Oxford University is spinning out Oxbotica to exploit robotics and autonomous vehicle technology.
Oxford University is spinning out Oxbotica, which is set to commercialise research at the Department of Engineering Science. The new company will seek to bring robotics and autonomous systems technologies to market which have been developed at the department’s Oxford Mobile Robotics Group.
Technologies developed by the mobile robotics group which could enter the market through Oxbotica are robotic survey systems for roads and railways, low-speed driverless pods for urban transport and a robot electric car. The group has also created Mars rovers.
Ingmar Posner and Paul Newman, both professors at the mobile robotics group, are setting up the company which will be led by Graeme Smith as chief executive. Smith has a long career in the automotive industry, with over a decade’s worth of experience working for Ford and most recently Ricardo and Bolder Vision, where he worked extensively on autonomous vehicles.
Ingmar Posner, co-founder of Oxbotica, said: “We believe that Oxford University’s robotics expertise can transform a wide spectrum of application domains. Our intended markets range from devices that survey our roads, buildings and chemical plants to autonomous systems for warehouse logistics and, of course, autonomous driving.”
