Unmanned Systems Technology 015 | Martin UAV V-Bat | William Sachiti | Sonar Systems | USVs | Desert Aircraft DA150 EFI | SeaCat AUV/ROV | Gimbals

20 In conversation | William Sachiti sportscar maker Pilgrim Motorsports. “Pilgrim’s big advantage for us is that they let us build in-house so we can prototype quickly,” Sachiti says, “so it made sense to use something more handmade. Only when we do a big run of more than 1000 will we look to automate it.” The workshop, in Brighton on the south coast of England, now forms the main operation for the Academy, with the headquarters in Aberystwyth. The university there provided the seed money, and Sachiti is now raising money for several prototypes. All this is just the starting point in a number of ways. “Last-mile delivery is a solid industry that will help us the most, but there is tremendous value beyond it. If we have 100 cars on the roads performing 1.6 million scans per second, that creates a very valuable data pool,” he says. “[Consultancy] McKinsey predicts that over the next ten years autonomous car data will be worth $1.5 trillion. For example, imagine if I can tell you the state of every road in a given county in England, and where potholes are forming, and produce a simple report that cuts the resurfacing bill. That’s a small example – it’s not what we are doing, but it demonstrates the opportunity.” Sachiti is planning to sell the autonomous vehicle platform to retailers who need to compete with internet giants such as Amazon. “We are starting with a few retailers who have this problem. We are a tech company building tech for delivery companies to plug into their existing logistics.” He is also planning a range of autonomous ground vehicles based on the chassis, from the Twizy-sized version to a larger car, possibly refrigerated, and a mobility scooter. Future mobility “We are now building the Twizy-sized car – the next one will be a smaller one for both pavement and road. I have a couple of guys working on switching from driving on 60 mph dual carriageways to 4 mph on pavements up to the door, so we are looking to do a vehicle that can do all this.” That would be based on the design of a type of mobility vehicle called an invalid carriage that can travel on main roads as well as pavements, but it has to be a certain size to be registered for use on the road. “Once it gets off the pavement it switches mode to act as a standard car,” he says. There is even a plan for long-distance deliveries using a balloon system. “We were looking at this as part of a PhD,” he says. “How far up do you have to go to use the Earth’s spin and come down somewhere else? If you do the sums right it gives you cross-country delivery. We are looking at airships for that, but that’s an area of experimentation.” Back on the roads, he points to a parallel with the first cars. “The first cars came out in 1846. They were called self- propelled vehicles, and regulations [in England] said that a man with a red flag had to walk in front. In the meantime, France and Germany built their car industries. “Those who win in this space will be the ones who make the right corporate and business partners from the start, adding what they do to what we do, so it’s a matter of getting on with it now.” With the financial backing, his Kar- go delivery vehicles will be seen on UK streets by the end of 2017. “I can produce the car to operate on the street in three months, and a couple more months to get it to drive better, but I have pretty much everything I need right now,” he says. August/September 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology William Sachiti, CEO of Academy of Robotics, is a serial technology entrepreneur. Starting out with a degree in business analysis from the London School of Economics, he was an investment trader and field consultant with BT before setting up an internet start-up in 2007. He then moved on to found Clever Bins in 2008, which developed a solar-powered advertising system to go on rubbish bins, licensing the technology to companies in 11 countries before the intellectual property was acquired by a larger company. The Academy of Robotics was set up in June 2014 with seed funding from the University of Aberystwyth in Wales, where Sachiti was studying AI and robotics. AI controller: Nvidia Battery and motors: Renault (Nissan Leaf) Chassis: in-house Hybrid camera sensors: in-house Manufacturing: Pilgrim Motorsports William Sachiti Key suppliers for the Kar-go William Sachiti, CEO and founder of the Academy of Robotics