Apptronik launches robot training hub, unveils Apollo 2 humanoid robot
FILE PHOTO: A view of Apollo, the humanoid robot built by Apptronik, Inc. at Austin, Texas, U.S., October 25, 2023. REUTERS/Evan Garcia/File Photo
June 30 : Google-backed Apptronik unveiled a new robot training facility on Tuesday, betting that large-scale real-world data collection will accelerate the commercialization of humanoid robots.
The Austin-based startup said the facility, developed with Google DeepMind, is designed to move robots from pilot projects to production deployments.
• The nearly 90,000-square-foot facility, Robot Park, in Austin houses fleets of humanoid robots performing logistics, manufacturing and retail tasks to generate training data for AI models.
• The company also introduced Apollo 2, its latest humanoid robot, available in both bipedal and wheeled configurations, which has operated for more than a year as the company's data collection platform.
• Robot Park supplies data to Gemini Robotics, Google's robotics AI model, under Apptronik's research partnership with Google DeepMind.
• "We have a factory that produces robots, we also have a factory that produces data," CEO Jeff Cardenas said, describing Robot Park as the engine for building production-grade AI models.
• Cardenas said Apptronik has built "hundreds" of Apollo 2 robots but declined to disclose deployment numbers.
• "We'll continue to pilot through this year, and then we'll start to see real production versions ... in 2027 and beyond," Cardenas said.
• Apptronik raised $520 million in a funding round announced in February that valued the company at about $5 billion.
