MENDON — A Cache Valley robotics company with roots at Utah State University has formed a joint venture with SoftBank Group Corp. to develop and commercialize autonomous construction equipment for large infrastructure projects.
Autonomous Solutions Inc., also known as ASI, announced the partnership last week. In addition to funding the joint venture, SoftBank Group invested $225 million directly in the Mendon-based company to help expand its commercial operations in the construction industry.
ASI said the joint venture will focus on autonomous equipment used in civil construction and material handling, including technology capable of coordinating mixed fleets of heavy equipment from different manufacturers.
“This joint venture with SoftBank positions ASI at the forefront of autonomous construction innovation—built for scale, engineered for longevity, and open to every major equipment brand on the jobsite,” ASI CEO Mel Torrie said in a release.
The company’s Mobius platform is designed to allow different types and brands of industrial vehicles to operate autonomously as part of the same fleet. ASI said that could include haul trucks, dozers, loaders and compactors working together on tasks ranging from earthmoving to vertical construction.
“Together, we offer automated OEM-agnostic heavy equipment solutions that let customers deploy mixed fleets of haul trucks, dozers, loaders, compactors, and more—all operating autonomously together across complex tasks from earthmoving to vertical construction,” Torrie said.
ASI said potential applications include road, airport and railway construction, along with waste management and other large infrastructure projects.
The SoftBank investment represents a significant infusion of capital for a company that traces its beginnings to research conducted at Utah State University.
ASI was founded in 2000 by a group of engineers who took technology developed at USU into the commercial sector. The privately held robotics company has since expanded its autonomous vehicle technology into construction, agriculture, logistics and landscaping.
The company remains headquartered in Cache Valley, with a more than 200-acre testing and proving ground in Mendon and Petersboro. ASI also has offices in Salt Lake City; the Dallas-Fort Worth area; and Longmont, Colorado.
The company said the SoftBank funding will increase its ability to commercialize autonomous technology across the broader construction market while expanding the scale of its operations.