Startup to stay after Toro acquisition

Left Hand Robotics Inc., a Longmont star tup that has developed an autonomous snow-plowing robot, may now be owned by Minnesota-based The Toro Co. (NYSE: TTC), but the firm plans to stay in Boulder County.

“The Left Hand Robotics team will continue to operate from its facility in Long

working closely with The Toro Co.’s engineering and technology teams around the world,” a Toro spokesman told Bizwest in an email.

Toro announced this week that it has acquired Left Hand for an undisclosed sum.

Left Hand Robotics founder Terry Olkin will continue to lead the local operation.

“The Toro Co. values the experience and exper tise of Left Hand’s founders and employees,” the company said.

The robot is Gps-controlled and connected to the cloud. It follows a preprogrammed path unassisted to clear sidewalks and bike paths. The system includes LIDAR and RADAR sensors that detect obstacles and allow Snowmont,

Bot to drive itself safely. Onboard cameras automatically take before and after pictures included in postaction job reports, and monitoring systems allow an operator to monitor the Snowbot in real-time from the Web or a mobile device. Snowbot can pretreat walks ahead of a storm and apply solid or liquid deicer immediately after clearing snow.

The firm, according to its website, also makes the RT-1000 Tractor that can autonomously mow grass and clear snow.

“We have gotten to know the Left Hand Robotics team over several years and have been extremely impressed with its deep experience in autonomous technologies, an area of future strategic focus for The Toro Co. It also works with many of the same customers that we suppor t in the landscape and grounds markets,” the spokesman said. “(Toro) has a strategic vision to commercialize autonomous product lines across our broad portfolio of products, and we view the Left Hand technology as broadly applicable across this product portfolio.”