Robotics & Automation News

Where Innovation Meets Imagination

snow

Autonomous snow-clearing vehicles: Solutions for winter’s challenges

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Regardless of whether you believe in “global warming” or the various outlandish claims some environmentalists make, me personally, I’ve noticed that, over the course of my lifetime, the weather has become more and more crazy. 

I don’t think the mainstream news media covers the subject enough, preferring to cover the never-ending wars that repeatedly flare up here and there with the same kind of regularity that they did in biblical times.

Living in the UK, I’ve noticed that the north of England is often inundated with water because of unexpected and unprecedented flooding, or trashed by gale force winds that tear down fences and gates in the middle of the night, or snow that blankets entire towns and airports.

And yet, the news media – which is mostly based in the south, specifically London – appears to be oblivious to it all, preferring to keep their cameras on the dances of death by the current generation of warlords around the world. [Read more…] about Autonomous snow-clearing vehicles: Solutions for winter’s challenges

Yarbo launches modular ‘yard robot’ that can mow the lawn and clear the snow

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Yarbo, which describes itself as “the world’s first year-round multipurpose intelligent yard robot”, says its new 2024 model is now available for pre-order. This launches the latest advancements in automated outdoor power equipment for addressing tedious yard tasks and improving lawn care experiences.

Yarbo is the most innovative modular yard robot on the market. Its versatility allows it to be a lawn mower, snow blower, leaf blower, safety patrol robot, yard assistant and more with its different modules that can meet over 20 different yard care demands throughout the year.

For the first time, all yard maintenance is completely autonomous for users. Yarbo created patented and enhanced PPVS technology for precise navigation capabilities. [Read more…] about Yarbo launches modular ‘yard robot’ that can mow the lawn and clear the snow

Teleo and Storm Equipment introduce ‘America’s only’ remote-operated and autonomous industrial snow plow

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Teleo, a company building autonomous technology for heavy construction equipment, and Storm Equipment, one of the largest distributors of commercial snow plow equipment, have jointly launched what they say is “the only remote-operated and autonomous industrial snow plow commercially offered in the United States”.

With support from Teleo dealer RDO Equipment Co., the companies worked to retrofit a John Deere 332G skid steer loader with Storm Equipment’s Metal Pless snow plow blade and Teleo Supervised Autonomy, Teleo’s technology that enables remote and autonomous operations.

The machine is designed for mass snow clearing in large open areas such as industrial parking lots. Customers can order the retrofit of any make and model of heavy equipment for remote-operated and autonomous operations from Teleo, along with an autonomous-ready snow plow blade properly sized for each machine type from Storm Equipment. [Read more…] about Teleo and Storm Equipment introduce ‘America’s only’ remote-operated and autonomous industrial snow plow

Embark Trucks completes autonomous vehicle testing in snowy conditions

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Embark Trucks, a developer of autonomous technology for the trucking industry, says it has successfully completed on-road testing in snowy conditions in Montana, USA.

The testing, which Embark announced earlier this year, was conducted to demonstrate the performance and safety of Embark’s patent-pending Vision Map Fusion (VMF) technology in geographies that experience severe winter weather.

Results from the testing demonstrate that in approximately 90 percent of runs through the snowy conditions under study – which could result in delays for HD map-based autonomous driving systems – VMF should operate successfully, or pause and resume travel within acceptable shipper delivery windows. [Read more…] about Embark Trucks completes autonomous vehicle testing in snowy conditions

Winter Olympics provide China opportunity to showcase its robots

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The Winter Olympics – or Beijing 2022 – are under way in China, and the country’s roboticists are using it as an opportunity to show off their technologies. 

This is not unexpected, of course. Japan used the Summer Olympics to showcase its engineering prowess in the area of vehicle technologies as well as robots.

In fact, there’s probably less robotic showing off going on in Beijing than one might have expected, given that China is now the world’s largest buyer of robots. It’s also now the world’s largest car market, much of which is slowly becoming autonomous. [Read more…] about Winter Olympics provide China opportunity to showcase its robots

Avinor ploughs €40 million into Yeti autonomous snow removal vehicles

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Norwegian airport operator Avinor is taking the next step towards autonomous snow removal through a new framework agreement regarding the purchase of self-driving runway sweepers.

The self-driving technology is developed by the technology company Yeti Move, where Semcon is one of the co-owners.

Since the winter of 2018/2019, a number of self-driving runway sweepers have been tested at Oslo Airport. With Avinor’s new framework agreement with snowplough manufacturer Øveraasen, which runs for eight years, more autonomous vehicles will be put into operation during the winter of 2021/2022. [Read more…] about Avinor ploughs €40 million into Yeti autonomous snow removal vehicles

Mercedes expands development of autonomous commercial vehicle systems

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From project to product: With AXYARD, Lab1886 and Daimler Trucks automate the operation of commercial vehicles

The automated snow removal by two self-driving Mercedes-Benz Arocs in Immendingen shows a successful application for automated commercial vehicles in closed areas.

The joint project of Lab1886, the innovation unit for new business models within Mercedes-Benz AG, and Daimler Trucks, the inventor of the truck, has now become a product that can be used as a solution for various customer requirements in sectors such as on-site logistics and agriculture.

Lab1886 and Daimler Trucks, together with Fraport, demonstrated the operation of self-driving snow-clearing vehicles in non-public closed areas for the first time in October 2017 as part of a pilot project on the site of the former Pferdsfeld air base. [Read more…] about Mercedes expands development of autonomous commercial vehicle systems

Left Hand Robotics raises $3.6 million for ‘transformer’ robot

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Left Hand Robotics has raised $3.6 million for its “transformer” robot, which can be used as a commercial field mower and then reconfigured to be used as a snow clearing robot.

The funding round was led by Catapult Ventures to build out its team and expand distribution of the world’s first state-of-the-art, fully autonomous outdoor robot designed as a scalable platform that allows customers to complete multiple tedious outdoor tasks.

The company says the robot transforms from a large-scale field mowing robot to a snow clearing robot by “simply switching out attachments”. [Read more…] about Left Hand Robotics raises $3.6 million for ‘transformer’ robot

‘Snow-how’: Finns develop autonomous snow removal vehicles

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Robotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers are already reality, but can the same idea be applied to a 7-ton 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-of-concept 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.

[Read more…] about ‘Snow-how’: Finns develop autonomous snow removal vehicles

Sick launches ‘first ever’ outdoor safety laser scanner

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Sensors manufacturer Sick is launching its newest safety laser scanner, outdoorScan3.

The company says outdoorScan3 is the first safety laser scanner certified to IEC 62998 for use in outdoor applications.

The outdoorScan3 allows automated guided vehicle systems to navigate safely through outdoor industrial environments.

[Read more…] about Sick launches ‘first ever’ outdoor safety laser scanner