AI-driven robot installs nearly 10k solar modules in Australia

renewablesnow.com

29 points·joak··8 comments

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/25/meet-the-robot-replacin... has much more information about the robot.

This feels like a very promising use of “embodied AI”.

I’m imagining a future where we have robots that are somewhat humanoid. They’re not necessarily bipedal, but they at least have arms that function similarly to ours and some means of locomotion.

They’ll watch humans work, and function via mimicry. After seeing a human install a couple of panels they will have collected enough data to have a high degree of confidence in what’s being accomplished. They’ll be intelligent enough to determine intent - not just mechanical motion - and even intelligent enough to proactively ask how and why if something is ambiguous.

Come to think of it, this should already be possible as a virtual assistant, but I’ve not seen anyone building it.

This is a pick and place robot following a pre-determined path and the only AI onboard is more like CV to place the panel. How are those panels kept fed in the hopper? is just one of many questions not answered here.

> At a dusty solar site outside Culcairn, New South Wales, a tracked robot methodically rolled between rows of steel posts, hoisting large photovoltaic panels with a vacuum arm and placing them onto pre-aligned mounting structures.

It's a giant pick and place on wheels[1]!

1: https://youtu.be/tBPqo49QOEc

This is it. The robots can power themselves now. When shall we black out the sun then?

Was AI really needed?

To maximize funding and publicity, yes.

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