Tag Archives: Navtech

Oxbotica’s Open Autonomy plans receive investment boost

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Oxbotica has announced the completion of a $47 million Series B investment to help accelerate commercial deployment of its autonomy software platform in mines around the world.

The news is an endorsement of Oxbotica’s go-to-market strategy, deploying its autonomy software in industrial use cases in advance of rolling out in urban passenger transportation applications in the future, it said.

Oxbotica is developing an Open Autonomy software platform for the mining industry, providing operators, integrators and manufacturers the autonomy functionality and flexibility they need − be that full stack, or on a component-by-component basis, it said. Back in June, it signed an MoU with Wenco International Mining Systems Ltd to further develop this solution for mining.

The company’s product is a software platform providing “Universal Autonomy”, it said, in a vast array of vehicle types both on and off road.

“The ability to move all vehicles, irrespective of size or type, with the same autonomy system means a mine can be orchestrated in a way not currently available,” the company said.

On the same day of this announcement, Halma announced it has agreed a strategic partnership with Oxbotica.

Navtech, a Halma company specialising in radar technology, has an existing relationship with Oxbotica focused on developing a radar-based navigation and perception system.

This new strategic partnership will deepen the relationship and provide additional technologies and capabilities to accelerate its autonomous vehicle solutions, according to Halma.

Andrew Williams, Halma’s Group Chief Executive, said: “Oxbotica’s vision – working to make roads safer, environments cleaner and industries more efficient – is aligned with our purpose to grow a safer, cleaner and healthier future for everyone, every day. Our partnership will enable Oxbotica to accelerate the roll-out of its autonomy software globally and will bring exciting new capabilities for Navtech to develop its radar technology solutions and accelerate its growth.”

Oxbotica was founded in 2014 by Oxford University professors, Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner. Since then, the company has grown from a UK robotics start-up to one of the world’s leading autonomy companies, Oxbotica says.

Oxbotica and Navtech working on radar-based automation solution for mines

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Oxbotica and Navtech have announced the joint product development of a radar-based navigation and perception system, to be launched in 2020.

The product represents the latest advancement in radar-based technology from Navtech and the partnership marks an important milestone in Oxbotica’s plans to take its automation-focused software from development towards commercial deployment.

The multi-module localisation system (radar, vision and laser) allows customers to deploy autonomy in both on-road and off-road locations, whether in mines, ports or airports and whatever the weather conditions where standard GPS or LiDAR is not possible, the companies said.

They explained: “The Oxbotica and Navtech product will not be reliant on any external infrastructure and can operate on its own or be fused with other location services driven by GPS, LiDAR or laser vision as part of Oxbotica’s modular and integrated approach.”

Oxbotica has already successfully tested its proprietary algorithms in a variety of environments and conditions as part of its Localisation module development and wider full-stack autonomy solution. This will be twinned with Navtech’s expertise in bringing autonomy sensors to market around the world.

Oxbotica says its autonomous driving software has been deployed in many different environments including cities, mines, airports, quarries and ports as part of its Universal Autonomy commitment: enabling any vehicle in any industry to drive itself with total freedom from external infrastructure dependency.

Navtech is a leading innovator, award-winning designer and manufacturer of commercially deployed radar solutions with safety at its core, according to the company. It manufactures a range of sensors that provide the performance to deliver on the promise of all-weather sensing in real world applications. This sees its sensors used in mission-critical applications around the world including security surveillance, road safety systems and industrial autonomous vehicles.

Ozgur Tohumcu, Oxbotica CEO, said: “This collaboration with Navtech is a key milestone in bringing autonomy especially to off-road domains such as mines, ports, or airports where existing LiDAR or GPS may not function effectively due to weather or operating conditions such as dust, rain, or snow.

“Navtech is a fantastic partner with their unbeatable track record of producing autonomy sensors – powering off-road autonomy around the world for nearly two decades. Incoming demand from customers and our own market research prove that there will be wide applications of this product addressing both on-road and off-road deployments.”

Phil Avery, CEO of Navtech, said: “Navtech are delighted to be working with Oxbotica on this project. Despite the potential of radar very few companies have successfully developed the necessary algorithms to use it properly. Oxbotica are world leaders in this area and, together with our high-performance radars sensors, we believe the resulting system will deliver a step change in the performance available for all-weather all-environment localisation and perception. This is crucial for automation in more challenging environments such as mines and ports.”