Robust.AI brings in $20M to scale robot deliveries

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Robust.AI brought in $20 million in Series A-1 funding, according to reporting from Tech Crunch. Robust offers an autonomous warehouse cart that pairs with its autonomous mobile robot (AMR) software suite. 

Prime Movers Lab led the funding round, which also included participation from Future Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, JAZZ Ventures and Playground Global. JAZZ Ventures led Robust’s 2020 funding round which totaled $15 million. Robust hopes to use its latest round of funding to scale its robotic systems. 

Carter, the company’s autonomous warehouse cart, can operate autonomously or follow workers around after a quick setup. The cart can also be maneuvered by simply grabbing the handles, giving extra flexibility to workers to manually move the carts as needed. It also features omnidirectional mecanum wheels, 16 onboard cameras and a control stanchion with handles. 

Carter pairs with Grace, the company’s software offering. Grace is designed to be a no-code, modern software system that runs partially in the cloud and partially on the actual robotic device. It includes all of the capabilities to quickly and easily setup an AMR for operation. 

Grace can easily map a warehouse environment using only a tablet with a camera. Onboard an AMR, Grace enables the AMR to leverage cameras for perception tasks and is designed to differentiate between all of the things seen by a robot. 

Robust offers the two products bundled with a RaaS payment model, although it also allows larger companies to choose to pay for the products upfront if they want. 

Robust was founded in 2019 by Rodney Brooks, previously an MIT professor and co-founder of iRobot and Rethink, and Anthony Jules, Brooks’ former student and now CEO of Robust. When the company was founded, Brooks and Jules planned to only offer a software system, but they quickly found that there weren’t hardware systems on the market with the on-board hardware needed for its software, leading them to develop Carter.