RoboForce’s RF-04 dual-armed cellular manipulator. | Supply: RoboForce
RoboForce on Monday emerged from stealth with $10 million in early-stage funding. The startup affords a dual-armed cellular manipulator, referred to as RF-04, focusing on the photo voltaic and area industries. The corporate mentioned it goals to start deploying its system this yr with early clients.
The corporate mentioned its robotic can fulfill labor shortages in harsh outside situations, full hazardous duties, and improve undertaking effectivity and price financial savings. It mentioned the robotic is able to 1 mm-level accuracy in performing high-quality motor abilities like choosing, inserting, urgent, twisting, and connecting. The corporate mentioned the RF-04 additionally affords all-terrain mobility, studying, communication, and security compliance capabilities.
The funding spherical included help from traders equivalent to Nobel Laureate Myron Scholes, co-founder of SoftBank VC (SBVC) Gary Rieschel, and Carnegie Mellon College. Based in 2023, RoboForce’s workforce is made up of tech leaders from CMU Robotics, Michigan Robotics, Amazon Robotics, Tesla Robotics, Google, Waymo, Apple, and Microsoft.
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RoboForce casts broad web for preliminary functions
The startup’s goal industries embody photo voltaic, area, manufacturing, and mining, sectors the U.S. Bureau of Labor mentioned are among the many most impacted by accidents and lack of labor. This lack of labor emerged from unsafe summer time temperatures and different work-related hazards.
“Labor shortages and decarbonization are the 2 largest developments which might be taking place at a world scale, and RoboForce is uniquely positioned to deal with each,” mentioned Myron Scholes, Nobel Laureate for Financial Science, investor, and the Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford’s Graduate College of Enterprise. “RoboForce has a terrific workforce engaged on innovation very priceless for the world.”
RoboForce’s first clients are creating industrial and utility-scale photo voltaic initiatives and are struggling to rent and retain expert employees. Their struggles stem from excessive temperatures in distant areas the place most large-scale photo voltaic initiatives are being developed, RoboForce mentioned. By offering robots that may stand up to harsh and excessive environmental situations all through years-long undertaking durations, RoboForce mentioned it’s serving to photo voltaic builders full the development and set up of large-scale initiatives quicker or on schedule, and at a lowered price.
Cell manipulators gaining traction
As humanoid robots have dominated current conversations in robotics, wheeled cellular manipulators have more and more emerged as a much less complicated different. Like humanoids, these robots can autonomously navigate and seize objects.
Grand View Analysis estimated the cellular manipulator market was value $385.9 million in 2023. It’s going to develop at a CAGR of 23.9% from 2024 to 2030. Specifically, Grand View predicts these robots will acquire traction throughout manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and agriculture.
In November 2024, Collaborative Robotics, a startup based by Amazon’s Brad Porter, unveiled its Proxie cellular manipulator publicly for the primary time. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm mentioned Proxie can safely and affordably work alongside individuals in diverse manufacturing, provide chain, and healthcare workflows. Earlier within the yr, Collaborative Robotics closed a $100 million Sequence B spherical towards commercializing the robotic.
Cell Industrial Robots (MiR) just lately launched its MC600 cellular manipulator. The MC600 combines the MiR600 AMR with the UR20 and UR30 collaborative robotic arms from Common Robots A/S. Each firms are owned by Teradyne. MiR mentioned it might probably deal with payloads as much as 600 kg (1,322 lb.) and automate complicated workflows in industrial environments.
