Investors include SPARX Group Ltd., Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures
BOSTON, MA – October 30, 2017— Realtime Robotics, which develops breakthrough technology that unleashes robots and autonomous vehicles from their current limitations, announced today that it has secured $2 million in seed funding to further its growth. Key investors in the seed round include SPARX Group Ltd., Scrum Ventures, and Toyota AI Ventures, a venture capital subsidiary of Toyota Research Institute (TRI).
Founded in March 2016 by Duke University professors Dan Sorin and George Konidaris, Realtime Robotics enables complex robotic motion planning tasks to be accomplished up to 10,000 times faster than previously possible using a proprietary special-purpose processor – allowing robotic systems to instantly react to their environments, and compute how and where to move as their situation is changing. This groundbreaking ability to instantly plan motion in response to rapidly changing conditions overcomes one of the primary challenges preventing robots and autonomous vehicles from achieving their enormous potential.
“We’re currently working with major multinational customers to create highly adaptable robotic systems for application to new classes of industrial tasks, many times larger than the existing robotics market,” said Realtime Robotics CEO Peter Howard. “In addition, we’re excited about the role that Realtime’s technology can play in improving the safety of emerging autonomous driving platforms, even in complex urban driving environments.”
Realtime’s lightning-fast processor enables robots with sophisticated arms to be utilized in dynamic environments, dramatically increasing the types of industrial tasks they can perform. Realtime’s processor can also be used by autonomous vehicles to help them operate at normal speeds—like humans, but safer—instead of slowing to a crawl when there is uncertainty regarding other cars, bikes, or pedestrians.
“The technology being developed by Realtime Robotics is game-changing, and we’re proud to be part of this investment through Toyota AI Ventures,” said James Kuffner, TRI’s Chief Technology Officer. “We share Realtime’s commitment to enabling robotic systems to perform complex tasks quicker, safer and more efficiently.”
Realtime Robotics is hiring talented roboticists and software engineers to join its founding team in realizing the broad market applications for this breakthrough technology. The company has a growing list of clients, ample funding, exciting technology, and broad application areas under development. Get in touch for more information or explore career opportunities.
Media Contact
Maggie Weeks
marketing@rtr.ai
