Agile Robots has entered into a partnership with Google DeepMind to develop robots at its Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. This is the latest effort in a series of robotics companies.
Agile Robots, based in Munich, Germany, announced Tuesday that it has entered into a strategic research partnership with Google DeepMind. The partnership includes Agile Robots implementing Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics foundational model into its bots, and data collected by the robots being used to improve the underlying Gemini AI model.
Together, the companies will test, fine-tune, and deploy robots using the Gemini foundation model in industrial use cases across fields such as electronics manufacturing, automotive, data centers, and logistics.
“Agile Robots has already deployed more than 20,000 robotic solutions around the world, demonstrating intelligent automation at scale,” said Zhaopeng Chen, co-founder and CEO of Agile Robots, in a press release about the deal. “The great opportunity ahead lies in autonomous, intelligent production systems that can transform entire industries. Integrating Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics models into our robotics solutions puts us at the forefront of this rapidly growing market.”
A spokesperson said the deal is long-term, but declined to provide details on length or price.
Agile Robots was founded in 2018 and has raised more than $270 million in venture capital funding from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Chinese hardware company Xiaomi, and Midas Group.
The company is just the latest robotics hardware company to partner with Google DeepMind to advance its technology.
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Earlier this year, Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics, maker of the famous dog-like robot Spot, announced a partnership with Google DeepMind to use its AI-based models to develop Atlas, the next humanoid robot. Boston Dynamics was owned by Google from 2013 to 2017.
Overall, partnerships with robots are on the rise this year. German robotics startup Neura Robotics announced a partnership with Qualcomm in early March. This includes Neura Robotics using Qualcomm’s recently announced IQ10 processor series designed for mobile robots and humanoids as a reference design for future robots.
A partnership like this makes a lot of sense because robots are so complex, both in terms of hardware and software. As companies strive to develop bots that can operate autonomously, it makes sense for companies with particular strengths, such as hardware, dexterity, or software, to partner with other companies with different expertise.
These partnerships are likely to not only continue, but accelerate, as many in the industry, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, believe physical AI is the next frontier in the AI market.
