Renu Robotics, a San Antonio-based autonomous robotics company, will showcase its industrial autonomous mowing platform at eMERGE Americas in Miami this May as a featured company with SBIR Advisors at Booth 557. The company's third-generation robot, originally designed for utility-scale solar farms, addresses extreme heat, safety hazards and labor shortages that make traditional mowing impractical.
Founded in 2018 by Tim Matus, Renu Robotics developed an autonomous vegetation management solution that now serves both civilian and military markets. The robot stands 28 inches tall, spans a 64-inch cutting deck across a 10-foot platform and operates at three to five miles per hour using LIDAR, cameras and AI-powered Human-Animal-Vehicle (HAV) detection for safe autonomous operation. Through its partnership with SBIR Advisors, Renu Robotics has secured multiple Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 SBIR awards, funding critical technology advances including LTE GPS RTK corrections that eliminate the need for complex on-site signal infrastructure, and tower communication systems that enable the robot to operate near active military runways.
"When we can find help in grant funding to build the technology and then use it in other markets, it really is helpful," said Matus. "The key is how you communicate with people in the military to understand the need for the use case on the commercial side as well." The dual-use platform demonstrates how commercial technology can be adapted for defense applications, a growing trend in the robotics industry.
Attendees can see the Renu Robotics unit in action during eMERGE Americas Demo Day and throughout the conference at the Garage, a new hands-on exhibition space on the conference floor. Matus and members of the Renu Robotics engineering team will be available for conversations and live demonstrations. "There's no better feel for a product and what it can do than when you see it on the ground and moving around," said Matus. "Your mind will start flowing into what this can do differently and how we take people out of the process and put machines in place to solve real issues."
Renu Robotics is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and builds autonomous vegetation management platforms for the solar energy, military and infrastructure sectors. The company's technology integrates LIDAR, computer vision and AI-based safety systems to deliver unmanned mowing operations in hazardous and hard-to-staff environments. For more information, visit renurobotics.com.
