Acuity Robotics was one of the Innovation Martlesham companies that exhibited and pitched to the BT Robotics Festival in November 2022. Our robots were also seen on the Showcase tours and now have a permanent presence.
Acuity Robotics at the BT Showcase
The Festival provided an opportunity for our two robots, Squirrel and Stoat, to be seen in action along with the opportunity to see our image and data capture capabilities, as well as provide the opportunity for lucky delegates, including BT Sport’s Craig Doyle, to pilot the robots themselves. “As easy as playing a game on my X-Box’ was one piece of feedback which is great to hear if these robots are to be used easily and by many people who have to inspect infrastructure day in day out.
Click here to read more and to watch Craig in action!
Acuity Robotics was also part of the ‘Shark Tank’ pitch where we had 10 minutes to pitch the value of their proposition to our market and to potential investors and then take questions from the audience. Whilst Craig (Doyle) described the robots as the ‘cutest’ robots he had seen, it was feedback from technology veteran, John Stenhouse, from the Research and Enterprise team at the University of Essex who commented; “I attended the Shark Tank this morning and this (the robot Squirrel) is one device that really impressed me. I think it has a great future in so many applications.”
Read more about the ‘Shark Tank’ pitch session by clicking here and watch the pitch by clicking this link.
Craig Doyle with Robot Squirrel
An interesting part of live events is that you never know who you are going to meet and it also gives you the opportunity to see other products and services in action. The Robotics Festival was no exception. A number of people visited the Acuity Robotics stand and asked if they had had any engagement with industries that they could see a practical application for these small, untethered robots. These included the nuclear industry, horse racing, BT Sport rugby and a distributor who works closely with global research organisations.
“As a start-up it is so energising to meet people who see applications for a technology that has recently been developed and is at the start of its commercialisation journey.” Matthew Hopkinson, Acuity Robotics
So whilst we might have got used to remote communication via Teams and Zoom for the past two years as a result of Covid, it is no substitute for in person activities especially for those new businesses who have the potential to transform our economy and society.
Want to get in touch? Please contact Matthew, Commercial and Data Insights Lead, Acuity Robotics [email protected]
You might find this podcast with Matthew useful too.
