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Robust.AI

Industrial-grade cognitive engine for robotics

Robust.AI logo
21-100 employees
  • B2B
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Logistics
  • Manufacturing
  • Deep Tech
  • Robotics
Ventura, Palo Alto, CA

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Company mission

To make robots work for people.

Our take

Increasing complexity in supply chains and demand has meant manufacturing and logistics are incorporating more robotics and automation. These systems, however, can be cumbersome, costly, and brittle, meaning it’s difficult for them to adapt to new demand. Robust’s solution is a platform enabling rapid, no-code setup of robotic transport systems in warehouses to help transport materials and tools.

The idea is that these robots work with, not instead of, human workforces - and it’s just the first slate of applications for Robust’s deeper tech. The aim is to develop an all-purpose cognitive engine that will produce robots that can make decisions in open-ended environments.

The potential applications for a common-sense cognitive platform are sweeping, even if Robust’s beginnings are fairly modest. It’s planning to build out its own datasets and pursue strategic alliances with companies across different verticals - it’s already in conversation with iRobot for application of its AI layer in homes, for example.

With the heavy-hitting founding team of robotics veterans at the helm, Robust is making painstaking and careful progress in what is growing to be a multi-billion dollar global robotics industry. It will be interesting to see how its tech progresses.

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Steph

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Benefits

  • Generous benefits, stock options and huge potential for growth
  • Strong startup (and fun) culture
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage
  • Flexible vacation and sick leave practices
  • Paid parental leave
  • Optional bi-monthly COVID-19 testing

Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)

Apr 2023

$20m

SERIES A

Oct 2020

$15m

SERIES A

Total funding: $42.5m

Leadership

Anthony Jules

(CEO)

Worked as Principal at robotics company Jules Studios, before serving as COO and VP of Product at Redwood Robotics, and then Head of Product & Program Management at X, the moonshot factory. Ultimately spent time as CTO/Advisor for Formant.

Rodney Brooks

(CTO)

Previously co-founded Lucid, iRobot (sold to Uber), and Rethink Robotics, and for the latter two also served as CTO. Additionally spent nearly three decades as the Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT.

Mohamed Amer

(Chief Science Officer)

Completed a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oregon State University, before spending time at SRI International as a Senior Computer Scientist and then Senior Technical Manager.

Henrik Christensen

(Co-founder)

Holds the Qualcomm Chancellor's Chair in Robot Systems at UC San Diego, as well as directing the Contextual Robotics Institute; also is a Distinguished Professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Spent a decade as co- Editor in Chief covering robotics at Now Publishers, and also co-founded ROBO Global.