This startup that just raised $6.5 million bets the next big side hustle is controlling robots with VR headsets
Avatar Robotics has raised $6.5 million to deploy industrial robots controlled by remote human operators via VR headsets. The company uses this 'teleoperation' model to perform warehouse tasks while simultaneously collecting data to train future autonomous systems.
Why it matters
It highlights a bridge technology that allows companies to deploy robotics immediately while solving the 'data hunger' problem for future AI autonomy.
Colin Webb, founder and CEO of Avatar Robotics (middle). Avatar Robotics Avatar Robotics raised $6.5 million to build a workforce of industrial robots. Remote contractors control the robots as they perform paid warehouse work. Each shift generates data that Avatar uses to make its robots more autonomous. On a cold morning in Dallas shortly before Christmas last year, CEO Colin Webb watched one of his robots work an eight-hour shift alongside warehouse workers. The wheeled machine, equipped with two robotic arms, spent the day packing beauty products into pouches as part of a pilot. A few miles away, a person inside an Airbnb controlled its every move using a Meta Quest headset. The shift tested the unconventional model behind Webb's startup, Avatar Robotics.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in