Bonsai Robotics:
Hardware-independent robotics solutions

Bonsai Robotics specializes in vision-based automation solutions for machines in the arboriculture industry. The collaboration with Stogl Robotics was a newly founded startup with a small engineering team. The majority of their software stack was not yet written or defined in detail.

Situation

The team at Bonsai Robotics had a deep understanding of the problem to be solved and a clear vision of the added value of their product. However, due to the limited size of their team, they were looking for additional expertise to kick-start their initiatives. Especially in terms of code design and architecture to ensure long-term efficiency and maintainability.

In their search for the highest standards, Bonsai Robotics discovered Stogl Robotics, mainly through their (in their words) remarkable contributions to the ros2_control software stack. This immediately convinced them to turn to Stogl Robotics, who have a proven ability to handle the complexity of various robotics applications and the software behind them.

Problem

Solution

For the initial scope of work, Bonsai Robotics asked the Stogl Robotics team to design the control stack for two different types of vehicles so that the Nav2 software stack could be used immediately. Since the vehicles have completely different kinematics, the Stogl Robotics team's deep knowledge helped to share as much code as possible between them. In addition, Stogl Robotics implemented a full gazebo simulation for the vehicles, enabling faster development for Bonsai and a direct transfer of control algorithms to the real hardware.

In addition to the original scope of work, Stogl Robotics helped create and optimize URDF files for Bonsai's vehicles, resulting in a more realistic and engaging visualization and optimized collision models for the simulation.

Finally, the Stogl Robotics team implemented the first integration of the Nav2 stack and laid a solid foundation for optimizations on the real vehicles. In addition, they provide ongoing support to Bonsai's team to efficiently parameterize and set up the Nav2 stack as their internal software evolves.

Due to the early stage of the project, Bonsai Robotics asked for many changes along the way. Nevertheless, the experienced team at Stogl Robotics always tackled these efficiently and always delivered a well-structured plan for the next steps. Despite different time zones, Stogl Robotics promptly arranged meetings when email communication was not sufficient.

Result

With the support of the Stogl Robotics team, Bonsai Robotics was able to achieve an accelerated time to market and establish a solid code base for their engineers. Stogl Robotics demonstrated a deep understanding and extensive expertise in ROS 2 and effectively utilized this knowledge to maintain project momentum and meet deadlines. A structured approach to design and well-written code from Stogl Robotics enabled Bonsai's team to move forward quickly, even months after the project ended.