Wired magazine: Opteran features in six trends shaping the future
Report for Qinetiq singles out Opteran Natural Intelligence as biomimicry identified as a major
disruptor.
In a report written by Wired magazine and commissioned by Qinetiq, a global integrated
defense and security company, Opteran has been called out as a pioneer of biomimicry, one of
six technology and science trends that are set to change the world. The report talks about the
potential of brain-computer interfaces, quantum technology, programmable materials, edge
computing and electromagnetic interference, alongside biomimicry.
In his interview David Rajan, CEO, talks about why insect brains offer a more efficient approach
to imbuing machines with intelligence. Although honeybees have much smaller brains than
humans they are still capable of sophisticated tasks such as navigation and collision avoidance,
but in a highly energy efficient way.
Since co-founders James Marshall, CSO and Alex Cope, CTO first began to research insect
intelligence over a decade ago it became clear that it makes much more sense to develop
autonomous solutions for robots and drones based on insect brains. Given the complexity of
human brains and the failure of existing deep learning technologies to mimic such sophisticated
structures, focusing on insects can deliver elegant solutions.
Having already demonstrated our 360-degree stabilized vision and collision avoidance on
Hopper the robot dog and navigation on Green Hornet, our aerial solution, we are now focused
on integrating decision making into the Opteran Natural Intelligence platform. And while we’d
agree with the UK Biomimicry Innovation Lab that we’re seeing an explosion in technology
developments around biomimicry, the work we are already doing with customers demonstrates
that commercialization is already happening today – not at some point in the future. We’re
already working on a number of pilots alongside building out the product roadmap, and are
rapidly building relationships with key technology providers to integrate our platform into use
cases ranging from mining to logistics and consumer robotics.
We’re convinced biomimicry offers the inspiration for the third wave of autonomous systems,
which will resolve many of the outstanding issues with current models. It is not a matter of ‘if’ but
‘when’ we see such technology more widely adopted, and in Opteran Natural Intelligence there
are whole new categories of autonomous systems being opened up. For example, it means we
are already embedding autonomy in sub-250g drones to create new possibilities for autonomy
in fields such as oil and gas and logistics.
We’re growing rapidly, so if you would like to join the team do check out the opportunities on our website! Or send your CV to jobs@opteran.com
