How can autonomous mobile robots help Australia, the heart of macadamia nuts, regain its position as the world's largest producer? And what do Husarion Panther UGV platforms have to do with it? As it turns out, quite a lot!

The Australian macadamia industry, facing many hurdles and challenges, has been overtaken by South Africa. Macadamia nuts are indigenous to Australia. Now, Australia has about 18-20% market share. Addressing the problem of food loss during harvesting, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) developed a cutting-edge solution using the Husarion Panther UGV platform. This innovation aims to transform macadamia harvesting using advanced robotics to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

What inspired this RMIT project, and what technical challenges will they overcome? Dive into the details of this journey and the promising future of automated macadamia nut harvesting. 👇🏻

We are excited to announce the beta release of the ROS 2 Humble driver for the Panther UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), which brings new features designed to improve real-time performance, provide better control of hardware components, and offer advanced diagnostic monitoring. In this blog post, we’ll highlight the key advantages of the ROS 2 driver compared to its predecessor, with a focus on improvements in communication, integration with side frameworks, and the introduction of new features.

Continue reading to explore the key features of the Panther ROS 2 driver, including:

• Full control of robot hardware components through the robust ros2_control framework.
• Optimization for a real-time Linux kernel, ensuring enhanced performance.
• Advanced safety features and state management powered by BehaviorTree.
• A refined Gazebo simulation with easy robot configuration management.

Selecting the ideal battery for your mobile robot is crucial for optimizing its performance and longevity. This guide delves into the various types of batteries used in robotics, comparing their characteristics and suitability for different applications. From small mobile robots to larger autonomous systems and drones, understanding the right power source can significantly enhance your robot's efficiency and reliability. Read on to discover practical advice and insights on choosing the best battery for your robotic needs.

European Robotics Forum, held annually in various vibrant European cities, stands as one of the most influential robotics events in Europe, bringing together researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers to discuss the latest advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the field of robotics.

This year, Husarion proudly showcased its well-proven robust mobile robotic platforms - Panther and ROSbot XL - at ERF 2024 in Rimini, Italy, captivating a broad audience of European robotics professionals and innovators.

If you didn’t have a chance to meet us in person, make sure to check out the short description of the solutions we presented and take a look at the video from our booth. And if you have any questions about our solutions, don’t hesitate to drop us an email at contact@husarion.com.

Like many other robotics companies, we use Docker to package and deploy ROS software in our robots. While Docker served us well, its complexities and constraints began impacting our ability to scale and secure our software deployments efficiently. We needed a more streamlined solution.

This blog presents the journey we took exploring snaps as a deployment infrastructure. We wrote this blog to help others facing the same challenges with Docker, and to show how you can take the first steps towards an improved deployment infrastructure and a more security-compliant approach.

Autonomous navigation with real-time traffic analysis, supported by 5G technology and applied to the spacious mobile robot based on Husarion Panther. This is the combination that - starting from next year - will allow the myLOG system to deliver purchased goods right to the door of Strausberg residents, enabling them to order from local shops with door-to-door service.

Whizzy, as this is the name of an autonomous delivery robot developed by the consortium, has recently successfully completed its first test drive in the wild, demonstrating its capabilities and generating enthusiastic media coverage.

What is the motivation behind this project and what major challenges are yet to be faced by the platform constructors?

There is no greener industry than agriculture, right? While this claim may seem intuitive, current data reveals that land use related to agriculture contributes to as much as 10% of global CO2 emissions. With the escalating global climate crisis, the need to reduce agricultural emissions has become more pressing than ever.

But what if instead of drastically limiting emissions, we could just use the natural process of photosynthesis to address the challenge and actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere? Plants inherently capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, and the carbon they trap can be transformed into soil organic carbon - a phenomenon known as carbon sequestration.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are used nowadays in a wide variety of applications, exploring zones affected by natural disasters, surveilling, or transporting packages in urban areas. While drones provide opportunities previously unavailable, such as the ability to easily traverse rough terrain, quickly and efficiently explore unknown areas, and possess excellent communication capabilities, they also come with their own limitations. UAVs have a reduced flight time due to low battery capacity and cannot carry heavy payloads, including more powerful computers, heavy sensors, or manipulators.

These constraints can be overcome by developing cooperation between drones and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), which offer higher payload and battery capacity. Simultaneously, UGVs can benefit from drones' greater range of sensors and higher traversability of difficult terrain. In scenarios where the drone and mobile robot cooperate to map and navigate unknown terrain, there is potential for achieving much higher efficiency in specific tasks, creating a whole new realm of possible applications.

Husarion Panther is a heavy-duty, autonomous mobile robotic platform designed to perform in the most challenging applications. We want to allow our clients to concentrate on developing their innovative solutions based on Panther without wasting unnecessary time figuring out how to handle our robot or integrate it with external components. That’s why our developers work hard to ensure that your experience with Panther is smooth, safe, and intuitive, allowing you to start working with our robot right away.

With the latest release of Panther ROS Driver v1.1.0, we have introduced a bunch of new features to enhance user experience and safety, including:

• A new panther_manager based on BehaviorTree.CPP, which allows you to easily control the robot’s behavior in real-time and debug it on a visual interface.
• A velocity smoother for better control of the robot’s movement and an extended Kalman filter configuration for improved odometry information.
• Enhanced reporting on battery state and efficient handling of hardware-related errors based on the compatibility with the robot’s predefined configuration.

This fall, Husarion is excited to exhibit and engage in an idea exchange during the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023) in Detroit, USA.

Held from October 1-5, IROS is a forum for the international robotics research community, emphasizing future directions and the latest approaches, designs, and outcomes. The theme of IROS 2023, “The Next Generation of Robotics,” will be reflected in plenary and keynote talks, workshops, tutorials, forums, competitions, tours, technical sessions, and… exhibitor stands.

Drop by our booth 418 to see our products in action:

• Panther - an industrial grade outdoor AMR, this time with a docking station and a web user interface in Foxglove,
• ROSbot XL - a universal, ROS 2-native mobile robot platform, showcasing autonomous mapping & navigation and mobile manipulation with OpenMANIPULATOR-X,
• Husarnet - a low-latency peer-to-peer VPN for next gen robotic fleets.