1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,559
Speaker 1: Robotic Plus is a key we company developing AI powered

2
00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:06,440
Speaker 1: autonomous vehicles. It's being brought out by Yamaha Motors. No less,

3
00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,119
Speaker 1: these are orchard specific machines that peck and spray and

4
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,119
Speaker 1: prune and stuff any. Robotic Plus founder and CEO Steve

5
00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,400
Speaker 1: Saunders is with the Steve morning.

6
00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:17,000
Speaker 2: Ning Mike, how are you very well?

7
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,600
Speaker 1: Thank you? Was this the dream to start something small

8
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:21,360
Speaker 1: and have somebody big come along and write you a

9
00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:21,919
Speaker 1: nice check?

10
00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 2: It's more purpose driven, Mike, about you know, solving solving

11
00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,600
Speaker 2: you know, a global issue and you know, we really

12
00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,680
Speaker 2: wanted to show that we could develop tech in New

13
00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,320
Speaker 2: Zealand that was got globally irrelevant and scalable, and so

14
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:40,879
Speaker 2: you know, it is it is, It's part of a

15
00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:44,240
Speaker 2: vision and it grows on to be a bigger vision.

16
00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: What happens to you now? Do you stay with that

17
00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:48,479
Speaker 1: broader company or help them out or go on to

18
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:49,600
Speaker 1: something completely different?

19
00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,279
Speaker 2: No, I'm staying on for a while. I mean, you know,

20
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,200
Speaker 2: yesterday was was was the announcement of that acquisition of

21
00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:01,720
Speaker 2: Robotics Plus, but it was also the announcement of Yamaha Agriculture.

22
00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,200
Speaker 2: And it's sort of like we're you know, the excitement

23
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,959
Speaker 2: now is, you know, how do we take robotics pluses

24
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,920
Speaker 2: at the heart of m agriculture strategy And now it's

25
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:17,119
Speaker 2: on to grow even larger ag tech company via Yamaha Agriculture.

26
00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,040
Speaker 2: So some exciting times ahead for us.

27
00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,400
Speaker 1: Where does the AI differentiate from the robotics Because I've

28
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:24,640
Speaker 1: seen robotics when you're going up and down a row

29
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:27,200
Speaker 1: or whatever, you can be robotic. What what does the

30
00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 1: AI do to enhance that process?

31
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,720
Speaker 2: It's really it's it's really how it senses where it

32
00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:38,520
Speaker 2: is in the environment. So you know, you can do

33
00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,080
Speaker 2: robotics by training training the machine to drive up and

34
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:45,480
Speaker 2: down the road. This this machine drives intelligently, so it

35
00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 2: recognizes its its environment and can you know, work its

36
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,240
Speaker 2: way through through all sorts of various situations. And it

37
00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:56,680
Speaker 2: also through the sensors we're collecting data, we're doing a

38
00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,040
Speaker 2: whole lot of a lot of other things. So real

39
00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:00,040
Speaker 2: time sensing.

40
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,640
Speaker 1: That log scrapy you've got, which is a similar tech

41
00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,720
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, but a completely different looking machine. Is is

42
00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,040
Speaker 1: it broader? You can take the basics of what this

43
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,840
Speaker 1: thing does and turn it into any sort of machine

44
00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:13,080
Speaker 1: or not.

45
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the you know, what we've really developed

46
00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,400
Speaker 2: as robotics plus is just a lot of really smart

47
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 2: technology around, you know, machine learning and vision systems and so,

48
00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:29,920
Speaker 2: you know, it's just how you can figure it for

49
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,360
Speaker 2: different situations. So in the case of the log scaler,

50
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,079
Speaker 2: we can you know, we scale, We scale trucks full

51
00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:39,080
Speaker 2: of logs or trains full of logs. Is that they

52
00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 2: drive in. We scan everything, We download all the geosmetric

53
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,400
Speaker 2: measurements and upload it into the into the into the

54
00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:47,120
Speaker 2: data system.

55
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:49,720
Speaker 1: How many people are because I can't I've seen your

56
00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:52,239
Speaker 1: machine before, I don't know that it is your machine.

57
00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:54,560
Speaker 1: Whether there are there other players in this market doing

58
00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:55,400
Speaker 1: this sort of thing or not.

59
00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's there's always players in the market. There's

60
00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:04,480
Speaker 2: there's there's number of different players with different approaches. So

61
00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,200
Speaker 2: I guess you know, our approach has been around developing

62
00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,840
Speaker 2: a hybrid technology. So you know, we don't think battery

63
00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:15,200
Speaker 2: technology is quite there for long operational hours, so we

64
00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:19,160
Speaker 2: just use a diesel engine to generate power. The rest

65
00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,440
Speaker 2: of the machine is total electric, so one tank of

66
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,200
Speaker 2: diesel can operate on an orchard for twenty four hours.

67
00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,840
Speaker 2: We use seventy percent less fuel, so you know, we're

68
00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 2: really heading towards that, you know, full sustainability and decarbonization.

69
00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:36,280
Speaker 2: But the battery tech's got a little way to go

70
00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,000
Speaker 2: to be able to operate a machine of that size,

71
00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,080
Speaker 2: driving and implement for long hours.

72
00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:45,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting times. Go well with that, Steve. Congratulations Steve Saunders.

73
00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:47,920
Speaker 1: I mean you've got to start small. Next thing, Yamaha

74
00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 1: has Knocking at the Door Robotics plus CEO. Look it up.

75
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,720
Speaker 1: Look at their Website's quite interesting what they do, and

76
00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:54,880
Speaker 1: I think this is the future of that sort of tech.

77
00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: And you see it in buses and things with the

78
00:03:57,240 --> 00:03:59,560
Speaker 1: A to B something that can go A to B,

79
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,280
Speaker 1: BA to B that's where your drivers take you. All

80
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,840
Speaker 1: of that sort of thing. I think that's the future.

81
00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:07,320
Speaker 1: Getting it on the city roads and stuff I think

82
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:08,360
Speaker 1: is going nowhere fast.

83
00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,760
Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

84
00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:14,920
Speaker 2: news Talks at b from six am weekdays, or follow

85
00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:16,480
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.