Category: Events

16 Jul 2020

TSURU ROBOTICS PRESENTED ITS PROJECT AT THE MTS STARTUP HUB DEMO DAY

As already reported by tsuru.su, mobile operator MTS has opened a platform for developing and testing digital solutions for devices running on the 5G – MTS StartUp Hub network. Tsuru Robotics was one of the first residents with a project for controlling a swarm of drones.

Among eight companies, Tsuru Robotics presented its project to the top management of MTS and external investors on July 16 at MTS StartUp Hub Demo Day.

Our company was the first in Russia to integrate drones and the 5G network. And the management of drones in the MTS 5G network was successful. The tests were held at VDNH, where MTS deployed the 5G zone. Our drones flew, shot a video in 4K format, and transmitted the image to the base at a speed of 100 Mbit/s.

At Demo Day, Nikita Rodichenko, Tsuru Robotics CTO, spoke about the project itself and outlined the economic benefits of its implementation.

09 Jul 2020

KATSURU GRAFFITI DRONE: SOLO EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK

Seven paintings created by USA graffiti artist KATSU, are exhibited at the Hole Gallery in Manhattan from July 9 to August 23. They were made using an automatic drone “Katsuru”, created in cooperation with Tsuru Robotics.

KATSU developed the design and functionality of the drone, and our company’s specialists developed the technology. Work on its creation began two years ago. In preparation for an exhibition in New York, a graffiti drone painted seven white canvases with pre-programmed abstract images. Moreover, in each picture, there are visual clues that show that the work was not done manually – or by a person.

25 Jun 2020

TSURU ROBOTICS CTO TOLD ABOUT FUTURE OF ROBOTS

Nikita Rodichenko, Tsuru Robotics CTO, participated as one of the main speakers in the discussion “Era of robots: reality or perspective”, organized by Terrasoft. The discussion was also attended by Denis Reimer (Vice President for digital transformation, LANIT), Alexey Sidorin (head of HR Tech and knowledge management practice, Kroc), and Kirill Partala (CEO, BID Technologies).

According to Rodichenko, the era of robots in our country is gradually coming, but the speed of their implementation in different industries varies greatly. However, according to Tsuru Robotics CTO, robots will soon be used even in areas that now seem to be very far from automation.

More details are available on the Terrasoft website.

08 Jun 2020

TSURU ROBOTICS CONTINUES PARTICIPATION IN SKOLTECH INDUSTRIAL IMMERSION PROGRAM

Tsuru Robotics collaborates with Skoltech in the Industrial Immersion program, which involves students working in the company, rather than in the educational institution’s laboratory. Moreover, in a company that is a leader in its area. Students gain practical experience in the industry that corresponds to their specialty. During the program, all students must participate in at least one professional project. Professional projects usually last for 8 weeks. As a rule, students work on projects during the summer academic module after the first year of study.

Tsuru Robotics has been working with Skoltech for several years. This time, three Skoltech students will work in our company on the problems of navigation and control of drones.

10 May 2020

THE APPLE DOCTOR WENT OUT INTO THE GARDEN

A unique event took place in the Kaluga region from May 8th till May 11th — the first automatic system in the country for early diagnostics of apple tree diseases was tested.

Apple trees get sick – unfortunately, this is a widespread phenomenon. Moreover, when the disease can be determined, its consequences are already irreversible — the appearance of apples is significantly damaged, and it is problematic to sell them. And so that diseases do not spoil the fruits, apple trees are treated with special means. And not only sick trees — it is impossible to distinguish them from healthy ones at an early stage. All this, of course, affects the environmental friendliness of apples.

The company “Soyuzsnab”, which owns extensive apple orchards, decided to cope with this problem. At her request, Tsuru Robotics, Skolkovo resident, in collaboration with the Skoltech research group, developed a system that would recognize the disease at an early stage.

Scientists took an apple tree, infected it with a scab (this is the most common disease of apple trees), and studied it on a spectrometer — in what range of the spectrum the first signs of the disease are visible. And this range was found.

Then it was time for the field, or rather garden tests. The company “Microgarden” (a scientific-technical division of “Soyuzsnab” and the resident of agro-industrial Skolkovo cluster) with the financial support of Foundation For Assistance To Small Innovative Enterprises held a test in one of the gardens in Kaluga region. The date was chosen because apple trees diseases begin to appear during the flowering period — in May is such a period in the central region of Russia. The system developed by Tsuru Robotics uses three cameras — a conventional one, a thermal imager, and a special camera that takes pictures in five ranges.

The structure is mounted on a tractor that moves along the trees and shoots.

The first experiment was successful. The system tested about 30 rows of apple trees of various varieties.
Now the collected data is tested by computer algorithms for recognizing the disease. And only sick trees will need to be treated with special tools.

In the future, by the way, the system will be able to recognize whether the tree is cured or needs to be re-processed.

10 Apr 2020

TSURU ROBOTICS BECAME A MEMBER OF PLUG AND PLAY ACCELERATOR

Tsuru Robotics became a member of the Plug and Play program (branch in Munich). A prestigious international accelerator company is interested in our Inventory Viewer.

Plug and Play Tech Center is an accelerator and corporate innovation platform with global headquarters in Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley. The company has offices in Berlin, Stuttgart, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Guadalajara, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Valencia, and Cleveland.

Plug and Play launches two programs a year in each of its industries and company locations – a total of 50 accelerator programs annually.

Silicon Valley Business Journal called Plug and Play “Silicon valley’s most active venture capital firm.”

16 Oct 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN CEATEC-2019

CEATEC-2019 (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) – an annual exhibition of innovative technologies and achievements in the field of IT and electronics – took place in Chiba, Japan. Tsuru Robotics participated as part of the booth of Russian manufacturers (11 companies). Our company presented its unique product – inventory viewer, as well as other projects.

This year CEATEC theme was “Connecting society to the network, creating the future together.” More than 780 companies presented their latest developments.

10 Oct 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS BECAME THE RESIDENT OF MTS STARTUP HUB

Mobile operator MTS has opened a platform for the development and testing of digital solutions for devices operating in the 5G zone – MTS StartUp Hub at VDNH. Any technology company whose solution uses 5G can become a resident of the Hub. The specialists of the innovation site selected nine companies out of 100 submitted applications, that became the first residents of the Hub. One of them is Tsuru Robotics, with the project of the drone swarm control system.

Resident projects will receive mentoring and technical support from MTS, as well as access to Cloud MTS infrastructure. Also, they will be able to qualify for grants if they successfully complete Demo Day in February 2020.

06 Oct 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS BECAME ACTIVATION PARTNER ON GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2019

The 39th international IT exhibition of the Persian Gulf region – GITEX Technology Week 2019 (GITEX – Gulf Information Technology Exhibition) was held in Dubai. Tsuru Robotics became the Activation Partner of the event. The task of the activation partner is not just to exhibit high-tech products, but to show them in action. That, of course, attracts more visitors than the motionless exhibits.

Tsuru Robotics booth was in an alley near one of the main entrances of the exhibition. It was a 10×5 meters wall, on which two of our graffiti drones painted different images. Organizers provided the theme of the images. We adapted sketches to the technology to show the possibilities of our technology as fully as possible. In Dubai, we used a system of continuous spray paint powered from the ground, which allowed us to draw with almost no time limit. Drones painted for seven hours a day so that thousands of visitors could see the show.

02 Aug 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS GRAFFITI DRONE WON RED DOT DESIGN AWARD

The project of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi — mural for Sprite in Kyiv, drawn by Tsuru Robotics graffiti drone, won the Red Dot Design Award-2019. This is the most prestigious award in the field of design, awarded by the “Design Center of North Rhine-Westphalia.” Designers and companies are awarded for exceptional achievements in the design of consumer products. The nominations are divided into three categories — industrial design (consumer product developers), communication design (product advertising manufacturers), and conceptual design. The first award was held in 1955. The award in the field of communication design started in 1993. Our project won the prize in this category.

The project happened in September 2018. Tsuru Robotics automatic graffiti drone drew a Sprite mural on the wall of the house. The six-by-six-meter image was drawn at a 14 meters height. The work took four days. The first day was spent on the installation of the positioning system. And then – three days of drawing in extremely windy weather.

According to the organizers of the competition, our picture was chosen from hundreds of advertising murals. And the victory was brought by the innovative use of an automatic drone.

01 Aug 2019

Tsuru Robotics participated in SIGGRAPH-2019

Tsuru Robotics participated in SIGGRAPH-2019 (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques) — the most prestigious annual conference held since 1974. This time it took place in Los Angeles.
To participate in the conference, we applied an article – “Graffiti drone: drawing graffiti using a group of drones.” to Emerging Technologies section. The article was accepted to the conference (acceptance rate in 25%).

What was our participation in the conference? Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko made a presentation of the project. Then came the demonstrations. Our booth was in the middle of the Emerging Technologies demo section. A wall consisting of drawing foam blocks – 6 by 5 meters was built for us. We brought drones to the conference that use new technology — power supply and paint are supplied to them from the ground. Theoretically, this technology can draw as long as you want, but at the conference, drones worked once an hour – too quickly ran out of clean space on the wall. First, we drew the logo of Tsuru Robotics, then images of various animals, and finally created the logo of the conference. Two drones worked at the same time.

Our project aroused serious interest, which is not surprising- most viewers saw work of automatic graffiti drones the first time.

21 May 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN ALTIUM FORUM 2019

This year Altium Forum was held in St. Petersburg. The Forum suggests a unique opportunity to meet and communicate with developers and users of Altium software products.

Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko had a 30-minute presentation there. He spoke about the reference-design project “Mini-Drone” – a drone in Altium Designer 19.

The reference design is used by Altium to demonstrate the capabilities of Altium Designer 19 and the company’s new product Altium Concord Pro.

More details about the project could be found here.

16 May 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN VIVATECH

As a part of Skolkovo business mission, Tsuru Robotics participated in the annual conference VivaTech, held in Paris. VivaTech is not just a technology conference, but a real holiday of innovations, an exhibition of the world’s brightest startups. This year VivaTech has united around 100 000 participants.

Tsuru Robotics held a series of meetings with representatives of large companies – Orange, JCDecaux, Thales, Telefonica, SoftBank Robotics — where they spoke about the most important developments of our company.

09 Apr 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS MET DELEGATION FROM JMA

The meeting of Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko with the heads of Japan Management Association (JMA) — the Japanese Association of CTOs, took place in Skolkovo. The JMA delegation arrived in Moscow to study Russian companies and select interesting ones for cooperation with Japanese firms. The meeting took place in preparation for the visit of a group of Japanese companies technical directors to Skolkovo in autumn. The JMA delegation visited Tsuru Robotics laboratory. We made a presentation of our company, talked about the projects that we are currently working on, and agreed on further cooperation with JMA.

08 Apr 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN ARABIA-EXPO 2019

Exhibition hall Manege held the fourth international exhibition ARABIA-EXPO. Arab countries, Russian regions, and Russian and Arab companies participated in the exhibition. Tsuru Robotics presented its automatic warehouse inventory system as part of the joint Skolkovo booth. The system scans barcodes located on pallets and enters data into the table in real time. The first company to use our inventory system was “Mars”, a world leader in the production of pet food and a manufacturer of famous chocolate bars.

Visitors of ARABIA-EXPO showed interest in our system.

03 Apr 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN SAP INNOVATION DAY

The German large IT company SAP, a manufacturer of software for organizations, held an innovative day “Evolution of customer experience in the segment of fast-growing companies” in Moscow, in which Tsuru robotics was invited to participate. One of the main topics of this event was the development of digital marketing, in particular, the introduction of new technologies in advertising.

Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko told about the drone shows created by the company, which have become a truly innovative product and arouse stable interest among advertisers.

17 Jan 2019

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN ALTIUMLIVE 2018 MUNICH

Altium, a leading developer of software for PCB design, held its annual meeting Altiumlive in Munich. This time Tsuru Robotics participated in it, demonstrating a reference design of the drone created in the Altium Designer program. Nikita Rodichenko, Tsuru Robotics CTO, presented our work at Altiumlive.

16 Nov 2018

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN ART-WERK 2018

The center for contemporary art Winzavod hosted the II Russian-German forum of creative industries ART-WERK 2018. Panel discussion “Innovation blurs the boundaries: the place of creative industries in the world of technology” opened the forum. Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko participated in the discussion. He spoke about the company’s projects in the event industry, as well as the integration of technology and art, which is represented by our first graffiti drone in the world.
The head of the Saxon center for culture and creative industries Christian Rost, Director of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft mbH Egbert Ruhl and head of the Design and Technology projects of the British higher school of design Vera Baklashova also participated in the discussion.

09 Oct 2018

TSURU ROBOTICS PARTICIPATED IN SKOLTECH INDUSTRY DAY

Skolkovo hosted another Skoltech Industry Day, an event dedicated to Skoltech’s mutually beneficial cooperation with various companies. Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko gave a speech at the opening plenary session. He said that the company was founded by Skoltech students a few years ago, and now Tsuru Robotics itself contributes to the students training. This summer four students of Skoltech implemented three projects in the company. Tsuru Robotics will continue such mutually beneficial cooperation with Skoltech.
Representatives of “Gazpromneft”, “Phillips” and other companies also participated in the opening of Skoltech Industry Day.

25 Sep 2018

Tsuru Robotics participated in the “Circle of Light” festival

Tsuru Robotics CTO Nikita Rodichenko participated in the discussion “Creation of light shows with the use of flying machines” that happened within the framework of the Moscow international festival “Circle of light”. He spoke about the strategic objectives of the company, as well as about two projects related to lighting solutions – drone show for X5 Retail Group and EcoBall presentation. The story about our graffiti drone also attracted attention of the listeners, even though it did not relate directly to the topic of discussion.
The representatives of Intel and DroneSwarm, as well as multimedia producer Ekaterina Rezvova also participated in the discussion.

20 Aug 2018

MINIBOT HELD TWO NANOPIX MASTER-CLASSES

Our mini-quadrocopter assembly kit Nanopix is gaining popularity. The company Minibot held two master classes on assembly and control of devices, each of which was attended by more than 50 people.
The first master-class happened in the framework of the already traditional famous open air science festival Geek Picnic, dedicated to modern technology, science, and creativity.
The second one took place during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Russian company ABBYY – the world’s leading developer of text recognition programs. Moreover, for this particular master-class, Minibot built a unique race track where people could try their hand at managing Nanopix.

29 May 2018

TSURU ROBOTICS ORGANIZED SKOLTECH OPEN DAY

Tsuru robotics together with Space CREI and Laboratory of intelligent space robotics organized an Open Day about the Masters and Postgraduate studies in Skoltech. Nikita Rodichenko, Skoltech graduate and CTO of Tsuru robotics, told how recent students managed to build a technology startup and develop it into a large company, which, in 3 years, has produced 181 unmanned aerial vehicles and has established an independent development of almost all used electronics (flight controllers, navigation systems, radio modules and power management systems).

Dzmitry Tsetserukou, head of the Intelligent space robotics laboratory at Skoltech, and Pavel Krivozubov, head of the Robotics and AI department of the Skolkovo Foundation also spoke at the Open Day.

The photo is from Dzmitry Tsetserukou Facebook page.

18 May 2018

TSURU ROBOTICS HELD MINI-EVENT

For the first time our company held a show of drones in a very limited space: the performance took place in one of the rooms of Moscow apartments. Flight space was an area of 4×4 m, and height limited to a three-meter ceiling. Three small
drones (20 cm diagonal) with scattered led lighting participated in the show. Specially created video three walls projection accompanied the performance. Music also was designed purposely for the 2.5-minute show.

Besides, for the first time, the positioning system cameras were located on the same line, not just in the same plane.

24 Apr 2018

SXT FLYING ARENA OPENED IN SKOLKOVO TECHNOPARK

Skoltech-Tsuru Flying Arena, opened in Technopark, is the largest Russian indoor flight zone for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Skolkovo Technopark provided the space for the zone. The area of SxT Arena is 260 sqm, ceiling’s height is seven meters. This Arena with the preinstalled local positioning system is located on the ground floor of Technopark. The arena is a training zone, where, in addition to testing algorithms, you can conduct a variety of rehearsals for different types of drone group behavior. We’re developing new types of drones group behavior in the Arena in collaboration with Skoltech ISR Lab.
In addition to current work, Skoltech ISR Lab and Tsuru robotics will conduct summer practice for students. Students will be able to participate in the implementation of the company’s projects, or carry out their own, gaining practical knowledge and skills of drone control.

06 Apr 2018

MOBILE DRONES SHOW BEGINS TOUR

We successfully implemented our latest project — a mobile show complex for the company FabFuture. The complex can be installed for advertising purposes in areas with large concentrations of people — in shopping malls, airports, etc. Six drones automatically perform a specified mission within a limited space. The frame, inside which the drones fly has a cubic shape. The diagonal dimension of the drones is 250 mm, and frame size is 3 m. After completing the 7-minute flight program, the drones land and are ready for takeoff again after quick batteries replacement. Show complex includes drones, camera positioning system, frame, and computer. The whole system takes three to four hours to build and configure.

The customer plans to hold shows in different Russian cities. More information on project page.

19 Feb 2018

TSURU ROBOTICS DRONES PLAYED BASKETBALL

Our company in collaboration with Interactive Lab and “Pitch group” presented one of the show programs during the match of all stars of the VTB United League in St. Petersburg. Our devices broke at least the same amount of applause from the audience, as the best Europe basketball players in the “Yubileyny” sports Palace.

Tsuru Robotics is the only company in Russia that creates autonomous drone shows while constantly improving the program. For the first time in our country, a group choreography of 12 drones was carried out. The vehicles started the show during the time-out between the third and fourth quarters of the main match and performed more than three-minute “dance”. Large drones were “dressed” in costumes, stylized as basketball balls. SIBUR and Wilson designed “Ecoball” – basketball balls made of orange-and-blue recycled plastic specifically for this match. Led lighting costumes of drones, shimmering, repeated these colors.

Anton SOLOMIN, a basketball columnist for “Match TV”: “It was terrifically beautiful and even a little scary! The rise of the machines has never been so close. This show was really unexpected for most of the guests. The performance was, certainly, unusual – no one has seen this before”.
More information on project page.