About

Rotundus was a leading developer of service robots. The company is owned by its founders, key persons, venture capital and Uppsala University Holding Company.

In 2004, Rotundus was incorporated as a spin-off from Ångström Space Technology Center, Uppsala University.

During the years the company worked closely with Örebro University and the Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems.

The vision was to create a safer and better world by delivering easy-to-use, reliable and cost-efficient robots that protect people and critical infrastructure.

During the years, our proprietary technology (patents pending) has won a number of awards and has been featured in newspapers, magazines and television.

rotundus awards

Winner of Best of What’s New

GroundBot has been chosen to receive a Best of Whast’s New Award 2008 from Popular Science in the Security Category.

Every year, Popular Science – the world’s largest circulation science and technology magazine – reviews thousands of new innovations and selects the top 100 across 11 categories. In order to be chosen, a product “must represent a significant step forward in its category”.

GroundBot has been exciting attention for a number of years. Other awards include –

  • VINN NU Award 2005
  • Venture Cup Award 2005
  • ALMI Innovation Award 2005

GroundBot has also been featured in national and international newspapers, magazines and television.

An extraordinary idea anchored in everyday reality

An innovative idea often begins life as just that: an idea. But then it can take years to find a market. GroundBot started off the other way around – as an answer to a need.

European Space Agency

GroundBot was initially designed for extraterrestrial exploration. The European Space Agency was looking for a vehicle that could explore the surface of Mercury.

The vehicle needed excellent all-terrain performance. It also had to be virtually breakdown-free since the nearest help would have been millions of miles away. So reliability was prioritized.

Although GroundBot never made it into space, our development philosophy has remained the same: to answer real market needs.

Need-driven development

Security companies are interested in new technology that can differentiate their offering and cut their costs. From the beginning, we have been working in close co-operation with market-leading actors in the security industry.

Together we have further developed specifications and fine-tuned the performance of GroundBot. Letters of intent have turned into collaborative projects, which have lead to prototype orders.

GroundBot is a revolutionary idea that is firmly anchored in the no-nonsense reality of the market. Thanks to the hands-on involvement of our partners, GroundBot has had operational reliability built into its genes.

The first robot

Rotundus develops mobile robots very well suited for surveillance and inspection in rough environments.

Its spherical shape makes the robot tight, durable and fast. It can run in most terrain – snow, mud, sand, water.

The first robot was built at Ångström Space Technology Center at Uppsala University. Its original use was to explore planets, but other terrestrial uses are now being developed by Rotundus.

Rotundus AB

In 1992 Per Samuelsson applied for the world’s first patent on locomotion and control of a spherical robot. In the late 90s he contacted professor Lars Stenmark at Ångström Space Technology Center at Uppsala University. Lars took the idea to one of his PhD students, Fredrik Bruhn. Fredrik teamed up with Viktor Kaznov, at the time an engineering student. Fredrik and Viktor then built their first working spherical robot.

During the spring 2004 they were introduced to Nils Hulth and Mats Gustafsson, both with a background from learning systems. The group together identified surveillance and inspection as a major potential market.

In the fall 2004 Rotundus AB was founded by Nils Hulth, Viktor Kaznov, Fredrik Bruhn, Mats Gustafsson, Per Samuelsson, Lars Stenmark and Uppsala University Holding AB.