Two Lumi robots “talking” to each other during a demo. Image: Luminous
One of the solar-building robot companies operating in Australia could now, theoretically at least, build large chunks of a solar farm from the comfort of their port-side offices – in Boston. 
Luminous Robotics is rolling out “synchronised heterogenous fleet autonomy” – aka software that allows remote control as well as robot-to-robot communication – in the fleet it’s running in Australia. 
The Lumi device picks up solar panels and puts them on the trackers. 
Luminous panel installer robot at the Goorambat solar project. Image: Engie
The company has run Australia Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funded trials at two now-completed solar projects and has just finished a third, with another giant project in the wings. 
They aren’t building solar farms remotely, of course, because there are rules around this sort of thing. 
“Our machines are autonomous, however, we do deploy them with safety technicians nearby the robots (similar to early days of autonomous cars) – we do this to adhere to the construction safety guidelines and Job Hazard Analysis defined by each of our construction customers,” Luminous CEO Jay Wong tells Renew Economy over email. 
“We have the capability today to monitor and control these robots anywhere in the world, (i.e. as I write this email today, I can monitor our fleet over in NSW, AU).”
The Boston-based company received grants to trial its “empathy first” Lumi robot technology at the 350 megawatt (MWac) Culcairn solar farm in New South Wales (NSW) and the 250 MW Goorambat East project in Victoria.
Since then, it finished installing panels at the 80 MW Lancaster solar project in Victoria earlier this year as well. 
Wong says they’re working with a “500 MW+” project now, but can’t reveal who it is yet. 
Much like robot vacuum cleaners map out a house and store that away for future reference, so will the Lumi bots for a solar site. 
“What this physically looks like is that the robots within the fleet simultaneously map out the site, building a shared digital twin of the “as built” – every panel installed tagged with before/after imagery and geolocated with GPS locations,” Wong says. 
“The map also contains the geometries and topography of the site, things like trenches, piles, grading, etc.”
Robotics for solar farm construction is being explored by everyone from national science agency CSIRO with its repair bot Bear, Chinese companies Trinasolar and Leapting which have rivals to the Lumi bot, to Built Robotics and Nexttracker have pile driving technology. 
Built Robotics installs piles at the Cloudbreak solar project in the Pilbara. Image: Fortescue
Built is testing its devices on a Fortescue project in the Pilbara, and Nexttracker said last year said it would test a robotic pile driver in Australia. 
Their pitch, and that of solar developers, is that human labourers are scarce and these devices free up that talent for other work. 
Leapting says its pick-and-place robots can do the work for three to four humans. 
But the other element is cost: robots are cheaper and faster than a team of human beings, and can work in very harsh conditions.
ARENA’s stated goal is to bring down the cost of large scale solar to below $20 a megawatt hour (MWh), and see cell efficiency improvements of 30 per cent by 2030.
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Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
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