April 12, 2021

Sioux Falls-based Raven Industries has acquired all the patents and other intellectual property of a Massachusetts-based robotics company.

Jaybridge Robotics was an early developer of automated agriculture technology.

Its IP portfolio includes “significant and critical patents for technology directly related to path planning, obstacle detection and avoidance, and multimachine control systems,” Raven said in a statement.

The company plans to leverage the acquisition with its own continued development of driverless ag technology, including integration into its AutoCart platform.

“By acquiring Jaybridge’s intellectual property, we are able to advance our autonomy strategy by combining necessary, technology-leading patents with our current suite of proprietary products in this space,” said Jared Kocer, Raven’s director of technology solutions. “Having this technology will allow us to accelerate the development of vehicle automation for agriculture equipment applications.”

Raven ends pandemic fiscal year down 46 percent in net income but positioned for growth