Posts

Iván Hernández Dalas: Flexion to use Series A to build sim-to-real, AI systems powering humanoids

Image
What appears to be a Unitree humanoid robot equipped with Flexion’s AI systems. | Source: Flexion Flexion Robotics AG last week said it has raised Series A funding of $50 million. The company is building a reinforcement learning and sim-to-real platform that can power humanoid robots across morphologies and tasks. Over the past few years, generative AI has changed how many people code, analyze data, and reason. At the same time, developers have looked for ways to apply this same power to robotics, noted Flexion. With the flexibility of new artificial intelligence models, roboticists could break free from the brittle, task-specific systems that rely on scripted behaviors, said the Zurich-based company . Flexion is using generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to build models that can automate tasks involving reasoning, writing, and creativity. Founded in 2024, the startup said its full autonomy stack spans: Command layer: Language models for common-sense reasoning take t...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: Sovato CEO says big telesurgery advances are coming soon

Image
Sovato Health co-founder and CEO Cynthia Perazzo. | Source: Sovato Health Sovato Health co-founder and CEO Cynthia Perazzo expects big advances in telesurgery in the year ahead. “Remote surgeries and procedures are inevitable,” she told Medical Design & Outsourcing . “We’ll see over the next 12 months more robots becoming remote-enabled and making big announcements about that. We’ll see more studies and surgeons and robotics partners creating studies to bring the evidence that shows that remote surgery is safe and the outcomes are very good.” Perazzo should know. Sovato Health has been working with leading surgical robotics developers and the physicians and healthcare systems that use them to usher in the future of remote , minimally invasive procedures. Her company  recently closed a $26 million Series B funding round that included a first-time investment from  Intuitive Surgical . “I’m very excited about the collaborative nature and the competitive na...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: Physical Intelligence raises $600M to advance robot foundation models

Image
Physical Intelligence says its latest VLA model can double robot throughput. Source: Physical Intelligence While ChatGPT and other generative AI engines can draw conclusions from the entire Web, robots require real-world data and foundation models to transcend more deterministic programming and learn new skills. Physical Intelligence last week raised $600 million in Series B funding as it continues to develop models for robots to understand and interact with the material world. The San Francisco-based company plans to use the financing to collect more data, make strategic partnerships, and grow its team. Founded in 2024, Physical Intelligence raised $400 million a year ago. Physical Intelligence aims for faster, more reliable robots With foundation models, AI developers are working to make it easier for robots to learn from a variety of inputs and to generalize behaviors more quickly with smaller amounts of data than previous reinforcement learning (RL) approaches. This has ...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: Human-robot interaction design retreat

Image
Rick Payne and team / Ai is… Banner / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0 . Earlier this year, the HRI Design Retreat brought together experts from academia and industry in the field of design for human-robot interaction (HRI). During the two-day event, which featured hands-on interactive activities, participants explored the future of design for HRI, how this could be shaped, and worked on a roadmap for the next five-ten years. The retreat was organised by Patrícia Alves-Oliveira and Anastasia Kouvaras Ostrowski, and you can see a short documentary about it below: Find out more about the retreat here . View Source
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: Parallax Worlds raises funding for hyper-realistic digital twins to test robots

Image
Parallax Worlds co-founders Aumkar Renavikar (left) and Tanmay Agarwal (right). | Credit: Pear VC Not only can digital twins and simulation be used to design robots, but they can also be used to stress test them. Parallax Worlds last week raised $4 million in seed funding. The company plans to use the financing for research and development, staffing, and to bring its product to market. “The core response [for the product] that we’ve seen is from the segment of AI-based robots,” Tanmay Agarwal, co-founder of Parallax Worlds, said in a recent episode of The Robot Report Podcast . “So it can be these metal sanding, grinding, welding, pick-and-place robots that are now being deployed into these factories.” “The common theme to all of these applications is that the robot has a camera. And it’s using the camera to detect where the part is, [and what] it’s going to be working on,” he explained. “So, for the end users of these factories, what that basically means is that it could potenti...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: Sweetgreen sells Spyce robotics unit to Wonder for $186.4M

Image
One of Sweetgreen’s automated restaurants in Naperville, Ill. | Source: Sweetgreen Salad and bowl restaurant chain Sweetgreen Inc. this month sold its Spyce robotics business to Wonder Group Inc. for $186.4 million. Both Sweetgreen and Wonder said they plan to install Spyce’s Infinite Kitchen system in more locations. Founded in 2015 by graduates of MIT, Spyce had developed an automated hopper-based approach to assembling food bowls and operated two restaurants in Boston. Sweetgreen acquired the Somerville, Mass.-based startup for about $70 million in 2021. It then shut down the sites to focus on developing Spyce’s technology for use within its own restaurants. Sweetgreen has redesigned and commercialized the Infinite Kitchen, which is now in use in more than 20 Sweetgreen locations across the U.S. The Los Angeles-based company said it has also increased its throughput and enhanced food quality, accuracy, and consistency. However, Sweetgreen has faced its own financial challeng...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: How miniaturization is making robots smarter and more autonomous

Image
The LR Mate 200iD industrial robot arm includes miniaturized components for small reach envelopes. Source: FANUC Miniaturization in robotics involves reducing the size of robots and their components while increasing their power. It’s about putting sensors, computers, power management, and actuators into leaner footprints without sacrificing precision or reliability. These new machines can perform tasks in places too small for larger machines or humans to reach, making them optimal for factories, hospitals, and mines. Advantages of compact robotic systems The shift toward miniaturization offers significant benefits, which is why it is being developed and used in many scientific and industrial fields. Enhanced speed and accuracy Smaller components are naturally lighter. This reduced mass allows for much faster acceleration and deceleration. When clearances, flex, and backlash are minimized at smaller scales, precision increases. In micro- assembly or inspection , that translat...
Read more