Sonair reaches $6.8M funding milestone

POSTED 10/08/2024

Oslo, Norway, October 7, 2024: The self enough cell robotic (AMR) industry is increasing all of sudden at a 27% year-over-year price.  As these robots change into more pervasive, the elope to be mosey they can safely navigate around of us and barriers is on. Sonair is at the forefront of this innovation, launching a groundbreaking sensor that -for the first time – makes exhaust of ultrasound in the air to give robots safe spatial awareness in 3D.

Belief to be one of the priciest substances of an self enough cell robotic (AMR) at the present time is its sensor kit, foremost for impediment detection and safe navigation. Most up-to-date LiDAR systems are now not simplest corpulent and power-hungry but additionally computationally hectic, riding up prices and accounting for with regards to a Third of the robotic’s set aside. A conventional 2D LiDAR scanner in an AMR simplest sees a particular person’s legs in a single horizontal aircraft. In distinction, Sonair’s patented ADAR (Acoustic Ranging and Detection) abilities detects of us and objects in 3D, with low power and computational requirements.

Read the article in TechCrunch: Sonair takes a cue from dolphins to construct self enough 3D vision sans LIDAR

“ADAR is an enabling abilities to your total cell robotic sector,” says Knut Sandven, CEO of Sonair. “For cell robotic builders, ADAR provides big abilities payment savings that will also be passed on to total-users, boosting automation adoption worldwide.”

Sonair has now raised a total of $6.8M with Skyfall Ventures main the newest $1.6M round. RunwayFBU, any other early-stage VC fund, additionally contributed to the round.

“We are extremely mad to put money into the Sonair team, whose large experience in sensor abilities, robotics, utility, and AI, combined with their stable firm-building abilities, is positioning Sonair as a in fact thrilling firm,” says Preben Songe-Møller, Companion at Skyfall Ventures. “With reduced prices in sensor abilities and AI advancements in perception and decision-making, industries from manufacturing to healthcare are poised to earnings from exceptional efficiency and security improvements. Sonair is uniquely positioned to lend a hand force this transformation.”

“In 2024 by myself, as a lot as 200,000 AMRs will be produced, it’s a $1.4B market,” says Sagar Chandna at RunwayFBU. “Industrial automation and autonomy will be key drivers of this boost, but the value of sensors remains a friction level. Sonair’s improvements goal to acquire to the underside of this place, unlocking even bigger doable for the AMR industry.”

Ultrasonic sensors are much less tormented by environmental factors such as heart-broken lighting, mud, or changing temperatures, making mosey respectable performance in diverse conditions the place frail sensors could presumably well just fail. Sonair’s sensor can additionally detect reflective or gaze-by surfaces such as glass or mirrors without drawback. Benefits now not too prolonged in the past identified at the world Sensors Converge tournament in Santa Clara, California in June this year, the place Sonair received the Larger of Sensors Award 2024 in the Automotive & Independent sensor category.

Evaluate kit delivers early traction

Sonair is leveraging the unique funding round to introduce its world early acquire loyal of entry to program with an evaluation kit that has posthaste been adopted by a huge selection of warehouse AMR producers, car OEMs, health- and cleaning robotics corporations.

“Early acquire loyal of entry to companions will acquire a first mover advantage on a leap forward sensing abilities that addresses society’s pressing need for safe human-robotic interaction in a cluttered world,” says Sandven.

Two decades in the making

The patented ADAR abilities has been in pattern at the world-renowned MiNaLab sensor and nanotechnology evaluation heart in Norway for more than twenty years. The imaging methodology is named beamforming; it’s the backbone of processing for sonar and radar, as smartly as in ultrasound imaging identified in treatment but now outmoded in the air.

By combining wavelength-matched transducers with slicing-edge utility for beamforming and object-recognition algorithms, Sonair makes 3D spatial data accessible merely by transmitting sound and listening. This enables cell robots to detect distance and path to all objects in a 180×180 field of leer with a differ of as a lot as 5 meters, offering a worthy broader field of leer than present applied sciences, while additionally detecting barriers above and beneath the 2D aircraft of the LiDAR.

Producers who settle on Sonair additionally enormously decrease overall complexity by changing plenty of sensors that at the present time try to make amends for the unique barriers. “Our abilities is the place AI, machine finding out and automation in fact converge,” says Sandven, who’s additionally attempting at markets for carrier robots, starting up robots, and robotic arms. “We predict a pair of future the place individuals and robots coexist seamlessly, guided by extremely-compact 3D ultrasonic sensors.”

In regards to the newest funding round

Sonair has raised a total of $6.8M, now not too prolonged in the past adding two main project capital investors in a $1.6M round: Skyfall Ventures is an early-stage project-capital fund that has invested in Nordic corporations since 2014, leaning closely towards sectors like AI, local climate tech, blockchain, bioinformatics, cyber security, and robotics. RunwayFBU backs early-stage abilities startups. that exhaust data and abilities to make industry more ambiance pleasant, sustainable, and respectable. RunwayFBU is segment of the Aker community of corporations, a gigantic industrial conglomerate.

Sonair’s present investors encompass SINTEF Endeavor VI, ProVenture, Startuplab Founders Fund, and Stratel.

About Sonair

Sonair is an award-winning deep tech startup building a leap forward, patented 3D ultrasonic sensor that allows proper machine autonomy by making robots safe, sensible, and ambiance pleasant. Sonair modified into spun out from a main European just evaluation organization, SINTEF, to cash in on deep science-to-tech advancements in ultrasonics and Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS). Using this abilities, the firm is handing over a sensor that will rework a robotic’s vision from 2D to 3D, offering a vastly improved security performance over frail vision systems while slicing prices by 50-80%. The firm, basically based totally mostly in Oslo, Norway, modified into founded in 2022 by an skilled team of serial entrepreneurs led by Knut Sandven, historical CEO of GasSecure.

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Contact: Tor Odland, CMO, [email protected]. Mobile: +47 99090872