Cosmic Robotics robots can accelerate the implementation of solar panels
The US is being built so many sun farms that companies cannot find enough people to install the panels. By 2033, the number of solar installers is expected to increase by 48%, According to to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Even if these workforce growth predictions fall apart, the industry is still likely to face experts with the right skills. Doing the work of exhausting – and unattractive – is the fact that a significant part of solar farms are in the deserts.
“It’s a terrible job in distant places,” James Emerick, co -founder and CEO of Space roboticsHe told TechCrunch. To give a hand to people, Cosmic has developed a robotic assistant that makes the heavy lifting of sunny jobs.
Solar panels in large -scale flights can be huge, weighing up to 90 pounds. Workers are required to recruit them a few feet from the ground for hours a day. Such a load in extreme environments can quickly exhaust a worker or a worse.
These conditions are partly why Emerick and his colleagues started cosmic. Starting robots give birth to some of the physical burden of work, which allows people to focus on tasks that require more dexterity and intelligence.
Cosmic recently raised $ 4 million before the seeds, the company told TechCrunch. The circle was led by Giant Ventures with participation from HCVC, Mac Ventures and several angels investors, including Azeem Azhar, Aarthi Ramamurthy and Nate Williams.
Currently, the start -up robot is an eight -wheel vehicle covered with a robotic arm and a metal battery plate and computer chips. It fits a little trailer loaded with solar panels and loads into the construction site when the day is over. The hand is equipped with suction cups to lift solar panels and cameras to feel the environment while high accuracy GPS helps the car to ensure it is on the right track.
“We see this as a power amplifier, not a job,” Emerick said. “It has some physicality, so bringing new instruments actually opens the aperture to more people so that they can actually do the job.”
The Cosmic robot can put a panel within a few millimeters from where it should be. Workers notice the robot, guaranteeing that everything looks just before attaching the panel to the trunk.
The goal is not only to lighten the load, but also to accelerate things. Emerick said the Cosmic robot could allow a standard crew to be divided into two, double the amount of solar panels that can be installed in one day.
Currently, the Cosmic robot, called Cosmic-1A, can install one panel every 30 to 40 seconds, which is approximately as fast as the fastest human installers. But the robot does not get tired so easily, which allows it to continue with this pace for a long time. Workers can still make their usual breaks, but there is not so much stay of exhaustion.
By the end of the year, Cosmic plans to use their new funding to produce several robots and make them work in production environments, Emerick said.
The mechanical pair of auxiliary hands is likely to be welcomed by developers of data centers that have been haste to provide electric supplies before the quick search for search. Solar is the winner In the race for power centers because it is already cheap and quick to deploy. Adding automation to solar construction sites would give the solar energy another impetus.
“There is something new announced every day with data centers and energy production,” Emerick said. “The speed of implementation is all that really matters. You just can’t build these things fast enough, you can’t enter online enough online.
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