Today, we are excited to announce the winners of the 2025 PartnerBot Grant Program. Since its inception in 2012, ParterBot has been dedicated to kick-starting innovative robotics projects in fields that align with our mission: enabling robotics research that drives real-world impact and positive change.
This year’s program allocated over $100,000 in funding, across two categories – Academic and Developer. Prizes included three Husky A300 Starter Kits, one Husky A300 Autonomous Mobile Platform, and discounts on our mobile robotic platforms and a wide selection of robotics sensors and components.
PartnerBot 2024 awardees include teams advancing robotics in wildfire and forestry protection, sustainable farming and agronomy, lunar space exploration, and AI-driven autonomous navigation.
PartnerBot 2024 Award Recipients
Developer Category
Award 1: (1x) Husky A300 AMP (Autonomous Mobile Platform)
Winner: Veritree Technology Inc. – Canada
Project Focus: Wildfire Prevention and Reforestation
Veritree Technology is tackling the challenges of wildfire prevention and forest restoration by collecting critical ground-truth forest inventory and vegetation data. Their solution integrates unmanned ground and aerial vehicles to monitor vast areas of forest, enhancing wildfire prevention and reforestation strategies. By replacing static sensors with mobile platforms, they aim to scale their impact on sustainable forestry management in regions across North America and beyond.
Award 2: (1x) Husky A300 Starter Kit
Winner: Netatech Engineering Pte Ltd. – Singapore
Project Focus: Autonomous Agronomist Robots
Netatech Engineering is addressing the global shortage of agronomists by developing autonomous robots that provide real-time, field-level agronomic insights. These robots combine advanced sensors, cameras, and AI to optimize crop management, monitor stress factors, and implement integrated pest and plant management strategies. This project aims to revolutionize precision agriculture, ensuring a sustainable future for global farming.
Academic Category
Award 1: (1x) Husky A300 Starter Kit + Accessory Credit (up to $15,000 in value)
Winner: University of Luxembourg – Luxembourg
Project Focus: Lunar Robotic Autonomy for Space Exploration
The University of Luxembourg is paving the way for a sustainable lunar economy with advanced robotics research. Their project focuses on enhancing robotic autonomy for navigating harsh lunar terrains. Using reinforcement learning and multi-robot coordination, they aim to address the challenges of space exploration. The team will train and test their robots in state-of-the-art lunar simulation facilities, contributing to the future of autonomous, efficient, and scalable lunar missions.
Award 2: (1x) Husky A300 Starter Kit
Winner: University of British Columbia (UBC-Okanagan Campus) – Canada
Project Focus: Wildfire Mitigation through Autonomous Robots
UBC-Okanagan is developing a wildfire barrier solution called Firewall, designed to slow or stop the progress of wildfires. Their autonomous, self-propelled robot can navigate rough terrain to deliver water and suppress fires. Combining AI, drones, and sensors, the project also integrates data-driven fire modeling to improve decision-making during wildfires. This research aims to enhance community resilience and protect critical ecosystems.
Honourable Mention
Award: 50% off Husky A300 Starter Kit
Winner: Wien Energie – Austria
Project Focus: A VLM-LLM Architecture for Industrial Navigation
This project aims to enable industrial robots to autonomously navigate challenging environments without relying on pre-taught routes or constant human supervision. By combining on-edge Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and Large Language Models (LLMs), the robot can process visual input and use reasoning to understand and navigate its surroundings, much like humans do in unfamiliar spaces. This research is especially valuable in hazardous or hard-to-reach industrial environments where traditional human-driven teaching methods are not always feasible.
We would like to extend a big thank you to all the teams who applied for the 2025 PartnerBot Grant Program. The quality and diversity of the applications submitted were truly inspiring, and we are excited to see how these projects will shape the future of robotics. We look forward to continuing to support and collaborate with researchers and developers around the globe who are pushing the boundaries of what robotics can achieve. Stay tuned for updates on the progress of this year’s winners!