Quick recap

The Robotics Working Group meeting on June 13th welcomed new members and featured a presentation from Hamid of Vertical Data, who introduced their AI deployment solutions and V-box for vision technology. The group discussed various agricultural robotics projects and initiatives, including updates on robot deployments, funding opportunities, and upcoming events. The meeting covered technical presentations on GPU architectures and vision accelerators, while also touching on industry collaborations and new hiring developments in the robotics sector.

Next steps

• Dan Woods to post Hamid's contact information in the chat for attendees.

• Dan Woods to connect with Cesar later regarding new technologies being shown at the Simco Demo Day.

• Dan Woods to include information and link for Bio Enterprise's Sustainable Growth and Adoption Program on next week's agenda.

• Attendees interested in the Vineland in-person meeting to register on Eventbrite for both the morning session and the afternoon Critical Technology Demo Day.

• Interested parties to reach out to Jana regarding the robot production manager position at Upside Robotics.

• Joe to send Donna Boyd's vCard to Jana for potential manufacturing contacts.

• Dan Woods to add Taylor's shared funding opportunity link to next week's agenda.

• Dan Woods to add Lisa's information about Sendgen's funded program for agriculture and robotics testing to the agenda.

Summary

Robotics Working Group New Members

The Robotics Working Group meeting on June 13th welcomed new members, including Corey from Global Growing Solutions and Sherri from Sask Polytech, who introduced their interests in automation and agricultural innovation. Dan Woods facilitated the meeting and introduced Hamid from Vertical Data, who presented on the V-box for vision, though technical difficulties with video presentation were experienced.

AI Deployment Solutions Overview

Hamid, the head of technology at Vertical Data, presented his company's end-to-end AI deployment solutions. He explained that Vertical Data helps enterprises implement AI strategies by providing hardware, data centers, and managed services. Hamid highlighted the growing market for AI and the challenges of deploying models in data centers. He then introduced Vertical Data's solution for HPC and AI, which addresses the issues of scalability, cost, and performance in traditional GPU deployments.

Scalable GPU Architecture Overview

Hamid explained a new scalable GPU architecture that improves performance and energy efficiency by connecting multiple GPUs via PCIe instead of the previous 8-card limit. The architecture allows for 64 GPUs in a single system, offering 30-35% more performance for training compared to previous solutions, while requiring less energy and data center space. The technology is vendor-agnostic, allowing for integration of any PCIe-based cards, and comes with implementation services for hardware procurement and deployment.

Edge Computing Vision Accelerator

Hamid presented Vbox for Vision, a custom accelerator developed by Furyosa.ai, a Korean company with US headquarters. The product addresses energy efficiency, speed, and availability challenges for edge computing applications, offering various form factors and low-power consumption through its NPU-based TSMC chip running at 1GHz. The solution supports vision-based models like YOLOS and provides up to 48GB memory with PCIe Gen 4/5 compatibility, suitable for applications in autonomous vehicles, agriculture, and other industries requiring ruggedized enclosures.

Agricultural PCIe Technology Solution Overview

Hamid presented a solution for agricultural technology that uses PCIe cards for various applications like sorting nuts, quality control, and disease detection. He explained that the system is scalable, low-power, and can be virtualized, with cards costing around $1,000 each. When asked about expanding to include multiple sensor modalities, Hamid confirmed that a solution supporting multimodal AI and transformers is being prepared for release by Q1 2026.

Upcoming Events and Registration Details

The group discussed upcoming events, including an in-person meeting at the Vineland Research Station on June 20th at 10 AM and a separate registration for the afternoon's critical technology demo day. Dan Woods reminded attendees to register for both events if attending both. Garson highlighted the ASABE decennial meeting in Toronto, emphasizing its focus on topics like mechatronics, robotics, and IoT sensing. Dan confirmed that next week's in-person meeting would be live-streamed on Zoom for those unable to attend in person.

Tech Updates and Robotics Showcase

Dan Woods confirmed that several new technologies will be showcased at this year's event, including the participation of Upside Robotics. He also mentioned that there are no new funding announcements but shared information about Bio enterprise launching round 2 of the sustainable growth and adoption program for Southern Ontario's food and agri-food tech business. Dan Ganousis provided an update on AMD hiring the engineering team of Untethered, noting that while some assets were acquired, the company will not continue with the products, leading to the departure of sales and operational staff. Jason shared his experience setting up robots, particularly the Burro, for field use, explaining its role in moving materials in vineyards and nurseries, and mentioned its integration with Intelliculture units for tracking and performance monitoring.

Agricultural Robotics Collaboration Updates

The meeting covered updates on various projects and initiatives in the agriculture and robotics sectors. Hamid shared insights on the previous collaboration with Untether and mentioned potential opportunities for the team. Yassine discussed the importance of low-power inference cards and their impact on research. Joe provided updates on the progress of apple orchard robots and mentioned upcoming presentations at Simco Demo Day. Jana highlighted the current busy period for Upside Robotics and invited participants to visit their locations. Dan Woods outlined upcoming speakers and events, including presentations from Haggerty Agrobotics, Studica Robotics, and FCC. Taylor introduced a new funding opportunity through Fed Dev Ontario, and Lisa Klimstra mentioned Sendgen's program for testing and validation of agricultural robotics equipment. The conversation ended with a reminder about the upcoming in-person meeting in Vineland.