Markham, ON-based Cyberworks Robotics provides autonomous self-driving technology for material handling forklifts and tow-tuggers as well as industrial floor scrubbers. This allows food and beverage producers and distributors to mitigate labour shortages, save labour costs, increase efficiency, redeploy labour to higher value-add roles, and increase plant safety.
The company received $227,946 in funding to develop autonomous self-driving tow tugs for food distribution centre logistics.
We spoke to Vivek Burhanpurkar, CEO of Cyberworks Robotics, to hear more about the company and its plans.
Q: What is your company’s mission?
A: Our mission is to reduce costs to the consumer. We enable this by reducing labour shortages and labour costs for food and beverage companies by providing self-driving solutions for common tasks like operation of forklifts and floor scrubbers.
Q: Why did you apply for this funding and how will you use it?
A: We want to work with early adopters within the food and beverage industry to pilot test and optimize our technology for specific needs of the industry.
Q: What excites you most about working in this area of the food industry?
A: The food and beverage industry spends hundreds of millions annually on labour for mundane tasks that don’t add value to the bottom line and which ultimately contribute to food inflation. Our technology will help to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of essential foods to the consumer.
Q: Why is collaboration so important for accelerating innovation in the food industry? Is it difficult to find good collaborating partners, and what would make the process easier?
A: Collaboration is essential for us in order to optimize our technology for the nuances of the food and beverage industry.
Q: Please comment on the importance of public funding to help companies clear innovation hurdles and access leveraged funds.
A: Public funding is essential to companies like ours in order to bridge the gap between early adopters and new technologies to mitigate risks for both parties and accelerate the rollout of new technologies.
Q: Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon for your company?
A: We are deploying our technology to other applications, ranging from self-driving personal transport for people with disabilities to self-driving tractors, to continue to improve the deployment of labour and drive efficiency gains for Canadian companies.
Q: What are your passions or hobbies outside of work?
A: When I’m not working I enjoy hiking, travelling and catching up on the latest technology developments.
Q: If you had to pick one person to make you a meal, who would you choose?