Carnegie Mellon-ийн төгсөгчдийн үүсгэн байгуулсан Gritt стартап нь нарны зайн хавтан суурилуулах ажлыг автоматжуулах зорилгоор 26 сая долларын санхүүжилт татан төвлөрүүллээ.
Хиймэл оюун ухаанаар ажилладаг Gritt стартап нь Obvious Ventures тэргүүтэй хөрөнгө оруулагчдаас 26 сая долларын А цувралын санхүүжилт авснаар нийт босгосон хөрөнгөө 34 сая долларт хүргэлээ. Пунит Пури болон Вишал Дугар нарын үүсгэн байгуулсан тус компани нь барилгын талбайн эмх замбараагүй орчинд ажиллах чадвартай ухаалаг системийг хөгжүүлж байна. Тэд өөрсдөө робот бүтээхийн оронд зах зээл дээрх бэлэн техник хэрэгсэл, тухайлбал Kawasaki-гийн робот гар зэргийг ашиглан хиймэл оюун ухааны загвараар удирдуулах шийдлийг боловсруулжээ.
Gritt-ийн систем нь нарны зайн хавтанг өргөж, угсрах хүрээн дээр миллиметрийн нарийвчлалтайгаар байрлуулах ажлыг гүйцэтгэдэг. Энэхүү технологийн тусламжтайгаар найман хүний бүрэлдэхүүнтэй баг өдөрт 800 хавтан суурилуулдаг байсан бол одоо 3,000–4,000 хүртэлх тооны хавтанг суурилуулах боломжтой болжээ. Одоогоор тус компани АНУ-ын эрчим хүчний барилгын шилдэг 10 компанийн гуравтай нь хамтран ажиллаж, ирэх 18 сарын хугацаанд 2.8 гигаваттын хүчин чадал бүхий хавтан суурилуулах гэрээтэй байна.
Шинэ үеийн хиймэл оюун ухааны загварууд нь Gritt-д төрөл бүрийн ажлыг хурдан хугацаанд суралцах боломжийг олгож байна. Тухайлбал, системд бетон блок өрөх, арматур зангидах зэрэг ажлыг заахад хэдхэн хоног л шаардагдаж байгаа нь уг технологийн дасан зохицох чадвар өндөр байгааг илтгэнэ. Цаашид тус компани хавтан суурилуулахаас гадна барилгын талбай дахь нөөцийн удирдлага, шийдвэр гаргалтад туслах “физик хиймэл оюун ухаан”-ы түвшинд ажиллахыг зорьж байна.
Энэхүү роботжуулсан шийдэл нь хөдөлмөрийн зах зээлийн хомсдолтой үед ажиллах хүчний ачааллыг бууруулж, ажлын байрны гэмтэл бэртлийг багасгах ач холбогдолтой юм. Gritt нь Luminous Robotics, Cosmic болон Trinabot зэрэг өөрийн гэсэн техник хэрэгсэл бүтээдэг өрсөлдөгч компаниудтай зах зээлд өрсөлдөж байна. Компани ойрын зургаан сарын дотор 48 системийг үйл ажиллагаанд оруулахаар төлөвлөж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.
That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.
That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.
“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”
Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.
“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”
Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.
Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.
TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.
Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.
Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.
What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.
“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.
But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.
“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.
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