AI-powered humanoid robots that co-exist with people to assist our workloads could appear to be the plot of a sci-fi film, however corporations have been engaged on them for years. Living proof: Apptronik, a robotics lab based in early 2016, has been engaged on a 5-foot 8-inch, 160-pound, general-purpose humanoid robotic named Apollo. The corporate’s newest funding will speed up the robotic’s deployment.
On Wednesday, Austin-based Apptronik introduced the closing of a $350 million Sequence A funding spherical that shall be used to gasoline Apollo’s deployment, scale firm operations, develop its workforce, and speed up innovation, in line with an organization press launch. The funding was co-led by B Capital and Capital Manufacturing unit with participation from DeepMind, Google’s AI lab.
“With Apptronik, we see a world wherein humanoid robots play an important function in addressing societal challenges — from helping with catastrophe aid and elder care to supporting house exploration and medical developments,” mentioned Howard Morgan, chair and basic accomplice of B Capital.
With the funding, Apptronik plans to discover totally different type components for Apollo, additional develop its full-stack robotic platform, and develop the robotic’s capabilities in order that it could possibly deal with a variety of purposes throughout totally different industries corresponding to logistics, manufacturing, eldercare, and healthcare.
Lastly, the funding shall be used to extend Apollo’s manufacturing to satisfy what the corporate describes as “skyrocketing buyer demand.” In line with the put up, the orders span totally different verticals, together with automotive, electronics manufacturing, third-party logistics suppliers, beverage bottling and achievement, and shopper packaged items.
“By uniting cutting-edge AI with {hardware} engineered for significant interplay, we’re shaping a future the place robots grow to be true companions in driving progress,” mentioned Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of Apptronik.
In 2022, Apptronik partnered with NASA to develop Apollo. On the time, NASA mentioned Apollo may assist set up bases for human missions to different planets and astronomical our bodies, such because the Moon and Mars.
A yr later, Apptronik launched Apollo in alpha, securing industrial agreements with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics. Apptronik additionally partnered with Google DeepMind to mix its AI experience with Apptronik’s humanoid robotic platform. The brand new funding will permit the corporate to construct on that momentum and higher compete within the humanoid robotic market — which has a number of established and upcoming gamers.
Tesla additionally has a humanoid robotic named Optimus, generally known as the Tesla bot, and appears to be ramping up growth with dozens of job openings out there throughout AI, robotics, manufacturing, IT, and extra. Equally, final month, Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined OpenAI in November to guide the robotics and shopper {hardware} workforce, shared the primary OpenAI Robotics {hardware} roles, together with an EE Sensing Engineer, Robotics Mechanical Design Engineer, and TPM Supervisor.
Moreover, OpenAI filed a trademark software on January 31 with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace that included descriptions of many {hardware} merchandise, corresponding to “Person-programmable humanoid robots, not configured,” and “Humanoid robots having communication and studying features for helping and entertaining individuals.”
The fast developments within the AI house these previous two years have made constructing humanoid robots all that rather more tangible. Consequently, we will count on a variety of progress to happen within the humanoid robotic house inside the close to future, with the last word objective of creating them secure and helpful sufficient for everybody to make use of.
