Buchanan Robotics

This category focuses on validating market demand; it requires demonstrable evidence that a proposed idea addresses a genuine, existing need within a sufficient target audience.

Autonomous robotic cow bed cleaning systems for dairy farms.

This concept focuses on developing an autonomous robotic system designed to clean and prepare dairy cow cubicle beds. The idea was inspired by observing labour-intensive bedding and cleaning processes on dairy farms first-hand and identifying an opportunity for robotics to reduce labour requirements while improving efficiency in modern dairy operations. 

• Winning the Conceptual Idea Award is a fantastic milestone for this project, and I’m grateful to the judges and the Emerge team for the opportunity to present the idea and for their support throughout the process. The experience has been hugely valuable, from researching the problem to shaping the concept into a viable business idea. Coming from a farming background, it has been particularly rewarding to explore how robotics could help address labour challenges on dairy farms. I’m excited to continue developing the concept, validating the technology, and working towards a prototype that could support the future of dairy farming.

  William Buchanan

  Founder 

  Plans for the next 6 months

  Over the next six months the focus will be on validating the key assumptions behind the initial concept. This includes further customer interviews and validation, testing the mechanical cleaning mechanism involved with the robot system, and exploring early robotic autonomous control to assess the feasibility of a working prototype.