AI Startup Jacobi Robotics Launches with $5 Million Seed Round and Motion Planning Breakthroughs to Program Robots 20x Faster
2024年7月16日 - 10:00PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
- A 95% reduction compared to traditional robot programming
methods, Jacobi has set a new industry standard for robot
deployment time.
- Founded by a group of world-leading roboticists and AI
researchers from UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University,
Jacobi’s founding team includes Yahav Avigal, Lars Berscheid, Max
Cao, Jeff Ichnowski and Ken Goldberg.
Programming an industrial robot can take weeks to months. Jacobi
Robotics has pioneered a new kind of AI-powered motion planning
technology that requires 1000x less computational time and enables
the deployment of robots in less than one day compared to one month
with existing programming tools. Today, the startup launched the
availability of its groundbreaking technology and robotics AI
software platform, and announced it has raised a $5 million seed
round led by Moxxie Ventures with participation from Foothill
Ventures, Humba Ventures, and The House Fund. Existing investors
Swift Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, and LDV Partners also
participated.
The startup also announced the availability of the Jacobi
Palletizer, the first in a series of AI-powered solutions that
leverage Jacobi’s breakthrough motion planning technology. More
than $400 billion worth of US trade is exported annually on
pallets, driving a rapidly growing demand and deployment for
robotic palletizers that stack cases onto pallets for storage and
shipment.
With recent advances in AI combined with increasing labor
shortages, industrial robotics has reached an inflection point.
Robots are now being reprogrammed every six months instead of every
six years. Shorter production runs and new use cases enabled by
advancements in AI require robots that can adapt to changes. In
production deployments, Jacobi’s partners have already seen a 95%
reduction in deployment time and a 24% savings in overall project
costs after deploying Jacobi.
“Just a few years ago, machine learning was limited to a small
group of experts and researchers,” said Max Cao, CEO and
co-founder of Jacobi Robotics. “Today, any software developer
can train a production-ready machine learning model by following an
online tutorial. Similarly, in a few years, software engineers will
be implementing production-ready robot applications using
Jacobi.”
“The strong demand we’ve seen from the market underscores how
programming for industrial robots is ripe for a massive shift,”
said Cao. “The new financing will enable us to quickly ramp
Jacobi’s capacity to meet initial and new demand fulfillment.”
Robot motion planning, which involves controlling a robot's
joints to maneuver its end-of-arm tool while avoiding obstacles, is
a foundational aspect of robotics. However, until recently, it was
virtually never used in commercial settings due to the complexity
and computational requirements of implementing these algorithms,
making them impractical. Jacobi has pioneered a new kind of
AI-powered motion planning technology resulting in the fastest ever
real time collision-free trajectory generations with computational
times below 1 ms.
“The founders of Jacobi Robotics are leading roboticists hailing
from the Berkeley AI Research Lab, acclaimed for their trailblazing
research in AI, optimization, and motion planning,” said Alex
Roetter, General Partner of Moxxie Ventures. “They have
effectively leveraged their academic roots to rapidly build a
company that addresses critical needs in the robotics space. Their
comprehensive understanding of both the technical and commercial
aspects of robotics has helped them design a platform that
simplifies programming for industrial robots.”
Jacobi’s robot motion planning technology has sparked
significant demand, with agreements already secured with
manufacturers across the US, top robotics solutions providers
including Formic, and Fortune 500 companies worldwide across a wide
range of sectors including electronics and consumer packaged goods
(CPG).
About Jacobi Robotics
Jacobi Robotics is a new AI and robotics company in Berkeley,
CA, commercializing advanced software that will significantly
improve the programming time and performance of robot solutions.
The company’s AI-powered platform leverages proprietary motion
planning technology and equips robotics engineers with an advanced
toolkit, providing a modern software development experience. Jacobi
is making advanced robotics capabilities accessible and reliable
for real-world production settings. For more information, please
visit www.jacobirobotics.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240716563245/en/
Connie Zheng connie@czcomms.com
Jacobi Robotics press@jacobirobotics.com