Rosendin showed off its solar robot in Texas. Weeks later, it put the robot up for sale.

From the archive. First announced by Rosendin, April 2025. Where it stands now: Unknown, as of October 2026, no current source found. Why I saved this: The robot halved a setting crew and cut panel breakage to "virtually zero," Rosendin says, and then the contractor put it up for sale. Building robots isn't its business, and that's the lesson for me.

Previously

In February, ENR reported that Rosendin, an electrical contractor that builds utility-scale solar farms, had deployed a three-robot panel-setting system built with ULC Technologies on its projects. A time-motion study showed a four-person setting crew could drop to two. Lincoln said the drivetrain was overbuilt and needed value engineering. No cost was disclosed.

May 2025 — Rosendin put a robot crew on solar panel setting in field tests at Danevang, Texas, and showed it at a West Texas job site on April 17. Here's what changed since Part 1 (February 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of May 2025)

Cost: Still not disclosed. No price, rental rate or payback period.
Output (Rosendin): 350 to 400 panels per 8-hour shift with a two-person crew in Danevang field tests. (Rosendin)
Crew (Rosendin): "I have a 10-man crew, and now it takes five," Lincoln said. The five-person robot crew sets about 600 modules in 8 hours, against about 725 for a 10-person manual crew. (Power Progress)
Safety (Rosendin): Sprains and strains "virtually zero," per Lincoln. (Power Progress)
Breakage (Rosendin): "Virtually zero" with the robot, per Lincoln. (Power Progress)
Microfractures (Rosendin): More than 100 robot-set panels tested at three labs showed none, per Lincoln. (Power Progress)
Status: "Working prototype." Rosendin is taking purchase offers through May. (Rosendin, Robotics & Automation News)

The demo

Rosendin's April 7 release announced the West Texas demonstration and put new detail on the machine. The panel-setting robot uses nine vacuum cups to grip a panel and places it within 2 mm of its position, the company says. It runs on hybrid power and can work on a 30° incline. Rosendin says Lincoln first had the idea in 2019. ULC, a Hauppauge, N.Y., robotics firm owned by SPX, says it took 18 months to get from concept to field trials.

The release also gave Rosendin's headline number: 350 to 400 modules per 8-hour shift with a two-person crew, which it called "three times the rate of a standard three to four person crew."

What Lincoln told Power Progress

In a May 10 interview with Power Progress, Lincoln compared two crews on an 8-hour shift. A manual crew of 10 people installs about 725 modules. A robot-assisted crew of five installs 600, and that was "at 50 percent speed," he said. "I have a 10-man crew, and now it takes five," he said.

He described the manual job: two people carry each panel overhead and walk it about 20 feet. Over a day, he said, a crew walks almost four miles carrying panels. With the robot, he said, sprains and strains are "virtually zero." The people don't go away. They move to skilled work: "Those five individuals, I can put them on something more complicated."

Damage was the other surprise, and Lincoln made two separate claims. First, outright breakage: "With the robot, it's virtually zero, where manually, I can't tell you how many modules we have that get broken." Second, hidden damage: Rosendin pulled more than 100 robot-set panels and sent them to three test labs. None showed microfractures, the hairline cracks that can hurt output and void a panel warranty, he said.

What's changed

Since February, the robot has also become a product for sale. Robotics & Automation News reported May 7 that Rosendin is taking offers through May for the system. Rosendin is an electrical contractor, not an equipment maker. If a manufacturer buys the design, he told Power Progress, "we will either buy them or we will rent them back."

The two descriptions differ. In February, ENR wrote that the robots had been deployed on Rosendin projects across the country. Rosendin's own April release calls the system a "working prototype." Both can be true: a prototype can be working on real jobs.

Why it matters

For contractors, this is the useful part: the customer that designed the robot wants to be a renter, not a builder. If a manufacturer picks it up, other solar contractors could get the same tool without funding their own R&D.

What went wrong

The numbers don't line up. Rosendin cites 350 to 400 panels per 8 hours with two people. ULC estimated 600 per 10 hours. Lincoln's Power Progress comparison uses a five-person robot crew and a 10-person manual crew. Each source uses a different crew and baseline. No one has published one production log.
Two status words. "Deployed" is ENR's word; "working prototype" is Rosendin's. Neither says how many units exist.
Still no cost. Three months of coverage, and no price, rental rate or payback.
No buyer yet. As of May 10, no sale had been announced.

Our follow-up question for Rosendin

If the design sells, will Rosendin's own crews keep using the current robots while a manufacturer builds production units, and what will a rental cost per panel?

Sources

Rosendin, “Rosendin to Demonstrate Robotic Solar Installers at Texas Job Site,” press release, April 7, 2025. rosendin.com
Art Aiello, “Autonomous robot aims to ease heavy lifting at solar farms,” *Power Progress*, May 10, 2025. powerprogress.com
Mark Allinson, “Rosendin starts taking offers to purchase its solar module installation robot,” *Robotics & Automation News*, May 7, 2025. roboticsandautomationnews.com
ULC Technologies, “ULC Technologies Designs and Develops Robotic Solar Construction Solution for Rosendin Electric,” c. March 2025 (page undated; the same announcement ran in Solar Power World around March 3, 2025). ulctechnologies.com
Jeff Rubenstone, “Rosendin Electric Deploys Custom Robots to Install Solar Panels,” *ENR*, Feb. 4, 2025. enr.com
Earlier in this series: Part 1. /case/rosendin-solar-robot-deployed

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