Issue 37 Unmanned Systems Technology April/May 2021 Einride next-gen Pod l Battery technology l Dive Technologies AUV-Kit l UGVs insight l Vanguard EFI/ETC vee twins l Icarus Swarms l Transponders l Sonobot 5 l IDEX 2021 report

54 Insight | UGVs “The awareness bubble increases and reduces in size depending on the situation,” Curtis explains. “For example, at a busy road crossing the bubble might have a radius of more than 200 m owing to the radars understanding the speed and trajectory of passing cars. “On a pavement though, the bubble might have a radius of only 3-4 m, where the ultrasonic sensors or cameras are picking up any potential moving or static obstacles it encounters en route.” The UGVs are charged overnight when not in use, and the batteries typically last all day. The company estimates that the use of its UGV as opposed to conventional ICE-powered road vehicles has saved at least 403 US tons (365.6 t) of CO 2 over its operations. More than a million commercial deliveries have been carried out and several million miles of operating distance accumulated by Starship’s vehicles. Curtis notes that the service is now operational across the US, the UK, Estonia, Germany and Denmark. In the US for example, the states of Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Texas have given approval for Starship to carry out its autonomous deliveries statewide. Curtis adds that new locations are likely to be announced later this year. And although the system is designed and built at the moment by Starship, it anticipates using outside contractors to build the UGVs in the future as the company’s projections for scaling up and expanding are realised. Disinfection As previously discussed in this magazine (regarding Transforma Robotics’ XDBOT, UST 33, August/September 2020), Singapore’s ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown policies spurred many of the Lion City’s engineers to work rapidly on UGV solutions that could curb the spread of Covid-19. While looking for ways to do that, the developers at PBA Robotics took particular note of reports that germicidal lamps emitting UV light at wavelengths of 200- 290 nm (termed UV-C) were being used in China to disinfect buses. The company also knew this technique is being used in hospitals, with UV-C killing 99.9999% of bacteria and viruses. It therefore conceived the idea to mount Amalgam UV-C LEDs on its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to perform automated disinfection. “From the prototype to development, it took us only a few months or so to launch the Sunburst UV Bot,” explains Derrick Yap, CEO of PBA Robotics. “That speed was aided by our previous history in producing AMRs in-house here in Singapore for various end-uses, and our r&d facilities are also based here.” Powered by PBA’s proprietary motion control and direct-drive technology, the Sunburst UV Bot autonomously navigates through rooms and corridors, using its LEDs to rapidly destroy virus DNA, including any that are airborne, in a 360 º arc. As with the company’s previous AMRs, the Sunburst UV Bot uses Lidar as its primary means of navigation, perception and obstacle detection. The range measurements from it are fused with inertial data from an onboard IMU and speed data from wheel encoders to output reliable path estimates for navigating through indoor spaces. After a single mapping session, the Bot is able to plan its work operations and movements, and execute them autonomously. PBA’s fleet management software is available for monitoring and synchronising multiple AMRs from a single interface. The Sunburst UV Bot’s movements are calibrated such that there is a stable acceleration and deceleration profile, to prevent any swaying movement of the UV payload. The lamps are fitted at the top of the robot. Additional sensors are included with the company’s proprietary integrated April/May 2021 | Unmanned Systems Technology PBA Robotics’ Sunburst UV Bot uses UV light to rapidly destroy viruses and bacteria (Courtesy of PBA Robotics) Transforma Robotics is developing a UGV for automated painting and coating tasks, in partnership with Haulotte Singapore (Courtesy of Transforma Robotics)