kar-go

The parent company was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur William Sachiti at Aberystywth University.[3] As much of the companies activities were public, there is a detailed timeline of their developments and financials online. The company was seeded with a £10 000 grant from the University as part of its InvEnterPrize scheme.[3] In late 2016, the company partnered with Pilgrim Motorsports, a specialist UK car manufacturer.[4] In early 2017, the parent company Academy of Robotics was announced to be part of NVIDIA's accelerator to further develop Kar-go.[5] In mid-2017, the company sought funding via Crowdfunding on the UK Financial Services Authority regulated firm Crowdcube. Kar-go raised 320K at a £2 million post money valuation. In August 2018, the company raised additional funding from private investors. An offer was made for more cash which the company turned down in a move the CEO William Sachiti stated that he did not want to dilute existing shareholders. [6] The company shortly after unveiled its autonomous data-gathering vehicles. These vehicles were used to develop Kar-go's driverless vehicle technology. Data such as imagery for object recognition and geometry to measure distance were collected, to be processed for use in their autonomous vehicles. Having developed basic prototypes to test the vision system, Academy of Robotics went on to develop custom-built vehicle hardware. The resulting Kar-go delivery bot vehicle  was unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2019. [7][8] [9]

As a new vehicle type, the Kar-go Delivery Bot underwent an assessment from the UK’s DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), who verified that the core vehicle was roadworthy. Following minor modifications to install the autonomous technology, the vehicle was ready for road trials. [10]

Having satisfied the core UK government requirements (being a roadworthy vehicle, having appropriate insurance in place and a driver or operator, in or out of the vehicle, who is ready, able, and willing to resume control of the vehicle), [11]

These initial deliveries were part of a trial supported by funding for no-human-contact deliveries from UK Research and Innovation [12]as part of the Government’s modern industrial strategy. Academy of Robotics chose to begin these first deliveries with the delivery of medical supplies from pharmacies to care [13]homes in the London Borough of Hounslow. [14][15] [16]

In February 2021, the company announced that it would be expanding its autonomous delivery trials to Surrey and other parts of the UK.[17] Academy of Robotics, Kar-go's parent company is estimated to be valued between $50 million and a $250 million dollars in early 2021.[18]

Kar-go operates with the principle of 'terrain-training' wherein specialised logical rulesets and artificial intelligence modules are created for designated routes such as to ensure round-the-clock robust operation. Localisation on the route is achieved by fusing data from Visual SLAM (Simultaneous localisation and mapping), [19]GPS feeds and pre-existing off-line map features. [20]Real-time perception is implemented via a novel modular hierarchical architecture consisting of multiple function specific neural networks and computer vision algorithms that have been fine-tuned for the particular route.

The control software is completely autonomous once delivery timings and locations are determined. This is done autonomous using the Academy of Robotics’ proprietary vision system. It makes high-level navigation turns such as intersection turns, lane changes etc. based on the vehicle’s presence in a ‘global map space’ which is updated continuously based on factors such as delivery locations, traffic, routes of other delivery vehicles etc

The company’s research focuses on applying bio-inspired algorithms [21] to solve challenging vision-based problems. Rather than using technology like LiDAR, Kar-go uses camera vision.[19] [22] [23]

The sensor suite focuses on vision with 6-8 cameras fitted on the vehicle depending on the particular operational configuration. IThe vehicle has GPS, IMU and a ring of sonar/distance sensors around it for a perception redundancy.[21][24]

Kar-go was built in the UK in West Sussex. The vehicle was built in collaboration between the team at Academy of Robotics, the engineering team at Pilgrim Motorsports and Muscle Car UK's factory where it was being built from scratch. Some of the Kar-go scientists and engineers are also based at Pilgrim Motorsports. In March 2018, the company announced that it had hired multi-award winning vehicle design expert Paul Burgess from McLaren who led the engineering team.

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