 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(August 2023) |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Robotics, Technology |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | William Sachiti |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Products | Robots Robotics kits Driverless delivery vehicles |
Academy of Robotics is a UK-based artificial intelligence technology company that creates technology to automate repetitive tasks and logistics. [1]
The Academy of Robotics was founded by William Sachiti at Aberystwyth University in 2017, [2] the university's InvEnterPrize program provided the startup with a £10 000 award as seed money [3] to fund the company's development of its first major project, the Kar-go project. The company then partnered with a UK car manufacturer, Pilgrim Motorsports, to build the first Kar-go vehicle. [4]
In the same year, 2017, the company raised its first funding round by through the UK Financial Services Authority-approved platform Crowdcube to raise money for its Kar-go project. [5] [6]
In July 2019 the company unveiled its first driverless delivery vehicle, Kar-go at Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] and in November 2019, the company announced a partnership with Eurovia UK, part of the Vinci group. Eurovia announced its plans to test the Kar-go technology to automate the delivery of small plant equipment, tools, materials and other components to and from a highway work site as well as the potential use of data collected by Kar-go as it travels, to determine the condition of roads. [13] [14] The Kar-go Delivery Bot vehicle was then licensed to drive on the roads in the UK in 2020.
With funding from UK Research and Innovation for providing “No Human Contact Deliveries Via Semi-Autonomous Vehicles” [15] the company began making its first deliveries on the roads in the UK, delivering medicines to vulnerable people in Hounslow. [16] [17]
The company invented Space-Bus, a mobile Command Station that is used to deploy and monitor autonomous vehicles using a proprietary Athena system. In November 2021, the company's mobile Command Station and Kar-go Delivery Bot were deployed in trials with the Royal Air Force at RAF Brize Norton. [18] [19]
In early 2022, the company's CEO, William Sachiti acquired the 26 acre former RAF radar base, RAF Neatishead and began renovating the site with the intention to lease parts of the site to his company, Academy of Robotics. [20] [21] The RAF Neatishead site includes a network of private test tracks, 2 hangars and an approximately 4 acre underground Cold War era nuclear bunker as well as a heritage listed Type 84 radar. [22]
In November 2019 and Eurovia UK (part of the Vinci Group) announced their partnership to test the Kar-go technology to automate the delivery of small plant equipment, tools, materials and other components to and from a highway work site as well as the potential use of data collected by Kar-go as it travels, to determine the condition of roads. [13] [14]
In September 2021 Academy of Robotics announced its trials with the Royal Air Force in the UK which saw its flagship Kar-go Delivery Bot vehicles and its Space-Bus mobile Command Station deployed to run errands to support the highly trained RAF personnel stationed on the UK’s largest air base, RAF Brize Norton. [18] [19]
In December 2022 the company announced its partnership with Milton Keynes University Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust and its first trials in the hospital with its new Helper Bot, Milton. [23] [24] [25]
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. Self-driving cars are responsible for all driving activities including perceiving the environment, monitoring important systems, and controlling the vehicle, including navigating from origin to destination.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June or early July. The event is scheduled to avoid clashing with the Formula One season, enabling fans to see F1 machines as well as cars and motorbikes from motor racing history climb the hill.
Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle such as a car, lorries, aircraft, or watercraft. A vehicle using automation for tasks such as navigation to ease but not replace human control, qualify as semi-autonomous, whereas a fully self-operated vehicle is termed autonomous.
Velodyne Lidar is a Silicon Valley-based lidar technology company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It was spun off from Velodyne Acoustics in 2016. As of July 2020, the company has had about 300 customers. Velodyne Lidar ships sensors to mobility industry customers for testing and commercial use in autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, mapping, robotics, infrastructure and smart city applications. In February 2023, the company merged with Ouster.
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Autonomous racing, self-driving racing or autonomous motorsports is an evolving sport of racing ground-based wheeled vehicles, controlled by computer. A number of events and series have launched, including the international Formula E spin-off series Roborace. and Self Racing Cars as well as student competitions such as Formula Student Driverless.
Anthony Levandowski is a French-American self-driving car engineer. In 2009, Levandowski co-founded Google's self-driving car program, now known as Waymo, and was a technical lead until 2016. In 2016, he co-founded and sold Otto, an autonomous trucking company, to Uber Technologies. In 2018, he co-founded the autonomous trucking company Pronto; the first self-driving technology company to complete a cross-country drive in an autonomous vehicle in October 2018. At the 2019 AV Summit hosted by The Information, Levandowski remarked that a fundamental breakthrough in artificial intelligence is needed to move autonomous vehicle technology forward.
Argo AI LLC was an autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, veterans of the Google and Uber automated driving programs. Argo AI was an independent company that built software, hardware, maps, and cloud-support infrastructure to power self-driving vehicles. Argo was mostly backed by Ford Motor Co. (2017) and the Volkswagen Group (2020).
Oxa is an autonomous vehicle software company, headquartered in Oxfordshire, England, and founded by Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner.
Kar-go, is an autonomous delivery vehicle, designed and built by British company, Academy of Robotics Ltd, a UK company, registered in Wales. The vehicle uses self-drive / driverless car technology to drive itself to locations where it delivers packages autonomously.
Pasi William Sachiti is a Zimbabwean-born British entrepreneur and inventor. Sachiti is the founder and CEO of Academy of Robotics, an autonomous technology company which is primarily known for developing street-legal self-driving vehicles and solutions for road maintenance.
A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process.
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Robomart is an American technology company headquartered in Santa Monica, California that builds autonomous smart shops for cafes, ice cream parlors, and quick-service restaurants. The company’s white label platform gives retailers the option to expand their footprint at a significantly lower cost than traditional brick-and-mortar real-estate.
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