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A UK company developing autonomous mobile robots for intra-logistics transport is seeking technology partners to develop key technological capabilities and validate its product over a larger pool of user-cases

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Reference Number: TOUK20180508004
Publication Date: 9 May 2018

Summary

The company is a UK based SME developing autonomous mobile robots for intra-logistics material transport. It is developing self-driving material transport vehicles that can be incorporated into companies' warehouses effortlessly. The company is currently engaged in on-site validation trials and is seeking collaborative European partners to develop key technological capabilities and validate the system over a larger pool of user-cases, under a technical cooperation agreement.

Description

The company is a London based early stage SME consisting of roboticists, software engineers and industrial designers. The start-up has developed prototype hardware platforms (autonomous mobile robots) and workflow processes to demonstrate the potential of their systems in industrial environments such as manufacturing and intra-logistics. Their mobile robots operate in workspaces shared with humans and hence, human-centric design and safety are primary considerations. No vertical integration or infrastructure changes are required, making these systems easy to deploy and simple to operate. The product is standalone, does not need to be actively managed. 

On-site concept validation trials are underway and the company recently won a UK government grant that will help in further developing their technology-to-technology readiness level 6 maturity in 2018. Apart from Europe, opportunities for commercial growth exist in Asia. The company has strong connections in China, within the design and manufacturing sector and is developing a customer base there.

Currently, the company is seeking to collaborate with European partners in either developing new technologies (for example indoor localisation, low-cost safe drive systems) and validating the system over a larger pool of user-cases from a diverse range of commercial sectors (for example: healthcare, hospitality, etc.) that require material transport solutions. The envisaged collaboration is under a technical cooperation agreement.

Advantages and Innovations

The company is developing mobile robots that are safe and cost effective for material transport in complex warehouse environments. The solution presents the following main advantages when compared to the current available solutions:
First of all it is easy to deploy, it does not require infrastructure changes to deploy and operate. The setup is rapid and happens in a matter of few hours and it includes zero system integration costs. In addition, compared to the current state of the art, it has intuitive operating modes that require no special training.
The biggest advantage of the solution is its business model: the product is offered as a robot as a service model. This means no up-front capital investment. Clients pay per operational mile and services used. This model is cost effective and attractive even to small and mid-sized businesses.

Stage Of Development

Prototype available for demonstration

Stage Of Development Comment

The company is currently engaged in on-site validation trials and expect to reach technology readiness level 6 by the end of 2018. Product intent systems are in parallel development and the company expects to rapidly commercialise their offering from 2019.

Requested partner

The UK company is seeking to collaborate with European partners in either developing new technologies and validating the system over a larger pool of user-cases from a diverse range of commercial sectors, beyond e-commerce intra-logistics, that require material transport solutions  (for example: healthcare, hospitality, etc.) .
The ideal partners are early adopters in third party logistics, e-commerce, warehousing, healthcare and manufacturing interested in on-site trials of novel material transport solutions. They have expertise in indoor localisation technologies for industrial environments, industrial grade high-reliability, high-availability wireless communication technologies, system architectures for industrial internet of things (IoT).

Cooperation offer ist closed for requests