Partnership
Avidbots is an SME in Kitchener, ON. Avidbots is an industry leader in commercial service robots. Their flagship autonomous floor scrubbing robot (Neo) is currently deployed to commercial/industrial facilities on 5 continents.
Challenge
- Avidbots was looking to improve efficiency and overcome numerous engineering challenges for robots that operate indoors (e.g., dim lighting, different floor surfaces and often no GPS access for localization).
Solution
- Avidbots secured $31.5M in Series B funding to continue development of autonomous robotics cleaning technology.
- Avidbots and RoboHub are currently working on a Mitacs Accelerate Cluster application to develop software algorithms to improve efficient autonomous platform navigation in indoor environments.

Impact
- The project will train engineers, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students as well as empower Avidbots to become a world leader with this improved automation technology.
- Combined Mitacs and industry funding is expected to exceed $540K for this project, with the potential to grow to over $1M as the project extends beyond the Cluster.
- The next phase of the project will involve addressing robot aesthetics to improve suitability in a human-centric environment.