We are pleased to show our eight Start-ups for 2024.
Versatile RobotX
Versatile RobotX develops cutting-edge, versatile mechanical platforms to address issues involving food security, climate sustainability, and labor shortages.
Dr Vishuu Mohan says the emphasis is to provide flexibility to agrarian robotics, automating the high-value, human labour-intensive jobs while being readily adaptable to grain types like strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and growing environments.
A smart automatic fruit harvest platform, which was successfully tested in traditional polytunnels and at Wilkin & Son’s Tiptree’s first horizontal growing system for smooth fruits, are their two main products.
The same mechanical app and underlying perception-action-decision-making program have been adapted to different crops and tasks – for example, seedling implantation, float managing and lettuce harvesting.
With £4m in DEFRA money over the last four decades, they are developing a second-generation, low-cost design to create agri-tech available to smaller fields.
The company’s ABC approach ( Adaptive, Biomimetic, Collaborative ) offers precision and speed, potentially saving over £200k in annual labour costs with just two robots, each working 7, 000 hours annually. The next generation of their fruit sorter is anticipated to debut quickly as they continue to decrease expenses.
Dr Mohan says,” We aim to bring flexibility to the market with low-cost, multipurpose drones that replicate things where there’s a vital labour scarcity. With challenges in food safety, strength, and environment, we’re in the right place at the right time to strap robotics and AI to make a positive change beyond laboratory prototypes”.
