While robotic technology has been widely used by big manufacturing companies to increase productivity, the high cost of getting started means many smaller businesses have yet to take advantage of its huge potential. However, Inovo Robotics, a Hong Kong-based technology start-up, is working to solve this problem.
“We found that there is such a big disconnect to the market for small businesses to be able to benefit from affordable and flexible robots,” he says. “There are a lot of businesses that are struggling to get staff to do monotonous tasks, so what we’re developing is really a tool that enables them to take away repetitive work.”
Disrupting traditional industries
One of the applications of the robotic arms has seen them used around the clock to carry out repetitive tasks that help grow high-quality, pollution-free vegetables at a futuristic farm in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district.
The farm, operated by indoor farming company Farm66 since 2018, is located inside a 20,000-square-foot (1,860-square-metre) factory building. The use of the robotic arms to automatically sow seeds and harvest plants helps the farm to produce up to 200 tonnes of organic fresh produce, including cherry tomatoes, cabbage and basil, which is sold online and delivered to the city’s supermarkets and restaurants.
“Robots really improve the efficiency and speed of the products that are being made,” Cheung says. “In this competitive world, there is always a desire to drive costs down.”
Read more at South China Morning Post