A Sheffield company that builds insect-inspired artificial intelligence for robots, drones and autonomous vehicles.
Opteran is a Sheffield technology company that gives machines a kind of artificial brain based on how insects see and move. Instead of relying on very large amounts of training data like many modern AI systems, it studies how a honeybee, with only about a million neurons, can navigate and make decisions, and turns those ideas into software. Its main product is the Opteran Mind, which runs on low-cost cameras and chips.
The company was launched in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Sheffield's Department of Computer Science. It was founded by Professor James Marshall and Dr Alex Cope, whose research group spent about a decade studying how insect brains perceive, locate themselves and navigate. Marshall has said that, if you want to build AI, it is odd to start with the most complicated brain there is.
Opteran's mission, in the words of chief executive David Rajan, is to provide general-purpose autonomy for any moving machine: "We're building the brain for everybody else's brawn." Its first capabilities are spatial navigation and self-localisation, with collision avoidance and decision-making planned. It targets robots, warehouse vehicles, drones, security, mining and automotive projects, some of which are under confidentiality agreements.
Opteran is based in Sheffield, and local economic-development coverage describes it as one of the city's technology success stories. The company has said it declines applications that are weapons-related, and has turned down drone projects on that basis. One article put the team at about 45 people at the time of writing, with Charlie Rance as chief product officer alongside Rajan.
A company built on science like this employs researchers and software engineers, but also hardware specialists, product people, partnerships staff and operations roles. If you enjoy biology, maths, coding or robotics, Opteran is a good example of how studying nature can lead to new technology. The company has said that its technology needs no training data, infrastructure or connectivity, so a robot can use it on its own, which is a clear difference from many other AI approaches. Its first announced partner was Safelog, a German maker of autonomous warehouse robots, and its Partnership Programme and Development Kit show it wants other firms to build on its work. It has also appeared on the BBC programme Click. Reading about its work with robotics partners is a good way to see what kinds of skills it values.
Website: opteran.com
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