Swiss-Mile, a spinoff of ETH Zurich, is bringing artificial intelligence to the world of robotics, enabling them to learn and adapt to different environments. The startup has developed a hybrid system that combines wheels and legs, allowing robots to navigate and perform tasks across various terrains. The company has already secured paying customers and a financing round of CHF 3.5 million, pushing it into the commercialisation phase.
Swiss-Mile Robotics AG was founded in April 2023 by Marko Bjelonic, Giorgio Valsecchi, Lorenz Wellhausen, Alexander Reske and Marco Hutter following six years of research at the ETH, focusing on integrating artificial intelligence into robots to provide clients with an end-to-end-solution for applications in logistics, monitoring to construction and security. Their approach combines wheels and legs in its robot system, enabling better performance and adaptation to different spaces. These features, coupled with reinforcement learning and supervised learning, further expand the capabilities of four-legged robots, allowing them to better understand their real-world environment with AI. For instance, since robots only need a CE certification, they can be deployed in private areas and almost everywhere on public roads with a safety operator present. In the future, these robots can be fully autonomous on the street with appropriate permissions.
Starting with the Unitree Robotics hardware platform, the ETH Spinoff empowers wheeled-legged robots to navigate and perform tasks across diverse environments, including carrying substantial payloads of up to 60 kg, while overcoming obstacles with speed and efficiency. Swiss-Mile has enhanced the capabilities of robots by adding wheels, giving them the ability to switch between driving and walking modes for more flexibility and speed. This enhanced mobility opens avenues to address labour shortages, cut costs, enhance insights, and prioritize safety in workspaces.
Currently, Swiss-Miles is in the proof-of-concept and pilot installations stage, and it has attracted paying customers from Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Discussions with potential other customers are ongoing. Building on the successful early pilot deployments and trust from customers, the startup is now set for the official commercialisation of its AI deployed on wheeled-legged robots.
In addition to early revenue from pilot projects, Swiss-Mile closed a financing round of 3.5 million USD from investors including Linear Capital, Agile Robots AG, and Sequoia Capital China. The funds will primarily be used to expand the team from the current 10 to 20 members by the end of the year. Additionally, the money will be used to enhance customer value by improving product offerings.
(RAN)
Please login or sign up to comment.
Commenting guidelines