Husqvarna invests in Angsa Robotics, seeks to expand innovation in green space management

Husqvarna Group has announced an investment in Angsa Robotics, a Munich, Germany-based startup that focuses on automated waste collection in green spaces. The investment by Husqvarna Ventures – the company’s corporate venture-capital arm – aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of Angsa’s robotics platform, the company reports.

Angsa Robotics is developing an autonomous solution designed to provide a cost-efficient, ecologically friendly and AI-adaptive robot for waste collection in green spaces. With its ability to navigate autonomously, detect obstacles and collect litter, Angsa Robotics’ technology offers another opportunity within green space management.

“Husqvarna Ventures sees significant potential in Angsa Robotics’ unique solution for automating waste collection in green spaces,” says Mark Johnson, head of Husqvarna Ventures. “By investing at an early stage, Husqvarna can contribute to the development of Angsa’s innovative technology and collaborate around potential future product offerings. This investment aligns perfectly with our strategy to explore new complementary robotics applications and address the evolving needs of commercial green space management.”

Lukas Wiesmeier, CEO and co-founder of Angsa Robotics, says: “We are thrilled to have Husqvarna Ventures as our strategic investor. Their deep understanding of the robotics market, combined with their extensive global network, will provide invaluable support in scaling our development and accelerating our go-to-market strategy. We look forward to collaborating with Husqvarna Group to bring our cutting-edge robotics platform to customers worldwide.”

Angsa Robotics was the Overall Winner of the Galileo Masters 2020, a global innovation competition scouting for cutting-edge solutions using satellite navigation data.

The Galileo Masters website states: “Angsa Robotics has developed Germany’s first autonomous rubbish robot. ‘Clive’ can move independently and detect and localise individual objects based on its unique artificial neural network architecture, which enables it to clean grass and gravel areas. Individual objects such as crown caps or cigarette butts are targeted for collection, but insects are spared. Angsa Robotics thus not only reduces the negative impact of rubbish on the environment. Since conventional sweeping machines designed for flat asphalted surfaces cannot be used, other types of areas typically have to be cleaned manually. Hence, “Clive” also creates an economic benefit for its customers. Its target use cases include the cleaning of festival venues after events and the daily cleaning of parks and other green spaces. Precise localisation via GNSS is essential to its operation: With better localisation, the robot can plan a more efficient path and clean a given area faster.”