Collaborative Robotics, based in Santa Clara, California, recently completed a $100 million Series B funding round to advance its autonomous mobile manipulator.
The company, led by Brad Porter, a former Amazon robotics executive, focuses on developing robots that integrate safely into diverse environments such as manufacturing, supply chain, and healthcare. These robots are designed to perform tasks commonly handled by humanoid robots but are distinct in their capabilities and design.
Unlike humanoid robots, Collaborative Robotics’ machine features a unique base that allows for omnidirectional movement and can interact with existing infrastructure in facilities to improve efficiency and workflow.
“Getting our first robots in the field earlier this year, coupled with today’s investment, are major milestones as we bring cobots with human-level capability into the industries of today.
We see a virtuous cycle, where more robots in the field lead to improved AI and a more cost-effective supply chain. This funding will help us accelerate getting more robots into the real world.
When talking about general-purpose robots versus special-purpose robots, we know what humanoids look like, but with a new morphology, we want to protect it for a while.
We’ve been looking at humanoids for a long time, but in manufacturing, secondary material flow is designed around humans and carts. Hospitals, airports, and stadiums are usually designed around people flow. A huge amount of people is still moving boxes, totes, and carts around the world.
We looked at use cases for humanoids at Amazon, but you don’t actually want the complexity of a humanoid; you want something that’s stable and could move faster than people.
There are orders of magnitude more mobile robots than humanoids in day-to-day use, and at $300,000 to $600,000 per robot, the capital to build the first 10 humanoids is very high. We want to get robots into the field faster.”
— Cobot founder Brad Porter, Interview with The Robot Report
Featured image: Credit: Collaborative Robotics
