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https://reneweconomy.com.au/chinese-robot-does-job-of-three-to-four-humans-installing-thousands-of-panels-at-australian-solar-project/>
"A Chinese tech company says it has completed its first solar module mounting
contract with an AI-controlled robot in Australia, helping to carve 25 per cent
off the project delivery time, and doing the job of three to four humans.
The Chinese company Leapting says its Litian Intelligent robot was deployed at
Neoen’s Culcairn solar farm in NSW – where it installed 10,000 solar modules at
its first commercial deployment, and it has hailed the effort as a success.
Work started in February with imagery showing the machine lifting panels
weighing up to 30 kilograms from a stack and placing them gently into a
bracket.
The 2.5m high robotic arm sits on a self-guided, self-propelled crawler that is
equipped with a navigation system, and visual recognition technology so it can
adapt to different terrain and environmental conditions, and multi-modal 3D
sensors to ensure the panel goes in the right place.
“The installation efficiency has increased by 3-5 times compared to manual
operations,” Leapting said.
Leapting was founded in 2022 in Shanghai and builds smart cleaning tech for
solar panels and the installation robot. It is not the only company doing this
however: venture capital tracking site Traxn says there are 117 active
competitors in this market, including Kyocera, Trina Solar and Suntech Power.
The idea behind building a robot to install panels in large solar farms is to
address the challenges of scale and distance, the cost of labour, and – in a
country like Australia – heat."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
