Autonomous Robotics Start BroochKnown for its four -way robots providing food in campuses and through busy Tokyo streets, it found a new catering area: Industrial.
Co -founder and CEO of Cartken Christian Bersch told TechCrunch that the application of delivery robots to industrial environments was always on the back of his mind as they built the start. When companies began to arrive to use their robots in factories and laboratories, Cartken saw more carefully.
“What we have found is that there is in fact a real great need in cases of industrial and on -the -spot uses,” said Bersch, who founded the start with other former Google engineers behind the Bookbot Project. ‘Sometimes they even have [been] more direct value to companies by optimizing their material flows or production flows. ”
In 2023, the start landed on its first large industrial customer, the German production company ZF Lifetec. Initially, ZF Liftec used existing delivery robots, called Catken Courier, which can hold 44 pounds and looks like a Igloo refrigerator on the wheels.
“The food delivery robot began to move out of production of production around and quickly turned into our busy robot,” Bersch said. “Then we said, hey.
At that time, Cartken was still pushing the delivery of delivery sidewalks, including locking in collaborations with Uber Eats and Grubhub for the latest mile delivery work in campuses and Japan.
But this premature success with ZF encouraged the boot founders, including Jake Stelman, Jonas Witt and Anjali Naik, to expand his business model. Cartken’s rotation from the delivery of food in an industrial environment was not a big challenge, Bersch said. The AI behind the robots is trained in food delivery years and the devices are designed to cross various soils and weather conditions.
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This means that robots can travel between internal and external arrangements. And thanks to the data collected from food delivery on the streets of Tokyo, robots are able to react and maneuver around the obstacles.
Cartken, which has raised more than $ 20 million from $ 468, incubated the fund, Vela partners and other business activities, has begun to build its robotic fleet to reflect its axis in industrial. The company has released Cartken Hauler earlier this year, which is a larger version of the Catken Courier and can hold up to 660 pounds. The company has also released Cartken Runner, designed for interior traditions, and also works on something similar to a robotic forklift.
“We have a navigation stack that is Parameterizable for different robot sizes,” Bersch said. “All AI and learning and training of machines that went to it are like moving directly to other robots.”
Cartken recently announced that it is deepening its four -year relationship with the Japanese automaker Mitsubishi, which initially helped the company get the necessary certifications to operate their delivery robots on the streets of Tokyo.
Melco Mobility Solutions, a company under the Mitsubishi umbrella, has just announced that she will almost buy 100 Cartken Transfer Robot For use in Japanese industrial installations.
“We are definitely seeing a lot of traction in various industrial and corporate premises, from car companies to pharmaceuticals to chemicals,” he said. “All of these companies usually have people who move things from one building to another, whether they are by hand, in a basket, or to a small forklift, and that is really what we are targeting.”
Cartken will continue to continue the delivery of the food and consumers of the last mile, but will not expand it, Bersch said, adding that they are still doing many tests for new possibilities on these existing last mile delivery routes.
