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ARENA pumps $32.3 million into solar robotics manufacturing projects. Australian-made solar panel installation and piling robots are moving towards commercial-scale production with the federal government committing more than $32 million to establish new manufacturing facilities in Victoria and Queensland. 13 Oct 2026 The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced up to $32.3 million (USD 22.45 million) in funding for United States-headquartered companies Luminous Robotics and Built Robotics to establish new manufacturing facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane. ARENA is providing up to $17.8 million to Luminous to establish a Melbourne manufacturing facility for its autonomous solar panel installation LUMI robots designed to streamline utility-scale solar construction. The $39.7 million project is expected to support the manufacture and deployment of about 100 of the robots by 2029. Built Robotics Australia will receive up to $14.5 million to establish a Brisbane manufacturing hub and operations centre for autonomous piling systems. It is anticipated the facility will manufacture and deploy 12 robotic pile driving systems. ARENA Chief Executive Officer Darren Miller said the new manufacturing facilities will improve productivity, reduce construction costs and ease workforce constraints as large-scale solar deployment in Australia grows. "Installing foundations and placing panels are two of the most labour-intensive parts of solar farm construction," he said, noting that "Australia needs to install large volumes of solar quickly and cost-effectively." Australia is targeting 82% renewables by 2030 and according to the Australian Energy Market Operator that will require about 38 GW of new solar and wind capacity to be built in the next three years. That includes some 20 GW of large-scale solar "Local manufacturing and automation can improve the way solar farms are built by reducing construction costs and making installation faster, safer and more efficient," Miller said. Luminous Robotics Australia General Manager Tenzin Crouch said the new funding will enable the company to move its technology from field demonstration in Australia to industrial-scale manufacturing. "For me, this is about building Australian capability that translates directly into delivery in the field. Designing and manufacturing robots here, then putting them to work building the solar infrastructure we need," he said. "We've proven LUMI on real solar farms in Australia, in the heat and dust, doing some of the hardest work on site. The next step is to turn that into scale." The company's LUMI robot autonomously lifts and places solar panels onto racking structures, traditionally one of the most labour-intensive parts of solar farm construction. According to ARENA, the robot can install panels up to 3.5 times faster than current manual methods and has the potential to cut solar farm construction costs by about 6.2%. Built Robotics' autonomous piling robots automate the repetitive process of pile driving, which is usually time-consuming when setting up utility-scale solar farms. The company estimates that its robots have the potential to reduce piling time by approximately 82% and labour costs by 88%. Paul Kelly, Vice President of business development at Built Robotics, said the company's new Brisbane hub will make Queensland a home for autonomous solar construction and create a supply chain that serves projects in Australia. "Australia has shown the world that construction robotics and physical AI work in the field. Now we're going to build that technology here," he said. Both projects are supported through Round 2 of ARENA's Solar Sunshot program. Miller said in addition to supporting more efficient large-scale solar farm builds, the projects will also grow Australia's advanced manufacturing capability. "Manufacturing these technologies in Australia will help to strengthen local supply chains, develop specialist skills and give solar projects better access to advanced construction equipment when and where it is needed," he said. This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with PV Magazine Australia and would like to reuse some of its content, please contact: [email protected]. More about

Built Robotics and Penn Engineering's xLAB partner to advance physical AI in construction. Jun 16, 2026, 12:28 ET SAN FRANCISCO and PHILADELPHIA, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Built Robotics, the leader in physical AI for construction, and xLAB, the Safe Autonomous Systems Lab, headed by Rahul Mangharam, Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering and principal investigator of xLAB at Penn Engineering, today announce a research collaboration to advance physical AI models for the construction industry. Safety is at the heart of the collaboration, leveraging xLAB's years of experience developing high-performance, safety-critical autonomous systems and Built Robotics' proprietary edge AI model for personnel detection and human safety. "xLAB is committed to building safety-critical autonomous systems for real-world deployment, and construction represents one of the most demanding frontiers for that work," said Mangharam. "The fundamental challenge is bridging the gap between validation in controlled environments and robust performance under operational conditions. Our collaboration with Built will give us access to active jobsites with high-fidelity mapping data and real-world operational parameters, enabling us to build practical autonomous systems solving a real-world need." "What xLAB has built in safety architecture is precisely the kind of rigorous foundation that physical AI demands," said Noah Ready-Campbell, CEO of Built Robotics. "Our proprietary edge AI model for personnel detection has been refined across some of the most demanding operational environments in the industry - active construction sites with hundreds of employees stretching over thousands of acres." Liam Osler, Engineering Director for AI at Built Robotics commented, "We are driven by the same core conviction as xLAB: that physical AI must first be safe, and that it is poised to set a new standard for safety in construction." The initial phase of the research pilot will focus on deploying Built Robotics' edge AI model across a fleet of construction survey robots tasked with collecting high-fidelity sensor data on active solar projects. This data will then be used to improve Built's own AI models, and to expand the models to other vehicle platforms and construction activities. "With one of the most respected robotics programs in the world, Penn Engineering - my alma mater - was a natural starting point for this collaboration," said Ready-Campbell. "Dean Vijay Kumar's pioneering work on quadcopters and multi-robot coordination at the GRASP Lab was formative for me when I started Built. And as our fleet of robots has scaled in the field, the mission alignment with xLAB has become crystal clear. I couldn't be more excited to partner with Professor Mangharam to set a new bar for how physical AI is designed, validated, and deployed in the field." About Built Robotics Built Robotics is the leader in physical AI for construction. Backed by top investors including Founders Fund, NEA, and Tiger Global, the company has established a proven track record in the $300 billion utility-scale solar industry. Founded in 2016, Built Robotics is headquartered in San Francisco. About xLAB The Safe Autonomous Systems Lab (xLAB), led by Rahul Mangharam, Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering and principal investigator of xLAB at Penn Engineering, focuses on the intersection of formal methods, machine learning, and embedded systems. xLAB specializes in developing provably safe, highly resilient software architectures for autonomous vehicles, medical devices, and cyber-physical infrastructure. SOURCE Built Robotics

Built Robotics, Penn xLAB to develop physical AI for construction. Built will leverage small mobile robots equipped with a sensor suite to scan jobsites and build a dataset to be analyzed by xLAB researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Credit: Built Robotics The University of Pennsylvania's Safe Autonomous Systems Lab (xLAB) is teaming up with Built Robotics to turn construction sites into a proving ground for "physical AI." Built plans to use its large construction robotics dataset and a new purpose-built, data-collection robot to develop a world foundation model for how machines and people can safely coexist on the job site. Built Robotics has been in the field since 2016, developing autonomous controls for large construction equipment. The company entered the utility-scale solar market in 2023 with the announcement of a new product called the RPD 35, or Robotic Pile Driver. Since its inception, Built has amassed more than 50,000 hours of operations, installed more than 3 gigawatts of solar, and is deployed at 40+ sites. Rahul Mangharam is a professor in electrical and systems engineering and the principal investigator of xLAB at Penn Engineering. Noah Ready-Campbell, founder and CEO of Built Robotics, is a Penn alumn, so this relationship is an obvious one for both parties. Mangharam has an interest in the safety-critical issues with automating outdoor construction equipment, and the partnership will bring real-world data back to the lab. Built expects to collect diverse personnel and environment data beyond what the work-focused piling and trenching robots naturally see. This includes more edge cases such as odd body poses, occlusions, weird lighting, unexpected human behavior. "xLAB is committed to building safety-critical autonomous systems for real-world deployment, and construction represents one of the most demanding frontiers for that work," said Mangharam. "The fundamental challenge is bridging the gap between validation in controlled environments and robust performance under operational conditions. Our collaboration with Built will give us access to active jobsites with high-fidelity mapping data and real-world operational parameters, enabling us to build practical autonomous systems solving a real-world need." "What xLAB has built in safety architecture is precisely the kind of rigorous foundation that physical AI demands," said Ready-Campbell. "Our proprietary edge AI model for personnel detection has been refined across some of the most demanding operational environments in the industry - active construction sites with hundreds of employees stretching over thousands of acres." Submit your session idea for the 2026 RoboBusiness By systematically collecting and labeling edge cases, the collaboration will design AI models capable of detecting humans in atypical conditions and unique construction environments. This advanced training pushes the edge AI model toward "superhuman" perception, enabling it to identify unusual, transient dangers that humans might miss. Ready-Campbell told The Robot Report, "We're members of AEM (Association of Equipment Manufacturers), and they have what's called the Futures Council, which is basically a kind of forward-looking committee that is looking at, among other things, physical AI and construction and autonomous machines. We think safety is a rising tide that lifts all boats. If there's a safety issue, even if it wasn't one of Built's robots, it will cast a pall across the overall industry, and so the right thing to do is to try to help everybody work safely across the industry." Ready-Campbell also noted that Erol Ahmed, VP of communications at Built, is currently the chair of the AEM Futures Council. Liam Osler, engineering director for AI at Built Robotics, commented, "We are driven by the same core conviction as xLAB: that physical AI must first be safe, and that it is poised to set a new standard for safety in construction." The initial phase of the research pilot will focus on deploying Built Robotics' edge AI model across a fleet of construction survey robots tasked with collecting high-fidelity sensor data on active solar projects. This data will then be used to improve Built's own AI models and to expand the models to other vehicle platforms and construction activities. "With one of the most respected robotics programs in the world, Penn Engineering - my alma mater - was a natural starting point for this collaboration," said Ready-Campbell. "Dean Vijay Kumar's pioneering work on quadcopters and multi-robot coordination at the GRASP Lab was formative for me when I started Built. And as our fleet of robots has scaled in the field, the mission alignment with xLAB has become crystal clear. I couldn't be more excited to partner with Professor Mangharam to set a new bar for how physical AI is designed, validated, and deployed in the field."