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Iron Ox’s autonomous cell robotic Grover. | Supply: Iron Ox
There are studies of great layoffs at Iron Ox, an agriculture expertise firm that makes use of robotics to customise take care of vegetation. Many now-former workers have posted on social media in regards to the layoffs.
Whereas it’s unclear precisely what number of workers have been laid off, quite a few posts point out Iron Ox let go of roughly half of its workers. Iron Ox additionally laid off a smaller variety of workers a couple of months in the past, in keeping with different posts from former workers.
Primarily based in Silicon Valley, Iron Ox is an agriculture expertise startup with deep experience in plant science, robotics and synthetic intelligence (AI). The corporate makes use of two robots in its rising course of.
The primary is Grover, a cell robotic that autonomously navigates by way of Iron Ox’s greenhouses. Grover slides below the corporate’s plant-growing modules, picks them up and takes them wherever they should be. This might embody transferring the modules to get new vegetation and provides present vegetation extra daylight, diet and water.
Iron Ox’s different robotic, Max, delivers and screens every module’s water, nutrient, combine and pH ranges. Max works with Grover to optimize plant yield, increase development cycles and maximize crop high quality. The corporate additionally makes use of robotic arms to are inclined to the vegetation.
Iron Ox’s final funding spherical closed in September 2021 and introduced the corporate’s complete funding to $98 million.
Iron Ox isn’t the one firm feeling monetary stress these days. Fifth Season, one other agricultural expertise firm, closed down final week, in keeping with reporting from the Pittsburgh Enterprise Instances. Fifth Season used robotics to develop leafy greens in vertical farms. The greens can be distributed in salad kits offered at grocery shops. The corporate employed round 100 employees.
Additionally final week, autonomous driving firm Argo AI shut down. A few of Argo AI’s round 2,000 workers would both be receiving gives from Ford or Volkswagen, which had been the 2 main monetary backers of Argo AI.
The Robotic Reportreached out to Iron Ox for touch upon the layoffs however didn’t hear again at press time.
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