by tyler | Mar 19, 2024 | Tech
It’s tough to argue with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang when he notes, “Building foundation models for general humanoid robots is one of the most exciting problems to solve in AI today.” The humanoid form factor is one of the most hotly contested topics in the world of robotics at the moment, raising venture capital by the boatload, while generating massive skepticism along the way.
Naturally, Nvidia wants a piece. The chip giant has become arguably the most important hardware company in AI and has more recently been making a compelling case for itself as a driver for robotic innovation through initiatives like Isaac and Jetson. This week at its annual GTC developer conference, the company is planting its flag in the humanoid race with Project GR00T, which may or may not be a nod to Marvel’s illeist talking space tree.
The chipmaker refers to the new platform as “a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots.” In essence, the company is building an AI platform for the recent spate of entries into the category, including companies like 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, Fourier Intelligence, Sanctuary AI, Unitree Robotics and XPENG Robotics. That covers nearly every prominent humanoid robot maker at the moment, with a few notable exceptions like Tesla.
Agility gets additional facetime in the announcement, courtesy of a quote from co-founder and Chief Robotics Officer Jonathan Hurst: “We are at an inflection point in history, with human-centric robots like Digit poised to change labor forever. Modern AI will accelerate development, paving the way for robots like Digit to help people in all aspects of daily life. We’re excited to partner with NVIDIA to invest in the computing, simulation tools, machine learning environments and other necessary infrastructure to enable the dream of robots being a part of daily life.”
Sanctuary AI co-founder and CEO Geordie Rose also weighs in: “Embodied AI will not only help address some of humanity’s biggest challenges, but also create innovations which are currently beyond our reach or imagination. Technology this important shouldn’t be built in silos, which is why we prioritize long-term partners like NVIDIA.”
GR00T will support new hardware from Nvidia, as well. Keeping things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Jetson Thor, a new computer designed specifically for running simulation workflows, generative AI models and more for the humanoid form factor. I continue to caution people away from casually tossing out terms like “general purpose” when describing these machines, but Nvidia’s keen interest is a validation for the category that will almost certainly accelerate development.
Nvidia notes of the new silicon:
The SoC includes a next-generation GPU based on NVIDIA Blackwell architecture with a transformer engine delivering 800 teraflops of 8-bit floating point AI performance to run multimodal generative AI models like GR00T. With an integrated functional safety processor, a high-performance CPU cluster and 100GB of ethernet bandwidth, it significantly simplifies design and integration efforts.
While general purpose is still years off, democratizing access for third-party developers will go a long ways toward bridging that gap.
This week’s GTC robotics announcements included two more key programs: Isaac Manipulator and Isaac Perceptor. Manipulation has been a foundation aspect of robotics for decades now. Leading the way were the massive industrial robotic arms that have become a fixture of automotive manufacturing. The next generation will be even more dexterous and far more mobile. Naturally, Nvidia wants a piece of the action.
“Isaac Manipulator offers state-of-the-art dexterity and modular AI capabilities for robotic arms, with a robust collection of foundation models and GPU accelerated libraries,” the company writes. “It provides up to an 80x speedup in path planning and zero shot perception increases efficiency and throughput, enabling developers to automate a greater number of new robotic tasks.”
Nvidia already has some big names on board, including, Franka Robotics, PickNik Robotics, READY Robotics, Solomon, Universal Robots and Yaskawa.
AMRs (autonomous mobile robotics are also getting some love, in the form of Perceptor. The program maintains Nvidia’s longstanding focus on vision processing for robotics. This is specifically targeted at “multi-camera, 3D surround-vision capabilities.” ArcBest, BYD and KION Group have already signed up.
The next several years will present a fascinating race for market share between humanoids and mobile manipulators, and Nvidia wants a piece of all of that action.
by tyler | Mar 15, 2024 | Tech
It’s extremely heartening to see our little list effectively double since the last time we did one of these. While it’s true that layoffs continue to plague the tech industry at large, there are few better fields to be expert in at the moment than Robotics and AI.
With more than 60 entries this week, there are plenty of jobs and companies to choose from, across a broad range of different segments, from mail sorting to surgery to space.
To everyone who lost a job, recently graduated or is just looking for something new, here’s to finding your next big thing.
ACK Robotics (10 roles)
Advanced Construction Robotics (3 roles)
Aescape (7 roles)
Aigen (16 roles)
Ambi Robotics (2 roles)
ANYbotics (24 roles)
Astrobotic (40 roles)
Aurora (63 roles)
Austrian Institute of Technology (1 role)
Avidbots (12 roles)
Baubot (12 roles)
Bloomfield Robotics (5 roles)
Bridge Appliances Inc (2 roles)
Carnegie Robotics (3 roles)
Chef Robotics (9 roles)
Collaborative Robotics (8 roles)
Covariant (14 roles)
Crimson Tech (3 roles)
Cyvl.ai (3 roles)
Dexterity (39 roles)
Edge Case Research (3 roles)
Exotec (176 roles)
Formic (7 roles)
Formlogic (10 roles)
Four Growers (4 roles)
Foxglove (2 roles)
Gather AI (5 roles)
GrayMatter Robotics (8 roles)
Hellbender (6 roles)
Honeywell (10 roles)
Identified Technology (5 roles)
Kef Robotics (3 roles)
Kewazo (2 roles)
Matic Robotics (12 roles)
Medra AI (2 roles)
Mine Vision Systems (2 roles)
Motional (19 roles)
National Robotics Engineering Center (3 roles)
Near Earth Autonomy (7 roles)
Neya Systems (6 roles)
Nimble Robotics (9 roles)
Onward Robotics (3 roles)
Point One Navigation (5 roles)
Pudu Robotics (2 roles)
Reframe Systems (3 roles)
Roboto AI (1 role)
Robust AI (12 roles)
Sanctuary AI (12 roles)
Scythe Robotics (7 roles)
Seegrid (10 roles)
ST Engineering Aethon (4 roles)
Stack AV (40 roles)
Standard Bots (8 roles)
Stratom Inc (7 roles)
Symbotic (95 roles)
The AI Institute (18 roles)
Titan Robotics (3 roles)
Vayu Robotics (4 roles)
Vecna Robotics (5 roles)
Vention (19 roles)
Volley Automation (6 roles)
by tyler | Mar 12, 2024 | Tech
“We’re fundamentally a software company,” Locus CEO Rick Faulk says with a laugh. We look like a robot company, but we’re actually a software company.”
It’s a familiar refrain from companies whose most public-facing products are hardware. That’s certainly the case with Locus, which produces the best-known AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) not made by Amazon. While it’s true that these tote-moving systems are fundamental to the Massachusetts-based firm’s warehouse play, Faulk tells TechCrunch that the company’s software is what really sets the market leader apartment from the competition.
Locus currently offers fleet management software, essential to orchestrating robotic systems in a busy setting. That’s also a feature of the company’s latest offering, LocusHub Engine. Announced this week at the Modex supply chain show in Atlanta, the platform is designed to leverage the data collection that’s foundational to the company’s automation system. Much like your Roomba at home, Locus’ AMRs are packed with sensors that bring situational awareness and help it navigate around people, obstacles and other robots.
At their heart, they’re data-collecting machines that are also quite good at moving heavy payloads around warehouse floors. The new software offering uses AI to process the massive troves of data collected and offer predictions for what’s coming next.
“Most reporting in warehouses right now is what we call ‘reactive,’” Faulk tells TechCrunch. “It’s what happened. Someone picked X number of units per hour, here’s how many you should pick for the day, week and month. We believe that’s great and we still need that, but we also believe in having predictive analytics to tell you what’s about to happen is incredibly important.”
Utilizing machine learning, predictive modeling offers suggestions for where warehouse managers should distribute staff — both human and robot. The software can also be used to identify bottlenecks and refine the AMRs’ routes for better efficiency.
“We have uniquely integrated data capture from our robots into our platform,” says Faulk. “For example, I can go into my phone and look at any single robot in our system. I can actually control that robot and update that robot over my phone. We have the capabilities to be able to integrate both of those together.”
Locus’ founding was a direct result of Amazon’s 2012 Kiva Systems acquisition. Quiet Logistics, a former Kiva client, was among those customers left in the lurch when the retail giant decided to stop servicing outside companies, instead focusing the whole of its efforts on automating its own fulfilment processes. Quiet began its own robotics division in 2014, spinning out Locus the following year.
The Kiva acquisition was a massive catalyst for the category at large. Former executives from the robotics startup launched their own Locus competitor, 6 River Systems. That company has struggled in recent years, however, following its acquisition by Shopify and subsequent sale to English grocery technology licenser Ocado Group. Another key competitor, Fetch Robotics, was founded in 2014. In 2021, the company was acquired by commerce tech giant Zebra. More recently, founder Melonee Wise left the company to join Agility’s growing executive team.
You can spot dozens of direct competitors walking through the halls of Modex this week, but Locus remains the market leader by a wide margin. It’s a position further cemented by the explosion of interest in warehouse automation spurred on by the pandemic. Investor activity was at an all-time high, fueling companies hoping to level the playing field in a world completely dominated by the 800-pound Amazon gorilla.
Investor excitement has since abated. While it’s true that plenty of operations are still having difficulty hiring human labor, there’s still a regression to the mean. This January, Locus laid off a small number of staffers — a figure the company has yet to disclose.
“We frankly over-hired on our go-to-markets, like a lot of our clients,” says Faulk. “We came out of COVID and had projections on staffing needs and that sort of thing that were probably overestimated.” The CEO adds that the “adjustments” happened among Locus’ go-to-market headcount, rather than the engineering team.
But the company remains a success story in the category more broadly. It’s managed a steady growth by focusing on existing client needs, rather than attempting to be all things to all people. A decade after its founding, tote-transporting AMRs are still at the center of everything Locus does. Over the years, the company has added products like Vector, which can port up to 600 pounds and features specialized wheels that allow it to effectively drift sideways to better navigate tight spaces. Each new robot is — in essence — an iteration of Locus’ core robot product.
At present, human labor is essential to that story. Locus does not produce a mobile manipulator, meaning people have to move totes onto and off of the robot. Asked whether Locus will be the company to bring that technology to the warehouse, Faulk responds, “We will. We’re looking at a number of things that will reduce labor in a building. We have an R & D group that is looking at things to fully automate a building. Over time, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Faulk isn’t particularly bullish on the role humanoid robots will play in that future.
“Maybe for specific functions it might [be useful],” he explains. There are challenges today between battery life, cost, uptime and all the other things that go along with it. I think eventually there may be some use cases for specific things. But I think that’s years away before there’s any scale. There are tests that will be done, but before anything gets to enterprise scale, I think it will be years.”
by tyler | Mar 12, 2024 | Tech
LG Electronics may no longer be a household name in smartphones, but it still sees a big future in gadgets like robots. Today, the company confirmed a $60 million investment in Bear Robotics , the California startup that makes artificial intelligence-powered server robots for restaurants and other venues — autonomous tray towers on wheels that are meant to replace waiters. With the investment, LG Electronics becomes Bear’s largest shareholder.
Bear’s last fundraise in 2022 valued the company at just over $490 million post-money, per PitchBook data. It’s not clear what the valuation is for this latest investment, but the last year has not been a great one for startups in the space.
On the other hand, the current vogue for all things AI, and the general advances that are coming with that, are giving robotics players a fillip — see yesterday’s Covariant news , for another example. Still, it’s not clear what Bear hopes to tackle next with the basic trays-on-wheels form factor that it has adopted for its flagship Servi robots.
We’ve contacted Bear and LG for further comment.
The Bear investment comes nearly two months after LG CEO William Cho hinted at LG’s interest in equity investments in robotics specializing in delivery and logistics at CES 2024 in January: the company is putting money where its mouth is.
After LG shut down its struggling mobile business globally in April 2021, the Korean electronics and appliance giant shifted its business focus to other growth areas, including smart homes, connected devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), electric vehicle (EV) components, and robotics and artificial intelligence platforms.
“As the service robot market enters a period of growth, this equity investment will significantly contribute to securing a ‘Winning competitive edge’ for the company,” Lee Sam-soo, chief strategy officer at LG Electronics, said in a statement. “From a mid-to long-term perspective, we will seek to develop our robot business into a new growth engine, exploring various opportunities through the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as Embodied AI and robotic manipulation.”
This investment is not LG’s first robotic business. The Korean electronics company has been researching and developing software and hardware in robotics for years. In 2017, LG deployed guide robots at South Korea’s largest airport, Incheon International Airport, per its statement.
Bear was founded in 2017 by John Ha, a former Google software engineer-turned-restaurateur, who witnessed how challenging things could get. Ha’s first-hand experience with the challenges of running a restaurant inspired him to develop serving robots.
Bear Robotics targets restaurant staffing shortages with another $81M raise
The SoftBank backed startup operates its indoor delivery robots in the U.S., South Korea and Japan. These serving robots, designed to help deliver food to restaurant customers, have been successfully deployed in various settings.
“Just as Android revolutionized the smartphone era, standardized open platforms are essential for the activation of the robot market,” Ha said.
Just last month, LG’s CEO had a meeting with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg to discuss a potential collaboration for developing extended reality (XR) devices. In late November, LG set up an extended reality (XR) team as part of an organizational reshuffle to expedite the development of an XR device, aiming for 2025.
Bear Robotics is raising big bucks for robots that deliver food to restaurant patrons
by tyler | Feb 14, 2024 | Tech
There’s no such thing as a future-proof career. This is something I consider nearly any time I write about advances in generative AI. Is there a sense in which I’m contributing to the propagation of my eventual replacement? Probably! But don’t worry, that’s a me problem. As for you, my roboticist friend, you’ll be just fine.
While the last several years have been rough on the tech industry at large, the robotics industry has largely been insulated. I say largely here because, in much the same way that future-proof careers aren’t a thing, no industries are wholly immune from job loss. The still-fresh example of iRobot continues to loom large.
But again, there is good news for you, the roboticist. For at least as long as I’ve been covering this industry, there’s been no shortage of open roles. These jobs always run the gamut, from huge corporations like Amazon to newer startups that have yet to announce their first product. Whether you’d prefer to opt for the relative security of a big company or the nimble innovation of a small team is entirely up to you.
In either case, there are plenty to chose from.
Agtonomy (7 roles)
Aigen (4 roles)
Amazon Robotics (139 roles)
ANYbotics (27 roles)
Automated Architecture Ltd (1 role)
Baubot (15 roles)
Beacon AI (2 roles)
Berkshire Grey (20 roles)
BHS Robotics (3 roles)
Chef Robotics (8 roles)
Clockwork (4 roles)
Dexterity (40 roles)
farm-ng (6 roles)
Forcen Inc. (5 roles)
Formic (7 roles)
Foxglove (4 roles)
GrayMatter Robotics (20 roles)
Hyphen Technologies Inc. (3 roles)
Kodiak (23 roles)
Matic Robots (13 roles)
Neya Systems (7 roles)
Nimble Robotics (8 roles)
Pudu Robotics (3 roles)
Reframe Systems (2 roles)
Renovate Robotics (1 role)
Sanctuary AI (11 roles)
Scythe Robotics (15 roles)
Skip (2 roles)
Symbotic (20 roles)
The AI Institute (20 roles)
Vayu Robotics (4 roles)
Vention (19 roles)
