RoboWeek: Inside America's Solar Robotics Revolution with Nico Johnson

[00:00:00]I'm Nico Johnson with Suncast Media.

[00:00:01]We're live on site at the home of FTC's Solar Star facility. It's their research and application facility where we have been privileged to watch some of the leading robotics manufacturers >> [music] >> display their wares what I call a bake-off kind of a robot rodeo right here in Texas.

[00:00:26]>> [music] >> Our goal here is >> Today is just uh throw some glass and show the capabilities of Cosmic 1.

[00:00:34]>> So, our first robot [music] here we have a solar panel installation robot. So, this is designed for industrial solar farms um where we're able to come in and have one operator uh managing the robot. Um we have a set of forks here so we can come up to stage pallets of solar panels and pick them up and then we're able to pick and place them on the rails down the torque tube.

[00:00:53]>> So, we've been in solar for 20 years.

[00:00:55]So, uh we've been burying cable with very specially equipment protecting the cable. And about 5 years ago we started the module. We were approached by one of our customers and they're recognizing the labor shortages and then the weight of the new modules. They were getting a lot of soft tissue injuries with their guys. [music] They weren't able to keep them on the site. So, they wanted something to help with their safety and then if we could pick up efficiency that'd be great.

[00:01:21]>> [music] >> Our system is a material delivery autonomous vehicle >> [music] >> and the way that it works is you choose a holding area and a shakeout location and it will autonomously drive itself over here.

[00:01:38]>> We literally took the technology we had in the ground robot and put it on the skid. So, as long as you have 12 V power which all machines do, you're good to go. You see it beeping [music] and the blue light means it's autonomous mode. And the radar just detected him so it stopped.

[00:01:52]>> Oh, nice.

[00:01:53]>> What we have here is our robot Gravion.

[00:01:55]It does electrical cable pulling out on solar sites, so whether it's above ground DC or right in the trench in DC, we pull it out for customers. Way cheaper, way safer, way faster.

[00:02:08]>> What what what we're trying to do is we try to do everything and we try to turn a lot of steps into the fully automated. So, right now we do transportation. So, it carries the solar panels from where it's dropped off and send it to our installation robots. And our installation robots will be placing the panels onto the racks and doing alignment and make sure that eventually our fastening robots will be able to pick it up and fasten the fasten it [music] down.

[00:02:36]>> I couldn't feel more proud of being the CEO of FTC today. Here we had six amazing companies not just join us, but showcase their products, [music] their projects, talk about the path, talk about the success, talk about the failures, talk about the learning. When companies come together [music] and we learn from each other, this is how we build forward. We need the industry, the manufacturers, the partners, the robotic companies to come together and bring true solutions for the future of the industry. And today, today was a milestone for that journey.

[00:03:11]>> Thank you to FTC for inviting us out.

[00:03:13]Anthony Carroll and Andrew Morse were so creative in the way that this event came together and I really believe as a rising tide raises all boats, this event is going to be one that you won't want [music] to miss next year. We've got a lot of clips from the robotics manufacturers, but also some of the world-class EPCs who were also here present validating that the robotics revolution is upon us. Stay tuned.