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Hope it's cool for me to plug this here -- I'm one of the cofounders of a YC-backed startup working on robots that build large-scale solar farms! We basically

Hope it's cool for me to plug this here -- I'm one of the cofounders of a YC-backed startup working on robots that build large-scale solar farms! We basically stick a bunch of industrial robot arms in a shipping container and use them to build solar fields out in the middle of the desert. https://chargerobotics.com/ https://chargerobotics.com/ (we have an open software engineer role for the factory, email in my profile if you want to chat! team is currently 7 people)

simonw 3y ago
Since you work professionally with robot arms... I've always thought that it would be cool to run a robot arm museum, showcasing industrial robot arms from different periods - 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, etc. As far as I can tell the first one was Unimate in 1961: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimate But... I don't have a feel for how many of these things actually exist out there. Do collections already exist? What happens to a robot arm once it becomes obsolete?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- zellyn 3y ago
  This sounds like something lcamtuf might be interested in…
- rtkwe 3y ago
  Older and prototype arms are sadly often scrapped past a certain point, there's just limited use for an ancient arm with it's associated ancient control systems (often a bigger issue to keep running than the actual arms as you're dealing with real time operating systems that are tricky to run outside of their original equipment.
leesec 3y ago
Cool idea!
philipkglass 3y ago
I don't know if this message is better suited for you or dang, but the capitalization of your hiring posts here has always been a little off: "Charge Robotics (YC S21) is hiring meches to build robots that build solar farms" Mechanical engineers would be better shortened to MechEs instead of meches, IMO.
- justicz 3y ago
  Haha, thank you, I am the one who was posting those. Will fix it when we are hiring MechEs again!
- NikolaNovak 3y ago
  Hiring mechs to build robots does sound very Von Neumann :-)
VHRanger 3y ago
How do you plug that into the grid?
- onethought 3y ago
  This is the hard part of that problem. You can’t just connect 100MW onto the grid. It’s actually a problem in many countries that invested in solar subsidy programs, had massive rollout of solar and were then had a grid that could not handle the huge load of electricity at peak sun times, causing them to leave entire farms disconnected or only partially connected.
bilsbie 3y ago
Neat! Don’t the arms need to move around though?
- justicz 3y ago
  They do. It's a very special shipping container...
stvltvs 3y ago
Solar energy plants in the desert, including the transmission lines needed to get it to where it's usable, come at a cost to the ecosystems they disrupt. We tend to think of the desert as a lifeless wasteland, but that's far from the truth. Visit Death Valley National Park for example and see the marvelous diversity and beauty of life there, especially during a superbloom. Solar power plants in the Mojave desert threaten wildlife like the Desert Tortoise by reducing their natural range and plowing over the desert habitat. Rooftop, parking lot, etc. solar makes much better sense by utilizing already disturbed land nearer to where the power will be used thereby reducing transmission costs and the treat to biodiversity. A major downside (from one perspective) would be that rooftop solar installers out-compete the developers of desert power plants.
- VHRanger 3y ago
  Rooftop solar is more expensive than people think. You need to attach the solar panel to the roof, and roofs really, really want to leak. You also need to change all of this every 15-25 years when the roof needs a new cover.
  - stvltvs 3y ago
    Granted the are costs that are often overlooked but that can also be mitigated by choosing installers with a good track record and offer a good warranty on their work, not whoever shows up on your doorstep, and by investing in better roofing materials. The solar panels should still be productive after 25-30 years even if they're less efficient, and they should have paid for themselves by then. If you're like me, at installation time, the roof was overdue for maintenance anyway.
    - solardev 3y ago
      It's very unlikely for a solar company, whether an installer or manufacturer, to last 25 or 30 years. I worked in equipment sales and our suppliers would routinely go out of business or be on the verge of bankruptcy. We'd advertise warranty insurance and reinsurance because it was assumed that the company wouldn't be there that long from now. If you just have modules (the panels themselves) on the roof that long you'd probably be okay, but if you have microinverters or power optimizers under them, those power electronics have a finite lifespan and will eventually die. Or if a single module wired in series goes bad, you'd still have roof work to do. It's not just install and forget. It's install and pray you don't have to do too much work too soon... (Edit: Ideally, these systems would pay for themselves in a few years. As long as that happens before they die, you'd still come out ahead. But that's not always the case. My last company got sued because the stuff we made kept failing -- it was in the news, so no company secrets there. One of our major installers also went bankrupt. Depending on who you ask, our equipment may or may not have been at fault.)
solardev 3y ago
This is really cool! If I knew Python I'd totally apply. What a fun project.
- jzig 3y ago
  It’s too bad they wouldn’t let you learn on the job!
  - solardev 3y ago
    I don't blame them. With tens of thousands of qualified ex-FANGers to choose from right now, it's a great time to find new talent! I'm just a random nobody who makes websites here and there lol. I'm sure they can find super qualified robotics people.
JshWright 3y ago
Automated solar deployment via robots... I do the same thing in Factorio
- darknavi 3y ago
  Just wait for the nuclear update!
xwowsersx 3y ago
For me, your site says "renewablesby", instead of "renewables by" https://ibb.co/vqxfvB9 https://ibb.co/vqxfvB9

simonw 3y ago

Since you work professionally with robot arms... I've always thought that it would be cool to run a robot arm museum, showcasing industrial robot arms from different periods - 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, etc. As far as I can tell the first one was Unimate in 1961: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimate But... I don't have a feel for how many of these things actually exist out there. Do collections already exist? What happens to a robot arm once it becomes obsolete?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
zellyn 3y ago
This sounds like something lcamtuf might be interested in…
rtkwe 3y ago
Older and prototype arms are sadly often scrapped past a certain point, there's just limited use for an ancient arm with it's associated ancient control systems (often a bigger issue to keep running than the actual arms as you're dealing with real time operating systems that are tricky to run outside of their original equipment.

leesec 3y ago

Cool idea!

philipkglass 3y ago

I don't know if this message is better suited for you or dang, but the capitalization of your hiring posts here has always been a little off: "Charge Robotics (YC S21) is hiring meches to build robots that build solar farms" Mechanical engineers would be better shortened to MechEs instead of meches, IMO.

justicz 3y ago
Haha, thank you, I am the one who was posting those. Will fix it when we are hiring MechEs again!
NikolaNovak 3y ago
Hiring mechs to build robots does sound very Von Neumann :-)

VHRanger 3y ago

How do you plug that into the grid?

onethought 3y ago
This is the hard part of that problem. You can’t just connect 100MW onto the grid. It’s actually a problem in many countries that invested in solar subsidy programs, had massive rollout of solar and were then had a grid that could not handle the huge load of electricity at peak sun times, causing them to leave entire farms disconnected or only partially connected.

bilsbie 3y ago

Neat! Don’t the arms need to move around though?

justicz 3y ago
They do. It's a very special shipping container...

stvltvs 3y ago

Solar energy plants in the desert, including the transmission lines needed to get it to where it's usable, come at a cost to the ecosystems they disrupt. We tend to think of the desert as a lifeless wasteland, but that's far from the truth. Visit Death Valley National Park for example and see the marvelous diversity and beauty of life there, especially during a superbloom. Solar power plants in the Mojave desert threaten wildlife like the Desert Tortoise by reducing their natural range and plowing over the desert habitat. Rooftop, parking lot, etc. solar makes much better sense by utilizing already disturbed land nearer to where the power will be used thereby reducing transmission costs and the treat to biodiversity. A major downside (from one perspective) would be that rooftop solar installers out-compete the developers of desert power plants.

VHRanger 3y ago
Rooftop solar is more expensive than people think. You need to attach the solar panel to the roof, and roofs really, really want to leak. You also need to change all of this every 15-25 years when the roof needs a new cover.
- stvltvs 3y ago
  Granted the are costs that are often overlooked but that can also be mitigated by choosing installers with a good track record and offer a good warranty on their work, not whoever shows up on your doorstep, and by investing in better roofing materials. The solar panels should still be productive after 25-30 years even if they're less efficient, and they should have paid for themselves by then. If you're like me, at installation time, the roof was overdue for maintenance anyway.
  - solardev 3y ago
    It's very unlikely for a solar company, whether an installer or manufacturer, to last 25 or 30 years. I worked in equipment sales and our suppliers would routinely go out of business or be on the verge of bankruptcy. We'd advertise warranty insurance and reinsurance because it was assumed that the company wouldn't be there that long from now. If you just have modules (the panels themselves) on the roof that long you'd probably be okay, but if you have microinverters or power optimizers under them, those power electronics have a finite lifespan and will eventually die. Or if a single module wired in series goes bad, you'd still have roof work to do. It's not just install and forget. It's install and pray you don't have to do too much work too soon... (Edit: Ideally, these systems would pay for themselves in a few years. As long as that happens before they die, you'd still come out ahead. But that's not always the case. My last company got sued because the stuff we made kept failing -- it was in the news, so no company secrets there. One of our major installers also went bankrupt. Depending on who you ask, our equipment may or may not have been at fault.)

solardev 3y ago

This is really cool! If I knew Python I'd totally apply. What a fun project.

jzig 3y ago
It’s too bad they wouldn’t let you learn on the job!
- solardev 3y ago
  I don't blame them. With tens of thousands of qualified ex-FANGers to choose from right now, it's a great time to find new talent! I'm just a random nobody who makes websites here and there lol. I'm sure they can find super qualified robotics people.

JshWright 3y ago

Automated solar deployment via robots... I do the same thing in Factorio

darknavi 3y ago
Just wait for the nuclear update!

xwowsersx 3y ago

For me, your site says "renewablesby", instead of "renewables by" https://ibb.co/vqxfvB9 https://ibb.co/vqxfvB9