Take heed to this text

Iron Ox’s autonomous cell robotic Grover. | Supply: Iron Ox

There are studies of serious layoffs at Iron Ox, an agriculture expertise firm that makes use of robotics to customise look after crops. Many now-former staff have posted on social media concerning the layoffs.

Whereas it’s unclear precisely what number of staff have been laid off, quite a few posts point out Iron Ox let go of roughly half of its staff. Iron Ox additionally laid off a smaller variety of staff a number of months in the past, in line with different posts from former staff.

Primarily based in Silicon Valley, Iron Ox is an agriculture expertise startup with deep experience in plant science, robotics and synthetic intelligence (AI). The corporate makes use of two robots in its rising course of.

The primary is Grover, a cell robotic that autonomously navigates via Iron Ox’s greenhouses. Grover slides beneath the corporate’s plant-growing modules, picks them up and takes them wherever they have to be. This might embrace transferring the modules to get new crops and provides current crops extra daylight, diet and water.
Iron Ox’s different robotic, Max, delivers and screens every module’s water, nutrient, combine and pH ranges. Max works with Grover to optimize plant yield, develop development cycles and maximize crop high quality. The corporate additionally makes use of robotic arms to are inclined to the crops. 
Iron Ox’s final funding spherical closed in September 2021 and introduced the corporate’s complete funding to $98 million.
Iron Ox isn’t the one firm feeling monetary stress currently. Fifth Season, one other agricultural expertise firm, closed down final week, in line with reporting from the Pittsburgh Enterprise Occasions. Fifth Season used robotics to develop leafy greens in vertical farms. The greens can be distributed in salad kits offered at grocery shops. The corporate employed round 100 staff.
Additionally final week, autonomous driving firm Argo AI shut down. A few of Argo AI’s round 2,000 staff would both be receiving gives from Ford or Volkswagen, which have been the 2 main monetary backers of Argo AI.
The Robotic Reportreached out to Iron Ox for touch upon the layoffs however didn’t hear again at press time.