Pivot Robotics - Automating high-mix manufacturing with AI

TL;DR We’re building this -

And we are Ex-Google and Meta robotics engineers that are using foundation vision models to solve the riddle of high-mix to redefine American manufacturing.

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🚨 The Problem:

U.S. manufacturing is making a comeback for the first time since the 1970s, but there is a problem: Nobody is filling these jobs. Decades of decline and entire generations shying away from manufacturing jobs have left the industry facing an expected 2.4 million jobs going unfulfilled by 2030.

The obvious solution is to use robots, but 75% of all U.S. manufacturers are effectively unable to use traditional robotic automation due to their high-mix production: they produce a wide array of products in small quantities. Traditional automation is rigid and needs new fixturing and re-programming for each part, and doesn’t provide ROI for high-mix manufacturers since so little of each part is produced.

If America is unable to capitalize on the current manufacturing and AI boom, we lose out on $1 trillion per year in opportunity cost and the chance to strengthen our weakened industrial base. High-mix manufacturers are a crucial component for this and they urgently need adaptable automation solutions that can cheaply handle their large variety of parts.

🦾 Our Solution:

Pivot Robotics combines off-the-shelf robots and vision sensors with our pioneering AI vision control software to give industrial robots the ability to adapt. Our first product, Proteus, addresses the dangerous and unpopular task of grinding metal parts, offering zero-shot adaptation to new parts with the same precision, and efficiency. We do this by leveraging the latest advances in foundational vision models, allowing us to avoid the large data requirements that prior attempts of adding vision to industrial robots faced. We are currently engaged in a pilot to deploy 10+ Proteus systems at a large cast iron foundry that produces over 200 different parts a year.

🤝 Who We Are:

We both met on the first day of college at Carnegie Mellon University, living 2 doors across from each other.

Siddharth has worked on self-driving cars at Uber ATG, AI at Meta, and most recently was designing multi-agent algorithms for warehouse robots at Nimble Robotics.

Vignesh optimized motion planning for general-purpose robots at Google X, researched LLM applications for robotics in the Atkeson Lab, and worked on manipulation at ABB.

Both of us are inspired to use our robotics experience to solve real-world labor problems after watching our respective parents’ careers in these industries (agriculture and manufacturing).

🔮The Future:

Expanding our vision technology to develop hand-eye coordination for robot arms, enabling the automation of tasks beyond grinding, like materials handling and assembly for high-mix manufacturers.

🙏Our Ask:

We’re looking for introductions to manufacturing partners eager to embrace AI-driven automation and investors who share our vision for the future of manufacturing.

✉️ Contact Us:

Reach out at founders@pivotrobotics.com and follow us on Twitter/Linkedin for updates and cool demos.