“We’re thrilled that over the past 12
months Robotics Plus has launched
its first two commercial products. It
was fantastic to be in New Zealand
with Robotics Plus to see their
success recognised at the country’s
most prestigious technology event.”
The role Māori heritage has played
in Robotics Plus’ development saw
the company win the Callaghan
Innovation Hi-Tech Kamupene Māori
o te Tau — Māori Company of the
Year.
Saunders says, “Our core
company values are ‘he aronga
nui’ (pioneering), ‘manaakitanga’
(collaboration), ‘tika me te pono’
(principled) and ‘kaitiakitangi’
(stewardship). Importantly, these
values also resonate strongly with
our local and international partners.
“It was very apt that the Māori
Company of the Year was supported
by Callaghan Innovation and the Hi-
Tech Agritech award was supported
by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise
(NZTE), as these New Zealand
Government agencies have been
very supportive of our growth and
innovation plans, along with MBIE,
MPI and TPK.”
Robotics Plus has a range of
technologies under development
to address major issues in the
horticulture industry caused by
labour shortages and increasing
consumer demand for fresh fruit,
include: an autonomous agricultural
vehicle, robotic pollinator, robotic
harvesters, crop estimator, and a
number of confidential projects.
Dr Glenn says: “It’s an exciting
time for Robotics Plus. We’re
rapidly adding to our world-class
development team to rapidly
prototype new ideas, validate new
components and integrate these
into our robotic systems. Our
efforts are well supported by our
investors, commercial partners and
collaborative research relationships
with the University of Waikato, the
University of Auckland, Massey
University, Plant & Food Research and
PlantTech.”
Earlier, Robotics Plus launched its
second commercial innovation, an
industry-changing Robotic Scaling
Machines (RSM) which give a faster,
safer and more accurate measure of
logs on the trucks and trailers than the
manual process. Mount Maunganuibased
ISO Limited commissioned the
world's first two automated logging
truck scalers, which are now scanning
logs at Port of Tauranga.
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