Key Takeaway
Last year, the company discontinued Astro for Business to focus on consumer household robots. Meanwhile, startups Physical Intelligence and 1x have raised substantial funds to develop robots for tasks like laundry and cleaning. This trend reflects a shift of talent back to robotics from the self-driving vehicle sector. Many startups are advancing from imitation learning to action-based AI models inspired by large language models (LLMs), allowing robots to learn movements more efficiently rather than relying solely on pre-programmed routines.
Last year, the company chose to discontinue Astro for Business—the enterprise version of its robot—to focus solely on the consumer market for household robots.
In the meantime, two other robotics startups, Physical Intelligence and 1x, have each secured hundreds of millions of pounds to create robots capable of handling everyday household tasks, such as folding laundry and cleaning surfaces.
This indicates that Kyle and his co-founders are part of a growing trend of talent returning to robotics from the self-driving vehicle industry.
Consequently, many startups in this sector are striving to advance beyond imitation learning—where robots learn by replicating human demonstrations—toward action-based AI models inspired by LLMs.
These methods could allow robots to learn movements more effectively, rather than depending solely on pre-programmed routines.
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