Funded by the likes of Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK, the T-shaped robot has been designed to offer farmers and grain aggregators better insight into the environmental conditions of grain crops — such as barley and wheat — when stored in sheds or silos.

Crover’s robot has built-in moisture and temperature sensors, and uses two dome-shaped wheels to manoeuvre itself through grain and other material in a bulk stack. Then, it feeds back data and analysis to a dashboard, providing grain aggregators with a more precise understanding of the grain’s status.

In particular, humidity and temperature have notable effects on grain storage, contributing to the infestation of insects and mould which can cause farmers to eradicate significant portions of their stored crops.

The Edinburgh-based startup has also recently become resident at the National Robotarium — a new £22.4 million research facility opened in 2022 at Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh campus — with Crover benefitting from its incubation facilities, labs, and engineering expertise.

On the grain robot’s launch — and on working with the National Robotarium — Lorenzo Conti, the founder and managing director of Crover, said: “Traditional methods like spear sampling grain are time-consuming and laborious and quite often impractical and dangerous.”

“Our device is designed to be controlled from one spot and saves whoever is operating it many hours of work as well as improving accuracy. The robot can ‘swim’ through the grain quickly generating a 3D map of temperature and moisture across the stack.

“This kind of insight can help people like farmers to better understand the condition of their grain and make informed decisions earlier like increasing ventilation or taking pest control measures.

“Working with the National Robotarium has significantly supported Crover’s development by providing us with access to state-of-the-art office and lab facilities and an extensive ecosystem of collaborators, industry experts and academic teams.

“It’s rare to be surrounded by a team who understand what it means to develop complex robots and we’re excited to continue sharing Crover’s journey with them.”

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The National Robotarium’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve Maclaren, commented, saying: “The National Robotarium was launched with a mandate to assist all types of partners to accelerate research from laboratory to market, reduce cost and risk, increase opportunity and, ultimately, pave the way for the UK to take a global leadership role in AI and robotics technology.

“Innovations like Crover’s grain storage device — which could help solve a global problem for the world’s agriculture sector — are a great example of this mandate in action.

“The National Robotarium continues to be a leading collaborative hub, bringing together academics and global companies. Working with tenant companies like Crover, we want to provide a catalyst for entrepreneurship, and deliver sustainable economic benefit to the whole of the UK, its industries and society.”

Malcolm Offord, the UK Government Minister for Scotland, also added: “It’s fantastic to see that farming and food and drink-boosting innovations like Crover’s new ‘grain-surfing’ robot will benefit from being part of the National Robotarium.

“Projects like this demonstrate the collaborative benefits the hub is providing, with resulting economic and environmental advances delivered to the UK.

“The UK Government is supporting the National Robotarium facilities at Heriot-Watt University with £21 million as part of more than £2.2 billion investment to level up communities across Scotland.”