Silicon Valley Award Mobotech NZ as Australasia’s Best International Robotic Start-Up of 2015

Robot Launch is an international startup competition designed specifically to showcase the emerging robotics technology. Mobotech, an Auckland based start-up company, not only took out the Australasian award but were also voted finalist runners up.

Robot Launch attracted a diverse range of entries that show just how quickly the business of robotics is maturing. Narrowed down from almost 100 robotics startups from around the world, the 15 finalists represent 16 countries. “We are extremely impressed with the quality of the finalists!” said Andra Keay the organizer of the San Francisco event.

Mobotech’s entry, a smart crate transfer vehicle that autonomously shuttles fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) through their supply chains. Steve Haythorne, Founder & CEO of Mobotech said that “in FMCG industries, such as fresh bread and milk, fast daily resupply is essential. Until now this has relied heavily on manual labour using 200 year old dolly and handbarrow technology.

Mobile Robotics are the future of supply chains. Armed with RFID scanners, sensors and connected to cloud based technologies they will autonomously load and unload trucks with exactly the right loads. The Mobot, as Steve calls his patented invention, could eventually shuttle goods all the way from their point of manufacture, through the supply chain and forward to the designated Supermarket shelf.

“It’s not about chasing humans out of the warehouse, it’s about repurposing skilled labour to more valuable customer service and decision making functions” said Andrew Graham, Mobotech’s CTO. Andrew, previously Co-Founder of ENRO and R&D Manager with Crown Forklifts, said that there are quite a few Companies vying to break into the US$30 Billion global robotics market “and Mobotech is about to crack it in Logistics.”