Supported by Amazon.com and Japan's SoftBank Group, Robotics Startup Skild AI announced on Tuesday a basic artificial intelligence model designed to run on almost every robot, from assembly line machines to humanoids.
This model, called Skild Brain, allows robots to think, navigate and respond like humans. The launch is in a broader push to build humanoid robots that can offer more diverse tasks than the single intended machine currently on the factory floor.
The demonstration video showed a ciliated robot climbing stairs, maintaining balance after being pushed in, picking up objects in a messy environment. This is a task that requires spatial reasoning and the ability to adapt to surrounding changes.
The company said its model includes built-in power limits to prevent the robot from applying dangerous forces.
Skild trains models with simulated episodes and human action videos, using data from all the robots running the system to fine-tune it. Co-founders Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta told Reuters that it will help them tackle the data shortages inherent in robotics.
“Unlike languages and visions, there is no robotics data on the Internet, so it's not just about applying these generative AI techniques,” CEO Pathak told Reuters.
The robot deployed by the customer brought data back to Skild Brain to hone its skills, creating the same “shared brain.”
Skild's clients include LG CNS (the IT Solutions Arm of LG Group) and other unnamed partners in logistics and other industrial applications.
Unlike software that can scale quickly, robotics requires time-consuming physical deployment, but Skild's approach allows robots to quickly add new features to a wide range of industries, said Raviraj Jain, partner at startup investor LightSpeed Venture Partners.
The two-year-old startup, which hired staff from Tesla, Nvidia and Meta, raised $300 million in last year's Series A funding round, valued at $1.5 billion. The investors include Menlo Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
Reuters
