AI-powered humanoid robots that co-exist with people to assist our workloads might seem 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 Collection A funding spherical that will likely be used to gas Apollo's deployment, scale firm operations, develop its workforce, and speed up innovation, in keeping 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.
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"With Apptronik, we see a world during which humanoid robots play an important function in addressing societal challenges — from helping with catastrophe reduction and elder care to supporting area exploration and medical developments," stated Howard Morgan, chair and basic accomplice of B Capital.
With the funding, Apptronik plans to discover totally different kind elements for Apollo, additional develop its full-stack robotic platform, and increase the robotic's capabilities in order that it might tackle a variety of functions throughout totally different industries akin to logistics, manufacturing, eldercare, and healthcare.
Lastly, the funding will likely be used to extend Apollo's manufacturing to fulfill 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 success, and shopper packaged items.
"By uniting cutting-edge AI with {hardware} engineered for significant interplay, we're shaping a future the place robots turn out to be true companions in driving progress," stated Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of Apptronik.
In 2022, Apptronik partnered with NASA to develop Apollo. On the time, NASA stated Apollo may assist set up bases for human missions to different planets and astronomical our bodies, such because the Moon and Mars.
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A 12 months 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 obtainable throughout AI, robotics, manufacturing, IT, and extra. Equally, final month, Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined OpenAI in November to steer 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.
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Moreover, OpenAI filed a trademark utility on January 31 with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace that included descriptions of many {hardware} merchandise, akin to "Person-programmable humanoid robots, not configured," and "Humanoid robots having communication and studying capabilities for helping and entertaining individuals."
The fast developments within the AI area these previous two years have made constructing humanoid robots all that rather more tangible. Because of this, we are able to count on a variety of progress to happen within the humanoid robotic area inside the close to future, with the last word aim of creating them protected and helpful sufficient for everybody to make use of.