was founded in 2015.

Skyward (2013-2022)

Skyward built a software platform that helped customers manage drone workflows, including training crews, planning missions, accessing controlled airspace and more. It was acquired by Verizon in 2017 before being shut down in May. At the time of the acquisition, Verizon said it planned to use the company’s technology to streamline drone operation management through one platform.

Skyward sent its customers an email to announce the closure, which came as a surprise to many. Verizon said the decision to shutter Skyward “was about market agility and ensuring that Verizon continues to focus on areas that provide both near and mid-term growth opportunities.”

The company raised a total of $8.2M in funding over 4 rounds. (Crunchbase)

Chowbotics (2014-2022)

DoorDash shut down its subsidiary Chowbotics less than 1.5 years after acquiring the business. Chowbotics built Sally, a vending machine-like robot that made salads and other fresh meals. It should be noted many folks in the industry have questioned whether Sally is a robot, but nevertheless.

“At DoorDash, we create an environment to build new products and set high standards to determine when to scale, continue, or cut back investments,” a DoorDash spokesperson said. “We’re always looking for new ways to serve our merchants, exceed consumers’ increasingly higher expectations, and complement our logistics infrastructure.”

Chowbotics was founded in 2014 and acquired by DoorDash in February 2021 for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the acquisition, DoorDash wanted to explore how to deploy Chowbotics’ technology across restaurants. It hoped Sally could help restaurants expand their menu or allow salad bars to pop up in more locations without needing more manpower.

Fifth Season (2016-2022)

Fifth Season was a Pittsburgh-based company that used robotics to grow and harvest various leafy vegetables that were then packaged and sold as salads, mixed greens or in variety packs. It shut down in October. A Carnegie Mellon University spinout founded in 2016 and raised more than $75 million in investment.

Fifth Season had about 100 employees, including about 20 or so that worked shifts at a 60,000-square-foot indoor farming facility in Braddock, Pa.

Rovenso (2016-2022)

Rovenso was a Switzerland-based company developing autonomous robots for security and safety monitoring of industrial sites. The company was founded in 2016 and raised $2.8 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.

Thomas Estier, co-founder and CEO of Rovenso, posted about the shutdown on LinkedIn, saying he and the team didn’t understand the impact of COVID on business development and components sourcing.

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JaiaBots are intended to work in fleets to gather data in aquatic operations. | Source: Jaia Robotics

Jaia Robotics, a company developing micro-sized autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for data collection, announced that it brought in over $1 million in seed funding. 

The company aims for JaiaBot to be a low-cost, multivehicle system that can be user configured for a wide range of capabilities. The software for the company’s robots is fully open source and accessible using gpl and lgpl licenses. 

JaiaBots are micro-sized, autonomous, hybrid surface and subsurface vehicles. They’re designed for manned or unmanned vessel launched operations and shore operations. The system has a simply designed and intuitive user interface.

Each JaiaBot weighs 4.5 lbs and is 33 inches long. The robots can reach a max speed of 5 m/s and a max depth of 330 ft. JaiaBots have a maximum surface range of 9 miles, and a sub surface range of 3 miles. 

JaiaBots can be coordinated in fleets ranging from one to 20 vehicles to cover wider areas in smaller amounts of time. They can collect data in lake, river, estuarine and coastal environments. 

Launchpad Venture Group led the seed funding round alongside Blue Angels, Cherrystone and Walnut. The company has also received funding in the past from Beacon Angels and several individual investors. 

“Close one of our Series Seed Round is extremely timely as we build our team to seize the opportunity to democratize aquatic data collection at scale and grow the business. I would like to thank Launchpad, Blue Angels, Cherrystone, Walnut, and Beacon Angel groups as well as the individual investors for their belief in Jaia Robotics and our disruptive approach of using pods of low-cost aquatic drones to deliver big data,” Estaphan Owen, co-founder and CEO of Jaia Robotics, said. “This investment in Jaia Robotics is a strong show of confidence in the company as an investment opportunity and has led us to keep the round open for 90 days leading to a second close to bring us nearer to the $1.75M ceiling. This will allow us more flexibility and to really accelerate growing our team.” 

Jaia was founded in December 2020 by Estaphan Owen and Jason Webster (now the CTO). The company was born from a passion for protecting the environment and finding way to affordably collect data that helps us better understand our impact on it. 

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The prototype of the STARFISH underwater gripper developed by RE2. | Source: Sarcos

RE2 Robotics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation, announced that it reached a technical milestone on its Strong Tactile mARitime hand for Feeling, Inspecting, Sensing and Handling (STARFISH). The company has successfully assembled and lab tested a complete gripper that can grasp and hold a variety of objects. 

STARFISH is an underwater end-of-arm tooling that is equipped with tactile feedback. The gripper will be deployed with the U.S. Navy for mine countermeasures and explosive ordnance dispose (EOD). The project is being funding through the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). 

“The way they handle EOD’s now is they typically send a diver down in the water to render a threat safe. You can think about the USS Cole, for example,” Jorgen Pedersen, Sarcos COO and former RE2 CEO, said. “That would be an example where if they had suspected that there would be a threat there, they would send a diver down to go try to take care of that. Now we have the ability to replicate that diver capability in robotic form.” 

The STARFISH prototype uses three tactile-sensing fingers to grip small and larger objects. It’s even able to perform fine motor skills like squeezing tweezers. The grippers fingers conform to the shape of the objects its holding, which allows it to handle objects on contact.

The prototype is durable enough to withstand turbulent underwater conditions, like ocean swells and other hazards. Its fingers are covered in a multimodal tactile sensor skin that allows them to feel normal and shear forces.

Sarcos developed this technology with Dr. Veronica Santos, the director of the Biomechatronics Laboratory at UCLA, and Dr. Jonathan Posner, a professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering at the University of Washington.

“[The skin] provides different forms of feedback—pressure, temperature, vibration—so that the same type of sensing that you have as a human you’re getting now at the end of the robot’s fingertip,” Pedersen said. 

The gripper can be teleoperated and can perform some autonomous functions with a human always in the loop to make sure things are running smoothly. 

The RE2 Sapien Sea Class is a dual arm system designed for deep ocean use. | Source: RE2 Robotics

In the next phase of the project, the STARFISH gripper will be attached to Sapien Sea Class underwater arms mounted onto an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV). While the technology is being developed for use in the Navy, according to Pedersen the company hopes to apply it to more applications in the future.  

“What’s cool about this technology is it’s foundational,” Pedersen said. “This same technology that works underwater can work on land. So, it’s not limited to subsea, we just happened to pick the hardest environment to work in. So my confidence in extending this into a terrestrial application is very high.”

RE2 was acquired by Sarcos in March 2022 for $100 million. The deal consists of $30 million in cash and $70 million of Sarcos common stock, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.

“It was a perfect strategic fit form both sides. Both companies had essentially the same mission,” Pedersen said. “We’re improving worker safety and productivity through robotics. So there was no change in the goal by bringing these two companies together.” 

The deal nearly doubles Sarcos’ engineering team and adds Pittsburgh, one of the world’s leading robotics clusters, as a second location. RE2 will eventually be rolled up into the Sarcos brand but will remain in Pittsburgh.

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Impossible Mining, a company developing an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that uses a pick and place manipulator to harvest battery materials from the deep seabed, announced that it brought in $10.1 million in seed funding. 

The company began working on the engineering architecture for its AUV in 2020, and filed its first patents in 2021. Impossible Mining also raised its first funding round in 2021, allowing it to begin work on Proof of Concept for its nodule harvesting and bio-extraction technologies, which it hopes to finish in late 2022.

When finished, Impossible Mining’s AUV will travel up to four-miles deep into the ocean to harvest polymetallic nodules individually. The robot will be equipped with image sensing technology so that it can identify megafauna present on the nodules and leave the ones with megafauna present untouched. 

“The US needs independent, secure access to critical battery metals. We are excited to accelerate the production of our deep water robots with this injection of capital, and to prove to both regulators and stakeholders that we can achieve what dredge-based technology can’t – the preservation of the seafloor environment,” Oliver Gunasekara, CEO & co-founder of Impossible Mining, said.

The company’s solution has a low environmental impact as it avoids disturbing nodule fauna, has no significant plume, no return water and leaves no impact on sediment structure or sediment fauna. The solution is also easily scalable by simply adding more robots. 

Justin Hamilton led the funding round, which also included participation from a select group of YC investors. Impossible Mining plans to use the funds from the round to develop and test its robotic collections system and continue developing its bio-extraction technology. 

“Lithium-ion battery markets will increase tenfold in the next decade, fueled by growth in EVs,” Hamilton said. “The deep seabed contains the largest global resource of battery metals. The Impossible Mining team has demonstrated its robotics technology showing the capabilities for selective pickup, rising to the challenge of accessing these metals in an environmentally responsible way.”

Along with the funding, Impossible Mining announced its key advisors: Bob Galyen, former CTO of CATL, Dan Lankford, former CEO of AT&T Microelectronics, Europe, Justin Manley, an AUV design expert, Simon Segars, former CEO of ARM and former board member of SoftBank and Phil Straw, CEO of SoftIron. 

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The Infinidome GPSdome enables drones and other outdoor mobile robots to retain secure GPS communication. | Credit: Infinidome

infiniDome and navigation resiliency solutions and C-Astral will be showcasing their technologies at the Eurosatory conference, Europe’s largest international security and defense exhibition. C-Astral has integrated infiniDome’s GPSdome which protects their UAVs from jamming attacks adding resiliency in GPS challenged environments.

InfiniDome develops GPS protection and resilient navigation solutions tailored for defending UAVs and vehicles from jamming attacks. infiniDome’s GPSdome is a tiny (74x47x25mm, 150g) retrofit device compatible with any GNSS based system, tailored for class 1-3 drones. Once the system is easily installed, it uses a nulling algorithm to attenuate the jamming signal in the direction of attack, allowing navigation and operation to continue in GPS challenged environments.

“We view C-Astral is one of the leading fixed-wing UAVs developers in the world today with incredible design and record flight endurance. Now with our GPSdome, the C-Astral platforms get a competitive advantage in resilience making their systems even more robust for their customers and missions.” Said Omer Sharar, CEO of infiniDome.

C-ASTRAL Aerospace is a global market leader with an established reputation in the specialized, fixed-wing small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) manufacturing and services field. Besides systems integration, the company has developed avionics and proprietary, secure and adaptable mesh communication systems as well as the capability to integrate its systems with unmanned air traffic management and C4ISR solutions.

C-ASTRAL Aerospace customer base is diversified between the commercial UAS operators, larger institutional networks, scientific users and government entities in more than 70 countries and the company has extensive experience in NATO and NATO compatible integrations.

C-Astral integrates GPSdome into their SQA eVTOL. The GPSdome technology combines patterns from two omnidirectional antennas and integrates seamlessly into C-Astral’s UAV GNSS system, filtering out any RF interference. “The infiniDome system really helps us and especially our customers to mitigate jamming problems that we are seeing in complex contemporary electromagnetic environments” Said Marko Peljhan, co-founder of C-Astral.

infiniDome and C-Astral will showcase their technology at Eurosatory on June 13^th in Paris, France. Eurosatory is Europe’s largest international security and defense exhibition featuring land, air, maritime defense, and a strong focus on civil and homeland security.

infiniDome will be in the ‘Eurosatory Lab’ located in hall 5A. C-Astral will be at booth J-138 in Hall No. 6.

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Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology used a customized BlueROV2 robot to explore a busy harbor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York. | Source: Stevens Institute of Technology

Underwater environments can be particularly challenging for autonomous robots. Things are constantly moving and changing, and robots need to figure out where they are without relying on GPS data. 

Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology have created a robot that is able to successfully navigate a crowded marina underwater. The robot is able to map its environment, track its own location and plan a safe route through a complex environment in real-time, simultaneously.

“Underwater mapping in an obstacle-filled environment is a very hard problem, because you don’t have the same situational awareness as with a flying or ground-based robot — and that makes sending a robot underwater an inherently risky process,” said Brendan Englot, project lead and interim director of the Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

The team was able to develop an algorithm that allowed the robot to monitor and manage its level of uncertainty about its location and environment, and make real-time decisions based on that uncertainty. The robot uses active SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) algorithms.

“Essentially, the robot knows what it doesn’t know, which lets it make smarter decisions,” Englot said. “By creating a virtual map that accounts for the robot’s own confidence about where it is and what it’s seeing, the robot can quickly, safely, and accurately map a new environment.”

The robot, a customized BlueROV2 robot, operates at a depth of 1 meter, and uses sonar signals to detect objects around it. The robot was able to successfully explore a harbor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, New York.

The robot has many potential applications, including in harbor repairs, building and maintaining offshore wind farms, aquaculture projects and drilling rigs. Moving forward, Englot’s team plans to ruggedize robotics platform to allow for longer-lasting undersea missions.

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Deep Trekker’s DTG3 ROV exploring an underwater shipwreck. | Source: Deep Trekker

Halma PLC has acquired Deep Trekker, an Ontario, Canada-based developer of submersible robots, for around $47 million on a cash and debt free basis. Deep Trekker will be managed as a standalone company and will join Halma’s Environmental and Analysis sector.

Deep Trekker’s line of underwater ROVs include the DTG3 ROV, which can reach a max depth of 200 m and has a battery life of up to eight hours, as well as two ROVs that can reach up to 305 m but have shorter battery lives. The Pivot ROV can run for up to three hours, while the Revolution ROV can run for up to six. 

The company’s ROVs are used for underwater inspection and tasks in a variety of industries, including aquaculture, infrastructure, energy, search and recovery, commercial diving, defense and ocean science.

Deep Trekker brought in over $15 million in 2021, with a return on sales above Halma’s target range of 18%-22%. Around two-thirds of the company’s revenue comes from business in the Americas, while 15% comes from Europe.

“Deep Trekker is an exciting addition to Halma, which is highly aligned with our purpose, both in terms of helping to ensure a cleaner environment, and in improving the safety of underwater inspection,” Andrew Williams, group chief executive at Halma, said. “It offers new opportunities for growth in a number of markets, driven by increasing health, safety and environmental regulation, and global efforts to address climate change, waste and pollution.”

Halma is a global group of technology companies that includes Ocean Insight, a company that develops spectroscopy equipment and software, and Palintest, a manufacturer of water analysis technologies. It is based in the UK, but has major operations in mainland Europe as well as in the US and Asia. 

Deep Trekker was founded in 2010, and has sold its devices in over 99 countries. It’s headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and has an additional office in Latin America.

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M2NS combines VideoRay’s Defender ROV and RE2’s Sapien Sea Class robotic arms. | Source: RE2 Robotics

RE2 Robotics‘ Maritime Mine Neutralization System (M2NS) was able to dive more than one kilometer deep during an open-water demonstration for the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). 

“These tests allowed us to demonstrate the continuing success of the M2NS project for the U.S. Navy,” Jack Reinhart, vice president of project management, RE2 Robotics, said. “The progress we made during these deep dives shows that we could successfully complete an underwater supervised autonomous mission at depths of more than 1,000 meters without any damage to the system. The M2NS system succeeded where no other system of this class has before.”

During the test, M2NS was able to complete four dives over a kilometer deep. M2NS performed the tests in the Pacific Ocean with help from the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in Point Loma, California. 

M2NS is a mine neutralization system that combines technology from RE2 and VideoRay. It’s base is VideoRay’s inspection-class Defender remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Mounted onto the ROV the RE2 Sapien Sea Class. M2NS also uses RE2 Detect and RE2 Intellect to see the world around it and act autonomously. 

RE2’s Sapien Sea Class is a dual-armed system meant to be more human-like than traditional industrial and collaborative arms. This version of the Sapien series is designed specifically for deep ocean use. 

“We have proven the ability to deploy the Defender with a large payload to depths of 3,500 feet (1,000+ meters) from a small deck footprint,” Marcus Kolb, chief technology officer at VideoRay, said. “We performed complex, autonomous manipulation tasks with the RE2 system while station-keeping a few feet off the bottom. We are excited about the direction of this program and how it will help accelerate commercial solutions.”

VideoRay is the world’s leading manufacturer of underwater, portable and inspection-class ROVs. Its Defender ROV’s position and orientation can be controlled precisely, and its seven thrusters allow it to move in any direction. Defender is also capable of handling heavier payloads than VideoRay’s other robots. 

RE2 is a Carnegie Mellon spinout founded in 2001. In February 2022, RE2 announced a strategic partnership with PickNik where RE2 will use PickNik’s Movelt Studio software to develop its autonomous robotic systems. The Movelt Studio will help speed up the integration of the Sapien Sea Class robotic arm for new applications. 

Moving forward, RE2 and VideoRay are planning more demonstrations for ONR, including testing autonomous capabilities using a tetherless ROV at extended depths. For these tests, OceanComm will provide wireless acoustic modems. 

RE2 won an RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award in 2021 for its Outdoor Autonomous Manipulation of Photovoltaic Panels (O-AMPP) robotic system that can autonomously deliver and install photovoltaic (PV) modules.

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RE2 Sapien Sea Class arms mounted on the VideoRay Defender ROV. | Credit: RE2 Robotics

Pittsburgh-based RE2 Robotics received an unspecified amount of Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from the U.S. Navy. RE2, a 2021 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winner, and will be developing “coupled control” for remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and robotic manipulators through a single control system.

The project, called “Coupled Locomotion And Manipulation System (CLAMS),” will combine the robotic arms’ control system and the ROV control system into one unit. RE2 said this will improve coordination of the underwater manipulator and the ROV’s movements.

CLAMS will enable topside operators to control a system’s robotic arms and ROV simultaneously using one control station. This is made possible by combining the RE2’s new Coupled Remote Link Software (CTRLS) and the System Unification Model (SUM) to enable interoperability between ROV and robotic arms. CTRLS allows the topside ROV operator to send mission goals to the SUM module located on the vehicle.

“Currently, robotic arms and ROVs are controlled with separate control systems. CLAMS will enable both the robotic arms and the mobile platform to be operated with a single control unit,” said Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO, RE2 Robotics. “Integrating these platforms will enable users to increase efficiency by eliminating the need for an operator to monitor two separate control stations while completing a mission.”

In addition to defense applications, RE2 said CLAMS will benefit industries that use underwater manipulation systems to conduct routine inspection and maintenance tasks, such as the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.

“The goal of CLAMS is to improve control of our RE2 Sapien Sea Class arms mounted on the VideoRay Defender ROV by addressing the two components as a unified system,” stated David Lee, director of product management at RE2. “This will allow topside operators to have more control over semi-autonomous operations while the integrated system is working underwater.”

This is the second ROV-related contract RE2 has won in a matter of months. In September 2021, it won a $9.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy to create an ROV to autonomously neutralize underwater mines. The system will use the RE2 Sapien Sea Class system to precisely place and attach neutralization devices to underwater mines and water-borne improvised explosive devices (WBIEDs).

RE2 Robotics won an RBR50 Award for the development of a robotic solution for autonomous deployment of solar fields. The Outdoor Autonomous Manipulation of Photovoltaic Panels (O-AMPP) robotic system is capable of both autonomously delivering and installing photovoltaic (PV) modules.

Pedersen recently joined The Robot Report Podcast to discuss the evolution of the company, which was founded in 2001. RE2 was focused nearly 100% on defense work in 2016, but now the defense sector accounts for less than one-third of its business. You can listen to that podcast below.

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Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are piloting five unmanned surface vehicles in the Atlantic Ocean to gather data about physical processes of hurricanes. | Credit: Saildrone

Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have released video footage gathered by an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) from inside Hurricane Sam as it barrels across the Atlantic Ocean. The companies claimed this is the first footage of its kind from a USV. You can watch the videos below.

The Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 was directed into the midst of Hurricane Sam, which is currently on a path that fortunately will miss the U.S. east coast. It was once a Category 4 hurricane. The SD1045 is battling 50-foot waves and winds of over 120 MPH to collect critical scientific data and, in the process, provide a completely new view of one of Earth’s most destructive forces.

Equipped with a “hurricane wing” that enables it to operate in extreme wind conditions, the SD 1045 is braving Hurricane Sam in the open ocean, collecting real-time observations for numerical hurricane prediction models, which are expected to yield new insights into how large and destructive tropical cyclones grow and intensify.

SD 1045 is one of a fleet of five hurricane Saildrones that have been operating in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season, gathering data around the clock to help understand the physical processes of hurricanes. This knowledge is critical to improving storm forecasting and is expected to reduce loss of human life by allowing better preparedness in coastal communities.

“Saildrone is going where no research vessel has ever ventured, sailing right into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data that will transform our understanding of these powerful storms,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. “After conquering the Arctic and Southern Ocean, hurricanes were the last frontier for Saildrone survivability. We are proud to have engineered a vehicle capable of operating in the most extreme weather conditions on earth.”

The Saildrones provide data directly to NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Saildrone’s partners in this mission.

“Using data collected by saildrones, we expect to improve forecast models that predict rapid intensification of hurricanes,” said Greg Foltz, a NOAA scientist. “Rapid intensification, when hurricane winds strengthen in a matter of hours, is a serious threat to coastal communities. New data from saildrones and other uncrewed systems that NOAA is using will help us better predict the forces that drive hurricanes and be able to warn communities earlier.”

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The Maritime Mine Neutralization System will use various components from RE2 Robotics and VideoRay’s Defender remotely operated vehicle. | Photo Credit: RE2 Robotics

RE2 Robotics received a $9.5 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to create an underwater robotic system for the autonomous neutralization of underwater mines for the U.S. Navy. The program, called Maritime Mine Neutralization System (M2NS), will use the RE2 Sapien Sea Class system to precisely place and attach neutralization devices to underwater mines and water-borne improvised explosive devices (WBIEDs).

RE2 will serve as the systems integrator for this program. In addition to RE2 Sapien Sea Class, the M2NS will use components, including RE2’s advanced computer vision and autonomy software, RE2 Detect and RE2 Intellect, to enable the precise, autonomous, and clandestine neutralization of a target.

“The detection and neutralization of WBIEDs and other underwater explosives is a critically dangerous task for Navy divers. Consistent with our mission of improving worker safety, the M2NS will enable the Navy to find and autonomously neutralize targets in deep ocean waters, while experienced divers supervise from a safe distance,” said Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics.

The M2NS comprises best-in-class technologies such as RE2’s Sapien Sea Class arms and VideoRay’s Defender remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which both exhibit unprecedented power density. In particular, RE2 Sapien Sea Class arms, which were originally designed and developed for the ONR, feature a compact, strong, electromechanical design with human-like dexterity (7-function per arm) that is neutrally buoyant. The fusion of these key technologies provides superior strength and precision while manipulating neutralization devices.

“The M2NS will use RE2 Detect computer vision software to locate targets underwater, and RE2 Intellect to autonomously and precisely place devices on those targets,” said Dr. Amanda Sgroi, director of computer vision and autonomy at RE2. “We also will integrate new sensors to provide situational awareness and aid autonomy, allowing the system to potentially navigate to extended depths in the ocean.”

In addition to defense tasks, the human-like capability of the M2NS allows it to be used for complex offshore infrastructure and maintenance applications in the oil & gas and renewable wind industries. For example, M2NS can be used for weld inspection of rig piles, ships and FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) systems; mooring inspection and measurement; and valve inspection and manipulation.

RE2, a 2021 RBR50 Innovation Award winner, recently received $1 million to develop an autonomous refueling system for AH-64 Apache helicopters deployed by the U.S. Army. The project, called Remote Robotic Refueling for Extended Missions, will use RE2’s perception software to control a RE2 robotic arm mounted onto an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The UGV will autonomously position and engage a fuel nozzle in the helicopter’s fuel port.

Pedersen recently joined The Robot Report Podcast to discuss the evolution of the company. RE2 was focused nearly 100% on defense work in 2016, but now the defense sector accounts for less than one-third of its business. You can listen to that podcast below.

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Bedrock Mosiac leverages autonomous underwater vehicles to map the seafloor. | Image credit: Bedrock

Bedrock launches a new ocean survey service, powered by a 100% electric autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Bedrock is not selling the AUV, but rather, using the underwater robots to gather and compile undersea imaging data. This information is then presented in Mosaic, a universal survey cloud-based, data platform for managing, accessing, and sharing any marine survey data. According to the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as of February 2021, 80% of the ocean floor remains to be explored, and this is the opportunity for a solution like Mosaic.

In addition to the vast opportunity to autonomously map the seafloor, it can also take up to 12 months per survey to provide customers with usable commercial seafloor data. Bedrock plans to accelerate that situation, claiming it can do so 10 times faster than the current solution.

“The ocean is a key environment we need to deeply understand to save the planet from climate change and provide sustainable, renewable energy,” said Anthony DiMare, co-founder and CEO of Bedrock. “But right now, we simply don’t have the ability to act quickly because we lack simple, easy access to critical data on how the ocean works, starting with the seafloor. Bedrock’s vertically-integrated seafloor data platform enabled by our proprietary AUV’s, coupled with Mosaic, is the technology needed for this new function shift to change the way we work with our oceans.”

Bedrock Mosaic software compiles the data collect by the Bedrock AUV. | Image credit: Bedrock

A fully electric submersible

The company’s fully electric AUVs allows Bedrock to improve the speed and efficiency of seafloor acquisition and mapping, in some circumstances delivering data up to 50 times higher resolution than the best publicly available maps, the company claims. It geophysically maps the ocean floor in high resolution without the need for large survey ships accelerating the rate and increasing the efficiency of seafloor data acquisition.

Bedrock AUV Survey Advantages:

• Major reduction of human risk by leveraging AUVs — no danger of navigation at sea
• 100% electric – environmentally superior to ship or surface systems
• Minimal risk of animal and environmental damage due to size, conops, and sonars that stay above the 200kHz marine mammal limits – reduction of geophysical survey permitting required
• New operational flexibility – faster to mobilize and robotics are transportable by air. Minimized impact of weather on schedule by staying below the surface and steering clear of adverse weather on the surface
• Resolution and data quality as a selectable variable of a survey
• Mosaic included – All data delivered, accessed, and managed in the cloud, eliminating the need to ship hard drives

Mosaic’s beta waitlist — open to the public starting today — provides all owners, users, and managers access to seafloor data enabling them to efficiently share marine survey data. It is agnostic to the data acquirer, meaning anyone that touches seafloor data from raw to processed can have a centralized place to store and work with their data.

“In order to understand the state of the ocean, we need a baseline set of measurable metrics. Bedrock collects the needed data to drive proactive actions in areas of strategic impact for progress and prevention, rather than just being reactive” said Charlie Chiau, CTO and co-founder of Bedrock. “Our platform’s first and immediate application is to accelerate offshore renewable energy projects, which now need this ability for faster and repeatable discovery and monitoring of seafloor health and status.”

Within its current services, Bedrock is launching a free tier of 50GB of private seafloor data storage, which enables anyone with an internet connection a way to publish survey data to the free, public ocean dataset, as well as easily download anything already within it. Bedrock’s goal with this is to encourage the public to contribute any obtained marine data to the public map, in the simplest way possible.

With Bedrock’s AUV-based survey approach coupled with Mosaic, ocean-floor surveys — which are required for a myriad of critical infrastructure projects including the development, installation, and maintenance of every new offshore wind turbine — can be done faster, more efficiently, and significantly more environmentally friendly than ever before.

Takeaways

Bedrock is innovating with its high-performance, autonomous submersible. The submersible is untethered, and capable of autonomous mission operations during which the vessel can operate on a predefined mapping path while acquiring seabed data from a variety of onboard sensors.

The company is offering the output data and survey maps as a service, enabling clients to leverage this robotics-as-a-service solution without a huge capital investment.

The survey data that can be delivered includes:

• Conductive, temperature and depth
• Multi-beam echo sonar
• Sidescan sonar
• Magnettometer
• Sub bottom profiles

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WiBotic OC 262 onboard power chargers provide custom charging of AMR batteries. | Image credit: Wibotic

WiBotic introduces several new cutting-edge chargers and transmitters for drones and autonomous mobile robots. The new products showcase WiBotic’s expertise in innovating efficient charging solutions for robots that operate in all sorts of environments, even under the harshest conditions.

WiBotic OC-262 onboard charger

The OC-262 is a passively cooled onboard charger that was developed as a ruggedized system for the Department of Defense, but is now being released for wider use in response to customer demand. Passive cooling is particularly beneficial in punishing environments where water, dust, dirt and corrosion are significant concerns, and the OC-262 offers considerable benefits to customers operating in the oil and gas, mining, construction, marine exploration and agriculture industries.

Providing up to 300W of power, the OC-262 has no moving parts, supports all common robot battery chemistries, and pairs with a weatherproof receiver antenna for a complete outdoor solution

Two models of the OC-262 are now available:

• An ST model with IP20 rating for applications that require passive cooling but can be more open to the environment.
• A WP model with IP67 rating for use in outdoor or extreme environments.

WiBotic OC-150 drone battery charger

The WiBotic OC 150 is lightweight and designed to be deployed onboard a drone. | Image credit: WiBotic

OC-150 onboard charger. Designed for UAVs and smaller robots, the OC-150 is a compact and lightweight onboard charger that delivers up to 150W of total power and up to 10A of current depending upon battery voltage. As with other OCs, it supports multiple battery chemistries and has an output voltage range of 9V to 58.5V.

WiBotic TR-150 transmitter

The WiBotic TR 150. | Image credit: WiBotic

A compact transmitter, the TR-150 uses the latest high-efficiency GaN transistors from WiBotic partner GaN Systems Inc. It is designed primarily for use with the new OC-150 onboard charger but supports all WiBotic OCs when deployed in diverse robot fleets. Delivering up to 150W of power, its new GaN-driven power amplifier has an exemplary 95% efficiency – leading to end-to-end wireless power system efficiencies of 85% or more.

TR-300 transmitter. Like the TR-150, the TR-300 is a compact wireless power transmitter using GaN Systems’ technology for maximum efficiency. The TR-300 offers the same core benefits as the TR-150 but delivers up to 300W of power when paired with WiBotic’s OC-262 or OC-301 onboard chargers.

Paul Wiener, VP of Strategic Marketing at GaN Systems, congratulated WiBotic on the announcement: “These new products are just as exciting for GaN Systems as they are for WiBotic. We continue to believe the market for high-power wireless charging systems is going to explode in the coming years and companies like WiBotic are going to lead the way through the use of GaN technology.”

WiBotic Commander software provides a single place to view all charging operations. | Image credit: WiBotic

For drone operations, it can be difficult to keep track of individual battery health when large collections of diverse batteries are manually charged for repetitive field use. When used with WiBotic’s new Commander Fleet Energy Management software, lightweight WiBotic OCs can now track and report on individual battery charge cycles, termination voltage, charge rate (amps), and other critical factors that determine how a battery will perform day-to-day.

“When it comes to power delivery for autonomous drones and mobile robots, it’s crucial to innovate with new technologies such as GaN to maximize efficiency,” said Ben Waters, CEO at WiBotic. “These new products not only push that technical envelope but are also designed to survive in the most extreme operational conditions. And when used together with WiBotic software, they now let operators track and optimize the performance of individual batteries within large and diverse collections – whether charging is performed manually or fully autonomously.”

Listen to an interview with the WiBotic team on a recent The Robot Report Podcast episode.

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The Honeywell Inifinidome GPS Dome protects drones from GPS interference. | Image credit: Honeywell

Honeywell has signed a collaboration agreement with InfiniDome to jointly develop and deliver GPS signal protection systems. The solutions are intended to serve a variety of purposes for both defense and commercial applications, and to support a wide range of vehicle platforms, including commercial aircraft, urban air mobility systems, unmanned aerial systems and surface vehicles.

Protecting GPS signals from denial

Around the world, GPS signals are used for navigation in both the commercial and military markets, but consistent connection with these signals, while critical, is not always achievable. Even the latest systems can encounter issues in “GPS-denied” environments, where signal service is marginal or blocked. Reception issues can occur in dense urban areas, such as near tall buildings or under bridges. In these instances, it is important for air and surface vehicles to be equipped with technology to readily handle signal disruption and maintain access to critical navigation and timing information. As more small vehicles take to the skies and roads in heavily populated areas, GPS signal availability must be maintained to provide accurate navigation, ensure safety and protect property.

“In combining Honeywell’s best-in-class navigation sensors with leading-edge GPS resilience technology from InfiniDome, we’re working to develop a first-of-its-kind holistic solution built on tightly integrated layers of protection for all uses of navigation for unmanned air and ground vehicles,” said Omer Sharar, CEO, InfiniDome. “InfiniDome is proud to be working collaboratively with Honeywell to bring about the next generation of GPS protection technology.”

The joint solution is designed to be a best-in-class navigation platform that can seamlessly handle loss or lack of GPS signals, therefore greatly reducing the likelihood of collisions and detour. Additionally, this will allow customers to increase payloads and decrease mission times with the omission of the expensive sensors currently employed to handle GPS interferences — which grow more prevalent by the day.

Complete solution in a single package

The Honeywell-InfiniDome solutions will include hardware, software and services that bring customers increased value compared with existing systems. The technology will also support public safety for quickly evolving low-altitude applications such as cargo drones and urban air transportation vehicles. The initial solution offering is expected to be commercially available in the first half of 2022.

“Intentional GPS jamming and spoofing incidents are on the rise, and this partnership will enable a rapid solution to this critical industry need,” said Matt Picchetti, vice president and general manager, Navigation & Sensors, Honeywell Aerospace. “This partnership will create world-class solutions that will help accelerate the future of flight, especially in urban areas.”

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