Skolkovo’s grant committee has approved a 5 million ruble minigrant for IT cluster resident KB Avrora after the robot developer won the Robocross-2014 unmanned vehicle competition last June, according to company director Stanislav Gol.
The KB Avrova team. Photo: KB Avrova
The startup will use the money to develop software that will control a mobile robot on various rigs - and employ a “follow me” regime on all manner of surfaces and in all sorts of weather.
The technology can be used to meet growing demand for autopilot test platforms, Gol says.
“The existing control systems for autonomous vehicles are very expensive in terms of measurement and computing power,” he said. “Lots of teams of developers of robot cars experience difficulties with debugging the software system in real conditions. Today, the demand that’s accumulated for conducting experimental runs is not being met by sufficient supply due to the high costs of conducting a single experiment.”
“The many potential clients for autopilot systems note the huge delays and high cost of developing a unique autopilot,” he said.
KB Avrora’s universal software to help the robot move lowers the cost of test runs. Gol added.
“Universal, cognitive control software … allows customers to move away from the R&D approach of developing a unique autopilot and turn toward the more effective model of training a universal autopilot,” he said.
Skolkovo’s chief roboticist Albert Efimov noted of KB Avrorva: “This is a strong, well-prepared team and leader in its field – that’s why the Skolkovo Foundation is supporting its work in any way possible.”