There is this famous quote from Isaac Newton who wrote: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” We are celebrating three years of our robotic start-up ARTI these days. Therefore we are looking back to those years with thankfulness and astonishment. Yes, there was a lot of work these years; there were insecurities and setbacks. But even more, there was positive team spirit, the joy of reaching milestones, and the pride of experiencing success.
The humble robotic Start-Up beginnings
The story of ARTI starts like a typical start-up tale. Four students of telematics/informatics at the Graz University of Technology are working together in the University’s Robocup student team TEDUSAR. There they discovered their shared passion for robotics and decided to give it a try. They agreed to bring their interests and their know-how into a business and develop software for mobile autonomous robots. With this idea in mind, Konstantin, Alex, Stefan, and Clemens applied at the Graz High-Tech Incubator Science Park. Luckily, they were selected for a one-year incubation period. They consolidated their business idea and the cornerstones of the future company. In February 2019, ARTI was officially founded and soon followed the first own office spaces in Gössendorf.
ARTI today
Since then, the team has grown to 10 “ARTIsts”. Together with their customers, the ARTIsts work according to the motto “Make things move!”. They develop AI software to bring more autonomy to ground-based vehicles of all types and dimensions (call them mobile robots). The approach of the ARTI AI Kits is to make the robotic software as modular, flexible, and adaptable as possible. Hence, the customer receives custom-fit and quickly deployable software solutions for all tasks of autonomous robot navigation. In addition, a proprietary robotic test platform was also developed. It was used for projects such as the fully functional prototype of an autonomous delivery robot (TRAI) or the mobile e-car charging robot CHARbO (ALVERI).
The Environment of robotic start-up ARTI
But all of that would never have been possible without the right environment. In Austria and especially in Graz, ARTI founders benefited from an exceptional network of universities and research institutions. These laid down the knowledge base for developing AI software for mobile robots. Equally important, the region is full of future-oriented, ambitious organizations promoting the potential of AI, robotics, and entrepreneurship. Moreover, all these innovation-driven companies and start-ups are not afraid to invest and trust in new technologies and Artificial Intelligence.
Enlite AI made this graphical overview of the AT start-up landscape in Austria.
So here we are, listed among some of these (can you spot our logo?), with thankfulness for the past years and many new ideas, projects, and developments in mind to keep us busy for the years to come! So up we go and make things moving!
