Memphis-based Dextrous Robotics is calling it a day. The news, noted by the Robot reportconfirmed by robotic warehouse company CEO Evan Drumwright, on LinkedIn. The executive describes the company’s fortunes at the top of the post, noting, “Simply put, we took an aggressive trajectory 18 months ago that the recent investment market did not support. As a result, we became insolvent.”
Even in perfect economic conditions, launching a startup is something of a no-brainer – doubly so in hardware and, perhaps, triple in robotics. It’s an expensive business that requires extensive runways and room to make turns, and even the most promising companies rarely get off the runway.
Last year, Dextrous made headlines for its new approach to truck unloading. The system deploys a ‘chopstick’ method, where a pair of vertically oriented beams control a pair of sticks that push against the boxes to lift them. The dexterity of the title (not to be confused with the truck-unloading robot company Dexterity AI) allows the system to approach crates from a variety of vantage points and angles.
“We started Dextrous Robotics four years ago to organize our world with machines and focused on automating one of the most dangerous jobs in the industrialized world,” says Drumwright. “We don’t believe people should sacrifice their physical health to get goods around the world.”
The post goes on to add that the company’s DX-1 robot was “on track” to be deployed with a pair of “major logistics companies.” Between ongoing labor difficulties and a long-standing desire to compete with companies like Amazon, there’s certainly an appetite for this technology. Loading and unloading trucks is a highly taxing task that is equally difficult to automate.
But the work done in this industry is never done in vain. The ideas pioneered in the DX-1 will likely show up sooner or later somewhere down the road.
